#also if you're doing like ncaa shit please don't do this

[friendlycursedspaceotter]

So, I just had the following realization: 1) Fencing jackets and pants are made out of white cotton twill. 2) Said jackets are usually several hundred dollars. 3) In the US, where I live, Joann Fabrics (a big box fabric and craft store) sells the twill for the jackets at about $13 a yard, less if it's on sale. 4) The pattern for a fencing jacket is just a slightly more complicated side zip moto jacket. And there are *quite* a few available. Is the pattern itself from an Etsy cosplay-focused site? Yes. Do I care? No. 5) I have a sewing machine.'

Therefore, I can just make my own gear for about 40 bucks. Am I going to attempt the lame, the glove, or the helmet? NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Am I also going to investigate my fabric options first to see how close they are? Yes. Am I going to recommend that you do this? No. Not until I risk myself for this. Is this also probably going to be another reason I do epee? Yeah.

[stereax]

would to hear your nicojack story ideas! just miss them an unhealthy amount :’)

Me too, anon, me too.

College AU, Nico and Jack are roommates (of course). Nico's taking a creative writing class as an elective slot for his degree (maybe education?) and keeps asking Jack (sports management major, hockey scholarship, possibly still first overall to the Devils but developing in the NCAA) for his help in figuring out whether scenes are realistic or not. At first, they're fight scenes and the like, so Jack's doing shit like rolling down a hallway holding a hockey stick (to mimic a rifle) at 1:30 in the morning while Nico measures the approximate distance, or climbing up the wall of the phys ed building with Nico serving as lookout to see if that's possible. But then the scenes Nico asks for help posing get a lot more... intimate. He plays it off that it's the romance unit of their course, but also if you're uncomfortable with it Jack please tell me because I don't want to make you feel upset and I can ask someone else, but Jack most certainly is not upset and does not want Nico asking anyone else for the stuff he asks Jack. (Crowding him against a wall, lips tantalizingly close, then... testing several hand positions to see what works better for what he's got in mind and asking Jack to mimic kneeing him in the groin to check if that's possible.) And Jack didn't plan on having his bisexuality crisis while Nico's taking notes about height difference and having Jack stand on different-sized boxes, but... [shrug] what can you do? (Another highlight - Nico asks Jack to read over a piece of the draft, but there are a few parts where the characters' names are still Nico and Jack... Nico's like "I just copied it from my notes oops" :D ...) So they just dance around each other semi-obliviously until Jonas stops by and is like "Jack I take that class and there is definitely nowhere in the entire syllabus that we're asked to write 10k+ words of gay romance please ask him out before I lose my shit because he talks about you constantly but can't work up the nerve"

...god damn I should just write it shouldn't I