Tumgik
#so it actually got trimmed like 4 times
snek-panini · 1 month
Text
Tumblr media
Today I've got binderary book #3 to share! It's a lighthouse (burning) by books-and-omens. This is a really excellent canonverse (sort of) historical setting liminal ghost story-esque fic that I read practically in one sitting sometime last summer. It's fantastic, well-characterized, angsty and fluffy and fairly plotty and with some really unique worldbuilding. I honestly can't sing its praises enough; it's one of the only times since taking up this hobby that I've known I wanted to bind something before I actually finished reading it.
Have a look at the rest of the photos under the cut; this one came out really well and I'm in love with it.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
For this cover we have lineco book cloth on the spine, a strip of chiyogami paper that I got in one one ChibiJay's random paper packs, and blue-gray sketch paper for the primary gray space. It's a little hard to tell in the photos but the HTV for the titles is in two different colors, silver for "a lighthouse" and pewter for "(burning)". The effect is more pronounced in person and I love it. The pewter came in a multi-pack of cricut foil HTV and I can't seem to find it on its own anywhere, which is a shame because it's beautiful. The sort of streaky effect on the cover was unintentional but I'm kinda liking it? It's a more porous paper for drawing or painting or something, and I tried to wax it for waterproofing, but when I used the heat press to get the title on the wax darkened in the spots where the glue was applied to the cover board. At first I was disappointed, but the fic features a really massive unnatural storm, and it sort of looks like water running down a windowpane, so I'm leaning into that and calling it an aesthetic. The back didn't get this heat treatment, so it doesn't have the pattern.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Top view, showing the bookmark and handmade end bands. The bookmark is a navy blue ribbon cut from the inside of a shirt, and I chose red and white because there are so many picturesque lighthouses that have red and white stripes. It's the only color in the book that's not blue or gray. The endpapers are a navy blue silk moire, and I had better luck with them than I did with the platinum ones on my Persuasion bind even though they are the same brand. Maybe it's practice or maybe navy just hides more sins than platinum.
For the title page I went fairly simple (for me anyway) with just a frame I pulled from rawpixel. It suits the story, though, being set sometime around or before the early 20th century. I also played with text colors on the title page, with some words being grayed out to mimic the effect on the cover. The section break is me getting clever with a feature of my printer. I often use a gray line to denote section breaks, but for whatever reason my printer doesn't like them and often makes them blurry. It is only these lines that come out blurry; larger images don't do this even if they are complex. So for this one, where a major feature of the story is trying to figure out what's real and what's a supernatural occurrence, I made one that was deliberately heavier in the center so it would come out sort of smoky or fuzzy, like it wasn't quite real and couldn't be clearly seen. It doesn't look this fuzzy in the unprinted file but I love the effect and I feel very clever for manipulating the printer like this.
I'm going to show off some interior shots but this bit contains spoilers for the story, so if you don't want to see that then maybe skip the rest of the post.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
I wanted to get creative with my title placement since a lot of my binds look very similar inside, and this concept really let me try that out. The plot of the story is that the reason there are so many supernatural phenomena at this lighthouse is that someone in the future ran an experiment to harvest energy and accidentally cracked spacetime with it, and bits of the future and the past and the might-have-been are seeping through the cracks, and the longer the cracks exist the more seeps through them and the worse the ghostly stuff gets. At first it's not clear whether there's anything weird happening at all, and it becomes clearer that something is wrong the further in you get because the cracks are worse. So I had this idea for a vintage lighthouse illustration with an overlay of cracks in glass, that become more defined as the story progresses until something is done and they're sealed up in the end. I am not a visual artist and even this straightforward concept was too much for my skills, so I chose the lighthouse and the crack overlay and my amazing husband did the actual image manipulation. There are five different images, with the cracks invisible in the first and final chapter and most visible in chapter 10 and 11, when the characters are trying hardest to fix the problem. I'm really really proud of how well this turned out.
And that's it! I have several more binderary books to post but they are all still waiting for titles before I do the photos, so I don't know when I'll have them up.
128 notes · View notes
ysrjune · 26 days
Text
nerd!anakin hcs 🫦
includes; cutie hcs + smut 😔
Tumblr media
first for the softie cutie stuff bc nerdy ani is so sweet OMG guys 😆
🩷: he loves to get you gifts like flowers or small trinkets he finds at thrift shops or antique shops. sweet boy really spoils you as much as he can whether its with his gifts or affection.
🩷: if you ask him to match pj's, HE WILL. no hesitation. a big part of the reasons he actually likes matching with you is because the pjs you pick out are really comfortable.
🩷: this is probably so obvious but TUTORING! he loves heing your tutor. he also makes sure that hes your only tutor. Ani gets real jealous when other people help you out.. “I wanted to be the one spending extra time with you..” he'd mumble out to you while he played with your fingertips.
🩷: he listens to any music you like. he tries to like your music, and he likes most of it! but sometimes he'll make weird faces at you when there's praticular lyrics in songs (maybe talking about sex and drugs)
okay dirty smutty naughty naughty time 😆🎀
💓: the first time you sucked his dick, he was so overstimulated. poor baby couldn't even handle just his tip in your mouth. “slow, baby, please.. can’t handle it all at once.” he gently demanded while stroking your hair.
💓: he will NEVER EVER skip foreplay. he wants you to get excited and wet for him before sticking his dick into you.
💓: probably about 6 inches, neatly trimmed for mostly himself, but also you. hes seen a bunch of porn videos where guys let their pubic hair run wild and he just didnt think it was a good look. a bunch of videos where girls would be goving blow jobs and their noses were buried in that tangly, disgusting hair. hes always been clean down there, but made sure to be extra with it when you first started being intimate. he didnt want his girl to be disturbed by a bunch of pubes.
💓: bye hes such a sub el oh el. MAYBE a switch after he got used to the whole sex thing. he'll never be mean to you, though. he could never be rude to his special girl, especially if it's during such an intimate moment like that.
💓: he love love loves to use his tongue. at first, eating pussy wasnt really easy for him since he didn't really know what to do (even though hes watched porn where girls receive head.) hes sloppy and messy at first but you dont say anything cause it actually felt good, but once he got the hang of it OHHHMMYYY you'll never get enough of it.
💓: those slender fingers of his.. lets just say he already had that covered for when he first fingered you. he plays games and types real fast.. so!
💓: MASTURBATINGGNGNGNN over the phone to your voice because he misses you so much when you went to go visit your parents and you left him all alone at the dorms :(
erm okok i think thats it 4 now LMK IF WE WANT MORE 💋💋
403 notes · View notes
redslug · 5 months
Text
Helping Neuroslug help me
Admittedly it took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out and start using inpainting, but now that I've had a taste of it my head is spinning with possibilities. And so I'm making this post to show the process and maybe encourage more artists to try their hand at generating stuff. It really can can be an amazing teammate when you know how to apply it. For those who didn't see my first post on this, I've trained an AI on my artworks, because base Stable Diffusion doesn't understand what anthropomorphic insects are. That out of the way, here we go:
Tumblr media
I noticed that a primarily character focused LoRA often botches backgrounds (probably because few images of the dataset have them) so I went with generating a background separately and roughly blocking out a character over it in Procreate. Since it was a first experiment I got really generous with proper shading and even textures. Unsurprisingly, SD did it's job quite well without much struggle.
Tumblr media
Basically masked out separate parts such as fluff, skirt, watering can, etc. and changed the prompt to focus on that specific object to add detail. There were some bloopers too. She's projecting her inner spider.
Tumblr media
Of course it ate the hands. Not inpainting those, it's the one thing I'll render correctly faster than the AI does. Some manual touchups to finish it off and voila:
Tumblr media
The detail that would have taken me hours is done in 10-20 minutes of iterating through various generations. And nothing significant got lost in translation from the block out, much recommend. But that was easy mode, my rough sketch could be passed off as finished on one of my lazier days, not hard to complete something like that. Lets' try rough rough.
Tumblr media
I got way fewer chuckles out of this than I expected, it took only 4-5 iterations for the bot to offer me something close to the sketch.
Tumblr media
>:C It ate the belly. I demand the belly back. Scribble it in...
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Much better. Can do that with any bit actually, very nice for iterating a character design.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Opal eyes maybe?
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Lol
Tumblr media
Okay, no, it's kind of unsettling. Back to red ones. Now, let's give her thigh highs because why not?
Tumblr media Tumblr media
It should be fancier. Give me a lace trim.
Tumblr media
Now we're talking. Since we've started playing dress-up anyway, why not try a dress too. Please don't render my scribble like a trash bag. I know you want to.
Tumblr media
Phew
Tumblr media
I crave more details.
Tumblr media
Cute. Perhaps I'll clean it up later. ... .. . SHRIMP DRESS
Tumblr media
442 notes · View notes
wannab-urs · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
Title: Harsher Than the Bark
Pairing: Javier Peña x f!reader
Summary: Javi makes you feel things you’ve never felt before, will never feel with anyone else, but he can’t – or won’t – love you. 
Tags: smoking, probably shit spanish, smut, angst, fingering, squirting, unprotected PiV, probably unrealistic amount of orgasms (like 4 idk it’s kinda vague, choking/breath play, Javi has dom vibes but it’s not like BDSM he’s just bossy, one “good girl,” begging, religious imagery because Javi makes you see god, biting, that one position from that one scene – you fucking know the one, excessive cursing because it’s me and I refuse to change, Javi is a cuddler, emotionally unavailable!Javi, references to past arguments/past hookups because this has been an ongoing thing and I love to start in the middle of a story. Based on 505 by Arctic Monkeys, (being annoying and posting at 5:05 am) No beta we die like Oberyn WC: 1.4k
A/N: I kind of wrote this in a fever dream, I literally don't even know if it's any good. It's sort of a planned three parter, but I'm not putting pressure on myself to finish it, so each part can stand completely alone. If I write all three, it'll be called In the A.M. as in In the Morning but also because they're all based on Arctic Monkeys songs. Hope you like it <3
Series Masterlist | Javier Peña Masterlist | Main Masterlist | AO3 | Kofi
The knife twists at the thought that I should fall short of the mark Frightened by the bite, though it's no harsher than the bark
Javier Peña is probably the best fuck you’ve ever had in your life. Actually, scratch that. He’s definitely the best fuck you’ve ever had in your life. He makes you feel things you’ve never felt before. Coming three times in one night with him is the absolute bare minimum. He loves it when you scream for him. Does everything in his power to get you a noise complaint from your neighbors. 
And God is he gorgeous. Long and lean with strong arms, broad shoulders, a tiny waist, a perky ass. His nose looks like it was carved off a greek statue and placed on his face. He’s got these big sad brown eyes, full lips framed by a neatly trimmed mustache, and a jawline that could cut glass. You’re probably in love with him. 
