#hlayk

[applejaymi]

hlayk chapter.2

[sophsicle]

fo real tho

out here writing my lil stories

so grateful someone somewhere wants to read them

like what a *gift*

[chaoticbindery]

Here's Looking at You Kid

By Messermoon(@sophsicle )

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world..."

George wanders into a bar. Nothing is ever the same.

Thanks to Soph for accepting a copy of this story. Apologies for the delay and ups being trash 💀

Thanks to @upthehillart for approving my use of their art for this fic.

Special thanks to the @renegadepublishing server for all your support, advice, and encouragement during the making of these books.

To ups, I hope you never feel the gentle touch of a woman, that your child never hugs you again, and that every time you enter a room, you forget the reason you are there.

Below, I will discuss the process, which will include a lot of spoilers. (But also more pics 😈)

When I heard this story was set in the same universe as choices, I lost my shit a little and read it. Slowly, however, this story began to mean a lot more to me than I could put into words. George's grief over the lost of his soul mate, the struggle to find himself, and Blaise's love, passion, kindness, and confidence in himself resonated to me in such a way that I knew I needed to hold it in my greedy little hands.

I started to think about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to bind this story. I struggle a lot from picking the font for the body text to picking the chapter titles. I finally, after fucking around with canva for more time than I'm willing to admit , I was able to come up with these:

(If you would like the files for anything I used, please dm me, and I will send them to you! I will eventually set up a google drive)

In the story, there is this moment where Blaise casts a spell that creates a constellation, of which George got the inspiration to make a mood ring that created a little sky, and depending on your mood the sky changes to reflect how you feel. He gives it to Blaise, and they have a picnic under the sky, indoors, later at Blaise's party they have such a cute moment at night and so I wanted to implant the sky in some way.

I also wanted to use constellations in this bind. I didn't know how or where. I just knew I needed them in my life. So while i mop over my inability to impelent them, I took a break. So one day, I was reading a book with these very cute corners, and then it hit me. (No, I didn't finish the book i was reading. I was busy stalking the internet, trying to find the perfect image)

After that, picking the page breaks was easy. I wanted something simple since I didn't want the typeset to look so busy that it took away from the most important element of the bind, aka the story. I added a few little things for me in Draco and Harry's 2 chapters because I'm weak, and that's for soph to find all on her own 👀

I will put this here, tho.

Lastly, because Tumblr won't let me post more pictures, here are the endpapers I used for 2 of the 3 books.

As some of you may have notice, there are blues, pinks, and whites in this bind. It's a subtle yet very loud depiction of the Trans flag. It was very important to me to show that this story is of a Trans man that, as soph, puts it, saved himself.

I added all the chapter notes, trigger warnings, and more information about this bind on the typeset itself. Ultimately, to me, this is a form of archiving stories I think matter, and if for whatever reason, technology dies on us, this story will still live on.

The info that's only important to the binders 💀:

Materials list:

Bookcloth: Colibri in color Cornflower, this cloth has a silk like finish.

Htv: I used siser's htv easy weed vinyl with a bit of a pinkish undertone to it.

Endpapers: they are from paper tree nook in the uk

Endband: 2 mm 100% leather with blue viscous thread

Textblock: I used standard 20lbs cream color paper. I used toner to print. To sew the textblock, I use blue linen thread and remie bands gifted to me by my friend duranbinding. I painted the edges using golden acrylic paint, and the charm and ribbon are both from Michael's

Typeset:

(I will edit in this bit later since I made so many changes its hard to recall them all)

[mxlfoydraco]

so… @little-shit-soph I read Here’s Looking at You Kid and have Some Feelings about it

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

on the one hand, i want richie and eddie to kiss by the end of this dad!eddie fic

on the other hand, i love love love the idea of them post-derry, after the clown’s dead, and like... richie comes to visit in nyc, eddie spends a week in la, they’re falling back into old patterns and being best friends again, texting constantly, both awkwardly skirting around this thing between them that they’re each about 99% sure is reciprocated (but they don’t KNOW it’s reciprocated so they can’t SAY anything and potentially ruin this new rekindled friendship thing they’ve got going on) and like.... they fall asleep on the couch together by accident and wake up on top of each other. they bump hands while they’re walking through nyc and both nearly have a stroke. frannie wants to rip her hair out because they’re both so DUMB oh my GOD

[sophsicle]

Here's Looking at You Kid Extra Content :)

Hereeeeeeeeeeeeee (Blaise + George talk about Theo)

[sophsicle]

Hello Soph! I just wanted to come on here and let you know how amazing you are. I’ve been reading Holding (which is absolutely amazing) but it’s also made me realize how amazing ur writing is to make me care about characters I wasn’t previously attached to/knew! Bc of this I decided to read here’s looking at you kid, which I hadn’t read previously (even tho I’ve read everything else you write) because I didn’t think I’d care about Blaine and George. Let me tell you I was wrong! That was phenomenal omfg. Genuinely the best thing I’ve ever consumed and I’m just so greatful that you share your amazing talent with everyone!

aww thank youuu!!!!!

so glad you like Here's Looking at You Kid it's one of my favourite stories!

i've also been having a ton of fun with Holding so im super grateful people have been willing to give that story a chance, because i know ao3 isn't really the place for original fiction <3

[sophsicle]

it’s truly a testament to your work that every once in a while i’ll just start thinking about hlayk and trying to imagine how blaise meeting the weasleys would go down, like i genuinely love that fic so much and i’m sure you’re tired of hearing it but i’m soooo curious to know how that situation would play out

i am absolutely NOT tired of hearing it

i also just will randomly think about that fic and i also do love the idea of writing blaise meeting the Weasleys SO maybe one day :)