#Textile Testing Machine

[gester-tester]

The recently concluded ITMA ASIA + CITME 2022 has been a great success. GESTER appreciates the presence of all the visitors and extends a heartfelt thank you. This may be the end of the exhibition, but it is not the end of our connection. We look forward to meeting you again in the future!

[sophieguo]

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[systemsandcontrols]

Universal Testing Machine Price

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[veinsfullofstars]

Meet the Families: Gear Dee, Eva, & Treble Dee

You guys might’ve heard me talk about Bow’s extremely cool moms before (and maybe mention her sullen older brother once or twice), and now I finally get to introduce you to them! Check below the cut for more deets and fun facts!

(OC info updated as of 05/07/25.)

Started 04/22/25, finished 05/06/25. | Childhood Friends AU Masterpost

---

Some fun facts about Gear Dee:

-Raised in a certain city off-world, Gear grew up deep in the heart of Air Ride culture, surrounded by roughnecks and gearheads who absolutely adored her and always treated her like one for the family. Her father - a trophy-winning racer - taught her all the tools of the trade (mechanics, vehicle operation, pyrotechnics, etc.) and fostered in her a love of fast starships and thrilling races. (He maaaay have also let her test out the machines before she was old enough to drive one, but the authorities never found out, so who’s to say how true that is?)

-Once she was old enough to enter, Gear quickly made a name for herself in local Air Ride competitions, living mostly for the thrill and the speed rather than victory. Her vehicles of choice tend to be either the Turbo Star and the Formula Star.

-Her first relationship was… a messy one. During her early days running in the city trials, she fell head-over-heels for an awkward but charming Waddle Dee who always showed up for her races, taken in by gifts, pretty words, and - though she didn’t know at the time - empty promises. Her father and friends never approved of him, but Gear has never been one to follow any path but her own, moving in to his grungy apartment partly out of stubbornness and partly upon learning they had a kid on the way. She’d tried her damnedest to make it work, even as their love started to sour, as her career prospects flagged, as his debts and gambling problems became known, as the shouting matches grew more and more frequent. It wasn’t until the birth of their second child that she’d had enough, packing her bags and ignoring his protests and pleas as she left with the kids, moving in with a certain seamstress friend of hers across town.

-Things improved a bit during her stay with Eva. She didn’t have much time for races anymore thanks to the kids but found enough fulfillment in ancillary mechanics work to make up for it. Her friendship with Eva quickly blossomed into something more, the transition near-seamless given how close they’d grown in the years prior. She saw Eva’s meek demeanor open into something bright and personable, the pressure of city life easing off as she found her footing. It warmed Gear’s heart to hear her talk about patterns and textiles and fabric quality with a fervor that only came when she was at her happiest.

-When the phone calls came, Gear blocked his number. When the letters arrived, she tore them up. When he appeared on Eva’s doorstep - teary-eyed with his pockets turned out, offering the same empty apologies and poor excuses as before - she slammed the door in his face. Almost one year since she left, she once again decided she’d had enough and packed up her things for a second time, now with Eva at her side. They said their goodbyes to their families and friends with promises to keep in touch (and to not tell him where they were going) and boarded the next starship out of the city, making their home in a little middle-of-nowhere village on Gear’s birth planet, Popstar.

-It’d taken some time to get used to more rural living, but Gear settled in well enough. Popstar - for all its peace and quiet - is not without its own avenues of entertainment and thrill. And there’s always need for a handywoman around, whether it’s to fix a busted toaster or build a new fence or see what’s wrong with the family warp star. It’s fulfilling, in its own way (plus, with some help from the Poppy Bros. family, she also gets to be in charge of fireworks on holidays, so there’s that). She does miss the city sometimes, though, especially the races. She hopes she can visit again someday… though, not right now.

-Gear isn’t entirely sure what happened between her and Treble. He used to be such a sweet boy before… well, all that. She’s tried to talk with him about it, but he never wants to hear it, either brushing her off or starting another shouting match. It reminds her a lot of herself at that age. Maybe that's why it strains her patience with him to its limit so often. (That, or seeing his father in those blue eyes...)

-Raising Bow was a journey that Gear wasn’t entirely prepared for - nothing in those stupid parenting books about atypical Copy Abilities. If it hadn’t been for Eva’s help, she has no idea how she would’ve managed. Even now, Bow’s still a handful, but she’s also Gear’s little firecracker, a tiny spark of excitement and energy who loves fun and danger just as much as she does. She can’t wait to take her to the city someday - Bow would love the races, she just knows it.

-Gear will never stop talking about how cool her wife is.

Some fun facts about Eva:

-Eva doesn’t talk about her life before the city. Full stop. For all she cares, her life didn’t begin until she hitched a ride on a passing starship and stepped out into the blinding lights of that sprawling metropolis. The city was hardly kind to her in those early years, forcing her to run with some tough crowds and make some tougher choices in order to survive, but she did survive, finding home and friends and purpose in those grimy, noisy streets. Compared to the nest she’d clawed her way out of, it might as well have been paradise.

-While working in a laundromat to pay for her meager apartment, Eva bumped in to very punk-rock Waddle Dee who introduced herself as one of the many Air Ride racers that populate the city. They got to chatting and hit it off right away, becoming fast friends in a handful of weeks. She learned all about Gear and her life in the city, her interests, her goals, the sound of her boisterous laughter. Eva could feel her heart reaching even then and found herself feeling brave enough to share bits of herself, her own experiences - good and bad - carving out a life in the city. She learned of Gear’s kids and the disintegrating state of her relationship, saw the frustration and misery in her warm eyes, and - though trying to remain respectful - did try to act as a voice of reason regarding Gear’s flaky partner, perhaps the one that finally convinced her to leave him.

-Though Gear and her kids moving in came rather suddenly, it proved to be some of the happiest days of Eva’s life (before coming to Popstar, anyway). It was far from easy, but they shared the weight as evenly as they could, supporting each other and talking through what needed talking through. She watched the life return to Gear’s eyes, her drive returning in earnest as she pursued her passions once again (even if they had to be tweaked a bit). It was Gear who took her to get her first piercing. It was Gear who took her to the Garden in the Sky and showed her the stars high above the city. It was Gear who used her connections to help Eva land a job with an esteemed boutique, a dream she’d had since coming to the city. After all that, how could she not fall in love?

-They’d discussed leaving the city long before the calls and letters. Eva might have come there seeking a fresh start, and learned so much in her time living there, but she never quite took to urban life as readily as Gear did, despite her efforts. Gear was understanding… if a bit hesitant, at first. After all, she had a life here already, family and friends and a potential career. Obviously, Eva didn’t want to tear her away from that, only wanted Gear and her kids to be happy, but she couldn’t help but wonder if there might be a better home for them all elsewhere… It was only when Gear’s ex started coming by that the prospect seemed a lot more inviting.

-Within a year of moving in together, they’d found a new home far away from the city, in a quiet little village full of kind folks that took them in readily. Eva quickly found that the countryside suited her much better than the city, enamored with the clean air and vast blue skies unblemished by skyscrapers and smog. She’d been so used to the roar of vehicles and commuters that she’d almost forgotten the sounds of nature, animals and leaves and wind and silence. She’s never felt so… at home than she has here.

-Though she still takes commissions for custom outfits and accessories, Eva has mostly relegated her clothing passions to the comfort of a beloved hobby, spending most of her time working with her neighbors as a community organizer instead. She’s still the first on call when someone needs fashion advice or a rip repaired, though, and she’s knitted at least one sweater for almost everyone in the villager. 

-If Gear had been unprepared for a sulky teenager and a hydrokinetic baby, then Eva even less so. She loves Bow and Treble dearly, of course, cares for them as if they were her own children… but, stars, they can be a handful sometimes. It’s so hard to keep up with Bow’s energy, and Treble looks at her like she’s personally responsible for every bad thing in his life… It’s fine, though. If her time in the city has left her with anything, it’s the ability to adapt to whatever life throws at her. She can be patient. She can be strong. She can be a good mother to these kids who deserve the world.

-Eva likes to call Gear her wife despite the fact that they never officially got married.

Some fun facts about Treble Dee:

-Unlike Bow, who was too young to remember her brief time in the city, Treble has no trouble recalling his early childhood. He remembers their tiny apartment, with its faded wallpaper and water damage stains that looked like animals if he squinted. He remembers his dad carrying him on his back out by the wharf, telling him stories and showing him the lighthouse and buying him the best ice cream he’d ever had. He remember his mom coming home smelling like motor oil and letting him play with toy spaceships she brought back from the races. He remembers having friends and going to school and hearing music on the street all the time. He remembers being happy there.

-He remembers his dad being gone a lot, while his mom paced and fumed over the bills on the tiny kitchen table. He remembers hearing them argue a lot through the walls when he was supposed to be asleep. He remembers peering down into the crib with the tiny Waddle Dee inside, feeling crowded despite how small she was.

-Once, his dad bought him a ukulele for his birthday. His mom taught him how to play it, promising to teach him how to play her guitar when he got bigger. He loved that little uke and played it all the time, making up silly little songs that made his dad laugh and tell him he was going to be a star one day. He forgot to pack it up when his mom said they had to leave. He wonders if it’s still there.

-He didn’t like Eva’s apartment. It smelled weird, and the water stains in the ceiling looked like faces laughing at him. He had to share a room with Bow. She cried a lot, so much that she broke one of the pipes in the kitchen. He had a nightmare the first night there, hearing his dad calling out to his mom and begging her to come back. Eva found him crying and tried to hold him until he calmed down. He pulled away. He never got to say goodbye.

-He didn’t cry when they left the city. Just sat with his cheek pressed against the window of the starship, watching the only home he’d ever known fade behind the clouds, and then the stars. He kept his headphones on so he couldn’t hear Bow crying or his mom talking to Eva.

-Treble learned to play bass on his own. Mostly out of spite, if we’re being honest. (Gear’s too proud of him to see it that way, though.) Yes, he’s aware of the irony of being named Treble and playing the bass - stop bringing it up. Also, he's in a band with his friends. Called the Mellow Dees. They're gonna make it big one day, you'll see.

-He wishes his mom didn’t push her interests onto him all the time. Yeah, it’s cool that she taught him how to write music and dye his hair and stuff, but then she wants him to listen to all her weird old-people music or go skateboarding with her and Bow or some other dumb thing he doesn’t care about. Then she gets on his case for staying inside all day and not spending time with people. He is spending time with people, just not her. He has a life, y’know? Friends his own age who actually like the things he likes. He’s not gonna hang out with his parents all the time. That’s so lame.

