jan - april - september - november

2023 was my purple period if you will heheheheheh

project "i'm totally normal about this guy and his wardrobe"

a work in progress

⚔️ 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔 ⚔️

Behold, an Ongoing Project! 📯

I've been wanting to compile this for a while, instead of frantically scrambling for references every time I sit down to write — I thought it would be fun to share! I'm mostly tackling this from the perspective of a fanfic author, and also as someone who's very into viking era-through-renaissance men's fashion and armor.

I think it's really fun to look at the decisions that were made strategically (to maintain actor mobility, for example), because they looked cool (Faramir's pointless hinged piece on his helmet), or because they were actually period-accurate (gambesons under chainmail, or worn as armor by themselves!). I'm also taking it as a chance to point out what these garments say about their owners!

I say this in the document itself, but there's no need to credit me if you reference/use the doc for your own writing ^_^ this is some of my favorite stuff to discuss, so just getting to share it is cool enough to me.

I'm purely focusing on human characters to start, because of the more solid real-world parallels, but I'm happy to add on to this if there are other characters you'd like to see!!

(@potatoflower7 + @rivers-for-me, tagging you both bc you interacted w/ the posts I made when I was just starting this!)

I just want to fly to Tibet and not think about character growth or the future or navigating relationships

Your Weekly TV Guide

On Monday you can expect:

2:30 PM: Handplates

And Tuesday:

2:30 PM: Handplates

Wednesday:

2:30 PM: Star Control II - Helix +4:20 PM Bonus!: Helix shitpost

Thursday:

2:30 PM: SCII - Helix

Friday:

2:30 PM: SCII - Helix

Saturday:

2:30 PM: SCII - Helix

Sunday:

2:30 PM: SCII OCs

Thanks for tuning in! (Patreon)

Procrastinating so hard even though this is a fun topic about my embarrassing old interest... It's literally an excuse to infodump WHY am I procrastinating 😭

do you know when we’ll be getting foolproof’s update, kit? Just wanted to ask bc I have a super stressful day today and I’ve been excited about reading the new chapter as a reward for getting through the stressful stuff for days 🥰🥰🥰

ahhh this is fair this is fair

ive actually reached the point in the chapter where it could very much be split into 2 halves seeing as i'm at 6.5k with about roughly 4 very crucial scenes to go, which would double that word count and then some....

but those are words that aren't there yet (for a time and tide update, i once just split a 12k chapter into 2 parts and posted them at the same time), so i could post what i have --- the current completed scene would be a stopping point that makes sense and it'd be roughly 6k --- or i could wait to post until i have what would be the full chapter and then split it into 2 parts and post them at the same time (that might be up to another week?) --- or i could post 1 very long chapter that does what i want it to do but could be overwhelming to read

literally went on a thirty minute walk today to try and think this through because trust me i do want to give y'all what's coming asap but i also have a vision, which at this point contradicts my stance against 14k chapters (they're gifts from god but also i get lost in them!)

a handful of chinese songs that give me big robit energy

translating cpop songs is like my second favourite hobby so it's frankly surprising I haven't made this post sooner

Him - Floruitshow (马 - 福禄寿)

I've talked about this song on here before but this is the 3.7 song for me

the second chorus is definitely MR-SN but i like to think of the first chorus (Let me take a good look at your visage as we count down the time till the curtains’ close. Forgive me for holding back my voice so soon, do you know, in your graceful escape, all I see around me is disaster?) as VR-LA during the flashback sequence

specifically 'all I see around me is disaster' because yeah not wrong

'This time I’m not here to bring you home' just kills me like the please please take care of yourself because I can't be there with you anymore of it all

'Oh spring, oh warm sun, please come sooner, grant him a smooth and safe journey' same point, just the desperate plea for the universe to protect VR-LA because he can't do it himself anymore

How can I make you stay - Floruitshow (我用什么把你留住 - 福禄寿)

(conveniently I have actually done a full translation of this song!)

definitely one of the Maxim songs of all time

"You’ve believed that you can let your life pass in numbness, but [...] why do your tears fall in the moment of letting go?' YEAH because we've seen so many times how Maxim keeps trying to convince himself that he can stop just caring but it never works

'You say don’t fall in love, yet you’re unwilling to let go' same point, this man is in such denial about how he just can't stop caring

specifically the second verse feels a lot like Maxim waiting for VR-LA to return from Tu'narath

'You stay silent, holding onto starlight as you wait through your darkest hour. Your mind is struck, when familiar murmurs pierce your ears once more' aaaAAAAHH

the bridge (?) as a conversation between VR-LA and Maxim, VR-LA inviting Maxim to see the beauty and wonders of the world ('Do you want to see the sea of flowers blooming?', very 4.5 wedding invite honestly) but Maxim's trauma just would not allow him to take that risk ('If none of them come back, then who should I live for?')

fun fact the second version of the bridge in my translation ('You must stay to see the flowers bloom' onwards) is exclusive to that live performance of the song so it's not in the spotify version i linked here. as for which version you think fits Maxim more.. well.

