#oh i have to dye my wig too

[butchlifeguard]

IM LITERALLY NAMI

[suiana]

(yandere! fictional character x gn! cosplayer reader) (reader is refuses to acknowledge yan and where he originally came from 💀)

"that's a nice cosplay! where'd you get that wig from?"

"this is not a wig."

"what?"

he tugs at his hair harshly, bending down slightly so you can see his roots. you stare in shock, eyes wide open as you marvel in delight. woah! his cosplay was so realistic!

"see? not a wig."

"oh... nice dye job then!"

"this is my natural hair."

he retorts, standing back upright as you maintain eye contact with him. you tear your gaze away from him, taking in his body and features as you tilt your head at him slightly. huh... now that you're actually looking at him... his cosplay looks a little too realistic... there's no way..?

"you're so cool! you're like, that one character from that one anime i really love-"

"maybe cause i am? i'm here to see you actually...."

you shake your head at him, wagging a finger as you chuckle slightly. it was such a sight for everyone to see. a "delusional" cosplayer and a cosplayer who rejects everything that said delusional cosplayer said.

"haha! you're so in character! if i were a little more dumb i would've believed you!"

you then pat him on the back before waving goodbye at him. the convention was still on-going and you had lots left to do! you must bid farewell to him even if you wanted to chat more. what an interesting fella he is! does he really think he's a fictional character that came into your world just to see you?

"see ya! hope you enjoy the rest of the con! wait, can i have a pic first though?"

you hold your phone, looking up at him expectantly. his beautiful features stare down at you before he sighs, nodding as he poses for the camera.

you cheer, getting your phone in position before flinching as you feel him stand way too close for comfort. ah well... it's only for a while anyways. you'll just let this one pass...

"thank you! see ya!"

you then skip away, wanting to enjoy the rest of the con as you leave the mysterious cosplayer all alone. what a funny guy! he was so in character and he said he was here for you! how cute!

unfortunately it was not cute at all for him.

damn it, he thinks. he grits his teeth as he rubs the bridge of his nose in frustration. you're just so... infuriating at times. how could he make you believe that he's real?

and that's when it hit him. he could just kill everyone in this convention until you acknowledge him! what a wonderful idea! he then stretches, warming up his body as he grins to himself.

he can't wait to see that look on your face when you realize that he's the real deal!

[innominaterifter]

Alec/Regent cosplay from "Worm"

This idea started with a song. It grabbed my temporal lobes with the first notes, flashed with the thought “Damn, I must have to film Regent to this music!”, and didn’t let go until I made this video.

Overall, I'm happy (at least I can think about something else, not walk around with my hyperfixation itching brain, and don't listen to this song on repeat hundreds of times, haha).

The shoot was dangerous, infuriating, and fun all at the same time. Well, like Alec himself, in fact.

Dangerous: location. Abandoned, half-burnt building, littered with charred boards with protruding nails and threateningly swaying half-burnt roof parts that were ready to fall on us from above at any moment.

Infuriating: children, teenagers, young people exploring this building - there were surprisingly many of them, every half hour someone came.

Fun: Well, cosplay is fun in itself. The dumbfounded faces of random observers. And a funny story that happened at the end.

All in all, I had a great time!

What I failed:

1. The color of the wig in the sun turned out to be too brownish-red, and Alec has dark hair. I'll try dyeing the wig and see what happens.

2. The scepter was made in a hurry, not functional, I will make another one.

3. The crown does not fit well on the head; it needs to be secured with something, but so that it is not noticeable.

4. I have not yet been able to fully convey Regent's motor patterns. He should move differently than I can now. I like some of the moves that I came up with, but many others are definitely not what I need. I will deal with Alec's movements, it turned out to be more difficult than I thought.

I wanted to convey the laxity, sloppy movements, and, at the same time, grace without going into femininity. But so far, I have not managed to do this mix as I intended. Some of the movements are too stiff. Part of the problem was the need to balance in a mask with limited visibility on a burnt fallen beam with protruding nails, with the possibility of falling on the same ones lying nearby. But is this an excuse? I need to practice more.

But overall, I'm very pleased with what I've achieved so far.

A funny story as a bonus. At the end of the shoot, I accidentally scared off a couple who decided to retire to an abandoned deserted (as they assumed) building.

Judging by their faces, they definitely did not expect the appearance of a human in a mask, unusual clothes, and twirling a scepter in their fingers.

For my part, I didn’t expect to see them either. Normally, I would be extremely embarrassed to catch someone in such an intimate moment.

But this time, I was overcome by a wave of unexpected mischief. I giggled, pirouetted to go out and chirped to them over my shoulder: “Oh, don’t pay attention, I’m just a tooth fairy flying about its business, consider that I’m no longer here!”.

I hope I haven't completely ruined their mood.

P.S. And, yes, the video is a little about me too: I’m usually a reserved person, but sometimes... drama happens.

[ckret2]

Chapter 31 of human Bill grudgingly enduring being the Pines' prisoner because the Henchmaniacs won't take his call: Summerween night! Everyone gets ridiculous costumes!

The Summerween Trickster's buddies are attempting to resurrect him. Robbie's making a music video. Bill's attempting to woo Ford back into friendship, to terrify Dipper with cursed knowledge, and to recover his dignity from THE most gentle chastising imaginable, and he only succeeds in 1 out of 3 of these endeavors:

It's not this one. He's just gotta process these emotions while wearing that stupid wig.

####

Soos was putting the final touches on his cosplay (the suave and mysterious Masked Guy In A Suit, love interest of the heroine from the classic anime Teenage Planetary Soldier Girls) when he heard the phone ring in the office. "Hold on, I'll get it!" He hurried downstairs, ducked under a construction paper chain Mabel had strung over the door, picked up the phone, and said, "Hello?"

A mysterious voice droned, "The sun sets a deep blood red."

"Oh, no thanks, we don't want any." Soos hung up, sighed happily, and said, "Ah, Summerween. Always brings out the weirdos."

"Hey Soos!" Mabel ducked into the doorway. "Where's the candy bowl?"

"Oh, hey Hambone. It's in my bedroom." He put on a stage whisper. "I put it in there so Bill couldn't steal it."

"Thanks Soos!" She ran upstairs.

Dipper and Bill waited downstairs, the tension thick between them (on Dipper's side, anyway; Bill—watching a black-and-white horror movie, sipping at a can of cider, and brooding over going to voicemail—didn't notice). Dipper was waiting by the door in a folding chair; but he kept glancing toward Bill in the living room. When the silence got too much to bear, he asked, "Okay, what are you dressed as?"

Bill was wearing a brown bedsheet toga (the most historically-accurate part of his costume); a cheap wig of a teased mullet that had ended up mostly red with yellow streaks, forming a plume of hair right over his head and then a long straight tail he'd draped over his shoulder; and a bunch of paper faux-Greek homes taped all around the hem of his toga, forming a ring around his calves.

"And are those my sandals?" Dipper asked.

"Take it up with Mabel, she loaned them on your behalf," Bill said. "I'm not telling my costume. You have to guess it."

"Seriously?" Dipper sighed. It had to be a god, gods towered over their mortals' temples. What god would wear brown? "I don't know—Demeter?"

"What? No. Do I seem like the Demeter type? Pathetic." Bill waved off his guess. As Mabel ran downstairs, Bill said, "Hey, Shooting Star, you haven't made your official guess yet."

Without hesitation, Mabel said, "A time-traveling hair metal singer touring the Roman Empire and trying to find a way home before his hair dye runs out."

"Wrong, but I would love to live in the world you've dreamed up." He meandered into the entryway to join Mabel as she plopped down in the second chair by the door.

Dipper screwed up his face. "Are you helping us answer the door?"

"No, you're helping me answer the door. I'm cursed, remember?" Bill leaned over Mabel's shoulder, dug into the candy bowl, and popped a lollipop in his mouth. "But you're not getting rid of me, if that's what you're asking."

Soos headed to the door, cape billowing dramatically behind him. "Hey dudes. Hey Bill." He paused in the door, studying Bill. "Hey! Is that a Bobo the Uncouth Berserker cosplay?"

Bill blinked. "Who?"

"Bobo the Uncouth Berserker! You've gotta read Bobo. He's this primitive hero descended from lost Lemuria who goes on daring adventures through the lush impenetrable jungles of Central Europe. He's got this comic that was so popular it spawned an anime, which got an American movie adaptation, which formed the basis of a second comic continuity that isn't as critically acclaimed as the original but has drawn in a lot of new fans... and..." Soos petered out. "You're not Bobo, are you."

Bill shook his head. "Thanks for playing."

"Aw." Soos's shoulders slumped. "Anyway—me and Melody are gonna be at the cosplay contest at the theater. I'll keep my phone on in case of monsters."

"We'll be fine!" Mabel said. "Go have fun!"

"You too!" With a dramatic flourish of his cape, Soos disappeared into the night.

Bill watched Soos go enviously. He could have been given a human body that looked that good in a suit and top hat, but was he? No. It wasn't fair. And Soos didn't even wear the right hat size.

Dipper glanced sideways at Bill. "Hey. Is... Lemuria real?"

"Not anymore." Bill perked up as Stan passed by, dressed like Frankenstein's monster. "Hey, Stanley! You haven't guessed yet. What am I?"

Stan surveyed him. "White columned buildings, Statue of Liberty dress, and a red clown wig. I dunno, the American government?"

Bill squawked in laughter. "That's my favorite wrong answer so far. I like you, Stanley." He fished a chocolate bar out of the bowl and held it out.

Stan grunted in disapproval, but accepted the candy. "If any of you need me, I'm gonna be up on the roof, terrifying kids." He held up a boombox and a cassette that said "Spooky Sound Effects of Halloween". "If you hear screaming children, don't worry: that means I'm winning."

"Where's your brother?" Bill asked.

"Avoiding you." Stan passed through the living room and left.

Bill's shoulders slumped; but he just dug into the candy bowl for more chocolate. Then the first trick-or-treater knocked on the door, and Dipper jumped up in relief to answer it.

The shack didn't attract quite as many trick-or-treaters as the houses closer to the center of town, but they got a steady stream of children, and more than they'd gotten the year before. Between visitors, Bill dug into their candy stock, gleefully ignoring Dipper's complaints. After the fourth or fifth visitor, Dipper and Mabel realized that Bill was covering up the amount of candy he'd pilfered by meticulously re-folding the empty wrappers and putting them back in the bowl.

"It's fair play," Bill said. He untwisted one end of a Twisty Roll tube, squeezed out the candy, blew into the wrapper to re-inflate it, and twisted the end shut again. "The kids are trick-or-treating, right? Sometimes they get treats and sometimes they get tricks."

"Come on, seriously?" Dipper said. "Even for you this is low. You're literally taking candy from babies."

"The babies are trying to take candy from us. I have no sympathy." With the precision of an origami master, Bill refolded a paper fruit chew wrapper into a box and dropped it back into the bowl.

"They're supposed to take candy from us, that's how the holiday works." Dipper looked at Mabel for support.

But she was holding up an empty 3 Fencers wrapper and squeezing it lightly between her fingers. "Wow. How did you make the wrapper puffy again? It's so convincing."

Bill shot Dipper a nasty smile, then turned to Mabel and said magnanimously, "I'll teach you everything I know." He twirled a glue stick between his fingers.

Another trick-or-treater knocked, and Dipper answered.

"Trick or treat! Please give us the worst candy you have."

Mabel blinked, leaning around Dipper to see who was outside. "Wait, what?"

Outside stood a purple-furred monster with a dozen limbs from a dozen different creatures. He gasped in surprise. "Ohhh, twin costumes! That's so cute! What are you two, haunted dolls?"

Dipper took a surprised step back. "Limby Jimmy?"

The monster was silent a moment, taken aback. He took off a bear mask he'd made out of a paper plate. "Is it that obvious?"

Mabel asked, "Have we...?"

Dipper said, "Oh! Sorry—Mabel, this is Limby Jimmy, I ran into him last year in the Crawlspace under town when I was trying to get your face back—"

Helpfully, Bill threw in, "He's Gravity Falls' most accomplished arms dealer. And legs dealer, and tails dealer, and ears dealer..."

"Limby, this is my sister Mabel. Actually, I don't know if I ever introduced myself—"

Limby Jimmy cut in, "Ohhh, yeah, I remember you! You're Troll Boy, right?"

Dipper winced. "It's—it's Dipper, actually." He paused. "Wow. We meet a lot of weird people."

"Nice to meet you, Jimmy!" Mabel held out a hand. After a moment of thought, Jimmy elected to shake it with a tentacle and a dog's paw.

"What are you doing up here?" Dipper asked. "Is Summerween the one night of the year that Gravity Falls' monsters can walk among humans without fear?"

"Oh no, I'm terrified. I wouldn't be out here if I wasn't collecting donations," Jimmy said.

"Donations?"

Jimmy hesitated, then lowered his voice. "You've been in the Crawlspace, so, you and your sister are cool, but is the lady...?" He wiggled a hoof toward Bill.

Coolly, Bill said, "I'm actually an ancient interdimensional energy being cursed to wear a human form."

Dipper and Mabel flinched in alarm and rounded on Bill, hissing, "Bill!" "Shhh!"

