#may make this into stickers and i might just make several more to go with it

[druizard]

"Given my propensity towards verbosity, it surely can't be a surprise that I have a practiced tongue!" - Gale "Rizzard" Dekarios

Just some quick fanart of Gale being a tease~ Artwork by me: Charlee-Monstah/Druizard

[queen-of-the-avengers]

My Hero

Pairing: Loki Laufeyson x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~1.2k

Warnings: none

Summary: You're sunshine and rainbows. He's darkness and rain storms. You brighten a room. He darkens it. Maybe that's why you two go together so well even if neither of you want to admit it.

Squares Filled: complete opposites (2021) for @lokibingo

Author’s Note: any and all comments are greatly appreciated <3

x

This is the last box from the car which you’re grateful for. When you decided to go out shopping to redecorate your room, you didn’t expect to find a bunch of stuff on sale—more than you really need. Never mind that. You’re always happy to have trinkets that make a room lighter.

Tony graciously allowed you to live at the Avengers compound up north in exchange for your shapeshifting skills. You can shift into anyone and anything just by looking at them. You gain their DNA code through your almost x-ray sight, and you’re able to shift into them no matter how small or big they are compared to you.

It’s your specialty.

It took a long time for you to master your skills but you’re always learning something new about yourself. It’s why you’re at the compound. You get to live with living legends such as Steve, Wanda, Sam, Vision, and unfortunately, Loki. The only reason he’s on Earth is because he’s being punished for what he’s done in Asgard. You’re not sure of his crimes but it’s severe enough to banish him from Asgard even if it’s only for a short time. The agreement is that he’d help out with the Avengers until he’s learned his lesson whatever that may be.

The only issue is that you really, really, really don’t like him. It’s not enough to use the word ‘hate’ since you believe that’s such a strong word, but you can’t stand the man. Not only is Loki arrogant and cocky but he hates doing anything remotely helpful. He’s a nuisance most of the time and loves to get under everyone’s skin, especially yours.

It doesn’t help that you two are the complete opposite of each other. He’s a black cat while you’re a golden retriever. He loves being alone while you love being around people. He loves reading and staying in while you love going out. He’s grumpy most of the time whereas you’re all rainbows and sunshine (as he likes to put it). You’ve always been such an upbeat and bubbly person, and you’re not going to let someone like Loki dim your light.

The box you’re carrying to your room contains pink and frilly pillows for your bed along with some yellow curtains you fell in love with at first sight. It won’t keep the light out but it’ll give some color to your white-wall room. You enter your room and notice Loki standing on the other side of the bed looking through one of the boxes you brought in earlier. He’s such a dark contrast to your colorful room.

The walls might be white but you have rainbow lights strung up, pink and yellow picture frames, a blue-framed bulletin board filled with even more pictures of you and your friends, and other pops of color. Loki is the only thing that’s black due to the clothes he’s wearing.

“What are you doing in my room?” you ask and set the box on the bed.

“I’m looking for something.”

“This is only because I’m trying to rise above and be a better person, but what are you looking for? How can I help you?”

Loki pulls out something from the box he’s looking through with a frown.

“Really? Rainbow stickers and dreamcatchers?”

You storm over to him and snatch the items from his hands.

“How can I help you?” you repeat.

“I’m looking for the tape,” he smirks.

“Out of all the rooms you could have gone to, you thought my room was the best to go snooping around for tape?”

“You’re right.” Loki shrugs. “I just wanted to see where you keep your knickers.”

You scoff, grab the tap from your desk drawer, and shove it into his chest.

“There. You have tape. Get out.”

Loki doesn’t argue and leaves while laughing. You can’t help but glare at the spot he was just in. You hate violence despite what you do for a living, but you want to strangle that man sometimes. Push down the negative thoughts. Just focus on you. You put away most of your new decorations and shove the rest of them in your closet. It’s the weekend and there isn’t an active mission to go on so you think you’ll spend it relaxing by the pool and enjoying time to yourself.

You might like being around people but you enjoy time to yourself as well. You quickly change into your bathing suit and grab your towel before heading down to the pool. You pick a lounge chair that’s right below the skylight so that you can still be in the sun. You’re alone for maybe ten minutes before the pool doors open and someone walks in. You look through your sunglasses to see Loki walking in wearing nothing but black swimming trunks.

You roll your eyes and close them again with the intent of ignoring him. He jumps into the pool and makes a big splash in which water splashes on your legs. You have the urge to jump into the pool just to drown him but you keep trying to rise above.

“Come on, love, jump in. The water’s nice.”

“No. Leave me alone.”

Loki has never been good at listening to orders given to him or he does listen and chooses not to follow them. He continues to make noise in the pool to get a rise out of you but you will not sink low enough to give him what he wants. He continues to make noises for a good ten minutes before stopping completely. Finally, some peace and quiet. You smirk and look to the water thinking you have won this round but your eyes go wide when you see him lying facedown in the pool.

You scream and rush over to the edge of the pool. Your glasses had fallen off but you don’t care about that right now. You might not like Loki but you don’t want him dead. You reach in and grab his arm so you can pull him out of the water, and he flops onto the ground like a dead fish. You roll him onto his back and shake his shoulders in an attempt to wake him up.

“Shit, Loki, this isn’t funny. Wake up.” You push at his chest but he doesn’t budge. “Loki?”

One of your previous jobs was as a lifeguard for the public pool in your hometown which you needed to get CPR certified for. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t used it since that time, you still know how to administer it. You start chest compressions on Loki’s chest three times before pinching his nose together and blowing air into his mouth. Three chest compressions and blow into his mouth. You do this twice before going down for a third time.

This time, however, just as your lips touch Loki’s, he reaches up and places his hand on the back of your head to keep you there. He presses you more firmly on his lips and kisses you like you two are a couple. Your brain is working to catch up to the rest of your body and the second his tongue touches yours, it does. You quickly push Loki off you and jump to your feet.

“My hero,” he smirks at your flustered face.

“You’re an asshole.” You snatch your glasses and towel before storming over to the doors. “I hope you drown next time.”

“Oh, come on, love. I was joking,” he laughs.

You want to be mad but the only thing you can think of is stupid Loki with his stupid face and his unbelievably soft lips.

x

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[violenteconomics]

For thr vacation fund au and rsa exchange program thingy majigy au, please hear me out hear me out-

Imagine tge first years come back to nrc (or not idk) and then for their vacation fund they make a host club or rent-a-date (rent-a-friend for ortho or smth)

Like ramshackle is their hq and ljke what you said they originally became famous bc of the poster with bad marker quality, several malleus stickers and deuce's thirst trap photo, but the customers do find other favorites besides deuce (but hes still the most popular- like tamaki but he has no idea what hes doing lol)

And then the rsa LI hearing abt this (either from gossip or soxial media you do yiu) and then they become regulars at the nrc first years host club

(Then the seniors catxhing wind of this dear Lord may they have mercy on the rsa students)

anything 4 u, baby.

PFFFFFT-- O M G YASSSS COMBINING THE RSA TRIP WITH THE VACATION FUND IS GENIUS, THIS IS THE SPIN OFF WHERE THE FIRST-YEARS START NRC'S FIRST HOST CLUB TO PAY FOR THEIR VACATION!!! the idea that the shitty poster still makes people endlessly thirsty is so funny to me lol.

deuce is the kind, understanding date, who has a big heart but can also protect you if need be. he's literally a dreamboat come to life. the only downside is that the client has to plan their dates -- otherwise, deuce might actually take them to an egg farm, lol.

ace is the quote unquote "fun" one, who is down to literally anything as long as it's entertaining enough. polar opposite of deuce, in that he's GREAT at date-planning, and he's the second-highest in terms of ratings.

epel and yuu are a "double date" sort of deal, where yuu's simple charm and understanding personality contrasts very greatly with epel's more "rough-and-tumble" approach to life. epel is THIS close to cursing out the waitress for giving you lobster in your meal even though you specifically asked them not to because your allergic, meanwhile yuu keeps epel from making a scene (but is simultaneously calling in a favor from azul to sue this place to the ground, lol).

i honestly can't imagine sebek or jack ever agreeing to do this, but if they were somehow blackmailed into it (or drawn to the compel of more money to put into their vacation fund), it would be the most tsundere thing in existence--

AND ORTHO HAS HIS OWN LITTLE "RENT-A-FRIEND" BOOTH IN THE CORNER AHHHHHHH (he's basically taken over yuu's position as the therapist friend, fr fr)

AND THE RSA LIS HEARING ABOUT THIS MMMMMMMM. i mean, most of them are royalty, so they have enough money to basically monopolize all of the first-years' time. and the freshmen kind of actually like going out with the LIs more than anybody else, just because they know them better than random nrc strangers.)

(of course, the seniors are still stalking them from the bushes, fire spells and knives prepared in case they need them.)

(ace wipes some ice cream off song's face, and riddle has to be held down by both vil and malleus to keep him from decapitating the both of them right then and there for their indecency)

[peachetteprice]

Driving Habits | TF141

Disclaimer: Some of these are UK specific, including the style of car, manoeuvres, terminology, and gearbox. That's what happens when the boys live and work mostly in England! Also, I am almost taking my practical test in September, and I need to rant about certain habits. Sorry in advance to Soap and Ghost. Love you both, boys.

Credit to @soaps-mohawk for giving me the inspiration to explore this headcanon! It began with an exploration into what cars TF141 might drive! You can see the original post that inspired this here.

+ Including interactions when driving with an S/O!

Notorious one-handed driver. The other hand is either on the gearstick - just resting, contemplating - or mediating between the gearstick and your thigh. He loves a good reverse bay park. (He's an absolute beast at it, too. No need for minor adjustments. He just... knows the space. And he will make fun of you when you can't park as perfectly as him). Helps to get the shopping in better, because at least you can get to the boot! Has been known to swerve a little bit for birds in the road, but that's because he's an avid watcher, and the poor things get enough grief as it is - he wants to still be able to watch Robins and Thrushes in the trees on the weekend!

Captain John Price:

He does, however, neglect rabbits, foxes, badgers, squirrels, and rats. And the... occasional deer in Scotland? Not out of malice - not at all - but they're not worth swerving over and potentially causing a collision for. He might, only if you're with him - because you'll squeal if he doesn't and positively become harrowed by its body popping beneath the rear tyre - but it's much safer for a driver to simply ram it into the gravel than to mess around with the safety of himself, other drivers, and - of course - you.

Takes extra care around vehicles with stickers that denote that the occupants of said vehicle - bar the driver or secondary passengers - are animals or children. He will be extra sure to check his mirrors, touch on the brakes if need be, and will actively scan for dangerous drivers that he can shield the car from. His duty is to protect, after all, in whatever capacity.