-He wishes Eva wasn’t so nosy. It doesn’t matter that she’s nice or whatever, she’s such a starsdamn busybody. Always asking what he’s doing and what he’s working on and does he want a snack and ugh, stars, just take a hint already. Does she think he’s still a baby or something? Just leave him alone. He doesn’t want to talk to her. He never wants to talk to her.

-He thinks his baby sister is annoying and wishes she’d stop bothering him when he’d busy doing his own thing. Her friends are just as bad, the little brats. Stars, he hates it here.

-Well… okay, maybe he doesn’t hate it here, living in the village. It’s… fine, he guesses. The weather’s always nice. Food’s good. He even made some new friends who are actually pretty cool. He just… misses the city sometimes, is all. The lights, the music, the tall buildings, the crowds of people, even the smell of the alleyways. He doesn’t miss the races, though. Not even a little bit.

-He does miss his dad sometimes.

[willowwindss]

100 Inventions by Women

LIFE-SAVING/MEDICAL/GLOBAL IMPACT:

Artificial Heart Valve – Nina Starr Braunwald

Stem Cell Isolation from Bone Marrow – Ann Tsukamoto

Chemotherapy Drug Research – Gertrude Elion

Antifungal Antibiotic (Nystatin) – Rachel Fuller Brown & Elizabeth Lee Hazen

Apgar Score (Newborn Health Assessment) – Virginia Apgar

Vaccination Distribution Logistics – Sara Josephine Baker

Hand-Held Laser Device for Cataracts – Patricia Bath

Portable Life-Saving Heart Monitor – Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig

Medical Mask Design – Ellen Ochoa

Dental Filling Techniques – Lucy Hobbs Taylor

Radiation Treatment Research – Cécile Vogt

Ultrasound Advancements – Denise Grey

Biodegradable Sanitary Pads – Arunachalam Muruganantham (with women-led testing teams)

First Computer Algorithm – Ada Lovelace

COBOL Programming Language – Grace Hopper

Computer Compiler – Grace Hopper

FORTRAN/FORUMAC Language Development – Jean E. Sammet

Caller ID and Call Waiting – Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) – Marian Croak

Wireless Transmission Technology – Hedy Lamarr

Polaroid Camera Chemistry / Digital Projection Optics – Edith Clarke

Jet Propulsion Systems Work – Yvonne Brill

Infrared Astronomy Tech – Nancy Roman

Astronomical Data Archiving – Henrietta Swan Leavitt

Nuclear Physics Research Tools – Chien-Shiung Wu

Protein Folding Software – Eleanor Dodson

Global Network for Earthquake Detection – Inge Lehmann

Earthquake Resistant Structures – Edith Clarke

Water Distillation Device – Maria Telkes

Portable Water Filtration Devices – Theresa Dankovich

Solar Thermal Storage System – Maria Telkes

Solar-Powered House – Mária Telkes

Solar Cooker Advancements – Barbara Kerr

Microbiome Research – Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello

Marine Navigation System – Ida Hyde

Anti-Malarial Drug Work – Tu Youyou

Digital Payment Security Algorithms – Radia Perlman

Wireless Transmitters for Aviation – Harriet Quimby

Contributions to Touchscreen Tech – Dr. Annette V. Simmonds

Robotic Surgery Systems – Paula Hammond

Battery-Powered Baby Stroller – Ann Moore

Smart Textile Sensor Fabric – Leah Buechley

Voice-Activated Devices – Kimberly Bryant

Artificial Limb Enhancements – Aimee Mullins

Crash Test Dummies for Women – Astrid Linder

Shark Repellent – Julia Child

3D Illusionary Display Tech – Valerie Thomas

Biodegradable Plastics – Julia F. Carney

Ink Chemistry for Inkjet Printers – Margaret Wu

Computerised Telephone Switching – Erna Hoover

Word Processor Innovations – Evelyn Berezin

Braille Printer Software – Carol Shaw

⸻

HOUSEHOLD & SAFETY INNOVATIONS:

Home Security System – Marie Van Brittan Brown

Fire Escape – Anna Connelly

Life Raft – Maria Beasley

Windshield Wiper – Mary Anderson

Car Heater – Margaret Wilcox

Toilet Paper Holder – Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner

Foot-Pedal Trash Can – Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Retractable Dog Leash – Mary A. Delaney

Disposable Diaper Cover – Marion Donovan

Disposable Glove Design – Kathryn Croft

Ice Cream Maker – Nancy Johnson

Electric Refrigerator Improvements – Florence Parpart

Fold-Out Bed – Sarah E. Goode

Flat-Bottomed Paper Bag Machine – Margaret Knight

Square-Bottomed Paper Bag – Margaret Knight

Street-Cleaning Machine – Florence Parpart

Improved Ironing Board – Sarah Boone

Underwater Telescope – Sarah Mather

Clothes Wringer – Ellene Alice Bailey

Coffee Filter – Melitta Bentz

Scotchgard (Fabric Protector) – Patsy Sherman

Liquid Paper (Correction Fluid) – Bette Nesmith Graham

Leak-Proof Diapers – Valerie Hunter Gordon

FOOD/CONVENIENCE/CULTURAL IMPACT:

Chocolate Chip Cookie – Ruth Graves Wakefield

Monopoly (The Landlord’s Game) – Elizabeth Magie

Snugli Baby Carrier – Ann Moore

Barrel-Style Curling Iron – Theora Stephens

Natural Hair Product Line – Madame C.J. Walker

Virtual Reality Journalism – Nonny de la Peña

Digital Camera Sensor Contributions – Edith Clarke

Textile Color Processing – Beulah Henry

Ice Cream Freezer – Nancy Johnson

Spray-On Skin (ReCell) – Fiona Wood

Langmuir-Blodgett Film – Katharine Burr Blodgett

Fish & Marine Signal Flares – Martha Coston

Windshield Washer System – Charlotte Bridgwood

Smart Clothing / Sensor Integration – Leah Buechley

Fibre Optic Pressure Sensors – Mary Lou Jepsen

[wooahaeruby]

Chapter 3: Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Chapter Word Count: 3,043

TW

Death/NON-major character death. Reader is a little fucking stupid.

Master List | Prev | Next

So…You decided to do something really really stupid. 

Digging through your closet, you found an entirely black outfit, tying up your hair and tucking it into a beanie. As you secured the laces of your dark boots, your phone buzzed in your back pocket. You pouted your lips, a small pang of guilt building up in your chest. 

It was Seokmin. He was texting you, full of emojis and little ‘ ~ ’ to insinuate he was joking, but the words struck you down a bit. He was telling you to, again, not do anything stupid, even when you already decided you would do something stupid…  

You replied back with a simple ‘ I won’t ’ before pocketing the device and hurrying out of your apartment and down to the streets of the city. 

Looking at the note you pulled out of your front pocket, the location was inner city close to the center, somewhere near a big club called Ruby . Reviews said it was one of the best night scenes in the city, having expanded to three neighboring buildings in the last year alone. While you’ve never been to the club itself, you know of the popularity through coworkers and hearsay, it sparked an interest in something happening literally around the corner from it. 

You waved down a taxi and slid in, giving a destination a few blocks away so you could take the rest on foot. Slapping some cash in the driver’s hand, you didn’t bother for change and stepped out to the busy Friday night streets. You weaved through people, keeping your head low and moving quickly towards your desired location.  

Have you ever staked out a place and tried to sneak in? No, but you have seen enough crime dramas and true crime shows to know it shouldn’t be that hard. And for your own sanity, you would just try and get in and get out before anyone noticed. If it was nothing, at least you sated the curiosity and could go home without an issue. If it was something, you were fucked and probably walked into the worst place you could be in. 

Were you scared? Hell yeah you were, but sometimes you had to be scared to get things done. 

With time growing later, you scouted out the place, a bit of a run down but functioning building. When looking into it after work, it was a small, very old textile factory that didn’t produce much but still had enough money to keep the building under ownership. It was decently large for the area, but it was small compared to the surrounding buildings, but surrounded by many that were just as run down except for the club. The music coming from Ruby was loud enough to be heard, not overly so, but the bass was strong even from a slight distance. 

There weren't any people around when you got between side alleys, one only had a homeless man knocked out in the back corner, and there was no one guarding the back door. You crouched down and slowly made your way towards one of the windows, giving a very easy push to see if it was open. To your surprise, it was and you pushed it open a crack to peer inside. A quick back and forth glance inside showed no one, but you pushed it open a bit more just to be sure. 

It was relatively dark inside but the old bulbs were bright enough so you could see. Still, you saw no one in your second glance so it was somewhat safe to assume you could slip in the window. Pushing it open enough to get in and closing it some behind you, you tried to be as quiet as possible and find a dark corner to hide yourself in. You heard a few voices that echoed and you took it methodically with each step. There were plenty of boxes to hide behind, enough shadow to keep you decently hidden thankfully. 

It was more of an open area building with a few machines littering the grounds, but a majority of the floor was covered in boxes around the outside edge. You stayed close to the ground, testing every step for sound before moving. 

The further inside you got, the louder the voices became, no longer reverberations. You placed yourself behind a stack of fabric crates and leaned towards the edge and peered beyond the corner. 

Six men were attempting to move a pile of wooden crates into an unmarked lowboy trailer, one operating a small forklift while the other three pushed them into place at the back of the truck. One of the last two were at the closed door towards the front of the building, the other at what seems to be a side door on the far side of the room. Squinting, you tried to read anything on the wood, but nothing stood out in the dim lighting. 

“Hurry the fuck up-” The man on the lift whisper-yelled, eyes frantically looking around.

Looking around yourself, you didn’t see anyone and the three in the truck did pick up their speed. You took out your phone to take a picture or at least get some sort of evidence of what you were witnessing, but were startled by the side door being kicked in. 

You pressed yourself back against the boxes, holding a hand over your mouth to keep quiet. Curses came from the man you heard earlier and the heavy sound of footfall followed. 

“Oh ho, what’s going on here?” A sarcastic tone came with the words. “Is that my product?” 

“I- Boss- Everyone oh god- !” A handful of thunks of boots hitting the floor and a fearful laugh left one of the other men. “What uh- What are you all doing here?” 

“Oh you know, just in the area, was with everyone for a nice night and we got word that something was going on.” The same, unknown voice spoke, footsteps following. “Better question, what are you doing with my stuff, shit bag?”

