yikes chapter 35 was a doozy. i started crying and my roommate was very concerned (i showed her the last bit and the song and she understood how it utterly destroyed me). but i think 36 is worse because of all the reunions with family and im crying???? again?????? how are you so amazing at writing things that make me feel things, how. HOW.

35 is the chapter I will forever be both proud/guilty over, heh

Ahhhhh I am hella fond of the Dain-arrives-in-the-Halls scene in 36, though! Some of my most Dain-ish Dain, I think :)))

oh gosh thank you, lskjdhgflaj thank you so so much! 

okay. so. Dis? has been making me so freaking sad. she’s just. I just. I can’t even????? and poor vili, watching her fade faster and faster, his steel and silver sweetheart, and I just. can’t. like, she drags Thranduil by his long elfin locks, kicking and screaming, into being a better person and owning up to his shit? brb still sobbing.

AHHH thank for mentioning the Thranduil thingy…. that’s just such a huge moment for her, she isn’t TOTALLY made of anger and sads and pain, she can fucking USE her anger and what she’s learned from it – and beat an Elf twit over the head with it until he gets a clue heh

but okay fine yes I admit she is MOSTLY made of anger and sads and pain 

(but NOT ANY MOREEEEE)

Haban&Narvi are best friendship I love it so much and ahhhhhh ch 42, Haban complaining about the Faramir/Eowyn soap opera, while Narvi is just ‘going over old designs’ and the mention of Khel!!! brb sobbing.

heheh, that sequence is just. implied meanings, everywhere. So much implied, so much unsaid. I was always a little ‘eeeeeeeehhh does it work?’ about it, but decided to leave it… I’m glad it does work!

Yes, some very very old designs… for the first time in centuries ❤ Oh, Narvi. 

(Haban’s frustrated need to be Mama Hen over all these woeful dramatic children, lmao – she is such a cranky darling)

I’ve never cosplayed before, but I’m honestly really, really thinking about making my first cosplay outfit as one of the Sansukh OC’s, especially one of your amazing dwarves/dwarrowdams. Do you have any specific advice for cosplaying as one of them?

*GASPS*

aljsdhgfakljhsa oh nonnie! Thank you for considering it, I am so overjoyed that you’d think of cosplaying one of my throng!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

oh gods, advice aaaaaaaaah okay here’s some stuff I am currently keeping in mind as I sloooooowwwwwly (VERY SLOWLY) put my Hrera together…

  • For Dwarves, the body silhouette is turning out to be important. I don’t mean thinness or fatness or anything – I mean making yourself appear broader and shorter, as Dwarves are. If you’re in a dress, you can make your legs appear shorter by hemming it above ankle-height and wearing chunky boots. A high waistline and square broad neckline truncates your body, that sort of thing. 
  • Fuller skirts (¾ or full circle) rather than narrower ones really does the trick, as do trousers that fall to the lower calf and thick tunics that fall to below the knee. 
  • BOOTS ARE SO USEFUL: bulk them up all the way to under your knee! You’ll walk differently, too. 
  • Decoration helps too: horizontal details or patterns all around the costume, or bulkier materials (such as faux-fur) on the shoulders or belt to draw the eye. 
  • I’m covering an old corset to make my upper body look more square. 
  • Similarly, the head needs to look a bit bigger than normal. So, it’s our moment to don a BIG WIG AND BEARD WOOHOOOOOO. All my girls have full beards 🙂 I got my beard here.
  • Sewing your wig’s updo or style in place with a curved needle and thread = fabulously easy and very very secure. 
  • I’ve found a great historical costuming site with lots of cheats here: Hathaways of Haworth
  • You can always make padding part of the costume, if you decide to go that route! Though quilting can be a BITCH and very hot to wear for a long time. 
  • I’ve found some great coloured bridal pettis on ebay, and lots of sari trims (awesome for details!!!). Curtain materials often have BRILLIANT Dwarvish patterns on them, and can be often be found cheaply at thrift shops. Cheap costume jewellery can be ripped apart and sewn on to stuff.
  • I’ve been glancing over all the concept art for Lady Dwarves from the Hobbit, quite a bit (they appear to really like hair-jewellery)

There are tons and tons of cosplay blogs with tips on wigs, padding suits, patterns etc. But when it comes to the dwarves of Sansukh, I would be a total IDIOT if I didn’t direct you to these amazing folks. They’ve ALREADY DONE IT, and so beautifully that it makes me gasp in awe on a regular basis. 

Go look here

And here!

And here!

And here!

And now that you’ve said ‘HOLY HECK THAT’S AMAZING!’, here’s their blogs! Go and check out their in-progress photos, and all the tips and tricks they used 🙂

@houkakyou, @aviva0017, @the-dragongirl, @jedi-goldberry-with-the-force, @balinisballin and @flukeoffate

They’re also beautiful, beautiful lovely people ❤

At the whole royal heirs birth thing, when Dain is going on about not being a blonde beauty- does Fili eventually get on his case about this? Because Fili is obviously a very handsome blond fellow! (Vili is totally backing him up).

nah, why would he? the twins are only very distantly related to Fili (second cousins once removed, I think??? I’ll check), and this moment isn’t about him at all. He’s not the sort of person to make this occasion All About Himself. Neither would Fili ever really rip into Dain for needing a small moment of emotional deflection, over something so insignificant as Fili’s hair colour.

Dain does a lot of emotional misdirection through his jokes and throwaday lines, both when he is happy and when he is sad. This is one of those moments. He is trying not to explode, basically, and so we get one of his patented Dain™ lines. It’s not about Fili at all. 

But underneath, Dain is staggered and delighted over his grandchild having red hair (as is Bombur, for that matter). To conceal this, he tosses away this flippant sort of line which basically boils down to: ‘SHE HAS RED HAIR. HER HAIR IS RED IT IS RED LIKE MINE, AND I’M NOT CRYING IT’S JUST RAINING ON MY FACE NOW, NOTHING TO SEE HERE AHHH SHE HAS MY HAIR.’

He does a very poor job of concealing how he feels, this time around! And the reflexive effort is wasted anyway, because he and Bombur are just too, too happy to hide it. 

Well. Rereading is fun, despite the sads. I almost forgot just how much I love Narvi and the Narvi & Haban friendship (BROTP! BROTP!) Also when Bilbo and Thorin finally talk ahhhh never stops giving me fannish glee

Ljkhgsldfjhgsaljha NARVI AND HABAN ARE MY FAVE FRIENDSHIP, they just decided ‘we’re besties now’ and i went ‘cool, okay let’s roll with it then!’

awwwww the Big Bagginshield Talk Scenes <3, thank you! I am still really pleased with how the dialogue in those scenes progresses, how Thorin is just so honest about it all, and how Bilbo deflects and deflects until he really can’t pretend anymore :)))

I tried to get to the masterpost (I like reading over the funny headcanons when I’m having a bad day, they cheer me up a bit), but it said the redirect failed. The same thing happened when I tried to click on the art masterpost. Is something wrong with the doc?

Tumblr killed my links – again! It should be fixed now and it’s working for me, but let me know if it still isn’t working for you, Nonnie, and I’ll work something out!