#I have at least one more of these I've done like photos and I'd love to do more but I can make no promises

[radjerda]

The Premiere of Tron the Game at Flynn's Arcade

Photo by: Jordan Canas

[ultimate-shipper-trash-blog]

My Darling

"Who even is that guy?"

"That's my darling"

----

It starts with a post.

Eddie had posted a photo on Instagram holding his acoustic guitar, cross legged on a chair.

Recently he had been front cover of a magazine of 'him' wrapped around a young woman. Living the Rockstar life.

His agent had suggested he show a more domestic side to him, a softer side.

Hence the acoustic.

It was summer so Steve was off of work and sleeping on the couch behind him, blankets up to his ears. The only thing visible was his hair peeking out and his arm hanging over the side of the couch. A sleeve of tattoos running down it all the way to his knuckles. Eddie loved that arm. He loved the way the tattoo curved around his knuckles like water. His nice, big. veiny hand that-

WOAH off topic.

He had done half the tattoos himself and made sure he payed for it all.It was the least he could do for all Steve has done for him.

They met eight and a half years ago, Steve had seen Eddie play at shitty clubs and recognized his mop of hair getting hit in the alleyway.

Eddie thought he was a goner for sure until Steve ripped the guy off him.

Steve just shot him a smile and complimented his guitar skills.

Eddie fell to his knees. He was gone for him.

He invited Steve to band practice as a thank you since he didn't have much to offer.

Two weeks later they were dating and Steve has been their number one fan since.

When Eddie got the record deal he dedicated everything to Steve.

Everything always was for him. As it should be.

Anyways,

Eddie posted the photo excited to promote the acoustic cover of his hit song 'My Hero, My Darling'.

The comments instantly went ballistic asking who the random man behind him was. He definitely wasn't in the band and why would notorious lady killer Eddie Munson have a man in his house...he couldn't possibly have friends.

Eddie responded to one comment only, knowing the rest would sort itself out.

"That's my darling ❤️"

----

"Eddie," Steve was frowning at him, poking his side with his foot.

"Eddie look at me this is serious."

"Yes my love?"

"You outed yourself. You were doing such a good job keeping this a secret. This will change everything."

Eddie turns over until his holding Steve close to him, his face in his hands.

"Good. I'm tired of hiding you my darling. I'm tired of the accusations."

"But Eddie you OUTED yourself."

"I won't say anything about you, I'd never out you Stevie. But I'm done hiding that I'm a simple man in love."

"...me too. I'm done too."

"Darling are you sure? This is a big deal. What about your school? Your principal?"

"I don't care. Everyone important to me knows. My family, my real family, know and don't care. They do wonder why I've been single for eight years but they'll get over it."

"Marry me."

"What?"

"Marry me oh my god that's the hottest thing I've ever heard. I love you so much please I can't live another moment not having you mine. Besides, if you get fired that's definitely a lawsuit and you know I've been pleasing for you to quit so I can take care of you, but you love those damn kids. Just...be mine...please."

"I've been yours. Since the start. Since always." They both have tears in their eyes.

"Yes?"

"YES OF COURSE YES!"

They're giggling through their kisses.

---

"Heeeeyyy everyone thanks for joining my live. I have something super important to inform you on! I'm getting married!!!!!"

The comments instantly flood in questioning him on moving too fast, asking if he's on drugs. The usual.

"Oooooh you guys have no idea."

----

The photo goes up an hour after the live ends.

It's Steve sitting on the couch, glasses on, red pen in his mouth. He's wearing a thick sweater and grumbling grading papers.

He looks so soft, so smooth, it's Eddie's favorite picture. The next picture in the carousel is Steve backstage at his concert. They're holding onto each other like they need each other to breathe.

The last picture is a selfie taken minutes after. Eddie with his stage makeup sweating off his face smiling brightly at the camera. and Steve kissing his cheek. Eyes squinted shut and eyeliner thick, he had worn it as a treat for Eddie.

It was well received.

The caption reads:

"I'm so happy to announce I'm marrying my best friend and partner of eight years! Everyone meet my darling. Steve is a local middle school teacher who has literally saved my life more than once. He saved my heart. God, I love him so much.

P.s. yes the tours are in the summer so Stevie can travel with us. I'd never leave him."

---

Bonus engagement edition:

"YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED TO EDDIE MUNSON?!"

"Yes. We've been over this."

Eddie stuck out his hand to shake, "hi, Eddie Munson, nice to meet you."

"YOU HID THIS FOR EIGHT YEARS?!"

"Yes."

"I'M BASICALLY YOUR BROTHER! HE'S MY FAVORITE CELEBRITY!"

"Yes Dustin and you can't keep a secret."

"...fair...welcome to the family."

*inspired by my friend only learning her cousin was marrying someone famous when he showed up to Thanksgiving and she lost her mind

[sheastri]

Hell N Back ft. op81

Pairing: oscar piastri x fem!black reader

Genre: Social Media AU with story

Summary: In which the reader was finally done with love until Oscar came into her life and charmed (all he had to do was exist) her into giving love another chance.

Warning(s): None.

A/N: Recently been thinking about f1 so I decided why not write??Title inspired by "Hell N Back Bakar ft. Summer Walker" because I've been obsessed with it lately!! No specific fan cast, just photos off of Pinterest.

୨୧–------------------------------------------୨୧

The First Meeting

2 years ago

Y/n was walking down a street flooded by shops all around her with her best friend, A'lidyah. The two women were in deep conversation about love. Y/n was almost sure she would never comfortably be in love again and A'lidyah was telling her that love comes to you when you least expect it.

"You shouldn't fully mark it off because of a few mishaps. And love comes in so many different forms and can be found in so many different aspects of life." A'lidyah explained while moving her hands to emphasize her point.

"You know what, you're right. I love seeing the smiles of the people who walk the streets, I love skipping through town hand in hand, and I love music. I'm so grateful to have you in my life, like seriously." Y/n said smiling at her friend sincerely. A'lidyah returned the smile saying something along the lines of "life would be so dull without you, i thank God for you everyday." The conversation then resumed, the two girls having smiles seemingly permanently edged on to their faces.

While Y/n was speaking she momentarily shifted her eyes to glance at something on the side of the street that A'lidyah stood on and in that quick second she had walked into someone. He managed to catch her by her waist before she had fallen and she immediately began apologizing before looking up at the man.

As Y/n shifted to meet the gaze of her saving grace, she found she was met with a face that displayed the thoughts crossing her mind at the moment. Wide eyes and mouth agape, the man must've been experiencing the shock that circled her mind at the moment. She only broke through this trance at the sound of a witch like cackling that could come from no one other than A'lidyah. Y/n raised her eyebrow and side eyed her best friend with a smile on her face before turning her attention back on to the man who stood in front of her.

They exchanged eye contact one last time before his hold on her waist loosened and Y/n stepped back and bent down to pick up the things that fell on the floor. Oscar soon joined her and then apologized for almost knocking her over.

"Ah, no worries it was mostly my fault and I was able to be saved by a handsome man so I'd say we're pretty even?" Y/n responded cheekily.

"A handsome man? And then you a beautiful woman? Almost seems like a match made in heaven, wouldn't cha say?" The man said while his face was very clearly flushed and he looked like he had to muster up all his confidence and self-control to not stutter. His pupils then went off to the side catching another woman in his line of sight. Seeing that the man had directed his attention to her A'lidyah began to speak.

"That's actually perfect, Y/n needs someone other than me to add a little bit of pizazz and all that fun stuff to her life, mind giving her a name?" A'lidyah says holding back a teasing smile. "Oh that's my bad. The names Oscar, Oscar Piastri. It's nice to meet you Y/n and..."

"Oh I'm A'lidyah! Her wife, her wingman, her manager, and most importantly her best friend. Oscar meet Y/n, Y/n meet Oscar!" The girl says enthusiastically. The two laugh but greet each other anyway.

They exchanged numbers and that day when Y/n went home she found the idea of love just a bit more appealing and Oscar... well let's just say his google history was flooded with many "Do I Have a Crush?" quizzes, a lot more "How to Know if Your in Love" blogs, and one slightly embarrassing question that his friends would definitely tease him about, not that they wouldn't tease him about what he had already been searching up anyway.

