#Now I can use it as my Retro Gaming Chair and I have an obnoxious yellow chair and that's fun

[moongothic]

The Styrofoam Chair Saga

Part 4: Upholstery Hell, the Grand Finale. I regret everything

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

When planning things out, I had measured out the size of the old fabric pieces of the chair, with the intent of using those as templates to cut out the new pieces to make the reupholstering easier. So I got the nececary amount of fabric, in an obnoxious yellow because I’ve wanted an obnoxious yellow chair for years now, and got to work (with Honey there to lend me a paw)

Had to do all this on the floor because I don’t have a table big enough for this (it barely even fit on the floor lol)

So I laid everything down and pinned all the pieces, it did take a few tries for me to make sure I was able to fit everything on there while making sure the old fabric pieces were straight and not wrinkled (even ironed the pieces between the attempts, didn’t take photos of all of them though)

Didn’t take photos of it but after I got everything laid down, I drew the outlines of the front and back pieces before cutting them, but only them! I didn’t cut the fabric for the front of chair (like the bit under your knees when you sit on the chair) nor the cushion.

With the two pieces cut though, it was time for me to try to pin them together to check if they fit onto the chair before sewing them together. And... before we get into that, I have to apologize a little bit. I was fully planning on taking photos of each step of the process once I had a step nailed down. So when my first attempt failed, I didn’t take a photo of it. And when my second attempt failed, I didn’t take a photo of it. Nor the third, nor the fourth, and whoops there’s a lot of stuff missing all out of sudden. So, yeah, sorry about that.

But indeed, when I tried fitting the pieces onto the chair, it didn’t fit. I tried pinning the two pieces of fabric together WHILE they were sitting on top of the chair, and they wouldn’t line up. I tried MULTIPLE TIMES to get them to line up neatly without any wrinkles, but it would not work.

And I had a horrible realization.

See, much like the original foam on the chair, the original fabric must’ve been made specially so it’d fit onto the chair perfectly with only two large fabric pieces and a single seam connecting the two. But the fabric I was using WASN’T made to fit the round shape of the chair. So no matter what I would do, there would be no way for me to reupholster chair the same way it had been upholstered originally. What I was trying to do was more or less the same as trying to cover a ball with a piece of paper without wrinkling it.

So this was not going to work, not at all. It was literally impossible. (Or who knows, maybe it would’ve been possible if I was like a professional upholsterer who knew what they were doing, but alas, I am but a dumbass)

(Minor note, just to make sure it wasn’t the extra cushioning causing this issue I even tried to see if the old fabric pieces would go back onto the chair neatly if I haphazardly sewed them together, and yeah, they did. The original pieces went back onto the chair perfectly, so it wasn’t the foam causing this)

To try to figure out what the fuck I should do, I went onto YouTube to look for videos of how people would reupholster egg chairs, and while I couldn’t find anything quite like this chair, I did come to the conclusion that fabric needed to be cut into smaller sections and sewn together to get it as smooth as possible.

Now, to try to make sure I didn’t waste too much fabric at this point, I got some other leftover fabric I had to make a rough template. I did do both sides of the chair but only took this photo of when I was working with the template

So, I did six template pieces, tried pinning them together on the chair before transfering them onto the proper fabric (with a lot of seam allowance). And it was this point when I realized I would not have enough fabric to do the whole chair. As in, the fabric I had would be enough for the chair itself, but I wouldn’t have enough for the cushion. So that fucking sucks

But I had to keep on going. With the proper fabric pieces cut, I tried pinning them together, and well. I had no idea how to do this really. I wasn’t sure how to pin the fabric pieces together, I literally just didn’t know the proper technique for it. I could lay them and pin them onto the foam of the chair nicely and get them pretty even and flat, but when it came to actually attaching them together so I could then remove the fabric and sew everything together... I was completely lost. No idea what to do. Especially because the fabric pieces (due to me not having quite enough for the chair anymore) weren’t symmetrical, it wasn’t like I would be able to pin them together on the chair upside down, sew them together and then flip the fabric inside out again before putting it onto the chair. With the pieces non-symmetrical, I was worried I’d fuck it up, and god knows I had already spent like 90€ on the fabric, and I already needed more for the seat cushion!! I did not want to double the amount I’d need!!

After consulting YouTube once again I found a pretty good video showing a technique of a professional upholsterer, who straight up hand-sewed the fabric on the chair. And as much as I didn’t want to do it, because it’d be a pain in the ass, I figured it was my best shot.

I’d handsew it first, then remove the fabric off the chair, redo it on my sewing machine (to make sure it’d hold) and cut off excess fabric (just to make sure there wouldn’t be too much excess material on the inside)

So. I started working at it.

It was a lot of work, and this entire process took me multiple nights

Not gonna lie though, I was feeling pretty confident lookin at the top seam of the chair and how smooth it was looking, so much so I thought I could get away with not doing redoing the sewing with a machine

But the back ruined my confidence, I could not get the back to look smooth no matter how many times I tried to do it by hand.

So indeed, I took off the fabric, redid parts of the sewing with the machine and did my best to redo the back. And this took a lot of time... Like, let me break down the process for you.

Look at how the fabric sits on the chair and try to spot issues and figure out how to fix them

Remove the fabric off the chair carefully

Take it to the sewing machine

Put it back onto the chair, carefully taking time to make sure it was in the right spot

Rinse and repeat. I did this a dozen times if not more, often I had to rip my old sewing off between different attemps (and pin the fabric together before I could resew it), it was slow, it was annoying as hell. I tried to make sure I did small adjustments too, just to try to avoid making massive mistakes, so I’d often go over the same spot and tighten it multiple times. Not to mention, often when I’d tighten one loose spot, the next time I’d fit the fabric onto the chair another spot would be loose, so I’d go and fix that, only for the first spot to be loose again the next time I’d put the fabric onto the chair-- it was a mess

And the sad part is, I kinda went overboard with that. I kept on adjusting and tightening the fabric, and worst of all, I cut off excess fabric from between the seams at one point because I was worried the excess fabric was causing some of the bumps and what not in the fabric.

That was a massive mistake.

Because I made the fabric too tight, but more on that a little bit later.

After a lot of work on the chair, I came to the conclusion that the only way for me to actually get the fabric to sit right on the chair was to just fucking staple it down already. I had been avoiding that so desperately because I wanted to do the sewing on the machine (I just did not trust the durability of my hand stitching), and I wouldn’t be able to make any more major adjustments to the fabric once I’d staple it down (at least, not easily, since I’d have to rip out god damn staples if I needed to fix anything). But needless to fucking say, as careful as I tried to be to make sure the fabric sat roughly in the same spot on the chair every time I put it back onto it, it would never be 100% in the exact same position (which I’m sure was also contributing to the whole adjustment limbo). The only way to end this mess was to just fucking nail it down already.