Taking a deep breath, you slowly moved yourself to see around the box. You are met with the sight of a group of men standing opposite of the six you saw earlier, some of them were obscured by the stack of boxes beside yours. The one man that was at the side door is being held up front by one of the gang that entered. The one holding him had pale, bleach blond hair and a soft face despite the stern look that graced his features. The other five were standing with their tails between their legs, almost lined up like children being scolded. They stood tall, however their eyes were shifty and honestly terrified. 

The one who stepped forward hummed, raising a brow, his shoulder length black hair half tied up and long black trench coat hiding his figure. His face was thin and pretty, eyes half closed like he was ready to sleep. “I’ll ask this one more time. What are you doing with my stuff, shit bag?” 

“We were- We were just moving them to- Uh- Somewhere Apollo wanted it moved!” You watched as the man swallowed, steadying his breathing. 

Tall and pretty up front rolled his eyes and stepped forward once more, each step reverberating off the walls. He neared the one who hopped off the forklift, eying him up and down. “Oh you delicate fool…Stealing what’s mine and lying to my face? You’ll have to be better than that. Tempest , come look at this idiot.” He was toying with them at this point. 

Another man stepped forward, one from behind the stack that obscure your vision. Your eyes shifted to the new figure and your blood ran cold and you felt the world slow down. 

Dressed in dark trousers, a black fitting button up, and a leather jacket was Seokmin. He slid his hands out from his pockets, taking notice of the handgun that was strapped to a holster on his side. The usual bright expression he wore was gone, exchanged for something dark and somewhat devilish. 

“Hmm, he looks perturbed, maybe if we scare them enough they’d cry.” The low rumble of a laugh that left him had bile burning the back of your throat. 

You were staring, your head barely peeking out from behind the stack, eyes wide with shock. Seokmin, your weird, loud, and loving boss was…a bad guy? Even worse, part of SVT if the lead was regarding them? He was working for the government? Too many questions were causing a headache to pound behind your eyes. 

“Ya, Loki , stop playing with them.” A deeper, stern voice called out. You could see this one in the crowd, thick eyebrows furrowed together in annoyance. His hair was slicked back from his face and the fitted shirt he wore barely contained the muscle hidden below it.  “Just end it. I don’t want an explanation. Apollo didn’t order shit.” 

“Ah~ But King , can’t I toy with them? Look at them tremble .” Loki snickered, looking over his shoulder. 

Seokmin stepped back, turning in your direction and your heart stopped. He was staring directly at you, pausing for the most miniscule moment before continuing to walk back towards the group. Two from his group stepped forward, one that looked almost otter-like with a bowl haircut and an undercut while the other was taller and lankier, his hair grown into a mullet. 

It happened too quickly, the front man, Loki, and the other two were near instant in drawing guns and shot the – what you assumed – traitors down. The sound was deafening and you pressed yourself flush with the boxes after the first two bodies crumbled to the floor. Tears started to brim your eyes but you held both hands to your mouth, silencing any sound that could escape you. You started to move, quiet footsteps leading you back towards the window. Pushing it open, you slid out, holding your breath when you heard the final, sixth shot.

Once you got yourself out of the network of alleys and around the corner to the crowded front entrance of Ruby, you took a proper breath and hurried down the block. You tore the beanie from your head and pushed the sleeves of your sweatshirt up, suddenly too hot and too uncomfortable. 

You didn’t want to believe what you saw, let alone believe Seokmin was in SVT. Walking turned into running and running turned into making it home before you could call for a taxi. 

You felt sick. The pounding of your heart and being out of breath from running only added to the nausea that stirred on your gut. You had seen a man, two men, be shot near point blank and none of the other men, SVT , flinched. Seokmin had seen you and god, now you probably were going to be killed and you needed to find a way out of this- 

Making your way up to your apartment, you hurried in and locked the door behind you. You grabbed a chair from your dining room table and used it to brace the door. Out of paranoia, you checked if each and every window was locked and closed all your curtains. 

You hopped in the shower and almost scrubbed your skin raw, leaving the shower bright pink but nowhere near feeling clean after everything you witnessed. When you got dressed and found your phone, you saw multiple text notifications and calls from Seokmin but you didn’t bother to answer them. He was telling you to pick up the phone and talk to him, not a single emoji to be seen. 

Calming down enough but still paranoia, you climbed into bed and stared up at the ceiling. When you closed your eyes, the sight of the bodies hitting the floor had you willing down the contents of your stomach.

Somehow in the mix of anxiety, you passed out. 

You lasted three days. Seokmin was texting you everyday, even going as far as emailing you. Sunday night you put in a sick leave notice to him and the supervisor above you, needing time to figure out what the next step will be. You didn’t bother leaving the house at all since Friday night and you were glad that you ordered groceries not too long ago so you could survive a little longer without leaving. 

He had been annoying you all day and you muted his notifications so you could hear your own thoughts. Each time you opened your phone, the number over your text message app had increased. 

Sitting curled up on your couch, wrapped in a blanket, you stared unfocused at the TV, it’s light the only thing illuminating your living room. The volume was low, only loud enough for you to hear but not enough if anyone tried to put their ear to the front door. Some rerun of an old 90s show was playing but you weren’t listening really. It was hard to focus on anything. Saturday you woke up feeling horrible and some piece of you wanted to pack a bag and go somewhere without anyone knowing. 

A knock came later in the evening, the sun having set and the room still only lit by the TV. You didn’t dare move, feeling your heart rate pick up and the anxiety bubbled in your limbs. Another knock was louder this time. 

“Open up.” Seokmin’s voice called from the other side of the door and you turned the TV off. “I know you are in there.” 

You slowly, quietly, let out the breath you were holding, trying to figure out if you were safe. 

“ Y/N… ” He dropped his tone, another knock resonating through your front room. “ Open the door or I’m opening it myself.” 

You stood up and tiptoed to the door, leaning over the chair that still braced your door and peered out the peephole. Seokmin stood just beyond the door, his face twisted in frustration and he knocked once more. 

“I’ll count to ten and if you don’t answer, I’m kicking it in.” 

Your eyes blew wide and you scrambled to open the door. “Don’t you fucking dare I already know I’m going to die, I don’t need you ruining my reputation before that-” You pulled him in by the front of the shirt, whispering out the words in a panic. 

Seokmin let himself be pulled in and scoffed at the comment you made. You closed the door, flicking on the lights, and made distance between the two of you, rounding the couch and staring at him in your entrance way. 

“Sweetheart, if we were going to kill you, you would have been dead by Saturday morning.” He laughed but your blood ran cold. “I didn’t tell them.” 

Wait- 

“Huh?” 

Seokmin stepped closer, resting both hands on the back of the couch. “I. Didn’t. Tell. Them.” 

You blinked, staring at him in confusion. “Why not? I literally saw-” You grimaced at the thought, shivering. “I literally saw whoever your friends are…kill two men before I got out of there.” 

“Honey,” He hummed the playful pet name, slowly moving around the furniture that separated you. “I want to make a proposition.” 

You backed away, looking to your side to stand in the space he was previously. “No, I am not taking a deal with the fucking mafia , Seokmin! You might have been my friend but you are literally undercover with the government-” 

“Semantics, honey. It’s either you take this deal or you die. I can only keep my secret from them for so long before one of them sees right through me.” He tilted his head, sliding his hands into his dress pants pockets. “I’d rather not see my wife die.” 

“Do not joke at a time like this!” All the pent up frustration bubbled out and you yelled at him. He jolted the slightest bit, the rage you let out was unexpected, not once seeing you like this in your time of friendship. “You- you’re in the biggest gang in this state! You deal with illegal weapons and drugs and- and- and killing people! Now you are asking me to take some deal which is probably insane and joking about some stupid stuff from my job and your fucking cover -” 

You felt like you were going insane, the more you rambled, the closer you were to a panic attack. No amount of fake confidence could fix how horrible you felt. 

“Hey-” He tried to ease closer, panic in his own eyes as your breath quickened and you were starting to tear up. “Hey, hey- Let me talk-” 

“Don’t touch me-” You felt him place a hand on your upper arm and you jerked away, trying to catch your breath. He only placed his other hand on your other arm, eyes pleading for you to calm down. “I-I- I don’t wanna die-” 

And you broke, letting the tears you desperately tried to hold back stream down your cheeks. Words continued to be mumbled out but were unintelligible and jumbled, lost between the sobbing that wrecked through you. Seokmin was saying something yet you couldn’t hear him. His grip on your arms was firm and grounding, something you found comforting despite your conflicting feelings on him currently. He pulled you in for a tight hug, pressing your head into his chest to hear the rhythmic beating of his heart. 

The main point of contention with Seokmin was that he still… felt like the man you knew. In this hug now, it felt like the same warm, loving embrace you had found yourself in many times before. He always pressed you into his chest, holding you as if he was going to lose you. You wondered if he thought he actually would lose you because of the second life he lived, if he questioned if he could keep you around like now. 

“I can’t-” Seokmin took a breath, running one of his hands through your hair, “I won’t let them do anything, but you need to help us. That’s the only way I can secure your life and hopefully convince them to leave you alive.”

Tag List is Open! Comment on the BSH Master List to get added!

Tag List:

@unlikelysublimekryptonite @iiaweirdo @aurorajoye

[inland--empire]

I am. Sooooo normal about these guys rn so all of my Nightmare Mode characters backstories! (+ One of my OCs)

TW for child abuse, child experimentation (Lilith and Anazareth), gross imagery including worms (Nyogtha), mentions of sexualization of a minor (for Yan Luo), parent death (for Bryn), self harm as manipulation (Abducius) and grievous injuries to children (for Teutates)

Xezbet: Xezbet was once a human, back in medieval times. He often dressed up as a monk to swindle people out of their money, or to hide from authorities. Once people started catching wind of what he was doing, some people stared a rumour that he was a devil worshipper, but he was really just some guy. He was eventually executed for trying to cheat a knight out of his money. His ghost wandered for thousands of years before he managed to sneak into the Palace of the Nightmares and he just lives here now.

Drugia: Drugia started out her existence in hell with no knowledge of where she came from. She left very quickly, almost immediately starting by causing nightmares in young children, challenging herself to create more disturbing and concerning dreams, driving people to insanity. She ended up joining the Nightmares so she could relax, and not have to worry about anyone attempting to hunt her down. It is widely speculated that she is one of Ishtar's children, but she doesn't know.

Exael and Barbatos: Both of them started out as bounty hunters and assassins, making money and getting shelter in exchange for capturing or killing targets. Barbatos obviously did most of the tracking while traps and dispatching was up to Exael. Neither of them take pleasure in their jobs, but there is a sense of pride there. They both ended up becoming indebted to the King of Death and made to stay at the Palace of Nightmares.

