#tharkuun

[kulapti]

Aug 2023, bookbinding of The Silent Isle Imbowers by Tharkuun.

I’m sooo so so pleased to finally share this! I have been actively working on this for many months and waited until Tharkuun received her copy before posting so the final result would be a surprise.

-----------About this bookbinding under the cut

This binding has been one of the more elaborate pieces I have attempted so far. This has been my first binding where I (1) made three copies of a piece at once, (2) used a modified a historical illustration, (3) collaborated directly with another artist on the decorative elements, (4) finished matching art for the cover and title page, and (5) layered paint and heat-transfer vinyl for the covers. These are also (6) the first non-tiny books I have made with this style of hinge and cover attachment.

Pretty much immediately after I first read this story I felt I had to make myself a copy of this. I had a strong mental image of a vintage-looking cover for a fairy tale, with a deceptively simple design of flowers on the cover, probably with fancy metallic accents, the kind of thing you’d find in an interesting used bookstore with no summary, no text on the back, no dust jacket, just the flowers and maybe a title. I’m going to make a separate post about making this cover design a reality because oh man has it been a journey lol! I designed and drew the digital art for the cover (digital because of the cut and application method), as well as the corresponding title page illustration (pencil and dip pen, scanned, title added digitally).

When I asked Tharkuun about it she was excited to suggest I get in touch with quillingwords, who generously agreed to collaborate with me! Among her talents quilling writes calligraphy, and hand wrote both the book title and chapter headers for me to incorporate into my plans. Check OUT those chapter headers! So fancy! A font could never!! Quilling has also been very encouraging and let me yell about this project in dms for months so the final result could be a surprise for Tharkuun. Thank u so much quillingwords, your calligraphy adds invaluable amounts of swag to this project.

I was going to do some kinda neat font for the chapter headers, but quilling’s work is too cool for that and I decided to use a modified piece of a historical illustration instead. The illustration also happens to be cool as heck: I was browsing the Artstor database (an academic quality resource available for free via Jstor, my beloved) and found E. N. Neureuther's 1836 gorgeous etching for etching of the fairy tale Briar Rose, an illustration made for a printing of a Brothers Grimm recorded German fairy tale with Sleeping Beauty elements. Much to my delight this illustration not only matches the general look I wanted but is actually relevant to the story, itself a Sleeping Beauty spinoff.

Slightly less stylistically consistent are the endpapers, which are prints of two different paintings by Arnold Böcklin: Isle of the Dead (1883) in the front and Isle of Life (1888). The first painting had occurred to me as an excellent visual to go with the story, and Tharkuun and I discussed this and agreed that pairing it with the related later, more optimistic piece was too thematically appropriate to resist.

I had fun and learned a lot making these books and I am very pleased with the result!!

Materials: Archival bookboard, cardstock, cotton cheesecloth mull, archival PVA glue, linen thread coated in beeswax, paper cord, red cotton embroidery floss. Blue cotton backed with archival paper, acrylic paint, machine cut black and gold heat-transfer vinyl. Laser printed text and illustrations. Metallic scrapbooking paper.

#artists on tumblr #bookbinding #ficbinding #fanbinding #dreamling #my art #here there be fandom #the sandman #the silent isle imbowers #tharkuun #described #id in alt text #pls imagine me screaming continuously about this project for oh idk 4 or 5 months? oh I can make shiny books?? #im not allowed to @ people in this post apparently #links and fic rec in reblog #laying on the floor I found a few missing words I must have deleted on accident while fixing formatting #poppies (Papaver somniferum) and mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) #tailfeather binding

[magnusbae]

In a fandom of worsening Dream derision, I gotta say I really love your strong strong participation in the Dream defense squad 🫡 Let's fight for our boy to have only the best.

I just halted a hyperfixation upon reading the words WORSENING DREAM DERISION— HOW DARE. HOW. After everything he's been through? He's the most compassionate, sweet, darling thing in this show, more so than Hob "fandom saint" Gadling. I love Hob to bits however if it was Hob lying on the floor, life choked out of him— our guy's first concern would NOT have been the 'dreamers being "hurt"', not even killed or anything, just hurt. But you know who did think first thing about his dreamers? That's right. Dream.

And Lucienne "fandom better than thou mom" who upon learning of Rose immediately was like 'kill the b' but you know who didn't, you know who didn't? Dream. That's right. Dream who was curious, sweet, interested. I JUST— HOW DARE THEY RIDICULE OUR SWEET BOY WHO HONESTLY just does his very fucking best in every turn of this show, only to be hit over the head eVERY SINGLE TIME.