Ignoring them, Bill said, "So, continue."

"Oh," Jimmy said brightly. "That's all right then, yuk yuk." He wiggled his multitude of right arms. "I don't know if you humans have heard yet, but the Summerween Trickster got eaten to death last summer! It's really sad!"

Dipper and Mabel, who had watched as he was eaten to death, stayed quiet.

"But probably happy for him?" Jimmy mused. "Since I think that's what he wanted? But it's sad for the rest of his poker group, we all miss him! So I'm out here with Doug—"

"Who?" Dipper asked, looking around the porch for a second monster.

"Oh, he's back there." Jimmy pointed toward a tree at the edge of the clearing around the Mystery Shack. The tree chittered unnervingly. "We're going around collecting donations to resurrect the Trickster! Or... re-summon him? Or however this works. We never really asked him how he came to exist, it seemed rude."

"Naturally," Bill said. "You can't just ask a freak what made him so freaky. It's a sensitive topic."

"Right! You understand," Jimmy said. "Anyway, we need a lot of crappy candy!" He looked at their bowl. "Which pieces have the kids been ignoring this year?"

Mabel had started bouncing on the balls of her dusty Victorian ghost shoes; and the moment she had a turn to speak, she squealed in excitement. "You're the Summerween Trickster's friend! That's perfect! Stay here, I'll be right back!" She shoved the candy bowl into Bill's arms and zoomed up the stairs. "I've got some stuff for him!"

Bill looked at the bowl, looked at the stairs, shoved the candy in Dipper's arms, and followed Mabel. "Hey, Shooting Star? What are you doing?"

Her voice drifted down the stairs: "Getting a donation! I'll be just a minute!"

"Hold on, you're actually helping that guy?" Bill laughed. "Why?" He climbed high enough to poke his head above the attic floor  and lowered his voice so Jimmy couldn't hear. "I wasn't paying that much attention last Summerween, but I got the impression from your little costume store brawl that the Trickster was trying to kill you kids. Am I missing something?"

"I mean, yeah, he was—but he was in a really bad place back then, that doesn't mean he deserves to be dead for it. And now he knows someone out there wants to eat him, so maybe he'll be less insecure and evil." Mabel laughed, "Anyway, the Trickster isn't that bad! He didn't try to kill me half as hard as you did!"

Bill froze a couple of steps from the top of the stairs. He didn't move for a few seconds; and then wordlessly, he slunk back downstairs.

Dipper watched as Bill, face beet red, trudged into the living room. "Hey. What's Mabel...?"

"How should I know." Bill curled up on the couch, picked up the can of cider he'd been drinking earlier, shotgunned it, and glowered at the horror movie on TV.

Dipper considered Bill—all alone in the living room and not doing anything important—and considered Mabel, upstairs; and said, "Hey, Jimmy. Do you mind waiting out here until Mabel gets back."

"Sure! I don't have any plans." Jimmy rocked back on his many heels.

"Cool. Thanks." Dipper shut the door.

He sidled oh so very casually into the living room and leaned against the TV. "Guess it's just the two of us right now."

Bill's gaze didn't waver from the TV. "Terrific counting skills, Troll Boy." He popped open another cider can.

Dipper grit his teeth. Let it go. "Sooo! You're from the second dimension, huh? What's that like?" (His voice cracked embarrassingly on "that.") "Just—just curious. Making friendly conversation. Caaasual conversation." He flashed a pair of finger guns at Bill, to underscore just how casual he was. "Yyyep." Witness the junior paranormal investigator in action.

Bill turned the cold, empty eyes of a killer on Dipper. He took a long, slow sip from his cider. And he asked himself: what can I say that will make this stupid boy regret ever daring to speak to me?

Bill smiled. "Yeah. Sure. Okay," he said. "You wanna know what it's like? Have you ever read the Allegory of the Cave?"

Dipper hesitated. "By... Plato?"

"That one. You know—ignorance is like being a prisoner chained in a cave, watching shadow puppets being cast on a wall, and thinking they're reality; and having knowledge is like being outside the cave in the sunlight, seeing the real shapes that are casting the shadows—"

"I have read it, actually," Dipper said, a tad defensively. "It was for extra credit in—"

"English class, I know."

Dipper frowned; but he soldiered on. "So... living in the second dimension is like being chained in a cave, staring at the shadows on the wall, and thinking that's reality? Bleak."

Bill laughed so loudly that Dipper started. "Wow, you're so dumb! Use your brain, kid: it's the second dimension. You're not the prisoner: you're the shadow on the wall." Bill's lip curled in a sneer, "An illusion in somebody else's allegory. And the only one who can see the cave's exit... is you. That's what the second dimension is like!" He laughed again. It sounded forced.

"Oh," Dipper mumbled. He tried to wrap his head around the idea of being a living metaphor for ignorance. "Sounds... pretty bad?"

"Awful," Bill agreed. "Doesn't hold a candle to what your dimension has going on, though."

"Wh... why, what's going on in the third dimension?"

Bill gave him a malicious smile, and Dipper had the sinking feeling he'd just walked into an obvious trap. "You idiot, you still think you're in the third dimension? Really?"

Was that a trick question? What answer was Bill looking for? What could this be if not the third dimension? "Nnooo?"

"Wow. I can really see why you're a straight-A's honors student," Bill said. "You're so good at figuring out what answer the test wants and regurgitating it—even if you don't actually understand it at all." He heaved himself back to his feet; and Dipper was sure there was something threatening in the movement—something that reminded Dipper that he was talking to a dangerously unstable extinction level event precariously packed into an unsteady human body. "Although copying the year of the Louisiana Purchase off of Brandon's test in fifth grade  probably didn't hurt, did it."

Dipper's stomach dropped. The secret shame buried beneath the foundation of his honors roll-worthy record. Pull that out and his entire academic career came toppling down. He'd get kicked out of the honors classes. He'd go to jail. Was cheating against the law? "H... how did—?"

"What year was the Louisiana Purchase?"

Dipper's brain immediately went blank. He was silent, trapped in the paralyzing intensity of Bill's gaze. After several terrifying seconds, he croaked, "1803?" and hoped he was right.

"Attaboy. Too bad you couldn't have learned that a little sooner, isn't it?" As he spoke, Bill had closed in on Dipper until he'd backed him into the corner behind the TV set, filling Dipper's exit route with one hand on the TV and the other on the wall. "But we were talking about dimensions, weren't we! Whaddaya like to read, kid," Bill asked too casually, "do you like cosmic horror? Do you know what real 'cosmic horror' is?"

Dipper regretted this conversation completely.

"It's having an eyeball on the inside of your body, and seeing another dimension through it. And ohoho, I think you'd be amazed at the things I can see from here—"

Dipper got the distinct impression that if he didn't get out of this conversation, he would only hear things he'd be telling his therapist about for months. "Cool! Good talk, man. Hey Mabel?" (That was an absolutely humiliating voice crack.) "How's it going?"

A pause. "I think I need help!"

"Coming!" Dipper ran behind the TV to escape Bill and gratefully bolted upstairs.

The kid had caved so fast. And Bill had only just been getting started. He smirked, sat, and turned back to the movie.

A moment later, Mabel and Dipper came back downstairs, carrying four bulging plastic grocery bags. Mabel set one by her feet, opened the door, and shoved the first bag into Jimmy's arms. "Here! You can give these to the Trickster!" She shoved over the second bag.

Jimmy stumbled back under the weight. "Whoa there! What is this?"

"Candy chalk-hearts! I completely bought out the leftovers after Valentine's Day," Mabel said. "I wanted to make sure that if we met the Trickster again, I could let him know he's loved and appreciated as the terrifying avatar of spooky holiday spirit that he is! And that I also respect that he's made out of gross candy nobody likes to eat." She picked up a chalk-heart box and waved it in Jimmy's face. "So here's a gross candy that expresses love! See, the little hearts say things like 'You smell nice' and 'I heart ur face,' but they taste like if dehydration was a flavor."

Dipper handed his bags to Jimmy. "Wait—Mabel, that's why you got all these? You've been planning to help the Trickster since February? I thought you were gonna build a chalk-heart house or something."

"Oooh, that's such a good idea. I should do that next year!" To Jimmy, she said, "I was gonna give these to him personally, but if he's still dead, I guess you can add it to his candy sacrifice pile or whatever? And make sure he gets this!" She handed Jimmy a store bought Shimmery Twinkleheart Valentine's card. It read, "I BELIEVE in our friendship! Happy Valentine's Day!" Mabel had scratched out "Valentine's" and written "Summerween".

Choked up, Jimmy said, "Oh—wow. That's the nicest thing anyone's done for us all night. I'm sure the Trickster will really appreciate it when he's not dead anymore."

Dipper was a little more vengeful. Dipper didn't want to do anything for one of the many guys that had tried to kill them last year. But, on the other hand, Mabel had just gone all in on this, and Jimmy seemed nice enough, so... Dipper sighed. Whatever, it was Summerween and this was a trick-or-treater. "Hey," he picked up the candy bowl. "There's really only one bag of good candy in here. The bottom of the bowl is filled with after-dinner mints our great uncle's been stealing from restaurants for the last six months. The Trickster would probably love that, right?"

"Aww—thanks so much, you guys! We'll have the poker group back together in no time!" Jimmy dug past the good candy and started scooping mints into his bag. "Oh—since I'm here, can I ask about our other poker buddy? Do either of you know Mr. What's-His-Face? He disappeared around the time you were visiting the Crawlspace, maybe one of you saw something? Any information would be helpful." Jimmy looked at them with weird, plus-shaped, but very hopeful eyes. "Between the Trickster's death and Whatsis disappearing, the local paranormal community's been hit hard. Especially us guys in their friend group. I'm—I'm not gonna lie," Jimmy heaved a sigh, "It's been a really hard year."

Dipper and Mabel, who were directly and personally at fault for Mr. What's-His-Face's disappearance and knew he was frozen in stasis in Ford's bunker at that very moment, exchanged a look and came to a silent agreement.

"Nope, don't know anything," Mabel said.

"Sorry, buddy," Dipper said.

Like the Summerween Trickster, Mr. What's-His-Face was a weird faceless shapeshifty monster that had tried to kill them. But they felt like that was where the similarities ended.

By the time of the Trickster's death, Mabel and Dipper had realized that his deepest inner longing was to be called good enough to eat. Mr. What's-His-Face's deepest inner longing was to steal innocent people's faces. If Mabel and Dipper helped resurrect the Trickster, he'd probably go back to ensuring everyone displayed sufficient holiday spirit, while hopefully mellowing out about eating people now that he'd been consumed once. On the other hand, if Mabel and Dipper helped free Mr. What's-His-Face, he'd probably just keep stealing faces.

And on top of all that, they could help resurrect the Trickster without admitting they knew the guy who ate him. They couldn't really lead Jimmy to Mr. What's-His-Face without admitting their great uncle was keeping him captive. And that would be a problem for the whole family.

"Oh," Jimmy said. "Okay, that's fine. Thanks for all your help. You know where to reach us if you hear anything."

Mabel shook her head. Dipper nodded. "Yeah, we'll let you know."

Jimmy hopped off the porch, shouted, "Hey Doug, can you help me carry these?" and chucked a couple of bags of chalk-hearts toward the tree line. Dipper and Mabel stared. Nothing emerged to pick the bags up.

They shut the door.

"Man," Dipper said. "We kinda devastated the paranormal poker group last summer, didn't we?"

"Yeah." Mabel sucked in a breath between her teeth. "Wow. Feels... kinda bad."

Dipper offered her the candy bowl. "Drown our feelings in chocolate?"

"Please."

They grabbed a piece of candy each, tore open the wrappers—and frowned. Mabel stomped a foot. "Dang it—Bill!"

"Hm?"

"How many of these wrappers are empty?!"

Bill poked his head out of the living room and said, smugly, "Like candy from a baby!"

####

A knock, and Dipper opened the door. "Wendy! Hey! Good timing—"

"Hey." Wendy lowered her voice. "Quick question—this is super important—is Goldie here?"

"Uh—yeah, why—?"

"Yello?" Bill carefully wove his way out of the living room, already less steady on his feet than when he'd sat down. "I heard my name, who's summoning me?"

Wendy pointed over the twins at Bill and turned to shout into the dark, "Ladies and gentlemen! I present to you! Live and in person... Toga Lady!"

A half dozen teenagers immediately went bananas. Hooting and hollering and cheering and whistling: "To-ga! To-ga! To-ga!"

Bill's entire face lit up. Without missing a beat, he pushed past the baffled twins out onto the porch and spread his arms wide, basking in the cheering. "That's right, keep it coming! Worship me! I'm the greatest!"

"Yes!" Robbie pumped a fist in the air. "The legends were true!" Nate immediately added, "The prophecy! The prophecy!" Tambry snapped photos of Toga Lady's fresh look as fast as her phone could save them, muttering, "Everyone's gonna flip when they find out you're still in town."

Wendy waited, grinning, until her friends' faux hysterics had died down. "Okay—okay, after getting you hyped up, I should probably say that Toga Lady is actually Toga Guy." She glanced questioningly at Bill. "I think?"

"Eh, I'm not picky."

