#doing this project and spending so much time making sure its up to my standards
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ignore the fact that wei wuxians hair isn't painted. I just have to point out how the way I paint cloth has crazy improved... woag
#l was looking through paintings to find an old example to use and I used to not shade cloth at all!!! crazy#doing this project and spending so much time making sure its up to my standards#has made me realize how much I've improved. insane#and where I still struggle but thats a different post#ghost posts#my art#wwx#lwj#cql tarot
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Hi omg!!!!! I just saw the book you posted for TNAHP and I am dying! It looks GLORIOUS!!!!! Turned out so beautiful binded like that! And the art is absolutely stunning, may I ask what company printed it? Like what shop did you use? I’ve wanted to print certain stories just for myself so badly over the years but there are so many places and I can’t decide and this is exactly what I’ve been looking for!!!!! 😍😍😍 thank you so much for sharing!
Hi, anon! Thank you! 💕 I was so happy getting to hold it and put it up on my shelf! Look!!! 😭💕
I want to preface everything I’m about to say with this: if you use a third party service to print any material (fics, art, art in fics, etc.) please, please, please reach out to the author/artist and get permission to use the service before printing! It doesn’t matter if someone else already has permission, make sure *you* have permission. Also consider if the art in the fic belongs to someone other than the writer (like if the work was a collaborative piece or if it features fanart of the fic) and get permission from them, too! You may have to wait for a response, or you may never get one (in which case, don’t print without permission), but it really is worth it to make sure the authors/artists feel comfortable and confident that they keep control over their own work.
This is the first service I’ve used, and I have no experience binding, so I’m just sharing what I did and what I noticed with my untrained eye.
First, the service I used is Barnes and Noble Press. Here’s a link:
You can make books publicly for sale or books strictly private for personal use. If printing fanfic, be certain that you are creating a “personal” print. It will appear like this in your projects section (note the “PERSONAL” banner above the cover art):
As you can see - the price is pretty decent as far as books go! After tax, shipping, and handling costs, this book turned out to be $21.82.
You can choose how you want to customize the materials your book is made up of. Different materials cost different amounts (i.e. printing color pages inside is going to increase your price a lot). If you don’t know where to start, here’s the preference settings I selected for my copy:
Now, understand that they are not editing your book for you - you’re still going to have to do all the formatting and arranging in a document yourself and designing your own cover (so be prepared to still spend a lot of time on this project). They simply print and physically put all the pieces together for you.
Lastly, I want to address quality. While this is far better quality than I could manage on my own, it’s still not 100% up to quality of most books I can purchase in a store. For comparison, I’ll show a couple side-by-side images of the fic print next to my favorite published book, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.
Dust jacket: Feels great! Literally no complaints.
The hard cover: A bit cheaper feeling. Definitely noticeable difference with a printed visual texture instead of real texture. The printed texture creased and wore away to reveal the white beneath. It’s visible here after just a few openings of the book. Also, unfortunately, you cannot customize the hardcover under the dust jacket, so no spine labels and you’re stuck with this color blue:
Finally, my biggest concern, the binding of the pages: looks a lot more like a paperback that had its cover glued onto a hardcover than an actual standard hardcover. Again, I’m no expert and idk if that’s normal, what anything is called, or how this affects the lifespan of the book, but you can even see where the spine kinda hovers away from the hardcover casing and how that compares to the The Raven Boys.
Anyway, the service isn’t perfect, no, but it works for what I wanted, looks nice, is user friendly, and allows me to hold a fic I otherwise never would have had the opportunity to. I appreciate it for that.
Hope this was helpful! Print responsibly 😊
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Pantalone x GN!Reader (a scarf? for me?)
A/N: hello!! I've had this particular fic in the works for a super long time and I finally had the motivation to finish it: this is a fic that is similar to the Dottore one I wrote a few months back its about Pantalone this time however and the reader makes him a scarf!!
My posts are most likely going to take much longer to write now since I have a lot of assignments that I have to work on for Sixth form which is kind of a bummer but I will try to post whenever I can!!! anyways I hope you enjoy this Fic :D (fic is under the cut)
Want to read the dottore version ?
You knew your lover enjoyed spending his fortune as well as indulging in on the luxuries of life , every piece of clothing had to be of the highest quality , no matter the price. However quality and aesthetic did not necessarily mean that the garment would be functional as intended. You recall the time you had forgotten your scarf behind whilst going out into town with Pantalone and he lent you his, unfortunately it did not do much to help as the scarf itself was quite thin and thus did not work as intended. Ever since that had happened you had watched each time your lover would leave and put on that very same scarf the lack of warmth it provided him concerned you deeply and it began to plague your mind for extended periods of time. It eventually gets to the point where you decided you will have to solve this issue by your own accord : now you did not have nearly enough mora to get him a similar scarf with a better thickness so you did the next best thing that came to min which was make him a handmade knitted scarf. Surely this would be better than that sorry excuse of a scarf he had currently.
Fortunately for you , before Pantalone had taken you with him to the palace you quite often would knit your own garments to wear all the time so you still had a bunch of left over materials that you had left over that you had stored in a safe place for until you decided to use them again. You spend quite a bit of time sorting out through all the materials you had and selecting the few yarns that would be high enough quality and yet still thick enough to actually hold up its purpose to be used for his scarf , once you had narrowed the selection of yarn you had begun to knit the scarf was one of the most simplest garments to knit therefore it wouldn't take long for you to finish it , Pantalone’s long hours at his office also world to your advantage as it would give plenty of time to be able to focus on this mini project of yours. As you sat there knitting you would often think about what your lover's reaction might be to receiving something like this , he had always been the one providing you with lavish gifts and you could only gratefully accept his show of affection , although it's not as materialistically valuable as the gifts he gives you it still shows your adoration towards him no?
Soon enough with only a few days of work on this project you had finished it to your own standard of perfection, feeling quite fulfilled having finished a piece in such a timely manner even if it was a simple garment, it was still an achievement worth feeling good about. However, you decided against giving Pantalone his gift to him straight away, instead you were going to wait for the perfect opportunity to be able to present your gift to him. With fate on your side barley any time had passed before the perfect opportunity had shown itself and now it was time for action. Pantalone had entered your shared bedroom in order to retreat for the day , his face softens once he sees you contempt , laying on the bed. You noticed his presence and quickly got out of bed in order to meet him , running over towards him and throwing yourself into his embrace.
You can feel his laughter reverberate through your ears as your body shakes along with his chest as he lets out a small laugh at how adorable he found your antics. He gently places a gloved hand atop of your head as he hums in content at the contact before letting out a dejected sigh ‘ my treasure, I'll be leaving tomorrow early in the morning as I have some business to attend to in one of the banks on the far side of Shneznaya … I’ll have to leave for the day I do hope you do not mind ?’ He let out the news he's been meaning to say and as soon as this leaves his lips you bring your head up from his chest to look up into his eyes ‘ Your leaving tomorrow?’ you question ‘indee-’ before Pantalone could even finish his sentence you dash out of his arms and for a moment, he is distraught as he feels like he had offended you in some sort of way , this was not the case. You quickly rummage through the things you kept under your bed until you are able to grab what you were searching for as soon as your fingers interlace with the garment you quickly make your way back to your lover. Your hands outstretched offering to take what was in your hands ‘I made this for you … I thought that your scarf its lovely but it's not good for its purpose , its thin and won't keep you warm and I worry that because of that it will make you more prone to illness if you're constantly traveling like that and I couldn't let that happen so here’ as soon as you finish your small ramble you proceed to motion for Pantalone to take the scarf. You watch as your lover does something quite particular , he proceeds to take of his gloves before even going to even touch the garment. After he had taken his gloves however, he gently takes the item out of your hands , running his fingers across the surface and even holding it up to his eyes seemingly examining the work that had been put into the creation of this scarf. His actions seem to make you feel bashful as your gaze lowers as you try to avoid Pantalone's eyes contact. However, his silence seems to be telling to how he feels : he was truly enamoured that you had managed to create such a beautiful item in his eyes and still preserve it initial purpose. He truly admired the work and effort you had put into this scarf. Furthermore, the reason behind why this scarf was even created in the first place absolutely melted his heart , he had gotten used to a life of which ‘kindness’ always came with a price , not one thing came for free there was always the expectation of a reward or pay-back. Yet this was a symbolism of how you would do something unconditionally for him out of your own love for him and that was much richer than anything that could be bought with mora.
After the prolonged silence and examination of your scarf Pantalone hands you the scarf as he smiles at and proceeds to ask ‘My treasure , do you think you could wrap this scarf for me?’ His voice low and comforting showing how this gesture had taken effect on him. You smile as you oblige his request , he leans forward so that you are able to reach his neck as you gently wrap him in the scarf to be snug against his neck keeping him warm and serving as protection from the harsh Shneznayan winds. Just before you could step away from him Pantalone catches you by the waist and bring you into a loving kiss ‘thank you dearest , truly you never fail to surprise me day after day ‘ he smiles as his hand gently caresses your face, he was clearly admiring your features absolutely infatuated with you and the things you do for him. He has never felt richer than he did in that very moment.
#pantalones#pantalone genshin#fatui x reader#fatui harbingers#fatui pantalone#fatui harbingers x reader#genshin impact fatui#genshin fatui#pantalone x reader#pantalone x you#pantalone fluff#pantalone fatui#genshin fandom#genshin fanfic#genshin x reader#genshin impact#genshin pantalone
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Halfway Through August
Summer is in full swing and I am ready for it to be over. It has been a weird couple of weeks with the temperature dipping to 15C before soaring right back up to 30C. I feel the heat sap my energy. I move so sluggishly these days.
What has made the past couple of weeks bearable is great coffee. This month’s beans are from 19grams which I had tried before but I was still quite new to taking coffee seriously then and perhaps had not done it justice. So this time, equipped with a better grinder and coffee making skills, I found the beans quite a treat. Spring Bloom, the filter blend, is quite an understated flavour profile but very refreshing. I have brewed it via V60, Aeropress and a french press and I think I like it best as a cup of V60. Blends are quite a hit or miss for me but this one was alright. The single origin espresso beans though was incredible. Don Martin is a burst of cherry in my mouth. I'm really enjoying it. I also recently tried extracting my espresso over a frozen ball for the first time referred to as "compound chilling." It is a technique employed by World Barista competitor, Hugh Kelly a couple of years ago. And I know, I know! As if rdt, wdt, and a puck screen aren't enough complications, I have now added another superfluous step to my morning coffee. I know it's excessive but hear me out! It does have a significant impact on the espresso and far from being just a gimmick, there's a science to it. Apparently the sudden and drastic change in temperature locks the flavor compounds in the espresso, leaving the espresso sweeter than it would have been if extracted normally. I tested this myself and I can confirm that the result is a lot sweeter, almost milky. I couldn't exactly pinpoint it at first but after a couple of cups I think this is because it completely eradicates acidity. Ah, it is always fun discovering new ways to appreciate coffee!
In other news, I have been spending considerable time getting as much preparation work done. I have a list of goals this month that require some trial-and-error, some testing. I must admit that not a small part of the motivation behind the necessity of a "preparation stage" is hinging on my persistent perfectionism. I cannot stand to see the end product of my efforts to be “ugly,” whatever arbitrary standard that might be. And if I'm really being honest, if the result is less than perfect, then I struggle to really find the point in doing it at all. In my defence, this is because I am very much a "prevention is better than cure" type of person. If I can prevent issues, quirks, flaws, then why not optimise the process to produce the best possible end? I suppose it's a balancing act. I must make sure not to get caught up in my pursuit of efficiency that I fail to complete anything at all. But I should also lean on my planning expertise to ensure that I am encouraged and motivated by the path ahead.
Whenever I am able to take breaks from work and individual projects, I spend my time organising. This week in particular, I went through my small vinyl collection and sifted out the records I don't regularly play. I had recently ordered a handful of new records and I needed to make room for them. So I plucked out around ten records and listened to all of them, keeping the music that still spoke to me and set aside the ones that no longer draw me in. The one in the photo is a stunning copy of girl in red's first album, a UO exclusive pressing. Side A is black on white and side B is white on black. It reminds me of a spider web somehow. I never really got around to listening to the music but I liked girl in red's first two EPs so I purchased it last year. I was actually fully ready to set it aside for selling but when I put it on I really enjoyed it. So, luckily for this record, it made its way back to the shelf. About eight records did not. I'll be taking those to my usual vinyl store sometime later this month. It is a relief to have my collection trimmed down. I'm the type of person who likes to throw things away. I suppose it’s kind of the opposite of hoarding. I like to feel that I am making the most out of my stuff. So if I'm not really using something anymore, even if the product is still mostly full or unused, I'm constantly tempted to just chuck it all out.
Now, I shall leave a song here that I enjoyed the past week to end today's entry. (Shall I make this a regular segment? It would be nice to look back and see which song caught my attention at a certain point in time.) I haven't been able to stop spinning this record (pictured above, in all of its orange glory). What a blessing YouTube recommendations are! I was suggested this live performance of Anna B Savage like two? three? months ago and now I've got a new favourite artist!