That being said, in his youth, he was known to drive... a little faster than required. Only on country lanes does he still retain some of his more... reckless habits. He may go a touch too fast around corners, and ignore the chevrons that indicate the severity of a turn (one arrow, two, three), and if the road opens up to a sprawling range, whereby speed control for tight corners and blind junctions is not an issue, he will... perhaps... occasionally - only rarely if you're in the car with him - let her rip.

Begrudgingly drives your shuddering little Fiat 500 or itty bitty Hyundai i20 (hey, what do you mean, tiny, it's perfect for the city, John! Pay no mind if your boys giggle and point when you turn up at the base in it...), though much prefers the Triumph Spitfire, 1979, mint-condition, that he bought in 2008 for three grand and fixed up over a ten-year period (when he wasn't deployed, that was) which is now worth £18,000. That is his profit! But he won't let another soul touch it, drive it, or so much as look at it - unless it's you, on a good day - until the day he dies. It's in stunning condition, but God help you if you reverse into the driveway without him watching like a hawk, wiggling his hand as if it were the paddle of an aeroplane conductor, telling you to move closer to the wall and risk scratching your car just to protect his darling baby. It... oh no... it might be the only thing he loves more than you...

But those roads are his home, that's all!

Always, always, always over-revs the engine to get out of a junction. He can't help it! He's used to manoeuvring through rough terrain with a car the size of a military tank - he's bound to forget to treat a normal car with a normal amount of strength. He comes flying into and out of roundabouts for that exact reason! He has to get on and off them quickly enough - don't you know, they're deathtraps, they are!

Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley:

He's also prone to checking his side mirrors and rear view mirror an inordinate amount of times for a twenty-minute pop to the shop. He is convinced that the Kia Sportage behind him is right up his tail - he's sure it's stalking you in the passenger seat, especially with your bumper stickers on the rear, the nasty perverts - no matter how many times you explain to him that the mirrors are convex! They will make everything seem closer than they truly are! Now, however, he does not and will not ever brake-check a car, but he will sure as hell give them the dirtiest stare if they decide to overtake him... or until they back off a few more feet behind you.

The poor man gets impatient at lights. He does. And crossings, too. Train, tram, pedestrian, any and all of them. Despises them all. He'd rather a set of traffic lights for people to cross at, than have those silly zebra, pelican or toucan markings along the road that he has to pray Grandma Doris won't divert her walking cane in its bilateral direction. Oh, and he bounces his leg like there's no tomorrow. Again, he can't help it! He isn't used to waiting in cars. He's used to tumbling down roads in Middle Eastern deserts as the crow flies. None of those silly turns and re-routes into estates because he took the wrong turn at a junction. He wouldn't have messed up had he had time to think! Had there been no traffic! And, oh, Christ, the traffic. Simon does not like traffic. He does illegal U-turns as soon as he sniffs there being a road closure - that's how much he dislikes waiting!

You'll never forget the day that he wrenched the handbrake up way too high, and you had to get your father to re-tighten it. You're sure there aren't any more notches he can lift it to. You're rarely ever on a hill that warrants it. He'll crank it up six times just to stop at the traffic light before the Tesco. It's bloody Tesco! It's not Mount Kilimanjaro!

Never gets the bite point consistently. Never gets the damn bite point. Always too low or too high. He doesn't over-rev it like Ghost does, but the amount of times he stalls the bloody car, thinking he's in another one of those tank-sized vehicles that has a brand-spanking new bite point - or dare he say, an automatic gearbox that doesn't even require a clutch - is incalculable. You'd think the man has only just learnt to drive!

Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish:

Notoriously speeds through built-up areas. Often commits to doing 45mph in a 30mph zone. Only when there isn't anyone around, like at nighttime! He consistently zooms past speed cameras in his BMW. His poor 3L engine is just too powerful for those dinky little roads. And, promise, he doesn't do it on purpose! He just routinely forgets to glance at his speedometer (and his mirrors, but that's another issue), and he drives for himself and himself only. In fact, he often hums to himself and forgets you're even there, beside him, clutching onto the internal handle on the roof in case he veers too suddenly to either side. His object permanence doesn't prevail unless he has one hand on your inner thigh, and if he doesn't, well, you can kiss safe driving habits goodbye.

(Oh, and he always sits on the brake. And bite + gas. The handbrake is too cumbersome, and his feet are strong enough, Goddamnit!)

Alright, that isn't to say he's an... unsafe driver. He's only slightly inconsiderate. He brakes too harshly, too late, too suddenly, he coasts on the clutch around corners, he never feeds the steering wheel, and he sometimes forgets to check his mirrors before turning into a junction (but he's never T-boned a cyclist... yet... you can give him a tick for that one). But he hums and whistles a nice tune to himself - he prefers it to the radio, and that's not to say he prefers quiet so he can hear the sound of the engine, no, no... never... not at all - and he always makes an overt point to note every field of cows, sheep (especially horses!) as well as every cat he sees lurking along the pavements. Never dogs. Doesn't like the bastards. Got bit once. That was enough to turn him right off.

Sergeant Kyle "Gaz" Garrick:

Beautiful driver. Test-accurate. He could re-take it today and pass with flying colours. What a brilliant driver. The only bad habit he's picked up is driving with one hand (he tends to bite his fingernails on the other when he drives - helps with the stress of commuting in London), and never feeding the steering wheel through his hands. He does the wipe-on, wipe-off manouvre, mostly because he looks hot when doing it, though he tries not to. Mama Garrick always swats his hand whenever he does it because that's how drivers get into accidents, baby!

Car-shares with his mother, whether it's in her duck-egg blue Kia Picanto or his lime green Ford Fiesta - it has failed its MOT three bloody times, and he's revived that girl from death's vice grip more times than he can count, it has the mileage of a postal worker in the 1700s, nearing 200k - but this gentleman always remembers to bring the seat forward and upright after he's finished using it, so that her feet can touch the pedals, and to, naturally, reduce her back pain. He does the same with the headrest, too, because if there's anything he cares about more than his job, it's the safety of his family and friends!

Tends to drive on the cautious side. The only minor fault he'd get in a test would be hesitance because he simply doesn't trust any other driver but himself. His mother drilled that into him. She said that there's nothing worse than watching a car flash its headlights and signal you to go, with caution, as always, because the flash is not universal for 'go', only to pull in front of you and trigger you to emergency brake. Or, God-forbid, a pedestrian puts their hand up at you before they've even crossed the bloody road, and he has to slam on the brakes like he's Speedy Gonzalez at a traffic light. Lordy Lord.

Never mind the fact that he waits too long at pedestrian crossings because there could be somebody shrouded by that tree on the corner there. Do you see it? Over there! No, behind the sign, love! There could be someone - oh, whatever. He has to wait to make sure it's clear - otherwise, Grandma Doris is getting bumped in the legs and thrown fifty feet along the road! And he cares about the elderly!

Always nervously bites the insides of his cheek at roundabouts. Which is the most bewildering part of all, because he's so good at them! He always signals onto the roundabout. Never cuts lanes. Always follows directions perfectly, and if he doesn't, well, I guess you're taking a different route until you can turn around in a safe place. He always signals off the roundabout, too - even at mini-roundabouts - but he'll scrunch his face up every time, huff, and mutter:

"Yeah... botched that one."

...Regardless of how many times you tell him that he's a gorgeous driver! It's sexy, too, how he abides by the Highway code and gives way to more cars than he really should - no, except he really should stop doing that, actually, they're starting to take advantage of his kindness and he doesn't realise it - and how he's so... so... so fucking smooth with gear transitions. Going from stationary to a comfortable 20mph? He'll pop that sucker so fluidly into third (or second, if it's his mum's car) with such prowess that you barely notice the engine take the gas he's giving it. There's no jolt between first and second. He plays those gears like he's bowing a violin. How delicate his fingers are. How gentle his touch. It's mesmerising to watch.

And, you're about ready to give him your hand in marriage when you notice that every time he comes to a stop - on a hill, at a traffic light, in crawl traffic, waiting to turn into a junction, he puts the handbrake on, then takes his foot off the foot brake, then knocks the gearstick into neutral, then takes his foot off the clutch, and waits patiently like the darling man he is. Unlike someone else, he never sits on the brake...

Gaz even brakes in ample time, and you thought he couldn't be more perfect! That's what really gets you going - he gives the car behind him just the right amount of time to slow down that it's almost a waltz, and he's the conductor of traffic. Though... maybe don't let him get trapped at a stalemate on a mini-roundabout where all cars are turning left and are subsequently blocked by the need to give way to the right... his poor brain will short-circuit! If he does, give him a pat on the thigh and let him wait for someone else to make the first move - he hates decision-making when he's off-duty.

Bonus Round - Road Rage!

Captain John Price:

Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley:

Road Rage? You mean, showing a healthy amount of anger and vigour towards a bloody idiot driver? You mean... baring his teeth and swatting a hand at them, occasionally honking the horn past eleven-thirty, even if people are sleeping, or pulling out one of his anger-insurance cigars? That's what road rage is? Well... Christ, he must be terrible for it. Don't tell his boys that... they think he's the most level-headed man on base.

He's slightly oblivious to the technique of cars around him. He drives like he's the only driver in the world, because usually he is - except for those fuckers behind you who won't back off - but if something does happen, and if it isn't too much of an issue, he'll grunt, clench his teeth, grip the steering wheel and let out a muttered 'bastard'. If, however, something really irritates him - especially if another car puts you in danger - he'll honk the horn and flail his hand at the windscreen in the hopes that the driver sees his frustration (even if you're the one driving, he'll reach over and honk the pad for you, even though you've told him not to!)

Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish:

Well... he certainly knows a lot of Gaelic, doesn't he, your boy? You've hardly a monkey's bottom of what he's saying, but the vitriol in which he says it - he's not known for bottling his anger very well - makes it clear to you that he needs a hug and de-tox before bedtime. If the accused does anything on the defensive or antagonistic, he has been known to pull up beside them on a two-lanes-go-straight-on road marking, even if it isn't the right way to your destination, just to glare at them and give them the... stern finger. Maybe... maybe a word or two about precious cargo.

Sergeant Kyle "Gaz" Garrick:

Gaz is a simple guy when he's off-duty. He will sigh, tut, shake his head, and mumble 'nutter', or a very hushed 'oh, you absolute...' (bonus: he never finishes his sentence!) It's what his mum does! If another car puts you in danger, he may groan and roll his eyes - but he always asks if you're okay as soon as, and apologises for the sudden violence of his attitude! What a sweet man.

| Masterlist |

[shirefantasies]

Marti it is Moss *does small dance* sending in a Hobbit imagine should it strike your fancy to answer. If not feel free to delete you come first and foremost! Your blog is always a delight and i read everything you post like its the morning newspaper.