Abducius: Abducius says he was born a human, and while that is technically the truth there is far more to the story. He's truly a poltergeist that took over someone else's body. He's always desperate for attention and to have eyes on him, hence the horrific ways he has mutilated himself and others. He attests he used to be a circus performer, someone who swallowed swords and juggled fire. Really, he worked in a textile factory making machines. He died in a workplace accident, but since no one remembered him, that angered him. Hence his nature as a ghost.

Lilith and Anazareth: Lilith and Anazareth are two parts of the same soul, just given different bodies. Lilith's body was originally empty, the soul inside it killed by the twins parents (who were also both witches) so it could house their second daughter. Really, they only split their daughter in two to prove they could. Lilith and Anazareth grew up knowing everything about each other, and they still do. Neither of them were actually...people to their parents. Since they were children their parents used them as lab rats for their new spells, or to test the limits of their bodies, minds and souls. All of their magical knowledge came from their parents.

Chaugnar: Chaugnar was born in a far different place than he later was summoned to. He was actually rather average where he lived, having a base knowledge of how to connect to the spirit world but as he wasn't an oracle or priestess he had to use his own forms of divination. Still, this was supported by his parents because any connection to any other realm was sacred and important. Later in his adulthood he was summoned to the Palace of the Nightmares by Anazareth to help them forge their "circuit".

Nyogtha: Nyogtha was a corpse up until about fifty years ago when a group of worms infested her body and began to move it. She doesn't remember her life alive because...she's the worms now. The worms have always been worms. Just very smart worms. They keep their body preserved with...I actually don't know, they probably got someone to enchant the body.

Zoth: Zoth was born to a noble family within the Court of Death (Yan Luo's family's court), and this was expected to take on his father's role from a young age. He has trained to be a ritual guide his whole life, and he does a damned good job of it. He can recite any chant needed from memory, he can direct a whole ceremony by himself and perform every single role. This came at the expense of really any friends, so he took any companionship he could get when he got older. He holds no grudge against his parents but I think he should. There is a reason he wears a collar.

Shub: Shub was born from the ground eons ago, back in the days when humans were gaining sentience. She is tied to their knowledge and wisdom. Many people regard her as the snake in the Garden of Eden, but according to her that didn't happen, she just happened to see a human and talked to her for a bit and helped start the beginning of humanity's thirst to know. She's also been the one to keep humanity humble. For every innovation, Shub will cause a drought and wipe put fertile crop land. For every step forward, Shub will make their fruit rot on the vine to remind them they are at nature's mercy. She loves her job though, and is actually the founding member of the Horsemen entirely because of her purpose in life.

Yog: Yog is the son of a fairy queen, a merry god of death, and a demon. He lived in his mother's kingdom for years but realized he didn't fit in with his brothers and moved to the Palace of the Nightmares. He just kinda lives there now.

Quachil: Quachil and her parents were cast out of heaven after her parents were found causing pain and suffering to mortals. Her parents fell all the way to the pits of hell, but Quachil somehow managed to land right in he middle of the courtyard to the Palace of the Nightmares. She was found by Ishtar who was with Yog at the time, and they both adopted her. Once Ishtar tried to divorce Yog, however, Yan Luo removed Ishtar's custody rights out of spite meaning Quachil had to live with her father. She prefers not to talk about that experience. She eventually does go back to live with her mother, though.

Yan Luo: Yan Luo was the only child of the King of Death. He was expecting a son and was very displeased to see Yan Luo born a woman. Her early life was full of learning how to one day be a queen, and that her life was to be dedicated to finding a husband and having a child first, then being a cold and controlling ruler. As she grew, her father's constant comments about her made her grow to detest her body and how it looked, and cause her to see her role as a curse. Once she ascended to the title of Princess of Death (the Palace of the Nightmares and being a Horseman has always been seen as a training ritual for the Wang Diyu family) she realized just how inexperienced and put of her depth she was compared to the other Horsemen, which caused her to lash out. He is getting better though.

Orcus: Orcus was just summoned one day. He's also a ghost like Abducius is, and he steals people's bodies. He also just straight up steals people's skin. He doesn't remember his life and a human and he doesn't care.

Ishtar: Ishtar was also born out of the ground a few months after Shub. She acts as a partner to Shub, helping her cause famines to keep the humans in check as well as creating new illnesses and types of creatures at torment them. She delights in creation, of course. A new illness means a new cure, a new romantic poem about a love one passing away dramatically...each pest a new source of innovation, a new story born from how bad they want to be rid of them. She doesn't have Shub's disdain for human vices, however, in fact she often partakes in them. Ishtar loves to play. She has also had many, many, many children...but hasn't been able to keep a single one as each disappears from her womb before birth. This sadness usually causes her to make a new species of insect or strain of illness.

Teutates: Teutates was born for the battlefield. The second he could walk his father had him in a uniform, training with soldiers much bigger than him. His mother attempted to take him away, but Ah Puch kidnapped him back so he could continue training. By his teen years he could take down a full grown man and was a general in his father's army. He didn't like the gruelling training and the pressure he was under, but he felt he had no other choice. He began wearing his gas mask and uniform all the time after his father forced him into a battlefield wearing nothing but civilian clothes and a mine activated in front of him, burning up most of the front of his body. After this, Ah Puch began getting her "pets" (usually dopples) to keep her company. This started a cycle during her horseman days where she would get a new pet in spring and by fall accidentally kill it during her rage blindness.

Ah Puch: Despite saying he loved leading an army, he got tired of it pretty much as soon as he became a Horseman. He's actually the only Horseman to not have a parent who was one or just have been one from the start. Really, he had worked his way up the ranks in the army before the former War took a shine to him and basically put Ah Puch under his protection, affording him all the best he could offer before his retirement. Ah Puch then realized war was not as fun when you aren't being praised for every single thing you do, so as soon as he had a child he began training the kid to take his place so he could retire a hero.

Dagda: Dagda was Yan Luo's first attempt at having a child. She made his body, then had Xezbet put a soul into him. She then realized after he woke up for the first time she really didn't want a child, so put him in a field to "guard" and sort of...left him there. Since he had just come into existence he didn't try and follow her, thinking this was a normal thing, and he was a scarecrow after all! Eventually Shub was out and brought him back, and Izanami offered to let him live with her. He now holds a bit of a grudge against Yan Luo, but normally doesn't talk to her.

Izanami: Izanami died years and years ago after her husband poisoned her so she wouldn't find out he was cheating on her. She then turned around and ripped off his face when he was sleeping. She has a dedication to warping the faces of liars so everyone knows what they are. She was eventually summoned by Anazareth completely accidentally, and decided that the Palace of the Nightmares is not a bad place to live, so she stayed.

Bryn: Bryn is a doppleganger, and dopplegangers in the Nightmare Realm are a species of mammal that can steal people's appearances. The Nightmares regard them as pests who eat humans they could be using for rituals or their own food. Dopples also live in colonies, though these ones are much smaller than in the real world. Bryn lived in a colony with his mother when it was raided, and his entire colony killed. He was only spared because he can't run out of blood, so he was given to Yog as a pet. He lived with Yog and later Abducius and Zoth as well for years before Teutates kind of stole him.

[maria-crossover]

† The Believer †

General information | Prime Asset backstory | Trials | Dialogues

「 Prime Asset backstory」

Although she has a complete history of somewhat questionable crimes committed at an early age, it is not denied that a part of the subject's biography is missing. Especially the Walrider.

Originally born in Jujuy, Argentina, her family moved to California, USA, along with the girl's uncles with the decision of a better life and continuing with field work. Maria has been a fanatic of God since she can remember, a believer in religion. Her family and she have always been believers, praying for good progress and better crops in the field or better cattle.

It is said that she has ended up with a disability due to an accident while riding a horse, leaving fissures and poor physical development that affects the mobility of her left leg in the femur. Despite treatment with antibiotics, an alternative for the family in terms of economics, she has experienced moments of emotional decline due to her situation and living day to day in this condition. Despite being humble and with a clearly poor economy, she made the greatest effort to study. Because of her disability, she was not fit to work in the fields and was forced to study with her uncles at home, thanks to their professions as teachers and professors.

At eight years old, the girl's life took an unexpected turn after an incident that harmed her and her family. During a short walk with her uncles, running a couple of errands, they lost sight of Maria and could not find her anywhere in the village, the only thing they found was the cane that she used to help her move.

According to the latest reports of the Carmichael case, being a kidnapping, she has suffered years of psychological and emotional torture. The girl returned after six years, without the help of the cane and walking normally. Something that scared the family is that she still looked just as young, but the only difference was her height, her facial features didn't change completely and walking like a normal human was a miracle. According to the medical reports, she showed that the bones in her leg and femur were still the same, but somehow she walked well. However, her development has been affected by poor nutrition, clearly malnutrition and dehydration. Although it will take María some time to adjust to her old lifestyle after living day after day, it can be seen that she is not at all affected by the trauma she experienced during her childhood, which is quite scary and worrying.

She had confessed what her life was like being with her kidnappers, listening to screams of pain from other victims being tortured physically, psychologically and sexually. She has never been hurt or raped, luckily, according to what she remembers it is because she was too small to be used as a weapon. Weapon, that is what worried the officers who interviewed her after her reappearance.

The girl gave the address where she was kept in the shadows, out of her freedom and the other people who could not escape. The authorities immediately went to raid the place, what they found was an abandoned textile factory. In the basement of the place, they found bodies of men and women. In addition to artifacts, machines were used to experiment on people to try to make a weapon. The kidnappers identified themselves as foreigners, Russians and Germans. At least five doctors, fifteen armed men and seven men in charge of kidnapping many test subjects. After forensic studies, the victims are not correctly determined how they were massacred. They found fractures and parts of lower limbs separated from their bodies, which leaves many theories about the massacre. One person couldn't have killed thirty-five people, but what hasn't been determined is the gunpowder and ashes, which puts the theory on an attempt to erase evidence by burning the place.

The case had been put to one side, María being the only survivor of the kidnapping and the inhuman torture she had been through. However, Carmichael's case was taken up again after a year, after a serious accident at home left the village traumatised.

María's parents and uncles died in a fire, the house burned down and they lost most of their home and left the girl and her one-year-old sister, Annabelle, orphans. The origin of the fire has not been determined, but what is suspected was the girl's attitude. Since the accident she had been playing with the baby, ignoring the screams and cries of her family dying in the flames. But she wasn't identified as a suspect, as her way of acting was possibly fear and trying to block it so that it would not remember the trauma of her kidnapping, distracting Annabelle from the accident. It was a miracle that she and the baby survived that fire with ease, but after an interview with the girl, it left many questions for investigators. About the angel who called himself “Manny,” who saw him from the first months of his kidnapping. However, they brushed the questions aside, being nothing more than beliefs or possibly the girl’s imagination.