"Anyway this is Goldie, he was stuck in another dimension for thirty years, it's crazy, and now he's like my illegal backup cashier. He actually... doesn't usually wear togas?"

Bill laughed. "If you can't wear a bedsheet on Summerween, when can you?"

Lee said, "Thompson wore a bedsheet to homecoming."

"Hey."

Bill pointed at Thompson. "A man of impeccable fashion! I like it!" Thompson gave him a look of eternal gratitude.

"And Goldie, this is the gang! That's Thompson, he's the guy with the van; Robbie and Tambry, they're like, gender-swapped versions of each other, they even share their hair dye..."

As Wendy did introductions, Mabel whispered to Dipper, "Did you know she was gonna introduce Goldie to everyone?"

"No! This is bad, I told her not to trust him..."

Bill was responding to a question, "No, no, you've gotta guess, I'm making everyone guess!"

The teens considered the question. Robbie offered first, "Punk caveman?"

"Nope!"

Hesitantly, Thompson tried, "Nero fiddling over the burning of Rome?" He winced when Lee laughed.

"I like where your head's at, but no! I can't fiddle."

"The gremlin king from Huge Maze?" Tambry said.

Mabel piped up, "No, but the wig came from a gremlin king costume and I appreciate you for recognizing that!" Tambry nodded in cool approval.

Bill dispensed of Lee, Nate, and Wendy's guesses—Greek Christmas tree, that one guy who keeps painting burning banks, and hair metal Hades—before Robbie loudly cleared his throat to cut in. "Anyway, would love to stay and chat, but we've gotta move if we wanna be in position before sunset. Dipper, Mabel, you ready?"

"Ready to ghost it up!" Mabel said, squeezing around Bill with Dipper onto the porch.

Robbie surveyed their makeup—deathly white skin, ashen grey lips, and dark circles around their eye sockets. "Yeah, that's pretty good. Could use a little color, maybe. Like bloody tears?" He turned toward Tambry.

She said, "I think I've got some red eyeliner."

"'In position'?" Bill asked, giving Dipper and Mabel a questioning look.

Wendy said, "We're helping Robbie film this music video tonight."

"We're the creepy ghost twins!" Mabel announced proudly. "We get to sing the chorus."

Robbie said, "Yeah, the song's about childhood and growing up, but like, with ghosts? Because once you've grown up, your childhood is all dead? It's metal, but introspective. I'm calling the genre 'intrometal.'" He flipped his bangs dramatically. "It's a super deep song. Metaphorical layers."

"Oh yeah?" Bill stared Robbie down. "Sing some of it."

Robbie blinked. "Oh. Yeah, okay uh, I haven't warmed up my voice but, the hook is like—" He pantomimed playing a guitar and whisper-screamed, "'BABY DOLLS! BASKET BALLS! BASKET CASE! HUMAN RACE!' Like that."

Bill nodded slowly, face expressionless. "Ah, yeah, I see. Really deep stuff. Makes you think."

"Thanks." Robbie looked at Dipper and Mabel. "Anyway, if we're gonna get any footage in the graveyard before the jack-o'-melons start burning out, we've gotta move. Let's go, Creepy Ghost Twins."

"Wait, you're going out?" Bill asked Mabel. "Like out-out? Leaving me here? By myself? On Summerween?"

"Wh—yeah, we're only handing out candy for half the night," Mabel said. "I told you that."

"No you didn't!"

"Yes I did!"

"When?"

Mabel thought. "No I didn't," she admitted. "Sorry!"

Wendy punched Bill's arm. "Sorry to steal them. We'll be back in a couple of hours," she said. "Or you could come help—?"

"No!" Dipper and Mabel both shoved Bill back into the house before he could accept. Dipper said, "You've gotta—guard the house." Mabel added, "And hand out candy!"

"Right," Bill said flatly. "Yes. That. Ha."

"See you later!" Mabel said, and then shut the door in his face.

The last thing he heard was Wendy explaining to her friends, "He's on house arrest for, like, academic plagiarism and war crimes or something..." and then they were gone.

Bill's shoulders slumped. Well, now what? He couldn't celebrate a holiday by himself. What was the point of wearing a costume if no one sees you in it. He picked up a piece of candy, discovered it was one of his decoys, and picked up another. 

Someone knocked on the door.

"Yeah, yeah," Bill sighed. He picked up the candy bowl, turned toward the door, and paused. Ah. Right. What was he supposed to do with this impenetrable portal-blocking slab of wood.

Who was left in the house? Stan on the roof, Ford in the basement, Abuelita probably already in bed... were any of them worth harassing to help him answer the door? Maybe Stan, he'd gotten all dressed up, he liked the holiday even if he didn't like Bill—

The trick-or-treater knocked more insistently.

Or. Or.

He could pick up the bowl, peer out the small window in the door, and make direct eye contact with the children outside while he ate candy.

As a piece of mid-tier chocolate melted on his tongue, he saw three trick-or-treaters' faces fall as their faith in a kind, caring universe died. He grinned at them and ate another chocolate.

Oh yeah. He grabbed the rest of his cider from the living room and set up post next to the door. This would keep him entertained the rest of the night.

####

He made seven small children cry.

####

Stan watched from his post on the roof as yet another sobbing kid ran away from the shack. "HA! Gottem! Sucker!" He affectionately patted his boombox. "Creepy ghoulish laughter, you never disappoint! Terrifying moochers since 1989!" He paused the cassette and rewound it a few seconds to replay the best part.

He heard a scraping sound above him, and looked up just in time to see Ford sliding down the roof to join him. "Oh, hey! I didn't think we'd see you again tonight."

"Mabel made me promise to celebrate Summerween a little."

"Good for her!"

Stan had already claimed the sun lounger, so Ford brushed some dust and leaves off the roof's cooler and sat. "So, what are we doing? Scaring trick-or-treaters?"

"Yep. This year I'm taking a more atmospheric approach." He gestured at his boombox, which by now was playing haunting organ music. "Nothing like screaming zombies and rattling chains from nowhere to freak out the kids."

Ford nodded. "Psychological torment. I approve."

"Not quite as good as getting to see the terror in their eyes, but." Stan shrugged. "Bill was hanging out with the kids. I didn't want to put up with him."

"Mm. There's a reason I was spending the holiday in the basement."

"Heh. Well, there's always Halloween."

They were silent for a moment, listening as the cassette moved on from organ music to werewolf howls. Stan asked, "Think we'll be rid of him by then? I know we were hoping to be done with him before the Fourth of July—but since I haven't heard anything lately, I figure you hit a roadblock."

Ford winced. "Guilty as charged." He was still relearning how to keep other people in the loop. Even Stan. "You're right. I have a weapon that can destroy him, but I can't find a fuel source without restarting the portal. I'm hoping Fiddleford will come up with a solution I haven't."

Stan nodded. Ford had told him he was getting Fiddleford involved; even as reluctant as Ford was to admit how little progress he'd made, he wasn't going to tell someone outside the family about Bill without letting Stan know. "Any breakthroughs on his end?"

####

During the credits between episodes of the retired samurai period drama (most recently, the samurai had been asked to use his sword to help cut flowers for a bouquet), Fiddleford leaned over and whispered to Ford, "So I've been a-lookin' at those blueprints you left me."

"And...?"

"And I've constructicated a power adaptor. Just jimmy out the fuel tank, swap it for the adaptor's cord, and you can power that weapon by pluggin' it into the wall! It'll just drain all the power from the town for a few seconds, that's all."

"Fiddleford, that's amazing—"

"Now, hold on. There's bad news," Fiddleford said. "Try as I might, I can't quite get it to draw enough power to activate those energy-destroying features what you'd need to disintegrate Bill. It'll work like a powerful laser, but nothin' else."

Ford sighed. "It's a starting point, I suppose."

"I'll send you home with the adaptor anyway. Never know when you'll need a big laser."

"Very true. Do you have any promising leads on other alternative fuels?"

Fiddleford shook his head. "It's the NowUSeeitNowUDontium or nothing. But I've got a hunch we could synthesize it under lab conditions. I'll letcha know in a few days."

And then the next episode started, and they dropped the conversation.

####

Ford let out a heavy sigh. "He's only had a partial success so far. But I'm hopeful he's on the right track."

"So, if he's working on this weapon, what are you doing?"

"Waiting, mostly. I don't know what else I can do."

Stan frowned. "What—that's it? You've been downstairs all day every day—if you're not figuring out how to destroy him, what are you doing?"

"Passing time somewhere I can be on call if he gets up to something—but I don't have to look at him," Ford said wryly. "And—as long as I'm waiting to hear back from Fiddleford, I've been... picking apart that list of spells Bill gave me. To see if any of them are tricks or traps."

Stan couldn't say he was surprised. That was his workaholic brother. A pamphlet of demon magic was like catnip to him. If anything, Stan was almost glad Ford had that letter to distract him. Over the past year...

Well, Ford was fine on land—when he temporarily had a mystery to solve, an adventure to pursue, an anomaly to study, a distraction to fill his time—but at sea, when his mind was unoccupied, he was listless. He had books he didn't read, field notes he didn't enter into his journal, games he didn't play. He fed himself and exercised and did chores around the ship like a robot programmed to take care of itself, and he stared out at the sea.

Last summer, Ford hadn't seemed happy but he'd seemed alive. Tired and angry, but alive. But after Weirdmageddon, a light in his eyes went out. Stan didn't know if it was the end of summer, or guilt over the memory gun, or the gap between finishing a thirty-year-long quest and discovering the next one. All Stan knew was the light hadn't come back on until the moment Bill Cipher, clad in a new body and a purple cartoon bedsheet, tried to cave Ford's skull in.

Ever since they were children, Ford had had a tendency to develop obsessions. It was somehow simultaneously both what made him most interesting and what made him boring. Depended on the obsession. But these all-consuming interests had always tended to last a few months, at most a year; and he'd never seemed to be without one, much less for nine months. Stan had no idea what carrying a single obsession for three decades might have done to Ford's mind.

Stan was glad something had woken Ford back up, and he worried that losing that focal point again might leave Ford permanently adrift. But another part of him worried that, this time, Ford wouldn't let the object of his obsession go. He tended to collect things related to his obsessions.

But then, he usually tended to like his obsessions. He hadn't seemed bothered to burn the contents of his creepy Bill shrine last summer. Ford wouldn't do anything stupid, Stan told himself. Ford hated Bill. "So? Were any of the spells traps?"

"Not... so far, no." Ford sounded irritated by this.

Stan shrugged. "Makes sense. He's trying to butter us up. If that idiot thinks being nice to us for a week or two is gonna make up for the years of grief he's given us—"

A loud rattle-clattering below made them both start. Stan sat bolt upright. "What the—?"

Ford inched to the edge of the dormer roof, knelt down, and leaned over the edge just far enough to see the window.

Bill's face was pressed to the glass, eye rolled up toward the roofline. He grinned in surprised delight and shouted through the glass, "HEY, STANFORD! What are you doing up here?! I thought you were downstairs!"

"Ugh." Ford turned to grimace at Stan. "Speak of the devil."

Bill pounded on the glass again. "Hey, Sixer! SIXER! Open the window!"

"Why?"

"I wanna talk!"

"No."

"Come ooon, the kids ditched me and I'm bored! There's no one in the house to talk to! The old lady's asleep and Stanley's on the roof, so—" He abruptly fell silent, squinting with deep suspicion at Ford-who-should-be-in-the-basement kneeling on the-roof-where-Stan-should-be, and said, "Wait. Are you Stanley right now? Show me your hand."

Ford did not. "Go away, Bill." He left the edge of the roof for his cooler seat.

"Get back here!" The pounding redoubled. "I don't care which Stan you are! If you don't wanna talk, I can always go wake up Dolores!"

Ford looked at Stan. "Mrs. Ramirez's name is Dolores?" He had gotten used to everyone calling her Abuelita.

Stan stomped on the roof, "Shaddup!"

Bill did not shaddup. "Come ooon!"

Stan sighed in defeat and heaved himself to his feet. "If he keeps that racket up he's gonna break that window, never mind that hex you put on him." When they'd taken out the original Bill-shaped window, Stan had replaced it with the cheapest window he could find. He didn't think it was very durable. "How much trouble can he get in with one open window twenty feet above the ground and both of us watching him?"

Ford Frowned.

"Don't gimme that look. Do you want to pay for a broken window?" Stan flipped through his keys for his key-shaped emergency lock pick, leaned over the edge of the roof, and wedged the pick into the window frame. The latch popped open. Lucky this window was so cheap, that wouldn't have worked on one with deluxe features like "airtight weatherstripping" or "a properly-fitting frame." Stan swung open the window. "Okay, you have our attention. Now what's the fastest way we can get rid of you?"

Bill clumsily climbed out to sit on the windowsill with his legs in the shack, and leaned back so he could see up onto the roof. "Hiya Fo—" He lost his balance, flailed, and yelped as he toppled backwards.

Stan and Ford lunged forward to seize an arm each. Stan snapped, "What are you doing, you maniac?!"

Bill stared up at them both in wide-eyed amazement. "You do like me."

Stan made a noise of disgust, let go, and wiped his hands on his pants like Bill had cooties.

