#The Thread That Binds

[transbookoftheday]

Agender Books To Read For Agender Pride Day

Happy Agender Pride Day! Here are some books with agender characters you should read:

Book Titles:

The Heartbreak Bakery by A.R. Capetta

The Evolving Truth of Ever-Stronger Will by Maya MacGregor

In the Care of Magic by Robin Jo Margaret

Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

Something Spectacular by Alexis Hall

The Thread That Binds by Cedar McCloud

Werecockroach by Polenth Blake

[aroaessidhe]

The Third Eternal Library book, The Flame That Sings, is available to back/preorder on backerkit now!

an adult fantasy quintet about an intergenerational found family of magic bookbinders. Featuring an all queer, mostly neurodivergent cast of lovable characters using storytelling and art to heal from trauma.

I like this series a lot! you should check it out 📚

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[readingoals]

The Thread That Binds was a cute and cosy story that combined some of my favourite things - especially books and tarot! I initially heard about it from a list of books featuring aro and/or ace characters but it's so much more queer than that - one of the main relationships is a QPR, there's poly dynamics, and the primary society featured has no concept of gender so there's a whole bunch of GNC characters!

I ended up really enjoying it though at times I found it a little slow/I could have done with more action but I'm not super big into cosy stories so if you like that sort of thing it probs wouldn't bother you. I did like it enough to buy the oracle deck (also by Cedar McCloud) which was inspired by/featured in the novel, and it is Gorgeous!

[mythrilthread]

necro elysium (yuck!!) by @mercyisms

A confession: I LOVE fics that use the Disco Elysium format, and The Locked Tomb is just the perfect fit for this type of AUs (and going over the top with book design). And this one is so so so good!

🫀 I knew I wanted to mimic the layout of the text in DE basically as soon as I finished reading and saw the gorgeous illustration by @smapis.

🫀 The cover is inspired by the description of the card, but instead of trying to recreate it exactly (and messing with glitter) I went for the same theme and the kind of DIY arts and crafts style project vibe. Hence my first buttonhole stitch binding, with the heart painted with chromatographic ink (the color is called Unicorn’s Tears) and inked it over in hot pink with a glass dip pen. I also painted the folds of the pages and filled in some of the frames (where the narrator is YOU).

🫀 The rest of the portraits are cropped out of the aforementioned gorgeous illustration, except for Jod’s, which is a photo of a black hole (presented without comment).

🫀 I always want to play with textures for TLT fics, so this time the cover is black felt over a pink gift bag with nice leather-textured pink endpapers, and the textblock paper is a gorgeous 125gsm half-cotton that bravely took everything I threw at it.

I had so much fun working on this 🥰

[gojoest]

[mare--noctis]

No matter the fic, no matter the au, I am first and foremost the #1 Doris McGarrett hater in the world.

[absenceisaformofwinter]

According to the Japanese legend of the red thread of fate, every person is tied by their pinky finger to an invisible red thread that leads them to another person with whom they are destined to make history.

The red thread of fate symbolizes shared interest and the union of feelings. It doesn’t matter the time, place, or circumstance; no matter how much one tries to escape the path, it has already been written.

The red thread may tangle, contract, and stretch, as often happens, but it can never break.

By the photographer and visual artist duo Gustavo López & Lorena Parra

[mobiusismycomfortcharacter]

WIP Wednesday

A bit I've recently had to rewrite from the untitled fic (which might be getting a title?)

"Mhm," B-15 hums with disbelief. "It seems to me that Loki hasn't been the one wanting space though. I thought you of all people would be happy to have Loki back. So why have you been giving him the cold shoulder?"

"I'm not giving Loki the cold shoulder," Mobius argues.

"It's been pretty frigid from where I'm standing," B-15 says.

Loki yawns and drags a hand across their face again. A sigh escapes Mobius' lips as he recognizes that B-15 is right. As usual.

"Loki has gone to incredible lengths to come back to us. He could leave and go anywhere he wanted to be. I don't think he's chosen to stay out of his love of the TVA," B-15 points out.

"I know," Mobius says quietly.

Low pressure tags to everyone :)

@andthekitchensinkao3 @distracteddream @ghoulehhh @in-my-loki-feels @gloriouslokiuss @loki-is-my-kink-awakening @megglesthegeek @thosegayoldmen @zephyrsobsessions

And of course, anyone else who sees this and wants to join in. What's everyone working on?

[yourmoodboards-areonfiirree]

VII, The Witch 𖤐

𖤐 The Black Tarot 𖤐

(All images found on pinterest)

[aroaessidhe]

aro & ace books: nonbinary/nonbinary relationships

The Thread That Binds - aroace agender MC x grey-ace agender MC qpr

The Tale That Twines - demiaroace agender x greyaro agender

Godly Heathens duology - demiromantic MC, nb/nb/m

The Evolving Truth of Ever-Stronger Will - agender demiromantic demi/greyace MC, genderfluid LI

The Heartbreak Bakery - demisexual genderfluid love interest, agender MC

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

info included here is brief! please see my database for full details of the books

[dia-draws]

Binding thread au

Heads up any and all of this is subject to change as I grow the idea and fledge it out but this is what it is for now. Y’all are welcome to ask abt it!

