#totally wasn't projecting about moby dick

[baura-bear]

MAURA IMPORTANT AS FUCK !!!!!! what do you think david's favorite books are. make this as self indulgent as you want bc then i will also learn what books you like :33 personally i think he loves classic polish books (they help him reconnect with that part of his identity which can be a little hard considering he lives so far away) such as pan tadeusz or kordian and especially wesele (it didn't come out until the 1900s but shhh he would LOVE wesele) and also i think he really loves 20,000 leagues under the sea (i think he just loves the fantastic elements, the way the ocean is described + also captain nemo was originally supposed to be polish and yadda yadda i don't want to dump too much here..) AND little women. because of reasons i think. the march family dynamic is so sweet and also i definitely think david's gay ass would find laurie cute SORRY i got really passionate about this my bad.

Guys, I had and Epic Autism Moment so this will all be under the cut. You have no clue what you've started Dave <3

OMG YES YES YES!!! I LOVE THIS! ok ok ok so i definitely agree with you about the polish literature thing (although i obviously don't know anything about polish literature) I always imagined David to live in an immigrant neighborhood (and of course be an immigrant himself) and I'm sure he has several neighbors who, throughout his youth, lent him and gifted him books.

(going off the rails for a second idc) I think his family is really active in the community (of course they attend shul) Mayer and Esther love talking with the neighbors and having them over for dinner or just tea or something. Esther mends clothes to make a little extra money so she frequently has folks coming to her with that. I also think there's a kosher deli nearby and Mayer is friends with the owner (well the whole Jacobs family is friends with their family) I know that in 92sies it's established that Mayer works in a factory but with the stage version we get a bit more lenience PLUS (this might sound terrible) but like. his injury doesn't look that bad in 92sies (LET ME EXPLAIN) his arm is just in a sling so we can infer his arm is broken (i honestly don't remember if they ever say??) but I feel like he'd be able to a job like he wouldn't be completely indisposed. anyway in the stage version it makes more sense that he has a leg injury and can't walk, hence the inability to work. I imagine he helps do deliveries and like loading stuff off of carts. His injury actually happened out on the street trying to stop a kid from getting hit by a wagon and he did, it was just to his expense. "twisted his leg up real bad" I take that literally like.. it got caught in the wheel and twisted up. and I think the deli owner saw it happen and got him home (along with a few other fellas and a doctor).

ANYWAy the whole reason I say that is just like. I think the Jacobs are a well liked family in the community and everyone always found David endearing and saw his love of reading and writing and wanted to help give him the resources he needed (especially being a polish kid removed from his culture they wanted to help restore that)

I agree that he likes Little Women!! He also enjoyed reading War and Peace (I haven't finished it yet but I just KNOW Davey loves Pierre because little awkward man who's probably autistic). I think he also enjoys Wuthering Heights (which admittedly I haven't read but my friend really loves it and has talked about it so I think he would enjoy it) along with poetry. I think he loves books/stories/poems that are very descriptive and have good imagery because it helps him transport himself and like really be engulfed by the story

He'd read Moby Dick but he despises it. He wanted an epic ocean adventure but half the chapters are just all about whales (like science-y and shit) which,,, would be fine if he'd picked up a textbook about whales. He just wanted more from it and didn't enjoy the ending. WHICH IS WHY he prefers 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea because if he wants to read a good story involving the ocean he's not gonna pick up Moby fucking Dick.

um. yeah.

i had literally never thought about this before but the second that I saw the ask i was typing up a storm. hehe

ALSO LITERALLY STOP APOLOGIZING I LOVE WHEN ANYTHING FROM YOU APPEARS IN MY ASK BOX you could send me a ten page essay and I would read it beginning to end like :DDDDD and enjoy every second

[cheesycatz]

The Making of: Life-Size Malworm Plush

(Wormton AU)

STATS

16 ft 3 in (495 cm) long

Total time: 150 hours

Material Cost: $124

Theoretical minimum cost (based on seamstress wage): $2,524

(Progress photos and commentary below)

I'll be referring to my life-size wormton plush as "malworm" for convenience sake.

Unlike my Spamton NEO, Caine, and Fake Peppino plushies, I didn't spend a lot of time on concept art. Since I planned to make the malworm plush as close as possible to its 2D design, I didn't have to add much stylization, other than simplifying some details (no way in hell was I going to make 104 separate embroidered stitches for the segments of his toes, sorry). I mainly used the planning stage to calculate how wide the body pieces needed to be, plotting it out in 1/4 in : 3 in scale and using circumference formula to find the values I needed. I planned to make it around 10 feet long, the length of a young adult malworm. A lot of this project was improv, but, I mean, it wasn't my first or second or third time making a spamton centipede.

