#but this is the first person who has done a bookbinding

[dollypopup]

hi, I'm sorry, but I'm freaking out because what do you MEAN someone bookbinded my fic if i'm butter (then she's a hot knife) and it's BEAUTIFUL!? and it's MASTERFUL? and it's making me CRY!?

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gaze upon the absolute thoughtfulness, creativity, and BEAUTY of this bookbinding! the siblings represented as the tablespoons of butter? the net weight being the word count? the 'Penelope is 24, and this love' quote from the last chapter? the grade being the rating? the yellow pages!!!! I am SOBBING this may be the most gorgeous artwork anyone has ever done for my work, and I'm just so humbled and gracious and floored over it. please give her some love because this is a masterful bookbinding.

[sillywizardman]

HI!!! After finishing Disco Elysium I wanted to read Sacred and Terrible Air, but there were two issues:

1. It’s not officially released in English

2. I don’t like staring at pdfs!

So I did what any sane person would do. That is take three days of my life printing and binding it.

TRANSLATION (“thank you Group Ibex” we all say in unison!):

PROCESS PICS:

I apologize in advance for anyone who has experience in this sort of thing this is so botched.

I have NEVER done anything like this before, I don’t even read books on my own volition, but if the Disco fixation wants me to learn how to sew and bookbind I’ll do that.

Four of the signatures above. There were nine total, eight of them with 8 sheets/32 pages and the last was five sheets I think. Threw the pdf into adobe acrobat and went straight to printing with those settings and the “booklet” option enabled.

Pricked holes through each signature! Used thumbtacks and a piece of foam I scavenged from my room, worked out great. It’s probably also worth mentioning I do not have a bone folder, book press, or any of the other fancy schmancy bookbinding tools. Flattened the pages with a pencil and pressed with D&D books…

SEWING TIME. I have never sewn in my life. My success in this regard can be majorly attributed to Sea Lemon on youtube, particularly this tutorial:

The process from printing to finishing sewing the signatures took ~8 hours. Now we hit our first roadblock, I had no glue for the spine! After going to sleep and waiting what felt like ages (literally 10 hours or so) before I was free to visit a craft store, I tried to find PVA glue because that’s what you’re supposed to use I think?? Yeah. They were out of PVA glue and my impatient ass got mod podge.

‘Tis glued! As you can see I added cardstock to the ends. Joyous day.

Also, you see that sketchbook in the pic? Yeah? You see that lovely cardboard?

It is now the cover. Rest in piss bristol sketchpad backing.

———

EDIT: I see a bunch of people want to attempt this so here’s a video on how to make the hardcover: https://youtu.be/Av_rU-yOPd4?si=7T5zgVJGAfPFBxn-

I didn’t use any measurements or advice from it but it’s a good reference for when it comes to assembling the cover from ~3:50 onwards. The boards are same size as your text block pages and spine, I think I made the cover width a bit longer just in case it doesn’t cover the text block though. Do not do this with the spine, I regret it.

And note, this is NOT a tutorial, it is the process of someone who got a bit too silly and decided to bind a book, obviously do your own research lol. Don’t be afraid to try it though, it’s surprisingly simple!

———

… So, now that’s done! I swore to myself I wouldn’t start reading SATA/PJÕL until I finished this project completely, meaning I’ll be doing that now yippee :]

[untitled-tmnt-blog]

Now that 2024 is coming to a close:

1) Of everything you've made this year, which ones are you the most proud of?

2) What are a few of your favorite things (art, comics, fics, etc) that someone else has made this past year?

As far as my own stuff, I would have to say:

This Hide and Seek animatic -- I love making animatics, but they end up taking me a LONG time! That does mean that when I finally finish one though, it's very rewarding to see the full thing!

This scene, for the rottmnt cut intro project -- It's a short scene, but was a lot of fun to do! I also think it shows how much I've improved, even from my first scene for this same project.

This hardcopy of IMBI -- I'd never tried bookbinding before, but I had so much fun learning how and was really happy with how it turned out!

These mixed media collages -- It was one of my first times experimenting with mixed media, and I think they ended up looking pretty cool! Plus, just like the others... I had a lot of fun with it! (I suppose it makes sense that my favorite pieces are kind of just the ones I had the most fun doing, huh?)

And then, for other people's stuff... I'm sorry, but I'm just so indecisive! I have to at least pick a few things from each category!

"Long" Comics:

Here There Be Turtles (by @theelvishfiddler) -- This is hands-down one of the most impressive fan comics I've ever seen! Not only does it have incredible art, but the characterization is spot-on, and the storyline is so engaging that I am absolutely dying to see what happens next after every single update! I've seen people saying that the quality is even better than the official comics, and... yeah, no doubt about it, it really is! This comic is INSANELY good!

You've Been Portal Jacked! (by @wickcipher) -- This comic has such an interesting premise, with an artstyle that I love and SO much potential! I was immediately hooked by the first chapter, and was so excited to see it continue! Very much looking forward to seeing where things go from here!

"Short" Comics:

This Raph comic (by @e-turn) -- Raph and Leo tug at my heartstrings sooooo much! And the effect of Raph's time spent under the krangs' control is something that I never get tired of seeing explored. He loves his brothers so much, and would never EVER want to hurt them... but now he has these memories of himself doing exactly that, and those memories are just so much at war with who he is as a person, and AAAARRRRRGGHHHH!!!! I love it.

This Splinter comic (by @charcoaldustonmyfingers) -- THE EMOTIONS. I enjoy seeing this one every time it crosses my dash, and it has yet to lose its impact. Splinter loves his boys so much!!

This alternate movie ending, and part 2 (by @magisav) -- Beautiful, and heartbreaking. Both at the same time. The look on Leo's face is ingrained in my memory forever.

This Firefight fan comic (by @sludge-city) -- This one is such a well-done adaptation of some of the most emotional moments in this incredible fic! It was heartbreaking enough reading it the first time, and seeing those emotions depicted on Leo and Donnie's faces ripped my heart to shreds.

This redrawn IDW scene (by @purplepixel) -- The redrawn panels are beautiful, and I love the coloring! But also... man, this hurts so much knowing what comes next! Donnie, nooooo!

Multi-Chapter Fics:

Emotional Support Water Bottles (by @dandylovesturtles) -- This series is easily one of my favorites! Poor Leo goes through so much... and yet even when it's over, that kind of experience will undoubtedly leave some scars behind. Not physical scars, but very real nonetheless, and I've loved seeing Leo and his family try to navigate their way through that.

Firefight (by @remedyturtles) -- A true classic, at this point. With probably some of the most intensely emotional scenes I have ever read. Highly recommend, if you can handle that level of hurt before the comfort!

DFL's Whumptober 2024 (by @daflangstlairde-art) -- Technically a series of fics, which are unrelated to one another. But they are related in one important way: making me FEEL THINGS. Each one is so well-written, and I've been hooked all the way from the first fic to the last!

Oneshots:

The Shadows May Go (by @remedyturtles) -- This fic. THIS FIC. It made me cry. Splinter loves his sons so much, and even in his darkest moments (perhaps especially in his darkest moments), Leo knows that.

Now the Darkness Comes Alive (@goodlucktai) -- The role-reversal that I didn't know I needed. It's beautifully written, and like I said, Raph and Leo tug at my heartstrings so much! I started drawing something for this fic a while back, and desperately want to finish when I have some more free time on my hands again!!

Bed Sheets (by @dandylovesturtles) -- Splinter is not a perfect parent, by any means. But he loves his sons so much!! This fic is practically the embodiment of those two things, and it makes me emotional every. Single. Time.

Art:

This drawing of April and Karai (by @darkpolicepsycho) -- absolutely beautiful!! I love how you can just feel the power of Karai's ninpo flowing through April.

This drawing of Raph with cherry blossoms (by @pelmenya-owo) -- soooooo pretty!!! The colors. The lighting. I cannot possibly overstate how gorgeous this drawing is!!

These Undertale-style drawings of April, Raph, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey (also by @pelmenya-owo) -- I've never played Undertale, but I love these little animations so much!! Very cool.

This drawing of Samurai Leo (by @kathaynesart) -- I showed this drawing to my husband, and he immediately asked for it on a T-shirt. It is PHENOMENAL.

This Hollow Mind drawing (by @grey-viridian) -- I haven't read the fic that this is from yet, but oh man, the emotion in this scene!! Family protecting family. I love it so much.

This drawing of Leo (by @oh-lordy-lord-save-me) -- The colors. The colors!! The absolutely STUNNING colors!!!