You put out your cigarette when you hear the door open, lay back in the bed and stare at the ceiling. It’s five in the morning, but you never turn him away. No matter what time. 
“Shouldn’t leave the door unlocked, hermosa,” Javi’s deep drawl drifts across the room to you. 
“Knew you were coming. Didn’t wanna have to get up.” 
Javi drops his shirt on the floor and crawls up the bed, draping himself over you and pressing a kiss to your lips. “No es seguro, cariño. Anyone could walk in.” (It’s not safe, baby).
“Lo que sea, Javi.” (Whatever, Javi). You roll your eyes at him. “It’s locked now, no?” 
Javi drags his lips along your jaw, nips at your throat, drags a finger through your folds. “Wet already, baby? Were you thinking of me?” 
You were, but you kind of hate him for being right. “Fuck you, Jav–” his name drags out into a moan as he stuffs two thick fingers inside you. He pumps his fingers in and out a couple times before curling them up into the spongy spot inside you. You throw your head back in pleasure, back arching and hips thrusting so that you’re practically riding his fingers. 
He wraps the fingers of his free hand carefully around your throat. “Mírame.” (Look at me). You force your eyes open and he’s so close you could count the individual hairs in his mustache. You look into his eyes with so much adoration, so much love, he has to look away. He squeezes your throat tighter and you close your eyes again as your cunt tightens on his fingers. 
He rubs circles on your clit in time with the thrust of his fingers, feeling you wind tighter and tighter around him. His hand on your throat isn’t blocking air, but you still can’t catch your breath. When your body is so tense it feels like you’ll shatter into a million pieces, he releases the hand on your throat. You gasp in a big breath and fall apart in his hands. He works you through it with firm, slow strokes. 
Just as you feel yourself start to come down, he picks up the pace again. He places the hand that was on your throat on your pelvis, holding you down on the mattress and rubs his thumb in quick, hard circles on your clit. He pumps his fingers into you hard and fast. 
“Come for me, hermosa. Come all over my hand.” 
Your vision whites out and you let out a near agonized scream as you clench around his fingers and gush all over him. Javi pulls his fingers out of you and slips them into your mouth. You suck the taste of yourself off his fingers. 
“Good girl,” he growls in your ear. He stands up, leaving you panting on the bed, and strips his jeans off. He strokes himself as he gets back on the bed, hand still slick with your cum. He pulls your thighs over his and you wrap your legs around him. He drags his cock through your folds and watches you shudder. 
“You’re soaked… You want me to fuck you?” The bastard is teasing you. You whine his name. “Las palabras, cariño.” (Words, baby). 
“Need you, Javi. Please. I need you so bad,” you’re desperate, aching for him. He taps your clit with the head of his cock one more time before lining up with your entrance and pushing in. You let out an absolutely wrecked moan, voice breaking as he bottoms out. 
He leans forward, planting his hands on either side of your head and pulls out before plunging back down inside you. He has your hips tilted almost vertically, driving you down into the mattress with every thrust. You dig your nails into the meat of his shoulders and drag them down his back, making him groan into your neck. 
Fucking Javi is always a religious experience. You find salvation and damnation at once in his arms and you swear you see God himself when you come on his cock. 
Javi doesn’t slow down despite the way you clench around him. He often works out his frustrations in your body, tries to bury them and himself in you. 
He pulls out and flips you over by your hips, sheathing himself inside you the second you’re on your knees in front of him. He fists one hand in your hair and pulls your back to his chest, wrapping the other hand around your breast. 
You lay your head on his shoulder and let the pleasure wash over you, lose yourself in it completely. You only exist in this moment, the pleasure and pain melding to form something divine inside you. He bites down on your neck and you come on his cock again, and you think you scream. You aren’t quite sure. 
Javi groans as he slams into you one, two, three more times and collapses forward onto the bed, trapping you under him. He stays inside you for a few more moments, nuzzling your neck. His lips catch your ear lobe as he pulls himself out of you and falls to the bed beside you. He wraps his arms around you, curling his body around yours, and holds you close. 
You lie in silence for a long time, just listening to each other breathe. This has become routine. Javi has a bad day at work and takes it out on your body in this bed. He never talks about it, about why he needs such a frenzied release, but you can guess. 
Sometimes, though, he’ll talk about growing up in Laredo or about a nice dinner he had with Connie and Steve or about an op that went well. Sometimes he lets you see beneath his hardened exterior. 
The truth is that you’re definitely in love with him. But Javi won’t ever be with you, not in the way you want. Javi won’t commit to being with you because this, what you just did, is all he thinks he deserves and all he knows how to do. He loves making you feel good, takes pride in making you come over and over and over. He loves making you moan and whine and scream for him. He loves it when you tell him how good he feels, how perfect he is, how pretty his cock is. He just doesn’t love you.
He always curls up with you, snuggles you close, clings to you. But if you bring up wanting something more, something defined and committed, he fucking runs. He can give you himself physically, but he can’t let you near his heart because it is rotten and caving in and no good. And you? You are good. He can’t touch you with that. The dark and broken part of himself. He can’t infect your good with his bad.
You know this and yet… 
A tear slips from your lashes, trailing down your cheek and falling onto the arm tucked under your cheek. 
“Cariño, ¿por qué lloras? (Baby, why are you crying?) He sounds… fucking anguished. “¿Te lastimé?” (Did I hurt you?)
“It’s nothing, Jav.” 
Javi sits up, grabs your face in his hands and makes you look at him. “It’s something. Dime.” (Tell me). 
“If I tell you, you’ll just fucking leave again, Javi. I can’t do this right now. Just hold me, please? Be here when I wake up?” 
Javi searches your eyes for a moment. You aren’t sure what he sees there. Heartbreak? Resignation? Desperation? Whatever it is convinces him. 
“Sure, yeah. I can do that.” 
291 notes · View notes
insomniakisses · 5 months
Text
Being the Omega
Tumblr media
NSFW MINORS DNI // CIS HETS DNI
Tumblr media
General Hcs -
soooooooo protective of you
like you literally always have to have one of them with you if you go anywhere
more chances than no its at least 2 of them
they like to do wellness checks on you
basically holding you to them and scenting and sniffing at your neck to see if your okay
there very instinctual alphas
cuddles is a daily activity
happens more than once a day and lasts sooo long
incredibly horny babies
like you have 4 alphas that almost always have semis
Jen and Lisa do fight over you quite often and it always leads to Chae or Jisoo stealing you
very respectful alphas though
they just love you so so much and want you safe, healthy and happy
Your Heats -
like most groups they prefer you dont go on suppressants
they wont outwardly force you off them if you do take them but there disapproval is clear
they just know they do no good
say the word heat around any of them and there hard and ready to go
take turns with you to an extent
see chae and jen dont mind sharing if its with each other but anyone else is a no
mainly because jisoo and lisa are too possessive to share and if they are fucking you they hate anyone else touching you
soooooo into breeding plugs and tape
if your in heat and not knotted your plugged or taped up to hold their cum
they all have the prettiest of cocks
Jisoo's cock
shes got a pretty lengthy cock
id say easily at the 7-8 inch mark
its heavy too, being thicker than average
has a pretty cock with a blushed tip
her balls are pretty even inside and hang just slightly lower than average but not much
thick potent cum
mommy kink
Jisoo Hcs
possessive baby
aggressive af when her ruts approaching like shit pisses her off so more and she only likes being near you
you wake up to her thrusting in you and nipping your neck
pressed her face to your neck ALOT
When her rut actually hits she goes straight to you
her scent so strong that your practically beggin for her
such a potent alpha so her happy trail is thick and her cum is SO fertile
her moaning is deep and loud
shes rough tbh.
takes you from behind or has you in a mating press
her rut typically lasts 2-3 days
Jennie's Cock
not as thick as jisoo's but just as long
pale cock with a pretty pink tip
her cock curves up slightly
she has 2 small and cute balls perfect to suck on
her cum isnt all too fertile
its runny and her loads aren't that big either
but babys cum is warm af
Jennie Hc's
cuddle monster
always uses the excuse its cold and omegas need heat to pull you close
just nuzzles and kisses at your neck
always ends in cockwarming and making out
baby LOVES making out
will whine for attention
when shes in rut baby is even more clingy and whiney
growls alot instead of just asking for what she wants / needs
if shes in rut she likes to have you ride her till shes shooting blanks
will mark you up SO much
im talking bites and scratches
such needy and whiney moans
cums so many times
just a needy needy baby who is so so horny all the time
her ruts are typically 4 days
daddy kink fr
Chae's Cock -
SO THICK
like she stretched tf outta your pussy
shes big in length too 8-9 inches for SURE
and she LOVES fucking balls deep
speaking of balls baby has some heavy ones
full of hot thick cum
shes relatively fertile
either just above or bellow average
definitely has a thick happy trail
but keeps it trimmed so she can show off her abs
her cock is for sureeee tanned with a light tip
heavy cock fr
always hard
biggggg loads
Chae Hcs -
horny 24/7
like I said always hard
loved just fucking you in missionary to bite and scent at your neck
its also easy for her to push you into a mating press when she needs to
cums so much
asks you to cuddle ends up fucking you all day/night
def has a size kink
daddy kink and breading kink too
likes tying you up
uses toys on you alot
likes how you moan and beg for her
probably likes the idea of food play
her ruts are usually 4-5 days
Lisa's Cock
BIGGGG
babys 8-9 inches
and thiccck
heavy low hanging balls
ones slightly higher than the other
they hit you with every thrust
such hot creamy cum
its that thick sticky kind too
tastes sooooo good
her cock has a slight curve
either up or to the side
thick happy trail and such potent / fertile cum
Lisa Hc's
she fucks deep and only deep
so you get so so stretched
cocky as helllll
always teasing you
definitely cums in your pants
like I'm talking your used pants she will jerk herself with them
such a daddy kink
calls you kitten
breeding kink
loves dirty talk
always hard and ready to fuck
will pull you for a quickie just before your about to go on stage
wears vibrating cockrings while she fucks you
falls asleep inside you and keeps thrusting
her ruts about 5-7 days
Tumblr media
353 notes · View notes
starfxkr · 27 days
Note
Have you ever done size predictions? Sorry for asking if you have xx
my time...has finally come I literally thought about this my entire 4 hr drive. in no particular order
jj: uncut king! he's uncircumcised ill die on that hill. he's more long than thick but he's got some nice heft to him believe that. his tip is a pretty pink shade, kinda thick and super fuckin sensitive, one touch and it's twitchin and leakin all over the place. always kinda clammy so it sticks to your back when ya'll are sleep and he definitely doesnt shave. its like 1976 down there. also always smells musky even when he's showered he doesnt stink he just kinda always smells like himself? cums wayyyy too much and sometimes cums really fast but thats okay because hes back up in like 2 mins and that means hes gonna put you through the mattress. baby boys cum is rancid tho please give him some water and green veggies.