The head was quite a complicated shape, so I carved a tiny model out of craft foam, covered one half of it in masking tape, then cut the masking tape mask (hah) into flat pieces. I then traced the pieces onto graph paper and manually scaled them up by using the fact that I wanted the nose to be 1 ft long as reference. The rest of the pattern pieces were very simple, as wormton's teeth, body, legs, etc were very easy to translate into 2D shapes. I used old school notes as paper for the body, as I needed a lot of it. It was entertaining cutting exerpts of Moby Dick and English Renaissance biographies into body parts. I ended up making the body significantly longer; I had to spend $100 dollars on fur anyways, so why not make a maximum size one?

Making the pattern pieces took around 8 hours. While waiting for the fur to ship, I started cutting out the teeth, legs, and eyes. By the time the fur arrived, I had already sewn 36 worm teeth. I did an 11hr all-nighter to cut all the fur in one sitting the day it arrived. After a long vacuuming session and an uptake in the amount of polyester fiber in my lungs, I finished cutting the pieces, taking about 18 hours and 40 minutes.

As usual, the head was the first thing I worked on. It was...kind of wonky once I flipped it inside out. I trimmed some of the fur so that I could actually see what was happening. The main issues were the lack of any forehead, the nose being way too wide, and the cheeks being too flat. I did some ladder stitching as well as modifying the thing from the inside, and eventually made the head look much better. The cheeks still don't stick out that much still, but I'm happy with how the head looks now. I think it conquered the sopping wet owl resemblance. I inserted wire into the nose and jaws to help them keep their shape.

When I started this project, I wasn't sure whether to make it based off of Wormton or just a copyright-free malworm; I decided to do both. I went with red for the non-Spamton version, as I think it really fits the cartoony fly/mothman-style cryptid look malworms are supposed to have.

I sewed a square pouch into the throat and put in all those teeth. I used hot glue to wrap blue squares around a wire for the proboscis, because I think I would've gone bonkers cuckoo bananas if I had to hand sew that entire thing. The throat pouch holds the proboscis when it's not extended, as well as anything else I wanted to shove in there. I never measured it, but it's around 4-5 ft long. I finally made the Spamton... eye patches(?) and a pair of eyelids, though I didn't end up using them in the photo shoot. I also made a new pair of nostrils, as the old ones kind of got swallowed up from all the plastic surgery I was giving him

Now that the head was finished, I got to work on the body. I sewed the white belly and segments of the body together. I left most of the tail open, as the fur was too thick for me to flip it out at a certain point. I worked on the legs, next. After living out my cosplay dreams by putting the claws on my fingers like bugles chips, I grouped the claws together and sewed most of each leg and foot together, leaving me with many pairs of charred drumsticks (did not taste good)

I attached an extra long wire structure into each set of claws, then threaded the wire through each respective leg and stuffed them. I ladder stitched the claws to each foot, then stuffed each with some plastic beans in order to give the feet weight. I then finished sewing each foot shut. I now had a pile of disembodied limbs and one very long scarf.

I wound many long pieces of wire together to create an armature for the body. While the plush's body is way too heavy to be properly posable, the wire does still give some structure. I wrapped the extra long ends of the legs' wires to the metal spine, using the body's leg holes for reference. I then pulled the body up the metal armature like a sock.

I pulled the legs through their respective holes and stuffed the body. It was the first time the malworm was huggable! It's sort of like an oversized body pillow, in a way. I had to ladder-stich all the limbs, the head, and the rest of the tail, as it would've been completely impossible to flip inside out. It was quite difficult to do on furry fabric, and my thread frequently broke from the force I had to pull with to keep the stitches tight. Eventually, I got everything attached to some degree.

The last details I worked on were the mane, tail tufts, and scopula pads. The mane and tail tufts were ladder stitched onto the body, but I decided to use glue to attach the pads to the feet. I think the extra blue details make his proboscis fit much better, and who doesn't love spider paw pads? I also glued some velcro to the eye patches so that they stay attached better. They slide under the black eye rings.