This TNV art (by @windide-blog) -- I'll admit, I still need to read TNV. But even without context, the scene depicted here is amazingly well-done! I can only hope to be able to draw scenes as beautiful as this one day.

This art of Leo falling through the sky (by @sad-leon) -- The background is beautiful. The imagery is beautiful. The animation is beautiful. All around: beautiful.

This drawing of FMA Sprout, plus this one (by @intotheelliwoods) -- I just love these so much! Brotherhood is probably my favorite anime, and man, Sprout makes a great Edward Elric.

This drawing for the Turtles Together zine (by @andva-ri) -- This one has everything. Splinter. April. Draxum. Big Mama. The turtles, of course! I love all the different scenes, and how seamlessly they come together into an absolutely gorgeous art piece! This is a level of skill that I can only hope to one day come close to reaching!

This drawing, also for the Turtles Together zine (by @staticwither) -- Just look at those bright, beautiful colors! Truly incredible. This scene was already great in the finale, but this art piece somehow manages to take that energy and multiply it tenfold! It's beautiful.

This drawing of Leo with water lilies (by @tangledinink) -- I absolutely LOVE the paint-like style of this one! The level of detail on this is insane, and it's just downright one of the most beautiful art pieces I think I've ever seen. I want it on a throw blanket.

This Kingdom Hearts AU drawing (by @boxfullaturtles) -- I have very minimal knowledge of Kingdom Hearts. But even without that context, this drawing is just SO GOOD! I love the stained-glass design! And the way all the characters are in their own circles, and Leo's head is lined up inside of one as well, but continues down into a full-body drawing. Gorgeous.

AUs:

Posessed AU (by @grey-viridian) -- Such an interesting premise!! It somehow manages to be absolutely heartbreaking, but also so much fun at the same time.

Tiz Sep AU (by @tizeline) -- I love the comic. I love the characterizations. I was hooked on this AU from the moment Leo starting infodumping about Sonic! But also, Mikey campaigning for president of the multiverse while Donnie works against him was perfection. I just love seeing these characters do literally anything, because they're just so enjoyable to watch!

"The Besties" (2AL by @intotheelliwoods & SLAU by @dianagj-art) -- I'm aware this is like, an AU crossover within an AU kind of situation, but man is it so much fun! And also, so much more emotional than you'd expect turtle multiverse shenanigans to be.

Animations:

Rottmnt Restored (by @emichen88 & @powerauerart) -- Incredible. Amazing. Phenomenal. Astounding. 100% would watch again and again and again.

This JJK WIP (by @seasaltcosmos) -- I don't care if it's unfinished, I LOVE this!!

That was... slightly more than "a few." And I'm sure I still forgot some. I could go on and on about all the awesome stuff people here have made, but I had to cut it off somewhere!

[presidenthades]

Day 1 of HOTD adventures at New York Comic Con 🎉

First thing I did today was run to my photo op with Matt Smith.

He. Is. DELIGHTFUL.

At these conventions, photo ops go super fast because they have huge lines of people to go through. The whole 10-second process is basically step up to the celebrity, smile, and immediately leave so the next person can go.

Matt is hugely popular so it was definitely important that they hurry through his line, but he was still friendly with everybody in the 5 seconds they were standing beside him. Really great energy. My interaction went something like:

Matt: “Hello, glad you’re here!”

Photographer: snaps photo

Matt: “I love Caraxes! 😃”

Me: “Thank you! 😃”

Handlers: usher me away so the next person can go

You can tell that Matt has done a lot of these fan events, and he’s very good at it.

Since my Matt photo op went faster than expected, I was able to go to an earlier TGC autograph session than I was originally planning. (This proved to be a very good decision later.)

Autograph sessions tend to take a little longer than photo ops, because the celebrity generally will exchange a few words with fans while signing. It’s still considered good etiquette not to hog too much time, or else people behind you have to wait even longer. TGC’s line was not super long when I arrived, so lucky me!

TGC also offered selfies at his booth, which was a pleasant surprise. (Not everyone offers it.) He seemed a bit tired (important note for later), but no judgment: conventions are really hard work. The celebrities are taking photos and signing autographs for hundreds of people over multiple hours.

He was VERY polite and nice. When I took out my bookbind for him to sign, he spent a good minute looking at it and complimenting the cover etc. And when he finished signing, he very neatly arranged the ribbon bookmark to mark the page where he signed.

(He was definitely wowed by Debustee’s art too.)

Fabien was in the booth beside Tom’s. Fabien was announced as attending the convention much later than Tom and Matt, so I hadn’t made plans to get photos or autographs with him. Maybe tomorrow if scheduling works out. 👀

Then I went to my pre-reserved photo op with TGC immediately afterwards (different from the selfie). There were dozens of people in line in front of me, and the photo ops go super fast, so we didn’t have a particularly long interaction. But I managed to get Sunfyre in there.

After a lunch break, I went to get in Matt Smith’s autograph line. He was scheduled from 2:20-7:00 with a few short breaks every so often. When I got in line at 2:00, the line was already HUGE.

I waited in line 3 hours 45 minutes to get my autograph. 🙃😤😮‍💨

HOTD was the main reason I was interested in attending the convention in the first place, so I was prepared to wait in lines to do everything I wanted. But in case anyone was wondering: Matt Smith is indeed very very popular in the year Two Thousand and Twenty Four.

While I was in line for Matt, I heard from other people in line that TGC went home about three hours early. So anyone who hadn’t already gotten their autograph that day needed to get a refund (or maybe a transfer to the next day, I’m not sure). He is still scheduled for autographs tomorrow, but it made me extra glad that I was able to get my autograph early.

I had previously been told to always do photos and autographs ASAP because sometimes the celebrity gets ill or has to leave early, etc. Just a tip for anyone who wants to go to a con and do celebrity interactions in the future!

Back to Matt’s line: I was almost to the front when an event handler announced that Matt was no longer doing quotes. With autographs, there’s of course the actual signature, but sometimes you can add-on things like a quote for the celebrity to write. When I was planning my convention trip months ago, I pre-reserved the quote add-on for Matt. At some point in the last few weeks, they removed the quote option because they realized he would be on a time crunch if he wrote too many quotes. But I’d already paid for and reserved my quote, which the event was supposed to honor even if they changed the process later.

Another woman in line who’d paid for a quote was also upset, and I imagine other people were too. But the event handler came back out and clarified that those of us who already paid for quotes would still get them; they just wouldn’t allow anyone else to get a quote.

Here is the autograph and quote I waited almost four hours for. 🥰

I made an updated version of the Handbook’s dust jacket specifically for the convention. The original dust jacket had my author and fic info on the back flap, but I thought it’d be fun to do one where Daemon gets the author bio.

“War was easier than daughters” is actually a Ned Stark quote, which I borrowed for the Handbook Chapter 11’s title. When you get a quote during an autograph signing, you first write down the quote on a slip of paper. Then you give the paper to the celebrity’s manager and tell them where exactly the celebrity should sign. Matt’s manager was a little confused by the quote but rolled with it.

When Matt read the quote, he said, “Huh, I don’t remember saying that. 🤔😄” But he was very amused and good-natured, and he had no problem writing it down. I was holding little Caraxes again, and Matt was happy to see Caraxes again (although I think Matt may have forgotten he’d already seen Caraxes 7 hours earlier—tons of other fans he was interacting with in the meantime).

I managed to accomplish all my Matt Smith and TGC interactions today, which were my top priorities for this convention. I consider today a success, even though I spent a lot of it waiting in line. Tomorrow morning there will be a HOTD panel, which I have a reservation for, so I’m excited to see Matt, Tom, and Fabien onstage. I don’t think we’re supposed to stream or record the event, but I will try to take notes.

Bonus: a baby dragon and egg that I got at the con! 🐉🐣

[saintsenara]

what are some of the most deranged ships you have seen shipped? rod/percy included!