john b: his dick is thick and heavy, it actually takes a bit of prep to fit him in. curves downward a bit so he very much likes sitting you in his lap because he knows it's gonna hit all the right spots. doesn't shave but he trims the hair so its not unruly because it grows in very curly.. def as tan as the rest of him but his tip is kinda mauveish and flushes darker when he's really hard. when he cums its like a slow spill but its a lot when he's horny and he gets pretty sensitive. also always kinda smells like himself even when he's just showered there's a comfy earthiness to him. cums kinda salty but not unpleasant.
pope: he's got a huge dick but is very modest about it like...you wouldn't know he's got a monster in is pants. constantly adjusting because it sticks to his thigh. absolutely trims his hair but doesnt get rid of it all he finds that weird. his dick curves up and it's just so pretty? his balls don't hang super low but they're kinda heavy tbh. brown tip for sure and he leaks a lot of precum when hes horny. has really sensitive balls and likes getting them played with. his cum doesnt have much of a taste and he always smells like a really fresh soap its so comforting.
rafe: daddy long dick has landed in obx bc he's obnoxious about it. everything about his dick is nice and pristine he maintains thickness down his whole shaft but his tip is thick and you need some prep. also gets a very angry red when turned on. shaves everything off because thinks it looks nicer that way. it stands straight up when he's standing and flops against his stomach when laying down. cum always tastes good which is a bonus bc there's always a lot of it. normally smells like clean skin and soap but if you're lucky you can smell his natural scent if he lets you have at him after working out.
129 notes · View notes
flamingo-writes · 10 months
Note
What would you think if Hobie asks reader to cut the ends of his hair that bother him because of the mask and while she was doing it, she sang a nice song to him, meanwhile some little flowers began to bloom around them.
Really like the last post and this came to my mind immediately.
Listen, I’ve been daydreaming of this the entire day. I think this idea was very cute!
Also, little disclaimer: I was born and raised in Mexico, so, I’m very unfamiliar with how black people’s hair works. I know culturally it has a lot of importance, but other than that I knew very little of the different types of hair and ofc the insane variety of treatments and proper care as well as the different ways to give maintenance to different kinds of dreads. Also, as someone who has had very short hair for 2/3 of my life, as well as shaving my own head for the better part of the last 4 (5?) years, in general hair care and routines are something I’m wildly unfamiliar with, the longest I had my hair in the latest years was a 6 inch or so Mohawk I grew two years ago. Hobie has been a very good opportunity for me to educate myself a lot in hair (especially black people’s hair) and I spent a good portion of my evening watching videos/TikTok’s and reading on dreadlocks and their maintenance. If I wrote something inaccurate or wrong, please let me know, help me see my mistake, and I will fix it as soon as I can.
This came from this other request, I’m thinking of turning into a series.
Flower Bed — Hobie x Reader
Also, you said little flowers, but my brain decided to go for a full flower bed 😭 I hope you like this!
Warnings: none.
Tumblr media
“Oí, luv…” Hobie said walking out of the bedroom, looking around you.
“Bathroom!” You shouted as he followed your voice, noticing the bathroom door opened and you kneeling by the shower.
Plants cramped in the shower as you watered them.
“Oh, never mind, you’re busy” He said.
“I’m almost done. I just need to water the ones in the kitchen sink and the monsteras…” You said as you’d todo up and stretched your back. “I’ll be done in ten minutes, what’s up?”
“I wanted to ask you if you could help me trim my hair, it’s starting to get long and gets stuck in the mask and, you know…” He asked softly. “But I can’t see the back of my head,”
“Sure, I’ll help you,” You said giving Hobie a kind smile.
He smiled back, walking up to you and kissing your forehead.
“Need help with the plants?”
“As you wish,” You replied happily. “You were asleep earlier and didn’t want to wake you, so I started watering them on my own…”
“I’m awake now,” He said. “I’ll water the monsteras,”
“Thank you, babe,” You purred.
By the time you were done with the plants, you went ahead and started helping Hobie out. You sat on the edge of your bed, as he sat on the floor. Since Hobie was tall, this was the most comfortable arrangement. It wasn’t also the first time you trimmed his wicks. He asked you to help him every few months.
As you put some soft music in the background, you got started, trimming dread by dread. Taking care to cut the hair while keeping the end of the dread rounded. Cutting just across each wick was already hard as they were thick, but you also wanted to keep them looking nice and rounded. Which was also a reason why Hobie asked you for help. You did a much better job at it than him.
Even when he didn’t admit it, or didn’t look like it, every single detail in his appearance was planned. Especially his hair. He liked taking care of it, and over all treated his hair like this very intimate thing, he hated having other people touching his hair. Except you. He actually loved it when you touched his hair, ran your hands through it, your fingers disappearing between the dreads. And the particular care and dedication which which you seemed to tend to every wick.
Deep in your concentration, watching over the little details, you were unconsciously singing. Something you also did quite a lot. When you were deeply focused on something, you’d start humming and eventually singing. Which only added to the relaxing time Hobie was having.
Between your gentle hands running through his hair, and now the soft sound of your voice singing in a low voice, going along with the music. Hobie lived for these little peaceful moments, making him feel absolutely contempt with his life. These little moments were everything to him.
As he had his eyes closed, focusing on every brought of your touch against him, he didn’t notice at first the plants growing around you.
It wasn’t plain on obvious. In fact, Hobie didn’t notice until he felt something tickling his elbows. He opened his eyes and saw flowers growing out of the floor, tiny plants growing buds and flowering. All in a matter of several seconds. And you continue to sing, concentrated. He blinked several times, wondering if you were aware of what you were doing, as he kept staring at the flowers growing and multiplying, coming out of the wooden floor tiles.
“Uh, luv?” Hobie asked in a low deep voice.
“Hm?” You hummed, answering Hobie’s question, sounding way too focused in your job as you were rounding one of the last wicks.
“Are you aware of the fact that you pretty much brought spring into our bedroom?”
“Huh?” You asked confused, breaking your hyper focus and looked around, noticing the flowers covering almost the entirety of your floor. White, red, lilac, and pink flowers, extending across your small bedroom. “Fuck,”
Hobie laughed softly.
“You didn’t notice?”
“N-no…” You whispered softly.
“That’s amazing…” Hobie sighed. “It’s beautiful, by the way…”
“The thing is I don’t know how to…un-grow them…And they’re a lot…” You said softly, the concern building in your voice, making Hobie chuckle. “What are we going to do with all of them?”
“We can always collect them and sell them or whatever, you know?” Hobie chuckled.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right…”
“In the meantime, we can always enjoy this beautiful scene, what do you say?”
“You’re way too calm for someone who has his bedroom full of flowers…”
“You made them. They’re beautiful. I don’t see the issue, basically a work of art,” He said looking at you over his shoulder, as you rolled your eyes playfully at him.
“Hobie, pollen give you allergies,”
“Sleeping on a flower bed one night isn’t going to kill me,” He pointed out. “Besides, ever since the spider thing, I get less allergies from flowers,” He said lifting a finger up, making you chuckle.
“Fine! You win this argument!” You chuckled.
“You know I love you, right?”
“Yeah, I love you too”
“That’s why I don’t mind the flowers. Because you made them,”
You leaned forward and pressed a kiss on Hobie’s cheek before you continued tending to the last two wicks.
“Thank you,” You said.
“For what?”
“Being you,” You sighed. “I’m not precisely fascinated with all the flowers in the bedroom, but the fact that you are, makes me feel better”
“Why, you’re welcome, sweet’eart. Thank you for helping me with my hair,” He said looking at you and giving you a cheeky smirk.
“Anytime,”
463 notes · View notes
amoebagrl · 10 months
Text
“i wanna be the one you think about at night”
college au!abby anderson x hyper fem!reader
abby keeps seeing this cute girl all over campus, and when she goes to the first lecture in her new class she finally gets to talk to you!! ♡
warnings: none except for abby being whipped for 30 minutes straight
wc: 735
part one of two
an: my first fic on a new blog!! how exciting ♡ so sorry this is so bad, i’m a little nervous to write 😭 also this is alittle loser!abby oops! song is flaming hot cheetos by clairo!!
not proofread!
(basketball!abby created by the lovely @elsweetheart)
grunting, as she sets down her heavy backpack, she sees you standing in the doorway
you’re the mystery girl. her mystery girl.
you’re just walking into the class, anxiously searching for a familiar face when you lock eyes with her. you’d seen abby anderson before, i mean, she’s the captain of your university’s basketball team.
you quickly scanned the room, looking for anyone else you knew, but ultimately decided on taking a seat next to her.
“hi!” you quickly smile and wave, setting down your pink tote bag at the seat right next to hers.
“oh, um hey” she says, freaking out internally “you’re y/n right? i’m abby” she asks, smiling. “yeah, i am” you laugh “you play basketball here, right?” you question
“yeah- um i do. i’m the captain actually” she clears her throat. what. the hell. she knows me?!?? stay calm abby.
“cool! i’ve always wanted to see you guys play but just haven’t really gotten a chance” you admit, sheepishly, toying with the trim of your baby pink sweater
“i mean, we have a game tomorrow night… that’s if you want to come, of course” “really? i’d love to come!” you chirp
“if you’d want to go earlier i could- i could pick you up, like when i’m on my way… like you could watch us warm up and everything. it sounds boring so if you wouldn’t wanna-“ “yes! omg of course that sounds fun!” she freezes for a second, almost shocked at the fact that you’d even want to see her play
“really?” “yeah” you grin. she’s kind of cute you think to yourself
she stands there for a second, and then fumbles for her phone “can i have your number? so i could text you all the times and… stuff” “sure!” you pull out your phone, which has a baby blue case with little bunnies on it, “here” you take her phone, typing in your number and adding your name, with a little ‘♡’ after it
she hands you your phone back, with her contact now saved “so i’ll text you tomorrow, yeah?” “yeah!” you blush, and turn to take out your laptop
that whole afternoon, she stares at your contact in her phone, drafting about 101 texts she doesn’t dare send.
unbeknownst to her, you’re doing the exact same thing.
the next day your phone ‘dings’
abby: hey, is 4:30 alright? i have to get there earlier and stuff
you: yeah that’s perfect! :) this is my dorm btw
*1 attachment*
abby: i’ll see u then
you: see u!! ♡
a heart???? does that mean anything?? she thinks, mind racing.
you panic, checking the time. “ITS ALREADY NOON?? I NEED MORE TIME TO GET READY” you squeal, alerting your roommate, dina, who was in the middle of doing some homework
“oooo getting ready for who??” “you’ll never guess. not in a million years?” “who?!” ellie, dina’s girlfriend, asks sitting up from dina’s bed “um how long have you been here?” you ask the auburn haired girl, startled. “ummm too long. anyways who is it??” “abby anderson.” you say, quietly, almost in a whisper.
