#but to ALSO get the soaked in detergent smell? How??

[elainemorisi]

today's inexplicable secondhand clothing packaging award goes go the *men's boots* I just received, shipped absolutely bare in a too-big single layer cardboard box... and reeking of laundry detergent

[furiousgoldfish]

Survival skills: Cleaning, Laundry, Living space maintenance

(there's a separate post about cooking, here's a LINK)

So I will assume you're too tired and sick to clean, and in this case we're just trying to prevent actual incidents happening: do not leave food, especially food containing meat or animal products, laying around, because it will cause bacteria and maggots to occur, you don't want that in your home, dispose of them (you can flush bad food in the toilet to get rid, if you don't take out the trash every other day).

In the same vein, sadly dishes sometimes need to get done, if you don't want very odd smells of decomposing food in your kitchen, but it's like, do it once a week in winter, twice a week in summer, and you'll be okay. (High temperature decomposes food quicker). Dishes usually are the most time-consuming cleaning activity because it's something that needs to be done pretty often and it's annoying. You can do it with gloves if you don't like the sensory feeling of it. The absolute easiest way to get it done is to rinse everything as soon as you're done using it, before It gets gross, but do I do that? No. I would never. But it is recommended.

If cleaning is overwhelming, exhausting and just triggering for you, I encourage you to only do whatever is easiest, or even just doing one little area and having that clean and easy to use, without looking at the rest; we're just trying to survive here, not be perfect. No cleaning needs to be perfect, it just has to be done.

Okay, but if you want to have the actual knowledge of how to clean things easily, here's what I do:

Kitchen: I will go against rules and start with sweeping the floors, because I hate walking on messy floor, and having the floor clean already makes the room looks way better, so I don't mind sweeping it once again later. If I have cluttered all the surfaces (which does happen a lot), I will grab all of the things and put them in one spot, like on the table, or the floor, or anywhere just to have all surfaces clean. If there's something dried, grimy or awful happening on the surfaces, the best way to deal with it is to grab a sponge with some soapy detergent, run over the grime, and then leave that to soak 10-20 minutes. Once the dirty part is softened, you can run a wet sponge over it again and it comes out no problem, generally anything you need to clean and it's difficult, leaving it to soak will resolve your issue easily.

So once I've removed all of the things, soaked all the surfaces in soapy water, rinsed them with a sponge, I'll run a dry cloth over it to remove the last of the water, and the surfaces are super clean then. At this point I'll put a cloth on one surface, slowly pick up dish by dish and bring it to the sink and wash it. If the sink is full when I'm starting to wash, it's overwhelming. If I'm bringing in things in one by one, it feels easy, I'm just washing one thing. Once I've washed a dish, I put it on the cloth to dry. Once I'm done with all of the dishes, the pile of stuff I've compiled is usually almost empty, if there's something left like ingredients, decorations, or whatever else, I'll put it back where it belongs. I'll wash the sink and the stove top, when they're also completely free of stuff, and at the end sweep the floor again and wash it. And the kitchen is done!

Bathrooms usually need something acidic for cleaning, you either need a specific bathroom cleaner, or some vinegar (optionally with baking soda). This is because water leaves a lot of calcification on the surfaces, and acidic stuff melts calcium! It takes a while, so like before, it's best to put away all of the things that are stuck in the bathroom, use a sponge to cover everything in bathroom cleaner mixed with water, or just vinegar, leave it for 20 minutes to soak. After that, you should be able to rinse it off, or maybe scrub a little in some places where calcium is a bit heavy, and you should have a clean bathroom.

If you're cleaning a wooden floor, the best way to go about it, is to have a bucket of water, with some floor-cleaning product, few spoons of it mixed with water, and a cloth you can drop in it. Wooden floors can easily get water damage, so you do not want to have them wet for more than few minutes! You squeeze the water out of that cloth as good as you can, and then you can attach it to some squeegee or a broom or whatever you have, (if you don't have a floor cleaning tool) and slide it over the floor to clean it. It should take a few minutes to dry and then you have a clean floor!

If you have a very dirty floor, and it's not wood, but like tiles or something that doesn't get damaged with water, the easiest way to get it cleaned is to put very wet cloth over it, and to soak it a lot. I will not squeeze the water out at all if I'm deep-cleaning tiles, I'll let it all get super wet. Then, you rinse your cloth, squeeze it maximally so it's near dry, and start collecting the dirty water with it. This way, all of the dirt will get melted in water, the floor will be covered with dirty water, and you're collecting that dirty water and taking it away! It's better than just sliding, because sliding in a very dirty area will just mix the dirt, not remove it. You keep rinsing and squeezing your cloth to near-dryness, until you've collected all of the water in it, and then it should be clean or nearly-clean, you can still slide over it in a normal way with a cloth if you want perfect.