So I did.

And this is when the tightness of the fabric truly showed. It had been kind of hard to notice because I could only hold the fabric down so much with my hands to see how it’d sit on the seat of the chair, but yeah, as I had been adjusting and tightening the back of the chair, I had accidentally been pulling on the front of it, causing it to be too tight

It’s really hard to show in photos, you’d have to feel it to get it, so you just have to believe me when I say, the fabric isn’t loose in these photos, it’s too tight

But since I had already cut off so much excess fabric, there wasn’t really much I could do anymore. So I did my best to staple it all down (slightly hard actually since the staple gun couldn’t quite get into the tight corners) first on the seat...

And then on the bottom. And yes, there’s extra wrinkles in the fabric, I had known that was going to happen ever since I did the template pieces. The only way to have avoided those would’ve been to make the back five pieces instead of three, but I figured, the small wrinkles would be less of a hassle and less noticable than the large seams extra pieces would’ve created.

With everything stapled down, I attached the chair to its foot firmly, and started assessing the situation.

It was looking bad

I was still kind of telling myself the front of the seat was fine (even though it wasn’t, the fabric was tight as a drum and wasn’t touching the foam underneath it in many places, even with this bottom piece placed on top of the seat), but I really wasn’t happy with the back.

So I said fuck it and decided to try and fix the loose, droopy parts of the back by sewing them by hand over the old sewing.

While I was at it, I also had to finish up these corners on the front and make sure they looked clean, and... I ended up ripping the old sewing I had done on the left side, there was just too much fabric sitting here so I wanted to redo it, even if my handsewing wouldn’t be as clean as the machine job

And while I was at it... the seat really was bothering me a lot. And to fix the front left side I already had to rip some of the staples off so I ended up, just...

...Removing more staples and ripping this seam to redo it by hand.

I knew it was not going to look as good. But I really wanted and hoped that if I redid this part, I’d be able to loosen up the fabric a little bit, just enough that the fabric would sit nicer on the seat.

This looks objectively worse. The wrinkles are worse. But it doesn’t FEEL as bad

Like, I had realized that this had all been a huge mistake when my first few attempts at pinning the two large fabric pieces had failed. I already knew then I should’ve just gone to a professional and paid extra for a better end-result. But it’s too fucking late now. This is what I’m going with. It’s an expensive, wrinkly mess, but it’s MY mess

Again, the back is wrinkly from my hand sewing, but the fabric isn’t droopy anymore, and really, that’s all I can ask for at this stage. I need that silver lining man

With that all done though... The main body of the chair is almost down. All I need to do is cover up the styrofoam on the front of the chair, and then it’s time for the seat cushion.

So, first off, I decided to reuse the original foam piece here instead of replacing it. Like, it looks nasty, but there isn’t anything truly wrong with it, so I’m just gonna leave it and live with it. I did glue the foam piece onto the board that goes onto the seat-- I believe it had been glued on there originally, there was some glue residue on both pieces and it just made more sense to me to glue it down, otherwise it’d be loose and move around and that’d be no good.

Using some foam glue I attached the foam piece onto that board, and it was time to cover it up with fabric.

Now, because I had messed up in so many ways with the reupholstery so far, the original fabric piece that used to cover this foam piece wouldn’t be the right shape nor size anymore, since, as you can see in the photo below, there’s so styrofoam peeking thru some gaps on the sides.

So I had to make a custom fabric piece for this. I made a bunch of measurements onto the little fabric I had left over (just BARELY enough to do this bit), cut it up, pinned the sides...

...and sewed them. I only have to sew the sides to make them clean, but the bottom and the top don’t matter since both will get sapled down and hidden from view (and I left some excess fabric on the bottom because I don’t care, if anything it’ll help with stapling the fabric down since I’ll have more to work with)

Before I started stapling the fabric down though, one little thing; I cut out a small piece of the original fabric, and hid it inside the chair. It’s just sitting loose there, not stapled or glued down, and that’s fine, it’s there to be a fun little memory, that’s all.

Anyways I carefully pinned down the fabric into it’s spot before I stapled the top edge to the board/cushion.

With that, I slowly handsewed the sides of the fabric to the chair, starting at the top and going down until I reached the bottom. On the (our) right side I had actually folded the fabric too much, so it didn’t actually reach the fabric on the chair, leaving this sliver of styrofoam showing. I could’ve left it like that, it’s not like you’d ever see the sliver since it’s on the bottom of the chair, but, while I haven’t been doing a good job with this chair, I’m not gonna be lazy and sloppy! So I gently ripped the machine sewing I had done on that side so I could refold the fabric, this time making sure there was just enough material that it could reach the chair’s fabric, and sewed that.

Then, with all that done I stapled the bottom, trying to make sure that the inevitable wrinkles would be as minimal and wouldn’t be visible from above.

And here we are!

That front piece has been attached! I’m past grieving and have reached acceptance with this chair, it looks terrible but it’s done!

Now, lastly, it was time to do the cushion. And indeed I was out of fabric at this point so I had to go buy more, which was a little scary because I was afraid the store could be entirely out of it, I distinctly remembered there not being much left when I bought some months ago.

BUT! Miraculously they did have more of this same fabric. SO I got just the bare minimum amount I needed so I could do the cushion.

I had a very simple plan on how to do the cushion. Just. Flip the fabric around, sew the sides with a machine, turn it inside out, slip the cushion inside the fabric and hand sew the opening on the other end. Sounded simple enough, eh? I was terrified though, because I Did Not Want To Fuck This Up and I was afraid my plan would go terribly wrong

But, I rolled with my plan anyways, starting with encasing the cushion with the fabric and pinning it all down

(BTW, I did want to leave the handsewn side on the inside of the chair, since it’d be neatly hidden that way while the outside facing part would have no seam at all, but I came to the realization that the cushion would probably be too wide to try to slip into the fabric that way around, it’d be easier this way.)

Pulled the cushion out, took the fabric to the sewing machine, and once done, I carefuly tried it on the cushion, felt like it was okay and chopped off the excess fabric.

Now I do have to say, just getting the fabric onto the cushion was extremely hard, since the fabric doesn’t just slip smoothly on there, the cushion foam has texture which grips onto the fabric etc etc. So there was a little bit of looseness on the other end of the cushion, but I figured and hoped I’d be able to fix that later with some hand sewing.