“abby… anderson?” she asks, brows furrowed. “yes… sorry els i know you hate her or whatever” you wince “hate is an understatement. did you know what she said to me in freshman gym??” “ellie, please” dina warns, clearly having heard this story plenty of times
“yeah fine” she shrugs, pulling the duvet back over her head.
“okay so where is she taking you??” dina asks, turning to face you. “well… to her game tonight. it’s not a date or anything!” you say, ignoring the brunettes eye roll “that’s very boring. anyways you should wear that new jean skirt you got last week” “i was thinking of wearing that! with what top though? the pink one? “that’s really flowy?” “yeah!” “and then the white sweater over it!”
“dina. you are literally my fairy godmother” she shrugs off your compliment, “i’m just that good” she brags.
you nervously sit on the edge of your bed in the shared dorm, as ellie and dina already made their way to some party
two sharp knocks on your door echo through the room and you quickly sit up and make your way over to the door, adjusting your purse on your shoulder and you turn the knob.
the door swings open, revealing the muscular blonde in front of you.
“wow.” she breaths out
reblog to help support your fav writers! 🫧
695 notes · View notes
20dollarlolita · 7 months
Text
Tumblr media
If anyone is wondering, this tutorial to make this skirt is still a method that works. Both those links are from wayback machine captures from a time before Photobucket betraying us all and deleting pictures.
Yes, I'm still mad about that.
Anyway, in the spirit of seeing if budget lolita was still doable in 2023, here we go with a cost breakdown:
>Main skirt fabric was a $10 walmart 4-yard precut; enough fabric to make waist ties not pictured here >Skirt is fully lined with a polyester bedsheet I got for $1 at a surplus store >The bow lace was part of a bulk purchase, ended up costing 21cents a yard. Skirt probably has 6-8 yards of lace on it. The little vertical strips were scraps from another project. Back shirring on skirt is 1/4" elastic, which covid conveniently made super cheap. >I didn't have the zipper on hand, so I had to buy one for $1 at walmart. As anyone who has been on Wawak knows, that's massively overpaying for zippers.
This skirt is 3" longer and a few sizes larger than the one in the post. I had to make a new cutting layout for the skirt, and it took a fair bit of additional fabric. In addition, to save on fabric width, the "side seams" on this are actually a little bit farther back than the side of the skirt. I cut the back of the skirt to full fabric width, and then added the adjustment for the fullness into the side front pieces. Clarice, who wrote the original tutorial, mentions that the person she made it for was very small, so I sized it up a little bit.
I make sketches like this as I go for personal reference, but maybe it'll be helpful.
Tumblr media
In the spirit of livejournal, I "clarified" my sketch by making it more confusing in GIMP. (Your pieces you need to cut will be back: 44"x19.5", cut 1. Side Front, 22"x19.5", cut 2. Center Front, 15"x25.5", cut 1. Frills, 5.5"x44", cut 9 or 10).
So, when we get into it, yeah, if you have a good design (or can copy a good design) and you're willing to put some time into it, you can still do a budget lolita skirt for under $20 of materials, if you're careful. I'm mostly making this post to save which archive.org captures are the ones with working pictures.
(It also helps if you don't mess up on the waistband so many times that it slowly shrinks into a 1" waistband.)
Tumblr media
Fun fact: the trim on the ends of the waist ties may or may not be because I hemmed them sloppily and the hem came up bubbly, and zigzagging some lace onto the bottom handily covered up the bubbling. One of the advantages about knowing a decent amount about lolita fashion is that you can look at things and go, "Yeah, if I added x here, it'd be fine," and knowing enough about sewing to go, "yeah, if I do x cheat here, it'll look better" and being able to put the two together and go, "hey, if I cheat here, it'll still look lolita!" It's a good feeling.
Anyway, if anyone else has ever used Clarice's tutorial to make a skirt, I'd love to see it! This is my second time using it, but the last time was almost a decade ago at this point, and I think I've improved a lot since then.
390 notes · View notes
kangals · 17 hours
Note
what does the grooming process look like for stellina and kep?
my 'process" for grooming is very much what i would call 'poor man's dog training':
get a silicone lick-mat
apply peanut butter very generously
slap that bad boy onto the front of the fridge/kitchen appliances at dog eye-level
groom while they're distracted
i start this process day 1 as puppies and continue it through their whole lives. should i actually be putting in the effort to actually train them to stand still and quietly for grooming without the need for food distraction? yes. do i? no i'm lazy.
or if you're asking about like, what grooming i'm actually doing:
hair: i do an all-over brush at least once a week (should do twice but again, lazy and not needed). takes like 20-30 mins. my 'schedule' for brushing is basically this:
Tumblr media
red areas (behind ears, arm/legpits) are high-friction and very prone to matting. these you have to brush out at least once a week, no exceptions, or you will get mats. this is also very sensitive skin so it's good to desensitize them to brushing as much as you can.
yellow areas should be brushed at least once weekly to comb out any tangles and debris, but are less prone to matting.
and then the rest of them i'll brush through but that's about it, that part pretty much never tangles.
i normally just use a pin brush and slicker brush, and a metal comb for the yellow/red areas. sometimes an undercoat rake if they're very sheddy.
collies are 'dry' dogs - they don't really drool, and they don't have the oily waterproof coat that breeds like a lab or hound does, so they're naturally low-odor without much of a 'doggy' smell. i'll bathe every 4-8 weeks depending on what the weather's like and if their skin seems like it's getting cruddy. 2-3 times a year i'll take them to a groomer to have them do a 'deshed' treatment where they really blow out the undercoat, because this makes a huge difference in keeping them comfortable in the heat, and in how much hair i have to vacuum.
for stellina i've also been getting an outline trim (shortening up the yellow areas on the pic with long feathering) in spring and fall, it just keeps things cleaner and it makes a huge difference in the amount of time i have to spend brushing.
feet: i dremel nails every week, same PB-mat method as with brushing. every week is probably overkill but i think it's good desensitization and also i hate long nails on dogs so i'm a bit anal about it. collies tend to get long hair on the feet/between the pads, some people like the 'grinch feet' look but personally i fucking hate it so every 4-6 weeks i just take round-tip scissors and clean them up.
other: the rest i do as needed, e.g. if i see any wax/debris in the ears i'll do a clean with OTC ear cleaner and a cotton ball. one of stellina's eyes tends to be teary, so about once a week i take a warm washcloth and wipe them down to prevent tear stains. and then i vacuum my house weekly, sometimes every 2 weeks if it's not too bad.
honestly i'm writing a lot but what i've listed here is way less than 1 hour a week on average, collies IMO are not particularly high-grooming needs dogs (compared to, say, a doodle or OES that needs daily brushing and regular professional grooming). i find the grooming and hair totally manageable. i honestly prefer dealing with long hair because it tends to clump together on the ground, rather than short hairs that fly and scatter into everything. people tend to see roughs and go 'oh no way too much hair' but like, it is super manageable as long as you've got half an hour at some point each week to brush your dog. i'm very obsessive about my pets being 'neat' and i do fine.
sorry for the incredibly overly-long answer to your very simple ask lmao
45 notes · View notes
insanelyadd · 8 months
Text
The Collector's Hat Sewing Pattern and Tutorial
Image of the pattern I made with measurements:
Tumblr media
As a little heads up to people with big/small heads and/or more voluminous hair, this was based on measuring my own head which has a circumference of 22 inches which is dead on the average and my hair is completely straight and relatively flat. You may need to do some adjustments of these measurements because the final fit is very fitted, in that it can be easily put on and taken off but does not fall off on it's own under typical circumstances.*
This pattern is meant for knit or other stretch fabrics, I did not make a completed version with woven or stiffer fabrics, so quality may vary depending on the material you select. I recommend knits.
Tumblr media
If you are new to sewing or this is one of your first projects you are doing without a physical pattern, I recommend following the given measurements and drawing it out on some type of paper first and then using that as reference for yourself. I am an outlier when it comes to not making patterns and drawing the shape of what I want out onto the fabric directly, and you shouldn't follow my horrible example. This hat is actually the first time I've even made a muslin prototype.
When you are going to cut out the pieces you need to make sure, like double and triple check, that if you were to lay them pattern/top side up, that they would mirror each other like in the above picture. If you don't then you'll have two lefts or two rights.
Tumblr media
The first actual step for sewing is taking the straight lines from the V shaped notch in the top of the hat, and lining them up by folding the piece in half so the patterned/top of the fabric is on the inside of the fold, like in the picture above. You do this on one half at a time. When they are lined up sew them with a straight line stitch a 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) in from the cut, starting at the fold towards the top of the hat.
Tumblr media
After that you want to lay them pattern to pattern, and pin them into place to make sure it's aligned properly on both sides. To reduce bulk I recommend making the excess fabric from the darts (the V cut-out) point in opposite directions, as shown in the above picture.
Tumblr media
After you've sewn the sides together there is an optional step that I did to make sure the seam lies flat on the top of your head. I opted to sew both sides down onto the blue half of my hat because my machine was being picky and skipping stitches on they grey fabric if there was no blue fabric as well (I got around this on the hem by inserting thin pieces from the blue's selvage into the seam). But if your machine isn't being picky or you are hand sewing this, then you could split the excess and sew them down onto their corresponding half. Example above, as usual.
Tumblr media
Optional step that MUST go here. If you are attaching a ribbon, or lace for a trim to edge you have to do it now. I do not recommend this step to beginners. I recommend sewing it down while rolling the edge to create the hem, and then securing the other side of the ribbon/lace further into the piece because this guarantees a better placement and straighter lines. If you are doing this step along solely the bottom or front edges then let the lace/ribbon stick out further than the edge of the fabric, so you can fold it under the hem.
The final required step is to hem it, just fold what remains of the raw edge and sew it down.
Tumblr media
Final optional step is for adding little trinkets. I added trinkets to the front corners and the floppy bit in the back like the Archivists are depicted as having. I used embroidery thread and slid the needle to go between the seams and tied it off on the inside. If your trinkets are not detachable, like the little stars on my hat, you need to thread the needle through the ring before putting it back into the hat and tying off the thread. Thinner cord or thin ribbon could work as well.
*I actually just did some tests and I have to be tilted further back than lying flat on my back for it to fall off. I was able to bend over and look through my knees and it didn't fall off. I tested it's wind resistance against my two strongest fans and neither could knock it off my head even when I shook it. So I think it will stay in place just shy of someone pointing a leaf blower at you.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Enjoy these pictures of the finished product, including a glamor shot of me wearing it backwards while I fumble with my phone for a picture.