Im wondering if you would write a hobbit headcanon for a reader who uses a mobility aid like forearm crutches!

I myself use forearm crutches (named Catcher and Holder a la Dwalin) for dizziness and weakness due to neurological issues, but there are many reasons for their use from joint pain to hypermobility. Sometimes people use them all the time and other times they are only used when they have flare ups (some have to have them available all the time in case of The Return tm)

Sometimes you use one and sometimes you use two. All depends on condition severity, needs,what youre doing, and preference

Even when you have a flare up you may not prefer to use them for short distances ie in your house some people choose not to. I use mine on the steps unless im doing something hazardous and dont want to risk a fall (and be able to walk in general)which ive become prone to over the last two years.

You still live your life and do what you do sometimes its a bit different other times its not. Sometimes you have a stick or two.

You can make a lot of fun decorations and functional tools like cupholders and pouches for your crutches and stickers make them unique and customizable. Honestly the biggest challenge for me is mugs and stairs+ other two handed tasks 😩 let me see someone smack a warg protecting their bestie and then lament not planning their cuppa retrieval rofl.

Im wondering how our lads would have a time with this- not acceptance wise as i know Dwarves are very accepting. More along lines of shenanigans wholesome fun bonding the good daily stuff that you write so beautifully and capture each one of them so well!

Thank you so much and if you have any questions please feel free to reach out

🌿🏹moss🏹🌿

Hello Moss 🥰💚 OMG Catcher and Holder that's perfectttt! Sorry this post is so fuckin long in the making but hopefully you enjoy it and this captures it well! I confess I don't personally use a mobility aid at this time so I may not have the greatest frame of reference 😅 but yeah I hope you like these little moments! *does small exit dance in return*

Warnings: canon typical violence in some

Thorin's Company + Reader With Mobility Aids

Balin

“Might I ask who built that?” Polite as ever, Balin motioned to the chair upon which you had affixed a pair of wheels. “I did,” you answered, “I was the only person in my little village who needed something like this.” “Well, you are quite the craftsman. Would that you had no ties to your hometown and the Lonely Mountain could snap you up! You could see those skills built up tenfold.” “R-really? I came here to Laketown for something just like that! But I’ll confess I think you will be a far better teacher.” Winking, you gave Balin a smile he mirrored. “You’re resilient. Smart as a whip, too! It would be my honor.” “And after all,” you added, “If anyone would know how to mount a crossbow on the arms, it would be dwarves!” At that, even as polite a dwarf as Balin could hardly help bursting into a wicked grin.

Dwalin

“Nice axes.” “Forged them myself,” Dwalin answered with a nod, “Grasper and Keeper. One grasps your soul, the other keeps it.” “How funny,” you remarked, raising your forearm crutches, “I call these Catcher and Holder. Same idea only with the body. Suppose that isn’t nearly as impressive, though.” “Impressive?” Dwalin burst out. “We’ve all got our battle scars. Our wounds. Never be ashamed of that. The fact that you’re still up ‘n’ going? Be proud. I can show you plenty o’ scars myself!” At that last bit, Dwalin began lifting up his tunic to reveal toned skin paled in some places and darkened in others by all manner of scars and at that, you couldn’t help shyly laughing. Proud indeed.

Thorin

Yes, the king had not denied you entry into his company when Gandalf had recommended you, but he had raised and furrowed his regal brow in the skeptical look all but branded into your mind. He’d asked Gandalf if he was certain, and from then on the fire in your heart blazed. Certainly Thorin treated you as an equal, giving you the tasks he gave all others, but he had been yet to see you in battle and you knew that was where your proof would solidify. In fact, the first time wargs closed in upon you, you were one of the first to run back at them. Hearing the way Thorin called your name, but thoroughly ignoring it in favor of landing a solid crack upon the nearest adversary's skull. Luckily your body was having a better day anyway despite all the walking, because you spun and smashed your way through the orc pack, especially once you saw the way one bowled Bofur and Dori over. Fire took over your heart and eyes as you swung your mace until you could swing no more, all but deaf to the cracking of heads and the clattering of your allies’ blades through that pounding adrenaline. At the end of it all, Thorin approached you, his expression surprisingly mild. Then it broke into a smile. “The wizard was right about you,” he told you, clapping a hand to your shoulder, “Invaluable in all respects indeed.”

Oin

“Oh, that’s clever, that is!” “My eyes are up here,” you quipped, crossing your arms and smiling sardonically down at the dwarf bent over peering at your wheels. At that, Oin tilted his head up to look back at you, giving a raucous heh heh heh of laughter. “Never seen anything like this lot before,” he commented, shaking his head and running a hand over the frame of your chair, “You’d think dwarves’d be the first to make ‘em! ‘S beautiful.” Your lips parted wordlessly for a few moments before you spoke, head still slightly tilted. “Beautiful?” “Course!” Oin replied, smiling widely as he rose to his feet again. “A real beauty for sure. A marvel, actually. It is quite the privilege to get to see it in action!” “No one has ever told me that before,” you replied quietly, a smile spreading across your lips.

Gloin

Orcs rushed you from every side, sending you scrambling as fast as your crutches could support you. Carrying a sword aside it all was about as unwieldy as one imagined, but you knew no different. In fact, your best strike that fight had nearly taken a whole arm off. Catching sight of you, though, the nearest of your blood-spattered adversaries grinned and gave a savage kick, sending your crutches flying from beneath you. Teetering, you pitched forward, trying to catch yourself with one arm and steady your sword with the other as the shout rang out. “You think you’re so clever, you great filthy buzzard? I don’t think so!” With a savage growl of his own, Gloin flew into the fray, and with a violent swing of his axe the orc’s head was sent unceremoniously tumbling to the dirt. “Serves ‘m right, eh?” Gloin asked with a smug look as he extended a hand, helping you up, handing you your crutches, and even gently dusting you off.

Bifur

You had seen the way he glanced your way. How his eyes traced the lines of the crutches extending from your forearms, the extensions of steel that made walking less painless. And running more painless if you were a charging warg on the receiving end of a bash to the face. Bifur had seen the way you slid your arms free to motion and sign to him, indicating the interesting things seen along the road. If you had a tendency to go nonverbal, he would aid you in removing your crutches when you needed to sign. Such things had been floating in your mind when you sat by his side, asked him if he understood in a way. You certainly felt understood in his presence, after all. Bifur glanced away with haste, but still you caught notice of tears in his dark eyes, just for a moment. A moment before the smile spread across his face and he leaned in, gently resting his forehead against yours- carefully, of course, so you barely felt the brush of the axe against your joined skin.

Bofur

“Bofur!” Uncaring how earsplitting your scream may have been, you charged forward, heaving one leg before the other as fast as you could while still keeping a hand on your walker. Which was faster than even you realized, sped by adrenaline and rage and urgency all pounding through your ears. Loading your crossbow again and again, you fired three successive shots into the assailant’s side, shoulder, and finally with the last you struck his ugly head and knocked him down onto his ass. For good. Sighing heavily, you leaned for just a moment on your walker frame before making your way to Bofur’s side, this time at a less painful pace, and turned it around to take a seat. Leaning down, you reached for his hand. “Bofur, are you alright?” “I am thanks to you,” he chuckled, his hazel eyes fixed upon you fondly, “Maybe I need to get myself one of those. Seems to aid the aim, having something to lean on.” Grinning and blinking back tears, you procured a cloth and a strip of bandage and started to dab away the blood on his shoulder.

Bombur

“Hope this isn’t rude…” You were surprised by the sound of Bombur's soft voice coming from your side, turning from the journal you wrote in and setting your implements aside. A part of you wanted to roll your eyes, well aware of all the 'not rude' inquiries you'd received over the years as to why you carried crutches, especially if some days you did not. However, knowing this one came from sweet Bombur softened you. He actually meant it. "...But what's the hardest part of having those?" You couldn't resist a snicker at the thought that immediately rose to your mind. "You'd really like to know?" "Yes," he nodded, "If I may." With another little snort, you smiled and told him, "Mugs." "Mugs?" "Mugs and stairs. Can't tell you the number of times I've spilled on my way up. Anything that takes two hands, really." "I see!" The conversation ended with Bombur's eyes lighting up. At least you thought it had ended... Several days later, he came shuffling up to you with that same sweetly eager glint and his hands behind his back. "I've made you something," he told you, pulling out an open cylinder of steel and unfolding another little piece from it, "Hope it works. It's a little mug holder. Go on, let's see if it fits." Snapping the little unfolding piece to your crutch, Bombur watched your face break into a grin as it remained in place. "This is the sweetest thing anyone has done for me, Bombur. Thank you." "You deserve it," he replied, smiling fondly at you.

Dori

“I wouldn’t exactly mind having one of those.” “A cane?” You arched a brow. “I’ve always thought it made you look distinguished,” he admitted with a smile. “Now that is a new one,” you commented wryly, “All for use of my leg.” “Nothing wrong with it,” Dori shrugged, “We all do what we must. Seems a shame you’ve such a plain one, though.” At that, your proverbial ears perked up. “As opposed to what?” “Well,” he shrugged, “I don’t know. Haven’t you seen all the nice silver tips and things they put on canes?” “Ah,” you nodded, “I see what you mean! It is a bit of a shame I haven’t anything to decorate mine with, isn’t it?” “Haven’t anything? What do you call this?” With that emphasized last word, Dori reached behind into his pack and procured a little silver charm, one carved richly with dwarven runes and even centered with a little green stone. Fiddling at his back more, the dwarf also found a section of string and hastily tied it to your cane’s handle. “Now what do you call that?” He asked, waving a hand over the charm. “I have a bit of luster dust if you’d like something more.” Needless to say, it was the most fun night you’d had in those endless weeks of trekking.

Nori

Raising one eyebrow at Nori, you stared in skepticism as he held a hand out and repeated his request. “Your cane, please?” “How do I know you won’t just run off with it?” You shot back. “You’re sitting,” he pointed out, “Not like you really need it. Besides, do you really think I’d be so incorrigible a scoundrel as to make off with someone’s means of walkin’ for no reason?” Nori’s gaze slid upward from your carven wood cane back to your eyes, which remained as they were. “Second thought, don’t answer that. Just trust me, hm? You won’t regret it. Dwarf’s honor.” At the invoking of honor, an action infrequently taken by Nori, your brow lowered to form a more neutral, though inquisitive, expression as you handed your cane over. You were quickly distracted by conversation from Dori as you sat, folding your hands in both complacency and content and shivering a bit in the snow. The conversation continued for some time until an ‘A-ha!’ rang out and Nori came running back up, triumphantly hoisting your cane, to which he had crudely affixed one of his many knives. “And what,” you asked, “Is this?” Nodding beyond your night’s campground, Nori indicated the ice extending across the ground. “Aid in your trek! Can’t have you slipping, can you? Not that I won’t catch ya.” He winked.