So, after turning the fabric inside out and a lot of struggle, I managed to get the cushion into its spot, and I began hand sewing the opening shut (after folding the fabric inside)

A few hours later, I had a cushion! This is what it looked like!

A little lumpy, but I hoped it’d look good once put on the chair, so I tried it on and... The fabric was too loose. Like, I had to leave the fabric a little loose so the cushion could slide in, but in the end the fabric was just loose enough that when I put the cushion onto the chair, the excess fabric would pool on the sides into a wrinkly mess.

So I spent a few hours more, ripping the machine sewing and then hand sewing the sides, this time VERY TIGHT, so there wouldn’t be excess fabric etc.

Before I started working on the cushion I did think about just doing it by hand from the start, and yeah, in hindsight, it probably would’ve been easier if I had done it like that instead of insisting on using my sewing machine. But it is what it is, and what it is, is done!

The difference may not be obvious but I swear it’s there, the fabric isn’t loose on the cushion anymore, it’s tight but in a good way!

And so. It was time to end the Styrofoam Chair Saga.

I should’ve just thrown this chair out when I realized it was broken.

Or at least taken it to be reupholstered by a professional.

But what’s done is done. I’ve learned many things from this god forsaken project. I never want to refinish a chair like this ever again. It looks like fucking shit.

But. It is done.

Place your bets now to see how long it’ll take for the skeleton of the chair to break along with the styrofoam, leaving the whole chair completely unusable and all my work an absolute waste of time and money.

[claudiyerrr]

You can do it!

(BEN Drowned x G/N reader)

Y/N’s POV:

BEN and I have been together for six months and I figured since it was Summer, I’d do something outdoors with him for our anniversary. We always play video games together, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try something new, even if it involved one of BEN’s fears… water. I ordered a human-sized hamster ball for the top of the water on my friend’s Amazon account and computer so that BEN didn’t suspect anything. Changing into my bathing suit, I threw on a pair of clothes on top of it and waited for BEN in front of my computer screen, playing an io game in the meantime. Right when the clock on the bottom corner turns to 7:00 PM, BEN’s face pops out of the screen, making me scream before realizing it was him. “Jesus BEN, Don’t do that to me!” I laugh.

“Happy six months babyyy!” BEN says with a grin. Before I can do anything, he sticks a party horn between my parted lips and does the same to himself. I can’t help but giggle as he makes obnoxious sounds with the party horn. Helping him out of the screen, he places a gift box with a bright green bow on top in my hands. “Here’s your gift N/N! I know you’ll love it,” he reassures me as I take the lid off. Inside of the box is a stack of retro video games making my heart melt. I look up at him to see him smiling eagerly at me, waiting for a reaction.

“BEN this is so sweet of you!” I say and engulf him in a hug. Separating a little bit, I continue, “We’re playing these after I show you your gift. Come on, it’s outside!” Grabbing ahold of his cold hand, I lead him outside and into my backyard. Telling him to stay put for a moment, I run down the steps and turn on the pool’s overhanging lights, revealing the gift to BEN with a nervous smile. I run back behind him as he walks a little bit closer to the gift. I toss my clothes aside on a nearby chair as he stares at my present for him.

His expression immediately changes from confused to surprised. “I- just, wow. Y/N, do you know how much these cost?!” BEN asks, mouth agape.

“Haha, yeah. I thought we could go in the pool, but I know what happens when you touch water so I was thinking that this might help,” I walk in front of BEN, his expression turning from worried to flustered when he notices I’m now in my swimsuit. I cradle my hands around his and look up at him into his glowing eyes. “It’s alright if you don’t want to do this, but I just had to tell you that I believe in you Benji and what happened before won’t happen again. You can do it!”

My boyfriend sighs before nodding. “I’ll try, just, please don’t let me touch the water.” I smile and pull the levitating man down by the back of his head gently, kissing him on the cheek.

“Swear on my life BEN, you’ll love this once you get used to it.”

I soon open up the giant clear inflatable and help BEN quickly get in before sealing the slit and inflate it once more. “Just remember that I’m right here next to you. Levitate so I put you in the water, okay?” I ask and BEN does so without hesitation, hands pressed against the inside of the ball cautiously. I pick up the inflatable and walk down the in-ground pool’s steps before gently placing the ball down on the water’s surface. I can see BEN shaking a little and start to feel really guilty. “Hey, it’s alright if you want to get out. I’m sorry for forcing you to do this Benji…” I apologize and place my hands on the outer side of the ball. BEN puts his hands on the inside, our palms against the plastic between us.

“It’s alright Y/N, I can do this.”

I smile and tell BEN that I’m going to bring him into the deep end now, letting him know that he can tell me if he gets too scared and I’ll help him get out of the pool. He thanks me and I go under the water. Coming back up to the surface, I joke to BEN that he’s lucky to be in the ball since the water’s kind of cold. This makes him loosen up a little and sit down. “You can see me underwater, right?” I question next to him.

“Yeah, why?” he asks and tilts his head.

“I’m gonna open my eyes and try to see you too!” I exclaim with a grin. BEN shrugs and smiles back at me.

“Okay! Go for it.”

I take a silent breath before going under the water’s surface once more. Shooting my eyes open, I locate where the inflatable is and swim underneath it, spotting BEN’s blurry face looking for me from inside of it. I wave and see my boyfriend wave back excitedly. Almost out of air, I quickly blow him a kiss and go up for some oxygen. “Woah,” I hear BEN start from behind me. I turn and look over my shoulder at him to see his face and ears tinted pink. “You’re really pretty under water…”

I stare at him with wide eyes and feel myself start to blush too. “This is why I love you Benji.”

“I love you too Y/N,” he says while putting a palm on the inflatable again. I place mine where his is but on the outside and can’t help but smile and stare into his eyes.

•

•

•

Anyone want a part 2 of them playing video games?

Also sorry if my headcanon for BEN is different and not as perverted as you’d expect. I feel like he would joke and flirt with them before developing deeper feelings for his S/O and then back off a little because he doesn’t want to make them uncomfortable, as well as for them to find out he’s in love with them… but it’s totally obvious yk? After accepting his confession, I see him slowly becoming more flirty when he interacts with them? Idk if any of this made sense lolll ty for reading ig :,)

[rvmmm21]

[ V V S her diamonds ] – ch 07.

[7:30 p.m] Yerim slaps Seulgi’s hand away when she sees her trying to nick her fries while Seungwan obnoxiously slurps on her banana smoothie.

. . . . .