Ford said, "We like you trapped in that body and not free to cause the apocalypse."

"I heard 'we like you'!"

"Shut up." Ford managed to haul Bill back upright. (Touching Bill felt wrong—all soft flesh and skin and the suggestion of bones underneath. Even when looking right at Bill's human body, Ford still expected him to feel like heavy shadows and heatless flames.) From this close, Bill reeked of cider. "Just how much have you had to drink?"

"Not so much I won't remember whatever you say in the morning, so be nice to me!" Bill laughed. He leaned back, this time hanging by one hand off the window frame to precariously maintain his balance, and grinned up at Ford. "So! The least fun person in the house has finally emerged from his lair? And you didn't even come into the house to join in the Summerween festivities! 'All work and no play'..."

Ford had to crouch at the edge of the roof, hovering nearby in case Bill lost his balance again. "I wanted to participate in Summerween, actually. It just so happens that the last person I'd ever spend a holiday with is in the house."

"Listen, Stanford. I know you're holing up in your study for days on end just to hurt me. But let's be honest, you're hurting yourself more! When's the last time you saw the sunlight! Look at how pale you're getting, you look like a vampire."

Stiffly, Ford said, "It's costume makeup. That's my vampire costume." Stan laughed.

"It what." Bill flipped up his eyepatch and squinted blearily at Ford's face.

Wordlessly, Ford bared his teeth to show off his plastic vampire teeth.

"Oh." Somewhat deflated, Bill said, "Nice work, it's convincing."

"Thanks," Ford said grudgingly. Giving in to his curiosity, he gestured toward Bill's (somewhat disheveled) reddish-yellow wig. "What are you."

"Oh!" Bill perked back up. "You've got to see the whole thing. Hold on—" He turned around in the window, ignoring how Ford half reached for him in case he needed steadying, until he got his legs outside to dangle on the roof. "What do you think!"

Ford looked over the brown toga flared out like a cone, the eruption of red hair, the small paper city below, and said, "Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii? Very clever."

Bill's face lit up. "Finally! You're the first person all day to get it!" He smoothed out the skirt proudly, his jerky gestures just a bit more exaggerated than usual. "Do you know how long I've wanted to go to a costume party as Vesuvius? But nobody off Earth would get it! And now that I'm finally here, I can't go to parties and I'm shaped more like a mandrake than a volcano." He flung up his hands, wobbled, and caught himself before Ford had to intervene. "But at least you got it. I knew I could count on you, IQ."

He sounded so sincerely grateful. Ford regretted calling the costume clever. It was, but Bill didn't need the ego boost.

"Oh! By the by—I didn't think you'd emerge before the day was over, so I saved this." Bill fished around in his toga until he retrieved a mini pack of jelly beans. "Here!"

Ford eyed the pack. "Why is it open?"

"Because you only like the weird-shaped jelly beans, so I ate all the normal beans and saved the weird ones in one bag."

"I don't want this. You touched every one of the beans, that would be disgusting even if they weren't coming from you," Ford said. "Anyway, this is a patently transparent attempt to buy your way into my good favor—"

"It sure is, Ford, and if you don't accept it I'll get to be annoying about your ingratitude for weeks! Is that what you want? You know I'll do it. Everyone will be on my side—"

Ford sighed, but snatched the bag from Bill's hand. "Fine. Now drop it."

"That's more like it!" Bill favored Ford with an approving smile. "Anyway, it's just about the only candy left in the house, I ate everything else—hey, have you ever been cross faded on cider and a sugar rush?"

Ford was still trying to decide whether he wanted to engage in this one-sided conversation enough to ask Bill what "cross faded" meant when Bill moved on without him: "It's—not that interesting, actually. 6 out of 10. Anyway, all that's left in the bowl is mints and wrappers. And Mabel even managed to give most of the mints away—hey, she's so nice, did you know she's helping to resurrect the Summerween Trickster?"

She was doing what? "No. Why?"

"She's so nice."

"You just said that."

"What is she so nice for. What's she getting out of it," Bill asked, more to the universe at large than to Ford. "If more humans were half as nice to freaks as she is, your rotten planet wouldn't need people like you and me to save it."

Ford didn't even know where to begin with that. He looked to Stan for help.

Stan was sitting straddling his lounger, elbow on one knee and chin in his hand, watching this exchange like he was watching a weird bug on the wall try to navigate around a picture frame. At Ford's glance, he rolled his eyes and pantomimed sipping from a drink.

He could say that again. Ford cleared his throat. "Bill, maybe you should..."

"Hey," Bill said. "Great talk, we really should catch up more sometime. And pull your weight next time, I always have to do all the talking. But right now, I'm..." He gestured vaguely off to the side. "I'm gonna lie down and try not to throw up. Ciao!" He swayed as he tried to get back in the window, tumbled backward into the shack, and thudded heavily on the floor. "Ow."

Ford gingerly shut the window.

Stan turned up the boombox. "Chatty drunk, isn't he."

"He's chatty sober, too." But in front of the kids? Neither of them saw Bill as a role model, but they still didn't need to be exposed to that kind of behavior. Especially when the responsible adults were outside or asleep... "Did we really leave Bill alone in the house with the kids?"

"W—I—" Stan shrugged defensively. "They were all right! They can take him! They're doing karate or whatever! You didn't see how Mabel flipped him at the mall! It was like David wrestling Goliath."

"David and Goliath didn't wrestle."

"You know what I mean."

Ford supposed he didn't think Bill was any threat to the children. At least, not right now, and not physically. He felt like he'd know if Bill was about to try anything.

He looked at his open bag of gross felt-up jelly beans. Speaking of trying to butter them up... Ford wound up and chucked the bag as hard as he could.

He stared into the dark after it.

A small part of him was beginning to wonder whether this wasn't all just an attempt to get Ford's guard down. The gifts, sure, that was as clear-cut a case of bribery as you could get. Nothing ambiguous there.

But the endless chatter... Back when Ford had called Bill his Muse, this was exactly how he'd wanted Bill to talk to him. Not in the flighty half-distracted way of a friendly businessman catching up on a work project's progress before hurrying on to the next meeting; but just talking for talking's sake, talking for the company.

Getting what he once had longed for made his skin crawl. And he couldn't even tell if Bill was acting.

The boombox let out a ghastly banshee shriek. Ford and Stan both jumped, then laughed awkwardly.

Ford sat on the cooler again. "Is it just me, or... did Bill completely ignore you as soon as he realized I was up here."

"Well. I wasn't gonna mention it. I didn't wanna sound jealous of the attention. But yeah—he's been doing that since he got here. If you're in the room, he tunes everyone else out."

"I thought it was in my head." And he hadn't wanted to sound like he wanted to imagine Bill was favoring him.

"And you do the same thing around him," Stan said, and laughed at Ford's flinch of alarm. "It's—it's fine, I get it. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? You've got some kind of superhero-supervillain nemesis thing."

Ford got the distinct impression that Stan was offering him a convenient excuse for the tunnel vision. He took it. "I suppose that's true." The way his jaw clenched and his shoulders tensed around Bill certainly felt like a "nemesis" reaction.

But if Stan thought Ford was a bit too preoccupied by Bill... well, maybe he was right. Once Ford had gotten over his initial wave of fear, of despair, of outrage at the injustice, at finding Bill was still alive—there was a part of him that was almost relieved. A part of him that had been on guard against nothing for the past year, twisting around looking for an absent threat. Now that it knew where the threat was, that part of him could finally settle down and watch Bill with steady, certain eyes. Having nothing to worry about made him more anxious than having one thing to always worry about.

(Maybe Shermie's kid had been on to something when he suggested Ford might benefit from therapy.)

Knowing Bill was back didn't put the old starlight and awe back in that hole Bill had left in Ford's chest. But dread could fill a hole all the same.

Ford tried to push Bill out of his mind and the conversation. "You think I'm like a superhero?"

"You run around fighting monsters with a space laser. What else would you be?"

"Huh." Well. That made his night.

"Just as long as you don't pull that 'hero spares the villain to show how good he is' shtick."

"Never." Ford laughed ruefully. "I think I left 'good' behind a few felonies back." He'd probably left "good" behind the night he accepted the portal blueprints.

"Couple stragglers," Stan said, nodding out into the dark. It took Ford a moment to spot the costumed kids and remember it was Summerween. "I recognize those costumes, I scared them off an hour ago. What are they doing back?"

Ford squinted at them. "Are those toilet paper rolls?"

"Wh—Hey! What are you little runts— Hey!" Stan leaped to his feet, shaking his fist at the kids below. "Get away from my car! Stop that! I'll have you know that's a classic— No, not the eggs!"

Ford slid out his freeze ray, turned down the power, and offered it to Stan. "Here. At this power and distance, it'll feel like getting pelted with invisible snowballs."

Stan snatched up the weapon. "Eat this, twerps!"

The Summerween night air was filled with the screams of terrified children and the evil laughter of an old man.

####

Wow. It sure sounded like everybody was having fun. Outside. Without him.

Bill was nauseous.

He stared at the spinning ceiling, flat on his back, one leg on a cushion and the rest of him on the floor. 

Bill was nauseous and alone. The loneliness tore at his throat. Even Mabel had ditched him. Of course she did—he'd tried to kill her. He'd barely even remembered he'd tried to kill her until she brought it up. Had he tried to kill her? No, surely not—he liked the kid, he'd always liked her—he'd been faking to force Ford's hand, he never would have gone through with it. He would've teleported her into another room and pretended he'd disintegrated her. She didn't know he hadn't meant it. She was just mad he'd scared her. She couldn't take a joke.

But, Ford talked to him. Ford even liked his costume. It wasn't much, but it would get Bill through the night.

When he saw Kryptos again—when, not if—he was slicing him into a jigsaw puzzle for not taking Bill's call. The nerve of that guy, hanging up on a human without even waiting a few words to see if they had anything interesting to say. 

(What if it hadn't been an accident, he wondered? What if Kryptos had realized it was Bill and still hung up?)

(No. Of course it was an accident.)

He shut his eyes. He was probably too drunk to dream tonight. Well, he could try again tomorrow. His little lucid dreaming guide was currently teaching him to influence the next night's dream by focusing on a topic before sleep. Maybe tomorrow he could dream about the Nightmare Realm.

He missed home.

####

(Congratulations to the approximately 50% of respondents who correctly figured out Bill's costume when I posted the art on Halloween, you're officially smarter than everybody in Gravity Falls except Ford. This is one of those chapters with a whole lot going on so if you enjoyed, I'd love to hear your comments!!)

[strxwberry-milku]

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 : you knew and everyone else around you knew that there was a certain chemistry you two shared that could never be broken , but could that all change in one night ?

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 :

It was that time again where you and Jey would have a “ bestfriend day ” consisting of you guys watching movies , eating food and just vibing in general and enjoying each other’s company. “ Jey !” you shouted from the kitchen “ watchu , wanna drink ? ” you asked and grabbed two glasses from the cabinet . “ hmmm , maybe some blue gatorade please babe ” he responded while adjusting himself on the couch, “ what i told yo ass bout calling me all these pet names and shi ? we ain’t together ” you said knowing damn well all it took was a little neck kissing and you would be a soaking mess . “ shiii… i mean we could be, but u playin “ he whispered and took a sip of his drink . “ hmm watchu say ? ” you questioned and sat next to him and laid your head on his shoulders . “ nothin , don’t worry about it ” he snickered and continued watching the tv .

A couple minutes passed and the two of you sat in relaxed silence just taking in each other peace and what not . Jey suddenly had an idea “ Hey , do still have spare blue hair dye from when u was dying that crunchy ass wig ? ” he said and sat up to look at you . You know damn well he ain’t talking bout your hair like that when his hair look like string cheese from da back . “ Not to much on my wig sir , but yes i do , why ?”. Getting up he headed up to your bathroom “ cause i want you to dye my hair for me , duhhh what else ? ” he remarked and rolled his eyes . who is this nigga talking too much? cause i know it ain’t me . “ First of all , i ain’t know you wanted to dye your hair cause u barley got any to start with plus i thought u wanted it for a friend ” you shrugged as he gave you a dirty look “ You can’t be talking , don’t you have heat damage and ur edges gone ? ” Seeee , he ain’t have to go that far . “ Boi just sit you goofy ass tf down on this chair , damn making my head hurt ” he laughed “ you know i’m just playing , baby ” he hugged you and placed a light kiss on your cheek .

Rolling your eyes at him you pushed him down into the chair making sure he didn’t see the growing smile on your face and then wrapped a towel around his shoulders . Taking out the dye from the box you put on the safety gloves and began to do your shit.

𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐩

It was nearing the end of the process and was time to wash out the dye from his hair . Jey bent over the bathtub and you proceeded to wash off the dye from his hair . “ Damn girl , you trynna make me go blind or sumn ? ” he said while wiping his face from the dripping water coming from his drenched hair , “ Boi ain’t nobody told you to open your eyes ” you said with attitude and continued washing the remaining residue from his hair . Finishing up you turned off the shower and wrapped the towel around Jey’s head making into a head wrap .