160 notes · View notes
intuitively-her · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
(Knight of wands, 10 of pentacles, Knight of cups, The Fool rx, 7 of swords rx, 4 of wands, The Hierophant, Queen of wands, The Magician)
Your energy is very abundant! This is definitely my sex worker pile. You're a "fan favorite" in your line of work. You have a lot of support from people in this community, whether you know this or not. They feel like you paved the way for others. Being in your energy feels illuminating to others. People are unafraid to be their true selves around you. You're sexually liberated and unapologetic as hell about it! The way you dress is being highlighted. Classy and elegant. You show a nice amount of skin, but not too much. You leave the rest to their imagination. I heard "classy in the streets, freak in the sheets." Someone here could have a goth style. Or you wear a lot of black. Tattoos? People love your legs! Your skin is very soft and glowy. Many people wonder if you've had surgery. They wanna know your secrets because your beauty is unreal! Those of the same sex often catch themselves checking you out. You could have a more dominating attitude. You know how to manipulate and demand the things that you want. Most people know the relationship is just business with you. They love that sh*t tho. You pretty much have both sexes groveling at your feet to be with you. People become obsessed with you very easily. They love the passion that you show towards them. Even if it's just for a moment. People love the way the way that you taste. I heard "sweet and savory". The people you've been intimate with think you put some kind of spell on them. I heard "that p*ssy got power".🤣 For someone here, your romantic partners think you're unreliable or flaky at times. You only stay for a season. It makes them kinda sad honestly. It kinda comes off like you're avoidant towards love. But really you just know how to play your cards right and won't settle for less than what you deserve. You know what deserves your attention and what doesn't.
🎶channeled songs: walk em like a dog by saucy santana
sad girlz luv money by amaarae
toxic by britney spears
glamourous by fergie
Tumblr media
(The Sun, Ace of swords, Knight of swords rx, The Tower rx, The Lovers rx, 2 of cups rx, Ace of wands rx, Judgement rx, The Hieropant rx, The High Priestess, The Star)
You live your life unapologetically by always doing what makes you happy. People love how you don't allow your outside influences to change who you are. You look within to gain happiness. Someone here could be apart of the LGBTQ+ community. You really don't give a f*ck about people's judgement of you and your character. Hella unbothered because you know what's best for you always. Your sense of fashion is very admired as well. You might like to show a lot of skin. I'm picking up on a y2k/hello kitty/gyaru kind of style? You might like to wear skirts/dresses with stockings. Someone here dresses in the cottage core style. Your outfits make you look like a doll. People really love your chest area, even if you don't think so. Your body is very proportionate. You might keep your nails done or your brows/lashes. People love this high maintenance aspect about you. For my males here, your facial hair is so sexy, especially if you keep it trimmed. The way you keep your hair nicely cut is very attractive. Your 🍆 size is very admired as well. Anyone you've been intimate with is instantly hooked. Someone here likes to dress in button up shirts or suits. Very casual with a sprinkle of classiness. You're the apple of many people's eye and you don't even realize it. People actually have a lot of nice things to say about you. I'm getting that maybe you don't expect this? People are very attracted to your intelligence. I heard "analytical". You let your intuition and intellectual ability guide you through life. You're very quick on your feet and have the wittiest comebacks ever! People really love talking to you. Some may think you're chaotic or all over the place at times. But really that energy makes you thrive and leave your comfort zone. You do what's best for YOU, even if it doesn't make sense to everyone else. Your romantic partners find you really hard to pin down. There's someone specific coming through here. They could be from your recent past? They wish to take things to the next level with you. But they fear that you'll want to keep the connection the same and ultimately a secret.
🎶channeled songs: love on top by beyonce
real love by mary j blige
stargirl by lana del rey
kitty kat by beyonce
Tumblr media
(The Moon rx, The Lovers, The Empress, The World, 10 of cups, 6 of pentacles, Temperance, 9 of cups, The Sun, 10 of swords, 5 of cups rx, 3 of pentacles, Queen of pentacles, Knight of wands rx, The Devil, Ace of wands)
You allow yourself to be vulnerable and open with everyone around you. Romantic or not. There's so many different layers to you and people love every single one! The passion and love you give is so deep. It really is like no other. You tend to just lay your emotions out on the table. This is why people find it so hard to let you go. Being with you feels like a drug. People love when you take care of them. Your massages feel like heaven. Someone here likes to let their partner lay their head in your lap. You might attract people with mommy issues. I'm getting that you've encountered many partners that didn't know how to properly cherish and reciprocate your love. Despite that, you never let it deter you from finding love. A true hopeless romantic. You're the ideal perfect partner to others. The ultimate fantasy. You're like a goddess in human form. You have a beautiful European/western look to you. I keep picturing a girl with long blonde hair. It makes me think of Lux Lisbon. You have a beaming smile. Someone here has beautiful deep brown eyes. Or hazel. Your body might have the shape of a literal hourglass. There's an emphasis on your hips. Your partner loves how fertile you are. You might be a creamer/squirter. Your partner enjoys c*mming inside of you. Someone here likes to add food into their sexy time. You're a true freak in bed. You don't show that side to just anyone though. Thats what makes it so special.
🎶channeled songs: when i grow up by the pussycat dolls
slave4u by britney spears
crave you by flight facilties
dontcha by the pussycat dolls
no scrubs by tlc
Tumblr media
(Strength, 7 of swords, 8 of pentacles, 7 of pentacles, 2 of pentacles, Page of wands, King of wands rx, Wheel of fortune rx, 2 of cups, Ace of cups, Page of cups, 4 of wands, The Star)
You're a very bold and brave individual. You might come across as brash at times, but this is actually one of your most liked traits. People love how you put yourself out into the world without any second thought. You're strictly all about your money. Never letting anyone or anything distract you. You're heavily committed to your responsibilities and self-improvement. Someone here might take care of a child or family member. You're that one person that people know they can always count on. You live a very balanced life. This is very inspiring to your friends. You might be in college currently or you're close to graduating. You could have a more modest style, or you prefer to dress down. I heard that drake lyric, "sweatpants, hair tied, chillin with no makeup on. That's when you the prettiest." Someone here likes to wear pigtails or messy buns. You could have brown/blonde highlights. Someone here wears glasses. You could have freckles or a distinct beauty mark. You might be polyamorous or you're in an open relationship currently. If so, people love that you keep your relationships balanced. You don't ever let things get messy. You're the dominant one in bed. You like to give orders. Someone here likes to play with toys or blindfolds. You could like to play with candle wax? Your partners really enjoy trying new things with you. You're a very fun lover to be with.
🎶channeled songs: luxurious by gwen stefani
who's that girl by eve
london bridge by fergie
bottom b*tch by doja cat
💗Please DO NOT repost, copy, or steal my work. Thanks!💗
104 notes · View notes
lucerocosplay · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Shohki Mask Cover
construction notes & photos under the cut
This has been a long time coming! I'm glad she's a costume I can work a mask into without it breaking the design of the character. I feel like people would be less inclined to ask that you remove it for photos this way ^^;
Tumblr media
I went with a very thin cotton gauze fabric (#9 "coffee" if you're wondering), think a slightly thicker cheese cloth. It's very breathable as a single layer and seemed the best choice for an N95 cover. The shape was really only achievable with this fabric because of the shape of my mask underneath, and some strategically placed 1/2" wide horsehair braid tubing from the dollar tree. I usually stock up around halloween but they stock around christmas too!
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Process is very straight forward, just traced my mask on the fold and made some rough adjustments for a card stock mock up. I like 90-110 lbs for this sort of thing but construction paper can work in a pinch too. Cut that out and fit to my face, tweaked the placement on the nose bridge and added a 1/4" allowance for bias tape/facing, and appropriate allowance for flat felled seams.
The ear tab was extended to cover the mask underneath, and included allowance for support fabric (denim scrap in my case) to support two eyelets intended to thread the elastic of my mask through. Then it was just patterning out the rest of the mask elements and making note of seam allowance and how to cut each piece. I trimmed the tape holding together the card stock mask apart and finally got to cutting out the fabric once that was done.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
There isn't anything fancy going on, the hardest part was just the inset mesh panel over the weirdly shaped keyhole cut outs on the mouth piece. It's just black nylon mesh typically used for interfacing bras sewn on after making the keyholes.
This fabric is like if toilet paper were a textile, which is great for breatheability and weight but absolutely hell for machine work like this. It's not for a competition so for me, hiding messy stitching with weathering later was ok.
The portion of the mask running from the underside of each ear tab was finished with homemade bias tape. The same method was used for finishing the top portion that runs over the bridge of my nose. The ends were simply folded and sewn down at the ear tabs for a clean finish.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
The side "filters" have an extra 1/2" long extension so I can tack in the ends of some horse hair tubing, then double fold the fabric back into itself before hand tacking with tiny stitches from the outside. That helps the light fabric balloon out into that shape, along with another layer of that same mesh interfacing.
They are really fun actually, very floppy with great movement. Though they stick out a tad too much so I did add one small french tack to the center of each to help them point downwards but retain that movement. The "filter" took the most hand finishing out of the whole thing, but that was to be expected.
Tumblr media
Once the little side "filters" were sewn in, there was just light weathering to do. I wanted to add some shadows and potential "mold spores" to certain areas to really make the texture pop and hide some messy stitching. Light passes with a dry brush and some acrylic helped a lot, so did referencing photos of mold growth on clothes.
It was a pass of burnt sienna along all seams and large patches where high humidity would accumulate. Then another lighter pass of burnt umber to deepen up areas, and some very sparse areas of white. Finally I wanted to give it the "blue cheese special" and mixed a little viridian green and that same white and hit the white areas first then dry brushed the spaces between mold patches. I'm trying to replicate active mold colonies so reference photos came in handy here. I also used some nail polish to match the grommets to fabric.
Maybe when I am not crunched for time I will get around to digitizing the pattern, but for now I hope the photos help anyone else trying to plan out a mask. Obviously the shape will change a lot depending on the sort of fabric and mask you have on under it, not to mention face shape. I would imagine bifolds would give you more her classic feed bag profile than an origami style mask, however.
101 notes · View notes
avalentina · 3 months
Text
The Kindest Team Guy (TKTG)
IT'S HERE! PART 1 TO THE KINDEST TEAM GUY, my Navy Sealrry AU! ENJOY!
-Ava
TKTG Masterlist
Tumblr media
(image not mine, the white suit was giving me Navy dress white vibes tho)
One
Growing up, you were always around the same people, your mom had up and left shortly after you turned two, after that it was you and your dad. At the time, your father's call sign was 7 alpha 3, the demo guy, but that was when he was deployed and you were staying with Raina and her mom.