Dream is the ultimate character, he is so full of EVERYTHING, he is so lovely, he is so good. He is a character who despite everything he had seen, had experienced, had suffered— who by all means should have went mad long ago— still tries, still goes on!

It's easy to look at Death and say ANGEL (and tbh yes but also) her work is brief, she meets and walks them, but it's a one time thing. For reference, about 67.1 million people die a year. You know how many people sleep EVERY SINGLE DAY???? 8 Billion. You know how many a year?????? two trillion nine hundred twenty billion.

That is how many people Dream's mind tends to EVERY, SINGLE, YEAR. So yes, Death is amazing, and bless her beautiful wings, however her job doesn't even scratch the SURFACE of the complexity of what Dream does every single day!!!!! So yes excuse Dream if he's strict on his rules, that are in place not for personal gain but for his dreamers PROTECTION. Dream who doesn't allow himself ANYTHING, Dream who works day and night with no breaks, sleep or food— Dream who still finds it in his heart to SMILE somehow.

Like I'm just???? How???? Dare???? Just. Look at him??? He's so good??? Despite his own flash and blood conspiring against him. Despite his own parents giving zero fucks about him, he still finds the compassion to care for a single child's life???? ?? ?? ? ? ? Dream who tries, despite the restrictions in place to be kind??? Who, honestly, taken really logical and sound decisions all through the series????? Like????

Bonus: Even Dream's own name is a showcase at how earnestly he wishes to be seen as good. How much he wishes for kindness from the people closest to him. Dream, he calls himself Dream. Not Sleep, not Nightmare— even though he is all of those things. no, he chooses to call himself a Dream and wishes for his loved ones to call him gently, to call him a Dream.

How does one look at such a sweet being and ridicule him. I will not accept. No. I shall not.

#we will sTAND here and DIE on this hill #dream of the endless #you yanked me out of my hyperfixation bY THE THROAT #talking about dream makes me biTE #tharkuun #msg #buns.hc #buns.all

[cuubism]

OH MY GOD tumblr keeps eating my replies?? i hope they didn't just get delayed and then all go through on that post?? BUT I JUST HAVE TO GET THIS OUT THERE so i am sending an ask instead.

so dream can't just manifest dreams in reality. but he sees how distraught hob is, seeing that there are all these new ways of helping people like him look the way they feel, but none of them work for him. so dream briefly (BRIEFLY but also not so briefly) considers rewriting all of reality again, all so that his boyfriend/husband/lover can finally live in the body he belongs in.

thankfully hob slaps him upside the head and is like babe. don't be ridiculous. so dream is like SIGH FINE. i will just ask my HORRID sibling for help :I

okay that is all. i wanted to reply to the post itself but sadly tumblr is making me do this the hardest way possible and i just had to get this out there SIGH thank you for your service

omg dream would TOTALLY JUST WANT TO REWRITE THE ENTIRE WORLD why is he so romantic but also INSANE

love how redoing all of reality is a more appealing effort for him than talking to desire XD

i'm imagining this conversation 😂

dream: i have a solution hob (hopeful): oh yeah? dream: yes. so first i go back to the big bang-- hob, banging his head on the table: /dream/. DREAM

he's very charmed though

hob, kissing him: you're very sweet. what else would you change if you rewrote the world? dream, confused: only that hob: you'd redo the entire UNIVERSE and you wouldn't fix anything else? dream: last time i remade it as it was. hob: LAST TIME?????

#tumblr ate the replies yeah :( #ask #tharkuun #trans hob #dreamling

[im-not-corrupted]

Ooooooo this game is fun. 1889 fix-it??

This one has been such a pain to write for some reason. While it is complete, something tells me that it’s missing Something, so it’s remained unfinished since…September, now? But it involves a lot of musing about loneliness, the ordeal of being known and immortality.

———

But Eleanor didn’t have chance to fall for what he was before, for the mercenary, the fighter, the man who had little qualm about spilling blood to get what he wanted.

Did she know him at all?

Hob thought these parts were still him. He thought they were, perhaps, important parts of him too, but all Eleanor knew of them were stories told in a sentence or two.

(“You have soldier’s callouses on your palm,” his dear, lovely Eleanor mused.

She held his hand in her own. The difference between his—tanned, soldier’s hands just as she mentioned—and hers—soft, delicate, made for music and art instead of blood—was a strange sight, a beautiful study in contrasts.

”Yes,” he agreed softly. He was proud of them, of the callouses he developed over the course of his life. They were rough where he held his sword, where he drew his bow. They were marks of all he learned, all he accomplished.