The girls were sent to an orphanage, unable to contact other relatives. But after a few months, Annabelle was adopted by a family, separating Maria from her. She was discouraged since then but never lost faith. But everything changes when the caregivers, nuns and priests end up slowly committing suicide, leaving the children. Some of those victims had confessed to having committed sins that do not deserve to be forgiven, such as physically and sexually abusing minors. But the most suspicious thing was the confession of one of the deceased nuns, who had seen the devil handling a puppet of flesh and bones, with that innocent smile and those eyes that look into the window of the darkest soul, feeding on our sins, fears and weaknesses.

María had been sent from orphanage to orphanage. With the same results, people who have taken their own lives or died under the flames of a fire. But the case comes to a conclusion, leaving the girl as the main suspect of all these events, since the incident with the Carmichael family. She was caught, trying to effortlessly hang a priest, with her feet on the roof of the church, however, she ends up killing the man by just breaking his neck. And as a response to trying to be stopped, she ended up killing the officers. However, it hasn't been determined how she killed them, but the forensic experts determined that they had found gunpowder and ashes, the same material that was found in the massacre of Maria's kidnappers.

Many neighbors said that they had seen the devil, disguised as the girl from the day she returned to the village. From time to time, detaching itself from Maria's body, being a kind of humanoid without facial features and composed only of dark shadows. Being one of the strangest and most sinister cases of the town, something supernatural. Although Maria had slipped away from the authorities, she didn't stop moving forward until she was nineteen years old, rebuilding her life in another country. In Cuba she had inherited fields from her grandparents, having the opportunity to do agriculture, but at the same time working in a fish market and keeping both businesses in balance for her own economy.

Clyde Perry went to investigate more about María Carmichael, being one of the people who has attracted a lot of attention. At first it was very difficult to communicate with her, since she was very distant and lonely. Finally, after buying fish and asking some casual questions, she invited him to talk in a more private place like her ranch, which Perry accepted with some trepidation but willing to take advantage of the opportunity.

From the moment they met, casually drinking tea and mate, María confesses that she knows that he has been following her and investigating her, being an interesting and peculiar person. But not only that, but she also flatters the investigator a lot about his appearance, especially his eyes, which makes him a little nervous. But after her questions and mockery, María shows the darkest side that a human being could have seen. Confessing how she hurt adults when she was a child, doctors, her kidnappers, nuns and priests, enjoying every scream of pain and asking for mercy as if God were judging each of them for their actions, the sins they committed. Feeling pleasure and satisfaction in doing justice with her own hands alongside her angel.

She had taken off her glasses and revealed one of her eyes completely dark as the devil, hungry for blood and afraid of its next victim. Then, the man could see how a kind of humanoid detached itself from its body and showed itself before him. Its dark form, without facial features and with swarms of ashes scattered on its body and the woman's, seeing the fear and before the eyes of the investigator. And the moment the humanoid tries to do something to Perry, Maria stops it with just one order and calling it "Manny."

The Walrider follows her order, returning to the woman's body and making her move normally again. She apologizes to the man, leaving him with a warning not to bother her again and to let him go unharmed, but wishing he would visit her again for being the only man to have caught her attention. Terrified, Clyde Perry leaves the shack with one hand in his pocket hiding his gun, unsure if that thing was going to come for him.

As Perry writes, he confesses that he has been having nightmares and bizarre dreams. After going to treatment for a while, they discovered that he had some kind of nanomachines and ashes in his ears, which explains his bad dreams and possibly a way for Manny to manipulate the minds of the victims to ground them, and corner each of them with the thoughts of taking their own lives. Which leaves the man traumatized, having seen the devil with his own eyes. After the researcher's treatment, Maria was later captured and sent to the Sinyala facility. However, she allowed herself to be captured while controlling Manny inside so as not to harm another person. Since then, she meets Dr. Easterman at some point, placing an ounce of her trust and loyalty in him.

[hambubbie]

Hello! I'd like to ask about your West Bank keffiyehs post - is there any way we can confirm these are at all authentic Palestinian keffiyehs? Because according to the Hirbawi keffiyeh website they're the last and only Palestinian factory producing authentic keffiyehs and they have a Hirbawi tag on them to indicate authenticity. This isn't an accusation of course, there's just a lot of scams out there and it'd be good to have some evidence people aren't being taken advantage of as Palestinian keffiyehs are in high demand right now.

Thanks!

Hello! I can definitely understand your concern! The keffiyehs are produced in the Al Nabulsi textile factory started in 1950 and was newly revitalized. They partnered with a friend of a friend who had their tourism agency shut down and by using their US contacts they were able to get things running again so they could find a distributor. I was actually part of the test run they did a few months ago and the funds from it were used to do things like set up their website and fix their machines. They didn’t have the power to do so before but with this new partnership it’s allowed them to produce and ship (unfortunately to US only right now) so for a while Hirbawi was the only working factory. Here’s a video I was also sent of the factory at work a few days ago!

[gester-tester]

Textile Bursting Strength Tester GT-C12B

[spitinsideme]

Fav school subject? If you even had any

h9nestly i really did like my gcse fashion and textiles class dontger me wrong i was absolutely shit at it everyine took limr a month to make s bucket hat and it took me a whole year but i really did enjoy thr class since it was all girls and one guy and i really liked the teacher necause she was always kund of mean to me for sucking si badly (i didnt even knlw how to preparr a sewing machine ready evej after two full years in that class)

but favoutotr class likr subjecr wise ? i didnt really have any classes i looked fotwsrd to going becayd i HATED schook but history was my favrouite out of all them, it wad the cladd i enjohed the mist subject wise, i think itd aldo becauxe i liked the teschrr sincr she was kind of mean and it mafe mr wsnt to like imoress her a bit with my history knowledge i remebet thrte was a question on an exam she made us di that EVERYINR got wring EXFEOT ME !! i felt soo amaizng when she called me out snf spoke to me individually when shr handed me ny test and ssid good job .. i felt like .. so good .. that mafe mr happy got a whole month straigbt .. i dont suck at history as much

fashion and history were also like the ONLY classes i ever did homework for, not becase i cared fot thr classes but because i wanted thr teachers to be oroud of me and lime compliment me

[mariacallous]

In February of last year, Donggang Jinhui Foodstuff, a seafood-processing company in Dandong, China, threw a party. It had been a successful year: a new plant had opened, and the company had doubled the amount of squid that it exported to the United States. The party, according to videos posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, featured singers, instrumentalists, dancers, fireworks, and strobe lights. One aspect of the company’s success seems to have been its use of North Korean workers, who are sent by their government to work in Chinese factories, in conditions of captivity, to earn money for the state. A seafood trader who does business with Jinhui recently estimated that it employed between fifty and seventy North Koreans. Videos posted by a company representative show machines labelled in Korean, and workers with North Korean accents explaining how to clean squid. At the party, the company played songs that are popular in Pyongyang, including “People Bring Glory to Our Party” (written by North Korea’s 1989 poet laureate) and “We Will Go to Mt. Paektu” (a reference to the widely mythologized birthplace of Kim Jong Il). Performers wore North Korean colors, and the country’s flag billowed behind them; in the audience, dozens of workers held miniature flags.

Drone footage played at the event showed off Jinhui’s twenty-one-acre, fenced-in compound, which has processing and cold-storage facilities and what appears to be a seven-floor dormitory for workers. The company touted a wide array of Western certifications from organizations that claim to check workplaces for labor violations, including the use of North Korean workers. When videos of the party were posted online, a commenter—presumably befuddled, because using these workers violates U.N. sanctions—asked, “Aren’t you prohibited from filming this?”

Like Jinhui, many companies in China rely on a vast program of forced labor from North Korea. (Jinhui did not respond to requests for comment.) The program is run by various entities in the North Korean government, including a secretive agency called Room 39, which oversees activities such as money laundering and cyberattacks, and which funds the country’s nuclear- and ballistic-missile programs. (The agency is so named, according to some defectors, because it is based in the ninth room on the third floor of the Korean Workers’ Party headquarters.) Such labor transfers are not new. In 2012, North Korea sent some forty thousand workers to China. A portion of their salaries was taken by the state, providing a vital source of foreign currency for Party officials: at the time, a Seoul-based think tank estimated that the country made as much as $2.3 billion a year through the program. Since then, North Koreans have been sent to Russia, Poland, Qatar, Uruguay, and Mali.

In 2017, after North Korea tested a series of nuclear and ballistic weapons, the United Nations imposed sanctions that prohibit foreign companies from using North Korean workers. The U.S. passed a law that established a “rebuttable presumption” categorizing work by North Koreans as forced labor unless proven otherwise, and levying fines on companies that import goods tied to these workers. China is supposed to enforce the sanctions in a similar manner. Nevertheless, according to State Department estimates, there are currently as many as a hundred thousand North Koreans working in the country. Many work at construction companies, textile factories, and software firms. Some also process seafood. In 2022, according to Chinese officials running pandemic quarantines, there were some eighty thousand North Koreans just in Dandong, a hub of the seafood industry.

Last year, I set out with a team of researchers to document this phenomenon. We reviewed leaked government documents, promotional materials, satellite imagery, online forums, and local news reports. We watched hundreds of cell-phone videos published on social-media sites. In some, the presence of North Koreans was explicit. Others were examined by experts to detect North Korean accents, language usage, and other cultural markers. Reporting in China is tightly restricted for Western reporters. But we hired Chinese investigators to visit factories and record footage of production lines. I also secretly sent interview questions, through another group of investigators and their contacts, to two dozen North Koreans—twenty workers and four managers—who had recently spent time in Chinese factories. Their anonymous responses were transcribed and sent back to me.

The workers, all of whom are women, described conditions of confinement and violence at the plants. Workers are held in compounds, sometimes behind barbed wire, under the watch of security agents. Many work gruelling shifts and get at most one day off a month. Several described being beaten by the managers sent by North Korea to watch them. “It was like prison for me,” one woman said. “At first, I almost vomited at how bad it was, and, just when I got used to it, the supervisors would tell us to shut up, and curse if we talked.” Many described enduring sexual assault at the hands of their managers. “They would say I’m fuckable and then suddenly grab my body and grope my breasts and put their dirty mouth on mine and be disgusting,” a woman who did product transport at a plant in the city of Dalian said. Another, who worked at Jinhui, said, “The worst and saddest moment was when I was forced to have sexual relations when we were brought to a party with alcohol.” The workers described being kept at the factories against their will, and being threatened with severe punishment if they tried to escape. A woman who was at a factory called Dalian Haiqing Food for more than four years said, “It’s often emphasized that, if you are caught running away, you will be killed without a trace.”