“ Imma need to change fr , i’m soaking wet ” He said while squeezing the excess water from his shirt into the bathtub . Looking at him you began to examine the way his clothes clung onto his skin and how you could see the way his muscles flex and contract , and his gorgeous ; stern body being exposed to you right infront of your eyes . Being caught up in day dreaming you didn’t even hear Jey talking to you “ You like what you see baby ?” he asked and leaned against your sink with a cocky smirk plastered all over his face , two can play that game you thought and smirked “ yes i might have , and what are YOU gonna do about it Mr Uso ? ” taken back from your response he stood there a bit shocked since you have never really responded to one of his sexual remarks .

Quickly regaining back his cockiness he walked over to you and whispered into your ear “then come show me ” pulling back he leaned onto the sink again this time taking off his shirt in the process , oh this nigga ready , readyyy you thought . Taking a deep breaths you realised that this is exactly what you have been urgently waiting for ever since you guys became friends, you so desperately wanted his coarse hands to run up and down your body and his lips to kiss every inch of you , and now it’s finally about to happen. Stepping forward you gently got onto your knees and unbuttoned his pants while looking up at him . He grabbed your hands for a split second and said “ You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to baby ” you chuckled a bit and said “ do you know how long i’ve wanted to fuck you baby ? to have your thick dick slide in and out of my pussy daddy ” moaning at your words he helped you pulled down his boxers .

Marvelling at the way his top oozed out cum already and pulsated at the touch , you carefully grabbed it and used some of his precum and rubbed it up and down completely coating it . You took his length into your mouth and began bobbing your head up and down at a steady pace . Leaning his head backwards he let out a moan and made a maksehsift bun with your hair in his hands “ Fuckk baby , just like that , let daddy use your throat then he can use that tight little pussy of yours afterwards ” moaning around his dick from the new information you sped up your movements and began to get sloppy with it by jacking of his dick in a fast motion . Bucking his hips he groaned loudly as he his nut was fastly approaching “ Shittt , wait baby stop , i wanna cum inside you ”. Pulling away from his dick with a pop you got up and hastily removed your clothes.

Bending over the sink you began to anticipate the feeling of his dick sliding into your creamy folds . “ Your pussy so pretty baby ” he whispered and rubbed his fingers in between your lip’s mesmerised by how wet you are . Moaning out in desperation from his teasing you replied “ you can marvel at my pussy later, please just fuck me ”. It was silent for a couple of seconds, you began to think he wasn’t there until you felt the wind get knocked out of you . “ Is this what you wanted , huh baby ? you wanted me to pound your pussy until all you think about is dick , dick , dick ? well imma give it to you since you got all that mouth ” You feverishly panted as you began to feel sweat start to form on your body .

“ Yesss Daddyyy Fuckkk “ was the only syllables you could say due to him wrecking your insides like it was his last time . “ Take this dick baby , i’m finna cum ” resting his chin on your shoulder he bottomed out into you balls deep making sure to rock his hips into you so that you could feel every inch of his pulsating cock inside you . Letting out a yelp you shook as your orgasm took over your body and you flopped over the sink . Jey soon followed behind with a guttural groan .

Both panting and sweaty Jey laughed and said “ how’s that for a besties day huh ? ”.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐝

𝐠𝐢𝐟 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 : @youtappedout

𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 : I know this is seriously long over due , i kind of lost the motivation to write so i took some time of . BUTTT IM BACK IN THIS BITCHHHH 💋

𝐏𝐬 : Also thank you for loving my work baby girl/boy i’m so happy you guys genuinely like my shi 💋

[unique-high]

NCT 127 X S/O With locs

REQUESTED: NCT127 x S/O with locs

a/n: God, I'm sorry I'm just now getting to this. It's been on my to do list. But I'm finally here with it. But side note, each members s/o comes with a different shade of blue. I don't know the members well this is my first time writing a NCT 127 ot9 request so my reaction may not be as accurate to them.

side note: wasn't really sure how to write this without it being repetitive and boring but I still hope it's somewhat good.

another side note: I don't have locs so what I'm writing is based on YouTube videos I've watched and drawn inspiration from and also Pinterest.

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE, DAMN: I finished this around 6:35 am. The imagine went different ways, nevertheless, I hope the requester enjoys the brief moments between reader and ot9.

NOT PROOF READ MAY BE SOME GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES BUT STILL READABLE.

JOHNNY: you have been doing your retwist for a couple of hours in between sessions you'd watch Netflix, FaceTime johnny when he was on break from dance practice, ordered something to eat because you were too tired to even try to fix something to eat. And by the time Johnny came home you were just about done with your retwist.

“Oh wow.” Johnny said when he see's the color of your locs. “That color looks good on you.”

“You think so?”

“Oh yeah. It compliments you.”

The color you dyed your locs was a pretty Cerulean blue. After your locs were done, you added some cute hair jewelry some locs.

Johnny was checking out his hair in the mirror. “Do you want to dye mine so we can match?”

“Your stylist won't chew you out, will they?”

“If they I don't care. I want to match with my baby.”

MARK: he's seen you do your retwist before and knows how time consuming it can be. Mark would feed you and make sure you have plenty of water and when your arms get tired, he gives little massages. Your locs were bleached and ready for color.

“I have two different blues,” you tell your boyfriend. “Which one is your favorite, Indigo blue or baby blue?”

“Baby blue.”

“I'm feeling baby blue too.”

“Do you need any help?” Mark just wants to make things a little easier for you.

You happily nodded with a smile. Mark knew a little something about locs since you taught him. Plus, he saw this as quality time and another way of bonding with you.

DOYOUNG: “You don't gotta stay with me baby, it's gonna take some hours for her to get me colored, retwisted, and styled.” You tell Doyoung.

This was his first time going with you to a hair appointment. It was his day off and he didn't have anything better to do than drive you to your loctician and wait for you.

“But I want to stay,” he said, slightly pouting.

The salon was filled with other women getting their hair done too. One woman who was getting a wig installed gushed over you and Doyoung.

Your loctician gets you right and now it was deciding on the color. You decided to do the back of your locs sapphire blue and the front locs ocean blue.

Doyoung was on his phone most of the time, but he would check on you making sure you were good. He ran out to get you your favorite food since you would be sitting under the hair dryer for some hours.

“Do you think the colors look good on me?”

“They do. The colors just add to your beauty.”

“Boy, stop.” you laughed.

Doyoung playfully rolled his eyes saying, “I can't help it that my girlfriend's beauty is something magnificent.”

JAEHYUN: When he hears the 90s R&B music playing from the living room, he knows what today is. Retwist day. You spent a good three days preparing for this day. Giving yourself a prep talk because doing your own retwist wasn't for the weak.

“Tell me I got this, baby,” you whined to Jaehyun.

He kissed your forehead. “You got this. Just think about the end results. You know you're going to feeling yourself.”

You laughed saying, “You right. You right.”

Jaehyun kisses your lips this time and tells you bye since he is going to play basketball with the guys at the gym.

From morning until noon, you were still at your hair. You hadn't planned on styling it. Just a color and retwist. But you saw this cute style on Pinterest and decided why the hell not.

“Y/n I'm home.” Jaehyun yelled when he seen you weren't in the living room.

“Bathroom!”

He goes to the bathroom,leaning on the door door frame.

“What do you think?” You asked eagerly.

You had your locs in two space buns. With two locs in the front out with gold hair jewelry. Your locs were powder blue.

“I love it. You look so freaking cute.” Jaehyun reaches out and gently tugged you to him. “But it's a shame it'll only get messed up.”

You give your boyfriend a look. “And what does that mean, jae?”

He smirks pulling you to the bedroom.

“Oh no.” you protest. “Not when I spent hours on this!”

TAEYONG: he helps you on the days you did your retwist. He took a class on locs so he could be able to help you. That's how dedicated he was to helping you. After you bleached your locs. You sat in the chair while Taeyong prepared you for the color. You were dying your locs luxe blue.

“So, do you have a boyfriend?” Taeyong jokes with you.

“Um, actually I do.”

“Can he fight?”

“You tryna fight my man, sir?”

“If it means taking you out on a date. Then yeah beautiful.”

He always joked with you like this while doing your hair. After the color and the wash. You talked about what kind of style you wanted to do. It was just something simple. A half up/half down. It was giving “New Me”

And your boyfriend had to take pictures to post on his IG. He made sure you looked good in the pictures because he knew you hated it when he took the most outlandish pictures of you and posted them. But to him, he thought you looked good in all the photos.

He takes a picture of you with the caption: GUESS WHO ATE?🤪

TAEIL: Like Mark, Taeil likes the quality time he gets to spend with you while you're doing your hair. He's curious though. He asks a lot of questions like “Why do you have crotch hooks sometimes?” or “How come you don't do a retwist all the time?” and you're always more than glad to answer your boyfriend's questions and explain things to him.

“Have you thought about what color you're going to dye your hair?” Taeil asks you.

“I was thinking Sky blue or Cool blue.”

“Sky blue would look lovely.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah! But anything on you looks lovely.”

Your face grew warm at his words. Dang, this man really knew how to make you feel good about yourself.

“Want to help with the color?”

“Sure. Just show me what I need to do.”

These were the little moments that Taeil enjoyed with you. Just standing in the bathroom applying color to your hair while you asked him about how he was feeling. You always made it a point to ask him about his mental because you know how draining his job can be.

YUTA: he was gone most of the day while you were busy with your hair. You would send him pictures letting him know how the progress was going and taking slight breaks when needed. You decided to surprise your boyfriend when he got home. Yuta once had a style where he had white hair with blue streaks and you wanted to recreate that.

You styled your locs in this cute little style with two ponytails and a side bang.

When you hear Yuta come into the apartment, you call for him to come to the bathroom. You were in the middle of doing your baby hairs.

“Oh wow.” he said. “Blue and white? Reminds of a color I had.”

“You were my inspo boy.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” you turned fully to look at Yuta.

He was busy checking out your new style. “This style is cute,” he said. “My hair is sort of long enough. Let's match styles.”

“You for real?”

“I want to look cute too, girl.” Yuta winks at you.

HAECHAN: “Just say you want to be my twin, y/n.” he teases you, poking you in your side while you're trying to apply dye to your locs.

“I really don't haechan.”

“Then why are you dying your hair blue like mine.”

“first off, my blue is a different shade than yours.”

“Still blue, y/n.”

“Electric blue.”

“Okay?” he poked you again. “Like I said, still blue.”

“Why are you annoying me while I'm trying to do my hair?”

“Cause I'm bored and If I don't annoy you I'll die.”

“Go die in the corner.”

“Y/n if I did die you'll be sobbing your pretty little eyes out.”

“Nah. Now go die.”

“No.” he poked you repeatedly until you burst out laughing getting hair dye on you and him. “Are you going to style the locs?”

“I was thinking of doing a simple, classic back ponytail.”

“Mmm.”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing.” he smirks.

“Nah, I hear it in your voice there is something.”

“You're gonna have your locs pulled back. Maybe we can do something.”

“Something like what, Haechan?”

“It has job in it.”

“Oh, boy hell nah.”

JUNGWOO: You were sitting between Jungwoo legs as he helped you style your locs. You wanted a side ponytail and jungwoo was oddly good at doing them, he even could lay your baby hairs too. Your locs were midnight blue. Your boyfriend helped with picking the color since you really couldn't decide between sea foam green or midnight blue. Midnight blue was the winner.

“Okay, all done!” Jungwoo gives you the hand mirror.

“The retwist and style got me feeling fresh.” you turned your side to side in the mirror. “You did your thang. The color is so pretty on me too!”

Jungwoo smiles feeling proud of himself. “Yeah, I did that!” he pulls out his phone. “Here, let me take pictures. I have to show you off to the guys.”

“Don't. They may fall in love with my beauty.” you say all dramatically making your boyfriend laugh.

“How many times can a person fall in love with the same person? Cause honestly I've fallen in love you with you so many times.”

“Oh, really?” you tilt your head back to look at Jungwoo.

He smiles at you, bringing his face down closer to yours. “Really.” jungwoo softly whispered. “I never want to stop falling in love with you, y/n.”

[agustdiv1ne]

Imagine cosplaying and having sex with Soobin? Like we all know what a huge weeb Soobin is now imagine him cosplaying as idk hot anime characters like Levi, Getou, Toji and reader in pretty maid dress or sexy ahehai bikini aaah 😭🙏🏼✨ WANTTT SOOBIN'S BIG WEEB SCHLONG INSIDE ME SM SJAJAJANDBDNFNFNDN

nsfw under the cut !! also added some soob cosplaying as gojo >:) as a treat

warnings: master kink? kinda, oral (m receiving), soob is dom bc i said so thank you, doggy, degradation

NO BC HEAR ME OUT,, soobin cosplaying as getou and you roleplaying as one of his followers...he pushes you to your knees in front of his robed form, long black hair framing his face, groaning when he looks down only you to see you desperately staring back up at him.

"you look so good, master," you coo, and he swears his cock twitches at your sweet words and mischievous glint shining in your wide eyes. you're looking up at him like you want to suck the soul out of him, an image of pure sin in your frilly white lingerie — the very set he had picked out just for you. he'd be damned to not let you.