By the time you were 8, your dad was 7 Alpha 1, Master Chief Brian Fraiser. Your dad's team was your family. Heck to you they were your uncles. There was uncle Mitch-7 alpha 2 and Raina's dad. Uncle Jensen-7 alpha 3 (he was always the fun one, snuck you extra dessert), Uncle Craig-7 alpha 4 (he was gruff, but also a softie), Uncle Andy-7 alpha 5 (he was your favorite, because whenever he was there, so was Cheddar), Cheddar was uncle Andy's dog and the team K-9, Uncle Derrick-7 alpha 6, Uncle Dante-7 alpha 7, and Uncle Shane-7 alpha-8.
During a highly classified mission gone wrong shortly before your 16th birthday, your dad lost his life getting the rest of his team out safely. When the team returned to Coronado his body was in a pine wood box, a flag draped over the top. Now this easily could've been the traumatic life event that sent you spiraling into the world of drugs, alcohol, and all of that other horrible stuff, but it wasn't, at least not immediately. You graduated high school top of your class, you attended MIT and graduated with honors. And then you moved back home to Coronado, California. Uncle Mitch was now 7 Alpha 1 and you begged and pleaded with him to give you answers about what happened to your dad. You got the same hero speech from him and everyone else on Alpha team, including the new demo guy Harry who had just finished green team. Your formal request to the base and up the chain of command went absolutely nowhere. And finally after a year of begging for answers the right way, you turned to what you knew best, hacking.
You started small just to make sure your skills were still as sharp as could be. You chased down lead after lead after lead. Every single last tiny breadcrumb, until finally it clicked for you, all you'd need to really break open the system was access, and what better way to get it than by exploiting your connection to Seal Team 7 Alpha.
Harry was definitely the easiest mark, he knew of you but he didn't know you the way the rest of the team did, plus he was still a single male in his late twenties who enjoyed getting his dick wet. You took your time setting the trap, making it foolproof, all the way down to the strappy red top, denim miniskirt, white converse low tops and the perfect red lipstick. You walked into the cookout looking like straight fire and Harry ate it up, plus the other guys knew that Harry was one of the good ones and thus actually kind of encouraged the two of you, after all a six year age gap was nothing compared to Derrick and his new wife's 16 year age difference.
Harry asked you out on a date the very next day. To your surprise he set the bar quite high, after all he took you to Il Fornaio. He also didn't try to hide where you were going, he knew that wasn't the place you show up to in jeans and an old Coronado Amphibious Base t-shirt. Honestly, had you not been playing him, you could've seen yourself falling for him then and there. Harry was a gentleman at dinner and he insisted on holding your heels for you while the two of you just walked along the beach. He had gorgeous soft green eyes, currently trimmed dark brown curls, tattoos littered across his body like most other SEALs, and a smooth deep British accent that you found out came from his mother, his parents were divorced and he always enjoyed visiting his green beret father in the US, he had held dual citizenship almost his entire life. He told you how his father's line went back to the very first class of green berets and his decision to become a SEAL was hard on their relationship. His father was proud of course, him choosing to serve the US, but always made comments on how being a green beret wasn't good enough for Harry. In all truth, Harry just wanted to forge his own path. He was not his father and though he admired his service and bravery, Harry just wanted to carve his own way, leave the Styles name out of things.
Harry was also a very bright person as you found out, you knew he had to be in order to be a demolitions and explosives expert, but he wasn't just that kind of bright, Harry was quite the colorful person. He wore a black button up with lavender colored shorts, black gazelles, and had pink rimmed aviators folded on his not even half buttoned shirt, having undone another three since the two of you started your walk.
A chaste goodnight kiss outside your apartment building led to a deep, heated one and an invitation upstairs that he gladly accepted. Harry was strong enough to just toss you and your mildly curvy self around with ease, as was evidenced by how he quite literally just lifted your feet up off the elevator floor and threw you over his shoulder nonchalantly asking which way to your door. You kept your eyes on the way all the muscles in his back flexed as he walked and the firm ass hiding behind those shorts. You could honestly just tell that you were about to be ruined for other men, which sucked because you knew you wouldn't be able to see this one again. When he stopped in front of your door you gave his ass a quick smack just to confirm your suspicions.
"Heaven help me, even his ass is all muscle." You whispered to yourself, apparently not quiet enough though because a deep chuckle emerged from Harry.
"I'm a SEAL, and underwater explosives are one of my favorite things to handle, of course my ass is muscle." He continued, setting you upright so you could unlock your door.
"And not even a little bit cocky about it either." You commented back.
"You haven't seen me anywhere close to cocky yet love." He answered, pulling your back flush against his front. You moaned at the feeling of his well endowed package against the fleshy curves of your ass.
“I’m looking forward to it.” you said while opening your door.
Immediately after stepping over the threshold, harry had your door closed, locked, and your front pressed against it. He gave you a quick swat on the rear and moaned at the sight.
“Fuck,” he cursed before kissing you again. Harry’s mouth demanded access and you couldn’t stop him even if you wanted to(which you didn't).
“Har, touch me, please.” You practically begged, having had enough of your teasing banter for one night.
“So desperate you can’t even say both syllables of m'name anymore.” He taunted you before quite literally ripping your dress off your body, the black lace set you wore underneath was stunning on you but it didn’t stand a chance when set between the man and achieving complete mission success. It was like watching a singular piece of paper go through an industrial grade shredding machine, or ripping a flimsy receipt in half, there one second, completely gone the next. The sting from the snap of the thong sent tingles to all the right places. A quick glance up showed Harry still fully clothed as your fingers rushed to even the score.
“Well, go on then, get rid of it, know you wanna touch them, I saw you eyeing my ink.”
“It’s just… they’re just so… i just want to lick them all.” you stuttered at first before just letting it out. Harry’s eyes darkened even more as you shoved the shirt off his broad shoulders and pushed him onto your bed. You immediately climbed over him and lazily traced the ‘17 Black’ tat with your tongue before moving inwards to the swallows and down to the butterfly. Harry rid himself of his shorts while you took your sweet time on the butterfly loving the way his muscles tensed and relaxed as you swept your tongue over the lines of ink. You heard his breath catch as you reached the laurels and wet them before jumping straight to the tiger. You took a bold chance and scraped your teeth along the tiger as you made your return to his brief covered cock that is definitely leaking if the wet patch on said briefs is anything to go by. You take a hot second to feel him up over the cloth restraint before taking his cock out and looking up at him.
You bat your eyes innocently and descend, wrapping your lips around him. Up, down, hold. That’s the pattern you use, after a bit you take him further, brushing your nose against the littered hairs and running your tongue along his sac.
“FUCK.” you hear him curse and you smile before popping off for a breath. Harry pulls you up and smothers your lips with his, one hand wound in your hair and the other kneading your ass. With a quick smack he rolls so you’re pinned under him. “My turn for a taste.”
With that he lowers his face to your tits, licking and suckling until they both stand at attention for him. Leaving his hands to play, he continues south until he is right over your dripping cunt. Harry is not the jump right in and get it done kind of guy. Well, that's not true because he can be if he wants to be, or if his companion for the night begs him enough. But tonight is not one of those nights. He starts slow, completely avoiding the spots he knows you want him most. Instead going for your plush thigh, trailing his tongue down further still he presses quick kisses from the back of your knee all the way down to your ankle before repeating his movements going up the other leg.
By the time he reaches your mound again, you're a panting, whimpering, moaning mess and he loves it. Would bottle up those sounds and replay them over and over again when he needs to get himself off.
Harry continues to tease you, pressing the softest barely there kisses all over your soaked pussy.
"More, Harry, please, I need more, FUCK!" You cry out until at long last he sucks your clit right into his mouth, pops off after just a second and dives head first into your dripping heat.
"Oh, GOD! Harry, I'm about to come."
"Let it go y/n. I want every last drop." Harry replies, his voice sending vibrations through you, and just like that you're flying over the edge into the best, longest, most intense orgasm you've ever experienced.
Harry doesn't let up until he's sure he cleaned it all up.
"Fucking delicious." He says before kissing you again. The lingering bit is passed back and forth as you continue to twirl your tongue with Harry's. After a moment he pulls away and grabs a condom out of a side pocket in his shorts.
"Up to you love." He says, completely genuine, but also with a full smirk.
"Yes please, Petty Officer Styles." You teasingly sass back.
"And for full points?" He teases, slowly ripping the condom packet and rolling it on.
"Petty Officer Second Class Harry Styles." You reply, using his full rank.
"Good girl." He answers and slowly sinks into your cunt until he bottoms out.
"Fuck, you're so fucking deep Harry. Feels so fucking good."
"This fucking pussy was made for me, damnit, taking me so well darling, the perfect squeeze.
"Oh God, go, GO HARRY!" you command and like an obedient soldier he follows orders, pulling out halfway and thrusting back in. Further and further he pulls back until only his tip remains. Fucking you so thoroughly, you're glad you have a corner apartment and no shared walls in your bedroom. There would be no mistaking the moans of pleasure, the thorough banging of a headboard, and the slick sounds of Harry gliding in and out of you at a ruthless pace and consistency only a SEAL could.
You screw your eyes shut as he plunges impossibly deeper, so deep your sure he'll split you in half. He's relentless, not slowing down, not letting up. Harry plunges into you, again and again and again, you can feel the bubble rising ready to pop when he stills inside you, effectively removing you from the edge.
"Not…yet… want…to…see…if…i can…get…a…good…gush…from…you." He says in between deep, quick thrusts.
"Harry, I haven't squirted since college.
"Don't need you to squirt, just a good gush, I want you to drench my fucking cock. Makes me come harder, and I'm barely holding it back now you're so fucking perfect. Can you do that f'me? Be a good girl and gush all over m'cock?"
"FUCK!" You let out as his dirty words wash over you and make you want nothing more than just to please this hot as fuck man. Whatever he wants, you will give. Your vision goes fuzzy as you feel yourself tip over.
"Atta girl!" Harry praises you and flicks your clit just right, you can't help but continue to gush. A pleasured cry of, "Shit, yes baby," leaves his mouth as he spills into the condom.
After just a moment, he carefully pulls out and heads into your ensuite to dispose of the rubber. He returns with a warm rag and ever so gently cleans you up before tossing the rag in your towel bin. After which he climbs back into your bed behind you for a warm cuddle.
"Do you want me to stay, or would you prefer I head out?" He asks you quietly.
"Stay." You whisper just before falling asleep.
The next morning you awake to the sound of your shower running and realize that now is your chance. His wallet is still in his shorts and you quickly nab his military id before cloning it and returning the original.
When Harry exits your ensuite you're back in bed, eyes wide open as he steps out, towel drying his trimmed curls.
"Oh, you're awake. Hope you don't mind that I took a quick shower. If the guys catch me smelling like sex this morning they probably won't be happy."