One last thing--I would be remiss if I don’t mention that I’m posting this on a completely new blog!! God, it’s such a relief, honestly. To have my own space again, to no longer feel like there are prying eyes on me--I am happy. So incredibly happy. It's always a hassle to get things set up the way I want it be and I've got to work on curating this new space but I am truly relieved. I can post whatever I want again without unsolicited opinions or intrusive questions from people who I've never even interacted with, or aren't brave enough to ask their questions directly. I'm following only old mutuals here that I really love seeing on my dashboard and I’m as invisible as I want to be. I can breathe again. That old blog was a fun experiment while it lasted but it only really confirmed something I've come to understand: people, on the whole, can really be terribly selfish, malicious and inconsiderate. There are lovely individuals out there of course and that's all the more reason to be as specific when deciding who to have around. And I don't need much at all, just sincere individuals. I don't want community. I want peace.
So, cheers to new beginnings!
Anyway, I’m off to put stuff on my face and then bedtime. The weekend plan is simple: read. I've been on a terrible reading slump for weeks and it's time to cure it. I'm going to read the Villains Duology by V.E. Schwab. Not my type of book but I do want to branch out and give it a chance. I found Addie LaRue to be okay so I hope I won't entirely hate this duology.
I look forward to my slow weekend.
Until next time.
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"Happy Valentine's Day, Tishlia and Daeran!
May the day have been full of bright passion and love between you both - though I am sure Daeran made sure of that. Did he drown you in roses? He always struck me as the type to go excessive in a genuine relationship. I apologize this letter is so late but that doesn't stop you from having some wonderful evenings together with Dae. You don't need a holiday just for that. I'm sure he showers you with plenty of love each and every day, regardless.
I've sent along a few bottles of wine, I heard you have quite the sophisticated palate and love the stuff. Unfortunately, I've had far too much of what the Egorian nobility prefers that I can longer really distinguish between good and bad wine anymore. Apparently it's some of the best quality wines in the region, aside from Andoren, but I can't give an unbiased opinion on it anymore. Included is both the local gold-standard from the Chelaxian heartlands along with some wines from Ravounel, Andoren, and even a rare Irriseni ice wine I picked up on my travels. I think you would appreciate it far more than we would. I've also sent a bottle of limoncello from my hometown of Westcrown - it's wonderful with dessert!
I heard from Dae that you are looking for someone? A dragon? I would be happy to lend my expertise as a former investigator and detective, should you welcome it.
I hope you two are well! I would love to come and visit some time, though I don't expect Regill would join me. Reforming the Order of the Vice has been taxing and kept both of us quite busy, but I can step away for a few days.
Besides, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
-Warm regards, Minovae"
Dear Minovae,
I am very happy to receive these lines from you, such a wonderful surprise.
Dae and I actually spent a wonderful day together, although you are right that no occasion is necessary. I didn't feel it was too excessive, I enjoyed the evening very much. Our gardeners would disagree. They spent two days fishing all the rose petals out of the big swimming pond. But it was wonderful to float in hot water on a carpet of roses on a cold night.
Thank you so much for the fine selection of wines you sent. It saddens me that you are no longer able to enjoy them yourself, because wine is so much more than just a drink. When you recognize its soul, it becomes a pleasure for all senses. But I will not lose myself in too many words now. Maybe one day we will have the opportunity to walk through the vineyards of my homeland. Then you will understand me better and maybe I can seduce you to a sip that will make you rethink your opinion.
I will send you some of the first results of my new project to breed sheep that can withstand the conditions of the healing world wound.
The wool is already of good quality, I don't know if you knit, but I'm sure you can find someone to do it for you. Regill has always had useful skills, I find the idea of him knitting for you very amusing. The wool is soft and will keep you wonderfully warm no matter what it is made into. This soap is made from sheep's milk and rose petals. It is a creamy treat for your skin every time you bathe. Inside the jar is Oesypus, a skin care substance and very effective for sore skin, small wounds, old or fresh scars. It lubricates well and can be used on ALL parts of the body. I think you understand.
Thanks a lot for your kind offer of help. I am happy to report that Milvirvilan is already with us. He is not yet enthusiastic about Jharsygax's presence, but I hope that in time the two will understand each other better. I think I will use your Irriseni Icewine tonight, it should be just the thing to create some common ground between them.
I am glad that you seem to be doing well, and I hope that your duties leave you both enough space to find time for each other. A visit from you would be a great pleasure. I may give you an opportunity sooner than you think.
After spending the last few months sorting out a lot of things in my homeland and taking Daeran on a short, delicate journey, we are back in Mendev and have finally begun planning the wedding. It won't be long before you have an invitation in your hands. We would be pleased if Regill would be willing to join us too.
Kindest greetings
Tishlia
#Thank you for the lovely letter#an unexpected wonderful surprise#makes me melt#it was fun writing a letter#I have not done that for a long time.#Tishlia#Minovae#thank you 💕💕💕
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If you have a CCTV surveillance system, you know that its main purpose is to make sure your home or business is safe and secure. To do this, it needs to be connected to a router or modem. Connecting the camera to a router can be easy if you choose the right cable and know what kind of connection type it needs. Here’s how:
Determine your needs for connectivity.
Before you purchase a CCTV camera, it’s important to determine what your needs are. The more information you have about your needs, the easier it will be for you to find a product that meets those needs and provides value for money.
In order to get started with this process, ask yourself some questions:
What do I want my camera to do?
How much am I willing or able to spend on this project?
What kind of camera should I buy? Is there any specific brand or model that would work best for me? Do other people use similar cameras successfully in their homes/businesses/etc.? If so, how do they like them and why did they choose those particular models over others available on the market today (or even different brands)?
Find the right cable.
Before you do anything else, make sure you have the right cable. If it’s damaged or doesn’t reach far enough, your whole setup may be for naught. Check your router’s documentation for details about what type of cable to use and how long it should be–you don’t want to end up with a short cord that prevents you from installing cameras in hard-to-reach places or one that won’t reach from where the router is located to where they need to go! Also check compatibility between cables and routers; while many devices will work together as long as they’re both compatible with 802.11g Wi-Fi standards (or higher), some older models might require different types of connectors than newer ones do.
If everything checks out here, move onto step two: setting up an IP address for each camera on its own network segment so that each device can communicate directly with one another without having to pass through any other hardware such as switches or hubs first
Connect the cable to the camera and router.
Connect the cable to the camera and router. Make sure you have the right cable and that it’s long enough to reach from the camera to your router. The cables can be different lengths, so make sure you match them up properly before plugging them in–it’ll save time later on if there are any issues with connectivity!
For more information visit now.
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620.
Do you ever have days where you just don’t do anything? I always do something even if it's just housework, having a shower or walking the dog. I used to have days where I never even got out of bed but looking back that was a symptom of some serious MH issues so I'm glad life is no longer like that. Have you ever been extremely tired but refused to go to sleep? It's not that I've refused to go sleep, it's that my mind has been too active to let me sleep. What is your favorite episode of True Life, if you have one at all? I've never heard of that show. Well, I have on here but I don't know what it's about or anything. Have you ever experienced something paranormal? No. I don't really believe in that kind of thing. What’s the longest amount of time you’ve been stuck in traffic? About 4-5 hours on the motorway once when there was a serious accident. Luckily we'd just stopped for food/drink so we just sat and ate McDonald's lol. Everyone was leaving their cars to go and pee on the hard shoulder hah. Best field trip experience? Going to Paris in sixth form. Have you ever been to New York City? I have not. If so, is it all its cracked up to be? ... What is the most amount of money you’ve spent on a meal before? Personally, around £30 a head but I've attended meals where it cost over £300 per person before. What museums have you visited, if any? Hundreds of them. I honestly couldn't list them all. My childhood holidays were spent traipsing round museums and churches lol. Have you ever had a group project and one of your partners bailed on you? Sure. That's why I much prefer to work alone. What’s your worst traveling experience? Probably flying to Australia and the turbulence being so bad that you could feel the plane drop and all the lights were flickering constantly. It felt like it lasted forever but in reality it was probably only 15 minutes. Sims 1, 2, or 3? Why? I never played the third one, but the 1st and 2nd were both good.
Have you ever dealt with noisy neighbors or roommates? How did that go? Yeah, when I lived with Chris out downstairs neighbours were always arguing lol. We mostly just ignored it. Who was (or is) the teacher that gave you the hardest time in school? I have no idea - possibly my tutor in year...9 I think it was? Best muffin you’ve ever had? I love the raspberry and peach ones from Starbucks though I don't even know if they sell them anymore. Otherwise I tend to go for blueberry ones. Have you ever taken a woodshop class? Yeah. If so, was it required? Yeah, it was just part of our Design Technology. How much time do you spend on Facebook, if you have one? I'm logged in pretty much all the time. What area of math are you best at? Worst? I'm not really good at any kind of maths, lol. I mean, I can do basic arithmetic but nothing more complex than that. How do you feel when you meet someone with the same music taste as you? It's great. How often do you “half-ass” things (put little effort in)? Christ, all the time lol. Most people don't care how much effort you put into something as long as it gets done to a decent standard. Do you ever feel self-conscious when you eat around other people? Yeah, with messy foods. Has a teacher ever made you hate yourself/your work? Nope. How reliable is your internet connection? It's been fine since the engineer came out to sort it on Friday. He's moved the connection onto a better wall so hopefully it solves the issue we've been having with damp. Have you ever missed a meeting/event that was required/necessary? Sure. What’s something that makes you incredibly nervous? Driving in new places. What’s the latest you’ve ever stayed up to finish homework/a project? I pulled plenty of all-nighters in university. If you don’t have glasses, how would you feel if you had to get them? .... If you do have glasses, how would you feel if you didn’t need them anymore? My life would be much easier if I didn't need to wear them lol. I've kind of resigned myself to a life with glasses though. My prescription is too complex for surgery and I can't cope with contacts. How many vegetarians do you know? Not very many. I live in farming country and pretty much everyone likes to eat good quality, local meat. Have you ever considered going to art school? Nope. Is there anyone in your life who consistently angers you? Dog owners who let their dogs run up to mine even when they're very clearly fucking terrified. How quickly can you write an essay? It depends on the length and the topic, and how formal it has to be. Have you ever had problems falling asleep in class? No. Have you ever been on the barrier or front row at a concert? Just small local ones. What bug frightens you most? Cockroaches. Are your parents supportive of you? Yes. How often do you take the train to go places? Never. Our local trains are awful - they're always cancelled or delayed and it's just so much more convenient to drive. Do you play with your phone in awkward situations? If I'm alone, sure, but I try not to do it with others. Have you ever participated in a mock trial, or a real trial? No, neither.
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Project Evaluation
When I was making my sprites and tiles I decided to look into the original Nokia Snake game. I found out it was in a monochromatic art style, so I decided to learn about monochromatic art and what it is. When exploring monochromatic art, I looked into a couple of different artists and saw how they used a monochromatic art style in different ways, some of the artists were deadunicornyyc and the developers for Frail Hearts. This really helped me find the art style I wanted to use for my game and it influenced the colour palette for my game a lot, this pushed my game to look more like the original Nokia Snake game. For this research I looked into Kirby Dream Land and the gameboy Tetris as both of those games were in a monochromatic style. I decided to look into snakes for my character as one of my inspirations was Snake. I looked a lot into how their heads were shaped, used their scales to move and their proportions. I wanted a good understanding of how to make a snake and what proportions to use as I thought this information would help me with my project and how to design the character for my game.
I was mostly in between two ideas that I wanted to explore, they were a drum rhythm game and the snake puzzle game, I ended up exploring the snake puzzle game. I found the snake puzzle game more interesting and I wanted to try and look into puzzles and how to make puzzles that intrigue the player. When making my game I wanted to try and have everything in one map to keep load times down. I decided against doing this and coming back to this idea for another project, as I didn’t need to do this because my game was very low taxing on a pc and wouldn’t need optimising. I had to change the snake sprites a lot as they kept on not looking like a snake head, so I researched snakes and looked into their heads a lot to make sure it looked like a snake. When thinking about the game I wanted to make I thought about accessibility and how accessible my game would be. The drum rhythm game wouldn’t be accessible to many people as it would require a different controller than the standard keyboard and mouse. I felt like the puzzle snake game would be the most accessible as it would only require the mouse.
For this project I feel like I have met my project proposal, as I have gotten everything I wanted to get done but I feel like I could have spent more time on researching and working on puzzles, making mine more interesting and fun for the player, as I feel like I didn’t spend enough time on my puzzles and could have been improved a lot more by doing more research into puzzles. If I had more time I would have added more tiles that affect the snake in different ways, like teleporting the snake to a different place on the grid or a tunnel that would allow the snake to overlap its body. I also feel like my tile grabbing script could have been a lot better, as it feels a bit clunky. Those are some things that I would have loved to have improved if I managed my time a lot better than I did. I would say I completed my project as it has a snake that moves on its own, tiles that affect the snake in different ways and a way to move those said tiles around the grid. I feel like I met my expectations for my project, I feel like I had set my expectations right for this project.