My malworm was finally finished! I tried to put a lot of effort into the photo shoot so that people who don't know about the AU can enjoy it. I wanted to make it seem like some weird entity whose only goal is obtaining more Spamton brainrot. Hence it making Spamton on Mario Kart DS under the bed, obsessing over the Spamton Plush, inspecting the Spamton Shrine, and just generally harassing the photographer (me, I guess?). I wanted to capture the silliness, creepiness, and lack of respect for personal space that Spamton is known for. I thought about giving him a bag of doritos under the bed like that one image of the isopods eating them, but went with the DS instead. I thought it would be funny to see this thing playing Super Mario 64 DS (or Super Spamton 64) and here the "buh bye!" sound effect when it closes the DSi XL.

That's all from me, for now. I have other Wormton related matter to attend to.

Don't let the parasitic Spamton larvae bite

[tfdtreasurer]

sorry for not asking about eridan but, why the feferi hate?

Don't worry anon I fully expected this question to be one of the first. Besides, Eridan and Feferi are foils to each other and thus any look at one is being done in the context of the other. Narratively, they're inseparable. My actual nuanced opinion on Feferi is that she's a bad person, a fascinating character, and yet one that I feel is so tragically misunderstood by everybody that it leads me to not liking how she's liked. If that makes any sense.

The short answer is she's one of the most casteist trolls out there. And not in the way Equius is, or Gamzee becomes, or Eridan claims to be. Her's is just a little too real and it kinda gives me icky vibes.

The long answer is... Well there's a reason a whole essay was in the works. If Eridan alludes to Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick of 1851, Feferi alludes to Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" of 1899 (which in a semi timely way, was published to the context of the Philippine–American War). In her first pesterlog with Kanaya, "burdens" is the word used to refer to her responsibilities. Not really enough on it's own, but then you keep reading Feferi pages. Eridan being the best that alternia breeds, seemingly exiled from living in the sea to serve her captives' needs. The captivity of animals that she's associated with bolstering that. How she espouses a desire to unite the races, but mentions having plans for the throne, implicitly retaining imperial power. Her weapon being named after the triple entente, an alliance of colonialist powers. How she remarks royalty is so civilized, alluding to the colonialist projects of that era being referred to the West's civilizing mission. The way she talks to Jade and is quick to use the r-word, like she'd have to make her speech a hundred times plain. Just the way that she often has other people doing things for her that seems to emulate the delegatory voice of the poem. Eridan being the orphaner for her. In the Make her Pay flash (which is the best flash don't @ me), she has Sollux fight for her as she seems to sit back. Even her creation of the dream bubbles is something she asks of the gods to do for her. And if you think I'm searching for patterns in the clouds here with my ancient-ass 1800s literature: just take a look at the regime of Beforus Feferi. How casteism wasn't abolished, it just became patronizing the lesser and pretending that considering them lesser but in need wasn't the inequality is was.

Eridan is interesting in combination with her because they're designed to contrast each other. Eridan is so deeply associated with hipster inauthenticity, pretention, over exaggerated theater, and explicitly mentions that villainy is practically a performance for her. She calls comin off as a diabolical sort "showwmanship." But pay attention to the way that each frame dropping their quirk. Eridan drops her to become more genuine for a moment. Feferi has to be asked to drop hers and gets mad that she's had to peasantify herself. And the tragic part is that although Eridan is in the position of the audience in that poem, in essence the soldier sent to brutally occupy the Philippines, Feferi also sees her as one of the ones needing to be civilized. Eridan is to her half devil and half child, fluttering and wild, needing to be restrained by a moirallegience she seems to have never wanted from her.

I don't mean to let Eridan totally off the hook. I see her character as being under a dramatic form of siege mentality, perceiving herself to be the target of everyone's hostility. As she's the orphaner, I feel vaguely inclined to give it to her a bit. Like yeah, I can't imagine that job title comes with the perk of making friends. But her siege mentality xenophobia primarily makes her think that everybody that isn't Feferi must hate her, to the point where she only trusts people when her relationship with them is adversarial. The subversion central to Eridan's character is that while she may be genuinely xenophobic, she isn't a supremacist, nor genocidal in intent. The weapons she claims to be amassing to conquer the surface aren't military, it's just whaling equipment she uses to prevent everyone dying. The Brand Whaling Gun and Bomb Lance. Some derivative of the Greener swivel harpoon gun (that I have yet to 100% identify but I do have the original picture used for the Photoshop). Broken killing lance heads (as can be seen in my pfp being held by captain Ahab).

So why do I hate Feferi? Because she does think herself superior to others, in a way that is supremacist. She's a paternalistic casteist of the highest order and it is gross.