Y/n is now following Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri is now following Y/n

♫ Could you tell where my head was at when you found me? Me and you went to hell and back just to find peace ♫

୨୧–------------------------------------------୨୧

Current Time

yourusername

liked by oscarpiastri, whosalidyah, mclaren and 276,943 others

yourusername last photo is from me and lidyah's latest gossip session

view all 7,983 comments

whosalidyah not your boy in the likes...🤭

yourusername guys what is this crazy woman talking about?? username girl... you are NOT slick username not alidyah exposing her😭

carlossainz55 can't wait to meet you at our next race!

liked by creator

username anyone noticed that both oscar and mclaren liked??

username that's suspicious🤨 username that's weird...

oscarpiastri no photo creds after standing in the middle of the road to take that second one??

yourusername you're still alive and well?? landonorris justice for my boy oscar😪 whosalidyah burning all my number 4 mclaren merch landonorris I take back my earlier statement, I was misguided please forgive me oscarpiastri the things that love does to people🤦

username ignoring that 3rd photo for my peace of mind

username not me finding out my wife is cheating on me on my birthday

yourusername never bby 💕 oscarpiastri 🤥

mclaren come visit us in the paddock sometime soon!

yourusername I thought you'd never ask!! username oh?

username Man, I thought I had everything, I was lonely.

oscarpiastri

liked by yourusername, mclaren, landonorris, and 392,487 others

oscarpiastri Thanks to all the fans who came out to support @mclaren today.

yourusername Your nails are gorgg, who did them?? I need the number immediately🤭

oscarpiastri that information is classified🥱 username not y/n tryna act like those aren't her nails...

username babe... who's nails are those??

username why is lando lowkey looking like a snack in that photo??😩

landonorris it's just impossible for me to look bad, truly a gift and a curse😪 whosalidyah don't boost his ego too much now, im scared it might implode...

username just noticed that the nails match the colors on his helmet

username that's actually so cute wtff username oh it's seriousss

yourusername just a girl waiting for her photo creds

oscarpiastri just a boy waiting for the ones he was robbed of😣

username Now you're my everything, now it's on me.

mclaren

liked by yourusername, oscarpiastri, f1, and 203,587 others

mclaren Our papaya boys + Y/n = another good day in the paddock

yourusername I had an amazing time, thank you so much for inviting me (10/10 experience, would recommend).

mclaren You're welcome to join us again anytime!

username ok but who was y/n looking at because I don't think her smile could get any brighter??

username ik y/n was sick of them by the end of this😭

landnorris y/n run they're trying to recruit you

yourusername girl dw i'm already halfway down the road oscarpiastri 🤦 username lmao i love their dynamic

whosalidyah if only I didn't have exams

yourusername never leave me again, oscar and lando almost drove me insane whosalidyah igu next time babes🤞

username hope to see her at the paddock a lot more!

username oh to be y/n rn

username I could you tell where your head was at when I found you.

୨୧–------------------------------------------୨୧

Will You Be Mine?

1 year ago

Y/n was very excited for her date with the one and only Oscar Piastri, not like she hadn't gone on many with him before but he had said he had something very special planned which "fit her persona well", his words not hers. She was very suspicious seeing as basically all their dates filled her with joy and excitement, high standards to exceed, if she did say so herself.

She had gotten her nails painted prior to the date and had made sure her hair looked nice. She had also put on a pretty dress but not before playing dress up and have a whole fashion show in her room with A'lidyah. Her whole hype crew in one person, she was so blessed. While doing touch ups she heard the doorbell ring and practically flew downstairs to go and open the door.

Oscar stared down at her, his face leading her to think he was in a trance or something of the sort. Y/n loved the effect she had on him. She did a little twirl to show him the full fit knowing it would fluster him even more.

"Am I pretty enough for the occasion, Mr. Piastri?" Y/n said chuckling softly before leaving a mannequin like Oscar standing at the door in awe as she went to go grab her purse and let A'lidyah know it was time for her to go. She came back down and Oscar swore she looked like an angel descending from the heavens.

"Well, I'm waiting on an answer?"

"You are absolutely stunning, beyond pretty enough for the occasion, although those are definitely everyday qualities of yours."

"What a sweetheart!" Y/n said, once again teasing the man and taking pleasure in the blush that spread across his face, as she closed the door to the apartment and took Oscar's outstretched hand. As they made it to the car he opened the door for her and allowed her to enter before going around the car and getting in himself.

"Ouhh my favorite song is playing, did you orchestrate this or is the universe just working overtime?" The girl spoke softly in a joking manner.

"A magician can't reveal all his tricks." Oscar said jokingly before smiling softly at the girl in the passenger seat and taking in the joy that radiated from her being. They drove with soft music in the background and just the amazing scenery to guide them through the city. Once they got to the destination, which seemed like a garden of some sort, Oscar practically ran over to her side of the car. Once he had opened the door for her he covered her eyes with his hands.

"Oscar, your coordination better be on point because if I trip your days will be numbered." she said seriously with a hint of humor in her voice.

"Wouldn't be the first time you've fallen for me, now would it love?" Oscar teased as he walked her over to the romantic picnic spot he had set up for her.

"Girl, you know what... just don't be surprised when I jump you." Y/n said playfully. They then came to a stop and and Oscar uncovered her eyes allowing her to see the scene that he had put together. When Y/n saw the sign that said "Will You Be Mine?" her heart felt as though it would jump out of her chest. When she turned to face Oscar he got down on one knee and began to speak before she could say anything.

"From the moment I met you I knew that we would be inevitable. You're intricate but gorgeous hairstyles, your dough like eyes, and your beautiful aura had put me in an immediate trance and I remember thinking 'woah'. My friends once told me that when I looked at you it seemed as though stars had been placed in my eyes purposely as if to gaze upon you meant my pupils had seen an unknown galaxy deeply treasured by the cosmos. So, will you allow me a place in your heart in which I beg to stay for an eternity."

Y/n immediately broke down crying before saying yes a million times and jumping into Oscar's warm embrace.

"I will do my best to treasure your heart." Y/n said before pulling Oscar in for a kiss.

That night the stars danced above them as though rejoicing.

♫ Know life been lifin' lately, so I save you if you save me ♫

୨୧–------------------------------------------୨୧

Current Time

yourusername

liked by oscarpiastri, whosalidyah, and 479,502 others

yourusername I was over love, thought I had enough, then I found you @oscarpiastri

This posts comments have been limited to users mentioned

oscarpiastri I was no doubt, stressed out without you.

yourusername the only man ever🤭

oscarpiastri

liked by yourusername, landonorris, and 923,547 others

oscarpiastri All we got is us, when nobody does, I got you @yourusername

This posts comments have been limited to users mentioned

yourusername For your sanity and my mentality.

oscarpiastri mine, in every universe

yourusername omg I'm literally your biggest fan!!

oscarpiastri well I would hope so🤨

୨୧–------------------------------------------୨୧

♫ Man, I thought I had everything, I was lonely... Now you're my everything, now it's on me... ♫

୨୧–------------------------------------------୨୧

[ingravinoveritas]

As a follow-up to my review of Macbeth, I also wanted to mention another very delightful moment of my trip: I met David!

Following the first previews of this run, I was intrigued and of course happy to learn that David had resumed doing stage door (after not doing so at the Donmar, for very understandable security reasons). After waffling back and forth about it, I decided that since I was already going to be seeing the play, I might as well give it a go.

Having done stage door after other shows in the past, my experiences with seeing fans meet the actors have ranged from the hilarious to the hokey to the flat-out cringey. It's hard to ever know for sure how a stage door experience will go, and so I've found that the optimal course of action is to hope for the best while having no expectations at all.

Still, I wanted to be at least somewhat prepared, and so I had the idea to bring with me a Playbill from a production of Macbeth starring Alan Cumming, because I'd gotten to see it on Broadway ten years ago and I thought David might enjoy knowing that there was another Scottish production. So, current and old Macbeth programs in hand (I placed the Playbill next to David's cast photo, in the same way as the photo above), I made my way to the barricade by the Harold Pinter stage door, and waited.

David soon got to where I was standing, and it was the most surreal thing to have him there in front of me, all long hair and stubble and big, brown eyes. As he went to sign my program, he paused and caught sight of the Playbill, and his eyes lit right up. "Oh, another Macbeth! Another Scottish one," he exclaimed, and as he did, he looked right at me and smiled that gorgeous smile of his. "Yes," I replied, and said that I'd seen it ten years prior.

I mentioned a few other details about the production, and while David had begun to move down to sign other programs, he kept looking back at me as I spoke. Despite everything that was happening, he stayed focused on our exchange, even though it was brief. And when you're talking with him, it's as if you're the only one there. His entire attention is on you. And it is incredible.

I've talked on my blog previously about how I'm more of a Michael fan than a David fan (solely due to the fact that, after finding Good Omens in 2019, it was Michael who I was drawn to first). But seeing David up close and in person--how attractive he is, how delicate and sweet--is like looking at the sun. He looks at you, and your vision is full of only him, and by God I couldn't help but swoon just a little.