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

i have a fair few rare-pair rec lists in the drafts - which this reminds me to get on and finish! - and so if any of the anons who sent those asks in are reading this, i promise i'm not ignoring you!

but i'm going to take this question rocketing away on a slight tangent...

and tell you all off [with great affection!] for the fact that your immaculate commitment to the unhinged and deranged ships series has forced me - completely against my will - to add the following pairings to my works-in-progress folder, where they join plenty of other nonsense including - of course - rodolphus lestrange/percy weasley:

ludo bagman/barty crouch sr.

which exploded into my consciousness via an ask from @spectral-kitty here and which allows me to indulge both my unwarranted affection for crouch sr. and my absolute conviction that bagman was a genuine death eater.

the basilisk/nagini

the answer for this one is in the queue - if you were the anon who sent this in, you should know that i took it far too seriously and legitimately got a bit teary-eyed. slay.

sirius black/minerva mcgonagall

which i've outlined the rationale for here. if you were the anon who sent this in, please be aware that i am now sick with obsessive longing for it as a pairing.

petunia dursley/rita skeeter

which i ended up considering the viability of - and also ranting about jkr's way of writing female characters - far, far too seriously here.

argus filch/merope gaunt

the answer for this is also coming up in the queue - but it's important that you know, if you were the anon who sent it in, that i have taken it spectacularly seriously and i genuinely have a 20k word fic taking aim at the failures of the wizarding state outlined.

fenrir greyback/severus snape

another one in the queue which has blown my mind.

bertha jorkins/petunia dursley's friend yvonne

which i am primarily doing because @whinlatter - who sent in the original prompt for byvonne [hot ship name!] - gets more and more panicked every time i write her a gift [her first one is here, and she's also getting a molly-weasley-is-the-person-with-the-diary and a bit of severus snape/andromeda tonks in the near future...] that she's going to have to offer up some reciprocal tomarry.

narcissa malfoy/firenze

which i've given the basic outline of a fic for here - and which i literally cannot stop thinking about.

severus snape/myrtle warren

if you liked bookbinding... you'll love this!

nymphadora tonks/lord voldemort

i was already locked-and-loaded with a stonks wip... but now i am also completely fucking obsessed with the concept of vonks.

[and if you are the person who sent in any of these pairings anonymously, and if you have an account on ao3... reveal yourself! i'd like to give the fic you inspired to you as a present when it's done.]

[thependragonarchives]

William T. Spears -- My Personal Headcanons

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ- Things I give William in my canon ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ-

✧ William, in life, was constantly pressured to uphold impossible standards in order to be treated the same as he elder brother, Thomas. In death, this has transferred into William pushing Academy students, strict and unrelenting. The only difference is that William makes sure the students are rewarded properly for their hard work, when he was never given the time of day.

✧ One of the lower managers in the Management Branch. You know how a store has like, a General Manager, and then the Assistant manager, then the rest of the managers?? William is essentially the guy who does 60 hours overtime but has never gotten past beginning manager no matter how hard he tries, so he's just settled into his role.

✧ Takes the duty of a reaper seriously, because he's seen what happens to those who cannot be 'reformed'. Yes, he pushes hard, and seems strict, but it's all for the betterment of his team. Becoming a part of the Management Branch means seeing some things the Higher Ups don't allow the regular reaper to see.

✧ 'Detach yourself from your emotions' has become one of William's main teaching methods, due to emotions being one of the main reasons workers 'desert' the Dispatch. Being emotionally attached to a soul and thinking of changing things? It'll get you to the Reformation center. Being mournful on the job, clouded by grief when reaping? You would be distracted, and the soul would have a chance to fight back, ending with the reaper gaining the Thorns. Hesitating because of fear? A chance for something to hurt you. Reaping comes first, and William encourages putting the job before your own feelings (regardless on if that's healthy or not).

✧ Mostly blind without his glasses, and uses a cane (or scythe on the field, even though he loathes using his death scythe as such. He's too stubborn to use either when undercover.) as a mobility aid, alongside constant migraines. (Medical couldn't get the bullet out of his head entirely, and might've accidentally damaged some of his brain more.) He goes to physical therapy once a week for his leg, but usually only spends one day a year at Medical for his nerve damage.

✧ Two specific special interests: Avian psychology (specifically the cognitive abilities of carrier pigeons) and Greek Mythology. He keeps several pigeons/doves in his Dispatch Mandated Residence, to observe and cherish (a fantail pigeon named Henrietta is his licensed emotional support animal), while also gathering several different renditions of the same Greek mythos. He has three prized copies of the Iliad, and two handbound copies of the Odyssey.

✧ Whenever he has free time, which is…rare, William does bookbinding! Grell has come to him wanting photo albums made, or repairs to her favorite romance novels, and William gladly takes the time to create new covers/repair the leatherbound ones. Each book he binds is unique, and William will never do the same design twice.

✧ Autistic. William is very specific about many things, needing it done certain ways or else it's all Wrong. Food, however, is the worst for him to handle. None of his food can touch or it'll taste bad, it has to be arranged a certain way on his plate or else it'll look gross, it cannot be ADJUSTED or else it'll all taste bad, and he has to be the one to make it because it'll taste bad otherwise. So things like William eating something Grell made, or sharing Ron's food, are huge signs of trust/comfort in their relationships. Because his brain puts what they give him in the same category of 'I made this so it's okay to eat :]'.

✧ He fake-smiles with too much teeth (akin to a stressed chimpanzee). It's more like a grimace than anything (and usually forced). His true, genuine smiles are always with his mouth closed, and are a lot more subtle than his coworkers. He covers his mouth with his hand when he laughs.

[zhalfirin]

How did you get into bookbinding? What would you recommend for someone who's interested in getting started?

Hey there,

thank you for asking. I got into bookbinding by undergoing training. I'm a professional bookbinder, which made it much easier (just getting shown how things are done and having experienced binders look at my mistakes and explain where I went wrong is incredibly helpful).

For someone who's interested in getting started in bookbinding and does not have the opportunity to take classes. I would say, first pick the style of binding you want to try. I would recommend to start simple. Give yourself the time to build up your skills and get to know your materials (glue, paper, board, maybe bookcloth). Many like the coptic binding to start with, but you can start out with a case binding too. It will be more complex, but it's totally do-able to begin with too. Then search the medium you learn well from and look for information there. For example, there are fantastic, beginner friendly books. I like 'Books boxes and portfolios' by Franz Zeier in that respect. It focuses on the basics, but not only of books but also boxes, folders and portfolios.

There is also really great online content written and with pictures to lead you through the processess step by step.

As for videos. Sealemon has easy to follow instructions. I'm personally not a huge fan of how she works, because she skips too many steps I find important too, BUT professional binder here. As straightforward bookbinding is in theory, there are a lot of details one can pay attention to, but which are not essential to produce a fully functional and good looking book and she does get one there. Bookbinding can be a money drain, but it doesn't have to be! You can go a long way with simple, improvised tools. Pretty paper can be bought in craft shops and printer paper from bureau supply sections, box cutter and x-acto knives. Cans of food, milkpack, big stones for weights. If you don't own a cutting matt, you don't need one. Some flat and clean board that is 2mm thick or more will perfectly do. The few things I do recommend a bonefolder, it just makes things easier on the fingers (and nails) and other materials can leave coloured streaks. (As do rings and nailpolish btw. so if you like that, apply a clear top coat on the polish and take off rings before working with white paper). A 25/3 or 30/3 linnen thread for sewing together with a block of beeswax to wax the thread before sewing. (Beeswax candles will do, but not normal candles. They are made of stearine which will make the thread sticky and more difficult to use). On a last note, there's @renegadepublishing and their discord serverw here you find all stages of binders. experienced ones and beginners to ask questions. The server is huge and can be a bit overwhelming, but there's always soemone there (or a few) who will do their best to help and likely has run into a similar problem at some point. So this got a bit lengthy and I'm sorry for that but I hope it helps.

[ashesandhackles]

Rarepair Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @merlins-sequined-hotpants .Given that my OTP is a rarepair that is slowly gaining popularity, I'm just going to use this to rec fics, because I apparently can be convinced of anything if I enjoy the writing:

Flying Lessons by @phantomato

Andromeda/Hooch, post-war. A one-shot from first person POV - Andromeda here is deliciously sharp and cutting ('Ted liked that I was mean'), and this piece is an incisive look into her fears, grief and healing.

Empire Builders by shecrows

James/Sirius. The Prongsfoot fandom lost their minds over this fic and rightly so. The fic captures the toxic tenderness of two codependent teenagers, who are figuring it out but want to get this right. There is such deep love between them and the fic reached a place deep inside me.

Bookbinding by @saintsenara

Tom/Myrtle. A romantic comedy with Tom Riddle and Moaning Myrtle. Funny, fluffy, moving - all at once. And also provides the steady assurance that you can annoy your love interest into falling in love with you. Thanks for the lesson, Myrtle. I am a #changed woman.