For this project I set out to explore puzzles and make a game involving puzzles. I have managed to do that, I have a game that involves puzzles. I do feel like I could have spent more time researching puzzles, making them fun and challenging for the player. If I was managing my time better I could have puzzles that were challenging and fun for the player. I will have to improve my time management skills for my next project, as I tend to spend too much time on one thing when I should be doing something else that can be done in a couple of seconds. I have learnt that some of things that seem simple actually require so much effort and I should change what I'm working on if it starts to take up too much of my time. I’ve improved my scripting skills a lot more, I have also improved my art skills a lot more and I have a better sense of what things could look like when making things that can be very long. I feel like if I added sound effects to my game it would have improved my game a lot more and made the player to be more immersed into what they are doing. I also feel like I should have made the snake sprites colours a lot more vibrate. It would have come out a lot better in game, as they look more reddish and darker compared to the UI which is the colour I wanted everything to be.
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So I'm currently unemployed because I got fired for taking too much sick leave (it was legally sketchy blah blah blah but in the end I just can't work and take care of myself and investigate my mystery health problems at the same time). So I've been spending more time writing!
I really admire your writing and loved Hunger Pangs. I'm looking forward to the poly elements developing and I'm wondering if you have any advice for writing about poly. I've made one of my projects a snarky take on "write what you know" ... Apparently what I know is southern gothic meets Pacific northwest gothic, chronic illness pandemic surrealism, and falling back-asswards into threesomes.
I know this is a very open-ended question and I don't expect an answer, I'm just curious about it if you have the energy. As a writer, trying to write honestly / realistically about polyamory/enm, I'm curious if you have any thoughts on what's different about portraying monogamy or nonmonogamy in books, romance or erotica or otherwise.
I'm trying to read examples but it's hard to find examples that fit the niche I'm looking at. Excuse me if this question is nonsense, it's the cluster headaches.
I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with all that and solidarity on the cluster headaches. But I'm glad you're finding an outlet through writing! And I hope you're happy with an open-ended ramble in response because oh boy, there's a lot I could talk about and I could probably do a better job of answering this sort of thing with more specific questions, but let's see where we end up.
There's definitely a big difference between writing polyamory/ENM (ethical non-monogamy) and what people often expect from monogamous love stories.
Just even from a purely sales and marketing standpoint, the moment you write anything polyamorous (or even just straight up LGBTQIA+ without the ENM) you're going to get considered closer to being erotica/obscene than hetero romances. It's an unfair bias, but it's one that exists in our society. But also the Amazon algorithm and their shitty, shitty human censors. Especially the ones that work the weekends. (Talking to you, Carlos 🖕.)
So not only do you start out hyper-aware that you're writing something that is highly stigmatized or fetishized (at least I'm hyper-aware) but that you are also writing for a niche market that is starving for positive content because the content that exists is either limited, not what they want, or is problematic in some fashion i.e. highly stigmatized or fetishy. And even then, the wants, desires, and expectations of the community you're writing for are complex and wildly varied and hard to fit into an easy formula.
When writing monogamous love stories, there is a set expectation that’s really hard to fuck up once you know it. X person meets Y. Attraction happens, followed by some sort of minor conflict/resolution. Other plot may happen. A greater catalyst involving personal growth for both parties (hopefully) happens. Follow the equation to its ultimate resolution and achieve Happily Ever After.
But writing ENM is... a lot more difficult, if only because of the pure scope of possibilities. You could try to follow the same equation and shove three (or more) people into it, but it rarely works well. Usually because if you’re doing it right, you won’t have enough room in a single character arc to allow for enough growth, and if ENM requires anything in abundance, it’s room to grow.
And this post is huge so I’m going to put the rest under a cut :)
There's also a common refrain in certain online polyam/ENM circles that triads and throuples are overrepresented in media and they may be right to some extent. Personally, I believe the issue isn't that triads and throuples are overrepresented, but that there is such minuscule positive rep of ethical non-monogamy in general, that the few tiny instances we have of triads in media make it seem like it's "everywhere" when in actuality, it's still quite rare and the media we do have often veers into Unicorn Hunter fetish porn. Which is its own problematic thing. And just to be clear, I’m not including this part to dissuade you from writing "falling back-asswards into threesomes." If anything, I need more of it and would hook it directly into my brain if I could. I'm just throwing it out there into the void in the hope that someone will take the thought and run with it, lol.
I’d love to see more polyfidelitous rep in fiction, just as much as I’d like to see more relationship anarchy too. More diversity in fiction is always good.
Another thing that differs in writing ENM romance vs conventional monogamy is the feeling like you need to justify yourself. There's a lot of pressure to be as healthy and non-problematic as possible because you are being held to a higher standard of criticism. Both from people from without the ENM communities, and from the people within. Granted, some people don't give a shit and just want to read some fantastic porn (valid) but there are those who will cheerfully read Fifty Shades of Bullshit and call it "spicy" and "romantic," then turn around and call the most tooth-rottingly-sweet-fluff about a queer platonic polycule heresy. That's just the way the world works.
(Pro-tip for author life in general: never read your own reviews; that way madness lies. I glimpsed one the other day that tagged Hunger Pangs as “ethical cheating” and just about had an aneurism.)
And while that feeling of needing to justify yourself comes from a valid place of being excluded from the table of socially accepted norms, it can also be to the detriment of both the story and the subject matter at hand. I've seen some authors bend so far over backward to avoid being problematic in their portrayal of ENM, they end up being problematic for entirely different reasons. Usually because they give such a skewed, rose-tinted perspective of how things work, it ends up coming off as well... a bit culty and obnoxious tbh.
“Look how enlightened we are, freed from the trappings of monogamy and jealousy! We’re all so honest and perfect and happy!”
Yeah, uhu, sure Jan. Except here’s the thing, not all jealousy is bad. How you act on it can be, but jealousy itself is an important tool in the junk drawer that is the range of human emotion. It can clue us in to when we’re feeling sad or neglected, which in turn means we should figure out why we’re feeling those things. Sometimes it’s because brains are just like that and anxiety is a thing. Other times it’s because our needs are actually being neglected and we are in an unhealthy situation we need to remedy. You gotta put the work in to figure it out. Which is the same as any style of relationship, whether it’s mono, polyam or whatever flavor of ENM you subscribe to* And sometimes you just gotta be messy, because that’s how humans are. Being afraid to show that mess makes it a dishonest portrayal, and it also robs you of some great cannon fodder for character development.
Which brings me in a roundabout way to my current pet peeve in how certain writers take monogamous ideals and apply them to ENM, sometimes without even realizing it. The “Find the Right Person and Settle Down” trope.
Often, in this case, ENM or polyamory is treated as a phase. Something you mature out of with age or until you meet “The One(tm).” This is, of course, an attempt to follow the mono style formula expected in most romances. And while it might appeal to many readers, it’s uh, actually quite insulting.
To give an example, I am currently seeing this a lot in the Witcher fandom.
Fanon Netflix!Jaskier is everyone's favorite ethical slut until he meets Geralt then woops, wouldn’t you know, he just needed to find The One(tm). Suddenly, all his other sexual and romantic exploits or attractions mean nothing to him. Let's watch as he throws away a core aspect of his personality in favor of a man.
Yeah... that sure showed those societal norms...
If I were being generous, I’d say it’s a poor attempt at showing New Relationship Euphoria and how wrapped up people can become in new relationships. But honestly, it’s monogamous bias eking its way in to validate how special and unique the relationship is. Because sometimes people really can’t think of any other way to show how important and valid a relationship is without defining it in terms of exclusivity. Which is a fundamental misunderstanding of how ENM works for a lot of people and invalidates a lot of loving, serious and long-term relationships.
This is not to say that some polyam/poly-leaning people can't be happy in monogamous relationships! I am! (I consider myself ambiamorous. I'm happy with either monogamy or polyamory, it really just depends on the relationship(s) I’m in.) But I also don't regard my relationship with a mono partner as "settling down" or "growing up." It's just a choice I made to be with a person I love, and it's a valid one. Just like choosing to never close yourself off to multiple relationships is valid. And I wish more people realized that, or rather, I wish the people writing these things knew that :P
Anyway, I think I’ve rambled enough. I hope this collection of incoherent thoughts actually makes some sense and might be useful.
----
*A good resource book that doesn't pull any punches in this regard is Polysecure by Jessica Fern. It's a wonderfully insightful read that explores the messier side of consensual non-monogamy, especially with how it can be affected by trauma or inter-relationship conflicts. But it also shows how to take better steps toward healthy, ethical non-monogamy (a far better job than More Than Two**) and conflict resolution, making it a valuable resource both for someone who is a part of this relationship style***, but also for writers on the outside looking in who might have a very simple or misguided idea of what conflict within polyam/ENM relationships might look like, vs traditional monogamous ones.
** The author of More Than Two has been accused of multiple accounts of abuse within the polyamorous community, with many of his coauthors having spoken out about the gaslighting and emotional and psychological damage they experienced while in a relationship with him. A lot of their stories are documented here: https://www.itrippedonthepolystair.com/ (warning: it is not light material and deals with issues of abuse, gaslighting, and a whole other plethora of Yikes.) While some people still find More Than Two helpful reading, there are now, thankfully, much, much better resources out there.
*** Some people consider polyam/ENM to be part of their identity or orientation, while others view it as a relationship style.It largely depends on the individual.
#long post#writing#ethical non-monogamy#relationship styles#relationship models in fiction#also that kindle link is an affiliate link#because fuck giving amazon free recs
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ZOOM CALL
⇢ meeting two
jeon jungkook x (f) reader
⇢ series masterlist
summary: Most notably, there’s one group project waiting for you, which leads you to Friday. Sitting at your desk, bright and early, absolutely dreading being assigned to your group. genre: fluff, slice of life, smut (tags tba) warnings: ITS A SLOW BURN OKAY...., sweetheart jk, campus crush jk, college crushes, social distancing, zoom -_-, jk owns a keroppi plush, oc thirsts over his hot bod, jk’s sweet attempts at flirting </3 he’s just 2 cute for his own good ratings: e for everyone <3 wc: 3.7k
notes: this took long bc i wrote one version but it was SO LAME u guys r lucky my friend and editor ( @kigurumu 🖤 ) stopped me from posting it. so then i had to reorganize my thoughts n b like girl. the ppl are waiting. get it together. anyway here’s zoom jk 😎
Being grouped with Jeon Jungkook (he/him) for your first class on the first day of your first Zoom semester truly sets the standard.
By no means do your other classes suck; they’re quite enjoyable, more relevant to your area of study. They’re familiar which makes them comfortable, your Zoom meetings filled with faces you’ve seen time and time again the last four years. The material interests you, so you definitely don’t have anything against them or your classmates.
That being said, no one is prepared for the awkwardness that comes with each and every Zoom meeting. You never thought you’d be embarrassed to turn your mic on— to speak in a class filled with your peers. And the meetings are all like that, filled with uncomfortable silences and endless black screens.
You wish there was a Jeon Jungkook (he/him) in every class.
Jungkook’s just got this bubbly aura to him, this magnetic presence that staples itself into the back of your mind with each passing day. No one fills a Zoom call like he does, making every person laugh and smile like him.
Wednesday rolls around and you find yourself a little disheartened when you don’t get sorted into the same randomized group as him again. Disappointment melts into annoyance when you find out how incompetent your other classmates are, refusing to speak in the small group or just completely clocking out all together. A lot of them didn’t do the reading— the one you stayed up all night doing —and your first partnered assignment of the semester finds you doing it all by yourself. Muted mics, black windows, complete radio silence; you hated it all.
You find yourself weirdly longing for Jeon Jungkook’s presence, even if he’s only there to talk about some movie he saw last night. No one is as much of a chatterbox as him, can’t even hold a candle to the way he draws everyone in with his mindless conversations. At least he speaks during Breakout Rooms, you think bitterly.
Anyway, the first week of classes ends and your brain is a frenzied mess. There’s schedules to memorize, professors to impress, assignments to plan out. There’s definitely no time to sit around and fantasize about the curly haired cutie in one of your general classes. The weekend is spent trying to organize your planner, filling in due dates and exam days ahead of time. It’s your last semester and you’re dead set on making it your best one yet. There’s a lot of written work this time around, analyses and research papers that need to be organized. The road ahead is manageable, but you’ll have to work hard to keep it that way for the next five months.
Most notably, there’s one group project waiting for you, which leads you to Friday. Sitting at your desk, bright and early, absolutely dreading being assigned to your group.
Jungkook is early this time, not like on Monday where he’d been one of the last to filter in, and he’s looking as chirpy as ever. Donning this horrendously hot pink shirt, completely unlike the neutral tones he’d worn during your last two meetings and that decorate his room, and the cutest pair of circle glasses sitting on his nose. He says his regularly scheduled ‘good morning’ to you all and receives a collective response from the rest of the class that not even your professor got.