I also now completely understand what Michael meant when he said David is very easy to fall in love with. Because there's no possible way I could be around that all the time and not fall in love...

But I think my favorite thing about how things went with David was that it happened so organically. I didn't try to take pictures or video because I didn't want to detract from the experience, and very quickly the celebrity/fan aspect fell away and it just became about a lovely shared moment between two people. He was so kind, and so gracious...and he was just David. And I will always treasure and cherish the memory of meeting him... ❤️

[save-the-villainous-cat]

Idk if I've asked this or not (if so feel free to ignore this) but I'd love to see a snippet of a villain finding a wounded hero and taking them to their home to tend to their wounds and give them reassurance. Make it very fluffy, cuddles and everything pls 🙏

-🌙

Even though the villain wasn’t particularly good at stitching wounds, they made sure to work carefully. The hero didn’t look much better than yesterday. Swollen flesh around their eye, bruises colouring them, enough cuts and broken fingers for a lifetime — the villain couldn’t stop staring, couldn’t stop worrying.

The hero had been too exhausted to ask the typical “why.”

Why did you save me? Why didn’t you kill me? Why are you helping me? And the villain was thankful for that because, to be honest, they didn’t know the answer either.

The hero’s skin turned cold outside of the bathtub’s scorching water and the villain was sitting there, looking at the hero’s low hanging head, their muscular back, their hair nearly dipping into the water. Although marked by battle, the hero was beautiful.

It was true, the villain had been beet-red when the hero had undressed in front of them quietly. They hadn’t known where to look nor what to say. At least the medication had worked. The hero wasn’t in pain anymore and the villain’s stitches were improving.

“Can you raise your head?” the villain asked softly. The hero did so and the other started to wash their hair. Sometimes the villain would wake up in the middle of the night. Restless nightmares had been bothering them for years and they hadn’t found a way to deal with that until very recently.

They would never admit this but they typed news into the search bar of their phone, searching for articles that featured photos of the hero. They felt like a creep, like a stalker but seeing the hero on these pictures, seeing them save people and smile into the cameras gave them security. As if the hero was going to save them from those nocturnal nights.

And now, the villain was the one who sat on the guest bed, holding the hero’s hand until they were asleep. More than once, their eyes had gotten heavy and the wish to lay down next to the hero had overwhelmed them, dragging them down into the mattress. But every time, the villain had snapped out of it and gone into their own room.

“I haven’t seen you this wounded in months,” the villain said. They looked down at the hero’s exposed back. The cuts, the bruises.

“Yeah, I haven’t been very lucky lately.” The hero’s voice was rough.

“Maybe you should take a break.” The villain grabbed the shower head to rinse out the other’s hair.

“Don’t really have time for that. I promised you I’d be gone in two days.”

“Stay as long as you need to,” the villain answered.

The hero was quiet for a moment, letting the villain work on their hair until the villain was done.

“Have you ever had trouble sleeping?” they asked and the villain started blushing immediately.

“…yes, I have nightmares.” They let go of the hero’s hair but the hero grabbed their wrist and pressed their flat hand against their own cheek.

“Me too,” they mumbled and the villain’s embarrassment grew and grew. “But when you’re with me I feel okay. I feel at peace and I can actually fall asleep.”

The villain wondered if they would feel the same if they actually stayed in that bed.

“We could try…” The villain couldn’t form any words.

“Yes,” the hero said. “I’d love to try.”

“If you stay for a little longer.” The hero smiled lazily at that. They kissed the villain’s hand.

“I think I will. I really need a break.”

[hils79]

4 years ago today my dear friend @kpopingenue and I were talking and she sent me the MV for Wonderland because she liked it and thought I would too.

And, thus, my Ateez journey began.

I jokingly call it a slow burn relationship. I loved their music from the first time I listened to Wonderland but it took a few months before I checked out their albums and listened to their b-sides.

Even after that I still didn't know all their names (which is nothing against them, I'm the same with a lot of kpop groups I've been listening to for ages. I've been listening to Stray Kids for almost as long as I've been listening to Ateez and I still only know half the members).

Eventually, and I remember this clearly, in December 2021 I had a very vivid dream about buying Zero Fever Part 2 and I took that as a sign and ordered it as soon as I woke up.

It was funny because I knew some of the members at this point but not all of them and I had to text a photo of my photocards to a friend because I knew one of them was San, but I had no idea who the other one was (it was Yeosang).

After that, it became a pay day treat. Every month when I got paid, I'd treat myself to an Ateez album until I had them all. I now have at least one version of every album including all the Japanese ones.

And I finally sat down and watched a guide because if I was going to start collecting albums I should probably learn who everyone was.

Even after that I still struggled telling Yunho and Jongho apart for the longest time, and I have no idea why because now that I know them well I can see that they don't look anything like each other.

So, this carried on for a couple more years. I was happily collecting my albums and watching new MVs when they came out, but I still, for whatever reason, hadn't crossed the bridge into the fandom side of things. I was just quietly enjoying them by myself.

Then Will came out, and I don't know why, but that album rewired something in my brain. Suddenly I was fully obsessed. I watched Hongjoong's behind the scenes of Matz vlog, and suddenly I wanted to make gifs, but proper gifs not just a using a screen recorder which was all I'd ever done before.

I had an ancient version of Photoshop (which I have now upgraded) so I found a gif making tutorial for beginners. The gifs I made were very basic, but I had made them, and I was proud of myself for learning a thing.

Then I decided that to practice and learn new colouring styles, it would be fun to make gifs of all the Ateez MVs. So I did! It took a good few weeks of making a new set every evening, but I did it, and I can definitely see how I've improved as I've gone along.

And there we have it. 4 years from watching an MV to collecting albums to learning how to make gifs. And along the way I've reconnected with some old friends who love Ateez, and made some amazing new friends too. I went to my first ever cupsleeve in May, and I've been to a couple more since then, with another one on the calendar for later this month (happy birthday Mingi). And next time they come to the UK I am definitely going to try and get tickets, which will also make them my first kpop concert.

It's taken me a long time to get here, but the important thing is I made it.

Happy Ateez-versary to me!

[zesty-goblin-trash]

Ayeoo, finally working on my doll again. Small victory for me because my mental state has been chaotic to say the least.

I don't remember what, if anything, I've shared on my current goblin-self doll? Actually I can save this as a draft easily, lemme go check.

Oh g's like nothing. Okay. Welp, grab a snack cause I'm about to overexplain everything up to this point!

Right, so I made a custom Monster High doll a while back and for my first ever attempt at it, she turned put pretty good. Especially since she was meant to just be a practice piece for stuff as I was working on another doll along side it to be my first. Never finished that doll, but I think I have to high of expectations for it compared to my skill level right now.

Jump forward to G3 Monster High being released, and I decided to remake my test-doll-turned-goblin-self with a G3 Draculaura body because it much more accurately represents my body style. I got all the way to having the body painted, my own tattoos added, and various scars and marks detailed. And honestly, I was pretty happy with the result! Here's some photos of that;

Love the colors, and I was happy enough with what I'd done to keep moving, except for the face. It was driving me crazy that I could still see the line where I added the Apoxie Sculpt to the jaw so clearly, despite it being sanded as smooth as I could get it. So I wiped her head and was going to try again. Not sure what my plan was, to be honest, but she got shoved to the corner of the desk for a good while.

I ended up finding another G3 core Draculaura at Value Village in one of their hanging bagged toys, and for $8 bucks with all her accessories I couldn't pass it up. At the time I didn't plan on it, but ended up deciding to start over completely on v2 of my goblin-self using this doll. The core dolls have an articulated chest, unlike the budget dolls (Day Out which I was using, the 2 that came with the car from Costco, ect.), and there were a couple of things I think I could have done better on the body when it came to the joints.

Jumping forward I did all the prep work on the new doll, sanding everything to remove mold lines and smooth it all nice, removed the face up and hair, yadah yadah yadah. I then attempted to dye the new body with some Rit dye and whatever brand it is that's sold at Dollar Tree, knowing it wasn't going to take correctly because the Rit wasn't for synthetics. I was really only hoping to dye the joints darker, because if you've ever seen or customized your own dolls, body repaints rarely stay painted at the joints. It's kinda inevitable if your doll moves at all. I just wanted to reduce the jarring difference between OG light pink skin and the new green skin.

It sort of worked, the teal Rit did nothing (as I expected), but the red-orange Dollar Tree stuff dyed her a bit. I didn't do her head at all since this was just meant to darken the parts that'd be rubbing together.