In all, I identified fifteen seafood-processing plants that together seem to have used more than a thousand North Korean workers since 2017. China officially denies that North Korean laborers are in the country. But their presence is an open secret. “They are easy to distinguish,” a Dandong native wrote in a comment on Bilibili, a video-sharing site. “They all wear uniform clothes, have a leader, and follow orders.” Often, footage of the workers ends up online. In a video from a plant called Dandong Yuanyi Refined Seafoods, a dozen women perform a synchronized dance in front of a mural commemorating Youth Day, a North Korean holiday. The video features a North Korean flag emoji and the caption “Beautiful little women from North Korea in Donggang’s cold-storage facility.” (The company did not respond to requests for comment.) Remco Breuker, a North Korea specialist at Leiden University, in the Netherlands, told me, “Hundreds of thousands of North Korean workers have for decades slaved away in China and elsewhere, enriching their leader and his party while facing unconscionable abuse.”

In late 2023, an investigator hired by my team visited a Chinese plant called Donggang Xinxin Foodstuff. He found hundreds of North Korean women working under a red banner that read, in Korean, “Let’s carry out the resolution of the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party.” (The company did not respond to requests for comment.) Soon afterward, the investigator visited a nearby plant called Donggang Haimeng Foodstuff, and found a North Korean manager sitting at a wooden desk with two miniature flags, one Chinese and one North Korean. The walls around the desk were mostly bare except for two portraits of the past North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The manager took our investigator to the workers’ cafeteria to eat a North Korean cold-noodle dish called naengmyeon, and then gave him a tour of the processing floor. Several hundred North Korean women dressed in red uniforms, plastic aprons, and white rubber boots stood shoulder to shoulder at long metal tables under harsh lights, hunched over plastic baskets of seafood, slicing and sorting products by hand. “They work hard,” the manager said. The factory has exported thousands of tons of fish to companies that supply major U.S. retailers, including Walmart and ShopRite. (A spokesperson for Donggang Haimeng said that it does not hire North Korean workers.)

At times, China aggressively conceals the existence of the program. Alexander Dukalskis, a political-science professor at University College Dublin, said that workers have a hard time making their conditions known. “They’re in a country where they may not speak the language, are under surveillance, usually living collectively, and have no experience in contacting journalists,” he said. In late November, after my team’s investigators visited several plants, authorities distributed pamphlets on the country’s anti-espionage laws. Local officials announced that people who try “to contact North Korean workers, or to approach the workplaces of North Korean workers, will be treated as engaging in espionage activities that endanger national security, and will be punished severely.” They also warned that people who were found to be working in connection with foreign media outlets would face consequences under the Anti-Espionage Act.

Dandong, a city of more than two million people, sits on the Yalu River, just over the border from North Korea. The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge links Dandong to the North Korean city of Sinuiju. A second bridge, bombed during the Korean War, still extends partway across the river, and serves as a platform from which Chinese residents can view the North Koreans living six hundred yards away. The Friendship Bridge is one of the Hermit Kingdom’s few gateways to the world. Some trade with North Korea is allowed under U.N. sanctions, and nearly seventy per cent of the goods exchanged between that country and China travel across this bridge. At least one department store in Dandong keeps a list of products preferred by North Korean customers. Shops sell North Korean ginseng, beer, and “7.27” cigarettes, named for the date on which the armistice ending the Korean War was signed. The city is home to a museum about the conflict, officially called the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. On boat tours, Chinese tourists purchase bags of biscuits to toss to children on the North Korean side of the river.

Government officials carefully select workers to send to China, screening them for their political loyalties to reduce the risk of defections. To qualify, a person must generally have a job at a North Korean company and a positive evaluation from a local Party official. “These checks start at the neighborhood,” Breuker said. Candidates who have family in China, or a relative who has already defected, can be disqualified. For some positions, applicants under twenty-seven years of age who are unmarried must have living parents, who can be punished if they try to defect, according to a report from the South Korean government; applicants over twenty-seven must be married. North Korean authorities even select for height: the country’s population is chronically malnourished, and the state prefers candidates who are taller than five feet one, to avoid the official embarrassment of being represented abroad by short people. Once selected, applicants go through pre-departure training, which can last a year and often includes government-run classes covering everything from Chinese customs and etiquette to “enemy operations” and the activities of other countries’ intelligence agencies. (The North Korean government did not respond to requests for comment.)

The governments of both countries coördinate to place workers, most of whom are women, with seafood companies. The logistics are often handled by local Chinese recruitment agencies, and advertisements can be found online. A video posted on Douyin this past September announced the availability of twenty-five hundred North Koreans, and a commenter asked if they could be sent to seafood factories. A post on a forum advertised five thousand workers; a commenter asked if any spoke Mandarin, and the poster replied, “There is a team leader, management, and an interpreter.” A company called Jinuo Human Resources posted, “I am a human-resources company coöperating with the embassy, and currently have a large number of regular North Korean workers.” Several people expressed interest. (The company did not respond to requests for comment.)

Jobs in China are coveted in North Korea, because they often come with contracts promising salaries of around two hundred and seventy dollars a month. (Similar work in North Korea pays just three dollars a month.) But the jobs come with hidden costs. Workers usually sign two- or three-year contracts. When they arrive in China, managers confiscate their passports. Inside the factories, North Korean workers wear different uniforms than Chinese workers. “Without this, we couldn’t tell if one disappeared,” a manager said. Shifts run as long as sixteen hours. If workers attempt to escape, or complain to people outside the plants, their families at home can face reprisals. One seafood worker described how managers cursed at her and flicked cigarette butts. “I felt bad, and I wanted to fight them, but I had to endure,” she said. “That was when I was sad.”

Workers get few, if any, holidays or sick days. At seafood plants, the women sleep in bunk beds in locked dormitories, sometimes thirty to a room. One worker, who spent four years processing clams in Dandong, estimated that more than sixty per cent of her co-workers suffered from depression. “We regretted coming to China but couldn’t go back empty-handed,” she said. Workers are forbidden to tune in to local TV or radio. They are sometimes allowed to leave factory grounds—say, to go shopping—but generally in groups of no more than three, and accompanied by a minder. Mail is scrutinized by North Korean security agents who also “surveil the daily life and report back with official reports,” one manager said. Sometimes the women are allowed to socialize. In a video titled “North Korean beauties working in China play volleyball,” posted in 2022, women in blue-and-white uniforms exercise on the grounds of the Dandong Omeca Food seafood plant. (The company that owns the plant did not respond to requests for comment.) A commenter wrote, “The joy of poverty. That’s just how it is.”

Factories typically give the women’s money to their managers, who take cuts for themselves and the government, and hold on to the rest until the workers’ terms in China end. Kim Jieun, a North Korean defector who now works for Radio Free Asia, said that companies tell workers their money is safer this way, because it could be stolen in the dormitories. But, in the end, workers often see less than ten per cent of their promised salary. One contract that I reviewed stipulated that around forty dollars would be deducted each month by the state to pay for food. More is sometimes deducted for electricity, housing, heat, water, insurance, and “loyalty” payments to the state. Managers also hold on to wages to discourage defections. The women have been warned, Kim added, that if they try to defect “they will be immediately caught by Chinese CCTV cameras installed everywhere.” This past October, Chinese authorities repatriated around six hundred North Korean defectors. “China does not recognize North Korean defectors as refugees,” Edward Howell, who teaches politics at Oxford University, told me. “If they are caught by Chinese authorities, they will be forcibly returned to the D.P.R.K., where they face harsh punishment in labor camps.”

Chinese companies have significant incentives to use North Korean workers. They’re typically paid only a quarter of what local employees earn. And they are generally excluded from mandatory social-welfare programs (regarding retirement, medical treatment, work-related injury, and maternity), which further reduces costs. In 2017, Dandong’s Commerce Bureau announced a plan to create a cluster of garment factories that would use North Korean labor. The bureau’s Web site noted that all such workers undergo political screenings to make sure they are “rooted, red, and upright.” “The discipline among the workers is extremely strong,” it added. “There are no instances of absenteeism or insubordination toward leadership, and there are no occurrences of feigning illness or delaying work.” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to questions for this piece, but last year the Chinese Ambassador to the U.N. wrote that China has abided by sanctions even though it has sustained “great losses” as a result. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently said that China and North Korea have “enjoyed long-standing friendly ties,” adding, “The United States needs to draw lessons, correct course, step up to its responsibility, stop heightening the pressure and sanctions, stop military deterrence, and take effective steps to resume meaningful dialogue.”

North Koreans face difficult circumstances across industries. In January of this year, more than two thousand workers rioted in Jilin Province, breaking sewing machines and kitchen utensils, when they learned that their wages would be withheld. Many North Koreans—perhaps thousands—work in Russian logging, in brutal winter weather without proper clothing. Hundreds have been found working in the Russian construction industry; some lived in shipping containers or in the basements of buildings under construction, because better accommodations were not provided. One recounted working shifts that lasted from 7:30 A.M. to 3 A.M. In preparation for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, held in Russia and Qatar, thousands of North Koreans were sent to build stadiums and luxury apartments. A subcontractor who worked alongside the North Koreans in Russia told the Guardian that they lived in cramped spaces, with as many as eight people packed into a trailer, in an atmosphere of fear and abuse like “prisoners of war.”

Although it’s illegal in the U.S. to import goods made with North Korean labor, the law can be difficult to enforce. Some eighty per cent of seafood consumed in America, for example, is imported, and much of it comes from China through opaque supply chains. To trace the importation of seafood from factories that appear to be using North Korean labor, my team reviewed trade data, shipping contracts, and the codes that are stamped on seafood packages to monitor food safety. We found that, since 2017, ten of these plants have together shipped more than a hundred and twenty thousand tons of seafood to more than seventy American importers, which supplied grocery stores including Walmart, Giant, ShopRite, and the online grocer Weee! The seafood from these importers also ended up at major restaurant chains, like McDonald’s, and with Sysco, the largest food distributor in the world, which supplies almost half a million restaurants, as well as the cafeterias on American military bases, in public schools, and for the U.S. Congress. (Walmart, Weee!, and McDonald’s did not respond to requests for comment. Giant’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, and ShopRite’s parent company, Wakefern, said their suppliers claimed that they currently do not source from the Chinese plant in question, and added that audit reports showed no evidence of forced labor.)