Speaking of the professor, you’ve been giving him the stink eye this whole time. Not that he can tell, given the fact he’s probably miles away in his own home while you angrily glare at him through your webcam. It’s this old guy who’s decided to sort you all into semester long groups for the class, which is the absolute worst. These types of groups always go the same way: you make a group chat promising to study together, those plans fall through, and then everyone just leeches off of each other for homework answers. And in most cases, it’s you handing over your homework answers because no one else ever bothers to do anything. Sadly, it’s a routine you’ve had to suffer through many times in your academic career.
The thought makes you sick. Having to spend another semester being labeled as the bossy, nerdy dictator of the group? Not exactly how you wanted to spend the last few months of college, but there’s nothing you can do. Maybe this time around you’ll just let it be, won’t fight it (and by it, you mean your lazy classmates when they inevitably try to guilt trip you for homework) and simply let it run its course.
“I’m going to put you guys into Breakout Rooms with your new groups!” your professor claps excitedly, and then you and the rest of your classmates are forced to watch him lean too close to the camera as he begins clicking around to find the preset groups he’s assigned the class. “Remember, guys, this is it for the rest of the semester. So if something isn’t right, let me know by the end of today.”
Man, this was going to suck, you groan. The syllabus had said that the purpose of these groups was to keep you all connected with your classmates during these trying times, to give you the same opportunities in-person learning would. Frankly, you’re not too worried about making friends with everyone in this large class. Most of them are younger than you anyway, save for Jeon Jungkook (he/him) and a handful of others who are apparently in your year. Befriending lowerclassmen only to have to bid them adieu in a few months seems awfully sad, a little too heartbreaking. You really just want to get a good grade in this class, collect the last of your credits, and put this whole college experience behind you.
Your thoughts are wrapped up by the pop-up message that appears on screen.
The host is inviting you to join a Breakout Room: Group 12
You sigh, contemplate dropping this class for all of two seconds, before dutifully accepting the request. Worse comes to worst, you make up some lie to tell your professor that you’re allergic to group work and hope it works. (It won’t.)
You sit through the mandatory loading screen for a few seconds before being abruptly dumped into your new room, Group 12, or so the message had said. There’s no one else here yet, which isn’t really a surprise. A lot of your classmates are probably like you, scowling at the pop up message every time your professor sends you into small groups before accepting the request. So you chill by yourself, eyes tracing over your own mirrored image. The notes on last night’s reading are neatly laid out before you, your copy of the book off to the side.
Another beat and then, much to your surprise, Jeon Jungkook (he/him) is appearing in your room. “Oh,” he says, round eyes magnified by the thick lens of his glasses, the glare of the computer’s glow casting a funny shape across the lens that momentarily robs you of his pretty eyes. His pretty pink lips stretch into a smile, upper lip thinning out a bit when he flashes you those perfect teeth. “Hi, __,” he greets politely, bubbly.
It’s embarrassing how much his presence affects you, your back going ramrod straight in a terrible attempt to compose yourself. “Hi, Jungkook,” you manage to get out, fingers nervously reaching for something, anything, to ground yourself. They land on a pencil.
Jungkook doesn’t seem even the slightest bit aware of the commotion he causes within you. “I was really nervous for these groups,” he begins rambling right away, lips pushing down into an exaggerated frown as he shivers at the memory. “But I’m glad I got placed with someone hardworking like you!”
Despite how sweet he sounds, you’re not entirely sure if he’s buttering you up just to take advantage of your ‘hardworking’ attitude later down the road or if he’s genuinely being polite. The little information you know about Jungkook wants you to believe it is the latter; he’s very kind, sweet and nice in a way that makes everyone he speaks to feel warm. Still, for all you know this could be some elaborate ruse of his to make you trust him now and then convince you to do all the work for the rest of the semester.
Tentatively, you ask, “and how would you know that?” You try your best to keep your usual snappiness out of your voice, pose it simply out of curiosity. But everything you say or do feels like a stark contrast to Jungkook and his bubbliness.
His head tilts cutely to the side, imploring brown eyes looking at you for one hard second. And then, “I read your forum analysis from Wednesday,” he admits, breaking into a smile. Shy and tiny, bashfully looking down at his desk. “I thought your perspective on the piece was really interesting,” he says, lips pursing together as if he’s suddenly too embarrassed to admit such things to you.
Stunned, all you can manage is one slow nod. “Thank you,” you eventually choke out, trying to ward the heat away from your cheeks as Jungkook sheepishly nods back, cute smile still on his face.
“Oh, please,” he chuckles, raising his hand to rub at the back of his neck. “Don’t thank me!”
It is in this exact moment that you are suddenly made aware of two things.
One: despite his collection of soft sweaters and t-shirts, his bouncy curls and sweet smile, Jeon Jungkook’s body is neither as cute nor as soft as any of his belongings. In fact, Jeon Jungkook’s body is all hard planes and prominent veins. Arms beefy, biceps that bulge beneath the fabric of the short sleeve t-shirt he’s donned today. His shoulders fill out the material nicely, making him look broad and huge, but that’s not even the worst part, because—
—two: Jeon Jungkook is covered in ink. Dark streaks and swirls paint his forearms, curling around his elbow. Every inch of his pale skin is littered with tiny designs. They dance along the back of his hands, over his knuckles, and end at an unidentifiable point beneath the sleeve of his t-shirt. When he tugs at the neckline of his shirt in an effort to readjust it, you hope your eyes are deceiving you and that isn’t a hint of ink by his collarbone.
Your normal composure seems to slip away at the mere thought.
It’s Jungkook’s voice that brings you back, a soft timbre that asks, “aren’t we supposed to have someone else in our group?” You flinch as if you’ve been caught ogling him, never mind the fact he’s started mindlessly shuffling some papers around on his desk, not the slightest bit concerned with you.
“Oh— um, yes. I think,” you stammer, feeling like some creep for ogling your very cute, very sweet classmate. The memory of his inky skin nearly sends a shiver down your spine as you navigate back to the class syllabus. “We’re supposed to have at least three people,” you read off, glancing at the boy on your screen who frowns at the news.
“Do you think they dropped?” Given it was still only the first week of school, probably. There had been a fewer number of people in the call when it started, you remembered. Jungkook sighs, this rather light sound that ends in a hum. “Well, we can always wait a few minutes just in case.”
So you wait, nervously bouncing your leg up and down. It’s not awkward, or at least, not as awkward as it would be with anyone else. The other week you had silently sat with another classmate in a one-on-one discussion and hadn’t uttered a word for five minutes. It wasn’t because you didn’t care about the class, but because said classmate had been tapping away on their phone the entire time and hadn’t even responded to your simple greeting. That was awkward.
With Jungkook it’s more weird than awkward. You can tell the silence makes him uncomfortable because he keeps doing these tiny inhales like he’s about to speak, followed by a little head shake where he seemingly stops himself from saying anything at all. He wants to talk, very badly it seems, but holds back for some odd reason.
He’s scribbling on some sheet of paper, leaning forward to give you a view of the top of his head. From this angle, his shirt hangs forward and a silver necklace falls out from beneath the neckline, thuds against the table. And then your suspicions are nearly confirmed, and oh god, is that a chest piece—
You quickly look away.
Robbed of his handsome face and feeling like you’ll die if you look at his body any longer, you settle for your newly acquired favorite pastime: inspecting your classmates’ rooms over Zoom. Yes, you’ll admit it is incredibly nosy, but what else can you do? You can only look at your professor for so long until you inevitably grow bored, attention drifting off to your classmates tiny windows. And with no professor in sight, just gorgeous Jeon Jungkook, you quickly begin your examination of his bedroom.
Jungkook’s room is pretty much the same as you remember it, rather neat and plain. There’s not a lot going on in terms of decoration, which is a little surprising to say the least. Over the course of the week, you’ve watched your classmates’ dormitories and bedrooms gradually change, decorations and tapestries decorating the walls, mountains of pillows added to their beds. It’s only natural that everyone has an innate need to show off who they are now more than ever, and you thought Jungkook would be the same.
Apparently not.
Aside from the guitar you had spotted on Monday, his little dorm room remains unchanged. Blank walls, grayscale sheets. The same perfectly fluffed pillows and then—
A tiny Keroppi plush smack dab in the middle of his bed.
It’s adorable but a little out of place amongst Jungkook’s rather masculine decorations (or lack thereof). A tiny green doll sitting by his pillows, cute striped shirt and ridiculously dopey smile.
Leaning forward, you unmute yourself and conversationally say, “I love your Keroppi.”
At the sudden sound of your voice, Jungkook abruptly straightens up, glasses practically at the very tip of his nose. Eyes wide, it takes him a second to process your words before jerkily whipping around to stare at the aforementioned item. “Oh,” he jumps, slowly looking at his screen again, lips pulled into a tight line. “Um… it’s not mi—“
“It’s adorable,” you add, propping your chin in your palm, absolutely endeared with the rosy color that paints his cheeks, fades down the column of his neck.
He squirms, hurriedly pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He looks like he’ll deny it again, nervously nibbling at his lower lip, before eventually he settles with a sigh. “I won it from a crane machine,” he confesses with a sheepish huff of laughter, rolling backwards to the edge of his bed to snatch it from its spot.
(Of course he manspreads as he sits, dark jeans hugging his thighs as he rolls back your way. His arm looks so strong, covered in all that ink, you nearly drool.)
“It’s cute, isn’t it?” he says, abandoning his embarrassment as he shakes the little figure around, makes it look like it’s dancing for you. “My mom said it looks like me.”
At that, you laugh. Loud and boisterous because you were definitely not expecting Jungkook to say that, such an odd but weirdly fitting comparison that has you looking at the doll in his hands with renewed interest. And through the pixelated screen, you can see the similarities: Jungkook does have the same smile as Keroppi.
“Your mom was right,” you agree, wiping a faux tear from the corner of your eye. “Very cute.”
Jungkook’s got this big goofy smile on, shaking his head in disbelief that you would ever dare agree with his mom. Like he’s genuinely enjoying himself, you think, oddly proud to have evoked that reaction from him. Granted, Jungkook always looks like he’s pretty happy during class, but it feels nice knowing that you were (confirmed) the reason why.
A little caught up with the bumbling feeling in your chest, you’re not expecting his next words. “Does that mean I’m cute?” he asks, still with that same dopey smile on his face.
It’s a bold statement you wouldn’t have expected from him, someone who seems content being the world’s friend, but apparently Jeon Jungkook also craves compliments.
Slowly, you nod. “...yes,” you say, trying to keep the tumultuous emotions inside of you at bay while you grant him this one compliment. Outwardly, you give him what you hope is an obviously feigned look of disbelief, managing to lace it with a little amusement as you shake your head at his inquiry. On the inside, your mind and heart are a thundering racetrack, the roar of the engines and the screams of the crowd enough to momentarily make you lose your senses. “Very cute,” you repeat, hoping he can’t hear the same pounding of your heartbeat in your throat and in your ears as you do. “Like a little frog.”
Jungkook graces your robotic response with the most boyish laugh, head tossed back as one loud cackle (because, really, there is no other way to describe the sound that tears itself from his throat) escapes him, curls bouncing back from the movement. “Cute like a frog,” he wheezes, seemingly to himself as he shakes his head with a grin, scooting closer to the camera again. “That’s a new one.”
“You set yourself up for it,” you defend, busying yourself with the papers spread out in front of you before Jungkook can distract you any further. “Anyway!” you announce, neatly lining the papers up. “Our group.”
Jungkook does his best to wipe the glee off his face, but even as he reaches around for his things, it’s still there. “Right,” he agrees, “we have to, um—“ a huff of laughter “—group contract! Or, well, partner project.”
Briefly, you consider calling in your professor to inform him of your missing partner. He had said to let him know by the end of today if something was wrong. But, honestly, you didn’t see a problem with your group the way it was now. While you can only hope he’ll turn out to be as dedicated to his work as you, as it stands now, there weren’t any major red flags surrounding Jungkook’s character.
Besides, you didn’t mind being with him for the rest of the semester.
You nod, forcing yourself to ignore the glimmer in his eyes when he looks at you through the screen. “I think it’s safe to say it’ll just be the two of us, which I don’t mind,” you say, glancing at the time on the corner of your screen to see five minutes have passed since you agreed to wait. “Do you?”
On screen, Jungkook profusely shakes his head, curls bouncing all over the place. “Nope,” he hums. “I don’t mind at all,” he reassures you, resting his chin in his palm as he regards you, and then sweetly adds, “it’ll be nice with just us, __.”
Right.
You gulp, heart fluttering at the dreaminess he exudes through your screen, the soft strand of hair that falls over his forehead, tickles his brow bone when he flashes you another smile. He was so handsome. Before you say anything silly, you quickly attempt to move on. “But it does make us more of a duo than a group.”