If all the different plastics on the body would take dye the same way this would have been a cute color honestly 😂

Skintone differences aside, it did darken down the plastic used for the wrist and elbow joints, which was my main goal. But I had another idea I wanted to try as you may have noticed in the image background. Alcohol inks! I wouldn't recommend. At least not directly from the bottle dripped into the joint.

The high concentration of alcohol in the inks very quickly made the vinyl of the lower arms get gummy. It's the same reason you don't want to use acetone on the bodies of dolls basically, it just destroys the plastics a bit too much. The pigment did start to take to the plastic, but with how quickly I had to blot it back off to stop the plastic from melting it just didn't have enough time to stay. However it did make me think of another way to essentially stain the joints. I think the same could possibly be done with a brush and alcohol inks directly maybe? But my hubs has Prismacolor Alcohol based markers so I switched gears to bring those.

And yea! A very good option! At this point I'd already washed and resanded the body to remove the outer layers of the dye from the hard plastic parts so in that image she's pretty light again. It takes extremely well to the hard plastic parts and because the concentration of alcohol is much lower it doesn't make the vinyl arms feel sticky like the inks did. I have a video of the joints moving I'm going to upload on its own after. Cause I really think this might be a viable way to help reduce the obviousness of joints in skintone changes, and I don't want it buried in my nonsense 😂

I ended up coloring the whole body with the marker, not just the joints. The hard plastic took the pigment so well that if the paint does end up scraping off anywhere it was worth it to have the marker color underneath everything. I know that spots like the knees and the butt were getting scrape marks on the first repaint just from posing, so hopefully this helps those spots look good well after I'm finished the doll!

At this point I've now gotten the body all prepped and ready to paint with the new skintone. Sanded, dyed, MSC'd, and waiting! I started working on the new head while I was figuring out the dye situation.

I wasn't planning on making this a multiple post thing (other than the video) but I think I'ma split it up here! I'm still going to type out the next post now but I'll schedule it for later 😂 Because unlike Insta, I can do that and not have to remember to come back and actually make the post later.

And thanks if you've read this far ☺️ I apreaciate the interest! See you in the next one!

[pastafossa]

Yo did you get Charlie Cox to pose with a red thread in your bio pic and does that mean he knows about the (amazing btw) fic it references?

Also, totally bonded with some other nerds at a con game show event called “Fluff or Smut” over the Red Thread fic.

I did, and you can't see it in the photos but the thread is even lit up! It was so cool! And hilariously, as best I could tell, he has ZERO idea what it meant. They rush you through the photo op pretty quick so I basically got to walk up, say hi, shake his hand, and then I said, 'could you hold the other end of this red thread at the center of your chest?' He loved that it lit up and thought it was cool but there was no recognition as far as I could see (and thank god, I might have frozen if he'd known what it meant, and then i'd pass out and they'd have had to call an ambulance and my collapse would have been on the news and i would have died and then no one would get more fic and then you'd all have to seance me for the rest and it would have been a whole thing). I have no doubt he might find out one day (or he may have found out since last year when I got to meet him) cause it's, uh, not like TRT is hard to find at this point, there's no other DD fic this long. But at least as far as I know, he's unaware!

ALSO I LOVE THAT YOU GOT TO BOND AT THE CON OVER THAT, OH MY GOD! I've done the same thing at other cons over other fics in the past, I fucking love that my fic got to do the same thing for someone else, it feels like I got to pay forward what I got from other fics! 🥰

[aelfgyvaa]

Period Drama Costuming - a (ranty) review

I love period dramas. I watch them like my life depends on it, and as a result, I have Thoughts. Period dramas are arguably where costuming becomes most important - here, costume isn't solely a storytelling device, it's a reflection of the specific place and time in which the narrative is taking place. Sometimes it's done well. Sometimes it really - really - isn't.

It's reductive to try and make any sweeping, general rules about how costumes in period dramas should be done. Every show has its own tone and style, and this is important to consider. However, some productions can take this in... interesting directions. We can really only judge each attempt at historical costuming on an individual basis, which - spoiler alert - is exactly what I'm about to do. Below the cut, I've had a look at some bad costumes, some good costumes, and some that don't really seem to fit in either category.

DISCLAIMER!! - This is simply an opportunity for me to rant about something I have a lot of (subjective) Feelings™ about, and is in no way supposed to comment on the overall quality of any of the pieces discussed. I'm also NOT claiming to be an expert on this topic. There are lots of people on here who undoubtedly know more about this than me, and if you're one of them, I'd really love to hear your thoughts!!

The Bad

Reign (The CW, 2013-17)

I've just gotta get this one out of the way. I made it through an almost-entire season of Reign before the atrocity that is its costuming got the better of me. If you'd shown me photos from this show without telling me it's about Mary Queen of Scots, I couldn't have guessed what period this might be set in. Reign's costume designer has stated "I wanted gowns that kept some kind of Elizabethan element, whether it was a nipped waist and extreme silhouette, or if it had a bit of a medieval feel" and uh. Yeah. By and large, that didn't happen. From what I can tell, a somewhat historical silhouette does begin to appear in the show's final season, but at what cost?

Perhaps Reign wouldn't have been as bad if the dresses were at least nice to look at. Instead, they're generally reminiscent of prom dresses - the fabric looks cheap, and the details look so tacky that I can't even endorse the costuming for this show from an aesthetic standpoint. Sorry to any Reign fans out there, but this is almost certainly going to be my most scathing review of the lot.

────────────

The Musketeers (BBC, 2014-16)

I love The Musketeers. I really do. But what the costume department was thinking - especially when it came to the women's costumes - I really have no idea. I mean, a Peter Pan collar?? On the Queen of France??? IN THE 1620S???? Truly something. Constance always looks like she only half-finished getting dressed that morning (why is her hair down. she's married.), and Anne sports some of the most outlandishly ridiculous collars I've ever seen. I don't even want to get into what Marie de' Medici is wearing. It's belts - as a necklace apparently! She also appears to be hiding some kind of gourd under her hair, but alas.

Yes, the men wear pleather. Yes, it does upset me.

The Musketeers' costumes perhaps wouldn't sting so badly if they didn't dress numerous background extras in significantly more accurate clothing. I've spent too much time watching this show and sighing in despair because Noblewoman Number 3 has a more accurate 1620s dress than the literal Queen.

────────────

The Spanish Princess (Starz, 2019-20)

I haven't properly sat down to watch The Spanish Princess through to its conclusion yet, but I do intend to - when she's not fawning over Richard III, Philippa Gregory adaptations can still be good fun, despite having about as much historical authenticity as the Fiji mermaid.

Nevertheless, no one in this show seems aware of what time period they're in, with dress styles spanning from early 14th-century surcoats to some fairly Elizabethan-looking silhouettes. The fabric choices are all over the place, and similarly - although not quite as egregiously - to Reign, often don't even manage to look good. Even from a modern standpoint, this show is colour- and pattern-clash galore. There is also practically no layering whatsoever, with the dresses going on as single pieces without a panel in sight. Admittedly probably easier from a production standpoint, but still.

Don't even get me started on the headdresses. Weird, pudding-cap-esque padded crowns and tiny scraps of fabric like the ones seen on Mary Tudor (an attempt at a French hood? I shudder) are fairly constant, although I have spotted a few passable attempts at a Gable hood.

They do get points for giving Arthur Tudor a fuck ass bob. Thanks.

────────────

The Buccaneers (Apple TV+, 2023-)

When I first started The Buccaneers and saw what its costuming had to offer, I audibly sighed. If you're a fan of visible back-lacing, cheap quality fabrics, and poorly fitting bodices, this is the show for you. The 1870s look is not a difficult one to emulate, and yet The Buccaneers fails rather miserably with its main characters, half of whom appear to be walking around in their underwear, with untied hair and single-layer dresses. Poor Nan only seems to own about two outfits that aren't visibly too big for her.

But by far the greatest crime committed by The Buccaneers' costume department comes in the decision to have multiple instances in which characters appear to be wearing corsets as tops. Yeah. I had a rough time with that one too. Mabel seems a particular victim of this - in both of the images above she looks as if she's been rushed out of the house before she got the chance to even button up her dress. A State of Affairs indeed.

────────────

The Good

Becoming Elizabeth (Starz, 2022)

Although I was slightly underwhelmed with the execution of Becoming Elizabeth's story, this was absolutely overshadowed by its costuming, which is probably one of the most historically accurate depictions of Tudor clothing I've ever seen. With the same costume designer as Shardlake (which is also very well done - a big day for fans of Anthony Boyle's codpiece), it's remarkably clear how much research went into the pieces worn on this show, with some directly recreated from portraits, and others visibly inspired by surviving clothing from the period.