Marks of how much he lived, too. That was really the part he was proud of. The body he lived in was old, frozen in time and a little worn. Scars and callouses marred his skin, and his bones and muscles ached with the age immortality didn’t erase when it was given to him. All of those marks meant he continued to live, meant he made the most of what he was offered—even if the Stranger didn’t quite see it the same way, if the disinterested way he listened to Hob’s wide-eyed tales was any indication.

His love hummed softly. She had a musical voice, dear Eleanor. Hob thought he could listen to it again and again. Bottle it for future use, and never get tired of it. “Where are they from?” she asked him. The question made him tense, but she turned ice-blue eyes his way, and he could do little against the curiosity that shone inside them. “I’m afraid I still know rather little about your life, my love.”

He was helpless against the look she levelled him with. Helpless against that curiosity, the sudden desire for her to know him. To understand him, and all that he was. All he had been. That was what love meant, wasn’t it? To know somebody and choose to love them unfalteringly, flaws and all?

“Soldiering,” he said after a moment. It felt—well, it felt like a lie. Bitter upon his tongue. It wasn’t, not really, but it wasn’t the whole truth, either. “Fought in a couple battles myself, before I became the lord you know. You really got it right the first time.”)

#the sandman #hob gadling #the sandman fic #this IS a dreamling fic but this snippet does not involve any dreamling as of yet #my fic #Eris writes things #wip tag game #my asks #tharkuun

[issylra]

16????

16. Write the next 5 sentences and share.

The first, when Dream gets a proper look, is not particularly distressing. It is Hob, shirtless and smiling, as he lounges on an unfamiliar bed. His bare chest is covered in a thick smattering of hair, his skin kissed by the sun, and he is happy. Satisfied, Dream's mind supplies, pleased with whoever stands behind the camera. His hand is what catches Dream's attention, the way Hob's fingers have slipped casually under the waistband of his trousers.

(ask me about my wips game)

#answered #tharkuun #wip ask game #so many things i could be writing #but i'm working on the one no one asked for #dream x hob

[havenarchive]

[ID: a cover with a background of pink hearts on a dark, reddish background with pink, neon text reading “The Monsterfucker Rec List: a Haven Discord Production”]

The Monsterfucker Rec List: a Haven Discord Production

Featuring works for Critical Role, The Locked Tomb, New York By Night, The Untamed, The Sandman (Netflix), and Voltron

Authors: @demenior | Demenior, @jelenedra | Ritualist, @ladyofrosefire | ladyofrosefire, @mischiefseven | mischiefseven, @notaficwriter | NotAFicWriter, @tharkuun | tharkuun

You can find the list in the link above (to a google doc) OR under the cut. The google doc has pretty formatting and a gif version of the banner.

Critical Role

Pact Boon: All Inclusive Stay by Demenior 

E, No Archive Warnings Apply. Fjord (Critical Role)/Original Male Character(s)  

“The Mighty Nein are Fjord's best friends. His family. His favorite people in the world. He'd die for them. He spends every waking moment with them.  

They're smothering him.  

Thankfully, Fjord can use his new relationship with his sugar dragon for a private getaway."

the taste of salty summer brine by mischiefseven 

E, No Archive Warnings Apply. None 

"By the third dream where Fjord opened his eyes to a murky, muted underwater vision, he… He wouldn’t say 'was used to it,' or 'knew what to expect,' but it wasn’t surprising anymore. The specifics were surprising, but he was aware by now that he’d gotten himself into something deeply fucked up. He still wasn’t sure what his patron would ask of him next, but he was as prepared as he could be, given the circumstances

So he thought."

Consume.

The Locked Tomb

open up all the faucets (be fruitful and multiply) by NotAFicWriter

E, No Archive Warnings Apply. Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus

Having crawled out of Hell more herself than ever, Harrow finds a mostly-restored Gideon and the two finally have that long-awaited discussion. Many mouths are involved, but very little talking is had.

N.Y. By Night (Web Series)

Blow out the Fire by ladyofrosefire 

E, No Archive Warnings Apply. Reyes Malcolm/Margot “Fuego” Walker 

After Rey suffers a bad night and a frenzy brought on by hunger, Fuego pays him a visit.

The Sandman

dare to eat a peach by tharkuun 

E, No Archive Warnings Apply. Dream/Hob

“Hob had looked into a dangerous mouth of hungry fangs, had felt flayed open and spread before the gaze of innumerable eyes, had felt the insistent pressing of uncountable hands upon his body and Hob had, briefly, thought, Oh, yes please. For all his horror, his stranger had still been beautiful, and Hob could never stop wanting him.”