But here's the twist: if people believed in the Feferi I just outlined, I'd love the character. Because I still do fundamentally believe in redemption and rehabilitation of people with really shitty beliefs. Feferi could've been a character who narratively served to demonstrate how her beliefs may appear good intentioned, but actually warns the audience of the trap of real life paternalistic racism that justifies colonialism with a friendly face. A narrative where she had character development and evolved alongside Eridan. Symbolically, the orphaner killing the idea of paternalism would've been goddamned beautiful. But instead, what I got, what we got, was the fandom never picking up on the nuances, the comic itself electing to skirt around the problematic elements, all leading up to this strange quirk of Homestuck where once you're aware of all this, you really can't look at cutesy Feferi fanart the same way ever again because it never gets addressed. And I think that's sad. But, until the people that like Feferi are in the same boat as me in wanting a redemption arc for her, I'm gonna stay her #1 hater.

[bluecatwriter]

2022 Writerly Year Review

I was tagged for this by @0nelittlebirdtoldme. I'm supposed to tag other people but my social anxiety got the best of me. But if you're a writer, please feel free to copy— I'd love to hear your answers!

Total number of completed works: 22— and that was just after starting writing my first fanfic in October! Pretty pleased with that.

Total number of WIPs worked on this year: I currently have 13 that exist as documents with at least a few words in them.

WIPs neglected this year: About eight or nine of the aforementioned WIPs.

Fandoms I've written in: Dracula Daily! I just started dabbling in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea fic as well, and I drafted a Moby Dick fic a couple days ago, too.

Total word count: Published to A03? 93,839. Again, not bad for three months of writing!

Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you expected? I didn't even expect to write fanfiction this year— I'd dabbled, but never actually committed to it, focusing on other projects (including my personal blog and two memoirs I'm working on. Is working on a memoir pretentious? I don't know. I enjoy writing about my travels. Anyway). So I definitely wrote a lot more than expected this year! Dracula Daily kinda grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and hasn't let go.

Did you take any writing risks this year? Goodness, yes! If you'd told me even six months ago that I'd be writing explicit smut, I would've been very confused and perhaps a little horrified. But it turns out that I enjoy writing it (mostly because it's incredibly challenging)? Who knew!

Do you have any goals for the new year? Nothing concrete, just to keep writing as much as I'd like, and to keep stretching myself and trying out different kinds of stories and scenes. And to have fun with it! That's why I'm doing it, after all.

Biggest disappointment? I don't think I've put enough pressure on myself for there to be disappointments— which is intentional. This is a hobby, not a career.

Biggest surprise? Other than enjoying writing smut? Probably how well other people have responded! I've never gotten this much feedback on my writing, and for it to be so positive and encouraging. It's been a rough year for a lot of personal reasons, and being able to open my email most every day to find a little pile of new kudos and occasionally comments has been... well, it's meant more than I think any of the commenters know.

Most popular story of the year? Judging by kudos? "An Excellent and Comforting Word," which is funny, because it was one of the easiest fics to write, because 1) I wasn't taking it too seriously and 2) I was basically just asking myself, "What is the most unhinged thing possible Jack could do at this point?" I'm not complaining that it's the most popular— I think it's pretty fun!

What's your own favorite story of the year? I'd have to say "The Train Trip"— it was the first fic I started working on, and one I spent a ton of time on (it was also the one I kept finessing as I waited in line to be allowed an AO3 account!). It established a lot of fundamental headcanons for the six members of the crew of light, and I'm still pretty proud of it.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Is the universe supposed to appreciate my fanfiction? I'm so confused! ;) I don't feel like any of my fics have been under-appreciated— everyone's been very kind!

Most fun story to write: Don't make me choose! In addition to "An Excellent and Comforting Word," I really enjoyed writing "Words and Voice Fail Me," a one-shot featuring Arthur and Jack being incredibly sweet.

Most unintentionally telling story: The amount of hurt/comfort fics I write is pretty telling, I'd say. My spouse and I have a running joke where I'll say, "I'm working on a fic. You'll never guess what happens," and he replies, "Someone cries and then someone else comforts them?" and I'm like "HOW DID YOU GUESS?"

My favorite part of fandom this year: The Tumblr "book club" for Dracula Daily was absolutely incredible— I had never experienced a book in this way before, and it jump-started a lot of creative endeavors, both fanfiction and fanart. I'm so grateful for the online community and looking forward to continuing to create in 2023!