Jungkook looks away from his screen for the first time in what feels like forever and you finally let your heart rest for a second. “A duo,” he murmurs, shuffling through his papers. “Like Mickey and Minnie?”
You nearly choke on your spit, coughing to hide the surprise from his rather cute suggestion. He’s not even looking at you, doesn’t even realize the absolute shock he’s thrown you in by comparing the two of you to one of the most famous couples— that’s what they are, a goddamn couple, not a duo! the words mean two completely different things! —in the world. Instead, Jungkook is humming the theme song to Drake & Josh.
This man was dangerous for your heart.
After having felt all the emotions in the world in the span of ten seconds, you eventually gather the courage to say, “sure,” and quickly try to move the conversation along. “We just need to, um, make some ground rules and responsibilities for us to follow.”
Jungkook nods, finally glancing up again, but not at you. He’s glaring at some point behind his computer, brows furrowed together as he begins brainstorming on his own. You try to, really, but his lips pout adorably when he’s deep in thought, and they’re just so pink and look so soft and would feel like—
“Well, we should probably exchange numbers first,” Jungkook says, interrupting your spiraling thoughts with a new topic to spiral over. He tilts his head to the side, brown eyes focused on you.
“Yes, of course,” you stammer, fumbling for your phone as Jungkook lets out a soft yay at your acceptance of his request. Quickly, he recites his number and you type it in with trembling hands into the number pad, giving him a quick call so he can have your number as well.
You save him right away, just his name followed by the class you share with him. Not like you know any other Jeon Jungkooks, and if you did, you doubt anyone could ever leave such an impact like this Jeon Jungkook.
“__, look,” Jungkook calls, that same excitement lacing his already lovely voice, and you raise your head up at the screen again. He’s waving his phone over his camera, so you don’t get to see his face when he says, “It’s a little mouse emoji and a pink bow— just like Minnie!”
Dangerous for your heart and, most likely, the death of you this semester.
Copyright © 2021, 1kook on tumblr. absolutely NO reposts allowed.
#networkbangtan#bangtanhq#jungkook fic#jungkook smut#jeon jungkook fic#jungkook x reader#jeon jungkook x reader#bts smut#bts fic#jjk smut#jeon jungkook smut#jjk♡#mine
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hi do u have espresso head canons i wanna hear you talk about this asshole /pos
I have SO MANY please you have no clue yet
I am sure there are gonna be things I list that are canon but let me live. I project to him so much its not even funny
I am putting this under the cut becasue I am about to go offfff. This is an entire essay, a short character study if you may /lhj
Growing up he almost always had some kinda roommate or a cookie he lived with to help with rent. I hc that in the Lower Republic its a standard experience to be swapping between homes with often a handful of others so you can pay for the apartment. I am talking one person being the legal owner/renter and 3-5 other people living there in secret so they can make ends meet.
I hc that he was childhood friends with Licorice as well along with Seaweed. I am unsure about Affogato but I 100% say they were friends with Licorice.
He used to be very clumsy and bad with magic because no one was there to help him. He picked up every single skill and ability he has by himself, magical and life skills equally. (Which is also partially why he sucks so bad with self care. He never properly learned how a functional, healthy person should live.)
He is very light sensitive due to him growing up in the Lower Republic. Its canonically darker there (if I remember correctly) so he likely got used to cold and dark being the norm.
I have a whole essay on why Espresso hates light magic in my headcanon but that is for another day.
With that being said, I think he unconciously keeps dressing warmer than necessary. He would wear long sleeves or sweaters in hot weather, causing him to overheat every so often. It's a hard habit to break.
I hc him having a love hate relationship with darkness as well. Depending on his emotional and mental state it can either comfort him or set him off even more.
Set him off by making him feel suffocated, reminding him of his childhood and struggles, bringing him back to survival mode unintentionally. He feels like he achieved nothing still, having to work and grind day and night for little to no proof of how far he came. (Of course this is mainly false. Espresso is a respected and well known mage, he is just spiraling.)
Comfort is similar tho. It brings him back to his childhood when he is overwhelmed/overstimulated by noise or light or just simply stress. Darkness was what he knew best for majority of his life so he would find peace in it when things got too much, too strange, too new.
He is hard to break out of survival mode once he slips into the mindset. He gets more closed off but not snappy just quiet. He spends more time in his lab, takes care of himself less, too wrapped up with the his work to notice anything around him. If things get too bad, he only notices what he is doing again when he passes out from exhaustion, finally catching on that he slipped again.
He is so neurodivergent but also has So Many Issues. A therapist would have a field day with this man. His biggest obsession is his work partially because of hyperfixtation and partially because he Needs To Work.
Most of the Elders and Upper Republic did/does not respect him. His conversation with Landlord cookie (whom I have a love hate relationship with) shows that another reason why he has to work so much is to literally get paid. He teaches for money more so than to educate others. He is far from ready to be an actual teacher, his researches are not done and there are too many unknown things about coffee magic for him to confidently pick up students, yet he needs to.
The Lower Republic has mixed views on him. Some of them are happy and proud of him, of how far he got and how much he grew and achieved and the other half resents him for the same reason. The latter half thinks he became one of the all too proud, shiny snobs of the upper republic, turning his back to them.
Actual insomniac, add it to the list of issues. Sure, coffee cookies have higher body heat and netural caffeine in them but with the literal caffeine addiction and amount of stress he is under, i think he has had many occasions where he Wanted to sleep but physically Could Not no matter how frustratingly tired he was, which is why he ended up with just giving up on even trying to have a sleep schedule. Whenever his body decides he is allowed to sleep actually sleep and not just feel like walking dead then he will likely accept it and go to bed.
He has many many skills. He is good at engineering (he built his own lab), science, physics and a handful of life skills such as cleaning, cooking, sewing and first aid. He is very good with young kids as well, he had lots of experience from living with and looking after them when he was young.
I think dying his hair tends to be an impulse decision for whenever he remembers to do it. He doesn't pay too much mind to how he doses it or how he looks since his hair gets messy by itself. He often forgets he has hair dye in when he does it because he goes back to his work as he waits and ends up with it on for hours.
He dresses fancily because 1, aesthetic and 2, the more put together he looks the more people respect him. Its another of those things that he carried on from his childhood. He likes to seem bigger than he is for passive intimidation and charisma points.
He is very moody, (or emotionally unstable depending on how severly you want to view it) swinging between emotions very easily with little to no influence from time to time. Sleep deprivation and unresolved trauma does that to you.
He goes nonverbal when having a meltdown. Like he just shuts off and shuts up, leaving everything and everyone behind until he calms down.
He has a habit of fixing his glasses and covering his face more when he is nervous or embarrassed. He rocks his legs a lot and taps his fingers on stuff to stim. He is a "socks are necessary part of life and i'll die without them" kinda autistic. Floor boards on bare feet are his enemy.
He loves pets of all kinds but he refuses to keep one. He knows he would not be able to be there for it or care for it as much as it needs because of his work.
This is all I can think of on top of my head. I should make an actual google doc haha- there are 100% more things I have about him but I have been typing for like an hour and I need to make breakfast so here is the short version.
He either talks to himself as much as he can or not at all, no in between. Nervous muttening under his breath, reading things out to double check, repeating words that felt nice to say and so on but sometimes he needs absolute and utter silence.
Edit: HIS GENDER THO
Fuck food I have to add this real fast. This man has no clue what he is or who he likes. He had no time in his life to sit and think about it. The one time he even attmepted to explore the fact that he may be into anyone he decided it was too distracting and just sealed those thoughts away. This man does not sit down to have food most of the time do you think he will sacrifice his brain power to find a label?
Thank you for the question and the opportunity for me to talk about this man I will love you forever anon /pl
#cake rambles#like a lot#cookie run#cookie run kingdom#espresso cookie#character study#kinda#cake asks#cake talks#hehe#long post
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Perfect
Pairing: Akaashi x Reader
Genre/Warnings: NSFW, Yandere, Toxic Relationships, Manipulation, Non-Con/Dub-Con, Forced Impregnation
Prompt: “I told you to stay still”
Summary: The perfect couple always has children. Multiple children. A full family. A house full of laughter and home-cooked meals. And you two are the epitome of a perfect couple. So why are you still so hesitant about taking the next big step?
Author’s Note: This is my contribution for my HQ Discord Server’s NSFW collaboration. There are so many talented writers on the server and I highly encourage you to check out the collaboration masterlist here to see how everyone decided to run with this spicy prompt. (Masterlist goes live Tuesday 6th October 11:00pm U.K. time!)
Akaashi’s always been an overthinker. He can admit that. He knows it’s a flaw he’s always had and could never seem to shake off. But just because he realizes it doesn’t mean he does anything about it. And the overwhelming pressure he places on himself in everything he does only fuels the suffocating thoughts until they’re screaming in his head. Unfortunately for you, his sweet darling wife, that only means terrible things for you and suddenly every move you make is alarming, every word you say is suspicious, every breath you take painstakingly monitored.
Akaashi just wants to be the perfect husband, the perfect lover, the perfect provider. He wants the two of you to be the perfect happily married couple, to live the perfect domestic life. So after years of playing house, of devoting all his attention and love on you, of spoiling you rotten with everything you could possibly want, when you tell him you aren’t ready to have children yet, he feels his cool facade slip and the incessant thoughts begin to drown him.
The perfect couple always has children. Multiple children. A full family. A house full of laughter and home-cooked meals. And you two are the epitome of a perfect couple. So why are you still so hesitant about taking the next big step? Are you tired of him? Do you not want to have kids with him? Are you planning on leaving him?
You nervously shift from foot to foot, intimidated by the chaos you see in blue eyes and you tentatively reach out to your husband, trying to understand what’s wrong, but you sigh in relief as he jolts at your touch, staring blankly at you before setting his face back to its usual serene countenance, slightly smiling at you as he nods in understanding and affectionately kisses your forehead. This is the Akaashi you’d fallen in love with and you happily sigh as you wrap your arms around his waist, letting yourself be rocked in his arms in a warm embrace, ignorant of how his face hardens as soon as his chin is tucked above your head, eyes thoughtful, mind scheming.
It takes some coaxing, some patient conversations during your most vulnerable moments when you were still groggily rubbing the sleep out of your eyes or yawning as you lay your head on the pillow to sleep at night, but he finally gets his answers and he smiles in endearment as you worry about whether or not you’re ready to be a mom. Would you even be a good mom? Oh. He’s sure you’re going to be the perfect mother and he makes a mental note to prove that to you until you see it for yourself, but he’s grateful for the darkness that hides his grimace when you go on to talk about how you also want to focus on your career for now. It’s not that Akaashi is against women working. He doesn’t hate how happy and fulfilled you feel as you ramble on and on about work, about your coworkers, about your salary and title. He just thinks you’d be even more perfect as his pretty little housewife and he quietly plans and strategizes as your breathing gets heavier and heavier until you’re fast asleep besides him on your shared bed.
He waits until your chest rises and falls in even rhythms before reaching over for your phone. You’ve always been so trusting, probably too trusting of him, but that works in his favor now as he flawlessly types in your password and dives into your alarms and work emails. A swipe there, a deletion here. He meticulously combs through your phone turning off your alarms, deleting important meetings, getting rid of urgent emails waiting for your response before he quietly places your phone on the nightside table by you, pleased with his work and he closes his own eyes, a small smile on his face as he peacefully sleeps.
Luckily, he leaves for work much earlier than you, so he’s out the door before you can even realize the messy day you’re about to have and he can’t be blamed for not waking you up when your alarm doesn’t go off. He patiently waits and waits, glancing at his phone every now and then, waiting for the onslaught of panicked and distressing texts he knows you’ll send his way as your day gets progressively worse and worse. And sure enough, his phone vibrates over and over again as you send a flurry of texts steeped in negative emotions and like the perfect husband he is, he sends the consoling and comforting notes you need. And when you call, crying and sobbing about being yelled at, about how awful at your job you are, he’s there to soothe you.
“Don’t cry, love. It’s not your fault. You’re an amazing woman. Maybe this just isn’t the right job for you or the right company for you.”
He plants the seeds of doubt in your mind and you let them be watered by the sweet suggestions he sprinkles on you. And with just a few more flicks of his wrist in the middle of the night when you’re asleep, ignorant of your phone being used without your knowledge, and a little bit of time, you’re finally fired and he’s there, rushing back home to wrap you in his arms. But he smiles when instead of being distraught, you merely sit there quietly as you tuck yourself against him.
“Maybe this just wasn’t the right job for me, Keiji.”
He encourages you to take some time off from the workforce. You had worked so hard for so long. You deserve a break. And you mindlessly nod along to his silky voice. Relaxing does sound nice. You had thrown yourself into your job so much that you’d forgotten what it was like to have so much free time and you begin to excitedly ponder what hobbies you could pick up to fill the days, what projects around the house you could finally get done.