Cleaning in general, has no clear rules, you can do it your own way, however you want, with whatever you want. It's recommended to start at the top, clean top shells first and go down from there, do the floor last, but you don't have to listen, clean how it fits you. If you want more tips and really useful information on how to clean hard-to-clean surfaces, go see 'auriikatarina' on youtube, she's a professional cleaner and will make cleaning look both easy and satisfying.

Organizing: When you're organizing your stuff, the easiest way to make everything look neat is to stack things upright, and do it so everything in one category is put together (your books in one place, pencils in another, clothing is in the third spot, your sanitary products in another spot), and line it up so the tallest stuff is in the back, and shortest stuff at the front. In this way you can look at your stuff and immediately see everything, nothing is hidden from view. If you can find cool places in your home to store things from specific category, it will be the easiest to find each time. You want to be able to see everything without rummaging trough it, or attempting to remember where things are, it should be logical. If you can't categorize your stuff, or can't figure out how to organize it, think about how it would be organized in a store, and where would they put it – this helps figure out the logical category and way to store it.

Maintaining your living space

Things break sometimes, or get clogged, and if you watch out periodically for these things, you can prevent a lot of it! If you make sure never to let food get inside of your sink, and have the little plastic things in your bathtub that stops the big pieces from getting in your drain, you can prevent a lot of clogging. Kitchen and bathroom sink have a part underneath that can be dismantled (unscrewed) and you can see if there's any dirt or hair in it, and clear it out, to prevent potential clogging. If you can tell the water is draining very slowly in your sinks or your bathhub, there are drain unclogging products that you can buy, and just pour down your drain in order to clean it, before it gets actually clogged! I do this every time when I feel it's draining slow, and it prevented actual clogging for years now.

It's customary to clean all of the windows in your house, and wash the curtains in your washing machine, at least once a year, twice if you want to be super attentive to it, and this will actually improve the quality of air in your space. Yearly deep cleaning, when you move all the furniture and get to all of the dust, grime and spiderwebs stuck in there, will also improve the air quality, because all of that dust is constantly circulating in the air you breathe and it makes a noticeable difference to clean it.

Airing out the rooms should happen daily, even when it's winter it's good to air the space even for a few minutes, it will improve the amount of oxygen you have in your living space and prevent bad smells from happening. Sometimes you should take a clean broom or cloth and wipe the grime from your ceiling and walls, I rarely do this, but like if you see unattended spiderwebs in there, it will make a difference if you remove those (live spiders can stay, they take care of the flies).

Walls of your living space should be repainted, I think every 5-10 years? I think people have different preferences, I'm okay with walls getting slightly dirty. Usually the kitchen will be the worst because the walls absorb all the fumes from cooking. And, any place you have heating, radiators and such, it will darken the walls. This is normal and happens to everyone.

If you have mold anywhere, that needs to be tended to immediately, there's products for destroying the mold, you should not let that linger on the walls, and it means that either your place is not well protected from the outside wetness, or that you need better air circulation in that space. Do not just repaint it either, mold is poisonous and it grows, wetness and dampness helps it spread, dryness, fire, good dry air circulation kills it. If you have mold in your bathroom, like at the edges of your bathtub, you can destroy it by soaking patches of toilet paper with bleach, covering the mold with that toilet paper, and leaving it like that overnight. Some people say it works with vinegar too, but I haven't tried that. Don't spend time in bleach-soaked bathroom though! Get out of there, bleach fumes are not good for you. And don't mix any, ANY cleaning products together, especially not with bleach, you can create poisonous fumes, and they can gas you.

Carpets should be cleaned once a year, usually they're scrubbed with water and some carpet-cleaning product, in the old times we used just plain soap! There's now dry carpet cleaners too so you can try that as well if you don't feel like washing the entire thing by hand.

Laundry

So every washing machine works differently, but the basics are the same: you can pick a program and temperature, and click start. I have one dial with numbers of different programs, and it's like 'cotton, polyester, whites, quick wash, eco wash, colored' and I don't know what the difference is, I think whatever program you choose, the stuff will get washed, it's a washing machine, it will just take a different amount of time.

The basics of using it are: you put the clothing in, you close it. You open the little compartment by the top, which offers you a place to put detergent, and fabric softener. You can be okay without fabric softener. You figure out where to put the detergent, and put whatever amount you feel is necessary. You close that compartment. You click start. The washing machine starts working and tumbling your clothing around with water and detergent. It takes an hour, sometimes more. After it's done, you can easily open the door to your clothing. The clothing is wet and clean, you take it out, you put it up to dry.

What is important to know, is that if you put colored clothing in a high-temperature wash, it's likely to bleed color, and sometimes this color can attach to your other clothing, so if you accidentally put one red sock with your white stuff, and put it to wash oh a high temperature, you might color all your white stuff into pale red or pink. Which is fun and nothing to feel bad about, except if you really need all that stuff to stay white.