Two of the plants that investigators from my team visited—Dandong Galicia Seafood and Dalian Haiqing Food—had an estimated fifty to seventy North Korean workers apiece. One worker who has been employed at Galicia said that the managers are “so stingy with money that they don’t allow us to get proper medical treatment even when we are sick.” Galicia and Haiqing have shipped roughly a hundred thousand tons of seafood to American importers since 2017, and Haiqing also shipped to an importer that supplies the cafeterias of the European Parliament. (Dalian Haiqing Food said that it “does not employ overseas North Korean workers.” Dandong Galicia Seafood did not respond to requests for comment. One of the U.S. importers tied to Haiqing, Trident Seafoods, said that audits “found no evidence or even suspicion” of North Korean labor at the plant. Several companies, including Trident, High Liner, and Sysco, said that they would sever ties with the plant while they conducted their own investigations. A spokesperson for the European Parliament said that its food contractor did not supply seafood from the plant.) Breuker, from Leiden University, told me that American customers quietly benefit from this arrangement. “This labor-transfer system is for North Korea and China as economically successful as it is morally reprehensible,” he said. “It’s also a boon for the West because of the cheap goods we get as a result.”

North Korea doesn’t just export seafood workers; it also exports fish—another means by which the government secures foreign currency. Importing North Korean seafood is forbidden by U.N. sanctions, but it also tends to be inexpensive, which encourages companies to skirt the rules. Sometimes Chinese fishing companies pay the North Korean government for illegal licenses to fish in North Korea’s waters. Sometimes they buy fish from other boats at sea: a letter from a North Korean, leaked in 2022, proposed selling ten thousand tons of squid to a Chinese company in return for more than eighteen million dollars and five hundred tons of diesel fuel. Sometimes the seafood is trucked over the border. This trade is poorly hidden. In October, a Chinese man who said his last name was Cui posted a video on Douyin advertising crabs from North Korea. When someone commented, “The goods can’t be shipped,” Cui responded with laughing emojis. In other videos, he explained that he operated a processing plant in North Korea, and gave information on the timing of shipments that he planned to send across the border. When I contacted Cui, he said that he had stopped importing North Korean seafood in 2016 (though the videos were actually from last year), and added, “It’s none of your business, and I don’t care who you are.” My team found that seafood from North Korea was imported by several American distributors, including HF Foods, which supplies more than fifteen thousand Asian restaurants in the U.S. (HF Foods did not respond to requests for comment.)

Chinese companies often claim that they are in compliance with labor laws because they have passed “social audits,” which are conducted by firms that inspect worksites for abuses. But half the Chinese plants that we found using North Korean workers have certifications from the Marine Stewardship Council, which is based in the U.K. and sets standards for granting sustainability certifications, but only to companies that have also passed social audits or other labor assessments. (Jackie Marks, an M.S.C. spokesperson, told me that these social audits are conducted by a third party, and that “We make no claims about setting standards on labor.”) Last year, one of my team’s investigators visited a seafood-processing plant in northeastern China called Dandong Taifeng Foodstuff. The company has been designated a “national brand,” a status reserved for the country’s most successful companies, and supplies thousands of tons of seafood to grocery stores in the U.S. and elsewhere. At the plant, our investigator was given a tour by a North Korean manager. On the factory floor, which was lit by bright fluorescent bulbs, more than a hundred and fifty North Korean women, most of them under thirty-five years old, wore head-to-toe white protective clothing, plastic aprons, white rubber boots, and red gloves that went up to their elbows. They stood with their heads down, moving red, yellow, and blue plastic bins of seafood. Water puddled at their feet. “Quick, quick,” one woman said to the other members of her small group. (Taifeng did not respond to requests for comment.) Just weeks after that visit, the plant was recertified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

Marcus Noland, who works at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said, of social audits within the seafood industry, “The basic stance appears to be ‘See no evil.’ ” Skepticism of such audits is growing. In 2021, the U.S. State Department said that social audits in China are generally inadequate for identifying forced labor, in part because auditors rely on government translators and rarely speak directly to workers. Auditors can be reluctant to anger the companies that have hired them, and workers face reprisals for reporting abuses. This past November, U.S. Customs and Border Protection advised American companies that a credible assessment would require an “unannounced independent, third-party audit” and “interviews completed in native language.” Liana Foxvog, who works at a nonprofit called the Worker Rights Consortium, argues that assessments should involve other checks too, including off-site worker interviews. But she noted that most audits in China fall short even of C.B.P.’s standards.

Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who helped draft the American law that banned goods produced with North Korean labor, argues that the government is not doing enough to enforce it. “The U.S. government will need to put more pressure on American companies, and those companies need to be more diligent about their suppliers and their supply chains, or face stricter sanctions,” he said. Chris Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey and a specialist on China, noted that social audits “create a Potemkin village.” He added, “The consequence is that millions of dollars, even federal dollars, are going to Chinese plants using North Korean workers, and that money then goes right into the hands of Kim Jong Un’s regime, which uses the money to arm our adversaries and repress its own people.”

Late last year, when I set out to contact North Koreans who had been sent to China, I ran into significant obstacles. Western journalists are barred from entering North Korea, and citizens of the country are strictly prohibited from talking freely to reporters. I hired a team of investigators in South Korea who employ contacts in North Korea to get information out of the country for local and Western news outlets—for example, about food shortages, power outages, or the rise of anti-government graffiti. The investigators compiled a list of two dozen North Koreans who had been dispatched to a half-dozen different Chinese factories, most of whom had since returned home. The investigators’ contacts then met with these workers in secret, one-on-one, so that the workers wouldn’t know one another’s identity. The meetings usually occurred in open fields, or on the street, where it’s harder for security agents to conduct surveillance.

The workers were told that their responses would be shared publicly by an American journalism outlet. They faced considerable risk speaking out; experts told me that, if they were caught, they could be executed, and their families put in prison camps. But they agreed to talk because they believe that it is important for the rest of the world to know what happens to workers who are sent to China. The North Korean contacts transcribed their answers by hand, and then took photos of the completed questionnaires and sent them, using encrypted phones, to the investigators, who sent them to me. North Koreans who are still in China were interviewed in a similar fashion. Because of these layers of protection, it is, of course, impossible to fully verify the content of the interviews. But the responses were reviewed by experts to make sure that they are consistent with what is broadly known about the work-transfer program, and in line with interviews given by North Korean defectors. (Recently, the investigators checked in on the interviewers and interviewees, and everyone was safe.)

In their answers, the workers described crushing loneliness. The work was arduous, the factories smelled, and violence was common. “They kicked us and treated us as subhuman,” the worker who processed clams in Dandong said. Asked if they could recount any happy moments, most said that there had been none. A few said that they felt relieved when they returned home and got some of their pay. “I was happy when the money wasn’t all taken out,” the woman who did product transport in Dalian said. One woman said that her experience at a Chinese plant made her feel like she “wanted to die.” Another said that she often felt tired and upset while she was working, but kept those thoughts to herself to avoid reprisals. “It was lonely,” she said. “I hated the military-like communal life.”

The most striking pattern was the women’s description of sexual abuse. Of twenty workers, seventeen said that they had been sexually assaulted by their North Korean managers. They described a range of tactics used to coerce them into having sex. Some managers pretended to wipe something from their uniforms, only to grope them. Some called them into their offices as if there were an emergency, then demanded sex. Others asked them to serve alcohol at a weekend party, then assaulted them there. “When they drank, they touched my body everywhere like playing with toys,” a woman said. The woman who did product transport in Dalian said, “When they suddenly put their mouths to mine, I wanted to throw up.” If the women didn’t comply, the managers could become violent. The worker who was at Haiqing for more than four years said, of her manager, “When he doesn’t get his way sexually, he gets angry and kicks me. . . . He calls me a ‘fucking bitch.’ ” Three of the women said that their managers had forced workers into prostitution. “Whenever they can, they flirt with us to the point of nausea and force us to have sex for money, and it’s even worse if you’re pretty,” another worker at Haiqing said. The worker from Jinhui noted, “Even when there was no work during the pandemic, the state demanded foreign-currency funds out of loyalty, so managers forced workers to sell their bodies.” The worker who spent more than four years at Haiqing said, of the managers, “They forced virgin workers into prostitution, claiming that they had to meet state-set quotas.”

The pandemic made life more difficult for many of the women. When China closed its borders, some found themselves trapped far from home. Often, their workplaces shut down, and they lost their incomes. North Korean workers sometimes pay bribes to government officials to secure posts in China, and, during the pandemic, many borrowed these funds from loan sharks. The loans, typically between two and three thousand dollars, came with high interest rates. Because of work stoppages in China, North Korean workers were unable to pay back their loans, and loan sharks sent thugs to their relatives’ homes to intimidate them. Some of their families had to sell their houses to settle the debts. In 2023, according to Radio Free Asia, two North Korean women at textile plants killed themselves. The worker who told me that she wanted to die said that such deaths are often kept hidden. “If someone dies from suicide, then the manager is responsible, so they keep it under wraps to keep it from being leaked to other workers or Chinese people,” she said.

This past year, pandemic restrictions were lifted, and the border between China and North Korea reopened. In August, some three hundred North Korean workers boarded ten buses in Dandong to go back home. Police officers lined up around the buses to prevent defections. In photos and a video of the event, some of the women can be seen hurriedly preparing to load large suitcases onto a neon-green bus, then riding away across the Friendship Bridge. In September, another three hundred boarded a passenger train to Sinuiju, and two hundred were repatriated by plane. Workers who return face intense questioning by officials. “They asked about every single thing that happened every day from morning to evening in China, about other workers, supervisors, and agents,” the worker who processed clams in Dandong explained. As 2023 ended, the North Korean government began planning to dispatch its next wave of workers. In the past couple of years, according to reporting by Hyemin Son, a North Korean defector who works for Radio Free Asia, labor brokers have requested that Chinese companies pay a large advance; they were being asked to pay ahead of time, one broker told her, because “Chinese companies cannot operate without North Korean manpower.”