Ori

“Your sticks!” Ori gasped, brown eyes wide with horror. “Where are they?” “My crutches?” Eyebrows sliding upward in amusement, you made your way toward the young dwarf, who was stitching a sock a handful of feet away. At that, he simply nodded, repairs completely abandoned upon his lap. "Oh, I simply had no need for them today," you answered with a small shrug of your shoulders. At that, Ori gave a curious little frown. “So you can walk some days?” “It isn’t only a matter of walking,” you chuckled, “Moreso that some days my pain and balance are worse.” “Like when Gloin’s leg bothers him?” Ori asked, face turning to childlike eagerness. “Or how Bifur doesn't talk some days?" A little smile spread across your face and your chest expanded with warmth. "Yes," you agreed, "Just like that, Ori."

Fili

Mind drifting off in tandem with the pulsing ache of your limbs, you gazed at the flicker of the fire, faintly drifting smoke curling into the air from pipes and the kindling itself. Your hands idly wrung your cane until the sensation of warmth brushing your leg drew you from your empty focus spiral. Shifting your gaze, you were met with the sight of Fili sitting at your side. "Think I might need one of those after today." Following his gaze, your eyes fell back down to your hands, more specifically the cane held there. "Your own mobility aid or the other?" At your last words, Fili quirked up a golden brow. "The other?" He repeated. Smirking proudly, you slid the end off your cane, revealing a sword hidden within. “The other,” you repeated once more with emphasis, “Guess you weren’t paying attention to how I heaved so many goblins off that bridge.” “You’re right,” Fili agreed, blue eyes lighting up in the fireglow, “I do want that. How long has that been there?” “Whole time.” “Just waiting for the right moment, eh?” “Of course,” you bantered back, “Gotta make a show.”

Kili

“Can I try?” Kili smiled up at you as you blinked at him, face blank with thought. Reaching down, he pantomimed using your crutches for a step, swinging his arms back and forth. "You want to give my crutches a go?" Your eyebrows shot up, a smile building upon your face. Memories flooded your mind, deep knowledge of the struggle that nearly always comes with those first steps and even far beyond. Loosening the grip you had upon your aids, you handed them off to Kili as you took Oin's hand and allowed him to help walk and lower you onto a makeshift camp seat. Hooking his arms in, Kili stood up, adjusting his posture after several moments. He took a step, then swung them. "Wait, that doesn't make sense. Hold on." You giggled from your seat at Oin's side as Kili raised one leg, thought, brought the crutches down again and wobbled such that you were tempted to extend hands that could catch him.

Bilbo

“I was scared first, but trust me: you’ll be grateful in the end once you get on these fellows,” Bilbo told you, looking down at you as he patted the pony he sat upon. “It isn’t that,” you answered, gaze dropping from the hobbit’s, “It’s…well, it is a bit embarrassing, to be honest.” The dwarves had been sweet enough to fortify the feet of your forearm crutches, though they still could not understand why you didn’t ride. The answer, quite frankly, rose a bit of a flush to your cheeks. Bilbo must have caught this. “You shouldn’t be ashamed. Nothing of it is your fault. You can tell me. Probably better me than all those dwarves, right? I won’t tell a soul.” His voice dropped to a playful whisper for that last sentence, which though it didn’t help the heat radiating beneath your skin did open your heart and your mouth. “If I were to get lightheaded or a shock of pain riding a pony I could fall off. And...And I would need someone to hold onto me.” “Ah,” the hobbit replied, this time taking his turn to shyly gaze away, “Well, if you ever change your mind, I would be more than happy to hold you.”

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[lavenderarts]

Revamp: Monthly Subs and Reward Art!

Hi everyone! After a long hiatus on this due to inconsistent health, I'm back and feeling better than ever, and I'd like to re-institute my monthly subscription service for art rewards. These will be active on my Ko-fi starting on August 1st! Read on to hear about the changes from my old system and details of what you'll get for subscribing, but if you don't care about any of that and just want to see the rewards page, here it is:

Please share this and consider tossing a couple bucks a month my way to help me support myself and my dog! Details below the cut!

So last time I was offering art rewards, it gradually became unsustainable for a number of reasons, chief among them the fact that I was basically offering severely discounted full commissions of all styles, and it was exhausting to fulfill in addition to regular commission work. I just couldn't keep up and got overwhelmed. So to help prevent that this time around, here are the changes I'm implementing:

I'll have a single reward type: single character busts! These are easy to crank out in an hour or less, so I can keep up with demand better. I'll reserve the right to decide between lined/lineless flats and papercrafts as I see fit to keep them interesting and fun for me, but if it's your birthday month or your yearly sub anniversary, you can choose the style and get a little something extra! For examples of what a bust looks like, please check out my recent ArtFight submissions :)

I'm going to do my level best to institute a hard 3-week turnaround rate for all regular commissions, and save the final week of each month for giving these rewards full priority along with onboarding new batches of clients for the following month's commissions.

I'm moving my subscription service over to Ko-fi, where anyone can give between $2-9 a month as a very generous tip and get access to my Discord server, or give $10+ for monthly bust rewards, early access to adoptables, and more! You can choose to give more than $10, but no other rewards exist for higher tier subs, it's up to whatever you feel is appropriate! Ko-fi has both Stripe and PayPal integration, which should be easier on the subscriber end, and it allows me to use PostyBirb to post across multiple sites at once, which makes it much easier to post early-access WIPs and finished work than it was on my old subscription service. It also automatically handles Discord onboarding and role assignment, yay!

I'm on the hunt for a simple Discord bot that can post a single repeating message on the first of every month with a link to a Google form for everyone to submit their requests, so that I don't have to ask for them manually. (If anyone knows of such a bot or is capable of making one, please get in touch!)

Previously I offered a whole suite of other rewards in addition to the monthly art -- things like subscriber-only request streams, early claims on adoptables, and even physical merch, which were not sustainable for me. Going forward, early adoptable claims for a discount will still be available as a reward, and I may occasionally do request streams, but on a less formally-scheduled basis and only as I have the free time to do so. I am not able to offer physical prints/stickers at this time; I might revisit the option in the future, but I need to know more before I try it again! I'll also be continuing to offer a subscriber discount on all commissions that will stack with other sales and discounts, along with the ability to skip the waitlist and jump directly into the work queue.

So to recap, if you subscribe to me, here's everything you get:

For $2-$9 USD: Discord server access with a special role, and my thanks for your generous support!

For $10+ USD: Discord server access with a special role, 24 hour early adoptable access with the ability to claim for a discounted price, a bust of a single character each month, first looks at finished artwork and WIPs/timelapses, commission discounts, and potentially more down the line.

My Discord is open to anyone, and all members can freely chat, post art, attend/host art streams, and answer polls regarding prompts for adoptable designs and more. You just get some nice bonuses for subscribing! While these subscription tiers are available, one-time tips and donations of any amount are still an option for commission clients or anyone else who just wants to show some love.

I hope this all makes sense and sounds enticing; I really love seeing people's OCs and getting to bring them to life and put my own little touch on them, and I'm very excited to start giving something back to all of you out there whose support means so very much to me, and without whom I could never do what I do. Thank you so much for checking out the Ko-fi! As a reminder, reward eligibility begins on August 1st! The tiers are active on Ko-fi now, but if you subscribe before August you won't be rewarded for the month of July, so keep that in mind.

[sinnabee]

hey guys! i’ve got a bit of a (big) life update for y’all.

unfortunately, i’m having to figure out a new living situation pretty unexpectedly. my roommate and i talked, and basically he’s wanting to live on his own again. so i’ve got about two months to get moved out of here and find a new place. (i’m working on it! luckily i recently reconnected with a friend who’s a real estate agent, so who knows - maybe i’ll get my own damn house >:D)

for anybody that follows me on ko-fi, you might have seen the update i put there. this is a more detailed version of that.

basically, this means (and i am so so so SO sorry about this) it’s going to be a while before i can get a lot of these charm orders out.

i’m going to try my best to get out what i can in-between packing, but don’t be surprised if your order takes several months to ship. again, i’m so sorry - i know it took me ages to even get them listed.

one of the other things this is going to effect may be sticker orders and new stickers.

sticker orders:

i try to include free doodles with my sticker orders, and i am going to continue to try and do that, but some of you may not receive a doodle, and for that i’m sorry.

if you would rather get your stickers sooner, and don’t mind missing out on the doodle, please message me, either through tumblr or through ko-fi. (ko-fi will help me keep track of who’s who a bit better.)

if you REALLY want a doodle, and don’t mind waiting, then let me know and i’ll move yours to the back of my list. this way, i can prioritize anyone who doesn’t mind going without a doodle and start cutting down on my workload.

if you don’t message me either way, i’ll try and get your doodle done, but there’s a chance i may just go ahead and send it without one. luck of the draw.

some of you have ordered stickers AND charms! (omg, what the heck! y’all are amazing!) despite being in the same order, i may try and at least get you your sticker orders, unless otherwise requested. (i have a few people that have already spoken to me about having their items shipped together, so no worries if we’ve already talked.) for anyone that ordered stickers + charms, i wasn’t going to do a doodle anyway, since the main reason i have those is to do something with the cardstock i use to keep the envelopes flat. this way y’all will at least get something sooner! (again, message me if you’d rather i’d send it all together. don’t worry about shipping if i send them separately, i’m not gonna apply a charge for that, it’s fine.)

new stickers:

i had intended to start printing and eventually list my new halloween dca sticker design by october first at the absolute latest. but with the whole “ideally be moved out within two months at the latest, earlier if possible,” thing, that may not be happening.

i’m still gonna try, though!!!!! i’ll try and save my sticker making things for later in the packing process, and maybe try and get that stuff figured out before the end of this month. we’ll see if i can juggle it with everything else - i really think it’s dependent on me catching up on my other orders, first.

in addition to all of this, i’m still out of work on FMLA for my back problems. on the bright side - my appointment is FINALLY coming up!!! yippee!!! but that also means i have to take a lot of breaks from packing and working on stickers because… back hurty. but it ALSO means i have the time to do all this stuff, breaks included, because i’m not working. so…silver linings, am i right? :D

also just wanna say thank you to everybody again - i have made SO many friends in this fandom, and i’ve had a blast being able to make stickers and finally charms!!!! half the reason i’ve been able to bounce back so quick after getting this news the other day is because i’ve already had some of my pals who saw my kofi post messaging me and wishing me well. and the money from the charm orders is gonna help ease the moving/shopping process a lot, so - thank you all so much!!!!

again, i’m sorry everything is so delayed. but i WILL get it out to you eventually, once things settle down a bit. but y’all are amazing, and i appreciate you lots, k???? don’t forget it!!! <3

[java-dragon]

Bookbinding for Beginners by a Beginner Part 2

Am back there were some things that I missed stating in my last post. And starting up where I mean to continue. I may add things as I go, fair warning, but there is a lot to cover and sometimes I walk away and go "Welp.... forgot that thing". But for the sake of things not being overwhelming I tried to get the most "Up front" stuff done and out of the way in part one.