Colored stuff is usually washed on lower temperatures, it can even be washed cold, so from 0-60 is okay. It's recommended to wash winter stuff with other winter stuff, and light summer fabrics with other light fabrics, just because heavy fabrics will usually pull in more water and detergent, so your light fabrics might get neglected. There's different detergents for colored and white stuff, and I usually ignore that too because both can wash both stuff.

White stuff needs to be washed on higher temperatures sometimes, especially your undergarments because they take in a lot of sweat and stuff, and can get less white if you never put them in boiling temperatures. It's normal to put them on 90 degrees. However! Don't ever put super stretchy fabric on high temperatures, because if it has a lot of elastine in it, which is plastic, it can melt! I accidentally destroyed a white hat by putting it in with whites, it was no longer stretchy because all of the stretchy stuff got completely melted in hot water.

I don't have a dryer, so I cannot help you there, usually after the clothes is washed I'll put it on a clothing line, it dries the best in the sun, but will dry anywhere (except exposed to rain, you need to not put it in rain).

If your washing machine starts smelling odd, it's possible that some mold or bacteria is happening in there, and you can disinfect it and clean it by putting a lot of baking soda inside, and then pouring vinegar into the detergent slot. You put the washing machine to a quick wash, with hot water, and this should resolve the issue. Also if you leave wet clothing in there without taking it out and drying it, for more than 24 hours, it is going to develop mold for sure, and this can actually ruin your clothing (I had it happen to a few garments, they got black stains, it's not nice).

If you don't have a washing machine, you can still hand-wash your stuff. Putting it into a bucket with some warm water and detergent, rubbing it together, rinsing and squeezing the water out a few times, and then rinsing in clean water until only clean water is getting out of it – that can work just fine. Sometimes if you need just one garment clean and don't want to use the machine, it's best to just hand-wash it. If your clothes are basically clean but just a little sweaty, rinsing it a few times in water and detergent will make them nice again. If you have some hardcore stains that cannot be washed out even with a washing machine, there's products likes spot-cleaner, and bleach, to help you with that. However you can never use bleach on colored clothing, because it will make very ugly stains on it, bleach is only for pure whites!

Alright this is all I can immediately think of, I probably left some things out, and if anyone wants to add to this, or correct me or anything feel free! I hope this helped you feel less overwhelmed, and more informed about how to successfully live independently. Also if there's questions you want to ask go ahead! This knowledge can be hard to get by if nobody had ever taught you.

Also, this is not something you learn all at once, just from reading one post. You don't need to immediately absorb all of this knowledge, or know how to do it all at once. This is stuff that is learned over months and years or living alone and figuring it out, and none of it is difficult or impossible to do. There's no punishments for doing it wrong, maybe some annoying dealing with some stuff. Nobody should shame you if you don't know all of this, I knew none of it when I started living on my own. I learned it a bit of here and there, and I'm compiling it so it would be more accessible, but none of it needs to be followed directly or done perfectly, and you can ignore some of it completely.

[bookshelfdreams]

I think, for every one of us, there is a popular post that we hate A Lot, because it is either factually wrong or reductive, and while this isn't the post I hate The Most, it still irks me.

So, here's how to care for natural fibres:

Wool: Does not like to be washed, but that doesn't mean it can't get wet. What is problematic is the agitation in combination with heat and soap - that leads to felting. Wool garments do not go in the washing machine (unless they're superwash treated, but even then, I would skip the spin cycle) or dryer. However! Wool makes up for that by being antibacterial and repelling dirt. A wool garment will not smell, as long as you treat it right (ie air it out, do not stuff it into storage damp, etc). It will not need to be washed often. If you do wash it, soak with wool detergent, gently squeeze, dry lying flat (if you wring it or hang it up, it will stretch out).

Silk: DO NOT PUT IT IN THE DRYER WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU. Some silks can be gently(!!!!!!) washed in the washing machine, no spin cycle, dry lying flat. Washing can compromise the structural integrity of both the fabric and garment; something stiff, that needs to keep its shape (for example, jackets or dresses, dupion) goes to the dry cleaner. It is true that flowy, light silks, such as habotai, can generally withstand the washing machine - but it will make the fabric age faster. Wear underwear to protect your garment from sweat, and you won't have to wash it as often.

Cotton: We all know how to care for cotton. Moving along. (I will say one thing, cotton is the only one of these fibres that really does stink, and needs to be washed the most.)

Linen: Will not care about temperature shocks or mechanical stress, that much is true. However. Linen does not like dry heat at all, if you want your linens to last a long time, do not put them in the dryer. Do not iron them dry either, always use either steam or spray them with water (ideally, both). Linen also doesn't take colour as well as cotton and bleaches easily, so turn your colourful linens inside out, wash them on low temperature, and don't dry them in direct sunlight.