Borrow - Mao Buyi (借 - 毛不易)

finally banging out a translation for this song was kinda the inspiration for me to make this post actually

the tldr of this song is that it's an unnamed/unidentified speaker asking to borrow various small things for the sake of somebody else (like 'an inch of frozen sunlight' to provide warmth in a cold world) so you can probably see where i'm going with this

'A simple ‘we have plenty of time’ etched into the soul to prepare for the chance of forced separation' ouch ow okay

'Those blown apart by these winds will say that they never loved deeply' / 'There is a sincerity that cannot be blown apart by this wind' DX-TR betraying the old crew vs VR-LA fighting through so much just to get them back

'There are tears that cannot be washed away by this rain' this line just haunts me. like in general

'An acre of land for him to call home, an ordinary life for him to live' as MR-SN watching over the old crew like I can't be there for you but I hope you will find peace and a home...

Allosexual romance. From what I gather, you don't read it, but is there anything that might tempt you to?

From this ask game!

Wait wait wait wait what makes you think I don't read it? Then I wouldn't read anything 😂

(I currently barely read anything, but that has time reasons 😭 don't try to juggle 3 projects and a mmo, guys. I need a new number on the exhaustion scale.)

I spent years reading the genre of bodyguard/ex-soldier/whatever romance, because there's a good bit of violence and a guaranteed happy end. I also spent years digging around for queer love stories, which honestly ends up being m/m 90% of the time, which usually means there's 2 more penises than I care to read about.

Most of the books in my book recs tag are definitely very allo.

Do I think that drawn out blowjob could have been replaced by a nice whipping? Hell yeah. But oh well. What can you do. With the exception of fewer books than I need my fingers for to count, there just isn't anything out there once you leave middle grade behind.

Sure, there's completely romance-less fantasy epic, but I don't have the energy for that anymore, either. Sex scenes are easier to skip than politics.

But finding so many ace chars (and authors 😅) here has been the best thing that's ever happened to me, and they definitely get a headstart on the scale for falling in love with them.

Fanart for @captainclovis’s Devotion and Desire

Last week, I read Clovis’s fic, an in-progress reimagining of Batman’s Under the Red Hood arc, and inspiration hit me in chapter 7, the last chapter posted so far. There’s an author note that says to be sure to read the tags in that chapter, for there Graphic Depictions of Violence.

Instead being turned off by the violence, I immediately knew I wanted to capture it in embroidery. I’ve been wanting to make something fandom related for a while, after seeing @/onbeinganangels’s fic rec embroidery series.

I don't want to spoil things for anyone who plans to read it, but there's a particularly gruesome (read: awesome) scene which I'm depicting with the imagery of rivulets of blood trailing past open lips. The words I chose to quote are both thematic of the fic itself and spoken by a side character in a way that felt uniquely validating.

Technical info: 2 thread satin stitch, 3 thread chain stitch and 4-6 thread backstitch on 6 in hoop. Art reference adapted from “Bloody fangs” by Reedsarah.

i don't LIKE this quantum in-between-projects space, i want to be working on something that past me has already planned out for current me to work on

[ID: Four photos of two sock-clad feet standing on an aged wooden deck in direct sunlight. The socks are knit from medium grey yarn in an intricate but mostly-solid lace pattern with alternating diamond grids of wrapped ribs and curves of increased and decreased stitches. They're approximately crew-length with a small area at the toes and the heel in stockinette stitch and only a few rows of *k1 twisted, p2* rib at the top extending the final row of the lace pattern. End ID]

Yesterday was my first time wearing this pair of socks I started in April-May last year! They were my first project back after not yarning for about five years--then I drafted my first sewing project mid-2022 (a pocket I finished this October), wove in the ends of a pair of fingerless gloves I'd been using con spaghetti, and cleaned out my old LYS tote with this yarn, a matching gauge acrylic, and my circular needle. And though I've definitely made a pair of socks before (accidental torture devices for their giftee with the sensory specifics of illusion knit soft cotton and wiry wool) I had completely forgotten and got to research all the techniques again. (If you know me, you know that's a sincere "got to." 😄) In April, I frogged half the foot of a first run with a bulkier cable and honeycomb texture combo that I hadn't planned with sufficient negative ease. And in the meantime ended up browsing the crafts shelf at my library; I checked out the two stitch bibles they had for daydreaming at home. Pattern 88 from "250 Japanese Knitting Stitches: The Original Pattern Bible by Hitomi Shida" (there's a slightly newer, prettier cover with 10 more stitches too but I haven't seen it in person to recommend) was both one of my favorites and relatively narrow at a repeat of 18 stitches. So! I swatched it and measured the swatch gently stretched this time; three repeats around was just about perfect, and I ended up doing one 56-row pattern repeat each above and below the heel turn. I had plans for increasing into the calf without breaking the pattern but was nervous about running out of yarn (the last of a mystery wool cone gifted from my psych professor's stash). If I could do it over, I'd probably knit the pair from the inside and outside of the ball simultaneously so I could have slightly taller socks with a wider ribbing cuff, but as is they're staying up way better than I expected. Guess that's the shape-keeping joy of wool!

I finished knitting a pair of socks today

IM SO GOOFY OH NOOOO

I've been thinking all afternoon "damn i wonder how to describe these vax side effects, like this isnt quite a fever but ... it almost feels like the flu? that's so weird" HEY YA GOOFASS? thats because its a covid shot. and covid often feels like the flu. bro 😭😭😭

"Big Fucking Thing in Landscape" based vaguely on a story I've been working on

i have a good chunk of chests and i really want to open them but i think i'm going to save them for after work either today or tomorrow for getting through this hellish week/month/year :')