arca9

[arca9]

Binding Meet You There? by ceruleansea

For those of you who know me well, that I bound a Pokemon fic probably isn't a surprise. This is the year that Ash Ketchum left the Pokemon company behind for his own journey, and I cried more during these final episodes than I have...well, probably since I started playing Pokemon Blue when I was seven years old. This fic is easily the best the fandom has to offer. It's an Ash/Misty fic, about restless feet and growing up and what it's like to try to live after you've reached the end of the hero's journey. I've been watching the story update for months, and when it finally finished, my restless hands knew it needed to be a book :)

Design

While Ash is an important part of the fic, this is Misty's story through and through. I tried to lean into themes of water and every shade of blue.

I chose this blue paper for the inside cover (forgive the dog nose and the feet). It was on the thinner side and I wasn't sure it would hold up, but a bit of testing it on scraps of cardboard, and it did!

Spine and Headbands

I don't always talk a lot about the steps that go into reinforcing a spine. The spine of a book wears A LOT. You fold it and open it and crease it, and when you see older books, this is the part that is usually wearing down or is in need of repair.

I will typically do a layer of glue on the signatures (the little booklets you sew together to make a book) first. Then I cover it in a special kind of material that looks a lot like cheese cloth with another layer of glue. Sometimes, I'll put a thin paper overtop of everything. Then I set the thing aside to dry overnight. It's a process I didn't do when I was first learning to bind (because I didn't know!) but its super helpful for longevity :)

I sew the headbands on by hand. These suckers are decorative and while they don't really do much for function, I think they look real pretty.

The Cover

I always knew it was going to be blue. But for this project, I did a combination of book cloth (duo) on the spine, and a heavier blue paper for the cover.

The psyduck on the cover came later. I had never foiled (cricut style, pressure not heat) on this type of paper before, and I wasn't sure how it would turn out. At first, it looked great! But over the next few days, the definition in the lines started to fade. I ended up going over psyduck with gold ink and am really happy with how it came out.

This bind was SO much fun. Ceruleansea, I hope you like it, and THANK YOU for writing such a perfect end for two characters I have loved for as long as I can remember <3

Read it on ao3!

#Pokemon #This is so gorgeous!!! #The psyduck!!! #The details!!! #You're so talented!!!

[arca9]

It's horrible to have entered the Simon Snow fandom this year because everything is from 2022 and it seems like I'm late, PLEASE REVIVE THE SIMON SNOW FANDOM!.

#hey thanks for the rec! #so many good stuff i can never keep up!! #snowbaz #carry on

[arca9]

Mind the Gap [snowbaz fic]

Since I logged into tumblr for the first time in who knows how long recently, I decided to drop a link to my completed fic Mind the Gap! It's a T-rated 46k AU strangers to lovers fic based on the film While You Were Sleeping, in which a very lonely Simon saves the life of his crush Agatha on Christmas Eve and gets mistaken for her fiancé. Agatha's family take to Simon instantly, but her step-brother Baz? Not so much.

I started drafting this up around Christmas 2019, so it's quite the personal achievement that I actually finished it. Special shout out for @dressesandcarresses for helping to plot it out back in the day, and @amywaterwings for beta help and encouragement. <3

#snowbaz #snowbaz fic #my writing

[arca9]

❤️ Snowbaz fanart ❤️

Hi! How are you? 🌸 Is my first time using Tumblr haha so I really don’t know how posting works yet 😶‍🌫️

But anyways haha, this is a fanart I made last year about Carry On ✨

Is being a while since I drew it, so now I think on a bunch of things I would do different about it (specially that messy lineart 🤦🏻‍♀️😂) but well maybe I do a colored redraw on the future 🕺🏻

I hope you like it and I hope we meet again soon~ 🌙

#snowbaz #<3

[arca9]

“Simon, do you really think I’m royalty?”

“You know I do”

“Then stop bossing me around.”