Regretfully Yours by @maria-de-salinas

Petunia/Snape! Maria writes them with such history and familiarity and I was immediately onboard the ship. These are two people who know each other from the time of their old accents, and she draws out their grief and sameness so tenderly. This also has a sequel that I cant wait to start reading!

in another life by @broomsticks

Peter/Bertha. Ever since I read GOF, I wondered why we didn't get more of Peter and Bertha Jorkins who apparently went on a walk with him to the forest for hookup. Anyway, Jackie delivered with this drabble and I love how she used disparate elements of canon and pulled them together.

sore subject by @incalculablepower

Parvati Patil/Demelza Robbins. Parvati Patil/ Lavendar Brown. No one does the chaotic rom com vibe of HBP - confusion,denial, bubbling attraction - better than incalculable power.

knotweed by @turanga4

Sprout/Pomphrey. Quiet, steady, contemplative - there is this quality of wisdom and maturity than runs through turanga's fics and it lends beautifully to pair of women in the last year of war.

a wilder beast from West than all were by eldritcher

Andromeda/Rufus Scrimgeour. Glorious, glorious myth breaking and social commentary all at once. Obsessed with this piece. (eldritcher can convince me of anything, even Snape/giant squid and yes there is a wonderful meditative Snape/giant squid as part of their work)

Till We have Faces by TeddieJean

Andromeda/Rodolphus. I wanted something done with twin imagery of Bellatrix and Andromeda and how that affects identity..and I got it all baked underneath this oneshot.

Three Knocks on Door by lunatik_pandora

Lily Potter/Nymphadora Tonks. Dark, grotesque, funny - there is so much in this fic. A very hypnotic Lily and a Tonks who senses the danger and runs towards it anyway.

[withthewerewolves]

It Took More Than A Month - But It’s Done

My second bookbinding project is So Wise We Grow by Deastar, who very kindly allowed me to bind this fic even though someone else has already done a wonderful job at it.  https://archiveofourown.org/works/55410/chapters/73479

I made completely different mistakes this time, which is good while learning a new hobby! I hit a bit of a snag right away - did you know the average black ink cartridge only prints about 200 pages? Because I did not. And then I somehow broke the printer trying to change the ink cartridge (I could swear I had successfully done it in the past, but alas, I am not a tech person), so the reverse side of the pages ended up being printed by a different printer, with slightly different margins, etc. You can see the difference in the picture below. I don’t think it would bother me while reading it, and I decided I wasn’t enough of a perfectionist to reprint it. 

I think the actual binding went pretty well! The spine is straight, I learned from my last project that I need to be careful how I put it in the press. 

I was able to use my cricut so much for this project! I bound the cover in cloth, so I was able to use iron on vinyl for the front and back. I did have to do it over again because I overheated the back the first time, and the planet dissolved away. The second time I had some trouble with the vinyl coming partially away from the fabric (alas, I need more practice), but I was out of fabric and vinyl so I decided to sacrifice the words being even for the picture being clear and went with the second attempt. 

I also used my cricut to do the poem that the title is from in foil on the inside page. I think it looks pretty good! The poem is absolutely perfect for this fic. 

Overall, a good learning experience! I adore this fic, I really enjoyed typesetting it. I don’t have a picture of it, but I found a little planet doodle to use as the section break and I think it looks very cute. 

I’m planning to take a short break from fanfic binding to make myself a planner for college in the fall (yes, I’m going back AGAIN), but I hope to get back to it after! Any thoughts on what I should bind next? I’m on a bit of a Steve/Bucky kick lately, or maybe an All For The Game fic. 

[roseserpentpress]

Do you sell your work or do commisons?? Or do I have to take on a whole new hobby just to attempt to create your beautiful amazing pieces??

Hello! Thanks for the ask and the compliment! 😊💕 I've got both long and short answers for you...

In short, even if it's highly flattering that you would consider purchasing my work, I generally don't sell my work or do commissions. Instead, as you've noted, I would highly recommend you picking up the wonderful hobby of bookbinding! Here's a link to the Renegade Bindery website which has tonnes of great resources for starting out bookbinding, and here's the link to join the discord (must be 18+ tho!), which is a thriving and very helpful community for resources, questions and the like!

Long answer, with more details, is below the cut

In long, even if I generally don't do commissions/sell my work, I have in the past and depending on the situation I may consider doing a commission (ie, you are an author of a fic and wish to get it bound, or want a journal or non-fanfiction bound). In regards to why I don't do fanfiction anymore without express consent of the author (and even then it's questionable) is that I feel very uncomfortable accepting money based off someone else's work, which they have presented to the public for free, even if all I'm charging for is my work (Not For Sale is also part of Renegade Bindery Guild's code, who I am now a part of; you can read more about gift economies at the website on this subject). As well, I've found in the past when I have done commissions I have not particularly enjoyed the process; fanbinding is a downtime passion hobby of mine, and commercializing it tends to remove the passion and relaxation I get from it (and alas, downtime is something that's been sparse for me). As a result, even if you qualify for the above commissions, then the commission would also have to pique my interest before I would say yes. Also, another hurdle for commissions is that I live in so called Canada, and the price for shipping is astronomical (generally, $60 CAD for a tracked shipping outside of country; inside country is $20, more reasonable), which also makes commissioning books difficult, because it adds an extra hefty fee on-top of what one would be paying me in the first place. That said, if you do still want to inquire, feel free to DM me the details and I will let you know (I'm also a curious buggar, so it intrigues me to know what you would be interested in requesting); but in the end, I would simply highly recommend getting into fanbinding yourself as it is a really lovely and fufilling hobby!

Also, if you are also really enthusiastic about a typeset I've done and would like to use it to create your own fanbinding of the fic, then feel free to DM me personally, and I am generally perfectly willing to provide you a copy of the typeset! Of course, I do request that if you do so, when you use it you recognize the typeset was created by me (ie, leaving a statement in the printed copy), and only use it personally and don't share the file, in case it is used later commercially without my consent. If someone else you know is interested in using the typeset, feel free to forward them to me!

I hope that provides you with a few answers! :)

[dramionediscussion]

part of the problem of viralism in fandom is authors who have tiktok and make content of their fics to make themselves known, but don't educate about fanfiction and how to consume it for free. That, and the other people with accounts that take it upon themselves to recommend fics by showing off their hard copies as trophies, generate hype in the consumer that they think they need to have a hard copy to read. Besides, authors with tiktok accounts and generate content, do they get money for that? Doesn't it fall along the same lines that they can't profit from their fics?

Edit:

Fanficton is not a new thing. It's not the job of authors to educate people about fanfiction etiquette.

You should know that you can not just take something from the internet and try to sell it. People in general don't take a picture or drawing from a photographer or artist and sell it as their own. AND if they do, they are called out and, in some cases, taken to court for plagiarism. There are serious consequences for using someone else's intellectual property. Hence why fanficton can not be sold in the place.

Some authors are okay with people making physical versions of their fics. But it is then the job of that person, not the author, to tell people that they got permission to make this. That the fic meant so much to them. They wanted to have this version done and that you shouldn't just take a fic and make your own books, too, check with the author first and DEFINITELY don't try to make a profit off of book making.

The whole thing started off with people who do bookbinding as a hobby and have small businesses in this, just making money off the materials to make the physical book. Authors were okay with that because they were told of the cost of the raw materials and the labour, and knew that the people doing it were legit small business owners that have done this with traditionally published novels.

But then the whole thing got popular, and now everyone suddenly knows how to bookbind and starts to sell fanfiction books without checking in with the author first and having a basic chat with them. They are selling books for way more money than the first set of people. They did not talk with the author and get their blessing.

And yes, while having a social media account can get you money, not everyone monetizes their content. Not everyone on social media gets popular and suddenly has sponsors knocking on their door. You need to have followers to get some money. You need hundreds of thousands of followers to start to even peak the interest of the people who will pay you for your content. I'm pretty sure most fanfic authors who talk about their work don't have that. So no, they are not making money off of making a video saying "hey read my fic!!".

- Lisa

[mithrilhearts]

Random Writer Anon!!

When you get this answer one of the questions (or all if you really want!) then pass it on to 5 writer friends! 🥰If you have more than one WIP, pick at random! We want you to talk about your works, and celebrate with you! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to answer these questions, I’ll be back with more next Sunday. 😉

What are you most excited to write with this WIP?

How has this WIP changed since the “daydream/brainstorm” stage?

Who is your favorite character in this WIP and why?