Akaashi sighs when his alarm goes off the next morning, but he sits up in confusion when the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafts through the air and he blearily turns to your side of the bed, freezing when he finds it empty. But his groggy mind begins to put two and two together and he rushes towards the kitchen where he feels like his heart might burst at the sight of you humming, an apron daintily wrapped around you as you pour a generous amount of dark caffeine in his favorite mug. And he can’t stop himself from closing the distance between you as he tenderly wraps you in his arms, turning you around until you’re face to face as he captures your lips in a good morning kiss. He wants every morning to be like this, he thinks, as he mentally captures the image of you smiling and waving goodbye to him from the apartment door. The perfect loving wife seeing her husband off.
You spend your long days at home tidying up the house, decorating spaces in the house you’d always wanted to spruce up but never had time to before, spending hours in the kitchen cooking and baking everything you’d always wanted to try. It’s nice to fall into a domestic rhythm with Akaashi and work is far from your mind as you cheerily greet your husband when he comes home, as the two of you pleasantly chat while he eats the piping hot delicious meal you’ve prepared for him, as he hand feeds you the brownies you had made as the two of you sit on the couch and watch a show together.
But as time goes on, you find yourself twiddling your thumbs a bit with just a little too much idle time on your hand now that the interior of the apartment is exactly up to your dream standards of cleanliness and decor. And you can’t help but wonder how nice it would be to have a small child running about the place, keeping you company while Akaashi is away at work. You freeze when the thought crosses your mind and your brows furrow in confusion. Where had that thought come from? You’d never wanted kids before. And yet...You quickly shove that fleeting idea to the back of your mind as you refold laundry that had already been handled, throwing yourself into anything that could distract you from the strange desires plaguing your mind.
Little do you know how much Akaashi has influenced you in the time you’ve been stuck at home. Little do you know that the daily evening walks he takes you on after dinner are always purposefully done around the nearby children parks. Little do you know that the little comments and remarks he makes about how adorable that child is, how silly this child is aren’t as offhand as you think. They’re strategically strung together words just for you and he slightly smiles when he sees them weaving through your mind as your eyes soften and a longing smile begins to tug at your lips when you turn to look at what he’s talking about. Little do you know that it’s no accident when the two of you go shopping and find yourselves passing aisles of children’s toys and clothing. And Akaashi feels his chest tighten with affection when you unconsciously skim your fingers over the tiny shoes and onesies, asking him for his opinions.
“Aren’t these cute, Keiji?”
And he nods his head as he reaches down to hold your hand, interlacing his fingers with yours as you continue perusing.
He knows he almost has you right where he wants you. He can almost see the cogs turning in your head, see you imagining a life with him and a family...your own little family. It’s time for the final step and he secretly keeps tabs on the convenient period tracking app you have on your phone waiting and waiting until your next ovulation period and when it comes, you squeal in surprise when he impatiently whisks you off to your shared bedroom and presses you down onto the bed as soon as he steps into the house after work.
His movements are so hurried, so rough, so unlike how Akaashi normally is, but you eagerly reciprocate, excited to see this side of your husband and you’re a moaning, writhing mess as he bites and sucks every inch of your skin, a trail of red skin following in his wake as he marks up your neck, collarbones, and breasts. You’re already dripping wet by the time he finally reaches down to rub your clit and slip his fingers inside of you and your hips buck up into his touch, urging him for more. Your head is swirling with lust and you whine when he briefly slips away to guide the tip of his cock against your leaking hole and you shudder in desire when you feel him running his tip along your slit. But even in your dazed state, you feel yourself hesitate a bit when you see that he isn’t using a condom.
“Keiji, I’m ovulating. You need to use a cond- AH!”
You’re cut off as he slides his cock inside of you, your slick walls greedily sucking him in with little resistance and you try to muster up the words to repeat yourself, but you can’t articulate anything as he leans down to suck a perky nipple as he begins to thrust in and out of you in a sensual, but thorough pattern, making sure you can feel every inch of him rubbing against your clenching walls, making sure you can feel him sink balls deep inside of him, making sure you can feel him stimulate the spongy spot inside of you that has you seeing stars. And you give up, trusting that he’d at least pull out before he cums, and you lose yourself to the feeling of being so used and filled, feeling the coil in your stomach grow tighter and tighter, and when blue eyes gaze down at you and he hungrily leans down to capture your lips in a searing kiss, you fall over the edge, your pleasured wails swallowed by your husband’s lips as he chases his own end.
You lay there in mind numbing bliss as he continues to sink in and out of your tight heat, letting out little mewls of overstimulation, but when you feel the erratic rhythm of his thrusts and you see the telltale look on his face as he closes his eyes that indicate he’s close and he makes no attempt to pull out, you weakly shake his shoulders, squirming and wriggling your body from underneath him as you try to pull away.
“K-Keiji, NGH you can cum on me. Okay? AH B-but, you can’t cum inside me.”
You scream when large hands roughly grab your waist in a bruising grip and forcefully pull you down until he’s fully inside you once again.
“Stay still.”
You whimper, trying to be good for him, but anxiety is beginning to cloud your pleasure and you struggle once again, pleading with him and telling him you don’t want to get pregnant. But you keen when that only spurs him on to fuck you rougher, harder, deeper and your eyes roll back as you try to register the almost painful overstimulation you’re going through.
“I told you to stay still.”
And this time you do stay still, unable to do anything else but lay there like a good obedient wife as he pistons in and out of you, your mouth open in a persistent silent scream as your hands desperately scramble to find purchase in the rumpled bed sheets and you brokenly moan when he finally shoves inside of you with one final thrust and your stomach feels hot as spurts of liquid spill inside of you.
You’re in shock as he stays buried inside of you, trapping your body with his as he lays down on top of you, nuzzling and kissing the crook of your neck as he keeps his cum inside of you and you’re not sure how much time passes as you just lay there, mind blank as you try to come to terms with what had just happened. But when you feel his cock begin to twitch and harden inside of you once more, you frantically try to push him away from you, try to separate yourself from him.
“Keiji, stop it! I need to go get Plan B or something. I-”
Your mind is a chaotic swirl as you try to figure out next steps to avoid this unwanted pregnancy and you think you might throw up at the idea of being pregnant, having a child, all so suddenly, so fast.
You’re not ready. You’re not ready. You’re not ready.
Your thoughts are shattered to pieces when you’re shoved back down onto the mattress and you loudly wail when Akaashi begins an unforgiving pace once again, brutally slamming his hips into yours, his cum acting as lubrication, making it easier for him to plow into you and take you over and over again. And the last coherent thought you have is that you were such a fool to not realize just how much stronger, how much larger Akaashi is compared to you as your attempts to shake him off are easily ignored by the man above you.
You don’t know how much time has passed. It feels like an eternity and you’re not sure how you’re still conscious as Akaashi breeds you over and over again. Your mouth is open in a persistent silent scream, your eyes are rolled so far back in your head you can barely see, tears and drool mar your face. Everything feels so good, too good, and you can’t stop sobbing from the overwhelming pleasure you feel as Akaashi keeps on spilling load after load of sticky white liquid inside of you and you curl into Akaashi’s body instinctively for comfort when he sinks down on top of you, exhaustion finally catching up with him. And the two of you just lay there, chests heaving as you both heavily pant, his flaccid cock still buried inside of you, plugging his cum inside of you. And even though you want to yell at him, to be angry at him for forcing this on you, you’re so spent, head empty of anything except for Akaashi that you let yourself be maneuvered until you’re both on your sides, facing each other, your lower bodies still intimately connected.
You let out a little whimper when you feel a large hand gently stroke your cum-filled stomach, but you can feel your face and body grow hot when his other hand gently nudges your chin up to look at him and you see the look of pure love and adoration in his eyes.
“You’re going to look so beautiful with your belly bulging with my children, our children.”
You let out a breathy gasp when he teasingly fondles one of your pebbled nipples and palms your fleshy mound.
“You’re going to look so beautiful when these swell up with milk. I wonder if our children would be willing to share some with their father.”
Sweet word after word spills from his lips and you listlessly lay there listening to him go on and on, painting a picture of what your future lives together would look like, and before you can catch yourself from falling deeper into his trap, your mind betrays you and images flash across your vision and you unconsciously draw even nearer to Akaashi, cuddling into his body affectionately as picture perfect scenes of you braiding a little girl’s hair while Akaashi teaches a little boy how to play volleyball flicker across your imagination. And when Akaashi feels you gently place your hand on top of his hand that’s still cradling your stomach practically sloshing with the amount of liquid he’s gifted you with tonight, he knows he’s got you hook, line, and sinker.
That night the two of you fall asleep, dreaming about the perfect life you’re going to have together.
#haikyuu smut#haikyuu yandere#yandere haikyuu#akaashi x reader#yandere akaashi#tw: noncon#tw: dubcon#tw: manipulation#tw: yandere
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8 — The Healer
The Queen of Tatooine Masterlist
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Pairing: Boba Fett x reader
Word Count: 3.5k
Warnings: NSFW, Blood and injury, medical, unintentional self inflicted harm, mention of disordered eating (Not graphic, but warnings still apply), oral sex (f receiving)
Summary: You get the chance to start working on a long awaited project, and get in over your head.
A few days later your breakfast with Talece and Mira is interrupted by the head of one of the construction and renovation crews to let you know that the sunless garden space is complete.
You’re so excited you can hardly finish your meal. You find yourself wanting to sprint down the halls to see the room. It takes so much self restraint to compose yourself and walk beside the rather stoic and unbothered construction lead down to the room.
Before the renovation it must have been either a ballroom or a massive storage space. Either way it was not well maintained. It was full of piles and piles of junk that climbed all the way to the ceiling, the floors and the walls were damaged, and it was unusable.
It had been your idea to gut the room and turn it into something usable and unique. You loved having a garden on your homeworld, and since nothing grows on Tatooine due to the excessive heat from the suns and the lack of fertile soil, this seemed like the perfect use for the room.
Boba didn’t have much of an opinion on it either way when you initially pitched him the idea. In all honesty, he was just happy to see how happy it made you. He was quite impressed by your ingenuity creating this room. Artificial sun and moon lighting in real time with the seasons, water reclaimer and distributor so that whatever plant you choose can be watered without wasting it, and holo panels covering the walls to make the entire space look like an enclosed greenhouse.
And when you finally get to look at it, it’s perfect. Rows of raised garden beds, the lighting and holo panels look so real you’re almost sure they misunderstood your directions and just built out a patio instead.
“If there’s anything we missed or not up to your standard let us know, my lady” the foreman tells you
“No no, this is absolutely perfect” you can’t contain the smile on your face “Thank you! Thank you so much, it’s wonderful”
The foreman has to hold back a laugh, you’re practically vibrating, you're so elated. In all his years of doing large scale projects like this, he’s never had a client seem so appreciative.
“I’ll leave you to it my lady” The foreman politely exits the room, leaving you to wander around and admire their handiwork.
As you walk you begin taking notes on your data pad, for what plants and flowers you want to put in which planter boxes. It’ll be a tall order to get all the seeds and plant bulbs delivered here, but once they’re planted and growing, this will be a sight to behold!
You land up spending the entire day in the garden, labeling planter boxes with bits of flimsy tacked on the sides. Talece brought down a tray of food and insisted you eat something, but she also took the time to let you gush about the vegetables you planned to grow and how beautiful the room will be when things begin to bloom.
When you’re too exhausted to stand up straight any longer you make the long trek through the palace back to your room. Only to lay down on the bed with your data pad to begin placing the orders for soil, seeds, bulbs, labels, and plant pots. When you finally power off the data pad, you’re so happy. You can’t wait for Boba to be home so you can show him how amazing it all is.
You hear from Boba a couple days later, he is finally returning to Tatooine, and is “very excited” to see your new projects. He can’t help but smile picturing you squealing with delight as you show him all of your little plants and paintings.
On the same day, your soil and seeds finally arrive at the palace. You almost feel bad for having guards and some of the stronger looking servants help you drag bags of soil down to the garden. You feel less bad because you’ve got your sleeves rolled up to do the heavy lifting too.
Once everything is down there though, you release them to go back to their everyday duties. You get into a rhythm. Slice the seam off a soil bag. Dump into a planter box. Distribute evenly, and rake to till it. Move on to the next planter box.
Hours and hours and hours of this pass. You couldn’t be happier. It reminds you of summers back on your home planet, planting the seeds that would eventually become your fall crops. That would later become your fall meals. Soups and stews thickened with vegetables, roasted root and tubers to go with roasted meat, and gourds to be cooked down into mush to be put into pastries. It’s too hot to have such a need for hearty hot foods like that here on Tatooine. But you still crave them from time to time. It’s one of the only things you miss about your previous home.
As you’re slicing open a bag of soil, thinking about soup, you put in just a little too much force and swipe the blade farther than you expected. At first you don’t really feel it. But then you see the colorful bloom of fresh blood staining your sleeve. You’re stunned for a moment looking at it.
Your hands are covered with dirt. Mind over matter you resist the urge to clamp your dirty hand down over the bloody wound. Instead you calmly stand up and go back to your room. Staring straight ahead, not really able to look at it at the moment.