And I would like to take this time to say: Take it slow, pace yourself. There is no race. And the learning curve is steep in areas. You have to be ok with making mistakes because it WILL happen. Accept that you've made a mistake but don't get upset with lost time or materials. Make a note of what happened and have a journal on hand if you'd like to see how far you've come and the "OK so.... that didn't work. Don't do that again." At the end of the day we're here to line our shelves with lovely wonderful stories and have the pride of "I did this ain't that cool?"

There are a few optional things you might want to consider.

A paper guillotine this is to make the pages of your bind more tidy, but there is nothing wrong with a deckled edge.

example of deckled edges. It's just a fancy way of saying 'uneven'. There are ways to trim your project with a crafting knife / box cutter and a ruler but my experiments have yielded not so great results. Likely, it's due to several factors: One I don't know my own strength half the time, Two "light but firm pressure" means exactly "Well which is it cause for me those are two different things". Three See one. So deckled edges it is. But if you splurge on a paper guillotine, I salute you. You can also take it slower with a more traditional paper cutter but I recommend measuring twice before committing to a tape marker of where to line your pages up. It is up to you.

Optional but fun: Scrap book paper for decorative end pages. It's fun hunting around a craft store and finding what suits the vibe of the fic you're binding. My only note is aim for something that's not too stiff aim for something fairly easily folded and thin. Card stock like paper won't lay nicely in your book.

End bands these will go on the edge of the spine of your fic but over top of the mull (What is mull? That's coming up)

Mull which is essentially stiff cheese cloth this will add extra structure to your bind

Another option is a Subscription to Canva I only say this because you can sign up for free, but some of the options are locked behind a pay wall. It's fun to play with but the Pro version of Canva also lets you resize your canvas and do custom sizes. I have also done my binders logo in Canva (I actually have two as variants). I also use it to make decorative cover pages.

For your viewing pleasure this is what I came up with. Fun fact about me, I'm a thalassophile (I love the sea and everything about it) since I was consciously aware of the sea. The primary reason WHY I got into book binding is because I am going to be eventually moving onto and living and working off of a boat.

Lucky Seas Bookbinding one and two. Depending on what I feel like using.

Cricut all cricut accessories- there is a mini cricut if you want to dip your toe in. IF you go this route you'll need "HTV" or "Heat Transfer Vinyl"

You can also build your covers in canva and get as cost saving options

Printable sticker paper. OR Heat transfer paper

But this is stuff for covers. I'll get into what you need for covering the chipboard in a minute and give you a "Recipe" for book cloth (Cause I ain't got time nor the funds for some of the book cloth that is out there) but if you want to splurge for your project by all means look and see what is out there. But make note of this- you can just cover your book case in paper and just use sticker paper. I will recommend getting some sort of transparent contact paper to protect your cover (I will go through all of this in future just make a mental note of this)

Now for I promised:

I will be using Celestial Navigation as my example fic of how to down load a fic.

You're going to go to AO3 and go alllll the way over to "Download" and hit "HTML" you can either have it pop open right away or you can go to your downloads and open it up along with your word processor of choice.

You're going to hit Control A (PC) or Command A (Mac), Control/Command C, and then go to your word processor and hit Control/Command V. And listen to the take off noise your computer brand of choice inevitably wants to do while the fic makes it's way from the HTML over to the word processor.

What this all did was copy EVERYTHING and plop EVERYTHING (Save for comments) onto your document. Feel free to save what you have this far and pat yourself on the back you're about to start type facing.

I'm a minimalist in my designs but I have expanded a touch in terms of what I'm doing just to know and experiment for what works for me and what doesn't.

I will reiterate that I will be using Microsoft Word but I'm sure there's away to do this on other processors I just don't know how to do the other one's. I know Mac has something called "Pages". I never worked with it. I will try to add as many visuals as possible but some of my instructions will be "Go to this tab, click X Y and Z to make a thing happen".

Just know that this is what works for me and this is how I've managed to bumble through thus far. This is hardly perfect and I'm still very much experimenting with EVERYTHING. IF you find a better simpler way of doing things- by all means do so.

There's even a way to set up a template when you fire up Word but I've yet to figure it out.

But for now the fun begins- there is some tedium with this but it's best done with music or something on in the background that you can easily listen too but not watch.

First and foremost what you need to do is make the formatting into "Booklet" How to get there is:

Next up hit command A again. Yes... trust me. There might be a lot of this going on for a little bit while you fiddle and fart your way into a typeset you like.

Indent first line and line spacing is found here: Home Tab, Paragraph section hit the arrow pointing down towards the document- next to that is Line and Breaks- hit that if widow and orphan control is clicked unclick it what that does is allows paragraphs to be broken up and will flow into the next page.

Widow/Orphan control example:

Font: For me personally I do Garamond at 11 or 12 depending on my mood. I just like how it looks but find a font type that pleases your eye.

To get rid of hyperlinks:

Line spacing I set mine to 1.5 lines for easier reading. You can keep it to 1 or bump it up to two but the more space between lines means the larger the text block (AKA the book itself) will be.

Now I go back and highlight all of the fic information, and go to the popup menu after highlighting and take the line spacing down to 1 and remove the indents.

I also like to go to the headings section and get rid of the indents one by one on the chapter headings and then center them in the page. Go in front of the Chapter title EX "Chapter 1" and hit backspace until the indent is gone Highlight, there should be a pop up that allows you to change formatting, font and where the indent is.

This is all in the Layout Tab of Word:

Margins- I keep my margins at 1" all directions just because of how it looks on the page but you can have that as narrow as you please.

Next Page- separating the document to make type facing easier. What this does is make the document have "Chapters" within the document. Do this between Chapter one and the first few pages- the opening blank pages, title page ECT.

Double click on the header and footer on the document itself and click "link to previous"

What this does is make sure headers and footers (page numbers and the like) do NOT go up to the "Section" above the area you're working.

Word of note- I like having Chapters start at the beginning of a fresh page so I will go to the beginning of the Chapter Title "Chapter One" and hit "Next Section" and it will jump automatically to a new page.

You might also want to open up the navigation panel so you can hit the headings tab (I have mine set with Navigation Panel already open I don't recall how to get there, play around BUT the Navigation Panel will look akin to this on the Left Hand side of the document:

I downloaded "The Prize" to continue the examples as best I can sometimes it's hard to screen grab what I need on an already done document.

You can also add section breaks but leave it linked to previous to continue page number flow.

So you know selecting "Different odd and even pages" means that if you set a fun or different font for the page numbers you will have to go to ex page 2 and unlink the section from the previous.

Do this for headers as well. But that this does is give you the option to put the author's name and fic title alternating on odd and even pages:

Headers and footers:

With headers and footers section still highlighted hit "Page Number" "Format Page Numbers" Hit "Start at" and hit "One" for the section with the main text body.

This... I will admit took some fiddling for me to figure out. There were some frustrated noises and some choice words at times. But if you hit Layout, Next Page it should prevent you some heart ache instead of just constantly hitting the Enter Key and hoping for the best.

Different Odd and Even Pages what this means and how it works:

In my experience you will have to go to the first 1-3 pages to unlink everything from the Previous Section so it doesn't show up on the beginning pages of the document- but if you like the look of it, more power too you. It's your fic. It's going to be on your shelf at the end of the day. Follow your joy. I'm just letting you know what I do.

You will also have to unlink to previous section with the footers as well, and if you choose a different font and you want the numbers to match through the whole text you will have to input that. Hit the "Pages" Navigation and use that to scroll through things quickly so you can check your work and see if you're happy.

I'm kinda a fan of leaving the headers with the author's name and fic title alternating on pages OFF but I have experimented with it a little bit just to know what it looks like and what it does.

But here is an example of alternating Headers for Sabrecmc's "The Prize" (It was on my To Bind List and since Sabrecmc has given their blessing I'm hoping they don't mind me going "Alright people need visuals.... and this is what I'm working on."

To get the header from the left to the right side- hit tab and type what you please you can also highlight and set colour and font type. This is just Garamond for now for ease of example and reading for now.

Choices choices choices.

Some fic binders like to keep everything including author's comments at the beginning and ends of fics. Personally, I remove them just to keep the flow of everything. You can have a section at the back of the fic if you'd like with all of the comments but that is entirely up to your own personal preference. This is the fic for your shelf make it in a way that makes you happy.

Now all the way at the top of the fic I want you to insert 6 blank pages. But keep in mind this is front and back of pages in a book. Two blank pages on the document equals one page. Some binders go more than that depending on what all they like to do. You'll figure out what you like and what works for your project. Think Bob Ross- Happy little trees and do what you want.

But for me in the document: Pages 1 and 2 are blank as a sort of buffer page, 3 is the title page with the fic name and author and likely some simple design, 4 is all of the fic information- I keep the pairing, chapters, any additional or important tags or warnings, rating and a QR code to link back to the original fic. Page 5 is either left blank but I have added images as something fun for the hell of it that fits the fic, page 6 is my logo. In earlier experiments I played with where my logo goes this works for me I think but it may change in the future. IF you want to have a table of contents by all means add some pages to do so. I don't find it necessary so I don't do it.

To insert an image- for QR codes or title pages:

QR codes can also be just dragged and dropped I've been lazy and dragged and dropped and resized them from there.

I also put a disclaimer in red font: "This is for personal use only and is not intended to be sold! Retail value is estimated 25$" That is to cover the cost of the materials you have used or made in the process of your book that way if your fic somehow ends up in a donation bin it can't be sold for very much.

This is what the info section of a completed fic looks like for me:

To insert an image:

Insert Tab (Next to Home Tab) , Picture- next to the "Table" section, hit the drop down menu and hit "Upload from this device" and select where you have saved the QR Code to, desktop downloads what have you.

It should appear on your document and you can resize it as you please, if you click on the image there should be a pop up with a grey looking rainbow with lines- that's important for QR codes I have it "in line with text"

for fun headers "Have image behind text"

This is.... getting LONG as hell... so I'm going to stop here. But this should give you a jumping off point to start with your fan binding. Play around! Have fun.