Alright! Time for another one of these (this is such a great idea, mystery writer anon person!) I'm gonna try and do different fics per ask, and since I have a handful, I'm going to link what I've done already. Anyway, let's go!

I've already done....

Bookbinder//Songwriter

Let's talk about "May Your Forge Burn Bright"!

What are you most excited to write with this WIP?

I am very eager to write the next chapter, to be honest! For those of you not caught up on the fic already, you definitely should. It's been a roller coaster of good sweet moments, and then some pretty shitty struggles along the way. The next chapter I'll admit is going to be some much deserved downtime. It'll be something both Thorin and Bilbo aren't used to recently, and I think it'll do them some good.

How has this WIP changed since the “daydream / brainstorm” stage?

Oh, wow has this one changed. This is my first big fic, and I can honestly say, right at the beginning I had no real outline, and a lot of what I had intended, had been cut (and for the better, honestly). The idea stemmed from an old rp I was a part of, but the idea has since taken its own journey to be far from what I'd written before, and I'm grateful for that. I've given it a bit more structure, and I know the type of ending I want to give this fic. This is the story that really gave me an idea of how fanfic works, and I'm still amazed that people like the story so much <3 it's changed a lot since it's brainstorm phase, just as I have changed since starting it!

Who is your favorite character in this WIP and why?

This one is an obvious. Bagginshield - the two of them together. They started out rocky, definitely not seeing eye to eye, but warmed up to one another quite quickly. I love being able to explore new headcanons, their thought process, and just how their relationship develops over the course of this story. They're my favorite in every story (understandably so), so this answer will USUALLY be the same across the board lol

Thank you so much for the ask! I love this story to bits and pieces, and can't wait to return to it very soon <3

[spockandawe]

Hi! I'm a newer follower, so I'm sorry if you get asked this a lot. I really admire your bookbinding, and was wondering whether you have any recommendations on good sources for learning how? I've done a bit of reading on my own but it's quite intimidating! Thanks so much for sharing what you do.

Aw, thank you! And haha, you're okay, it comes up occasionally, but it's been a while and tumblr's search function is erratic at best. And I'm pretty sure my answer changes every time! So let's see where I'm at right now.

So, my personal style of learning isn't suited to everyone. I like to throw myself at projects past my skill level, because a lot of my craft hobbies are ultimately about thrill-seeking. I'm launching myself into spaces where an unmitigated success would be delightful but unlikely, and a total failure would be devastating, but I'm pretty decent at hitting the mixed success zone where I don't get so frustrated that i quit. Some people have a much lower frustration threshold than I do, or find the uncertainty much more stressful than I do.

But the end point is that I just yeeted myself into the hobby like 'I'M GONNA BIND THIS WEBNOVEL' despite not knowing anything about anything, and fully aware that I would be unhappy with the results. If I recall correctly, that was a coptic binding of the first half of svsss, and I don't think I ever went back to finish the other half that time, haha. On the one hand, it was thrilling! A book that was only online was now in my hand! And at that point, an official license seemed laughable. On the other hand, wow, this typesetting is bad to look at, the book is too wiggly, and I don't like the open spine. When I did my first casebinding, well! There were a whole lot of new issues, but still, the thrill! It was a flawed book, but a cooler one than I'd ever made before!

My approach isn't for everyone. For me, gotta go fast works, but I've seen people take their time, move carefully, and post a GORGEOUS first book. Mine depends on you having the time, money, and motivation to iterate on your process to improve to the point where you're HAPPY. I learn best by doing, and now I'll go into deeper research dives about like, styles of endpapers, but that totally overwhelmed me when I was starting out, I still get overloaded and frustrated when I read resources by the kind of highly-trained bookbinders who insist there's one BEST way to do a technique, and I get very very annoyed by how some resources make this hobby feel so... inaccessible.

So! Accessible resources. Here's a general list someone else wrote, but I'm going to do my own thing too

https://www.google.com/amp/s/hiveswap.tumblr.com/post/677512645592694784/bookbinding-resources-masterpost/amp

First, let me toss one youtube channel your way. I started casebinding using SeaLemon as a reference. I outgrew her stuff fairly quickly, there are other youtubers who cover a LOT of in-depth ground, but das bookbinding and glenn malkin and company just overwhelmed me at first. She also has another video on making your own bookcloth at home, which is still the method I use for most of my books.

https://youtu.be/Av_rU-yOPd4

Then, communities. I started off in this solo, I was happily chugging along, and a few books in, I was pointed in the direction of renegade publishing, which is a fun collective focused on the binding of fanfiction (though other bindings are welcome too). I'll link their dreamwidth, though they do have other social media too, including a tumblr and discord. There are resources they shared, but I'll call out one in particular. One of the founders has a guide for going from ao3 to book that has seen some traction over the last few years, though like with SeaLemon, I started in there, and soon wandered off to freehand the process instead.

Fair warning, though, their discord (18+, sometimes nsfw) especially is large, and it moves quickly. It's a great place to ask for advice, but there are a Lot of people talking. This may be great for you, or it may be overwhelming! I'm fairly comfortable in there at this point, but I'm an asocial dweeb and it took me a while to get comfortable talking.

https://renegadepublishing.dreamwidth.org/

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/11JyVxeRS8yEWgCYrNMUPlNrEbR5AAD3Z2aDP-QXEP3Y/mobilebasic

Then, a second community! The r/bookbinding discord (sfw). I think they got their start with the reddit group, but they aren't affiliated these days, the name is there for clarity and continuity. The group is focused on general bookbinding, and though fanfic is welcome, it's not a focus. It's a quieter place, which makes it much easier to follow conversations without being constantly online. This one also maintains a list of resources, and they also have channels for newsletters and for youtube uploads from the major bookbinding channels. It's a lovely place as well, people here are nice and helpful

https://discord.gg/thbraMNn

I think that's what I've got for now! My personal recommendation remains to pick a project and throw yourself in, and to deal with any speedbumps as they come up. But SeaLemon is a good starter educational resource, and these two communities are both used to helping newbies through figuring out the process. I hope that helps!

[finalfrontierpublishing]

hello, i’m Final Frontier Publishing, a parody publishing house / bindery involved in fannish bookbinding. i’m an amateur fanbinder who picked up bookbinding in July 2022 and largely bind fanfiction. i’m also a member of Renegade Publishing, a collective of binders that bind fanworks! i am mostly active here on tumblr. If you’re interested to see what projects i’ve done, you can refer to the ‘my books’ tab or click here. 

my interests are varied and as such, the fandoms i bind in are diverse depending on what is my jam at the moment. i also have an interest in binding queer fandoms and fics which may not be as frequently seen in the bookbinding fandom sphere. i handbind fanworks mostly for myself and the body of work’s author, and sometimes for fandom friends. 

tumblr main: @charlietinpants, AO3: charlietinpants

Thoughts on commissions: 

i’m very grateful that people like my bindings and it’s such a compliment for me that people would like to commission my work. however, I currently do not take fanbinding commissions, and am unlikely to do so in the future. This is as (i) i work a full time hectic job and my time to bind is limited and (ii) i’m very much an amateur at work, and wouldn’t want to attach a monetary value to my projects, and (iii) i firmly believe in Renegade Publishing’s ethos of gift economy. as such, i bind author copies as a way of giving back, as and when time permits. 

Thoughts on author copies:

If i've bound your work and you'd like an author copy, and won't mind that it might take me many months to get it to you depending on how long my to-bind list is, feel free to reach out to me. I hand-bind all my books from scratch and  may not be able to make you an exact copy (depending on available supplies), but I will try my best to make you something I am proud of and hopefully something you will love. All author copies are gifts, and I do not expect any form of payment, inclusive of shipping, from the author.

Thoughts on learning to fanbind: 

if you’re interested in learning how to fanbind - join us at @renegadepublishing. we’re a great community of fanbinders who hang out on discord with different experience levels and everyone is very nice and extremely helpful. there are also free guides and lots of useful resources! i will be the first to admit that as a self-professed bad-at-art-and-craft person, i was very daunted at first while learning to bind, but i can promise you it’s less difficult (and less expensive) than you think! 

Thoughts on learning to fanbind in Asia: 

Learning how to bookbind in Asia is hard and case in point, I learnt largely through online tutorials and a brief course before my bookbinding teacher immigrated to Australia :sob:. I’m one of the mods of the Renegade satellite server for Asia, so if you’re a fanbinder located in Asia, please feel free to hit me up and commiserate about the difficulty in sourcing for supplies/classes/bookbinding/postage and shipping woes in general.    

