#eye removal

[kermahillway]

Here's a fun fact cockroaches are able to survive without their head for up to a week!

CW: HEAVY GORE WARNING!!!

[silkieluv]

Spit balling here, ways I thought Jay could get his eyepatch (most of them involve eye removal so if you don’t wanna hear it, 👋❗️):

Classic stab in the eye. Straight having anyone (not exclusively Nadakhan) stab his eye out.

Maybe during Scrap N Tap?

Maybe just a random moment, the pirates deciding Jay hasn’t suffered enough

In Nadakhan’s room?

His cell?

And what would be the object?

Nadakhan’s dagger? (The one he used when detaching between Cole, the water canteen, and Jay back on the Tiger Widow’s island)

The djinn blade? (Which would be like so weird since that thing is HUGE, so if it is, I’m tearing ALL of Jay’s face off because there’s no way in heck anybody can just get an eye out with that thing)

A random pirate’s sword/dagger?

His own katanas (gotta check if he had them when he was taken though. If he didn’t, I’ll make sure he would in my fic) (that is, If I choose this option)

Gouged out with a hand? A fork? A spoon? (After all, he did have a dinner with Nadakhan)

2. A simple eyepatch the pirates forced him to wear to make fun of him?

There’s this one scene I wanna make where Jay pretends to be one of the pirates after being stationed on like a low ship to watch over him (IDK HOW THAT MAKES SENSE, I still haven’t found a reason, but I will) So the eyepatch could be like to make fun of that. Remind him of his failed attempt to escape that nightmare)

Maybe Clancee gave it to him so every time Jay looks at his reflection all he’ll see is a pirate, reminding him of how dirty he fought in Scarp N Tap (Yet another scene I will write)

Maybe the pirates just really wanted him to cover up

Maybe the eyepatch is made of ruined parts of his GI that they got together? Again, reminding him of Scarp N Tap

3. The canon black eye (Or so, I think):

Scarp N Tap, bunches and bunches of jabs, punches, unsurprisingly aimed to Jay. His body, his face, so of course, his eyes too

Some pirate game (not SNT) where they just hit his head or something?

Since it’s a black eye, most scenarios that run through my head when I think about it are low crew member (not specifically *low*, but not anyone from the main team)

[angrylittleghostinacup]

A Whumper with a large collection of eyes, all from past Whumpees. Just a whole room of colorful eyes staring back at you from the many shelves.

By angrylittleghostinacup

[the-lunar-library]

TO THE RAVENS

Akantha with her eyes out.

Wait, Akantha with her eyes out? Where are her eyes? Rayless, what have you done?

One of the primary sources for my novel was Lucian's satire/proto sci-fi story Trips to the Moon, where he describes the native lunarians at length. He gives them loads of fantastical features, his point being that people are gullible when they believe accounts of impossibly exotic beings dwelling in far-off lands. I had my choice of strange traits to bestow upon my own lunarian race, the Kynthians. And one in particular stood out to me, and I wondered if I dared include it:

I am afraid to mention their eyes, lest, from the incredibility of the thing, you should not believe me. I must, however, inform you that they have eyes which they take in and out whenever they please: so that they can preserve them anywhere till occasion serves, and then make use of them; many who have lost their own, borrow from others; and there are several rich men who keep a stock of eyes by them.

That's too weird, I thought. No one wants to read about a race of people who pop their eyes in and out all the time.

But, I thought, that's also really interesting.

So now, let me quote my own novel:

When it came to oddities about Kynthians, wings and pouches were intriguing novelties, but no Roman ever found the eye thing a pleasant surprise. Which was what the Romans called it – the Eye Thing, Res de Oculis. Since ancient times, as far back as any Kynthian knew, they had been able to remove their eyes, barter them, trade them for better ones. There were no delicate ligaments to sever, no blood drops to staunch. A Kynthian simply had to squeeze and squint a bit and out the eye would roll, delicate and glossy, its surface yielding just slightly to the touch before springing back. And behind the eyes, the pure silver of Lysis Kynthia's Moon. Many Romans flinched and squinched their faces whenever the subject was mentioned, let alone in evidence. But others, the richer ones, had made quite the fashion of collecting Kynthian eyes of unusual beauty. Here was one area where they bowed to Kynthian tastes, prizing the silver and gray eyes above all others.

I went with it. (I also followed Lucian's lead and gave the Kynthians pouches in their stomachs and a preference for bald men, but I drew a line at giving them ears made of leaves. The wings aren't Lucian's fault; that was something I threw in myself because I thought it would be fun to write a winged protagonist.)