They’re out for dinner at RETROGAMEBAR smack dab in the middle of Hongdae. The trendy, western fusion restaurant is fast growing in popularity. Various rustic signs hang from retro cafe aesthetic walls and an iconic vintage jukebox booms throwbacks from eras long passed. The food is served on millennial pink pastel plates and, if you’re lucky, you’ll catch your favourite video game characters in time for a quick selca. It’s not really Seungwan’s scene, but Yerim insisted they had outstanding MangoPlate reviews. And of course, Seulgi was just hungry.

“Unnie,” Yerim calls, poking her chopsticks into the roof of her mouth as their main course is being served. “You know Joohyun unnie is like way too cool for you.”

Seungwan is too busy thanking their waitress to respond. But Seulgi catches it and chokes on a mouthful of steak. Her eyes balloon and she nods so hard it looks like her head’s about to fall off. “Right? I–” she remembers she has to swallow to talk. “I really thought we’d have to pay her to come to our study group at first.”

Yerim shakes her head in disbelief, absentmindedly poking the little toothpick umbrella chilling in the whipped cream of her strawberry shake. She swipes a lick of cream then interrupts Seulgi’s chewing with a nudge to her side. “What do you think someone like Joohyun even sees in this greasy loser?” She whispers over the noise of the bustling restaurant.

For a moment, they quietly watch poor Seungwan innocently munching on her sushi burger. She glances up after a second. 

“Hm? What’s wrong?” she blurts through stuffed cheeks, staring back at them, confused. “Is there something on my face?” 

A cat-like curiosity suddenly graces Yerim’s tone. “What do you and Joohyun unnie even talk about?” She suddenly grabs her paper straw threateningly. “Stop holding out on us! If you don’t spill all the deets before I finish this smoothie, I’m sleeping in your bed tonight.”

The inquisitive bear gleefully concurs. “Yeah, Wan. Yerimie, that looks mighty delicious. Give me a few sips.”

The pair’s teasing remarks have Seungwan swallowing her food and her nerves all in one. She’s flooded with memories and suddenly it’s so hard to secure a linear course of events. What is she supposed to say? A month ago, Bae Joohyun was a complete stranger and now they dutifully send each other morning calls so they can catch the same bus and walk to class together? That she keys in the employee discount for her whenever she isn’t making her coffees for absolutely free?

Is that what these knuckleheads want to hear? Probably. And she should probably tell them the whole truth after keeping them in the dim for this long. All they know is that her and Joohyun have been spending more and more time together recently and their blossoming friendship is pretty much fully bloomed. Perhaps now is a good time to come clean. But that’s before she catches Yerim casually pinching one of her juiciest onion rings off her plate.

Huh, what do you know? Seems like they can wait a little longer, after all.

The girl sits back, hoping the caramel wisps of her fringe hide the impish twinkle in her pupils. “Uh, well, a bunch of stuff, I guess. Literature, coffee, poetry, books, I dunno– anything honestly.”

The youngest goes slack against the back of her chair, defeat written across her face as she clutches her stomach. “Poetry? Gross, that wasn’t worth chugging for,” she groans.

Seungwan snorts and Seulgi slaps a hand to her forehead. “Ugh, you’re telling me you’ve spent every waking hour with the Bae Joohyun and all you talk about is work?!”

She’s is about to interject when she remembers she’s also a freaking barista. 

. . . . . 

[9:08 p.m] Seulgi and Yerim gift Seungwan knowing smirks and jeers when she returns from the bathroom after leaving her phone unlocked on the message board and for all to see. Howl’s Moving Castle is paused on the living room TV.

. . . . . 

“Only for the project?” Yerim accuses with a wagging finger, lips curling up in a huge, shit-eating grin. “Tsk, liar, liar.”

Seulgi teasingly elbows her. “Don’t be so quick to judge, Yerim-ah, maybe horoscopes are part of the grading rubric.”

The defendant palms her cotton-candy cheeks, mumbling something no one can hear. 

It doesn’t matter though, it’s not like the other two were ever going to listen to her excuses. Seulgi victoriously snags the tail off Seungwan’s Melona fish ice-cream (earning her an unamused frown) and bites straight into it– despite the winces aimed at her.

“By the way are we going to Taeyeon sunbaenim’s party on Saturday? Have we decided? I need to know if I need to cancel dance practice.” Seulgi cards a hand through her towel-dried hair. 

Seungwan charily eyes her. “Why are you asking us? Didn’t you blow off your dance buddies right after Sooyoung asked you?”

Yerim dips a Ruffles potato chip into her scoop of vanilla, cringing when it doesn’t taste the same. “Yeah, like a week ago.”

The dancer blushes harshly. She’s about to reassure them with the classic ‘bros before h’– hang on. It’s a text from Sooyoung. She holds a finger up and starts typing, ignorant to the pointed eye-rolls.

Seungwan taps her delivery app while Seulgi is preoccupied. “C’mon Yerm, I’ll order us real fries. This ice cream needs a kick anyways.”

“A Big Mac too, extra pickles.” Seulgi snaps around to slip her order in right before the caramel-haired girl presses order.

She gasps in shock when a pillow is chucked right at her nose. She throws it across the room, revealing Yerim’s disgusted face. “Extra… dude, you’re seriously freaky.” She half-heartedly leans into one of their many sofa cushions next to Seungwan. “But we have to go to the party.”

“Ugh whyyy,” Seungwan groans. “Our deadline is right round the corner. The timing sucks.”

“Oh come on, this is our shot!”

“Yeah, at fail–”

“At getting to know our seniors! Who knows what kind of stuff could happen?” she winks suggestively.

Seulgi and Seungwan can already see the schemes unravelling behind their friend’s eyes. They smother the urge to throttle that cocky smile plastered across her face and let her go on.

“As your leader and friend, I’m willing to share some of my tips. Listen, ‘cause I’m only gonna say this once.” She stresses the word ‘once’. “Let’s say you find someone you like, right? How do you know they like you back? Is it gonna go any further? Here, for example, here’s Seungwan unnie and Taeyeon sunbaenim sitting at the same table.” 

Yerim swipes a protesting Seulgi’s half-eaten ice-cream fish, holds it out next to hers and proceeds to demonstrate. “Every chance you get, inch your chair closer to hers, like this. Who cares what you’re talking about, just don’t make it obvious. Then check to see if she’s moving away from you or staying the same. If she doesn’t move away, well then…” 

The older girls regard, motionless as the ice-cream fish faces are smushed sloppily together. Seulgi slowly applauds. “Wah, daebak… that’s the worst advice I’ve ever heard.” Seungwan laughs. “Why not just talk to her about what she likes or dislikes?”

Yerim beats at the air in frustration. “Hey, this isn’t a game, okay? It’s super psychological stuff. Thanks a bunch for not appreciating my wisdom, sheesh.”