Some North Korean workers have yet to go home. One woman said that she has spent the past several years gutting fish at a processing plant in Dalian. She described working late into the night and getting sores in her mouth from stress and exhaustion. In the questionnaire, I had asked about the worst part of her job, and she said, “When I am forced to have sex.” She also described a sense of imprisonment that felt suffocating. “If you show even the slightest attitude, they will treat you like an insect,” she said. “Living a life where we can’t see the outside world as we please is so difficult that it’s killing us.” ♦

[machinebd]

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[fakediorhandbag]

attempt number one: fixing an old shirt

okay, so, technically i’m not fixing anything. but i have a collection of old band shirts that i never wear because they’re just way too small for me.

most of my closet space is taken up by my shirt collection, but i only wear a few, because they’re not flattering at all.

i’ve actually done this before, but never by myself. i’ve always just marked how i wanted it to fit and either used fabric glue or just asked my grandma to sew it for me.

i’ve watched it do it many times, so i trust myself.

my first step was to find the shirt i wanted to try first. so i chose this!

maybe it’s bad idea to try this on one of my favourite shirts, but i never wear it anymore because it hate the way it looks on me

i chose a shirt that fits me better and just placed it on top to get an idea of what to do. i flipped it inside out a just roughly marked where i wanted to trim

now onto the scary part. the sewing

now, at this point i realized i have never really used a sewing machine before. of course i tried to in grade 8 textiles, but i didn't do very well in that class anyways

after a few test runs i realized i should not have been so confident, but i started to get the hang of it after a bit

i sewed over the lines and OH MY GOD IT WORKED. i’m genuinely shocked i didn’t mess this up. i’m proud of myself. i trimmed the excess and i actually have a wearable shirt.

BUT! the sleeves and the bottom..

i already decided i just wasn’t going to hem the bottom of the shirt, i like a ripped edge. but the sleeves are where i struggled. i got my mom to show me how to do a simple hem, but she also didn’t really know what she was doing (but i admire her confidence)

i did a quick wikihow search and watched half of a youtube video about it, so i’m pretty sure i know what i’m doing

after about an hour of careful sleeve sewing, i finally tried it on and realized i had a giant hole in the armpit area. i don’t know how I missed that. I went on with a seam ripper and a few prayers, and then just resewed. I’m aware that i probably could’ve just seen on top of it, but i don’t think before I do <3

[hezzabeth]

The baby made a faint grunting noise before it did something unspeakable down the front of Sugafana’s shirt. Sugafana barely flinched. “I’ll be fine; I’ve done it before! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to clean up and get this baby something to wear.”

When Sugafana’s street was flooded by human rebels trying to short out the circuits of headphone guards, she didn’t take much. Just the essentials: a blanket, her water refillable condensation bottle, and her mother’s box of wedding jewelry. She also took her roommate.

“Afternoon, Nani,” Sugafana greeted her grandmother as she pushed aside the curtains that gave their small cave a tiny bit of privacy. Home was two rolled-up sleep mats on the floor with bedding, a box filled with clothing, and a small hissing and spitting machine standing in the corner. Natural grooves and holds in the lava stone walls had been used to display jars filled with buttons and thread. An embroidered tapestry depicting a little girl holding a cat hung from the ceiling.

“You’re back early,” Nani remarked, barely looking up from a dress shirt she was busy repairing.

“Yes, I found something expensive on the field,” Sugafana admitted, and Nani looked up, her hand still instinctively stitching away at the shirt's tear. Looking at Nani was like looking into her future. They both had the same round faces, amber eyes, and warm beige skin. Nani’s eggplant purple hair, however, had long ago turned ashy white with faint streaks of black. Her suspicious eyes were now surrounded by thick lines.

“You found a baby,” Nani said flatly, as Sugafana gently placed the baby in the center of the sleep mat.

“I found a maternity droid and sold it to Bappa; the baby was locked inside,” Sugafana replied as she shed her filthy shirt, switching it for a plain black blouse.

“We can’t keep a baby! I barely have time to keep up with all the clothes people drop off, and you’re out working twelve hours a day,” Nani grumbled. Many of the refugees in the camp had spent decades using A.I. appliances to clean and repair their outfits. Most of them found washing their socks baffling and panicked at the thought of torn trousers. Thankfully, before the war, Nani had worked as a historical preservationist at the Museum of Ancient Textiles.

“I never said I was keeping her, Nani! I’m taking her into the city to find her family,” replied as she grabbed an old scarf, wrapping it around the baby's bottom like a makeshift nappy.

“The city,” Nani said flatly, “It’s not like this camp has genetic testing pods lying around,” Sugafana pointed out. “We avoid the city for a reason!” Nani said, tapping her legs.

Nani’s legs hadn’t worked right since she caught Martian Polio as a child. The machines insisted that those who couldn’t run to generate power had to be “recycled.”

“I’ll be fine, Nani! I go to the city's teleportation pod every week for ice deliveries,” Sugafana said firmly, and Nani sniffed, glancing down at the baby.

“Odd little thing, isn’t she? Her hair is green! You don’t see that much around here,” Nani remarked.

“No, you don’t,” Sugafana admitted. Almost everyone she knew had hair that was either black or in various shades of deep purple. Green hair belonged to tourists from the outer planets. The baby's skin, however, was darker than hers, and she stirred slightly, her eyes opening a crack, revealing black eyes.

“She’ll need feeding,” grunted Nani, turning to the spitting machine in the corner. The Creatrix was an essential household item that could be found in almost any home. Using electrified sand from the moon of Titan and computer codes, it had the ability to generate almost any inorganic material. Sugafana’s Creatrix was a small portable camping one that her grandfather took on hiking trips. It couldn’t create clothing and only had fifty recorded codes, but it had its uses.

“I’m sure the machine still has the baby formula codes in it; we used to make bottles for your sister when she was tiny,” Nani remarked, and Sugafana pursed her lips together.

“Then that means those codes are at least twenty years old,” Sugafana pointed out, refusing to think about her sister.

“Codes are codes! You’ll need four bottles for a trip into the city and back, and an ever-cleaning nappy! Not a filthy scarf,” Nani said, scooping four cups of glittering black sand out of a flour bag.

“You need that sand for your pain tea, Nani!” Sugafana protested, and Nani waved her away with annoyance before punching in several numbers.

“I can handle leg twitches! You won’t be able to handle a screaming, filthy newborn,” Nani said firmly.

“Fine! But as soon as I get back, we are packing to head to Harris Park, and you will need to drink four cups of tea for that journey,” Sugafana said as Nani handed her an ever-cleaning diaper. Sugafana still remembered dressing her baby sister in one when she was ten years old. The diapers were supposed to clean a soiled baby automatically forever, but they tended to break down after a few weeks.

[cosanila]

Why Cotton Loungewear at Cosanila Is More Than Just a Comfort Choice

Problem:

We’ve all been there. You buy a new set of loungewear thinking it’s the softest, most breathable thing ever. But within a few washes, it either pills, shrinks, or starts trapping heat like a sweatshirt in summer. You wear it once, maybe twice, and then it’s relegated to the back of the closet,another impulse purchase that didn’t live up to the hype.

The problem isn’t you. It’s the fabric. And more specifically, it’s often the synthetic materials hidden behind buzzwords like “buttery-soft” or “premium blend” that cause discomfort over time.

Agitate:

Let’s break it down. Most mainstream Cotton loungewear today is made using polyester or rayon blends,fibers that don’t naturally breathe, often retain odor, and degrade faster in the wash. According to a 2022 report by the Textile Exchange, synthetic fibers make up 62% of all global fiber production. While they might feel smooth at first, they trap heat and moisture, which leads to skin irritation and that sticky, uncomfortable feeling,especially if you wear them for more than a few hours.

Now imagine wearing that through a full work-from-home day or during a humid evening. The comfort you bought it for? Gone.

At Cosanila, we decided to go back to basics. We asked a simple question: What if loungewear was made for real, daily use,not just a photoshoot?

Solution: Cotton Loungewear Done Right at Cosanila

We committed to a single, clear decision: use 100% natural cotton in our loungewear,no blends, no gimmicks, and no synthetics hidden in fine print. Just breathable, soft, and long-lasting cotton made for actual comfort.

Here’s why cotton isn’t just a good option,it’s the smarter one:

1. Breathability Backed by Science

Cotton allows for air circulation, which is critical for keeping your body temperature regulated. In a side-by-side comparison conducted in 2023 by Cosanila’s textile R&D team, testers wearing our cotton loungewear had 33% lower moisture retention after 2 hours compared to those wearing synthetic blend sets from two leading brands.

2. Durability in Real Life

People often assume cotton wears out faster than blends. Not the case here. We ran a durability test: 50 machine washes per set. Cosanila’s cotton loungewear retained 91% of its original structure and colorfastness, while the poly-blend alternatives dropped to 68% structure retention. That’s a difference you feel,and see.

3. No Odor Build-Up

Synthetic fabrics trap odors because they’re oil-based. Cotton, being plant-based, doesn’t hold onto sweat and bacteria the same way. In customer surveys conducted after 30 days of wear-and-wash cycles, 82% of Cosanila customers said they noticed significantly less lingering odor in our cotton sets compared to others they owned.

4. Better for Skin

Dermatologists have long recommended cotton for sensitive skin. No friction. No irritation. No synthetic coating. Just fabric that works with your body, not against it.

Real Customers, Real Feedback

One of our early adopters, Sarah L., a freelance copywriter from Austin, tested our cotton lounge set during a 40-hour workweek at home. Her feedback:

“It actually helped me stay focused. I wasn’t tugging at my clothes or overheating by mid-day. I ended up ordering a second set two weeks later.”

Another case study from our pilot launch:

Participants: 100 people

Timeframe: 60 days

Goal: Compare cotton vs synthetic blend comfort over extended use

Result:

87% preferred the feel of Cosanila cotton

73% reported better temperature regulation

91% said they’d repurchase within a month

These aren’t flashy numbers. They’re field-tested results from actual customers who spend real time in their loungewear.

Function First, Then Form

Cosanila doesn’t chase trends. We design loungewear that feels good to live in,from the morning Zoom call to the evening wind-down. Our focus is on everyday functionality:

Flat seams to avoid pressure points

Pre-shrunk cotton to avoid sizing surprises

Natural dyes that won’t irritate your skin

Deep pockets because, yes, phones and snacks are part of the lifestyle

And because cotton is biodegradable, you're making a lower-impact choice every time you put on a Cosanila set. According to a 2021 LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) by Cotton Inc., cotton garments contribute 40% less microplastic pollution than synthetic fiber clothing.

Final Thought

Cotton loungewear at Cosanila isn’t about fashion statements,it’s about comfort that works. You’re not lounging to impress; you’re lounging to rest, reset, or get real work done from home.

If your current loungewear makes you sweat, itch, or feel like you’re wrapped in plastic,consider switching to what your body actually wants.

Try a cotton set from Cosanila. You’ll feel the difference in a day.