The Eye Thing is a little gross, I'll grant you that, but it allowed for some interesting world-building. The Kynthians both greatly reverence their eyes and see them as somewhat expendable. In a pinch, you can sell your eyes and get a cheaper set. Lots of them save up in hopes of buying new eyes in a color they've always wanted. Or switch them out every so often, the same way we upgrade our glasses, just to freshen things up. Injury and sickness to the eyes carries a cultural shame not fully understood by the Earthborn. And their houses are covered in eye murals to commemorate their ancestors, a decorative choice that leaves many Earthborn feeling like they're being watched and judged.

Akantha does the Eye Thing several times over the story, the first time purely for spite to make a Roman uncomfortable. When you're an outcast woman in an imperial colony, you don't always have a lot of ways of fighting back, but you work with what you have.

[chilopodacrudus]

Some self ship art with my Saonxe and my sona Chilo.

The gnashing of teeth and slicing of claws is our love language~

[helium-stims]

source

[fuforthought]

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)

[desertdollranch]

Eye swapping a vinyl doll with inset eyes

Nahji is my 14-inch Hearts for Hearts Girls doll. She was a thrift store rescue that my sister gifted to me earlier this month, and arrived looking very well loved, with messy hair and dirt in all her joints. Her eyes had turned from brown to purple, a defect that seems to be common in dolls with inset acrylic eyes when poor-quality materials are used. At first I thought her purple eyes were indeed quite pretty, but ultimately after looking at other Nahji dolls with original eyes, decided I wanted brown eyes for her after all.

Swapping them for the new eyes was easy and inexpensive; I paid $3.50 for this pair of eyes on an Etsy shop called Felicity Garden. These were sold as Wellie Wisher eyes, but luckily they share the same eye size (16 millimeters) as Hearts for Hearts Girls. Taking out the old ones and putting in the new ones was a far easier process than removing and replacing sleep eyes commonly used in 18 inch dolls. This is also a method that can be used with Wellie Wishers, who also have inset acrylic eyes and can in rare cases also develop purple eyes. 

Behind the cut, I’ll explain how I did it. 

A quick note about Wellie Wishers: while you CAN use this method for them, if your doll’s eyes have turned purple, you don’t NEED to replace the eyes yourself if you don’t want to. American Girl considers this a defect and will replace your entire doll for you at no cost. I know this because my mother bought a secondhand Kendall doll who had eyes turning purple, and customer service was happy to provide her with a new one. They even paid for the shipping to send the defective one back. Just give the doll hospital a call and explain the situation.

But if you want to eye swap your Wellie Wisher to give it a new eye color, or are particularly attached to your specific Wellie and don’t want to trade them in for a different doll, then I recommend the shop I linked above for new eyes. Or you can search Etsy for other sellers of Wellie eyes; but remember that they must be 16 millimeters in length. If you have another brand of doll and you’re not sure of the eye size, measure from corner to corner of the eye socket for the correct length.

On Friday, the eyes arrived.  

Jeepers creepers! 

And I immediately began the process by first removing all of Nahji’s clothes and jewelry, and then heating up a pot of water on the stove. As soon as it was boiling, I prepared her. 

Not to worry, she’s fine. This will protect her from the hot water.

Then I inverted her into the hot water, making sure that her face was completely covered, and held her there for about a minute. Just long enough to get the vinyl heated up so that it would be soft and flexible.

It’s really important that the water is hot enough! If it’s not, the vinyl won’t stretch enough to get the eyes out. I experimented with heat levels during the process, going from lower to higher; I found that only water at boiling temperatures made the vinyl stretchy enough. If you wait too long and let it cool, you won’t be able to remove the eyes. So what you can do is let the water come to a full boil, then turn off the heat and immediately insert the doll into the pot. 

Once her head was warm and pliable, I was able to squeeze her head and make her eye sockets open up until her eyes could be carefully plucked out. 

This might be easy, and it might be challenging. I struggled with the first eye but the second one came right out without help.

I made sure the insides of her eye sockets were completely dry. 

Then I reheated my water and dunked her in again with the bag over her head to reheat the vinyl. 

The eyes went in. This takes a bit of careful maneuvering; be patient and keep trying, reheating the vinyl if necessary. 

You might notice that I filed the pointy sides down a bit; this isn’t something that HAS to be done, but it made things a tad bit easier pushing them into the sockets. 

And that was it! 

At some angles the eyes look slightly uneven, but this seems to be an issue with her eye sockets themselves, as her original eyes were also slightly unbalanced. It doesn’t bother me, though. I think she looks lovely.