You get back to your room and know without looking that it is still bleeding but not that bad. I’ve had worse. I’ve had worse. I’ve had worse. You recite to yourself. You start the facet in the fresher and clean your hands, some of the blood has dribbled down your arm into your hand. You scrub it away quickly so you can peel off the shirt.
You take a deep breath and look in the mirror. It’s bloody. But not bad. You figure if you can clean it well and wrap it tightly it’ll be fine. You decide you’re done for today and it might be best if you just clean it in the shower. Perhaps not your best decision, but people make poor choices when they’re in shock.
Eventually you are clean, dry, dressed, and have the wound wrapped in a clean bandage. The shock has finally worn off, leaving you feeling exhausted and in quite a bit of pain. You know you’ve probably pushed yourself a bit too far today, and not just because you got hurt. You didn’t remember to take breaks, drink water, or eat meals at all today. A nasty habit you’re still trying to break.
Tomorrow will be better, you promise yourself. You do the responsible thing and lay down for the rest of the evening, falling asleep to an older episode of one of the shows Boba likes to watch.
In the morning, your whole body is sore and the wound hurts pretty badly. You risk taking a peek at it, the bandage is mostly soaked through but not enough to stain the bedding or your clothes… your clothes from yesterday.
You groan in frustration, blood stains are difficult to remove if you let them set. Sitting up you feel a little dizzy, chalk it up to lack of food and water plus everything that happened yesterday. Today is going to be better, you remind yourself. You start by getting out of bed and drinking a glass of water from the fresher. There you already feel a little better.
Next you search around for your dirty clothes from yesterday. Just as you thought, stained. You decide to run some water in the bathtub and let it soak with soap while you take care of the wound. It’s certainly not a pretty sight, but you muscle your way through it and get it clean once more and wrapped as best you can. It’s not perfect but it will have to do.
Just as you finish up you hear a knock at the bedroom door followed by the door opening on its own. You flinch at the sound. Usually if someone in the palace needs your help they will knock but wait for you to bid them entry or open the door yourself. This can only mean one thing.
“Cyare?” It’s Boba! You turn quickly and dash out of the fresher, leaving the medical supplies on the counter.
“Boba!” You exclaim running into his waiting arms. He snatches you up in a bracing hug and laughs at your enthusiasm.
“I tried to com you last night to tell you I would be home in the morning but you didn’t answer. I figured you were asleep” He explains releasing you from the hug and pressing a kiss to you cheek.
“Oh yeah, I was really tired yesterday. I fell asleep with the holo on” you tell him with a bit of an embarrassed heat creeping up into your cheeks.
“You needed rest, can’t be blamed for that my dear” he assures you, tilting your face up to him to give you a proper kiss on the lips. The kiss deepens, both of you finding that you can’t seem to pull away.
“Stars I missed you” you say quietly when you finally have to break for fresh air
“I missed you too cyare. Let me clean up a bit and we can have some breakfast together” he lets you go completely now. You smile and nod happily. He kisses you one more time, and moves past you to go into the fresher while you go find clothes to wear for the day.
Suddenly Boba is calling your name from the fresher. Your heart fills with dread at the thought of what he’s just seen in there.
“What the hell happened in here? Are you alright?” He begins scanning you up and down with his eyes, zeroing in on the bandage on your arm.
“It’s okay! I’m okay” you assure him, trying to push past and clear away the medical supplies from the counter
He places his hands on his shoulders and spins you around to face him, carefully saying your name again with a warning air about him. His hands stay on your shoulders and he looks you in the eye when he asks again. “What happened?”
“It’s nothing really, I cut myself opening a bag of soil yesterday” you explain
He sighs and shakes his head “And what did the healer say?”
“I… I didn’t see a healer” you admit sheepishly
“What? Why not?” He’s appalled and a little frustrated
“I didn’t think it was necessary, I’ve had worse before” you realize his shock and frustration is not unfounded, any rational person probably would have spoken to a healer about this.
“Had worse? And you handled it yourself? Cyare, that is a serious injury” He says, as if repeating it would get you to understand the severity of the situation.
“Boba… I wasn’t welcome to visit the healer on my homeworld. I’m sorry, I didn’t think to ask for help” Suddenly you feel guilty and a little defensive “I don’t… I don’t know how to do that when I’m in trouble. I didn’t even think about it”
Then he understands. Of course you wouldn’t think to ask for help when you hurt yourself. Because you’ve been conditioned to think you would not get it if you asked. He has to remind himself that he too used to struggle with asking for assistance, and it’s something that he needs to be understanding about in this relationship.
“Alright, alright. I’m sorry cyare, I didn’t mean to overwhelm you” he apologizes “I was just worried when I saw the bloody clothing and used medical supplies. I know you did your best with what you had at the moment. But now you’re not in danger, and we have the resources to have a healer that will actually help you. May I call someone to come look at it?”
You nod in acceptance and let him guide you back out into the main living space in your quarters. He sits you down in a chair, and asks that you just sit and relax for a couple minutes while he steps outside to give instructions to a guard or staff member.
He instructs a guard to go into Mos Eisley and bring back a healer, and a second guard to instruct the kitchen staff to bring a pitcher of hot water as well as breakfast. A few moments later there’s a gentle knock at the door. Boba calls for them to enter, and Mira comes forward bringing the pitcher of water and a tray laden with tea, toast, and eggs cooked the way you like them. She has a look of horror on her face as she sees Boba tending to your injured arm, and you cringe thinking back to your conversation with her the other day.
But Boba doesn’t seem to notice at all, “Thank you Mira, we might need more water if the healer asks for it later”
She gives a shaky curtsy and small voiced “Of course, my lord. My lady” before quickly leaving the room.
“So” Boba gives you a look “Cut yourself opening a bag of soil aye? Does that mean your fancy garden is finished?”
“Yes” you smile a little shyly, knowing that if he gets you talking about it you won’t shut up for the next half an hour at least
“Go on then, tell me everything” he encourages you, because more than anything, he missed hearing you gush about things you care about while he was traveling.
As you eat your breakfast you tell him about your new painting studio and the garden and all the plants you’ve ordered. Which things have arrived, which things you’re still waiting for. You tell him the truth about yesterday, that you had been at it for hours and your hand just slipped when you hurt yourself.
“Accidents happen cyare” he reminds you “I just want you to be more careful”
Just then there is another knock at the door, Boba calls for them to enter. The guard he sent into town has returned with the healer, and you’re surprised to see that you recognize him.
“It’s you, hello again” you greet him.
The man looks a little stunned. When you had asked him to make a remedy for chemical burn scars, you had said it was for your partner, not the kriffing king!
“Y-yes… nice to see you again… um… What seems to be the problem?” he asks, struggling to get his bearings.
Boba takes the liberty of explaining your injury to the healer, and invites him to come take his place so he can examine the wound and assess if it needs further treatment. While the healer works Boba excuses himself to remove his armor and get cleaned up in a different room of the palace. But he leaves two guards to watch over you. When Boba’s gone the healer looks up at you.
“You didn’t tell me your partner was the kriffing king” he hisses as he unwraps the bandage
“That was intentional” you explain “I can’t just go broadcasting to the entire city what my business is”
“Yeah but you might have mentioned it” he grumbles “would have charged you more”
He takes a look at your wound and takes on a look of concentration and disappointment
“What?” you ask with a touch of worry in your voice
“This needs stitches and bacta. You should have come to me or another healer immediately” he chastises you
“Hey, I did my best okay. And if you’re going to get mouthy can I at least know your name so I know who to curse in my mind when you stitch me up?” You bite back
“Darius” he replies “And you can curse me all you like, but you’ll thank me later when this heals without an ugly scar”
“Fine” you relent and let him get to work recleaning and stitching up the wound.
By the time Boba returns Darius has the wound rewrapped and is writing out instructions to keep it clean on a spare bit of flimsi. Darius gets markedly more tense when Boba is in the room, clearly he’s more intimidated by Boba than he is by you. He hands you the piece of flimsi and reminds you to be more careful next time before hastily departing the room with guards escorting him. Boba sends the breakfast tray out as well, finally giving you both some privacy.
“Now then, I believe I promised you a reward last we spoke” he leans forward to kiss the sensitive spot just behind your ear.
You hum in contentment as he continues kissing down your neck.
“Have you been a good girl while I’ve been gone?” he purrs
“Yes” you say with a little gasp and he sucks a particularly pleasant spot
“Go lay down for me” he pulls away from your neck and nods his head towards the bed. You get up quickly and toss the pillows up to the head of the bed and lay back.
He crawls up the bed slowly, pushing your legs apart at the knees dipping down to start a trail of kisses leading up and over your thigh. He breezes right past your needy pussy and instead continues kissing over your hips, and across to your tummy.
“You were so good for me on the com” he murmurs, dragging his nose across your skin, down from your belly button to top of your mound. He’s looking up at your pretty face, wanting to see every expression cross it.
Without blinking an eye, pushes his tongue between your lips and licks a broad stripe up, already tasting your arousal. He continues, slowly stroking you with his tongue up and down, up and down, up and down.
You can’t help it, you start squirming. It feels amazing, but his slow pace is driving you wild. Normally Boba might be a little mean and make you stay still, but it’s been too long and he’s loving watching you writhe in pleasure.
He maintains his long strokes but begins increasing his speed. Finally working an audible moan out of your chest. He switches tactic and pauses mid stroke, and begins fluttering his tongue just barely inside your dripping hole.
“Fuck!” You whimper trying to force yourself not to buck your hips into his mouth.
He knows you’re getting close and he knows just what to get you to the finish line, he makes one more broad stroke with his tongue and stops at the top of his path and latches onto your clit. Suckling and circling the swollen bud with his talented tongue.
Your whole body tensed with such force that you’re sure you might have pulled a muscle and moan in ecstasy as you cum on his face. Boba doesn’t stop, he continues to lap up your release all the way through your orgasm. When you’re finally laying back boneless with your eyes closed, breathing heavily he pulls away kissing back up your belly with feather light pressure until he’s hovering over you, kissing your neck and waiting for you to feel ready to open your eyes again.
Eventually you do open your eyes again, and place your hand on the back of his head to guide him away from your neck. He follows your direction and comes back down to kiss your lips.
“That was one hell of a reward” you say with a breathy laugh
“What can I say? I’m a man of my word” he shrugs laying down beside you
“You certainly are” you smile “I’m really glad you’re back”
“You really did miss me” he chuckles
“Of course I did! I love getting to talk to you about the garden and my painting and my projects. And I really missed getting to relax with you at night. And I love watching your weird holo dramas and hearing about your clients and having dinner with you. I just love… you” you find yourself admitting
He reached out, cradling your face in his hand, stroking your cheek with his thumb “I love you too cyare. I missed you dearly while I was gone. Thought about you every morning when I woke up and every night before I went to sleep”
Your heart soars hearing him say that. It’s easy to fall in love. Day in and day out, it just happens. It’s hard to admit you’re in love. You have to find the words to explain to someone why they are the most important person in your life and they give you unending joy even when you’re not right next to them. But with Boba it’s easy. It’s easy to be in love and it’s easy to say it.
“I love you”
Tag List: @cannedsoupsucks @otterly-fey @paige6768 @littledragonlady @star-hoes @aeryntheofficial @xx-small-town-witch-xx @lokigirlszendaya @ladysongmaster @2clones-1kamino @cagrame @ashbyrhymer @adancedivasmom @4rosydreams @heybub @thefact0rygirl @elinedjarin
#Boba Fett#Boba Fett x Reader#boba fett x female reader#boba fett x f!reader#The Queen of Tatooine#QT
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is it alright if i request hcs for midorima introducing his shy g/n s/o to the team (maybe they’re his lucky item for the day? i cant see his tsundere self introducing them volutarily) and midorima is being soft with them cause they’re a bit scared of the team??
I HEAR YA LOUD AND CLEAR, A VERY CUTE REQUEST, i gotchu fam <3
@knb-kreations
Midorima x shy!Reader
[Headcanons]
as a reserved individual himself, Midorima is not one to broadcast his relationship out to everyone, and this sentiment is only stronger when he knows that you’re even more introverted than himself
even so, after dating for a substantial amount of time, he wants to include you into his life and potential dream career in basketball… and that would entail bringing you to meet his inner circle of his friends teammates
the only problem (and the reason why he’s held off in introducing you to them for so long) is that his teammates can be quite rowdy (and have some… unique quirks? but Midorima isn’t really one to talk)… especially that Takao Kazunari
still, he never felt like he had to introduce you to them right away… when the right opportunity will present himself, he’ll do it
besides, you don’t seem in any rush to meet them anytime soon from the way you’d rather prefer spending your time with Midorima alone
well, until one day, the Oha Asa predictions presented that opportunity:
“Today, Cancers are in a unique situation from the rest! It seems like their luck can be quite stagnant or off the charts depending if they have their lucky item for today! Ready to hear it, everyone?! Today’s lucky item for Cancers isn’t a standard one! It may differ for every Cancer, and that’s the beauty of fate!~ Cancers should bring along with them something that they cherish the most! But be careful…! Cancers should also take care in making sure nothing happens to their lucky item today!”