Or, once upon a time, Hob saw Eldritch Nightmare Dream and thought, "That one, I want that one."

The way they light candles in Rome by ladyofrosefire 

E, No Archive Warnings Apply. Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Johanna Constantine 

Roughly a week after her run-in with Dream of the Endless, Johanna meets him again in his realm. 

Set between episodes 5 and 6, for reference.

陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) 

The soft animal of your body by Ladyofrosefire, NotAFicWriter

M, No Archive Warnings Apply. Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn/Xiǎo Xīngchén  

 "In the aftermath, the time Song Lan cannot name as anything other than yawning grief, there had been first nothing— a sword on his back and a bag in his hands or tucked away safely inside of his robes. And then he had looked into the bag, just once. Perhaps he had expected stardust, or mist, or light. He had felt Xingchen’s soul a hundred times, tangled up with his own in their bed. He had never seen it.

Song Lan opened the bag, and looked in, and inhaled."

Death, breath, and other things less simple than they seem.

Unbound, Unhallowed by Ritualist 

E, Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings. Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn/Xuē Yáng | Xuē Chéngměi Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn/Xiǎo Xīngchén/Xuē Yáng | Xuē Chéngměi 

Xiao Xingchen doesn't believe in the Folk, but the Folk believe in him.

Voltron: Legendary Defender

The Monster Mash by Demenior 

E, No Archive Warnings Apply. Shiro/Ulaz (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron)/Original Female Character(s), Shiro (Voltron)/Original Male Character(s), Prince Rahjim/Shiro (Voltron), Antok/Shiro (Voltron)  

Collection of prompts written for the 'Monster F**kers Bingo'.

#pictures #Critical Role #The Locked Tomb #nybn #The Untamed #The Sandman #Voltron #rec list #Demenior #Ritualist #ladyofrosefire #mischiefseven #notaficwriter #tharkuun

[wintersmitth]

5 and 20!

Thank you!!!

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

It was feeble today, just like the seedlins because, well, it wasn't That good, it was a fast click click, and looking back I could've written it better.

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

So it was my little Ukrainian fic I wrote for OFMD recently, Страшно, хоч кричи.

I write in Ukrainian rarely enough, and find it harder than I do in English. But words literally spilled like river for this one AND! I fucking called one of Ed's traits before it was confirmed in the 5th episode! I feel so vindictive.

Ask me fanfiction questions!

#sansael talks #tharkuun #thank uuu

[queerofthedagger]

👀 you are looking into setting up a bigbang? A sandman non ship specific one, or? I am intrigued and quite interested!!

Hey, yes!! I (and a few friends) have been toying with the idea since we read the FAQ, and the response to my ask certainly has made it more into a "well okay, when and how exactly" conversation, than a "maybe we could do that" one. And yeah, it would be not specific to any ship (or content...) - I'm definitely thrilled that folks seem to be interested! <3

#answered asks #tharkuun #mona rambles #i'll keep people up to date but it really is very likely that this will happen because I am nothing if not a person made half of spite

[abyssalcryptid]

Hob waits on his knees at his lord's side, shivering in the cold, blindfolded, and hot with anticipation.

Anticipation by @tharkuun (ao3)

#the sandman #hob gadling #dreamling #nsft #abyssalcryptidart #absolutely lovely lovely work

[magnusbae]

@tharkuun you're joining the kill for dream club ask questions never?

#hob is the club creator #in this club no dream slander is ever allowed in no way or form #it's a big burden to carry in a fandom full of mockery for dream #buns.txt #tharkuun

[cuubism]

has anyone asked you about deja vu...................... i am very Interested and Invested in this one..............................................

ohh yesss. I've made SO little progress on chapter 4, but it's a rare fic where I have basically the entire story planned out, so here's a scene from chapter six. featuring my favorite 1940s film cigarette motif, anachronistically slotted in there considering this takes place in the mid 1700s, but what can you do XD

