There are various crafty reasons to wax thread based on what you’re doing with it -- for example waxing thread for beading makes the thread more supple and easier to thread beads onto, at least that’s what I’ve been told. In the case of cross-stitch, especially working on a small-gauge fabric (22 count lugana) like I am, it’s mainly to prevent the thread from tangling. It stiffens it a little so it doesn’t twist around itself when it’s being drawn through the fabric.
In my limited experience, you get far, far fewer tangles, especially when you’re working with a longer section of thread, but the ones you DO get are a REAL pain in the ass. Most I can still unpick, but every once in a while I’m like “welp, the wax has failed me.” :D
“It’s a Euphonian tradition,” Bennet explained. “Night-and-day cake. To celebrate the shortest night of the year. What do you do to celebrate in Jadenvale?”
“Nothing,” Archer said, staring at the many-tiered concoction.
Archer found his way to the castle kitchen, where the baker looked askance when he said he wanted to learn how to bake the night-and-day cake.
“Begging your pardon, Eminence, but it’s an extremely elaborate recipe. It takes a full week to bake.”
The Prince Consort should know how to bake the cake, Archer thought.
So he learned.
He found it inedible, but Bennet seemed to love it.
I found love where it wasn’t supposed to be, right in front of me, talk some sense to me. Below are my Top 5 Favorite stories where Bucky is Hades:
“Like Some Tender God” (T, 5k) by jinlinli
A loud crack rings through the air, and for an instant, Bucky thinks it’s the earth rumbling underneath him in response to his roiling emotions. Then something coils around his wrist and his torso, ensnaring, entangling. It pulls him back, and his legs are sinking into the trunk of the pomegranate tree, the branches twining around his arms. He wrenches forward, but this is Steve’s domain, and Bucky’s all but cut off from the sources of his own power. The tree shudders as it settles back into the ground.
Steve leans closer to inspect his handiwork, trailing a finger up the bark curving around Bucky’s chest. The garland is still draped over his shoulders, and Steve plucks the pomegranate blossom from the end, tucks it into Bucky’s hair. "Sir Hades, why don’t you stay a while," he whispers and presses another light kiss against the corner of Bucky’s mouth.
+ Origin. Steve knows what he wants, and what he wants is Bucky.
-☆-
“Down, Down, to the Underground” (E, 10k) by sarahyellow
In Greek legend, there is the tale of the goddess Persephone. Kidnapped by Hades, returned to save the Earth from her mother's crippling grief, and forced to go back every year. One month in the underworld for each seed of the pomegranate that she ate.
The time for Steve's third year in hell has come around.
+ Ancient. Enemy dubcon to lovers. Bucky begins to romance Steve, and Steve starts wanting to stay
-☆-
“listen to your heart (but don’t say goodbye to me)” (E, 9k) by CinnamonCake
There is a Hades, and there is a Persephone.
They’re just not the ones you’d expect.
+ Origin. Bucky stole Steve’s heart long before he stole Steve.
-☆-
“I have walked through the valley” (T, 8k) by liionne
"Listen, I'm on a very tight schedule here, I don't have time to talk to idiots--"
"Okay, fine, then I'll just hang onto your weird three headed dog thingy then, shall I?" Steve snaps.
"Cerberus?"
"That's what the tag says." Steve mutters.
"Who even is this?" Steve asks, feeling exhausted from the entire conversation.
"James Buchanan Barnes." The voice - James - answers. "Lord of the Underworld. Owner of Cerberus. I'll see you in three days, Steve."
Steve finds a puppy on a post-graduation road trip. It spirals from there.
+ Modern AU. Steve returns a dog, gains a live-in boyfriend.
-☆-
“Love for a Season” (T, 5k) by aislingdoheanta and Justgot1
Steve accidentally wanders into the Underworld and decides he's staying, much to the chagrin of the resident god of the Underworld.
+ Modern AU. Things the underworld has: a cute dog, a comfortable bed, and a handsome guy. Steve is going to stick around for science.
justgot1 replied to your post “cornontherun Top 5/Bottom 5 story meme ...”
That's amazing, I'm glad you're writing an original novel! MATGR is so fucking good, Kings County is so fucking good, you are SO FUCKING GOOD. :D
It is SO HARD. And I really, really I psyched myself out last year about the whole thing. I had a lot of things going sideways and I ended up moving across the country and then back again a few months later, and meeting the love of my life (SUPER unexpected), and then on November 8th we all found out we were on the darkest timeline, and I sort of - got - scared - about having that much control over anything, much less this story that I already care so much about, if that makes sense?
I just have to build it, though. Every story starts out as just one word after the other, and that’s literally the only way you get through any of them. (I’m so happy you’re rooting for me though, it means a lot!!)
eliannaeldari replied to your post “cornontherun Top 5/Bottom 5 story meme ...”
You absolutely have the skill to do this, and I'm really proud of you, and can't wait to buy the book!!!
FRIEND, I CRY
I don’t think writing is easy for anyone, unless you’re Stephen King on a bender or something, but goddamn writing is hard. I’m not a fast writer, and I don’t think of myself as a particularly clever writer; I just plod along at it and try my best and I usually have something in the end that I like. Which IS skill, ultimately, but it is always hard to see it from the inside, isn’t it?
When I first started doing yoga I was thrilled about how bad I was. It’s weird as an adult to realize how hard things are when you start them, and writing an original novel sort of feels like that. It’s an entirely different beast, and it’s not only the story itself that is very ambitious, the point of the story is very ambitious as well - to write a loving, historically accurate story set just before WWII, where a couple of young people get to discover how great it is to be queer, and how they can live real and fulfilling lives that way. It’s going to be a good book, and I think it’ll be a good book for our times specifically, because even now we don’t get a lot of happy endings in queer narratives. I just gotta do it, and keep reminding myself that I can. In the mean time - seriously, thank you. <3 <3 <3