I won't pretend that Becoming Elizabeth's costuming is without flaws - I'm not a fan of Elizabeth's hunting/riding clothes, and she wears her hair down far too often (Catherine Parr appeared at times to have access to a Dyson Airwrap). However, the positives definitely outweigh any gripes I have. We have dressing scenes in which we see the separate layers and panels that comprised Tudor dresses, and the French hoods actually have hoods, as opposed to simply being the semi-circular headbands we see far too often. The royal women wear ermine fur on their sleeves, and I was also a fan of the jewellery.

The care that went into the costumes for Becoming Elizabeth is so clear - I truly wish I'd enjoyed the plot more, if just so that I could spend more time staring at those dresses.

────────────

Emma. (Autumn de Wilde, 2020)

I adore Emma, and its costuming is honestly perhaps the biggest part of that love. The waistlines! The hairstyles! The bonnets! Emma's costumes are proof that you don't have to sacrifice historical accuracy for the sake of stylization - it's by far the most zany and colourful of any direct Austen adaptation, and yet its visuals remain strikingly faithful to the Regency period.

Like Becoming Elizabeth, many of the pieces worn in Emma bear a striking resemblance to surviving pieces and fashion plates from the era. The only problem I've noticed in this was the alarmingly strange detachable ruff-thing Emma is shown wearing in one scene, but frankly, it still manages to fit the tone of the piece.

I'm usually not a huge fan of the Regency fashion depicted on television - I find it rather dull - but the costumes in this movie are gorgeously distracting in every scene. Turns out historical accuracy actually can make things better - who knew!

Is this enough to make me forgive Alexandra Byrne for the costumes in Mary Queen of Scots (2018)?

No.

(I do not forgive ANYONE who worked on Mary Queen of Scots for making Mary Queen of Scots.)

────────────

Firebrand (Karim Aïnouz, 2023)

Firebrand hasn't even been released outside of Cannes yet, and already I am so, so down with everything it's giving. This movie could end up being the dullest two hours of my life, but I'll still sing its praises for one very simple reason - CHIN. STRAPS.

THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS!! The French hoods FINALLY have chin straps!!!! It's only been in virtually every well-known painting of them ever, no big deal.

Although we only have one trailer and a few promo photos to go off of, the costumes in Firebrand look fantastic, with enough layers, fur, embroidery, and hoop skirts to keep me happy for perhaps the rest of my life. We'll see how the movie itself turns out, but it already has a lot going for it in my eyes.

Also shoutout to Henry VIII's absolutely manky leg ulcers in the trailer. That's what I like to see.

────────────

The Outliers

Right. Here is where the hypocrite accusations are about to come flying. But frankly, I said it myself at the start that every period piece deserves to be judged on an individual basis, and the tone and intention of each piece is important in how its costumes are perceived.

That being said, if you think any of the 'bad' costumes deserve to be in this section - maybe they should've tried not being ugly, idk.

────────────

Bridgerton (Netflix, 2020-)

Bridgerton's excuse for its inaccuracy comes not from its lack of effort, but rather from its deliberate rejection of the historical narrative in any form whatsoever. We have two Real People™ in Queen Charlotte and King George III, but even their spin-off opens with a disclaimer that their story will be utterly fictional. Bridgerton does not present an issue like some of the other pieces on this list because it is actively opposed to being historically accurate to a degree that few other period pieces have arguably ever achieved.

Literally nothing about Bridgerton is consistent with history, so it does not disappoint when its costumes aren't either. The clothing does take visible inspiration from the Regency silhouette, but even then it is not consistent, with Queen Charlotte's costumes still firmly Georgian-esque (and honestly, marvellous wigs aside, they're not... bad?). Bridgerton is a historical fantasy before it's a historical drama, and as such it's easy to just sit back and enjoy the costumes for what they are - even when what they are is garish.

────────────

The Great (Hulu, 2020-23)

The Great is first and foremost a dark comedy, not a historical piece. Yes, Catherine the Great and Peter III were real people, and yes, much like in the show, Catherine did overthrow her husband in real life, too. But the similarities end here, as none of the characters in The Great have any intention of resembling their real-life counterparts.

Set roughly in the 1740s, the costumes in The Great are clearly far from reality, but they still resemble the silhouettes we know and recognise as 18th Century. The show is a satirical means of poking fun at the opulent aristocracy, and as such every costume conveys a distinct appearance of luxury. Every single item of clothing worn by the nobility looks absurdly expensive, and the exaggerated ridiculousness of many of the looks we see onscreen are an intentional way of conveying how utterly disconnected the people at court are from reality. From Peter's leopard skin jacket to ladies wearing powdered wigs as hats, The Great's costuming is purposefully elevated from its historical source material, and that is precisely what makes it so good.

────────────

The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018)

Sandy Powell's work on The Favourite is perhaps one of my all-time favourite pieces of costuming. Similarly to The Great, The Favourite utilises clearly recognisable aspects of 18th-century fashion - with ermine fur trim, half-length sleeves, and periwigs - but stylised so that everything conforms to a solidly black and white colour palate.

The Favourite's costumes are gorgeous and evocative of their time period - with well-portrayed mantuas, riding habits, fontanges etc. - all while conforming to Lanthimos' characteristically off-beat style. The shared colour palate really puts the three leads on equal footing in a visual sense, which is key in exploring the relationships that Abigail and Sarah are able to manipulate Queen Anne into developing. Had the colours and fabrics been historically accurate, I believe the movie would have risked making Anne too visibly above the rest of her court, but the striking congruence among the cast successfully solidifies their ability to exploit one another, regardless of status.

────────────

I don't know if there are any conclusions to be drawn from this, I just love talking. If you've made it this far - thank you for reading! I hope you found at least some of this interesting.

I'm always open and eager to discuss this topic, so please do let me know your thoughts - What are your favourite period drama costumes? What piece of costuming made you go OH JESUS WHAT IS THAT???

Anyway, thank you for going down this little rabbit hole with me - my asks are always open! <3

[vintagelacerosette]

Tag game 🎀

I was tagged by these opalescent starlights ✨️

Evie @energievie Deanna @deedala Jacyln @crossmydna

Ling @lingy910y Face @burninface Melodie @sirrudo

Ice @spookygingerr Pie @gallapiech Molly @deathclassic

Laurel @lupeloto Jessica @guinguin1984 Georgia @iansw0rld

When is yours? 31st of July

Where were you born? Stralia 🇦🇺

How do you feel about your legal name? Are you using it online and/or IRL? I like my name but hate the spelling bc it's not spelt how you pronounce it. Online I went with my nickname to keep privacy. but I realise that's a bit of a down fall bc that's the part that's not spelt right lol. I like my name tho Shermyn said as Shermain. So Myn should be said like Main! Many I times I'll be correcting anyone that meets me but, I think spelling is unique & I kinda think looks nice

How about your sign? Do you feel it "fits"? I am a Leo & our traits are supposedly: exudes warmth and creativity, a little bit vain, really big personality, wants to stand out & interested in luxury, Which I can see I do fit that hehe I love being creative & I'll admit I'd ask if we can take a photo again bc I don't like how I look in that angle 🫣

What's your earliest memory related to your birthday? I remember having a birthday at Mcdonald's where we had the whole party package! There was Maccas party crowns & I had my kindy friends come.

I remember having a magician dressed up as a wizard & doing the scarf trick & at the end of it it was a pair of pink undies & he played horrified why they were there lol. Also we played pass the parcel & I passed it slowly bc I wanted the prize lmao

What's one of the best gifts you've ever received? It happened recently! One of my bestie gave me a diamond painting of Gallavich of their prison kiss after their mutual "I love you"! It was the best & it was my first gallavich gift!!! 🥰 I'll post when I finish & I wanna custom more diamond paintings like some of the fanart I've done!!! 🩷

How about one of the best you've given yourself? Shameless plug but commissioning art from the ever talented Alice @darthvaders-wife it was my first time & I wanted to do something special for my birthday while being in this awesome fandom! her commissions are open now!!!

What's your favourite cake flavour? Like my dearest Molly I like a good red velvet

How about your favourite flowers? Lily of the valley & cherry/peach blossoms

Have you ever thrown a birthday party? If yes, tell us about your favourite one. I loved this one I held it at this cool activity function had had a range of activities like floor piano, shooting hoops, spelling scramble with huge cubes. I got my girlfriends to dress all in pink & then we had pizza. They also surprised me with these beautiful blue platform heels! I was not expecting that at all!! 🥰

What's the ultimate birthday song?