Seulgi reclaims her liquified dessert as Seungwan pats the love guru on the shoulder. “Yah, who are you even telling? You know I’m not interested in anyone there. And Seul won’t even look at anyone who isn’t Sooyoung. Is there something you’re not telling us, Yerimie?”

Before the girl can defend herself, Seungwan’s screen lights up with a ping! Two notifications.

Their midnight snack order is on its way and the goldfish-brained friends are now calling dibs on each other's food before the delivery boy even arrives. 

[lovemesomesurveys]

Do you feel comfortable wearing tube tops? Noooo. You’ll never see me in a tube top. I don’t even wear tank tops. Has something someone said today annoyed you? Not so far, ha. I haven’t interacted with anyone, yet. It’s only 4:33AM.  Can you hear the crickets chirping at night? No. Do you like listening to new music, or just sticking to your favorites? I like new music, but I do love listening to my good ol’ favorites. I have a playlist that consists of a variety of music, new and old, from various genres and decades, that I just click shuffle and listen.  So far, where have you been on vacation? I haven’t gone anywhere this year, yet. 

Did you ever feel that there was something you couldn't tell anyone? Yep. Old stuff and ongoing, current stuff. Do you tend to gossip, even if you don't mean it to cause harm? It does happen. I’ll see something on social media about someone I know and tell my mom or brother. Family gossip stuff. Not to talk shit, but it’ll be like, “omg did you see what so and so posted/did/whatever.” Or like if someone is pregnant or broke up or whatever.  My main gossip is celebrity stuff, though. ha. When was the last time you were bitten by a bug? I don’t recall. It’s been a long time, thankfully. Have you ever gotten your hair permed? No. Do you have a pair of sunglasses that are worth over $200? I don’t have any sunglasses. I don’t wear ‘em, but if I did I sure wouldn’t spend that much. Not anywhere close. Would you ever go on a trip to Europe? Absolutely. I’d love to. There’s so many places I’d love to visit. Are you brave when it comes to trying new foods? Nopeee. I have the same few foods I rotate between. It’s a small list. When was the last time you saw your significant other? I’m single. Is there a friend that you can always go to for advice? I can go to my mom. Have you ever been to a town/place where the people were just creepy? No. Ew, I hope I never go somewhere like that. What's the fastest you've ever driven in a car? I’ve never driven a car. If you see a piano, are you tempted to go over and play a little something? I would. Especially because it’s been over 10 years since I last played.  Is there someone you know who bakes amazing sweets? Yeah. Are you ashamed of your singing voice? I can’t sing for shit, but it doesn’t stop me from singing to myself or around my family. I try to sound as decent as I can, ha. I’m not like those people on American Idol they show that can’t sing well at all, but they think they can and they’re just on there wailing. lol. Has anyone teased you with the "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" song? Yeah. Have you ever had a dream where you could understand a foreign language? No. That would be weird. What time is it where you are? 4:45AM. Do you have anything important to do tomorrow? I have my Bible study stuff. Have you ever owned a beanbag chair? Yeah, when I was a kid we had one. If you own a laptop, do you have a case for it? I do. What was the last movie you purchased on DVD? I don’t even remember. I haven’t bought a physical DVD in yearssss.  Are you a fan of retro things? Yeah. Do you do your own laundry? No. I need help with that, which my mom does. Have you ever used pastels? Yes. Is there a song you're listening to at the moment? No. Would you be considered to be knowledgeable about World War 2? Not really. Have you ever been in possession of a hundred dollar bill? Yes. Is there one food you cannot give up, even though you know it's unhealthy? I don’t eat healthy at all, but the worst thing I eat is probably ramen. I love it, though.  Will you bother having a party for your next birthday? Nah, I’m old. I just like doing something lowkey with my parents and brother. Although, last year my aunt and cousin came over for a game night and cheesecake for my birthday and that was fun. I’d be up for that again. If you're with someone right now, do you think it will last? Who was the last person you flipped off? I have no idea. That’s not something I really do. Like, ever. Do you currently have a job? No. What was the last movie that was unable to capture your interest? Hmm. I don’t remember.  Have you heard of the Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers? The name rings a bell. Do you have something to do, that you would rather not do? There’s a few things. Are you, in any way, feeling hopeless right now? I’ve felt that way for a long time. Is there someone you just need to call and talk to? No. I don’t like talking on the phone. Are you one of those people who can eat anything and not gain a pound? Yes. I used to like that about myself, but it’s a problem for me, currently. These past few years I’ve lost weight due to health stuff and as someone who was already thin...yeah, not good. It’s caused problems for me. Are you nails painted at the moment? No. It’s been a few years since I’ve painted my nails. Is there a song you've been listening to lately on repeat? There’s a few songs lately that I always like to listen when listening to music. I just hit shuffle on my playlist, but there’s a few I like to just add to queue to make sure they come up. Lately, it’s been a couple Billie Eilish songs. Do you know who you're planning to ask to your grad prom? I’m 30 years old. I did go to prom; though, but I didn’t have a date. I just went with friends. When was the last time you went shopping? A few weeks ago. Is there anyone who did something absolutely hilarious today? Not so far. Again, it’s really early and I haven’t interacted with anyone, yet.  Are you having one of those days where you feel unattractive? “one of those days” is everyday for me, old sport. I feel unattractive and I am unattractive.  Do you like hot dogs? No. Do you ever get bored of your music collection and get new songs? I like to check out new music and add it to my playlist to add to the rotation, but I love my old stuff, too. Have you ever bought a designer purse? I’ve been gifted one. What's the limit on how much you would pay for a shirt? I’d say like $30. I mean, I’d obviously prefer cheaper if I can find a good sale or have a good coupon, but if not then yeah about $30. Would you ever like to see the Walk of Fame? Sure. Is it currently humid where you are? No. Have you been in any sort of physical pain today? Of course. Have you ever heard of the German movie Das Boot? Nope. Who were the last people you hung out with? My mom and brother. Has someone ever called you "obnoxious"? Not that I’m aware of.  Most commonly, do you obey rules, or break them? I’m more of a rule follower. Do you like making funny faces in pictures? Nah. Is there something you look back on and go "I can't believe I did that"? A lot of things... Are you good at offering advice? I think I used to be. At least, my friends seemed to think so since I was the one they always came to for advice. I wouldn’t say I am now, though. No one should ask me anything. When was the last time you had to resort to a map? I just use Google Maps if I need directions. I’ve never used an actual map. Your significant other: have you told them you love them lately? What was the last thing to confuse you? Life. How many different colors have you dyed your hair? 3. Do you know someone who always spells "bored" like "board"? No. Are you wearing make up right now? No. I haven’t worn makeup in over a year. Is there a phrase that you use a lot? Words and phrases, yeah. Are you old enough to vote? I’ve been old enough to vote for over 10 years now. Do you have a favorite pair of earrings? Yes, the rose gold Minnie Mouse earrings I got for Christmas. Have you ever been to Disneyworld/Disneyland? I’ve been to Disneyland a few times. Have you dated someone more than twice? Not more than twice, but twice. Are you a fan of Keira Knightley? I’m indifferent.  Have you ever resorted to alcohol to make you feel better? It never helped. Maybe briefly, but it was always short lived. Do you own a full-length mirror? Yeah. Do you ever go on PerezHilton.com to get all the celeb gossip? I see his tweets. Have you heard about Mel Gibson's rant/freakout? Yeah. That was ages ago. Do you wish your bedroom was bigger? Yes, that would be nice. My room is quite small and I have too much stuff. Are you aware of the significance of the date April 14th, 1912? I am, actually. Do you ever just lay back and watch the stars? No. Lately have you had much time to relax? You would think so since I spend majority of my time at home in bed. I wouldn’t call it relaxing, though. Not for me. I have health stuff, physically and mentally, and feel like crap, so. Did anything important/changing happen to you in March 2009? That was over 10 years ago, I don’t remember. I guess nothing that important happened. Nothing memorable, at least. Have you ever felt like a "new person"? Yes, but not in a good way. These past few years have changed me and not for the better. Do you own any expensive jewelry? Yes. What size is your TV? 32 inch, I think. Do you occasionally creep on people on Facebook? Nah. I don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook and what little time I do spend I’m just scrolling through my feed “liking” stuff and sharing an occasional post. I won’t say that I’ve never done that, though. ha. Who hasn’t. Has there been someone in your life that just wouldn't leave you alone? Yeah, in the past.  Do you hate to use public bathrooms? Yes. I very rarely do. Do you find most remixes of songs to be good or bad? It really just depends. I’ve heard good ones and I’ve heard shitty ones. There have been some I liked better than the original. Write something to someone who means a lot to you: Nah. I’ll just say goodnight!