Everyone but Sally is over 18 (if I did the math right but that’s the intention) no ship war discourse under this pls and thank you💕

(1/21/25 edit) gonna have ticciwork be end game and ticcijeff just be a fling.

Hopefully I got everyone lol it’s a lot I feel fucking insane rn looking at this

Friends:

Ej & Liu

Ej & Toby

Liu & Jane

Liu & Helen

Nina & Ben

Lulu & Kate

Cody & Ben

Cody & Nat

Cody & Helen

Toby & Kate & Brain & Tim

One sided Ann towards Kate

Bffs:

Ann & Lulu

Jeff & Ben

Nina & Nat & Toby

Tim & Brian

Complicated:

Sally has complicated feelings about all the others as a ghost stuck at 10 but is technically one of the oldest.

Liu has mixed and very complicated feelings toward his brother

EJ’s feelings toward Dina is because she reminds him of his sister but she keeps trying to kill him

Dislike/hate:

Jeff & Jane

Ben and Helen

Toby & Cody

Dina toward EJ

Tim toward Jeff

Flings: (oh god there’s so many what have I done)

Ann & Dina

Ann & Lulu

Ann & Jane

EJ & Liu

EJ & Toby

Jeff & Ben

Jeff & Toby

Nina & Jane

Nina & Cody

Nina & Toby

Nina & Kate

Jane & Lulu

Cody & Ben

Cody & Kate

Cody & Helen

Nat & Toby

End goal:

Ann & Jane & Lulu

EJ & Liu

Nat & Toby

Nina & Kate

Cody & Helen

Tim & Brian

[booksandmore]

the greek class are outcasts in their society (gay, eccentric, the twins, etc) and desperate for a place to belong, but the tragedy of the secret histpry is that everything is a lie. even if they tried to, even if they wanted to, they just didnt like each other. they didnt love each other. thats why everything fell apart

[mythrilthread]

The Devil Went Down to Georgia (And Then Went Down on Johnny) by @notbecauseofvictories

This is one of the stories that I enountered purely due to seeing absolutely outstanding bindings of it, and boy, am I grateful for that, because this one is SO GOOD.

🎻 I knew I wanted to do something that differed from previous takes on the story, so I had a pretty solid design idea, then had a lot of fun typesetting this series using musical notations (many thanks to @lootthecoyote, my resident music expert), sewn the textblock, and THEN had a brilliant idea that, as I'm using leather anyway, why not try a completely new binding type?

🎻 So off came the mule, I hammered my very much swell-less textblock into as much of an arc as I could, and began gleefully constructing the cover with its many fun cutouts and overlays (that I used to create the violin design under the leather).

🎻 I then went through hell and back trying to pare leather for the first time (I survived the ordeal, but barely. Me being afraid of sharp knives certainly didn't help!) I did mess up quite a lot of things, but I'm still very happy with the result. The A6 books have too light pages to do the tightback thing and drape really well, but it does the signature K118 party trick of opening ALL THE WAY, as you can see in the last photo.

🎻 Additional design notes: the endpapers are yellow paper with a lovely linoprint of a cornfield on it, with additional leaves of black paper, the body (AND the header) font is, of course, my beloved Georgia — not only dear to my heart, but also PLOT RELEVANT, there's a nice engraving of a fiddle on the title and half-title pages, and table of contents and individual story titles feature a frame that gave me ~bluegrassy vibes~.

[antaripirate]

made this a couple months ago and forgot to post it🫢 (it’s so dumb)

[speakofthedebbie]

by popular demand (re: one person) some radioapple fic recs!! (i hope thats what you meant lol most of the fics i read are just radioapple)

Bedtime Rituals to Try out Before the Next Angelic War by @miribalis

just yes. thousand times yes. so basically my boy luci has some sleep troubles and that somehow leads to a qpr with al look its been a while ok just read it

Managerial Liberties by the same fella

these two tags explain it pretty well

something that sticks out to me about this is that charlie is actually (reasonably) cold to adam and like. im actually surprised with how little ive seen that. i mean i dont think id be exactly buddy-buddy with my besties killer either. only 3 chaps as of writing but already looking to be a radioapple classic

im not sure if its meant to be read as such but it kinda feels like a squeal to bedtime rituals in a way (edit: not meant to be read as such, just the same vibe)

devils don't fly (don't expect me not to fall) by @corgiss

also just yes. basically a really not cool joke evolves into a blossoming romance because why wouldnt it. (man if i had a nickel for every radioapple fic that had a masquerade that was sabotaged by the vees- *gets shot bc i cant mention osas yet*)

i’ll hold you close (i’ll stay the course) by the same fella

the entire time i was just going "yas king! put that egotistical flatscreen in his place!!". basically luci reminds the overlords who he is and vox shows he can be more of a threat than he lets on.