Last few Tips:

Home Tab- in the paragraph section- if you need to know what the nitty gritty of what's going on in the document is- hit the backwards looking "P" with the line that's the sign for "Enter" on your keyboard. So you can see what that looks like I don't use it cause it clutters everything for my eyes, but it won't show on the final product. You can turn that on and off at your leisure

Insert Section: Scroll along the top until you see "Word art" one more over "Drop Cap", That's how you can get fancy letters at the beginning of the chapter. Sometimes you DO need to add some spaces between the Letter you're Drop capping and the rest BUT what that window looks like is this When you hit "Drop Cap Options" you can set whatever font you please for however many lines I typically do 3 but the more lines you drop the larger the letter. Tinker with it have fun.

There will likely be more type facing goodies next post... but after I get done type facing I'll get into getting the document ready for printing, how to print and what to do with that shopping list I gave you in that previous post.

REFERENCES, LINKS AND HELPFUL PEOPLE!

Some links for your consideration you will need this for future reference so book mark these:

French Link Stitch

Perfect bound books (AKA Paper backs)

Fun Fonts to spice up the document body itself, you can also import them into Canva.

Da font

1001 Free Fonts

Another resource to keep in mind for ink is this site here if you have cartridge printers see if you can't get a refillable set for your printer so you don't have to sell your arms, your legs, your first born and your house to keep printing your fic projects.

These two tiktokers right here explained everything the best, they are worth checking out even if you don't have Tik Tok. They've been going at this longer than me and don't go "OH SHIT I FORGOT A THING" constantly.

EDIT ONE! This is the punch cradle I have it makes it easy for french links for me

HoneyMinCo Sea Lemon

[37gorditas]

Why was Spamton so much more unsettling than Jevil?!?!

(Deltarune Chapter 2 spoilers under the funny line!)

I thought about this stuff when i was in the shower, so it probably doesn't make much sense but here goes!!!

Alright, I might be having serious brainrot, but i think compared to Jevil, Spamton is unsettling as FUCK. I mean, one of them is a fella in a jail cell somewhere that really likes chaos (and is also probably based on a random LINE sticker pack)...

Spamton, on the other hand, while also having similar thoughts of freedom and is also similarly Kind Of Unhinged, is a bit more disturbing, especially when you're working to fight his NEO form. One event that sticks out to me is when you transfer his data onto the Empty Disk. As the data starts transferring, line by line, the shop turns greyscale, the music lowers in speed, and Spamton disappears.

When playing through the game myself, I immediately left because Crap! I Kinda Liked That Guy! Something about him just Disappearing just got to me. Another pretty unsettling thing that happens is at the end of the Spamton NEO fight, he just. Falls to the ground, motionless. His NEO form lies there on a black background for what seemed like Hours, and the gang appears on a path leading out of the basement (IIRC.)

Now, I don't think everything literally turned Pitch Black for the gang when they were on the tracks there. Seems that the game intentionally has everything else black out to emphasise what happened to US, the player. The same goes for the shop, in a way. While maybe the colour DID get transferred from the room along with Spamton (and the telephone???) it's like the game litters these jarring, quiet moments with Spamton throughout the game. But why?

Maybe it's to show the parallels of Spamton to Kris. Kris is also unsettled by Spamton, especially seen after the fight, when they yell that they're not OK (if that option is picked.) Spamton may have painted a picture to Kris that there's no way out of being puppeted forever. (He talks about not being [Big] enough and that makes new goofy theories spring up in my head which i'll spare you guys from.) Kris is pretty annoyed by us, the players, already, and they DO have times where they just sever our connection to them through the SOUL, but these periods of time are brief. Spamton crushed the hopes that Kris may have had of completely regaining control.

But why show the parallels to US? What do we do, rewrite the game to make things go better for Spamton and Kris? Honestly, there's no way of knowing until at least chapters 3-5 come out. I need more LORE...... more TINY CHUNKS OF PLOT....... more FUNEE CHARACTERS......... to think about and tie back to this.

That's pretty much all I had to say, to be honest. I had a lot more ideas about this in the shower, but they don't make much sense to me now. PLEASE tell me what you guys think because there are probably a lot of pieces i didn't connect that well, and things i would've got wrong. I don't know where I thought I was going with this. Just putting my thoughts here so I can look back when the rest of the chapters come out and laugh.

TL;DR: Spamton's presented as being unsettling because he has pretty similar toils to Kris, who is also probably unsettled by him.

Thanks for reading!

[ab-crochet-club]

Some Words About A Project - BMO cute little purse with Jake plushie charm

A project for Blue, which I think came out quite well. Didn't follow a pattern for most of this, but for some: the cone tip, the heart of gold little wallet thing, and Jake the dog. Other than those, just worked off of pictures of other crochet BMOs and various images from the show. The yarn Lion Brand 24/7 cotton, I find it works quite well for the sort of projects that I mostly work, nice colors and feel and very little splitting and all that. Also, I used here a 3mm hook, the purse is rather small, can just carry maybe a phone, some dollars/credit card, and maybe a few other small items. One might like to try with a 4mm hook or so for a bit larger interior.

All is done almost entirely using single crochet and slip stitch, with some occasional half-double or double crochet. Also it's mostly built up in one big piece, with many small bits to be added on, and a fair bit of embroidery. I use the chart here for the lettering.

Beginning using Jade color yarn we start with BMO's undercarriage, a simple rectangle.

Now, at this point I worked around the rectangle, in the back (or maybe it's the front? The one 'above' anyway) loop along the long sides, and just sort of doing my best along the short sides. And then just work around a lot to start to build up the body. This is probably the more easy approach, not having to build several pieces and attach all together, but it does make for a somewhat poorly shaped body; that is, we get a fair bit of 'stitch drift' heading up the body, and the corners are rounded, so all together it doesn't quite have the boxy shape, more of a slightly deformed and rounded rectangle cross section. Once it is all complete it seems to look pretty nice, but some might prefer to do it a bit more 'proper' by building the sides all as separate rectangles and then sewing together in the end. That may also make other steps easier, for example the embroidery and attaching the buttons and such; for me it could be a bit difficult at times working into a cramped space. Experiment eh.

Enough rows to comfortably fit the 'O' and the red button (a simple magic ring start with a few single crochet rounds).

More rows, just enough to make room for the 'M', probably six, also starting to add the directional buttons and thinking about placement for the green (a simple disc like the red, but smaller). I made several attempts at the yellow directional buttons, but ultimately was unable to feel happy with any one-piece results, they just all came out terrible, maybe someone has a nice technique for that but I ended up just doing two thin rectangles and sewing one over the top of the other; it's fine I think.

View from the back about this time; along the side we have the 'O' and the 'M', in front pretty much as the previous image, but the yellow directional button and green round have been sewn in and also the light blue triangle. Triangle can be made by working like a rectangle but not doing turning chains so you lose stitches as you go.

Nearly to the top now! All side lettering is complete, and the speakers are there, just need a bit more for the face screen. It's at about this time that I start thinking about doing this as a purse rather than a doll, and also notice that it'll be way too small for a purse, so start to think about adding a hat for extra interior space.

FACE! Also a lovely star sticker for BMO, who is brilliant and pretty. The screen is made as a rectangle, then the face is slip stitched on, and finally the screen is slip stitched onto the body. Don't recall now exactly how the star was made, here is a video which seems close enough, others are available.

Another look at the backside, not so much going on here. Mostly all done using slip stitch through the body.

A look at BMO's golden heart; it's little, but can just about hold a couple credit cards or folded bills.

The strap, not perfectly added, messed up a bit, but it came out pretty well I think, can easily attach various decorations and is a lovely Navy Blue. Starts with along chain, then working single crochet along the chain, then double or maybe half-double while skipping a couple stitches in between to create a nice sort of window pattern, then finish with another single crochet row.

Went with the cone hat, like Football. Like much of my work it's a bit sloppy and just sort of doing stuff and thinking it'll probably be fine, probably. Here we attached Orange at the top and single crochet around with some increases at the corners to create the brim, also some skips along the short sides to go around the strap. Once the brim is complete, attach the Orange again at the top and this time work in and up, distributing some decreases so that you build up into the sky with the rectangle gradually turning into a square and finally closing up. Lastly, build a witch hat without the brim and sew it at the top so as to have a nice pointy cone.

Here we are with the lining added in; this may not be necessary if you carefully weave in all of your yarn ends, I couldn't be bothered and anyway it seems super cute with some nice space lining inside. Quite low on interior space, but maybe enough for a too cute little bag.

Lovely. Next, build a friend to attach onto the strap, I went for Jake with headphones, which shine.crafts explains well, link to their ko-fi shop where the pattern can be obtained:

Looking good Jake!

Final result: Totally Algebraic! (I say final, I think probably fine without the arms or legs, but I'll add them if Blue wants me to).

[dnangelic]

She saw it; the tag sticking out of his pocket with the words ‘Happy Birthday Daisuke’ written on it. And from that, she can only make one assumption. “Niwa Daisuke.” Ah, that sounds too unfriendly. “…Niwa-san. Is it your birthday?”

She does not wait for an answer she's already sure of. She pats at her pockets. Once…twice before deciding there’s nothing in there that would make a proper ‘birthday gift’. Thinking. Thinking. Eyes look around ‘til they settle on a flier behind her and the idea for a surely acceptable, impromptu gift crosses her mind. She pulls the flier free of its pins, inspecting it a moment before folding it over and over until it becomes something of an envelope in her hands. Then, with her back turned to Daisuke, she squats to dig in her purse and pulls out several items. Among these, her wallet, from which she pulls out several bills. She looks over her shoulder, as if to make sure Daisuke wasn’t peeking, then turns back to her hands, straightening the bills and slipping them into her improvised envelope. A couple of seconds–minutes pass before she’s standing and facing him again. She holds out to him his gift: a money envelope decorated with stickers, his name written as neatly as she could manage (which was not very neat by standards), and her name stamped onto the bottom corner, all accompanied with a chocolate bar. “Congratulations on your birthday.” And of course, a blessing as is etiquette. “To your health, happiness, and prosperity. May this be a wonderful year.” //types this real quick b4 the clock strikes midnite (sor ily i hope theres no typos )

' wha --- ?! ' he stiffens in the street the instant he hears the sound of his full name . even for a boy like himself , to hear its entirety was a rarity --- was he in trouble ? no , wait . that was just ...