"if i look so good, pretty girl, get to work and show me," he murmurs lowly, eyes narrowing as you paw at his thighs, patiently waiting for permission like the good girl that you are.

and so you take soobin's long cock down your throat, choking and gagging when he thrusts a little too hard. sweat runs down his temple, the small bun resting on the back of his head slowly unraveling the closer he gets to unraveling. long fingers grip your hair to keep you in place as he grits out a small "fuck" or "good girl" every so often. it doesn't take him long to fall over the edge, emptying his load onto your exposed breasts and making you eat it from his fingers like the obedient little follower that you are.

"we're doing this again," you say when all is said and done and his arms are wrapped around you in bed. "that was the hottest thing i've ever experienced."

he can't say that he disagrees.

bonus:

ALSO ALSO HIM COSPLAYING AS GOJO???? HEAR ME OUT PT. 2,,,,, he's so tall and lanky that gojo just..fits in my mind idk. he wears those round sunglasses that younger gojo wears and dyes his hair a platinum ash just to avoid the itchiness of a wig (bro is dedicated enough to commit to the bit ok)

...and instead of cosplaying as shoko like you agreed on, you surprise him with the most revealing maid dress that he has ever seen. the sight sends blood rushing straight down to his cock as you step closer and closer until he can smell your sweet perfume.

"what is this, baby?" he asks, and you giggle at his flustered state, leaning up to press your lips against his own. his hands come to rest at your hips, pressing you so close to him that he can feel the heat of your pussy through his pant leg. it's then when he realizes that you're not wearing any panties.

"you little fuckin' minx," he slurs, peering over his sunglasses at you. "we're gonna be late to the con because of you."

"mm, not my fault you can't control yourself," you purr in response, just as affected by his own appearance. he looks good, for lack of better words, freshly dyed hair styled messily and his dimples poking out from his cheeks as he sends you a mischievous smirk.

perhaps you made a small miscalculation, because suddenly you're bent over your kitchen's counter, maid skirt bunched up at your waist as soobin pounds into you from behind. his cock drags along your walls as his lengthy fingers draw haphazard circles against your swollen clit.

"soob-soobin!" you squeal when he hits that spongey spot inside of you that has you seeing absolute galaxies. he groans in response.

"such a fucking slut, couldn't wait 'til later to get your little hole filled, huh? whose slut are you? say it," he grunts as his hand lands a swat to your ass.

"yours!" you wail, mind hazy with pleasure. "i'm your slut — o-oh soob-in!"

it doesn't take much longer for either of you to finish, his cum painting your walls a creamy white. before you can push yourself up from the counter, however, his grip on your hips tightens.

"you really think we're done? dumb baby, we've barely even started."

both of you end up missing the con.

[pinetrees-in-the-water]

hiiii, can you do Tim/masky as a father figure to emo/scene kid teenagers??? C:

Oh my god of course!! This is so wholesome, as an emo myself and former scene kid I approve of the Dad Tim/Masky agenda <3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

◇Masky/Tim Wright as a father figure to emo/scene teenagers◇

-He never thought of himself as the fatherly type considering all his addictions and his past with the Operator, but he found out that he WANTED to try his best to be a role model after meeting these kids.

-Actively doesn't abuse any substances around the kids as he doesn't wanna normalize it for them.

-He is so supportive. (Even if he can be a little aloof sometimes)

-Tim listens to some emo bands (I think he'd like Good Charlotte and Three Days Grace most) but overall never got super into the style side of the subculture.

-So he's completely facinated when the kids show up with racoon tail hair and gel spikes, hed seen kids back when he was a teenager with the style and is a little amazed kids are still dressing like that.

-If any other kids were bullying his kids he'd scare them, Tim's an intimidating man normally so him appearing behind them or yelling usually does the trick.

-Now if any adults decided to be dicks.....

-He wants to be a good influence and despises what the Operator made him do in the past so nothing TOO bad would happen but they'll certainly get a bit "roughed up".

-Gets the kids old 2000s magazines to go through so they can learn more about what the subculture was like at its peak.

-Tim would absolutely dig up all his old CDs for ANYTHING relevant and play them on car rides. He struggles sometimes when the nightmares or intrusive thoughts hit hard so sometimes a car ride with loud music and singibg teens is just what he needs.

-Road trips and stops by Gas station fast food places are a VERY common occurrence.

-Asks them to do his eyeliner (It becomes a regular occurrence since it hides his bags a bit and he pulls it off VERY well)

-Cannot dye hair, will offer to help if the kids are struggling but its a bad idea.

-Constantly reminds the kids to wear heat protectant when straightening their hair, will even buy them wigs if their hair is getting too damaged.

- "You can't dye your hair green if you have no hair left kid"

-Fucking despises shopping because of the crowds. He's been wearing the same old jackets for forever because "They work".

-Despite this he'll still try and come along for the kids, maybe stand a little suspiciously in a corner of the shop until they're all done.

-Takes the kids out to all the concerts in the area (mostly sneaks them in ngl hes not a bad influence but hes not the best one either)

-Likes how colorful scene clothing can be but does not get all the memes and subculture norms, dude doesn't have a social media.

-"What is XD and :3?"

-Asked if Invader Zim was a rat as a joke, this was followed up with all the kids and Tim binging all the episodes with the kids (he ended up enjoying it).

-The more time he spends with them, unknowingly he starts to see them as his own :)

[abrthephantomq]

Encoder Zim, Ch 2, pt 2

(You settle into the filthy desk your homeroom “teacher” assigned you. It’s practically falling apart; it wobbles underneath your weight. 

[Note to self: fix the pathetic desk later, so it can hold your wonderful form with ease. Or maybe swap your desk with the Dib’s desk – yesss, that seems like an excellent plan. Let’s do that instead.]

The Dib’s desk, of course, is the one just in front of yours. You’ve long since learned that the humans assign seating based on “last” names. So you’ve long since ensured that you’re in the same classes the Dib’s in; that your desk is always assigned behind his. His giant head might get in the way of you seeing the board, but that’s of little consequence when the humans’ idea of education is so basic you can hand your assignments to GIR and still receive all A’s.)

“Zim! How was your summer, dude?” 

(You turn your head towards one Torque Smackey. The human has grown even more grotesquely shaped over the summer; muscles bulge under his t-shirt. You suppress a shudder and offer him a smile instead.)

Torque! Zim’s summer was just fine. How was yours? 

(You hate the small talk. Humans love the small talk. Not that you don’t love to talk, too, but you love to talk about yourself and your plans and you hate, hate, hate how nosy the humans are. If your mission didn’t require you seamlessly blending in with the dominant species and learning their history – well. 

You drag in air through your clever disguise; humans have stupid appendages called noses, so you have one, too. The air here is so polluted; so thick and heavy, it barely does anything to keep you focused on the words coming out of Torque’s mouth. Not that it matters – you purposely asked him about his summer so you could tune him out and nod along with his rambling, uninteresting story.)

“Oh, dude, wait – something’s different about you. Did you dye your hair?” 

(You tear your eyes away from the door to your homeroom. Turn your attention back to Torque, your claws reaching up to run your fingers through your “hair.” Your smile grows wider.)

Why, yes! Yes I did! My parents agreed that I could dye it blonde, finally. It suits Zim, does it not? 

(You’ve done no such thing, of course. You are a brave Irken Encoder – sent to planets to learn all of their strengths and weaknesses, so that they can be better assimilated into the Irken Empire. You just simply changed the color of the stupid wig, as a test of sorts. Supposedly, humans with this hair color are desired much, much more than humans with other hair colors. You’d considered going red but it clashed horribly with the skin tone you’d chosen for your disguise. You even briefly considered changing your disguise’s skin tone, then decided against it.

You wanted the Dib to be able to recognize you and your brilliant change in your disguise, after all.

Speaking of the Dib – your splorch twists in your abdominal cavity as he steps into the classroom, that wretched human girl Gretchen clinging to his elbow. The human worm baby narrows his eyes at you, and you grin back at him. He looks exhausted; like he hadn’t so much as slept – and his cheek is turning that mottled blue and purple color of a bruise. A mark you left on him, and won’t heal for days. Maybe even weeks!) 

“Of course we’re in the same homeroom…” 

(The Dib’s mouth barely moves as he talks, but your antenna still pick up the vibrations of his words all the same. You cackle at his dismay. He should be honored that you have graced him with your presence, despite his best efforts to sabotage your reconnaissance mission from the night before. 

His best efforts that weren’t even successful, you might add. Because you are ZIM, and he is just some lowly little human baby.

Though, at this age, the human is practically adult-human-sized. You’ve done your research; you know that humans typically continue to grow until approximately 18 Earth revolutions. You, yourself, have even grown some in the handful of rotations you’ve been present on this obnoxious planet. The additional height you’ve gained just tells you you’ve been doing everything right. 

Irkens grow in sporadic bursts, and only when the conditions are exactly right, after all.)

Good morning to you, too, Dib. 

(The human rolls his eyes, dislodges himself from Gretchen’s grip, and walks up the aisle – right towards you. Except the human doesn’t get in your personal space, like you expect him to. He doesn’t loom over your desk, glaring at you and hissing some nonsensical threat. He just… collapses into the seat in front of you, turns his back to you, and puts his head down.

Indignance crawls through your throat tube, robbing space in it for air. How dare the Dib ignore you!)

[Note to self: Make Dib pay for his INSOLENCE.]

[miasiegert]

CATS ANNOUNCEMENT: David Performing (Admetus/Rumpus Cat) AND Our Costumes, Algonquin Theatre (Manasquan, New Jersey, July 13 - July 28, 2024)

Basically what the subject says: David's gonna be Admetus/Rumpus Cat, and we're making the costumes! (Remember I hinted about Silver Cassandra (but possibly NOT for Cassandra?) since SOMEONE we'll refer to as Whaz Colcott hasn't let us put it onstage yet).

ANYWAY the Broadway World announcement was made today (David didn't realize that "mini-bio" would be read by anyone so he didn't ask me, literally a professional writer, to do it for him. Anyway, the link there mixes his credits with another David Williamson (also from Australia, go figure!) but West Side Story pics were of him dancing (that production won a lot of awards) and info from Wichita although the reviewer didn't realize we made the wigs too (which was fine!).

To purchase tickets, you can use the link here (apparently they start at $27 up to I think $45). I will not be there the 2nd weekend because I have Connecticon but probably both opening and closing. Not sure where I'm sitting yet or whether standing room or what, but I want to watch rather than do quick changes since it's been years since I've seen David perform and I've never seen him do CATS live (I saw the Squids video--I made his Rumpus Cat unitard for that) and I really want to see whatever solo they do (will be interesting since there IS a Gus so no clue with the staging).

I will also be posting some pics of me working on his new Rumpus Unitard because my God, it's going to be a nightmare with acid dye getting the right colors... and I really liked the old one... and the base color he chose is STUNNING... but CHARCOAL. And oh my God, I'm in so much trouble if I can't talk him into silver since it's got to have GREEN in it.

For Admetus, he will probably be wearing an Australian-inspired Carbucketty unitard that I'm recreating in acid dye. To show the progress and reference, see pic below (please note acid dye is VERY flat until steamed: colors used so far are poppy gold, persimmon, and blazing orange). I'm thinking of something else considering the felinity he's channeling with the rest of the cast but he *REALLY* wants to wear this.

SO FLAT UNTIL STEAMED! Also super SCARY because with acid dye it's SO hard to figure out what the colors are until steamed since, "they look the same." This should be a really, really brilliane series of oranges.

[fairykukla]

I love to dream-cast live action versions of my favorite stories.

Here's one I've toyed with for decades, but I finally worked out some principal casting.

The Belgariad

Let's face it, you gotta get the right wizard. Why not look for someone who has played that part? Someone capable of being both the old wolf vagabond and also the fierce blue wizard?

Belgarath the Sorcerer: Morgan Freeman

Aunt Pol/Polgara the Sorceress: Tamara Taylor

She played Dr. Cam Soroyan on Bones, and I think she has the right combination of gentleness and terrifying power. I think shed be very striking with the white streak described in the book. Plus I want to see her and Morgan Freeman banter.

Now we need a "Sandy haired boy".

For Garion and Errand, hold open casting! Being close to two thousand years older than he is, it wouldn't matter what ethnicity he is. Only the golden hair is necessary, which is easy to achieve with dye or a good wig.

Durnik the blacksmith: Rahul Kohli

Barak the Bear: Luke Hemmsworth

Silk the Thief:

Oh no. Waaay too hard for me. He's one of those big favorites for me and I'm not sure I would be satisfied with just anyone. Do not give it to Bradley Cooper. A few years ago, I'd have considered Armin Shimmerman.

Oh. Oh no. Oh *shit*. How about....

Daniel Radcliffe?

Hettar the Horse Lord: Do an open casting, and look for an actor who can do equestrian stunts. I'd prefer to see an Asian actor in the role, since Weddings clearly was building high-fantasy Mongolians, but I'm open to anyone as long as he has a great legitimate connection to horses.

Ce'Nedra: open casting for her, too.

Lelldorin the Archer (not to be confused with Legolas): you know, I kind of want Henry Golding for this one.

Mandoallen (not to be confused with The Madalorian)

Oh, get me a beefy British actor who can be a D&D Paladin effortlessly.

Thoughts?