All that's coming in my mind is Birthday by Katy & it's a bop tho

And last but not least, pick a celebrity with whom you share your birthday. Oh cool B. J. Novak who was Ryan in The Office

I'll tag these dazzling sweerhearts if they wanna play 💖

@suzy-queued @celestialmickey @look-i-love-u @stocious

@wehangout @ofalltheginjoints @darthvaders-wife

@heymrspatel @svltburn @michellemisfit @ian-galagher

@doshiart @mickittotheman @sleepyfacetoughguy

@kiinard @bekkachaos @mikhailoisbaby @jademickian

@darlingian @takeyourpillsbitchh @gallavichgeek

@creepkinginc @rereadanon @gallawitchxx @samantitheos

@sickness-health-all-that-shit @7x10mickey

@mmmichyyy @flamingbluepanda @sam-loves-seb

@blue-disco-lights @ms-moonlight-inn @pookiebearmick

[inkabelledesigns]

Saw a post about crossdressing this morning and also got a message that warmed my heart, and that got me thinking about a moment where I had some gender related euphoria. So now I'm gonna tell you a story.

So about a year or two ago, my parents were out of town on a trip while I stayed home to care for my brother. And in that time, it snowed. Now, I'm a bit out of practice when it comes to shoveling, we don't get as much where we live now, but I knew I had to go shovel it so the driveway didn't become dangerous. So I went out and took care of our driveway and sidewalk. And I noticed, I was late, everyone else had already done theirs. Everyone, except for myself and my neighbor. My neighbor is an older lady, she can't get around so well. So once I finished our property, thinking I was all alone, I went and got her sidewalk cleaned up.

Well, I was not as stealthy as I'd thought. She ended up coming to the door and called out to me in thanks. And she asked me if I was my father's son. I guess she remembered that her neighbors had a son, but not that they had three daughters as well. We'd never met before, she probably didn't know I existed. Now she does, she sees me taking photos in our yard of my dolls at the very least. But there I was in my winter coat and pajama bottoms, my long hair a mess under my hat, slightly sick with a cough, being mistaken for an eldest son. When my mom called to check up on us, I told her this story, and she laughed and said she was sorry. And I couldn't help but be confused. There was nothing to be sorry for. If anything, I rather liked being mistaken for a gentleman. It likely wasn't a comment on my presentation, it was more likely a case of piecing together information incorrectly and my performing of a task that typically (but not always) a man might do. But I'd like to think maybe I was convincing regardless.

And that was the first time I really came to terms with that for myself. I don't identify as a man in the slightest, but I like being mistaken for a man. I like occasionally dressing in a way that's masculine, hell, I have a character for cosplaying that makes me feel hella handsome whenever I put him on. I aspire to voice more male characters, I have this deep voice for a woman and I want to flex it a little, push it to see what it can do. There's a friend I voice some OCs for that happen to be a couple, a man and a woman, and in this one skit where they're together, so many people don't catch on that I play both characters until they get to the credits. That is such a good feeling! What a funny thing, to be excited that you couldn't identify me as me, but genuinely, I love that just as much as I love being recognized. I have range, baby! I like feeling like a shapeshifter, that I can be anything I want, be that masculine, feminine, neutral, over the top, whatever. I've got the power to do that. There's something really freeing in that. I still feel like a woman, but it's nice to know that being a woman doesn't limit how I can present or how I'm allowed to feel about myself. I can truly be anything.

[charbies]

I love your coloring style! I struggle so much with painting color, do you have any advice for cohesive color schemes, or how you go about picking what colors and values to use? Do you always use references?

Yes!!! Ok so for a long time I struggled with color too, I would get stuck and give up on whatever I was working on because color just didn't make any sense

truth is, I don't think you can get very far with figuring out color without first figuring out VALUES

So when we color first and then desaturate the left pic, we get a very boring, flat pic, limited values. Middle pic and right pic are 2 examples of grouping values by foreground, midground, and background to create more contast & dynamic layouts.

Case in point; contrast shows our eyes where to go. Our eyeballs like having clear focal points, it makes a good drawing that much more satisfying to look at within its borders.

2 layouts for values that I personally like are dark foreground on light background, and light/dark foreground on midtone background.

once I have a value study I like, I start laying color in by applying a gradient map. Drawing programs will have presets, but I highly recommend learning to build your own gradient maps. From there I'll tweak the hue around until I find undertones I like (more on that later)

NOW LETS TALK LOCAL COLOR. I define local color, aka "flats" as the color your character is "made out of." Basically ask yourself what colors are your character, if your character was sucked into a vacuum where there was no organic source of light/shadow/sun/etc that would influence the local colors.

Once I have local colors, I use a new layer set to overlay and "lay" the local colors over the gradient. Local colors we want + gradient undertones + dynamic values = cohesive colorssssss

Now one thing I want to mention about color in general is, when I started doing digital art, my brain would "icon-ify" colors and pick colors based on an object's "information" (e.g. frogs are green). As a result, I'd pick a lot of saturated colors in the upper right quad of my color picker, and this would limit my color pallets quite a bit.

Now that I'm more well-versed with values, I've intuitively gotten better at picking local colors in other quads and on parts of the color wheel that go against object "info." In general, I like picking local colors that are warm & earthy.

Additionally, you can always use overlay to create cohesion if you're trying to go for a certain look/feel that's tricky to manually pick out on the color wheel!

Last 2 things I'll mention are I avoid using a large amount of default digital "white" in artwork. This white literally does not exist in nature, it's like a vacuum to the point where these "clouds" just look like holes in the pictures here. I highly recommend looking at examples of traditional underpainting & using undertones, this was a gamechanger for me since I learned how to carry a traditional technique into digital art and it greatly improved my digital art

References I always use references, for 2 reasons: 1) I have a tough time conceptualizing whole ideas in my head and can't draw most things from memory (womp womp). 2) I legit do not practice anything ever, oops, I am usually learning at least 1 new thing every time I draw, so basically it'll be like "ok time to learn how wolves work" and this requires references lol. I'll use photos or hostages (ie my partner lol) for anatomy & poses, pinterest & posemaniacs are fantastic for this.

Anyway that's every silly little thing I could think of to say lol. I've done digital art for 10ish years, I'm fully self-taught, take that as you will lol. Thanks for asking this, hope it was helpful! :+)

[asexualbookbird]

Whoo boy. Lots of things going on here, many of them Not Good, so I threw myself into video games and reading. Played a whole bunch of Project Sekai, so much Project Sekai I have to now force myself to take a break from Project Sekai because my hands hurt so much. I was absolutely SPOILED by my friends on my birthday. I look at my little Miku figure everyday and it brings me SO much joy!! Got an embroidery machine and I already have a couple jobs lined up so hopefully I can make a little bit of Fun Money. At the very least I'm hoping to make enough to upgrade the program so I can make my own freehand designs! I read SIX (6) books this month and I annotated in the margins for the first time! It was fun, but I think it was only fun because I was leaving notes for a friend. I don't think it's something I would enjoy on my own so I won't be making a habit of it. Still! Fun and new and exciting!

Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- Okay Initially I rated this four stars, but sitting on it for a month I ADORED this. It left so many good feelings. Fun and silly and gross, I want more like this.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - A reread! Still love it! I'd forgotten so much it was nice to revisit and about halfway through I remembered the ending which was fun. Opted for the audio this time which was absolutely delightfully done.

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch ⭐⭐⭐ - Not my favorite, but still fun. I find it a Choice that the use of outdated slurs was a hint at a plot point. Peter made a promise to a child, so there's no way that will come back to bite him!

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai ⭐⭐- I listened to the audiobook and I think that didn't help my enjoyment of this. I switched to a hard copy in the last 20% and found my opinions of the two main characters switching. I didn't like Nehal's narrator, so I didn't like Nehal. But reading it myself she was more tolerable. Aside from Giorgina having an abortion, this could have easily been a young adult novel, and even then it wouldn't necessarily have been out of place. The writing didn't feel like an adult novel, which I hate saying but I know of no other way to voice my feelings on this.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- PERFECT. WONDERFUL. LOVED EVERY BIT! I know I just complained about a book reading like YA, but listen. Elatsoe was SO good. The love Elatsoe has for her family and her family for her is so refreshing. She's ace. Her loved ones love her. She loves them. And she's ace. It's not about Being Ace, but still! There she is! The audio was so easy and pleasant to listen to. I want my own copy because I KNOW I want to read this again. Absolutely delightful.

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch ⭐⭐⭐- didn't enjoy it as much as the first, but enjoyed it more than the second. Typing the title out made a lightbulb go off and I Got It. The buried alive chapter had me squirming. Abigail returned. There are an awful lot of guns in this series for being set in London and here they still had to poke fun at the American being trigger happy (she was). I'm a little burnt out on this series for now, but I'll return to it in the future.