' o-oh , eto-san ... ! my birthday ? yeah , but how did you ... ' hand brushes against the tag practically falling out from his pocket , and the perpetual red of his cheeks deepens a little as he flails and flounders in a graceless , hurried attempt to remove-then-stuff-it back in . the clumsy act of his goes on for about as long as the other spends patting herself down , creating what must have seemed like a strange miming session between the two of them to any passerby . ' --- ah , s-sorry ! i should've been more careful ... '

not that the exact date of birthday was any sort of secret compared to what exactly had happened on his fourteenth , but wasn't it a little careless to be running around with a tag like this sticking out ? it could have seemed arrogant and demanding , but his company has already started seemingly scavenging around for ... who knew what , really --- and without any sort of goading . daisuke thinks to say something at first , but it might have been rude to interrupt and ask potentially stupid questions , right ? an idea that morphs from a possibility to a certainty in nothing more than the brief span of her glance back at him --- shoulders high , back straightened , body stiff as a plank once more , until finally ...

don't tell me she just did all of this for me ?! ' uh , i ... ' a few seconds pass until daisuke snaps out of it . everything ... the stickers and the envelope were so cute ! how had she folded it ?! if he asked her , would she tell him as an extra gift of sorts , too ? or maybe that was too much to ask of her after he had watched ( tried not to watch ) her slip a few bills into the envelope . he's still never met anyone who would go as far as to practically handcraft a birthday gift like this for him , and so quickly , at that ! both of his hands can't help but tremble a little as they lift . wow ... ! ' u-um , i mean --- is it really okay for me to accept something like this ? '

anyone might have said of course , it's your birthday , after all --- but he had never been entirely certain whether or not the other and himself had been exceptionally close . the sort of person he had seen on occasion through dark's eyes had been puzzling ; distant and whimsical , but not quite cold . there had always been this sort of thoughtfulness and generous sentiment that reassured him . when the envelope is finally accepted into his hands , the boy's lips have already lifted into a bright , flattered smile . simple as the gift was , it felt so gracious . some part of him felt inspired .

' eto-san , um ... thank you ! ' was there anything more that he could say ? a bow demonstrates itself to her , completing every formality . ' i'll enjoy the chocolate ... and --- ' maybe he could buy some new paints , or a new canvas , and show her something of his own creation ... ! ' if it's okay ... in a few days , i'd like if you could show me how to make this envelope , too ! '

[kymera-casterwill]

So as a head's up, if you wanted to get pancakes and/or a drink hoping to get Eric's sticker, you're being 'severely judged', as this person it admitted themselves.

Did you take a long trip? Did you have to wait long? Maybe even in the cold and rain? Were you excited to go? Did you smile while greeting this person? Maybe you even took some photos to share and promote the event... Well, you may have not gotten your sticker, but you get to receive this treatment from the person behind the counter instead! 😀

Imagine hoping to have a good time only to come across this remark on Twitter. How would seeing this, something out freely in the public no less, affect those who just wanted a sticker for their favorite LI?

I can't understand why someone would judge the players when they had no choice to break up with their love interest BEFORE being able to get together with Eric? Why not judge BEEMOOV who decided that this would be how his route would work?

Why do so many people who dislike Eric act like he invented "the cheating" in a relationship? The reason I ask is because I've seen A LOT of people say things like "If you picked Eric, you must cheat in real life as well" or "If you like Eric, I don't want to know how you treat relationships in real life". People didn't wait for Eric to cheat or be cheated on.

At what point did other players' choices in a game have any impact on this person life, on their own game (if this person even played in the first place), or even the other players' lives?

Then you should also judge those who dated Valkyon in Season 1 of Eldarya and moved onto Lance in Season 2? Or what about those who wanted to be with him from the start? Or those who tried to seduce Leigh in HSL? Or those who picked Ezarel (with he has also done a lot of questionable things) and/or LEIFTAN?

When did insulting, judging, threatening, and mocking real people become more acceptable over "hurting" a fictional character?

On Twitter, I tagged Beemoov in my reply. Here, I'll take the libery to tag @chinomiko and repeat once again that this person lacks professionalism. Their job is to give customers what they asked for-- not make public remarks on their tastes. Customers are there to pay for food and drinks, not judgement of their preferences.

P.S. I am anticipating some by telling you that no, I haven't played LL so I never came across Eric directly, I stopped at Episode 14 of UL/CL, that I'm not confortable with the theme of cheating and can't see myself ever doing that to a partner, and just like the LIs, I wouldn't be able to forgive someone because I could no longer trust them.' But we're talking about a video game here-- Even if my feelings on it haven't changed, there is no reason to take it out on other players who just wanted to have fun.

THANK YOU also to the lovely person who took the time to translate the wall of text that I wrote, I won't tag you because I don't want you to be involved in the matter if some people might take it the wrong way, but really thank you so much 😭💙

[johannestevans]

Lots of new work, some comedy, and an upcoming pub quiz for Galway Pride!

Good evening!

You can get these updates direct to your email inbox here.

So much to cover this week. I have a bunch of event announcements and several media recs - just scroll down to the bottom if you just want my round-up of new works published.

First things first - I've started playing with some buttons on Zazzle, trialling some badge designs for when I'm selling books at conventions next year.

These, and a few other designs, are available on my Zazzle store now! They're obviously quite expensive for individual badges because it's a print-on-demand store, but I'm planning to experiment with some designs over the next year or so, with the hope of selling these sorts of pin badges (as well as stickers and so on) for cheaper later on.

Secondly, I did a comedy set at Ireland's Smallest Comedy Club last week, and I'm going to do another set at Basement Jokes, also here in Galway City, on the 17th of May. If you're up this end of Ireland, come along at 8pm! Basement Jokes is a free entry comedy club, and it's in the basement of The Cellar Bar. Here's the show info.

Thirdly, if you're not in Galway next week but you can make it down the week after, I'll be hosting a pub quiz to help fundraise for Galway Pride this year. There'll be a big quiz with a bunch of rounds, and there'll also be a raffle with prizes from local businesses - there'll be a few signed copies of Heart of Stone in with the other prizes. Quiz entry is €5 per person, and you can find the info here on EventBrite.

A few people have recently approached me about doing book clubs and so on, so I just wanted to state explicitly here that I'm more than happy to answer questions and chat on stream at queer or fantasy book clubs via Zoom or similar! If you're going to have Heart of Stone or any of my other work as your book club pick in Ireland, the North of England, or Bristol, depending on where you are, I might be able to come along in person and sign books and so on! You can reach out with that sort of enquiry at contact@johannestevans.com.

Media Recommendations

Maintenance Phase - Maintenance Phase is a great podcast that Lewis got me into, and I've been catching up on a bunch of their old episodes of recent - Maintenance Phase is put together by Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, and it's a podcast where they unpack common myths and outright lies told in the wellness and diet industries, especially common fatphobic rhetoric, bad science, and conartistry by fitspo and health "experts". They get so catty with unpacking this stuff and it's so cathartic to listen to, but it's all backed up with good, robust tear-downs of the shitty science behind a lot of what they're tearing apart. If you want to listen to just one episode to see how you feel, I would recommend, Is Being Fat Bad For You?, from 16/11/2021.

Yellowjackets (2021--) - Presumably everyone and their mother has been telling you already to check out Yellowjackets - let me just add to the cacophony of voices and say, absolutely, do it. It's got cannibalism, it's got lesbianism, it's got toxic codependency, it's got mental health issues out the wazoo, it's got all the trauma, it's got a breakdown of the effects of misogyny on young sports women in the 90s, it's got cults, it's got the wildest gore, it's got bears, it's got a classic plane, it's got everything! It's fucked up and it's pretty fucking harrowing, especially in the second series, but I'm very much enjoying it.

Lawn Dogs (1997, dir. John Duigan) - This is such a fun flick, and one that I think I related to a lot in regards to the childhood emotions depicted - this is about a young girl growing up in an isolated gated community and her friendship with a guy who mows lawns and is an outsider to that community. I really fucking dug it, I loved the fairy tale aesthetics contrasted with the miserable reality, loved the unpacking of class and gender feels, loved the trauma, love the particularly scathing depiction of emotional neglect. I did review it, and I also watched the same director's 1994 film, Sirens, which stars Hugh Grant. I was planning to go through Duigan's back catalogue and watch some more of his work, but I just want to forewarn that Thandiwe Newton has accused him of sexual abuse - this has obviously put me off going back through it and has tempered my feelings about the art to say the least. Obviously I believe Newton, and if you are going to watch Duigan's work, make sure to do it in a way that won't give him further payment or aplomb where you can.

For new releases, I watched The Pope's Exorcist (2023, dir. Julius Avery) and Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023, dir. John Francis Daley & Jonatham M. Goldstein). These are obviously very different films, one a supernatural horror about an Italian exorcist on a silly little mopend and the other a fucking A++ adventurous romp of a DnD party on a disastrous and delightful campaign - I recommend them, glowingly and with love, in the same breath because both of them feel so completely sincere and earnest in their shameless love of their subject. There's no ironic self-effacement, there's no sarcasm about the plot from within the plot iself, there's no attempts to imply that the characters or the plot are above or superior to others in their genre. Everyone in these movies goes fucking ham, they camp it up, and it's absolutely glorious. I am so tired of Joss Whedon-esque quips about how shitty the tropes are while we're doing the trope - this sort of return to open sincerity is where it's at. I also watched Renfield (2023, dir. Chris McKay), which unfortunately is not nearly as good - I mention it because it's Nicholas Hoult and Nicholas Cage hamming it up as vampires, and there's some fun aesthetics even though the broader execution is unfortunately pretty shit.

I was in a mood for classic musicals this week, and so I went back and watched Fiddler on the Roof (1971, dir. Norman Jewison) which is obviously one of the best film musicals ever made, and also Guys and Dolls (1955, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz) and Hello, Dolly! (1969, dir. Gene Kelly). They're fun, silly films, and I'm planning to dive deeper and watch a few more old musicals if I can stay on this kick. If you're in the mood for classic movie M/F/M threesomes, there's obviously Cabaret (1972, dir. Bob Fosse) and Singin' in the Rain (1952, dir. Stephen Donen & Gene Kelly).

I've also been replaying Xenoblade Chronicles (2010) this week, and I really recommend it if you've never played it before! It's a gorgeous game with a beautiful soundtrack and some really fucked up themes around body horror, cannibalism, and war alongside the central fantastical plot, and I love it a lot. It's on a few platforms, but I'm playing the original on the Wii.

New Works Published

Firstly, for some Tumblr stuff, I had:

Some notes about casual sex and hook-ups as a disabled person, for which I would love if people do have resources to contribute!

I gave some advice about approaching the introduction of new characters, especially when coming from a background in fanfic.

And if you're doing Monstrous May, I put together some header images for use on your social medias!

Movie Review: Lawn Dogs (1997, dir. John Duigan)

I talked about this movie a bit in my media recs section, but this review is a more extensive dive into the film's themes, especially class, childhood neglect and isolation, queerness and going stealth, and the social dynamics at play in the film.