Midorima, in hearing the prediction from his TV, flinches out of surprise, mostly because the first thing that came to his mind after hearing “most cherished” was you
but alas, he’s going to follow fate down to a T, with no exceptions
when he approaches you early morning, he tells you with the straightest face:
“(y/n)-san, according to the Oha Asa, you’re my lucky item today.”
“U-U-Uh… um, is… is that a pick-up line?”
“Hmph! As if I would stoop myself down to Takao’s level. The Oha Asa predicted it so, and I will not take any chances today.”
“Um… what do I have to do then?”
Midorima softens his gaze at you and mumbles, “Nothing really. Just stay by my side for the entirety of today.”
thankfully, today was a Saturday, so at least school wouldn’t be an obstacle between the two of you being separated
so here you are, tagging along with Midorima to do some mundane trips around the neighborhood
Midorima please… this is literally just a date but he refuses to acknowledge it as such
he still had basketball practice that evening though, so by then, it was time for him to go to the gym to start warmups
… but wait, that would mean he’d have to bring you there too…
“Ahem… you…” Midorima clears his throat. “Do you mind just sitting on the benches inside? There’s no need for you to make conversation if you do not wish to do so.”
“O-Of course!” you exclaim. “I… I wanna see you play too… even if it’s just practice, I-I hope your teammates won’t mind?”
“Well I’ll make sure they’ll mind their own business.”
“Would I really bring good luck to you by just sitting and watching you, Shintarou…? It’s hard to believe that the Oha Asa said that I’m… supposedly lucky?”
“The Oha Asa is never wrong,” he says confidently. “Besides, I don’t see it anything but an advantage when I know you’ll be here to provide support in your own way. After all, you do make the most out of your capabilities and do your best, nanodayo…”
Midorima makes sure to enter the gym first, with you tailing behind and taking shelter behind his broad back
even despite that, nothing could prepare you for the chaos inside
a basketball FLEW to you and nearly killed you if it wasn’t for the fact that Midorima easily stopped the ball in its projection
“Fools! Are you ever careful in shooting?!”
“Ah shut it! Not everyone’s like you, Midorima!”
“If you have that much energy complaining, then you have the energy to start warming up, rookie.”
Midorima sighs in response to their comments, but you’re behind him peeking out a bit and then ducking behind his back again when you saw how intimidating they were
“Wh-Whoa!! Shin-chan brought someone over?!”
“What?”
“Where?!”
“The brat brought someone over?!”
Takao immediately skips over to him and you, curiously peeking to see who Midorima, the ever-so serious and hardworking dude, brought to practice; it’s very rare that he’d bring his own Teiko ex-teammates along, let alone anyone unrelated to basketball
“Oh! Aren’t you (y/n)-chan?” Takao asks, tilting his head with a childish wonder
“O-Oh, um…” you reply, darting your eyes to Midorima before continuing. “It’s nice to meet you… I’ve heard a lot about you from Shintarou, Takao-kun.”
Midorima turns red and denies it to his breath as he hounds on Takao as an outlet for his embarrassment
Miyaji and Ōtsubo are peeved but lowkey curious about why Midorima brought you here, so they ask… to which Midorima replies:
“(y/n)-san is my lucky item for today, nanodayo.”
“Captain, can I throw my family’s pineapples at him??”
“Shin-chan, I’d normally laugh, but did you just label a person as an object?” (to which Midorima immediately interjects, “A-Absolutely not!!”)
“Alright, you little shit, you 1st-years are really getting on my nerves right now…”
“W-W-Wait…!” you exclaim, slightly stepping out from behind Midorima’s back. “Please don’t be mad at him… I wanted to watch too…” but when everyone’s attention immediately shoots to you, you squeak and hide behind his back again
from the way you clutch onto Midorima’s shirt from behind, Midorima immediately turns around to you with a soft tone of voice
“Hey, come on now… they’re not bad people, nanodayo. You know I’ll be there by your side if anything happens, (y/n)...”
everyone’s REALLY quiet hearing how Midorima talks to you, and they’re like WTF???? WHERE DID THIS SIDE EVEN COME FROM….?
only when Takao blows a slow whistle to break the silence does everyone break into quiet snickers, ready to make fun of Midorima to death about it
as Midorima gives you a short pat on the head and turns to walk to put down his duffel, all of his teammates follow him to give him those “playful” hits and slaps on the back and arms LMAOO some may have actually knocked his spine out of his body though ngl
you’re just standing there timidly, not knowing what to exactly do next, and Miyaji notices you and approaches you
“Oy,” he says with his usual rough tone of voice. “If you really wanna watch, you can sit over there. Don’t be in the way though.” He points to the specific bench, but softens his usual Spartan-like, harsh frown just a tad bit when he sees you cowering a bit
“Sorry… uh, (l/n)-san, right? Take care of the idiot for us.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” Midorima immediately stalks over to the two of you, knowing full well how… scary Miyaji can be, and Miyaji’s frown comes back
“Huh? Nothing for you to be concerned about, rookie.” Miyaji KICKS Midorima to the court to start doing shooting drills and then turns to you like nothing happened
“W-Wait, Shintarou…?”
“He’ll be fine,” he sighs, ruffling his hair. “If he does anything stupid, let one of us know, alright?”
“He’s been, um, good to me.”
and Miyaji gives a little smile for the first time as a stamp of approval, and then he goes back to practice while you lightly skip to the bench… that smile MAY have convinced you that Midorima’s team wasn’t so scary after all
“Sooooo....” Takao says, jabbing Midorima’s ribs. “Your lucky item, eh?”
irk marks appear on Midorima’s head as he prepares to strangle Takao, only to remember you were watching him
“Ahem… (y/n) is my lucky item, regardless of what day or prediction.”
“Eurghh, that’s so sappy, what the fuck—”
“Shut up if you know what’s good for you, Takao.”
the entire team = your personal bodyguards for REAL, and it’s almost scary how every single teammate uses their own “softer” side when talking to you directly like… Midorima is now kinda regretting that he introduced you to them so late? he didn’t know that his teammates would be THAT considerate to you
especially Takao… he’d say a bunch of jokes to get you to laugh but he’d know EXACTLY when to back off and let you chill out??
the upperclassmen would be very polite and soft spoken with you?? like they all have their own respective younger siblings, so they’d definitely treat you like one
Kimura always offers you to taste-test his family’s produce for free, free of charge, zilch, nada
Midorima wonders if they like you better than him (spoiler alert: of course they do)
to get under Midorima’s nerves while you aren’t around, they’d always go, “Bro, where’s your lucky item???” in referring to you LMAOOO (Takao is ESPECIALLY guilty of this)
#submission#kagummypack#knb x reader#knb#knb headcanons#knb headcanon#knb fic#knb fics#knb fluff#midorima x reader#midorima shintarou#midorima shintaro#midorima shintarou x reader#kuroko no basket#shuutoku#shutoku basketball team
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@jwjdhdjsksks I didn't know that about pre-wound bobbins!
<original post>
Yep. Pre-wounds are good for one really specific thing: they can fit WAY more thread on a pre-wound than you can on your own bobbin winder. I'm talking, like, 3-4x as much. They do this partly by having the thread go onto the spool incredibly smoothly and efficiently, and partly by having the thread under tension as they wind it. The downsides of pre-wounds and twofold: first of all, your machine's bottom tension is adjusted assuming that the thread on your bobbin isn't stretched. When the thread is wound under tension, it's stretched out like a rubber band. Once it's in the project, it's not under tension anymore, and it bounces back. This means that it will operate as if you increased your bobbin tension. Now, this isn't actually a bad thing in a lot of embroidery, where you actually want the bobbin thread to be tighter than the top. This pulls the satin stitching to the back and makes it look pretty and rounded.
But if you have a machine that already knows to change its tension between sewing mode and embroidery mode, or you regularly switch between user-wound and pre-wound bobbins, you're going to have an irregular stitch tension. Your machine is probably already set to have a tighter bobbin tension than your standard straight sewing machine. You don't need your bobbin to be doing that for you.
The other thing is that there's two kinds of pre-wounds out there. There's high-quality pre-wounds for people who do a lot of machine embroidery (or long-arm quilting) who want to go as long as possible without changing a bobbin. There's also pre-wounds full of utter garbage thread that are aimed at new sewers who don't know how easy it is to wind a bobbin. In general, you don't want crazy weak linty thread anywhere in your machine (especially really cheap modern machines and anyone who has sensors that tell you when a thread breaks. You get lint in bad places in a computerized machine and the best result is that your machine tells you that it isn't a sewing machine anymore and makes you take it to the vet. The worst case is it bridges two spots on a circuit board and shorts your board and makes you take it to the vet and spend $600 on it). In addition to fucking up your machine, you can also just get really, really frustrated with your bobbin being bad all the time.
(I haven't told my store's service tech this, but I'll use linty bobbin thread in my fully mechanical machine if I can run it through silicone putty while I wind the bobbin. It will pull off a lot of the lint, lubricate the thread, and streamline it so that more can fit on the bobbin. I'm sure that if I tell my tech, he's going to tell me it's not necessary, but I like the results I get with it).
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Improved binding for chunky zines
(link has photos)
Interest in AAFH has picked up lately, AND I’m tabling at an event later this month, so it’s time for another print run! I got to do the 1st printing of AAFH with access to a hot-melt glue binding machine and I’ve been chasing that high ever since. Binding machines like that are relatively rare in my circles though, and at 16 sheets (64 pages) the compact typesetting is small enough to work as a stapled booklet–barely. This setup is not idea though. Even though its short by book standards, AAFH is a pretty hefty zine, and just folding the paper feels relatively flimsy. I do have access to a spiral binding machine, but 1) it would mean paying 25cents more per copy, which adds up since these are free and the project survives on donations and 2) I mail these in cheap half-size manila envelopes and I’m worried spiral binding would either get crushed or pierce the envelope, and padded mailers are a lot pricier.
HOWEVER, using a diluted glue to attach a strip of scrap fabric to the spine makes a big difference, both reinforcing the binding and temporary softening the paper, allowing it to be pressed completely flat. Add that to a cardstock cover, and you have what is basically just a nice binding. Next I’ll have to track down a guillotine slicer so the pages are easier to turn…
Materials:
Printed zines (obviously)
Woven scrap fabric
White glue (im using washable glow in the dark glitter glue, but same difference)
Sponge applicator
Plastic wrap
Something heavy with a flat bottom
This seems to work best with zines that were stapled, but NOT folded yet. I diluted the glue with water about 1:1; it behaves more like a liquid but is still be thick and sticky like a thin syrup. The width of the fabric strips doesn’t functionally matter in my opinion, but I wouldn’t go much thinner than the approx. 1.5″-2″ I have here. They should be slightly longer than 8.5″; somewhere around 8.75″. I’m not worried about super consistent production quality, so I made mine by ripping long, ~2″ wide strips from my fabric, using the edge of a sheet of paper to eyeball cutting them up into slightly-longer-than-8.5″, and then trimming the frayed edges off. This was pretty efficient.
Next I placed the glue-soaked fabric onto an unfolded zine, making sure to line it up with the bottom edge so I only had to trim the top. I put a piece of plastic wrap over the glued strip, which is hard to see in the photo but i promise is there. I folded the zine as best I could with my hands, pressing it down with my palms, and stacked them facing alternating directions.
I did these in a batch of 10 and a batch of 16, weighing down each batch in two stacks with a flat-bottomed wooden crate that has some gallon jars of tonics in it. They’re not significantly different from folded-only zines while they’re still wet, but after a few minutes the difference is notable. Since it’s diluted white glue, these dry to the touch extremely quickly, but I left them overnight because they still seemed a little soft and not totally flat. I was able to peel the plastic wrap off the first batch of dried zines and save it in a stack to reuse for the second batch, and I have it saved with my craft supplies to use in the future since I hate throwing out plastic.
Over all, this process took somewhere around two and a half hours of active work for 36 copies, split over two days because I’ve been lazy lately. That’s about half as long as the 40-copy perfect bound run I mentioned earlier took, which isn’t bad at all–In my opinion, which is slanted by being shit-poor and enjoying papercrafts enough to spend hours on them for fun, this is totally viable for publishing projects with runs measuring in the dozens or low hundreds, especially if you can get a couple friends to help. I have a lot of practice doing things like this so YMMV if you’ve never DIY’d a print run, but it’s definitely possible to pick up the skills and do it efficiently.
And yes, the spines on these do glow in the dark.
(AAFH is available for download as a PDF and EPUB, and I distro copies for free by mail–just send me an email at mildewamyx(at)protonmail(dot)com with your mailing address.)
#resources and diy#zines#zine publishing#self publishing#diy publishing#zine making#bookbinding#ficbinding#fanbinding
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