--

They fall together lazily, after, Dream leaning against Hob’s shoulder, Hob’s leg slung over his as they lean against the headboard. Dusk is falling, the room in shadows now as the sun has long since traversed over the roof. Dream studies the play of dim light over Hob’s shoulders, the softening of all his features in the shadows. The way their skin sticks together in the summer heat, almost too hot and tacky, and the way the faint breeze through the open window flutters the curtains and the long strands of Hob’s hair. He runs an indulgent hand over Hob’s chest, down over his stomach and across his thigh, reading it all anew like he hasn’t just had Hob all over him. He is beautiful to touch, Dream thinks, but to do so carves a little hole of melancholy in his heart. Each brush of skin is like an echo, a memory calling to him across time whose origin point is distant now. Concentric ripples on a still lake, the thrown stone long gone under the water, and its thrower, too. Hob’s found some cigarettes in the nightstand drawer, and slants a smile sideways at Dream as he sticks two of them in his mouth to light, and as Dream keeps touching him lightly. “Am I pleasing to you?” “Yes,” Dream says, honestly, and Hob chuckles. “Good.” He strikes a match, the flame flaring brightly in the dark, and lights both cigarettes. Meanwhile, Dream watches the movement of his hands. Hob takes one of the cigarettes from between his lips and holds it up to Dream, and Dream takes with his teeth, Hob’s eyes on him all the while. The tobacco is acrid on the back of his tongue when he lets himself taste it — which he does, because whatever Hob would give him directly from his own mouth, he will have. Hob lets out his own breath of smoke, the breeze catching it and whistling it further into the room before it can linger. “You don’t strike me as a heavy smoker.” “I am not,” Dream concedes. “And yet.” Hob drapes his free arm around Dream’s shoulders, stroking up and down Dream’s arm idly with his thumb. “Getting a taste for it?” “Perhaps.” “Perhaps,” Hob echoes. He tips his temple against Dream’s so they’re breathing the same air, the same smoke. “Careful. It can be habit-forming.” Dream takes another inhale of smoke into his nonexistent lungs. “I am aware.” “Hard to break,” Hob stresses, close enough now that his lips nearly brush Dream’s. “One would think it best not to start at all,” Dream says, as he takes another long breath in, and almost feels the tang of it in his chest like he were truly breathing the way Hob is. “Bit late for that,” Hob says, though he doesn’t sound horribly chagrined about it. He tilts his head to catch Dream’s eye, and smiles, that warm, confidential Hob smile, like everything spoken is a secret between them, and it makes Dream want to whisk him away to the Dreaming to keep him forever, or twist his form back into Eleanor so he can have his husband again, or simply drop the façade entirely and see if Hob could possibly love him like this as Dream. And he does none of these things.

#when i saw the 'lighting two cigarettes in your mouth' motif in Now Voyager i died instantly and of course stole it for my own purposes #can't beat the eroticism and subtext of cigarettes on film #despite what this scene might imply this is actually a happier and low angst chapter XD just dream #and his little 'starving artist x rich patron' roleplay. 'ohhhh noooooo you bought all my art however will i possibly repay you?😳' etc #deja vu deja connu #cw smoking #my writing #tag games #tharkuun

[designtheendless]

Shit you’re right @tharkuun

#the sandman #sandman #morpheus #dream the endless #dreamling #dream of the endless #tom sturridge #peaky blinders au #designtheendlessart

[issylra]

oh i forgot to ask -- do you have any snippies for table for two yet? :pleadingface:

Welp, I accidentally hit post on this while mobile and can't figure out how to private it while mobile. SO. This is awkward.

I unfortunately do not have a snip to share but thanks to certain unnamed people I am currently suffering severe Dream of the Endless brainrot, and am heavily motivated to work on this fic. It's the phone sex AU sequel, and you know what? I'm trying to write this under pressure since it's currently on my dash blank, and words are just not coming. All I've got is "Hob thinks Dream is very pretty and they nearly get kicked out of a very posh restaurant for conduct unbecoming". The end.

#answered #tharkuun #phone sex au #notallsandmen #wip ask game

[amielot]

✨Last Line Tag Game!✨

@linddzz and @tharkuun tagged me! Thank yah!!!!!!

Heres a horse girl preview :)

in addition, I went unhinged on the sadman discord server and drew Cow Hob and Cat Dream inspired by Gabe’s cat/cow fic. i think on like feb 13th or something.

So uh.... Y’all want a nsfw cat/cow post?

tagging hmmm @pellaaearien @delta-pavonis @landwriter @five-and-dimes @chaosheadspace @lutheban @teejaystumbles and literally anyone else! go for it!

#i also have drawings of sphynx hob i need to compile #which is from moorishflower's fic #shwoooo #oops #i think i drew the cat/cow back on feb 13th #i drew sphynx hob sometime around christmas #theres a lot of art i gotta just wrangle together and post lol. #ive decided to be completely unhinged on main #like i wasnt already

[queerofthedagger]

You......................

You have made me lose the game in the year of our lord 2023 WHY

D:

ahahaha i'd apologize but if I had to, etc...... 😁🥰💖

#answered asks #tharkuun #mona rambles