ykw fuck it just the entire series (i didnt mention i would give anything to not give a shit (but i do) and my perfect rock bottom (my beautiful trauma) because the first one sounded a lil too angsty and ive gotten enough of that from other sources [pointedly glares at Quietly, It Slips Through Your Fingers, Love {also coming up later!}] and the second is (mostly) smut and ive been trying to step back from that because "ive seen worse" isnt a valid excuse for that torture actually)

Of Saints and Sinners by the forever amazing @morningstarwrites!! (if you see this i have a serious question: is this your first time ever writing a fic? because how do you get so much right the first time- [not even beginners luck could explain this level of skill])

i could sing its praises until my death bed but ill hold off so i can explain whats happening. basically after burning down a meeting room several times, luci and al make a deal ("not a deal!", luci laments to the void): they will attempt to be civil and maybe even friendly, and by the end luci will owe al a favour. whats the favour? read it yourself dammit! seriously, 10/10, i am foaming at the mouth till friday (depending on how this goes, that might be tomorrow or today)

Quietly, It Slips Through Your Fingers, Love by Starlit_Rainfall (no tumblr in sight, so AO3) (i. urgfgh. what happened. i was just smiling over the fluff while crossing to go to school. where did it go. where did it gooooo)

if thats anything to go by, the last few chapters have been rough. the fluff feels so far away that i cant even explain what happens. luci was waxing poetic about swimming in maple syrup for al, i remember that much. also emily is there (fallen) tho we havent seen her in a sec. if you read it, warning for the gut punch of angst that starts chap 32 "She/Her" (though the chapter before that, "Should Alastor Know By Now?" ends pretty rough too)

Freely We Serve by @romanaxe

i dont remember how i managed to stumble upon this but im having a great time. basically alastor is a new sinner fresh in hell (but time doesnt matter and the whole cast is still here) and thinks "what better way to gain power than be the personal assistant of the heartbroken king of hell!" features a 6(?) year old charlie and a morally dubious lilith (also i loved eepy al X3)

A Family Forged in Hellfire by Green_Ghostwriter (once again, no Tumblr, so AO3)

this ones a bit newer (10 chaps), is so far mostly exposition and the slowburn pot hasnt even been put on the stove, but as just a hazbin fic in general i see the potential. basically its a 1920s au where heaven decides little charlie doesnt deserve to be raised in hell and is sent to earth with a "foster" family where her actions in life will determine witch realm she will return to after death. her "parents", al and minzy, are given false memories so they can claim the girl as their own and gee i wasnt kidding when i said it was a lot of exposition. erm honestly explaining anymore would tech be spoiling so go read it!

The Red Thread That Binds Us by @scun-gilli

{{future me prefacing this by saying i have no idea where i was going with yesterdays thought process, all you need to know from it was im on chapter 27. also scungilli your comment is making me very worried 😟 well theres no mcd tag so im sure itll fine, right? RIGHT, SCUNGILLI??}}

basically its a king x kings guard au where al and luci grow up together and only grow closer after a. certain life event for al (its fine guys trust :)) [she said, like a liar]) then al is sent of for royal guard training school (ik its not called that i forgor 😭) but dw he comes back. just watch out for graphic depictions of injuries (i think thats this fic) angst and a sneaky eve bc radioapple fics are allergic to happiness (or maybe im not looking hard enough lol) (also im really tempted to make the friendship bracelets they had 👀)

somewhere down the line by kj_crwm (AO3 link)

this one starts off as human!alastor/lucifer but by the middle(?) its just regular radioapple. basically al is encountered by luci while finishing off a job who agrees to keep quiet. luci just keeps on showing up, reveals hes the devil to which al us just like "lol ok" and eventually they get in a relationship (ooh lala 👀) but they break up after saying some hurtful things to each other (oh nono 👀) with luci promising al they will never cross paths again. if you watched the show then well. you know that doesnt happen 😂 most human!al radioapple have al summon him (no hate to them) so this was an interesting change of pace

cannot stress it enough but this is a WORKING list i WILL be coming back to it bc these are purely the fics i could think if off the top of my head. IN FACT, if any of you have radioapple fics you love, SEND THEM THE FUCK IN! i am one person whos only been in this fandom for 4 months, and reading fics/shipping radioapple even less, theres bound to be some ones i missed that you think are Worthy™️! and if theyre nsfw then at the very least it shouldnt be the main focus

EDIT: so sorry anyone who reblogged this before had to see the disgusting unedited version. literally just found out that tumblr doesnt apply edits to reblogs. what the fuck