Or, Anastasia AU. For Day 3 | AU/Alternate Universe | @carryon-countdown

#snowbaz #anastasia au!!!

[arca9]

“Everything’s gonna be fine”

Anastasia AU (again)

#this is so perfect!!!! #i love anastasia! #i never knew i needed an anastasia au until this very moment #you are a genius!! #snowbaz

[arca9]

Thank you so much Amy 😭💖 you are such a wonderful friend and I appreciate you and this lovely lovely birthday gift more than words can say!!!

Amy's writing is so brilliant, go read this and everything they've ever written!!!

@arca9, you were my first fandom friend. I slid into your dms with the grace of a hornets nest freshly whacked, with around the same amount of subtlety. “I think your great and you’re the funniest person I’ve ever read and, by the way, we should be friends now, thanks!” 

And you didn’t run away. 

You’re still my first fandom friend, three years later. 

And you’re also just one of my very best friends, full stop. 

It’s your birthday and I have this fic for you. It’s my fumbling attempt to send you letters, across the sea :) 

I love you.

Anyways, the fic! It is a dip into epistolary, except Baz and Simon never had a truce, Baz wasn’t kidnapped by numpties, and things went down very differently. Featuring: our boys writing letters and being sad about it. With one very happy ending, because of course there is <3

More thank yous than I can muster to @bazzybelle and @namistrella for the beta on absolutely zero notice. You are both so brilliant, I just cannot :)

Teen, Complete, ~7.5k, Chapters 7/7 

Summary:

Simon, Snow, Where to begin? This feels so melodramatic, and I’ve barely started. I used to think about writing to you—fantasize might be the better verb here, if we’re being honest with one another. I’ve decided we’re being honest. I fa I fantas I fantasized about writing to you. I fantasized about you, full stop. What a hideous thing to write.

Read it on A03

#FIC REC #this is sooooo good #and so nice!!! #thank you!!

[arca9]

[arca9]

the only cure for the hurt of your nemesis going missing is the comfort of then seeing him in jeans

#carry on #🤣

[arca9]

[arca9]

It's us

[arca9]

Thank you to @themornal and @8edhead for providing the voice work for this clip!

#ace attorney

[arca9]

Dear AO3 readers please know that if I do not reply to your comment it is because I am laying it on the ground and rolling in it like a cat in a flower bed

[arca9]

Must suck ass to be like. a lawyer or something in the pokemon world. They haven’t made any cool lawyer pokemon yet

[arca9]

as a creator you shouldn’t have to feel like you constantly gotta one-up yourself. consider one-downing yourself instead. keep producing worse content to make your previous work look great by comparison

[arca9]

Ahhhh thanks so much Amy 😭😭😭😭 I am so excited to read this and honoured that you wrote something that wasn't Drarry for me and I'm just so thankful for your friendship. 💖💖💖💖 Thanks for being amazing (and for travelling to see me!)

Happy Birthday Arcanine!

@arca9​, I can’t believe I’ve only met you two years ago; it honestly feels like I’ve known you my whole life. You aren’t just a fandom friend anymore. You’re one of the best people I know and such an important part of my life and I feel so lucky <3 

I got off a plane last fall to meet you in person, which is still surreal to think about. And we travelled the exact journey that Simon and Baz take to find each other. Not to be dramatic about it, but the two weeks I spent with you were some of the best of my life.  

I wrote Where the Sand Meets the Sea for you, almost exactly one year ago today. I really meant to write an epilogue for the fic–I even had it planned! But the siren song of Drarry was too strong and so the project fell off my plate. But it’s your birthday, and so I wrote this small snapshot of Simon and Baz’s future, just for you. 

Where the Sand Meets the Sea

Written for @arca9​ Teen 77k Chapter 18/18 

Read it on ao3!!!

The happiest birthday to the talented, beautiful, thoughtful, brilliant @arca9​. Cheers to another year on this planet and another year knowing you!!!!!!

[arca9]

exchanging headcanons and AUs with friends like