On Medium / / On Letterboxd

Erotic Short: Hypnotised

Monstrous May Day #3: Hypnotised - An assistant bartender is drawn in by a vampire.

1k, M/M, rated M. Some sexy hypnosis for the purposes of public blood drinking — no sex. An entry for Day #3 of #MonstrousMay.

On Medium / / On Patreon

Erotic Short: The Tentacle Beast

Monstrous May Challenge Day #5: The Tentacle Beast - A priest makes a pledge to his chapter's master. 

Cis M/tentacle beast. Just 600w, short and sweet! For the Monstrous May Challenge 2023.

On Medium / / On Patreon

Fantasy Short: The Many Deaths of Baldr the Undying

One of Odin’s record-keepers interviews the god Loki.

Here’s a big one! 13.6k, rated M for violence, featuring some Loki and Baldr, some Odin scheming off-screen. Lots of delving into and playing with the stories, but with an angel thrown in for flavour.

On Medium / / On Patreon

Fantasy Short: The Injured King

A king seeks out the healing services of a local witch.

Just a little 800w piece.

On Medium / / On Patreon

Fantasy/Romance Short: Paper Houses

A train conductor begins a relationship with a regular passenger.

7k, rated M, M/M. Some sweet autistic 4 autistic love and affection with a build to the relationship and some fantastical elements on the side. Adapted from a TweetFic.

On Medium / / On Patreon

Fantasy Short: Luca's Monster

Cute fiction short! A boy talks to the monster that keeps coming out from under his bed.

1.2k, rated G. Sweet fantasy piece. Adapted from a TweetFic.

On Medium / / On Patreon

[fourseasonsfigs]

Hug of the Century

I love that there is a specific name for the hug between Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun at the end of the Word of Honor Concert. Whether it's called "Hug of the Century" or "Century Hug", it's one of my very favorite things.

I watched the Hug of the Century live very, very early in the morning Pacific Standard Time on May 4, 2021. I ended up paying twice for access - once laboriously translating my way through Youku's Chinese portal, and then the second time just paying for premium access on Youku's channel on YouTube, since I was not at all confident I'd be able to get the first access right at 4am or whatever time it was in the morning. It seemed a bit expensive at the time, especially since I watched it without subtitles and therefore had zero idea what was going on, but it turns out it would have been a bargain at 10 times the price.

I have saved every single angle and fancam that I can of this hug, so it's a real shame that I only have one video slot. I'm going to put it to good use with one of my very favorites:

Words cannot describe how much I love this clip, and all my carefully hoarded little clips of this. Let's put a few pics in as well:

Ah, I feel so emotional looking at these pictures. What an incredible event. It's very worthy of being immortalized in fig form!

The fig maker had a difficult time with the factory for the engineering for this set. From what I understand, she had originally planned for it to be two characters, but it turned out the difficulty and cost was just too much, so the two ended up being made as a single figure. So you can see it here being shipped as one set together.

Unfortunately, Gong Jun lost the end of a hairpin! It's not common to lose part of his hairpin...but it's not that uncommon either. As you can tell from this, it was a pretty clean break, so I got out my glue and some tweezers and stuck it back on. It wasn't too difficult.

Alright, I'm going to just post the series of photos all in one go, so you can see the full 360 degrees of the Hug.

There we go. I don't mind at all the two figs aren't removable - it might look pretty funny if they were.

Here's a close up. The fig maker had a lot of issues with Zhehan's face during production - they ended up redoing it and then tweaking it several times. The finished product is much improved over the first draft, for sure. I know the eyes are very difficult for fig makers to get right…I've had a couple figures that got cancelled because they couldn't get the look right.

Gong Jun's face is a lot easier, since his eyes were closed. I really like the detail here of his rucked-up sleeve. I checked the pictures and they did model it very closely. It looks really good I think, some very natural looking detail.

You can see how they were actually designed as two separate figs. It would have been very interesting to see the production pics on this fig to see how they interlocked them together.

Both sides here...I think the hairpin glued on very well! Maybe my most successful one yet.

This fig set is quite a bit larger than my typical figs. To illustrate, here's one of the the original official concert figs.

The first-in bonuses for the set included an art card, a luggage tag, and a sticker, all with some really delightful art of Zhehan's speech. I love this so much! I would have bought it just for the extras here. The box card is in the upper top right.

Here's the back of everything...

And our box art. The fig maker really went all out on this set - you can tell how much this meant to them. It's the only set they've made - their dream figs. I'm really happy with it. Having all these different visions and styles of figs makes the collection really special to me.

Material: Resin and a lot of emotions

Fig Count: 417

Scene Count: 29

Rating: Love forever

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[stationerybear]

One Month in the Hobonichi HON

Another review that nobody asked for but I am going to write anyway because it makes me happy.

Tl;dr: I've really enjoyed using the HON so far!

I had some anxiety before ever even using the book that the A6 would be too small and that I should have gone for the A5 HON or even the Cousin. But I think because my writing is smaller to fit on the small grids and I am using a thin tipped pen (Jetstream 0.5), it makes entries that would have taken more space on a 5mm dot grid A5 paper fit just fine on the 0.37mm grid. I have had a few entries spill onto the next page of the book, but I've not had any entries take up more than a bit of room on the next page nor have I had to tape in a new page to compensate for the amount of excess writing one entry takes up. Honestly, if I had gotten an A5 Hobonichi, I probably would have been lamenting about all of the wasted space I had on each page (though, perhaps I would have room for bigger pictures or more decorative elements than what I use now).

Since I don't use the HON for planning anything, I use the checklist at the top of the page just as a gratitude log for the day, just to write a few moments from the day that made me happy so I can remember that there is indeed good in every day. I don't really use the monthly calendar other than to back-fill appointments or holidays, but I rarely remember to flip to it since I keep that information in an actual planner spread usually. Perhaps I will find a better use for those pages someday, but I don't think I'll be that upset if they go mostly unused. The reason I got the HON was for daily entries, and I have been maintaining that function for it well.

There is a bit of warping along the edges of the used pages that is noticeable when looking at the closed book, plus a little bit of extra bulk from a few pictures being stuck onto some of the pages. But I think that just comes from the journal being used as is its intended purpose. To be loved it so be changed, as they say, and I can't expect the book to stay in perfect, pristine condition forever if I am using it. The bulk of January is not particularly noticeable when the book is held closed, though.

I do want to add more pictures and maybe decorative elements like stickers or washi tape to my entries, but I am a little afraid of adding more bulk to the HON than it is capable of holding. I think I've seen a few folks say that it doesn't hold bulk as well as a Techo Original or Cousin. I might play around with it and put sticky notes or scrap pieces of paper intermittently throughout the book to test it's durability in handling bulk before I make any commitments to sticking more stuff in it. But for now, I am having fun adding a couple of images here and there from my day, whether it be a picture of something I drew, something nice that I got in the mail, a meal I had that day, or the sunrise from that morning. It's nice to have a little visual snapshot of something from that day that made me feel good without even having to read through the entry.

I have also been considering using color-coded "tags" to label the contents of my daily entries since they can vary at times. Sometimes my entries document the severity of symptoms I experienced through the day, summarize the events of my day, or serve as a place for me to empty my head of excess unneeded thoughts that make it hard for me to rest at the end of the day. I think it would be nice to know what entries have what kind of content at a glance, or if there are any entries that overlap in content. I've been trying to find stickers in stores lately, but I may just have to order some online since I have yet to find any that suit my fancy.

I can truly say that I look forward to continuing to use the book through the rest of 2024!

[cg-saturn]

Hello! First I wanted to say I love you blog it's very cute and safe.

TW (I just wanted to put this in case it's only briefly mentioned): childhood neglect.

I was wondering if I could ask for some advice? (If you don't have any advice for this that's fine!!! No worries). I've been in a long distance platonic relationship with my caregiver for about 6 months now and I love her lots she's an amazing mama and a great friend too. But I've been struggling a tiny bit cause I wish she was a bit more strict with rules (I know crazy to hear a little wishing for someone MORE strict). She's very very lax with them which wasn't an issue initially cause I was VERY new to having a cg. But now I find myself wishing she'd put her foot down a little more. To clarify the reason I wish she would is because the few rules I do have are entirely for my own well being (bed time, food, water etc.) and I think to have someone making sure I follow them would give me the comfort and safety I need. I was pretty severely emotionally neglected as a child and I think to have her tell me no I need to go to bed (or equivalent) instead of letting everything slide would help me to know that she actually truly cares for my well being because my parents never really cared enough to pay attention to stuff like that. I'm unsure how to bring this up with her I'm worried that it would make her upset or make her question how good of a caregiver she is, even though she's never made me feel bad for expressing myself and she's an amazing mama! Idk I'm just rambling at this point but yeah

-🐸🐻

This was in my drafts im so so sorry for not replying sooner! :

Hey there little one, I'm so so sorry to hear this :( sometimes when a person is new to caretaking it can be hard to know the right level of enforcement a little needs. My biggest and most important suggestion is to bring it up while you're big enough to have that conversation- ask them if they can be a little stricter when it comes to things you need.

I make charts if you think that would help too! If you send me the activities you need more help with, I can make you a cute little sticker chart for encouragement! It may help to have a physical checklist of things that you need, and that way your caregiver can also follow up more and make sure you can get everything checked off.

I know having that conversation might be hard to bring up, especially if you're like me and get anxious about expressing any form of need. However, if someone cares about you, they will respect the request. I know what childhood neglect can do, and maybe expressing that trauma (or as much as you're comfortable sharing) can help your cg understand why they need to be a bit more strict on things. Explaining that you *need* them to help set bed times or making sure you've eaten enough in the day can help them get into a rhythm of checking on you. For example, Star and I always brush our teeth together and make sure to shower on the same day.

Long distance can be hard. Star and I first met online through the supernatural fandom on Instagram back in..... 2015..? We started off as platonic but one day when we were 15 we started dating. It's hard to be with someone who's far away, because your only communication is on the phone, and unfortunately that can lead to a lot of misunderstandings or issues with checking in if you or they are busy. Time zones can also be an issue for some long distance relationships, platonic or not. I've unfortunately had a lot of relationships that were long distance and the communication was just not there. We all get busy, and we all have times were we can't have our phone out to text- but it's important to communicate it beforehand so your friend/partner knows that you won't be avalible.

You deserve to be taken care of, and your partner should be able to listen to your requests and help as much as they can! Just remember that cgs are people too, and sometimes struggle to help without directions on what to do. Keep communication open, and remember that as long as you're both listening and being honest, things should be okay! Sending love and hugs!

Pippi Saturn 💕