"Instead you can smell like citrus and lavender?" They'll still know it's mine, I've used that stuff most of my life, helps me stay calm and it's not overbearing. Hell it's been in Mitch's house. From my sleepovers with Raina." You reply.
"Oh well, too late now. But I was thinking I could pick up a few things after my day and cook you dinner?" He asks, not being shy about wanting to see you again.
"Not tonight, I've got a full day of coding ahead of me. Won't be out of my office until late, like early morning late." You say as you walk him out. "Call me tomorrow?" You add with a wink. Harry smiles and then heads towards base.
*Harry's POV*
After a nice ride to base, on top of everything last night, I'm on fucking cloud nine. Y/N was just so fucking perfect, she's beautiful, intelligent, witty, and being in her presence is like rays of sunshine peeking through the clouds. She definitely has the spirit to be a category five hurricane, but she also just doesn't give a damn if she doesn't want to. The perfect switch, that complements mine real well. I'm practically daydreaming as I walk through the halls duffle in hand and badge at the ready. When I hit the cages, I change quickly before slapping on my tracking bracelet and slipping in my earbuds for a nice long run.
After a good hour, I swap my shorts and tank for the dive gear in my backpack. A waterproof earpiece from base command tells me where I'm headed and outlines a few details about my 'mission'. When the timer starts running down I'm quick to dive under and head towards the sonar signal. I diffuse fake bomb after fake bomb, inspect entrance hatches and disarm explosive after explosive meant to kill me and the rest of my team with tripwire traps and riggings. I go until my oxygen tank gets too low to continue at which point I head for dry land and a quick briefing with Mitch.
"The fuck are you doing looking into that op Harry?" Mitch hollers, glaring daggers at me.
"What op? I haven't looked at a digital screen other than my tracker and cell all day. I've been underwater for the last four hours, sir." I reply, having no clue what the fuck he's going on about.
"Prove it, pull up the tracker," he commands and I follow my orders without hesitation.
"Who was your acting command officer?" He asks, now clearly pissed about something else. "And give me your damn badge."
"Lieutenant Commander Danielson was my ACO sir." I reply and hand him my badge.
"With me," is all he says before leaving the room and I don't hesitate to follow.
When we reach Danielson's sector Mitch calls out, "Danny, were you Styles' ACO today?"
"Yes, Master Chief." Is the reply but Mitch is already turning to head somewhere else.
"Rai (pronounced Ray) tell me who hacked it." Mitch says to his Lieutenant daughter. She works mainly in command and is the youngest on her team of 5 highly trained data software mechanical engineers. Rai earned the respect of each and every person under her command with her impressive talent and knack for leadership she shows.
"Whoever hacked it, knows what they're doing, that's for sure, but it also wasn't actually hacked. It was cloned, meaning there's a duplicate of his id running around, but since they aren't the same composite I can't track the clone like I can the original." Rai explained.
"Just shut down his old one and get him a new one Rai, now." Mitch added before going back towards the cages. "Styles, go home and do some soul searching, see if you can figure out which of your little girlfriends or hookups or whatever you call them would've done this."
*3rd Person POV*
That is precisely what he does. He has some random movie on just for the noise, but he sits at his table making a list of all the people he’s hooked up with in the past 6 weeks. There was Britt, Katya, Grace, Brad, Liz, and you. Britt was a friends who sometimes hook up kind of thing. Grace was a really cute waitress at a diner on the pier. Brad is an intelligence officer for Seal Team 3 Delta, and Liz was on a layover to tokyo from New York that got grounded due to mechanical failures. You were obviously well, you. But something in the back of his head remembered Mitch saying ‘that op’ which could only mean your father’s op. However Katya was an American born to Russian parents who fled shortly before Putin took office. Her father was an officer in the Russian military, but not a fan of Putin. Which could make Katya seem unlikely to flip. With that he was down to two options, you and Katya. For your sake he hoped it wasn’t you, Mitch would take that personally, but Katya would be an international spy and Harry trusted his sense of someone’s character and Katya was very nice, Harry felt like she had a good head on her shoulders.
-The next morning-
Harry had an early briefing with Mitch to reveal where his soul searching led him. Walking into that briefing with unease swirling in his gut.
“Well?” Mitch asked him.
“I’m down to two, but I did bring all six names with me for you to look at as well.” Harry said to Mitch.
“Brad’s clean, we both know that, but I’ll have Rai look at the rest of these, wait, seriously?” Mitch trailed off towards the end having finally spotted your name. “No way she’s capable of that Harry.”
“With respect sir, her background is in computer science and analytics, she is extremely proficient in statistics and probability, and an eval was never done on her after that incident, as much as I hate to say it because I really do like her, we’ve no idea how losing her father affected her. She was raised by soldiers, she knows how to brush things off and make it appear like she’s coping well, she knows all of you and could easily manipulate how her emotions come off in front of all of you, which is why I consider her the prime suspect.” He states although his shoulders drop with the last part of his statement.
Mitch steps out for a few minutes and comes back with Raina. “Ask her, Rai knows Y/N better than anyone, and Rai this doesn’t prove anything.”
Harry explains his thoughts one more time and after a few seconds of deliberation and a deep breath Raina turns to Mitch and responds, “You want to know if Y/N has the skills required to pull off cloning a military id, my answer without a doubt is yes, she absolutely has the required skills, and I agree with Harry, she is excellent at masking her emotions, i’ve seen it, it hurts me to say this, but we do need to look into her. My best suggestion would be to send Harry in unannounced.” She finishes speaking, her voice conveying the warring emotions she’s currently feeling.
“Fine. Harry, any objections?” Mitch answers.
“None, Sir.” Harry responds.
“Then its on, I want you recording, it won’t transmit, we don’t want anything going up the chain yet, I still want to shield her from the worst of this if I can, right now I have to believe that she’s just a kid looking for answers. If only i’d tried harder to get them for her.”
*Y/N’s POV*
I wrap up an intense line of code before I start my 30 seconds of this hour in the military’s system. It’ll take approximately 4 days to complete that year’s worth of files doing 30 seconds each hour, but I designed this program myself and I know it will work. My VPN is completely untraceable during those 30 seconds and the same engineer would have to be watching the computer for 48 hours straight in order to see the pattern (the same 30 seconds of each hour, with 24 different combinations so that they only repeat the same 30 seconds on a military clock), because it looks like Harry is just scrolling through old files without opening any of them when they are actually being backed up to an untraceable cloud drive, where I can flip through them.
“Y/N? Are you home? I brought lunch.” Harry's voice sounds from outside my front door. I exit and lock my office quickly knowing the program will shut off and exit the navy’s systems by itself.
“Hey, I thought we said you weren't going to swing by today. Luckily you caught me while I had a few minutes of downtime from my project for work.” I say to him after opening the door.
“Yeah, sorry about that, they didn't need me on base anymore today, so I thought maybe I'd surprise you. I brought tacos.” He smiles sheepishly.
“You're lucky you're cute Styles.” I say with a smile.
After we finish eating, I go to make a move on him, sitting myself on his lap, but he surprises me by flipping us so that I'm in the chair, and being a kinky fucker he slips a pair of handcuffs around my wrists.
“I know you cloned my military ID and used it to hack into the navy's system, care to explain, something about a certain op.”
“I have no idea…”
“Please don't make this difficult Y/N, Mitch already knows. The system records who logs in and the exact time stamp, as soon as I used my badge and access code on base this morning before going for training, which I was dark for, they knew it had been hacked.”
“Harry I never meant to hurt you, that's not how this started, ok fine, hurting the navy is exactly how this started.”
“You are going to have to tell me everything, or Mitch and I can't protect you. Because for some reason, I have this need to protect you even after you hacked my military ID.”
“I haven't been the same person since before my father got killed Harry. His death is the reason I went into tech. After his death I threw myself into my degree, hoping that with time the details would be declassified, after five years they still weren't, so I tried making an official request, I just wanted to know how my father died, and not the bullshit hero excuse they use when trying to cover something up. Plus the team's story was too perfect, it was word for word, even I know that means they're hiding something. So I decided I was going to exploit my connection to 7 Alpha. You were hot, the guys were encouraging you to get with me, and frankly the sex was the best I've ever had. I hesitated that morning while you were in the shower, mainly because part of me wanted to see you again and I knew we couldn't once I actually cloned your ID. I've been chasing answers for so long Harry, and I am finally about to get them. I can't let it go, I won't let it go.”
“I know you won't, nor would I expect you to. Now I have to ask if you were planning on selling any of the information you retrieved to other nations, or putting it online anywhere?”
“No, honestly the thought had crossed my mind at one point, but I wouldn't be my father's daughter if I did. And he taught me to always get justice for those that can't get it for themselves. That was the whole point of being a SEAL. Truth, justice, and protecting those that can't from the people who mean us harm.” I wrap up and Harry pulls a device out of his back pocket and switches it off.
“A recorder, it's private don't worry, Mitch just wants to make sure we don't have to get command involved. He was blaming himself earlier. My hope is that we can forgive each other, because whatever this is between us, that's been going on for months, even though our first official date was three days ago, I don't want it to end either.”
“You… you can really forgive me for hacking the navy? Command isn't going to arrest me?”
“The teams are a family, one you were born into, they aren't going to turn on you. Especially when they all wanted to tell you in the first place. And someday, our kids will be a part of that family too.”
There was an awkward bit of silence for about a minute before the laughter broke out.
“Yeah, I can't believe I just said that.” Harry said, though the smile on his face told me he was seeing it too. This was just the beginning for us.
Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what your thoughts are!
-Ava
58 notes · View notes
gmbencompetence · 2 years
Text
Arcana Fans,
Can we talk about the Tarot Decks? The Arcana Tarot Decks. I’m proud of them. It also ends in a painful memory. They are, all in all, the high and low of my time at Nix Hydra
In short: I’m one of the main people that made Arcana Tarot Decks a reality.
My job was answering emails, monitoring the Arcana social media tags, and generally having my finger on the pulse of the community. I knew that, by a wide margin, Tarot Decks were the biggest request. My coworker (who shall remain nameless for their privacy) was part of the team that made the Arcana and knew how much Tarot resonated with fans. This co-worker and I fought for about 1-1.5 years getting them greenlit.
In all honesty, they were a completely audacious idea. Nix Hydra didn’t make much money from merchandise. Maybe $100 a month. The cost of an *initial* run of Arcana Tarot Decks would take something like $25,000 to get going. This is because of creating the art, securing people to help package/ship them, actual costs of packaging/shipping itself, and more. Also, my partner on the project was very insistent that we work with a company that produced them at an extremely high quality with gold trim edges. Gold trim edges was important (they were right).
So, the Nix Hydra merch store made less than $200 a month, and my coworker and I were trying to pitch something that would COST $25,000~ to get started. If it made $25,000 back, that’s still a waste of time because it means we would have made the same money just skipping the whole thing.