UPDATES (as of May 2024) 

i am currently in the process of a move and my housing situation with regards to bookbinding is tenuous at best. in view of this, my bookbinding pace for 2024 has slowed dramatically to an expected 2-3 books this year until the move is sorted in end 2024. I apologize very much for all the delayed books but as I still wish to preserve the quality of the books i make, i would thank you for your kind patience in waiting for the book to be completed.               

my ask box is always open, i do reply PMs and i love to chat about bookbinding! :)                                                                                                                                   

[salmonandsoup]

Could we get summaries of the member of the vampire mafia?

oh you ABSOLUTELY can!  hell yeah

i’mma try to keep these relatively brief but there are like.  a dozen members and i love all of them so much and i’m trying to make them all complex people who have lived interesting lives (even if i do have my favorites).  i’m gonna put them in order of appearance! and of course, this is under a GIANT READ MORE. because this is LONG. also each person is color coded just for convenience though the colors will repeat (it's just to like, separate each section). heed the content warnings where they appear!

GOD this took a while but i'm proud. if you wanna know more about the overaching plot lemme know. i'm just gonna tag this as "the vampire mafia" for overall stuff

reuben james kent - the one and only english himbo; a giant flirt, a whimsical little shit, and someone who never wants to become manipulative and selfish (he punishes himself harshly for his wrongdoings and is more than a bit of a perfectionist).  he’s AMAB, bisexual, and genderqueer, though he usually presents masc and uses solely he/his pronouns unless in drag (in which he calls himself “reuby fangz” because he thinks he’s funny).  born in 1853 in london, he was a tailor barely making ends meet until one night in 1889, after stumbling home drunk off his ass, he got turned into a vampire—so he decided to fuck around with the rich and steal some cash to bring back to his poorer roots, while also becoming quite a bit more cultured in the process (learning how to dance ballet and play the cello).  he made some friends in higher places who were also struggling under the hegemonic ideals of the rich and powerful, and so he turned them into vampires too so they could all get their revenge and escape, traipsing around europe and eventually fleeing to america in the late 1900s (of course dodging the WWI draft and fucking around with the rich in america, too).  he can’t remember what the hell happened that fateful night he got turned and he doesn’t want to.  he’d much rather devote his time to making the world a little more beautiful and a little more fun for everyone—so long as he can keep his impulse control in check.  (that causes a lot of problems later down the line…  just see what happens with feliks.)  everyone in the vampire mafia’s got superhuman abilities, but where reuben’s unique power shines is in flight!  mans can fly and he loves to do so.  he’s a sweetheart who tries to make everyone smile, but he has problems admitting when he’s done something wrong, which is where one of the big conflicts of the story comes in.

peter gibson - (originally created by @maxusthemad!) peter’s a soft-spoken but no-nonsense librarian who reuben meets and befriends when he’s caught outside as the sun rises (while in this world, vampires won’t die if they stand out in the sun, it does wound them and leave them vulnerable to attacks that will kill them).  born in the black dockside community of liverpool, he eventually moved to london to pursue whatever higher education he could squeeze his way into and eventually became a librarian at the guildhall public library.  he got roped into all of this bullshit completely on accident, though because of his and nicholas’ love of bookbinding and bookkeeping, he ends up connecting reuben with the people who become his closest friends (and becoming one of those closest friends himself).  he’s always wanted to travel the world and never had the funds nor freedom to do so (cog in the machine and whatnot), so he’s happy to help reuben cover his tracks and then travel with the gang when they decide to hightail it outta england permanently.  he doesn’t become a vampire immediately, wanting to experience life as an older man first so he can fully appreciate his new abilities.  his vampiric power comes in the form of both a photographic and eidetic memory, and though it taxes his body a lot, he can see and hear through other people!  (his powers work in tandem with the info broker of this team, riki, and those two get along like a house on fire.)

nicholas sturge - (originally created by @kotilae!)  a young trans man from an upper-middle class family who prefers bookbinding to embroidery (though he won’t say no to either).  since he sucks at math (regardless of how many tutors he has), he does freelance work with making handkerchiefs and doilies, and he’s a friend of louisa’s (their families often talk together and nicholas’ dad is trying to get in good with louisa’s father and brother, who are much richer).  they’re both trying their best to escape their families and the lives their families force them into (though, thankfully, nicholas’ mother supports him living his life as a man, even if he can’t truly do so until he settles somewhere on his own).  he’s very anxious and sweet, but also extremely perceptive and Will hold a grudge or a smoking gun against you at the right moment for you to squirm.  he holds grudges for quite some time unless that grudge makes him look foolish, and then he’s apologizing for weeks if he cares about you.  he’s a phenomenal horseback rider, as that was his greatest passion as a child, and he becomes the getaway driver and transportation expert of the vampire mafia when the brit squad is absorbed into it in 1933.  his vampiric power lets him speak to animals and “control” them to a minor degree! (it’s mostly just persuading them, but if he must, he must—they forgive him, anyways.)

eireann louisa lovelace - (originally created by @oops-i-accidentally! also, cw for familial abuse) first, she goes by louisa, not eireann; you’ve gotta be a very good friend of hers to call her that.  louisa's an upper class lady with a shitty older brother named lewis who wants nothing to do with their mixed english and irish heritage (their mother is irish), instead vying to find a way to gain the most power from the industrial hegemony possible and using louisa as a pawn and a punching bag.  both nicholas and louisa have been trying desperately to find some way out for the both of them; lewis is trying to marry louisa off to the son of a family of bankers so he can gain monetary and political power, and louisa had nearly lost all hope because lewis is the most wretched piece of shit alive.  thankfully reuben, peter, and tomasso step in, ready to stir up some shit to create a diversion for both louisa and nicholas—and so, on her wedding day, she escapes and they start running around europe and eventually america.  unfortunately, her ex-fiancé starts following her, devastated by her running off, though his intentions aren’t what they may seem.  louisa can use various bits of magic as her special vampiric power (with telekinesis as her strong suit), she's a chemist by nature, and she's 100%, hands down, the braincells of the brit squad (and a good chunk of the braincells of the mafia in general).  so long as she doesn’t have to answer for some conflict (because she Will just up and run from it, reuben and her get along in that regard), she’s a powerhouse.  nothing would fucking function without her.  she loves the punk aesthetic when the 70s and 80s roll around, and she’s a huge fuckin’ lesbian.  futch supreme

tomasso “tommy” scarlatti - (originally created by @darkysan17!  cw for familial abuse) tomasso is an artistic and crass triple threat: a hooligan, a thief, and a dancer.  he’s the runt of the family and the youngest of several sons, the scarlattis being early adopters and pioneers of industrialization in northern italy.  where his brothers wanted to continue the family trade and learned in their mansion in varenna, tommy found a love for performative theatre, especially ballet.  his family constantly brought up the challenges he’d have to face due to his awful stutter and his tics (not to mention his complete disinterest in running the factories and his sympathy for the workers). tomasso’s father beat him ruthlessly when he found him sneaking food to some of the workers, claiming he “stole what his family earned” and what was “rightfully theirs”—but that didn’t stop tomasso, and his resentment for the entire rigmarole only grew.  he eventually ran away with ninety-thousand lira (about $50 USD in 1890, and the equivalent of about $1,650 USD today) to join a troupe of dancers that travelled europe, and his father is still looking for him even when he should be long in the grave.  he’s the one who teaches reuben both ballet and lockpicking when they meet each other at a festival, and the two devise a plan to get nicholas and louisa to america and safety when all of their families rear their ugly heads.  tomasso is kind of childish in his sense of humor and constant grandstanding, but at heart, he’s a true artist and explorer. while most of the dances he knows are western european or american, he has a great interest in historical dancing techniques and theatre from other cultures (like kabuki and chinese opera).  he’s still self-conscious about his stutter and tics, to the point of being MEGA defensive over it, even when it gets him into trouble. he tends to play it off afterward, trying to use a tough guy persona to cover up his true feelings.  his vampiric power can best be described as “impossible to pin down”: he can walk through solid surfaces and phase in and out of objects at will.  eventually he learns to use paintings and photographs as portals, so long as they share the same subject!