[marenwithanm]

Inspired by this post right here , have a post I'd like to call

Ranking how easy each linked universe link would be to cosplay!

1-5, 1 being hard, 5 being easy

Read more if you dare ~

First up to bat is Sky!

So there's a lot of ways to approach his outfit. I think his shirt, pants and boots could easily be thrifted. Earrings too probably. Hack up a green shirt and put it back together with some slits and there you go. His white undershirt seems pretty simple too, minus the blue, but I'll come back to that.

The red wrap+belt might be a tad more difficult, I could argue for making the red wrap out of a base or from scratch. The cape though, make that from scratch. Thrift some white bedsheets and make a simple cape. You've got a lot of options for his blue designs. Vinyl appliques, topstitch some blue fabric, paint, even embroidery if you're crazy (like me lol)

I don't think his wig would be... Terribly difficult? He's just got chin length hair and bangs. I just feel like it would be hard to get volume into it and keep it from looking flat and lifeless.

The chainmail is where I stop bc. I know nothing about chainmail in cosplays. How make it? I met a guy once who made his own chainmail by individually twisting metal wire around itself for each loop, and I think that is utterly insane. I embroider and I don't even have the patience for that. But I wouldn't know an easier way to do that so ¯⁠\⁠(⁠°⁠_⁠o⁠)⁠/⁠¯

Overall Sky gets a 4/5 his base outfit is pretty darn simple with some minimal sewing knowledge required if you want it 100 percent accurate. His cape would be fairly easy to paint, so maybe not a beginner cosplay, but not too hard!

Now Four (sword not included)

So Four's tunic is where a lot of the difficulty comes in (clearly lol). I could see fusing four shirts together, but I would be concerned about the way they would fit together being different patterns, different fabrics, ect ect. I would probably not bother and just make his tunic from scratch. If you want 1000 percent accuracy, you could make his tunic lace up in the front, which would look awesome but is out of my skill set lol. His hood I feel like would need a couple mock ups to get the right shape. His whole tunic actually. It's kinda dress like. The drape is important if ya feel me.

Other things I would make would be his weird belt, his kinestones, and his Ezlo bobble (don't want it to be too heavy or else it would drag down the hood, so no metal = harder to thrift) For his earring I would probably dye a plastic feather.

Now his tunic would require quite a bit of embroidery, which sounds very fun to me, but a nightmare to many others I'm sure.

His wig would be pretty simple, but again I feel like it would be hard to make look good, especially with the headband. I'm not really a wig person so I wouldn't know though.

As for easy things, his tights, boots, and undershirt would be pretty simple to thrift or cobble together 👌

Overall Four gets a 2/5. Definitely not the easiest out there. There are ways you could make it easier on yourself, but there's quite a few skills you need to even start.

It's time for Time! (Kaepora Gaebora not included)

Oh Time buddy where do I even start...

Let's start with the easy stuff. His underclothes are super simple. Just black turtleneck and black pants. Thrift em, easy.

We've discussed how much I don't know about chainmail, so I'm choosing to ignore that. The boots I think depend on how much you care for accuracy. Brown boots are easy to come by. This particular style? Not so much. I've only ever modified shoes via paint so I wouldn't know all that much here.

With time's wig, I think the biggest thing would be getting his bangs right. I think using that combing backwards technique would work well, but I haven't used it so idk

Ok ok let's address the elephant in the room. I have no idea how to make armor. I know there's a lot of different methods, I've never used any of them, I don't know. Armor isn't necessarily gonna be harder than embroidery, but my complete lack of knowledge might tank time's score a bit.

For time I'm gonna give a 1/5. You gotta know quite a bit of cosplay stuff for this guy. I've done about four cosplays now, and I look at him and shudder in fear. Do Time if you're good with armor and chainmail.

Let's go downfall boys, starting with Legend (seasons rod not included)

I think legend's might be one of the most fun (for me lol) I could easily see both his tunics starting as thrifted bases which you hack up to fit the design a bit more. If you wanna be lazy, just find a blue beanie for his hat lol. If not, it's just a standard link hat but blue.

For his shoes, basically find some brown books and add some feathers. For his weird belt maybe buy a Hufflepuff scarf 😆. His bracket and rings could be super fun to thrift and modify if you're into that.

Now, admittedly, you would have to embroider stuff for legend, which hikes up the difficulty a lot lol. But whoopsie ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I think his wig would be super fun. I don't know much about dying wigs, but this could be a fun project to learn about it bc it's such a small, low stakes section of his hair.

Overall, Legend gets a 3/5. The required embroidery makes things difficult, and modifying some bases to fit could be a bit hard, but overall seems like a super fun cosplay to put together.

The hero of Hyrule!

Ok so I feel like a lot of this outfit could be thrifted and modified. Just buy the pants, find a brown shirt and add yellow accents, maybe tear the sleeves off a green shirt, dip the neckline, and open the bottom up. Not too bad. I could see the boots being easy too. The gloves is where I'm not sure on. I've never actually made gloves bc I'm not good at sewing tiny, form fitting things. So I'm kinda ¯⁠\⁠(⁠°⁠_⁠o⁠)⁠/⁠¯

I think his potions could be fun to make. Of course, he doesn't have them in the comic, but hey it could add some depth to the costume. Just buy some glass bottles and line the insides with different paint colors. Could be a fun afternoon.

I'm not really sure where to start with his wig. Fluffy wigs are hard to make fluffy as far as I'm aware. Synthetic hair tends to lay quite flat. But I've seen ppl curl them, I know it's possible, but I don't really know how. So this is gonna be a "do your own research" thing.

Overall, debating between 4 or 5/5 for Hyrule. I think his getup is as hard as you make it really. If you go all out in accuracy, probably a 4. If not, a chill 5. Probably the simplest you'll get from the lu boys.

Child timeline with Twilight!

Not the chainmail 😭 we've established I simply do not know. I am actively ignoring it. Anyways, his under clothes are just white/cream pants and shirt, easy, thrift store. His tunic could be pretty simple, just take a green Tshirt, cut some slits, and transfer a dark green sleeve from another shirt and boom you got twilight tunic. The wrap wouldn't be to hard, basically the same as sky's so I'm just gonna move on.

I think if you don't wanna go to hard, his boots are easy, just get brown boots, thrift stores my beloved. But, on the other hand, twi's a cowboy, his boots gotta be intricate! I don't know much about shoes so I couldn't say how but y'know ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Twilights hair is basically the same as Time's in the bang's swoop being important. I think you could do it with a tutorial on wig styling 👍

So his wolf pelt... I'm not quite sure what to think. I know they make fabric that mimics fur, but the idea of letting that furry monstrosity near my sewing machine is giving me chills. I would have to clean it out after ever seam. I dunno man I'm afraid of that fur 😆

Let's give twilight a... 3/5? I'm really not sure what to do with his chainmail and wolf hoodie, but the rest of him doesn't seem too terrible. Basic sewing knowledge needed

The best timeline adult timeline with Wind!

Ok I lied when I said Hyrule was as simple as we were gonna get. Wind is challenging for that spot. Let's break this down. He's got a greenish undershirt, orange capris, and black booties. Thrift em.

Like four, most his difficulty comes in the tunic. But unlike four, you've got a lot of options. For legend and four, I only mentioned embroidery for their tunics because I don't know if other methods would look good in such small details. but with sky and wind, you can basically do whatever you want! Alter a blue shirt (or maybe dress with the length of his tunic) to fit the neckline and slit. Then, for the details, you could do embroidery (you're crazy, but sure), white fabric topstitched on (mostly worry about the curves), vinyl (again, you're crazy, but sure), even paint (underrated option in my opinion)!

His wig seems pretty easy, again just getting it to be fluffy is the issue. And that's one I can't help you with lol.

You could basically stop there, but if you want some finer details, the spoils bag would be a fun felt project, his swirl belt buckle seems like a job for polymer clay and paint, and I think a bead + gold wires and some kind of pink see through sheet could make a very cute joy pendant.

Another case of "as easy as you make it" let's give wind a more solid 4/5 since it's maybe slightly harder than Hyrule.

Nebulous timeline placement with Warriors!

Hhhhhhhhh I'm crying what. Chainmail, armor, and custom shoes???? Just kill me now.

Ok ok so we all know how I feel about chainmail and armor, I'm gonna leave those alone. He's got the same under clothes situation as twilight just white shirt and pants. His tunic I could see as a modified dress or very large shirt. Make the v neck the deepest v in the world lol.

He has... So many belts. I've not been mentioning belts unless they're weird bc, again, thrift store. But I. I think you're gonna buy out the whole store's worth of belts my goodness. But yes, you can modify belts to fit the areas he's wearing them.

His amazing scarf cape kind of scares me. It's too beautiful, it relys so much on the drape, and I am but a poor soul on the internet. Buuuut I could see maybe a deep blue knit fabric, or even just blue bedsheets at, again, the thrift store. I dunno what the orange is, if it's embroidery or what. I'd find a reference of it, but it's midnight and I've already spent way too long on this lol

The shoes... Like ok they're cool conceptually with them being a reference to historical army shoes. But you're not gonna find those out and about. Luckily, I think if you took some brown boots and did some cut outs in the back, you could get a similar affect.

Finally, his wig also kind of scares me bc his hair is so nice, but this one seems simple with some bangs styling required 👍

Overall warriors is getting a 1/5. I don't think he'd be as hard to make as time, but definitely harder than four with the shoulder armor, customized tunic, cape, and customized shoes.

Last but certainly not least, the Wild child!

So wild is basically a cartoonized version of his botw self, and there's plenty of botw link tutorials out there if you want some more advice. But! He doesn't seem too bad. He's got the white underclothes deal, easy to thrift. his tunic could just be blue with your choice of white applique like wind. You could be extra and do the dualing colors. Can't remember if wild keeps that design element in the comic itself, but it's neat! Basically Frankenstein two shirts together. The only concern would be how the different fabrics interact and how the differences in pattern and sizing interact. But with only 2 pieces it shouldn't be too bad.

His boots are as simple as you make them. If you want the orange flap, I could see it made out of some wiggly foam and painted. His arm wraps are basically any grey fabric in strips so I'll leave that to your disgression.

His cape doesn't seem all that hard, your choice of applique on the back, make it out of a simple cape pattern, basic sewing knowledge maybe required.

Honestly my mind concern is his wig since long wigs are always such a pain. But styling wise, looks pretty simple.

Overall, wild gets maybe a 3/5? About on par with legend, maybe a bit harder. Or maybe not necessarily harder than legend, but more effort.

Bonus Malon bc I love her

Another case of as hard as you make it. I don't think it would be too hard to find a pink skirt and white shirt. If you want it too be accurate, you'd have to do some finagling, but it wouldn't be too bad. Her waist wrap is similar to sky, and whatever that brown drape from her belt is doesn't seem to hard. Her yellow cape thing could honestly just be like a square of yellow fabric, it's all in how it's tied.

Shes another, simple shoes, unless you consider this is a cowgirl, they gotta be good wink wonk. but not actually, make it as hard as you want lol.

Honestly, her wig is what scares me most. She's got the time bangs and the long hair.

Let's give malon a 4 or 5/5 like Hyrule. As easy as you make it! Quite a range you can get while still having it look good.

[wulvert]

SQUINTS AT MY DRAFTS SWEATING AFTER READING UR PARAGRAPH AND REALISES IVE MADE SCARLET WORSE its fine though she can be extra deranged as a treat. she deserves it. also the "wants to leave town" part makes me feel so validated in one of my song choices in the paperteeth playlist. (this one if anyones curious https://youtu.be/MPwzFs1BiSw)

I DID GET THE "PAPERTEETH CAST ARE ALL FRIENDS HEHE" PART DOWN THOUGH!! i write them like.

[KELLY TAKING A PHOTO OF HIM AND THE ENSEMBLE] "SELFIE WITH THE BESTIES!!" [SCARLET, AVERY, AND TRISHA'S EYES ALL GLOWING LA CREATURA LIKE HOW CATS EYES DO WITH FLASH ON (example below) WHILE KELLY IS CASUALLY JUST PEACE SIGNING IN THE MIDDLE SMILING]

i love trisha nd kelly nd avery nd scarlet so much. im so weak for the "found family"(?) trope where everyones messed up in their own ways but they have each other in the end. im also very interested in what trisha and kelly are like (their flavor of. trauma?) but that. maybe might be TOO spoilery for u to answer,,,

SCARLET CAN HAVE AN UNDERCUT IF I BELIEVE HARD ENOUGH!! tht reminds me. how does scarlet dye her hair so fast,,,i came up with the goofy headcanon all the dye she uses is like. that temporary party hair dye nd she just drenches her hair in water and its all Gone in Seconds. nd then repeat waskwkdwkdakd

miscellaneous questions!!

-did scarlet/avery/trisha/kelly all go to college at some point? not the. same one obviously. vampire hunting doesnt seem like something u need a degree for but i have a silly headcanon explanation in my head 4 my fanfiction for how kelly knows avery thats just. "avery and kelly were randomly assigned roommates in college and avery could NOT get rid of him"

-do scarlet/avery have prior relationship experience or r they both just two absolutely clueless disasters trying their best

-whatre everyones family's like!! we know a little about avery's entire family being like. #KILLVAMPIRESFOREVER #ONTHATGRIND🔥 but im curious about more like. in depth i guess?? was averys family. Good? ive been writing her like they. weren't but then i realized i actually have no idea how her family treated her. sory this turned into avery its still a general all-character question!! i m just. very normal about her. this question could be very spoilery so pls feel free 2 avoid answering!!!