[prompt-master]

SQUIP Strikes Again

Anon asked: Would you be up for writing a fic where Jeremy’s squip issues start acting up badly when he’s in a very public place, and Michael has to get him out of the situation?

No offense but I love this and I wish there were more fics of it??

“Dude have you even seen the new Space Invaders game in this place? It’s a sick contender to the retro aesthetic. I got a bunch of one dollar bills for us to waste away, just me and my player two!”

Jeremy let out a breathy laugh, a smile tugging at his lips as Michael led him through the mall. As he talked he moved like an animated character, but a poor budget one. His hands spasmed in random directions, trying hard to express his excitement for the big Space Invaders game recently set up. Apparently Michael had stayed till closing yesterday to get top on the list of highscores. Now that it was Saturday Michael had decided that Jeremy must also see this marvelous peice of art. At 9 O'clock, which was way too early for Jeremy’s sleep deprived teenage mind.

‘Jeremy, this game is a waste of time and even worse, in a public space. You’ll be seen making an embarrassment of yourself as per usual’

Jeremy rolled his eyes at the obnoxious voice of Keanu Reeves. Their voice was a touch more faded since the play, but recently it has been getting stronger. Jeremy quickly looked down at the sprite in his hand, wondering if other sodas could affect the squip. If it did, they didn’t decide to let Jeremy know. Jeremy took a deep breath and focused on Michael instead, who was smirking down at a bunch of one’s in his wallet.

’ You say you’re going to ignore me, Jeremiah, but you can’t, I know you’re thinking about me, I’m inside your mind.’

'Shut up. Don’t call me that.’

'Stop slouching’

'I don’t have to do anything’

Out of spite Jeremy arched his back even further, not caring about the chiropractor he was going to need in the future. Michael hopped up the stairs, knowing fully well Jeremy felt uncomfortable in the confined space of an elevator. At the top of the stairs Michael quickly scanned Jeremy with his eyes before his smile grew, showing off crooked teeth.

“Glad to see you relaxing, Heere!’”

Jeremy laughed, “Yeah man, I’ve been looking forward to hanging with you all week.”

Michael smirked, grabbing onto Jeremy’s hand. They walked past Newbury comics, Hot Topic, and the food court. Michael didn’t stop once, determined to get to thus game.

“Well, I am your favwioute pewrson, so I get that!”

“Ugh shut up man”

’ Jeremy, stop slouching.’

'Can I install a mute button on you?’

'I’m being serious Jeremy.’

Something about the SQUIP’s tone made Jeremy falter in his steps, Michael’s grip on him the only reason he kept walking. He shouldn’t have anything to worry about. The SQUIP can’t control him, and they can’t hurt him anymore. All they can do is act like an annoying 3 year old who’s been told they can’t have candy.

Michael, bless him, took his mind off his worries once again.

“Here she is!” He yelled, throwing up his hands in front of a tall thin display, in front of it two seats with gun launchers to take aim at those damn Space Invaders. It really..did look awesome, Michael was right.

“Woah.”

“Dude I know! It’s so much fun, I never thought a retro game could be remade well!” God, Michael’s smile is so contagious. Michael stood up on his toes to be able to point to the top of the leaderboard “and here is moi!”

Jeremy raised an eyebrow at the first place holder, leaning back against one of the seats “RAD?”

Michael frowned “RAD? What no it’s- oh come on!” Michael had been brought down to second place, with his initials MOM, “I left not even 5 minutes before closing! Damn you RAD, whoever you are. Come on Jereny let’s kick their ass.”

“I’m with you man”

Jeremy took the right seat with Michael in the left, they gave each other an all knowing 'game mode’, ready to fully immerse themselves to beat this score. Michael dropped in 2 dollar bills, game on.

It was a blissful, yet intense experience. They really gave it there everything. Usually Jeremy would feel embarassed being out in the open, gaming so that any pair of eyes can watch him, but now he was having so much fun he didn’t care at all. Even as more and more people piled into the mall, and even as the SQUIP continued to harass his mind.

“Oh come on!” Michael swore, slamming back against the chair in frustration “we were so close!”

“RAD has a pretty good score.”

“We can do better, come on Jeremy put yourself out there yourself out there!”

“S-sorry man”

The truth was he had impulsively listened to the SQUIP on how to win, thus ending with him losing his last life.

'It would have worked if you could do anything right. Don’t blame me for your incompetence.’

Michael’s thigh brushed against his, “ready to go again?”

'Stop playing this game, Jeremy. This goal is a waste of time, I’m warning you.’