finley v. a. seabrooke - (cw parental abuse) louisa’s ex-fiancé, and a man who was raised to basically be a tool.  his parents allowed him no privacy and invaded almost every single boundary one can have, all to make him into the perfect asset.  the only reason they supported his transition at all was because they could get more use and money out of him as a man than as a woman.  the lovelaces and seabrookes were close by the time finley and louisa were in their twenties, and lewis set the two of them up to be married so he could access the wealth and power the seabrookes held.  finley was overjoyed to have someone be his wife, especially someone as wonderful as louisa (even though they’d rarely seen each other, just the idea of someone loving him in that way was enough for him), but of course, louisa runs away, leaving finley heartbroken and terrified.  lewis stokes the fire and sends finley off to find louisa and bring her back, and perhaps to get revenge on the brutes who took her.  but the more that finley looks at everything that’s gone on, especially with how lewis seems to have some uncanny knowledge of events that haven’t even happened yet… the more he starts to try and unravel the pieces of this puzzle.  eventually, he too becomes a vampire and after rebuking lewis fully, he joins the mafia as a financial resource and one of the faces of the group, since he’s very good at talking to those in high places.  his vampiric power ends up being flesh-crafting (think vicissitude from vampire: the masquerade). 

feliks kaufmann - my son, my socially anxious, depressed son who can punch through over 13” (33cm) of solid steel (his vampiric power is super strength and bloodbending on occasion).  i love him so much.  i try not to play favorites; he is my favorite.  he’s 6’10” (208cm), 265 pounds (120kg) of pure kosher BEEF.  just… a pure wall of a man.  long story short, he’s a 2nd-gen russian-american jew (so his grandparents fled russia and the pogroms), and because he and his family in little odessa have like, ten mouths to feed and a tiny apartment, he gets sucked into the world of organized crime to try and pay the bills.  one night when he’s walking home, reuben starts to flirt with him, and while feliks is receptive, he’s got places to be.  reuben convinces him to stay still for just a second, putting him in a trance and feeding from him (though not to kill him; reuben refuses to kill unless in self-defense, and not only that, but he also refuses to become adept at truly hypnotizing anyone because the idea of holding someone’s mind hostage disgusts him).  unfortunately for them both, feliks, the eternally-anxious motherfucker that he is, breaks out of the trance and fights back, leading to a huge scuffle with him dying and reanimating as a vampire while reuben flees the scene.  now, feliks being jewish plays a big part here: because vampires can unfortunately be taken as an amalgamation of antisemitic conspiracies and canards (check here for more on that), and this happens in 1927, feliks thinks he just got hate-crimed.  he loves his family more than anything in the world and now feels like he can never face them again because he’s been turned into an undead monster who, if he’s found out, would Literally be proving the white supremacists right and that means there’s a serious chance of violence against his family and community, so he’s FURIOUS.  he hunts reuben and his friends down for six years, accruing more and more power in the criminal world in order to do so (he gets more members in his crew, starts doing vigilante work to gain the respect of the communities he resides in, etc.).  thankfully, in 1933, he takes a moment to think about what they’re even doing anymore and asks reuben what the fuck was up with all of that.  reuben genuinely was just hungry, and he had no idea that his actions would have those… unfortunate implications.  (like i said, himbo.)  while it’s not all hunky-dory, reuben actually apologizes and vows to help feliks reconnect with his family, and the two of them team up to fuck up the KKK and the nazis, so things smooth over relatively quickly.  sue me, i’m a sucker for enemies to lovers, and feliks is also bisexual (though cisgender).

gaspare “loupe eye” paviano - (originally created by @maxusthemad!) gaspare is feliks’ underboss and right-hand man, going from a thrall underneath him into an equal and a powerful, flirtatious vampire in his own right.  he’s a charmer, and loyal to the end, but he’s more than a little indecisive and impulsive at the worst times.  he was born to a lower middle class italian- and greek-american family in chicago, and much like feliks, in order to provide for his family, he fell into a life of organized crime at a young age and couldn’t get out.  one fateful day, he manages to save his boss from getting stiffed on a jewelry deal by pointing out a fake sapphire, and he’s able to get legitimate tutelage and claim to his parents that he was a “jeweler’s apprentice”.  he earns the nickname “loupe eye” paviano through these endeavors.  eventually, in 1929, he gets orders to go to new york and deal with an upstart there who’s been causing trouble… which ends up being feliks.  sensing potential in the young man, feliks slaughters the rest of the group, but leaves gaspare alive and turns him into a thrall.  however, towards the end of their first year working together, gaspare continually breaks out of the trance and resists some of feliks’ more grisly orders, his first real means of standing up for himself and what HE wants (which is big, because he’s been pretty aimless and just kind of followed orders up until this point—he has few motivations in life and was kinda depressed and picked fights a lot).  in response to that, feliks actually establishes a genuine partnership, turning gaspare into a vampire so that they can both work to achieve their goals.  gaspare’s vampiric power is shadow manipulation and teleportation!

retha “riki” harris - (originally created by @maxusthemad!) feliks’ childhood best friend and resident spy/info-broker of the vampire mafia!  she’s a bit of a clown, but she just likes making people happy and watching them go about their days when they’re happiest.  she also has a little guilty pleasure in reading a ton of romance novels.  she’s african- and japanese-american (and she’s also got vitiligo), but because interracial marriage was banned, she’s technically a child born out of wedlock.  however, there’s no drama here because her dad knew about it and wholly loves riki as her daughter (as he’s also in love with the man who fathered her—they’re both bisexual and we stan healthy communication and open relationships!).  riki grew up in the same neighborhood as feliks, and she’s a self-taught nurse who’s hustling her way up in the world the same way feliks did with the criminal underground.  when feliks goes missing, she looks for him doggedly because That’s Her Best Fucking Friend And She Needs To Know What Happened, and when she finally pins him down and pries the info from him, she decides to investigate the circumstances because there’s a lot that isn’t adding up.  throughout 1929 to 1933, she gives feliks the location of the brits for most of the time that he chases them.  however, she’s also the one to actually get feliks to sit down with reuben and talk things out.  her vampiric power is the ability to shape-shift into animals, which helps a lot when gathering information—and it’s the reason why she’s got the nickname “baby bat” with the group!  she likes to be a vampire bat the most.

amélie “ami” boulanger and gadreau boulanger – (gadreau was made by @neogeoandcompany!  he’s the lavellan of neo’s da:i playthrough) a pair of fraternal twins from bordeaux, france who become a pair of master assassins and traceurs (parkour artists).  cast out from their home for being “devil’s children”, also known as albinism mixed with severe melanosis in solely their sclera and irises (making the sclera nearly black and their eyes a deep reddish color—their bodies really went “okay, we’re sending all the melanin there and nowhere else”), they relied on each other to try and eke their way through the world, taking odd jobs wherever they could and evading the trouble that came with some of the more unsavory tasks.  (gadreau’s scar is from when he pointed out a few holes in the plan of a leader of thieves, and his tone did not sit well with the man, so he “gave him something to smirk about”.  ami made short work of the bastard after that slight to her brother.)  they turned to petty thievery as they grew older and snatched up whatever bits and pieces of education they could, until they eventually saved up enough money to make the trek to america.  ami stole away on a boat first, and decided to turn to thievery once again to make ends meet, knowing that far too many people would love to take advantage of a young woman who spoke little english.  she ended up encountering feliks when trying to steal from him, and he decided that he quite liked her gall and willingness to put up a fight, and so she became a member of the mafia and honed her skills with a pistol.  when gadreau crosses over, he’s very cross when he learns that ami has joined a mafia family, but cannot deny that the family she’s made might help them both settle their scores—and what the twins do, they do together, no matter what.  ami’s vampiric power is technomancy (where she can make machinery do what she wants it to, as in immediately picking locks and disabling security cameras with a touch), and gadreau can turn invisible!  both of them can also walk on walls and ceilings.  gravity means nothing to the double spiderman menace.

liesl “liza” kaplan - (originally created by @maxusthemad!) originally introduced as one of the first recurring Genuine Antagonists of the story (like finley), liesl eventually joins the mafia as the mechanic for all artillery and vehicles.  she’s a take-charge kind of woman who thinks she always knows best, and she refuses to put up with any bullshit (she has lived FAR TOO LONG for tomfoolery to get in the way of her goals and dreams, and if you dare try and hurt those she cares about, you will not live to tell the tale).  she is a very nurturing figure at heart, though, and loves to spoil people.  like feliks, she’s jewish (and also born to a reform family like feliks), but she grew up in heilbronn, germany until her family immigrated to the united states when she was in her twenties.  she studied as much biology (specifically botany) as she could, and her impeccable grades and performance actually landed her in the university of pennsylvania.  while she traveled to various farms to learn more about soil temperature and yield, she met a young farmer and fell in love, eventually marrying him and creating a life with him.  unfortunately, he died young and her children moved away, so her loneliness makes her a perfect target for a supernatural hunters’ guild to scoop her up and convince her of the threat of all kinds of undesirables, especially vampires.  she encounters the vampire mafia and swears to take them down, along with her compatriot ibán, and her being in her sixties does nothing to snuff out her fervor.  thankfully, for the three of them, a look at the parallels between their (literal) witch hunts and the rising tensions in europe is enough for them to reject the hunters’ guild.  unfortunately, the guild doesn’t take well to defectors, and after an ambush, liesl sustains mortal injuries and decides to become a vampire in order to keep doing her work.  her vampiric power ends up being the ability to control plants!  (she usually uses it to keep in touch with her garden and make it the best damn rooftop garden in all of new york.)