June is bringing a birthday tea party for my mom, finishing a knit hat for my mom, making a homebound sketchbook for my friend, and whatever books I feel in the mood for. I'd say throw suggestions at me, but the instant someone says YOU MUST READ THIS my brain goes hm. No uwu. I think I want to make Monthly Reading Goals photos again, that was fun! Only book set in stone this month is The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi which I've already started and am enjoying a lot so far. Good omens and good vibes for June, I am speaking that into existence.

[ghostoffuturespast]

WIP Whenever

*takes a deep breath* Tagged by @streetkid-named-desire @wanderingaldecaldo (you two I think at least twice lol) @seeker-of-truth

@baublekute @scarlettspectra @aggravateddurian. Thank you all very much for thinking of me! 🧡

Tag backs for everyone above 😘 and @luvwich @merge-conflict @shimmer-like-agirl @mynonsenseistingling

@fly-amanitaa @dani-the-goblin @tarmac-rat @lavnderkiwi @morganlefaye79

Cash your tag in now or later and feel free to do whatever creative projects you're working on! Doesn't even have to be fandom related.

It's been a minute. This one got long.

I largely haven't been doing any fandom stuff other than VP because my work schedule has been insane the past two months. And the only reason I have VP to post is because I'm generous about snapping pics and the vast majority of photos y'all are seeing are ones I took back in March/April/May.

Things at work are starting to be slightly less hectic though, so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things. I'm trying to be gentle with myself about the time and energy I do have but it's been frustrating wanting to do things and not having the beans to do them. Spending most of my workdays outside for extended periods of time means I'm bone tired when I get home. And then I have more work to do outside...

Gardening

My garden is gonna be very scraggly looking for the rest of the year, but if I can keep it alive, in theory, the plants should come back bigger and bolder next year. Shortgrass prairie plants spend the bulk of their first few growing seasons establishing their root systems since water is often in short supply, so the tops of the plants are very unimpressive rn. Most of them probably won't get much bigger than this or even flower this year.

I've gotten a good chunk of the plants in the ground, have irrigation lines going to all of them, and did the lil concrete paver patio. I still need to finish planting the plants that have been languishing in their pots for over a month, bury the irrigation lines, and do a bunch of other random things, but we're getting there. Not planning on covering the bare dirt with mulch because I'm doing fall and spring seeding and I want the plants to self-sow. Going for wild pocket prairie and I'm gonna let it go absolutely feral. I'd eventually like to get rid of the river rocks too but baby steps.

What's really funny is all my native plants seem to be doing reasonable well. My vegetable garden on the other hand... It's sad. I know where I fucked up though (I should not have done that soil experiment lol and attack of the cutworm catepillars), so I'll just have to cut my loses this year and reevaluate for next. The worm composter is doing good though 🪱

Drawing

Attempting to get back into drawing. Again, it's been slow. Have been doodling some mutual's CP2077 OCs when I have the time and still have a ways to get through my list. I'm surprised by how much fan art of Grandpa I've received so I figured I'd return the favor for some folks. It's always a pleasant surprise getting some lovely art in your inbox. Probably won't be coloring most of these from here on out. I have a love hate relationship with coloring. Sorry, I just find lines more interesting. All of these were done with dip pen, ink, and watercolor.

I've got another more formal piece I need to work on as well and get done by the end of the month. Keep forgetting to do the layout sketches...

Writing

The slowest of them all. Been working on the same damn short fic (No. 1 of Les Preludes) and then brainstorming for about fifty other projects that are waiting their turn in line. Plus, I'm still trying to read too. But when I can only manage a chapter of a fic about every two weeks...

Most of my writing efforts have been bopping into my drafts now and then and pecking out a sentence or two. However, I did manage to spend 45 minutes detangling a section of about 200 words 🐢:

Have you or a loved one been in an accident or injured on the job?  Are you missing your former quality of life?  Holed up in the bathroom, Robert winced at his reflection in the mirror and at the crusted blood he picked at underneath his nostrils.  Then consider Arasaka Cybernetic Implants!  Fully functional prostheses are capable of replicating the full range of human motion and more!  Available in a range of sizes and styles to suit all your lifestyle needs.  The body of the future is NOW. The corners of his mouth tugged on a bruised eye and what former experience had taught him was a broken nose. Call 1-800-IMPLANT today for a free consultation! Low-interest financing and payment plans available. A rapid fire of unintelligible fine print was drowned out by the sputter of the faucet. Robert cupped his hands and scrubbed at his face, the pain disappearing for the briefest moments with the black of shut eyes and splashes of cold water.      Arasaka Corporation.  What can we do for you? Dry flecks of red decorated the sides of the sink before rehydrating into inky swirls of blood that slipped down the sides of imitation porcelain. Yellowed, cracked, and starting to chip. The plastic hadn’t aged well.

This snippet gives me the hardest war flashbacks to those late 90s/early 00s TV phone ads. Anyone else old enough to remember these things?

[musingsofahistorymajor]

Okay I watched episode 1 and 2 of Masters of the Air and I loved them! And since I have a special interest in women in WWII, I'd like to look deeper at the show to see how historically accurate it is for people who may be into the show but might not know much of the history

So let's talk about the women!!

Put under a read more because I got way to into it and it got long

First up let's look at the civilian women we see. There's a lot of background women and they all look fantastic. Their dresses, the cardigans, the patterns on the blouses, skirts, and dresses, the hairstyles, the jewelry are all so good. I love that you see a variety of updos and longer hairstyles yet they've all got the curls correct. I see rolls and pin curls and even milkmaid braids. Fantastic!

But for some reason, Marge and her friend? Not so much. Marge is obviously a major character being the love interest of Gale Cleven. Their dresses are both fine. It's their hair that bothers me. It's like they tried a wet set curl but forgot to use setting lotion so the curls fell halfway through filming.

This is bad. Especially Marge's hair. This is a modern slightly wavy hairstyle and nothing like a 1940s hairstyle should be. They should have gone more like this. 1940s, especially early 1940s, was all about the curls. Wet sets and victory rolls. Updos were the go to for evening but if you wanted to wear your hair long it'd be more like this:

Why can't tv dress main characters as well as the background women? I don't get it.

Next up is the Women's Land Army. We only see them in the background but there's enough there for me to say that they look absolutely fantastic. I'm so happy.

First off, let's talk about what they're wearing.

We see the corduroy trousers, khaki dungarees, green headscarf, and black wellies that are a part of the WLA uniform. Several of them are wearing the tan shirt sleeve uniform shirt as well and I see at least two wearing the green jumper. The rest are wearing civilian sweaters and blouses which was allowed. The hair styles are perfect too. Love seeing the scarves, gibson rolls, and turbans.

For an even closer look we can take a look at the behind the scenes photos shared by Danni Philips. You can see the Women's Land Army pin on their uniform which pleases me so much you have no idea. And you can further see that the forest green sweater they're wearing is utter perfection.

Some original WLA photos:

Now what about the work they're doing? We can see the women driving cattle and harvesting what I believe is wheat but crops are not my specialty so I might be wrong there but both of which are two jobs done by much of the Land Army. Here's some side by side examples of the show vs original photos:

So good!!

Okay now let's talk about the Red Cross women we see. The first time we see them is this scene after the bomber crews get back from a flying mission. These ladies are a part of a Red Cross Clubmobile which you can get a quick glimpse of the Clubmobile here:

We see them handing out donuts and coffee to the men as they come in for interrogation which ABSOLUTELY was something the Red Cross did!! They established aeroclubs and had Clubmobiles stationed on air bases to provide relaxation and coffee and donuts for the base. Here's an example of them giving coffee and donuts to returning airmen on their way to interrogation which so closely resembles the show I nearly lost it.

One of my favorite details is the jacket that one Red Cross woman on the left wears. She's got a whole bunch of patches sewn on the sleeve of her jacket which is something a lot of women did when they served overseas. I've seen a bathrobe with dozens of patches sewn on and a large piece of fabric one WAC hung in her tent.

Now how about the uniforms they wear? The ladies above are wearing the uniform of the American Red Cross Clubmobile Service. Those who served in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) were provided with special uniforms consisting of a battledress-styled jacket with trousers and a matching visored ARC cap. The Clubmobile uniform was made of RAF blue-gray wool.

We get a good look at their service uniforms during the dance. They wear the American Red Cross Military Welfare Corps winter service uniform with the specific Clubmobile service patch in their sleeve. It's an oxford gray wool winter suit with a specially designed overseas cap.