Jeremy took a deep breath, his eyes watching people casually walk between stores. He was glad there was no one waiting to play the game, just so he could spite the SQUIP some more. He met Michael’s eyes and nodded with a determined smile.

Michael placed two more dollars in, “last bucks Jer, let’s throw RAD’s ass to the floor!”

But when Jeremy placed his hands on the red gun a sharp bolt in his bones had him pulling back “ow!”

“Jeremy?! Dude don’t leave me hanging we just started!”

“Sorry sorry!” Jeremy tried to put his hands back on the gun, only to have another wave of pain jolt from the base of his neck down to his wrists, “what the hell?!”

'I told you to stop playing jeremy.’

'Dude knock it off!’ He yelled out at as another wave electricity ran through him, getting a bit stronger.

He opened his eyes to find the game over screen. Shit he ruined Michael’s day again. When he turned to apologize Michael was staring at him, eyes filled with pure concern. He threw the game the instant he realized Jeremy had cried out in pain.

“Jeremy..? Dude what’s going on?”

��Nothing I-” another zap, Jeremy could feel his skin tingling strangely afterwards, he curled in on himself, “fuck, stop it!”

“Stop what? Jeremy, buddy, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

“I- Michael I’m sorry it’s the- AUGH!” Rather than the usual quick shocks Jeremy was used to, this time he was hit with one continuous rush of pins and needles. Jeremy curled up, his arms twitching at his sides as he tugged his hair.

'Do not tell Michael Mell about this.’

Michael watched his friend with wide eyes, his heart pounding loud enough to take up every single sense. What was going on? He put a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder, flinching at the static shock he got. He bit his lip at the attention they were starting to attract, every eye in the mall on them. All he cared about though was the fact that his best friend had his head between his knees, making pained noises and twitching every now and then. It was obvious he was trying not to scream.

Jeremy took advantage of a break in the shocking to look up at Michael, he hated that scared on-the-verge-of-panic-attack look he had. He swallowed down the pooling spit in his mouth, ignoring the echoes of the SQUIP telling him to sit tall.

“Jeremy…? Is…is it the-”

“Excuse me?” Michael looked up at a young female who had ran over, Jeremy continued to stare off. “Hi, I’m first-aid certified. Is your friend ok?”

“I-”

“Does he need an ambulance?” Another person asked.

“Wait I don’t-”

“Young man” another said, this time to Jeremy, “can you hear us?”

Michael couldn’t help but wince when Jeremy failed to contain another yell of pain, this time louder. All the people now gathered around them clearly wasn’t helping his situation, Jeremy curled further into himself which resulted in more shocks from an unhappy SQUIP. Michael gave off the best glare he could over his panicked emotions, protectivly hovering over Jeremy “give him space dammit!”

People backed off a little at that, slight murmers still coming off the crowd. Michael gently brought his hands down to Jeremy’s chin, lifting the boy up. His face was contorted in pain, and his lip was now split and bleeding under the tooth that was biting it.

“Jeremy…?”

“…nngh…S-SQUIP. it’s the- fuck!”

Michael then stood up, grabbing Jeremy’s shoulders and lifting the boy up, supporting his weight. “Alright that’s it, we’re leaving”

“Son you really should leave him there and call an ambula-”

Michael shoved past the crowd, too caught up in his worries to focus on being polite, “I said we’re leaving”

The way down to Michael’s car was painful to sit through. Jeremy grunted through grit teeth, his nails digging feverishly into Michael’s sleeve for any sort of help to ease the pain. Michael felt every twitch and jump Jeremy’s body made, and it was clear Jeremy wasn’t able to support even the slightest bit of his own weight, he was basically carrying him. He opened the pasaanger door to the car, not liking the pale look on his face or the small gasps for air he took in.

Michael swirled around to his trunk, grabbing out a bottle of Mountain Dew Red, then hopped back to the drivers seat. Jeremy was laying there in a cold sweat, his eyes blinking slowly as he began to heavily zone out.

“Hey- hey no Jeremy” Michael gave a light pat to his face, causing him to groan and look over, “stay awake ok? Here drink this”

Michael didn’t wait for a response, tilting the drink into Jeremy’s mouth. He screwed the cap on, hands shaking from adrenaline.

“Sweet mother fucking Jesus, Jeremy you scared the shit out of me!”

Michael leaned his head against the steering wheel, taking a few ground deep breaths. He looked over at Jeremy, “are you ok?”

Jeremy nodded shortly, looking and feeling so exhausted and drained. His body aching as he heard the SQUIP’s voice distort away, they’d be gone for another week or so.

“My…” his voice cracked, dry from all the yelling. He shut his eyes, “My head just hurts.”

Michael placed a hand on Jeremy’s thigh, “let’s head to my place, ok? We have some ibuprofen. And then you’re gonna tell me more about what the fuck the SQUIP did”

Jeremy once again shortly nodded, not having much energy for anything else. His body felt drained, skin numb and crawling. His head pounded in pain that left Jeremy against the door of the car. He took a deep breath in as the roaring of the car left vibrations down his back. He fell backwards into the fading energy and call for sleep, his last thought being about how they never kicked RAD’s ass.

[moongothic]

The Styrofoam Chair Saga

Part Fucking One

So. Backstory.

I used to have this old chair for a few years during middle school that I used as my desk chair. I can’t remember where it came from, I think we had just had it since forever, it just happened to land into my use for a few years. It was a decent enough chair, p comfy, p nice, but over the years it started to wear out until one day, it just kind of cracked

I can’t remember what happened exactly, but suddenly the chair had become unstable, like I was afraid to lean or sit on it lest it break out from underneath me. So I complained to my mom about it and how I needed a new chair for my desk and how this one needed to be thrown out yaddi yadda. Shockingly to me she got kind of mad about the condition the chair was in, and absolutely refused to throw it out because she really liked the chair (IDK it could’ve been from her grandma or her late brother, or it could’ve been a designer chair maybe, or maybe she just thought it looked cool, I don’t know why, she just liked that chair a lot, and refused to let go of it).

Mom said she was going to fix it up and reupholster it, and so the chair just went into our basement to wait until my mom would have the time and energy to fix it up.

And she never got around to it.

And the time has come for me to decide whether it’s going in the trash, or if I will fix it.

And you know I’m trying to fucking fix this god forsaken thing, we wouldn’t fucking be here rn if that wasn’t the bloody case

So I don’t have a proper Before photo of the chair, my mom had seemingly removed the chair-part from the metal foot, so when I started working on it, it was already kind of disassembled (not that there was much to disassemble). So I don’t have any proper photos of it in its original, full glory

But you can definitely see what a piss poor condition this chair was when I started working on it in late November/early December (2021).