ibán lucero garcia abascal - (cw for exorcisms, familial abuse, and suicide) another Recurring Antagonist-At-First, ibán works with liesl to try and destroy the vampire mafia, but becomes the religious expert for the vampire mafia.  when we meet him, he’s a priest and exorcist, though his methods kind of put the vatican at arm’s length (insert “i don’t know… that’s scary!” comic here).  he was born in ciudad juarez in northern mexico, but his family moved to what would become white sands, new mexico before he was three, so he’s got dual citizenship.  his family was deeply religious, and so he became a devout catholic, though that didn’t stop his family from worrying about his eccentricities, his grandfather especially.  ibán didn’t care to partake in the usual communal activities, and hated to be touched unless he sought out comfort.  he often played alone and had trouble keeping eye contact, and while he knew quite a lot for his age, he could not understand other people and spoke bluntly and callously.  all of this led to his grandfather trying to exorcize him when he was eight, which didn’t exactly stop the problems, but it taught ibán to repress like nobody’s business and gave him a serious fear of vulnerability and hatred for his own mind.  (turns out, ibán is autistic and not, in fact, possessed by a demon.  but mental health solutions are not exactly amazing in the 1910s, so we get the lovechild of john ward from the FAITH horror game series and inspector javert from les miserables.)  eventually in his twenties, ibán moves further east to alexandria, virginia, and becomes an exorcist for hire, fervently hunting down demons.  some of them were genuine threats, but unfortunately, others were either supernatural creatures just kind of living their lives or were other mentally ill people.  the same supernatural hunter’s guild that picked up liesl lures in ibán, and the two get along well.  for how devout ibán is, differing religions don’t bother him and even become a point of interest (if it means he gets better at banishing demons from all walks of life).  they both agree that vampires, especially, are unnatural monsters that must be purged.  and that’s how the vampire mafia finds these two, and through repeated interactions, ibán and gadreau find themselves constantly in each other’s sights (sue me, another enemies to lovers story, but blame neo for it too because he enabled me).  when the guild shows its true colors and it turns out they work for lewis, liesl actively desists and stands alongside the mafia, but ibán has a much trickier time reconciling with his own actions because the moral rigidity that got him through so much hardship is now coming back to bite him in the ass.  he very nearly jumps off a building before gadreau finds him and convinces him to move forward instead.  and so, with liesl, ibán officially joins the mafia and decides to deal with spirits in a more peaceful way (though demons still get their ass beat).  ibán’s vampiric power is a little hard to give a name to, but he can pull people’s emotions out through their blood and turn said blood into weaponry or tools based on the emotions in them.  so if someone was angry with him, he could turn that anger into a literal sword to use against them, but unfortunately, ibán takes on those emotions—so if he removes someone’s fear, he feels that fear, and they don’t, whatever the cost of that may be.

jenab bin tan zakaria (alias miles cintaku) - (originally created by @maxusthemad! cw for family murder) the last member of the team!  max describes him as kind of like if dexter morgan and patrick jane had a vigilante-justice fueled murder fusion—while he is incredibly empathetic to those who are struggling, he has nothing but rage for those who prey on the inequalities of a system that forces such.  he’s unfortunately condescending and myopic, refusing to take help unless he absolutely needs it and things are his way or the highway more times than not, but his wit and his sense of justice and family bring him through.  he comes to the mafia in the late 1950s, early 1960s, so there’s a bit of a jump (though perhaps he’ll be in the background for keen eyes to spot).  he’s the “therapist” and interrogator of the group when he officially joins (yes, yes, conflict of interest, but none of these guys can like.  go to any old therapist and jenab does know what he’s doing).  he was born in perak, malaya in 1921 to an english father and a malay mother.  he grew up to become fascinated with the workings of the mind, especially with morbid disgust in what causes people to commit horrible acts against each other.  he graduated from universiti pendidikan sultan idris with a doctorate of psychology focusing on behavioral health, and a minor in anatomy.  the mask of the studious and quiet young man hid a growing rage and antipathy, and soon he held the corpse of a sex pest stalker in his own hands.  the rush and satisfaction of removing such a disgusting person from the world led him to becoming more than a bit of a vigilante killer, finding those who committed terrible deeds and giving them some extrajudicial justice.  he moved around during his youth, but eventually became a school counselor in kuala lumpur and met a young woman named fariza, who captured his heart.  he eventually decided to settle down with her and marry her in 1948, giving up his vigilante work in order to focus on making things safe for fariza and their coming daughter, khatijah.  unfortunately, tragedy struck soon after, and another serial killer who went by the moniker of navy james killed fariza before khatijah was born and left malaysia before jenab could bring him to justice.  this sends him spiraling into a deep depression, but it also fuels the flame to go back to his vigilante ways.  he taunts navy james by killing another scumbag and using the killer’s tag, and then starts to hunt him down across the globe.  when he comes across the vampire mafia, he offers his services and expertise in exchange for their resources, but found family strikes again!  shit!  he kind of loves all of them now.  his vampiric power is possession and the ability to have his spirit leave his body temporarily.

[fellowshipofthefics]

Hey Fellowship of the Fics! Please welcome @lordoftherazzles​!!  👏🥳 Razzy decided to share her thoughts and impressions on her fic:  May Your Forge Burn Bright 

Question 1: What inspired you to write this fic?

I really wanted to try my hand at a bigger piece of writing. I started this fic not too long after I decided to start posting one shots/fanfiction altogether, so it holds a very special place in my heart. As far as what inspired the story, I love the concept of playing with timelines and showing different angles of how a relationship could have been. What if Thorin and Bilbo met prior to the quest under completely different circumstances?

Question 2: What was your favorite scene to write in this fic and why?

I think my favorite scene so far is within Chapter 7, or as I like to call it "hillside fireflies". It's an insanely romantic little scene before Thorin and Bilbo are an actual couple. The pining, the atmosphere, it's all RIGHT there, and I have to say, it still is one of my favorite pieces to look back on and reread. I also commissioned @stardryad​ to paint the scene in question, and that makes it all come to life even more. I think it will always be my favorite scene from any fic. It's a scene of so many firsts, not just for me, but the characters as well.

Question 3: What was the hardest scene to write and why?

I think so far the hardest scene to write was when Bilbo has decided to leave Ered Luin behind after telling Thorin his efforts "weren't enough". Angst isn't my forte, and while this isn't anywhere CLOSE towards the levels of angst that is upcoming in other fics of mine, it was always kinda hard to read back and watch Bilbo pretty much squash Thorin's self esteem there with that one. Telling him that what he was doing wasn't enough and showing a break between the two, it was tough and hard to get just right.

Question 4: Was there any parts you had to cut/change before the final draft and do you have them to share?

I have a general outline of the various things I want to happen in each story, and while I never started on the scene, I did have the idea of adding more drama to Bilbo's time in Ered Luin that consisted of a former betrothed for Thorin showing up. It was going to be a thing, but I decided to cut that idea in favor of just...domestic fluffy nonsense and a smoother transition of the various chapters and scenes as they blend together. The idea felt out of place the more planning I did for each chapter, and I'm glad I cut it.

Question 5: What overall impression/moment do you want readers to take away from your fic?

My overall theme of this fic is "home is where the heart is", as well as acceptance, and I really want the readers to take that away from this fic. Home isn't a place, it can be a person or a collection of people, whatever makes you happiest! Those who make you feel at home will accept you for you and the best version of yourself that you put forward, even if you feel it isn't enough.

If you haven’t read this story yet, go back up to the top and be sure to click the link. Also if you haven’t seen  Razzy’s works before, here are some other fics that she has done that are worth checking out as well:

Dragonhearted

Bookbinder//Songwriter

Where the Shadows Lie

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