Here are some Red Cross Clubmobile pictures for comparison:

And finally, my specialty, during the narrated montages we see two members of the WAC (Women's Army Corps) stationed with the 8th Air Force Headquarters. It looks like the same woman playing both WACs but they've put her in an officer's uniform for one scene and an enlisted uniform for the other.

One is WAC officer working at a teletype machine. She wears the officers service jacket with the officers lapel pins which are two US above two Pallas Athene pins. I can also see her 8th Air Force service patch on her left sleeve and Lieutenant bars on her shoulders. I can't quite tell if they silver or gold though so I'm not sure if she's a 1st or 2nd Lt. She's working as a teletype operator.

Next we see an enlisted WAC preparing for the debriefs the men will receive. She's a T3 or Technician 3rd Grade. You can see the rank patched on her shirt which has 3 chevrons and a T. There's also the 8th Air Force patch on her left sleeve. She's doing the work of a plotter. Placing the models of the planes into the locations of the formations that will be formed in the next mission.

Both WACs have perfect hair. Perfect. WACs were required to keep their hair neat and off their collar. If your hair was longer than your shoulders then you needed to put it up and the back gibson roll was the most popular way to do it. They've also kept their top rolls more to the side and smaller than usual victory rolls to accommodate their caps should they need to wear them (WACs were not required to wear their caps indoors)

In summary: I'm so damn impressed with the women in this show!!!! Overall the uniforms and costumes and hairstyles are SO GOOD! They clearly did their research when including the women and I'm so grateful for it. I'm fairly certain we'll be seeing the ATS in a future episode if the on set photos I've seen are any indication so if that happens I'll totally add that in a reblog. As well as any other glimpses of the women we get. I'm excited to see more of them!!

[twig-tea]

Let's Talk about Cheum

I've had multiple Cheum posts in my drafts since at least episode 6, and the main reason why I haven't posted them is because I keep waiting for the show to give me more. There have been some great posts reflecting on her character this week, so I thought I'd give it a try anyway right before the finale this weekend.

@waitmyturtles laid out her thoughts on Cheum here and this was followed up on with some excellent context by @ctl-yuejie re: the split in the audience around their reception of Cheum.

@my-rose-tinted-glasses tied the way that folks seem to want to iterpret Cheum's character to the trailer, which was an interesting take I hadn't considered! I like it.

I've been pushing back on Cheum being the voice of the audience or the only character who has it together for the entire time we've been watching this show [one of the places I've done this most explicitly was in my scene-by-scene breakdown of ep6]. Nothing in the actual show, to me, encourages us to see Cheum as the one who 'has it together'. She gets sloppy drunk out of the gate in ep1; she's rude, she's catty, she seems like a party girl. She's kind of mean about her girlfriend's films behind her back, she constantly insults Boston, Ray, and Mew in subtle ways, she supports Top as a "good candidate" for Mew even when we all in the audience know that he's a player, and even after she knows he betrayed Mew's trust (we can debate over whether it was "cheating", this is how Mew saw it and how Top knew he would see it); she says she's tried to help Ray in the past but we only see her enable Ray's alcoholism--in other words, I have been baffled this entire time why anyone would see her character as the voice we're supposed to trust as a reliable narrator or moral voice of the show, when the audience has enough information to know she's very often wrong. I said after episode 10, in which Cheum accused Boston of assaulting her brother despite her knowledge of Boston's character and the fact that the photos did not support Atom's story, and with the audience knowing she's in the wrong, that I was so thankful this would have to be the nail in the coffin of the theory that Cheum is supposed to be the "voice of the audience" or the "correct" one in the show, and I am aghast that this still seems not to be the case.

In my post about Cheum after ep 10, I said:

When Cheum realizes that Atom lied, though, if she just shrugs it off the way she did Top sleeping with Boston or Ray bringing drugs to the hostel...my rage will be fierce. Part of unconditional belief is holding your sibling to account if they abuse that trust.

But of course I wrote that because I suspected she would, because that's how her character's been to date. So my own previous post is evidence that Cheum has actually been legibly and predictably written, at least to an extent.

And while I like @my-rose-tinted-glasses' theory that maybe folks are being influenced by their memory of the trailer (in their post linked above), I also suspect that a lot of that comes from the audience bringing their sexism to their viewing experience, and assuming that a female character has to be The Voice of Morality if they are not an Evil Seductress, and cannot simply be as messy and nuanced as the other characters. And also maybe from the assumption that SOMEone in this show must be right, when I think that's a faulty assumption to make.

To be fair to the audience, a lot of what's going on with her is subtle, because the show to date has not often explicitly called her out on her bullshit. I remember being so happy to get the confirmation that she knew Ray was in love with Mew this whole time (during the big blow-up at Yolo bar) for example, because it confirmed what I had thought: that she was not oblivious, she intentionally was not acknowledging the tension between them in order to keep harmony within the group. But I would not necessarily expect everyone watching to put that together, especially not as a reveal in the middle of that dramatic scene where so much else was going on.

Cheum is, like @wen-kexing-apologist said in the fantastic post about hypocrisy, just as young as her friends, and just as flawed. She's a bit of a nag, a bit of a party girl, a bit of a people-pleaser, and a bit of a selfish 20something. But so many viewers are refusing to see her that way, and I don't think that's all on the show. And none of this makes me hate her. She's actually the character I relate to most (I know I said I'd be mad at her for not holding Atom to account, and I am, but I don't hate her for it).

Knowing to pay more attention to the rudeness of her language has helped me with this too, because I was looking for a lovable personality trait, and I think @ctl-yuejie's point (linked above) is a great theory as to what's missing for the English-speaking audience. The difference between an asshole character I hate and an asshole character I love is often (a) intention and (b) eschewing social/societal expectations (as opposed to being an asshole in order to meet societal expectations). I don't think we are given enough about Cheum to tell much of the former (though she says she cares, and I do believe her to some extent, I just think she's also blind to how selfish she often is); but knowing she has been doing the latter helps me connect with her in ways I may have been struggling to before.

That being said, as I hinted at above, I do still agree with a lot of what folks have been saying, in that I think she has been under-written, because what I don't have for Cheum (in the same way that I don't have this for Top) is any sense of what motivates her, whether she really does love her girlfriend or she's just riding out the relationship she's in, how much work she's actually doing at the hostel (we see her work the party, but otherwise it's just implied that she's the one doing all the work on the ground, but we never get to see it and in a show full of unreliable narrators, it's hard to know what's true); and how much she really cares about these friends of hers, since most of what we see is her saying she's a good friend but not actually doing things that a good friend would do (or doing things a good friend would not do, like inviting the ex you're still mad at to the party, or yelling at her friend as he's being arrested, or listening to his explanation after he's been accused of a crime). We don't even really know why she wanted the hostel project to be a thing to begin with, or why she cares enough to keep working on it.

I'd like to give the show the benefit of the doubt and say that could be intentional; Cheum is a bit of a fringe member of the group; she doesn't hang out with them with her girlfriend that often, so she's not always around, and she's clearly not best friends with any of the three others. She's who people go to in order to vent and decompress after something happens, and so most of the time we see her, she's helping someone else process their emotions, usually with an eye to reconciliation--though again, the advice she gives is often not good lol. She gets the most mad when someone does something that disrupts the harmony of the group, which is one of the reasons why I read her as the peacekeeper in the group, or the "link" as her name means in Thai I think, that holds them together. Ironically it's her who severs the group in the way that's most permanent to date, by kicking Boston out of the project. But if this is what they were doing with her character, keeping her as the solder rather than a member of the chain (apologies for this belaboured metaphor), I don't know that it was successful; as always gotta wait to the end to be sure.

In the final episode, I would love to get a peek into the core of who Cheum is, or alternatively, Cheum herself saying she feels lost and unsure of who she is. I would also love for someone to point out Cheum's bullshit to her face so that more people understand that what she says is not the moral backbone of the show, though I'm trying to let go of that part of me that wants everyone to get it with this show because I know that's just not possible (and thanks to all of the excellent previous conversations we've had around that). It would be an exciting reversal, and very in character, if Cheum makes Atom's lie and her subsequent banishment of Boston all about her, and then someone calls her on that, for example. And I'd also like more Cheum and April together on screen because they are very aesthetically pleasing and I am a simple creature.

Also just to say, I am hesitant to chalk up Cheum's character having gaps as a 'men writing women' situation because Yo is given the grace to be a full character in fewer scenes than Cheum; also Top as a character suffers from the same problem. So I think this is uneven writing, rather than sexist writing. But I'm open to debating it (and it's not something that we'll ever necessarily know for sure).