NOOO its fine she can be worse! i think her avery tolerance qualifies her 4 it. reading back my paragraph i dont think i quite got across how like... abnormal she is

YEAH so trishas trauma flavour is she cannot feel emotions strongly without turning into a giant murderous wolf- kelly hes chillin. hes achieved his goals. happy little guy. insults slide off of him, he has a positive mental attitude.

oh man dw scarlet actuslly wears wigs, she styles them herself its vry impressive 2 avery who cuts her own hair and has never had it turn out even. i dont think even scarlet could cut and dye her hair that fast even with all her free time to practice- & her hair wouldve been fried by now even with the carefullest bleach sesh.

Trisha graduated highschool- kelly & scarlet went to uni (seperately) and avery dropped out of highschool as soon as she turned 16, 2 become a vampire hunter- you only need a license to do it as a hobby but u can also be employed as one which avery scarlet kelly are, trisha is unemployed. avery joined the lumber co at the same time kelly did- avery has to kind of make sure. he doesnt die. he did stick to her but avery eventually did start 2 appreciate his friendship. avery, despite everything is like insanely good at killing vampires, kelly joined on a whim and sucks. scarlet joined bc it pays pretty well, but she was pretty averagely skilled at it.

do avery/scarlet have previous relationship experience is a good question i absolutely cannot decide at all- i rly go back and forth on how pathetic either of them were before becoming vampires. sometimes i think scarlets probs had a few relationships b4, and for avery its like. shes shy. she would only date someone if they confessed first. and so would scarlet. which is an issue. either way for scarlet she hasnt been in a relationship for years and avery is avery.

no for sure averys family sucks, she has 11 brothers, shes the youngest child, they were all raised to be vampire hunters, the only one who didnt turn out to be one is estranged. they would absolutely kill her if they found out and would fight abt who gets to be the one to do it. avery is actually pretty close with the estranged brother though. they do get together at like, christmas but outside of that they dont rly talk much as a family

Scarlets family is nice i made a post abt them before, she knows they would still love her despite the vampire thing but shes too embarassed and scared 2 tell them, so shes distanced herself from them as well, they worry a lot.

kelly im ngl he just spawned into existence. i imagine his family r like clones of him

trishas family is a whole thing, her dad is avscrletkellys boss so theres that

did i miss anything? i usually wait to answer things ik r gonna be long on a computer but im on my phone and i wanted to talk abt my creatures right now

also this made me realise averys been a vampire hunter for 10 years which like obvs 16-26 is 10 but i cant do maths.( shes been 1 for the longest out of the three)

[ehh-is-the-name]

Happy (late) Holloweeny!!

It may be like almost a week after the holiday but whatever! I decided to be Jyushi this year since I already made the hat like 2 years ago. That led to me wondering how much I could do for the costume without buying things, and well... I think the only thing I really bought was the baseball uniform but I had to dye it and whatnot so idek what I was planning with that. I think I just wanted an excuse to make stuff and this is what I got to show for it. I think it turned out well!

Though, I think I really like just dressing up as characters at this point, and of course work in process photos under the cut!

Gonna go in chronological order, so starting with the hat.

The photos of it are at the other post linked above if you wanna see it but I'll say my process/thoughts on it here.

If I went back in time to redo the hat I would've changed the way I did the white base. I did it with a spray primer and it made the hat really stiff. I used to wear it out, but also because of the primer, the fabrics not breathable anymore so you get sweaty FAST. Even with the wig on above, it made my head hot. It also made it not able to like stretch easily, so when I had it on with the wig, it kinda looked weird from some angles. Otherwise, It's pretty good. It's just the fact it has so many paint layers.

I unfortunately forgot to take wip pics of the bat and ball, but I have all the resources I used to make them if that counts!

I used the ball pattern from Supergurumi here. For the bat, I used Jay Hen's pattern linked here.

The only thing about the bat is that I switched up some things for this. Like I barely used any stuffing (mainly bc I didn't have much) but also because I just don't think the silhouette of the one on the site matches what an actual metal bat looks like and Jyushi got a metal bat. So I just crocheted around a pool noodle. And gotta say, very fun to hit my friends with, 10/10. Another thing, is that I made the whole bat the grey seen above and just wrapped some old fabric around it, since sometimes Jyushi has it and sometimes he doesn't?? It's weird.

Like in the earlier season (top right), he doesn't, but later in the show (bottom left) he has one and the grip is black? Oh but in the game (top left) he has a yellow grip! BUT THEN THE FUCKING NENDROID DOESN'T HAVE IT EITHER??? SO WHAT????

Idk. The whole thing kinda pissed me off since I didn't know what would be right. In the end, I just went with the yellow grip to match the uniform. I saw all of this like I care about accuracy- I fucked up the baseball stitches anyways, but that'll be our little secret.

I bought the whole uniform from a bulk sellout sports company for like only a handful of dollars. Even with shipping and everything, it wasn't even $20. The only thing was that they weren't selling yellow ones, so I had to dye it. Wouldn't have been that bad if it weren't polyester! Do you know how hard it is to dye polyester??? Well I didn't when I bought it, so lemme tell you.

You gotta make your witch's brew with synthetic fabric dye and soap. It took me a while, but I'd found some of RIT Dyemore in a store (but there are also some online like iDye Poly that should work). I just used a broken hanger to stir that shit for like 30 minutes since I didn't wanna ruin a spoon. Then I had to soak it in a dye fixative, which I did not buy 'cause fuck that. I'll just made some with water. vinegar, and sodium carbonate which you too can make at home. I will stay thanking NileRed for everything here, love his content. I think I soaked it for about 10-15 minutes, and from the pics above I wouldn't say much washed out.

This was probably the dumbest thing I've done. I could've just bought a wig for like $12 but no, I chose to make one instead. Also, I know he doesn't have blue strands in his hair, I just ran out of black yarn and had to make do. These are trying times, ok!! Anyway, I got one of the mesh wig caps meant to cover hair and then started tying strands to every couple of rows and holes. I guess this is where the stiffness of the hat came into use since I used that to hold the mesh cap. I got the idea from this video which helped with telling me what not to do if I wanted to make a wig like this. I was about as far into tying as the first pic below before I found cosplay veteran, Kind of Derp's, yarn wig series which put the idea in my head to press it. The only issue was that I couldn't brush out the twist since they were already tied and it would've pulled out all my hard work. So, I had to individually spread out every piece before pressing... That took the most amount of time, tbh I spend days doing that. I do not recommend it. If you're gonna make a yarn wig either do it KoD's way or like Uropa Queen does it here. That vid helped me quite a bit with styling.

Lastly, although the final photos don't show it, I did put Jyushimatsu's lil ahoge thing! I made it out of a spring and wrapped it with a shitload of yarn before stitching it in place.

And the last thing was stitching their last name! I thought about doing it directly onto the shirt, but since the uniform shirt is kinda stretchy and I don't have any fabric stabilizers, I chose not to.I wanted the stitches to be really crisp and nice, so I just did it on a different piece of fabric and pressed it on. I also kinda wanted to have a yellow shirt by the end of this without the kanji, so I wanted the chance to peel it off afterwards. But, me being silly, I didn't check if the iron-on adhesive was permanent before ironing it onto the shirt. Not the end of the world, I'll still wear it anyway. Though I think I could've cut the edges closer to the word since you can see it pretty clearly irl and even in the photos, but again the damage is done, what am I gonna do about now.

For the sketch, I used an erasable pen to draw 松. And for the stitches themselves, I just used the satin stitch to fill and some back stitches for the outline. This was probably the easiest and quickest part of the process.

I did the little "14" wristband thing a similar way. I just whipstitched the numbers onto some strap material (poly webbing, I think?) and attached some velcro. I folded it in half and stitched down the sides since I didn't ant the stitches to show on the back side of the cuff.

And I would put stuff for the mask, but that was super last minute. I literally just took one of my cloth masks and painted his smile on it with some acrylic paint and pouring medium, 'cause I was too lazy to whip out my actual fabric paint. Took about an hour to get it done, max.

But yeah, despite all the corners I cut, I still like the way it turned out. I can really see why cosplayers do what they do. It's fun to do stuff like this. I don't know if I'll have the time to squeeze in a DIY-heavy costume like this next year, but for Jysuhi and Airy, it was nice to do it.

And as always, I share the process because OH MY FUCK PEOPLE SHOULD!! The cosplayers that share their processes, I love you I love you I love you so much. Their stuff was really helpful for doing this! Hence, that's why I linked so many things. Plus, I know there are others out there who are trying to do the same and if it was helpful for me to stumble across other people's processes it'd probably be helpful to them too.

This is your sign to make a costume if you've been putting it off because you don't know how to do it. Start with something small, just for the hell of it. Hey, in 2021 I didn't think that painting his hat would lead to this, but look where we are. I believe in you, go forth and be creative!

And if you've made it this far, thanks for reading!!

[hell-chronicles]

How are you enjoying Vying for Versailles?

i'm currently on calculation path in the dowager queen's court and pursuing bonne... i think. i'd totally seduce the king to gain power... it think. damn i'm torn there. maybe i can date bonne and be besties with the king?

I think the story seems fun. I always enjoy court intrigues (*looks longingly in the direction of legend of the willow* also arcanum kind of). I'm also loving the fact that we can have flings with the two female villain LIs (catherine is great, love her). I also like that the explanations of diamond choices i've seen in theodora is showing up here too.

I'm kind of annoyed about the hair, though. I don't mind fantasy stuff like arcanum having very wildly different hair options each time but i like to remain consistent for the more 'realistic' stuff - legend of the willow has hairstyles in all of the color options! it really takes just 30s to make a new color asset :/

-seducer anon

Hi I havent Played the newest chapter yet so I can't talk much about it yet

But funny that we're both on calculating path and want to pursue Bonne ^^'

We might get options to suduce the King without being put us on his romance path Depending on where the plot is going? Because I sure want my mc to gain all the Power she can no matter what💀. But historically speaking there used to be concubines who started to build friendships with kings and that's how they maintained power/Status even in older age (but as far as Im aware they did start out as typical concubines so that's that).

However I want court drama and cause mayhem within the aristocratic circle but also live our best life✌️

And I also love that we can habe Frings because let's be honest aristocrats we're Wilding around 😫. Also Catherine is a villain? Sexy 👀

Also I agree with the hair thing in period books. It does take you out a little if mcs can change their hair colour and texture in just 5 seconds. I think we could excuse it with wigs or that the Alternate timeline of vfv has hair dye available at all times. But I do wish we could get multiple hair colour options for the hair options but oh well

[renarys]

just a little compilation of the plethora of custom doll stuff i've been making in the past several months :D currently featuring: Rani (Soom R.Breccia), Rinshi (Soom Onyx), and Yeomra (Withdoll Margery)

and so, here's a longass detailed ramble on my current state of progress so far:

fully modeled & printed rani's new body (not shown here) and dragon parts! but still need to do sanding/clean up and reprint her forearms with adjustments. also should reeeallyyy make her custom hands and feet since i'm just using some spare super gem ones rn and they just look WAY too tiny for her lmao.....

dye job for rinshi! she still needs a faceup badly though...! also i really wanna wipe rani's face, dye her properly (she's currently airbrush tanned), and then redo it at the same time i paint rinshi, but i also like her having a face still while working on styling her wig... and i know the whole process there is gonna take me quite awhile so.... mrrrr. (continues procrastinating on it)

modeled & printed horns for rinshi and yeomra too~ still brainstorming how i wanna do rinshi's dragon tail, though, which is going to be super long and also Quite An Adventure. orz

wigs! i've been slacking a bit on putting together the part for yeomra even though she has the simplest hairstyle of the three by far. meanwhile rinshi has some partially swept back bangs with her hairline showing and i'm going to try ventilating a lace front for her and that'll be Yet Another Adventure lmao... but at least in the meantime, i DO really love how her hair streaks containing multiple shades of pink came out. it makes me think of candy... and lesbians. and I Love It. (i've also started attempting styling on rani's wig and i'm also very much procrastinating on that too, lord, help me)

and finally, my most recent work, accessories for rani's outfit!! this isn't everything, either - some things still need sanding, some reprinting, and the stuff for her shoes aren't even ready to print yet - but oh my god LOOK AT THOSE TINY CHROMED BUTTONS AND THE SUPER NEON PINK CRYSTAL PARTS. I'M OBSESSED WITH ALL THIS STUFF. SO COOL!!!!! sooo cool..... girl i just love shiny things and transparent things and pink things.... wowie. wow. i made all that......? wow............

but man. it's been years since i've been this motivated to actually make stuff for my BJDs and now that i finally have the 3d resin printer i've dreamed of for years... it's so crazy guys. it's magical. now i just want to make ALL the dolls...!!!! (whether i actually FINISH any of them is another story entirely, but hey, i'll at least MAKE them. ...maybe!)