(The blue ball of fabric is the original fabric that went on the cushion, it had just completely come off because of how ripped it had become)

My goal is/was to just replace the old foam on the chair (because of the massive tear on the side) and give it a nice new fabric (preferably an obnoxious yellow one that’d match the sidetable I refinished last fall so my Retro Gaming Station could look nice and obnoxious). But as you will fucking see, shit wasn’t going to be as easy as I had foolishly assumed.

Now yeah, it’s been like a damn decade since this chair was put away, so I didn’t remember what had exactly happened to it when it became unstable. Like, when I saw that it was unattached from the foot, I kind of just assumed it just needed to be reattached to the foot properly so it’d be nice and secure again, meaning it’d be an easy fix.

But yeah, the work had to begin with me removing the old fabric from the chair as it needed to be completely replaced along with the original foam, both were absolutely disgusting and badly ripped as you can tell. (Also like, they were in our basement where my mom used to smoke, they don’t smell like tobacco but the fabric and some of the more exposed foam does have that gross yellow hue to it now)

I began by removing a piece of cushioned... IDK let’s pretend it’s plywood, a piece of cushioned plywood that was sitting over the seat, under the loose, extra cushion. I got access to the area where the fabric had been stapled to the bottom of the seat, so I slowly began my mission of gently ripping those staples out so I could get the fabric off as one piece (so that I could later use it to measure a new piece of fabric to reupholster the chair).

After the top was done, it was the bottom’s turn. So many staples...

More staples. At this point I had removed the cushioned bottom piece though. And the four bolts you see here are the what connect the chair to the foot of the chair, the bolts just go through it and you tighten it with nuts.

Anyway I kept on slowly ripping out those staples, it genuinely took me like four hours to finish

And then I made this fucking discovery.

There’s a big ol’ crack in the styrofoam.

Now I couldn’t really tell the full damage going on here due to the fabric and the cushion foam covering most of the chair, but that can’t be good.

After many hours though, I had finished removing the staples, meaning I could now just rip off the fabric and the foam from the chair.

That said the chair was fucking filthy and there was no way I was going to work any further on this in my room, no way, I don’t want this dust in my room, and it was like way past midnight, so the rest of the work had to wait until the next day.

SO NEXT FUCKING DAY

Now I could’ve just pulled the fabric right off the chair because it wasn’t being held in place or anything, but I figured it’d be easier to rip the seams on the two pieces of fabric when it was like this so I started with that (also the fabric was nasty and I didn’t want to hold on my lap while ripping the seams so)

Here it is, with the fabric removed, which meant I could then proceed to removing the old foam too. Fortunately for me, the chair was old, and so the old glue had degraded greatly (and it was on styrofoam, it’s not like anything sticks to styrofoam) so I was able to pull it off easily

BUT IT WAS FUCKING NASTY

Like I can’t fucking tell if that’s DUST that had accumulated inside the chair or if that’s just the old glue, but regardless, FUCKING NASTY. I had my vaccuum literally right next to me so I could vaccuum that shit right away, it was dreadful

GROSS

But, with the foam removed, the chair was then revealed

Styrofoam body with two pieces of plywood, one on the bottom and one on the seat, with four bolts going through the styrofoam to hold them all in place.

And the cracks were pretty bad.

Now before I get further into the crack problem, there was another problem; namely, the bolts. The original nuts that came with this chair are long gone, and without those, the chair can’t be reattached to the original foot. I went through all the misc nuts we had in storage, and I just couldn’t find anything that fit into this chair, so it’s very likely this old chair might’ve had custom, funky bolts on it, that require very specific nuts. And I have no way to figure out what kind they’d need to be, and where to even find replacements.

On top of that, the bolts were seemingly soldered on there, so you couldn’t even just pull them out and replace them.

At this point I just ended up asking my father for advice because I was extremely fucking stumped on what the hell to do, and he did help me out by cutting the bolts so they could be removed entirely and then replaced with new ones.

As an added benefit, we got to remove the plywood pieces from the styrofoam too, which gave us an Even Better Look at the crack in the chair

And oh boy

The entire chair has almost cracked in half

I honestly didn’t expect this to be this bad either, when I started this project I genuinely thought the only issue was that it needed to be reupholstered and reattached to the foot, I didn’t realize that when the chair cracked years ago it actually cracked

Now the thing is, this is fucking styrofoam. Nothing fucking attaches to styrofoam. At first I thought I could maybe just give the chair extra support with duct tape but that shit doesn’t attach to styrofoam, like, it comes off just as easily as it goes on there.

And the crack is really bad, like there is a sliver holding the chair back in one piece but it is a small sliver, and like. When I try to push the seat and the back together, I can’t really get it together, the crack stays there? I can’t tell if some styrofoam has just come off so the crack has become larger, or if some has gotten inside the crack so it can’t be brought back together, but whatever the case, it’s bad

So fixing this chair is not an easy task. And considdering it’s just styrofoam, it’s arguably not even worth the effort I’m meaning to put into it. But the chair has stupid sentimental value, so I’m going to give it a shot anyways.

Right now, the plan is to try to glue the crack together as well as I humanly can. I’ve even gone and bought some styrofoam glue specifically for this bloody project with the prayer that it’ll actually stick since it’s meant for styrofoam.

But styrofoam glue is like... Not furniture glue, it’s for crafts projects, it’s not meant to be able to handle human weight or anything. So even if I glue the chair together, it probably won’t hold for long.

And I thought about it long and hard, and I think there’s only one way to fix this chair.

It needs a spine. It needs like, an exo-skeleton, that will support it from the outside, so even if the crack reopened or even if the chair split in half, if the skeleton cups around the styrofoam, it’ll hold it together.

That’s my plan. Make a skeleton, then cut “a slot” into the back of the chair so sit it into it, so it won’t just out or anything.

The only thing is, I don’t think I can make that “spine” out of anything else but wood (I don’t know how to work with metal, and with wood I could really shave it down and sand it and do my best to make sure the skeleton really fits into the profile of the chair).

And I don’t really have like, a wood working studio or anything. And I can’t start sawing and sanding wood in a space surrounded by other normal furniture, I don’t want to get that saw dust all over the place.

So I need to do that all outside.

And it’s fucking winter right now.

It’s cold, and there’s like half a meter of snow outside.

I need to wait until fucking summer to finish this project

Or spring, I can get back to this in spring, I just need it to be not below freezing and covered in beautiful snow.

And so ends Part Fucking One of the Styrofoam Chair Saga, let us hope it will be continued later this year, and let us fucking hope I can pull this fucking thing off

[Part 2]