This next part is fuzzy, but if I remember right, we tested the waters with stickers. We stocked Arcana stickers to see how quickly they sold. They sold fast. Like… fast. This was good. It was our test case to at least prove that “People want Arcana Merch”. It heated the iron, and my coworker and I struck. We got the approval!
So here’s the most nerve wracking moment of my career here. I’ve been in the game industry 12 years, but I’ve never run a merchandise store Nix Hydra. Even after that, I sent out a few sticker sheets every month. Forget about convincing a company to invest $25,000~ into my mad idea. And then… if they DID sell. What, then!? I always have a lot of anxiety, and I kept thinking of ways it could go wrong. What if I broke some international shipping law? What if I did the math wrong and operated at a loss? What if the site charged people the wrong amount? I KNEW the Tarot Decks would sell, but that was scary, too!
The day came that we flipped the switch. I was so excited. I was so excited! I was so… scared. At this point, all that was left was to see if we could make above the starting amount…
We made about $200,000 in the first 24 hours. Now, this was 3-4 years ago, so I may be SIGNIFICANTLY off. But my point is that we made six digits very quickly. By this same time tomorrow, this went from “Gunpowder and Coworker’s brassy, sassy idea” to “Merch is a hit! What’s next?”
Over the next few months and weeks, we had a joyful hectic hell of the best anxiety. Problems would come up. We’d knock them down. We’d run out of storage space in the office and it would look almost comical. We’d have truckloads of shipment issues. I soon found out that simply taking the packages to the post office was its own complicated project. All of this expanded into hiring people to help with merch. These people were extremely passionate about The Arcana and began to be advocates for what merch to add next. I could gush about how amazing they are for hours, but for privacy’s sake, I’m refraining from saying much about my coworkers.
So like that, we went from “Merch doesn’t sell” to “We need a merch department” in a few months. By the time I left the company, the CEO (you’ve seen his name around) projected the Merch alone to be a $1M a year revenue stream. I don’t know if we ever hit that goal. My point was that he felt it was possible, which made me happy.
… which brings me to how the story ends painfully. I have moderate ADHD. I personally think it’s severe, but my doctor says moderate, so hey. I tend to fall behind on assignments a lot. I also tend to get distracted super easily. It can ruffle feathers in a work environment. I did not realize how much. See, this project was in full swing, my work was going well, and I had also designed all the gameplay of Heart Hunter (that was me! I’ll write a post on that later). I felt good about all of this. I had a meeting with the CEO and was going to ask him for a raise.
“[Name], just so you know, I sometimes sit and my desk and go over the pros and cons of letting you go.” He said it conversationally. It was casual to him. My stomach fell out. I asked him why, and it turned out that he was being very, very literal.
See, he made a pros and cons list of every thing he likes about me and every thing that he doesn’t. I’ll spare you the whole list, but in the Cons side was “Doesn’t focus on work all 8 hours of the day”. I was flabbergasted and told him “But… I do a lot of projects. And YOU said the merch store is estimated at $1M a year!” At this point, it is extremely important to note that nothing about the merch store was in my job description besides “Ship stickers and answer emails”. Literally everything I mentioned above were things I did in my spare time without being asked. Out of love for the company.
“Yes, I agree that you’re very passionate and creative. See, I put that on the list!”
He points to the Pros and Cons list. “passionate and creative” is cancelled out by “doesn’t focus all 8 hours of the day”. It was a tie. The project I co-led started a whole new department and seven-digit (estimated) revenue… it wasn’t even the only one I did (Heart Hunter was also a side project, albeit one I was assigned). And all of that, in his mind, was cancelled out by “doesn’t work all 8 hours a day”.
I never got a raise. I never got a bonus. I never even got job security. None of it mattered to him.
I started looking for a job the next day.
—-
There’s more to the story, but I think this is the main point. This is the best and worst of Nix Hydra. It was a place where people like my coworker and I would make extra time to work on new things simply because we believed in our work that much. Where players joyfully supported our work because it resonated with them. Where new employees would be so passionate about their work that they would keep an entire department afloat on their own fantastic ideas. It was also a place where none of this could even amount to job security or recognition. It was frustrating, and it was joyful.
I meant every single smile at a public event. So did every member of the team that was there. It was never “just PR”; it was people who were over the moon to get to help create these stories and worlds and moments. We loved it. But management never loved us back. And that stung.
-
Thank you, every single person who posted their tarot decks. Who put them into your cosplays. Who did readings.
Thank you everyone who posted your Heart Hunter moments. Who shared the postcards I fought tooth and nail to see in the game (It was SO difficult to convince some people that “postcards would be the type of reward players want”).
My entire life, I’ve had joyful moments in games and game communities. My lifelong dream was to help make those moments come alive for others. When you all celebrated this game and those aspects of it, that was very genuinely a lifelong dream come true.
Thank you for reading this. And also The Arcana.
Tumblr media
1K notes · View notes
twsted-kinks · 11 months
Text
TWST Dick and Pussy Headcanons (NSFW)
>minors and ageless dni<
Content warning: Descriptions of genitals. Includes terms dick, cock, cunt, pussy. May include kinky stuff idk yet but bdsm and piss is always possible.
Doing both Scarabia and Ignihyde cause not a lot of characters, so I am doing both dorms.
Parts: Heartslabyul, Savanaclaw, Octavinelle, Scarabia & Ignihyde (here), Pomefiore, Diasomnia
Kalim
Pussy
Boy's got a pussy just as cute as he is. Kalim has a lot of pubic hair that is kept clean. He has a cute happy trail thats fun to run your fingers through. Kalim doesn't have a high libido. His is actually either kinda low or he just doesn't have too much of an interest in sex. He'll jerk off from time to time, but he just isn't super into it. He'll rarely ever instigate sex, but you can rile him up. I think he's probably somewhere on the ace spectrum, maybe demi, I'm not sure and neither is he. He just knows he likes you and enjoys having sex with you. He doesn't really explore himself when he jerks off and just kinda just does the bare minimum to get off. So, when you fuck him and take the time to figure his body out he is having the biggest orgasm of his life. Kalim is mostly vanilla and doesn't really come into the relationship with any kinks. If you help him try different things out, he'll discover he likes role-playing scenarios cause it's fun and he likes when you sit on his face. He doesn't really share too many kinks with you, but he's willing to try most if them out. Over time he gets turned on by the kinks not because of the kink itself but because of his association with the kink and you.
Dick
Kalim's cock is on the smaller side, around 4 inches (10 cm) but has a good thickness. He isn't really massive fan of penetration at first, both giving and receiving, but he's willing to try things out and figure out what he likes with you. He actually prefers using toys on you and watching you cum because of him more than anything else. He likes when you do the same for him. His favorite position is 69 cause you're both pleasing each other at the same time. He loves to use his mouth and he loves when you use yours.
Jamil
Dick
Jamil has a good size of about 6 inches (~16cm) with his cock being on the thinner side. His cock angles down a bit when hard. Jamil's balls are just a bit saggy, and he loves having you on your back so he can be fully in your mouth and his balls in resting on your face. He has a good amount of pubic hair he keeps nicely trimmed with a thick but short happy trail. Sex is a form of stress relief for Jamil, so expect a lot of him being a rough dom to get stuff out of his system. Sometimes he just wants to fuck you rough and hard, be cruel to you and make you cum from him using you like a sex toy. Sometimes he just wants to relax and make you suck him off and/or ride him while putting little effort in. Either way he's usually in control. Still, it's not that he never subs or bottoms. He just doesn't do it often. When he does sub, he wants to be a pillow princess and be taken care of. Be a caring service dom and he will melt under you. Put him first and make sure he cums and is satisfied and he'll fall even harder in love.
Pussy
Jamil has a decent sized clit that hides behind trimmed pubic hair. He enjoys fucking and riding your face. Just you sucking on his clit drives him crazy. His favorite thing to do though is peg you. He likes watching you tear up and choke on his strap while he fucks your throat and use your holes as he pleases. He likes to take you apart, watch you crumble as each time you cum drains you more, and then make you suck him off until he cums all over your face. He's a bit apprehensive to bottoming, but trusts you enough to try it. He finds he enjoys when you're gentle with him and take the time to build him up and make him cum around you. He loves and hates how vulnerable it makes him feel.
Idia
Dick
It was hard to decide if he has a micropenis or a big fucking dick. Decided on big dick because him struggling to hide boners is funny. One of the big reasons he's terrified of being in public is that he's easily turned on and there's just no way to hide a boner when he gets hard. His cock is just barely over 10 inches (~26 cm) long and is hefty. When fully hard, you can't wrap your hand fully around the shaft. The tip is the same blue as his lips with the gradient going to his skin color by the time you get to the base. His pubes are like his hair, blue fire thats warm to the touch that turn pink when he's turned on. He has a thick happy trail that goes up to his belly button. His balls hang a bit and are pretty heavy. Also, fun fact: his cum is a light blue that glows :). He has a high libido and basically has to go multiple rounds. He can't be satisfied just cumming once. He's been overstimulating himself for years and is able to cum 5-7 times when alone regularly. He's even challenged himself and been able to get over 10 orgasms. Once he gets to around 10 orgasms though, there's a good chance he's going to piss himself cause of overstimulation. Idia is a serious perv with lots of kinks, so he has a lot of toys, a good chunk he's either modified or just made himself. He has hacked into different electronic toys to program different and more intense vibrations along with making machines for his dildos and fleshlights that fuck him. He needs the machines cause all his blood goes to his cock and he can't think when horny. Idia is a total verse who leans sub. If you're scared of his cock, he'll be kinda sad but also would be perfectly happy if you put his cock in a cage and just use his ass. If you want him to fuck you, there's two possibilities. One is where you're still in charge and you're allowing him to fuck you (he'll be thanking you so much), or there's when he actually feels dominant for once. If you want him to treat you dominant and rough, you either have to offer to sub for him when he's in a bad mood or get him really jealous. He will destroy your cock/hole(s) if you give him the go ahead.
Pussy
Idia's got a fat fucking clit and the pussy of a size queen. He can also cum a lot, and I mean... just about every time he masturbates he orgasms in the double digits. He loves having a dildo machine fuck his ass and pussy with a vibe at the highest intensity abusing his clit. He also has to make everything waterproof because he'll drench everything. It's not that when he squirts it's a lot (it has a faint blue glow it). It's that he squirts again and again in succession. He also struggles with bladder control when fucking. His brain is gone and he's already squirting a lot, so there's a good chance he's gonna piss himself if he overstimulates a lot. He's gonna panic the first time he does that in front of you and feel mortified. But, if you show that you're into it, he's gonna blue screen but also be super happy and turned on.
202 notes · View notes