In general, tumble drying significantly shortens the lifespan of any garment, even cotton. As does fabric softener (and its general usefulness is questionable, to say the least). Avoid both as much as possible.

[sugar-omi]

Now you got me thinking of MC who notices cove stealing her panties and leaves the good ones on top for him to find (burying the🩸granny panties at the bottom)

Or she notices the cum on her bikini bottoms and she’s gross like him and just happily wears them as a new way to tease him

HELP NOT THE 🩸GRANNY PANTIES ik thats right. id be furious if he saw those LMFAO

but yes imagine feeding into his fetish without him even knowing...

all your new underwear are your and his favorite colors, and traditionally sexy colors like red, black, or even white.

ohh the white ones would get him going... he'd be so turned on seeing the white underwear. makes him start thinking about what you'd wear on your wedding day

he'd spiral, imagining you in a garter belt and thigh highs. starts thinking about what you'd get up to on the wedding night...

it'd be easy to tell if someones taken your underwear, especially since sometimes i think he gets a bit greedy.. taking 2 pair at a time on occasions...

or you favorite pair coming up missing just as frequently as you wear them.

of course they reappear just as easy as they disappeared. cove is across the street after all, and it's not like he has to fight to get through your door.

so yeah, you may not notice at first. but god when you do it's so easy to see who it is. and the fact it turns you on feels criminal

but you feed into it anyway.

leaving a risqué, lacy panty on top of your laundry. or purposefully bending over in front of cove, letting him see what you're wearing today

and even though he washes them out before he returns them to you, i wonder if they still smell like him, smells like his laundry detergent.

or when he sneaks into your bathroom while visiting or using your shower after a day at the beach, the scent of his cum and sweat soaked is into the fabric, your scents merging together on your undies

it's disgusting. it's so fucking disgusting. so why does knowing that he jerked off with your undies before sitting besides you at dinner turn you on?

and it's just as disgusting that you masturbate with that soiled pair of underwear in your hand, pressing the fabric against your nose and your thighs trembling around your wrist as you try to tame the heat in the pit of your stomach

and when he uses your bikini bottoms to get off.. of course you left your swimsuit laid out on the bed on purpose. an open invitation to use them, stain them. soil them with the musky scent of his cock, stain them with his cum, anything. you just need something in return...

you're stand outside the door while cove "changes", straining to listen to his muffled gasps, his low curses and hisses of your name. sliding your hand over your dress, rubbing at your clit through the thin fabric of your clothes.

you wanna see his face, you wanna hear him moan that pretty, raspy moan right in your ear. you wanna see how his cock twitches and leaks all over you hand...

you really want to bust into your room and "catch" him using your panties, push him on the bed and use him, punish him for doing something so dirty, so fucking disgusting, and pathetic

but you also wanna see how long you can drag it out. see how long it'll take for someone to snap, or someone to make a move...

of course you wait to knock on the door once you hear a deep groan, presumably cut off by cove covering his mouth. and your heart is jumping out your chest when you hear him stumbling around to get dressed

you can hardly contain your excitement. your thrill.

you have cove in the palm of your hand and he doesn't even know.. you see that blush on his cheeks,

he plays it off like it's just the weather. and it is hot today. but he looks way too thrilled to be troubled by california heat. there's a spark in his eyes and he's standing up straighter...

he clearly thinks he's gotten away with it. but even if you didn't leave your bikini out on purpose, you feel the wet patch on your bottoms, you can smell his scent when you bring the bottoms to your nose, the fabric thick with the scent of sex and cum.

you can let him be arrogant for a little longer, eventually, one way or another, cove will come get what he wants without sneaking around

maybe making it harder for him, making him sweat... will make him crack?

[guillotine-drop]

Rating POSTAL Dudes by how good they smell:

POSTAL - 9/10: I think his habitual reclusion and distrust of the world would probably mean he’s showering constantly, moreso than any other Dude, especially if he thinks there’s a ‘Hate Plague’ going on. I think he smells basic; very simple routine, just enough to make sure he feels clean, so at most he’ll smell like some generic 3-in-1 body wash and shampoo/conditioner, maybe something slightly nicer just for himself (some decent $15 aftershave for that menthol scent and cooling relief).

POSTAL Redux - 3/10: Exact opposite of his original incarnation, this greasy son of a bitch isn’t scared of shit he just wants to throw explosives at ostriches and parades. Barely showers, constantly stinks of stale sweat, old blood, cheap leather and cheaper cologne, punctuated with the scent of burnt gunpowder. Borderline noxious.

POSTAL 2 - 4/10: Smells just as bad as Redux Dude but gets the edge here because every now and then he goes outside and uses the neighbor’s hose to blast himself. Shockingly uses deodorant, still not enough to be perpetually leather and denim clad in the great state of Arizona. Almost constantly reeks of sweat and has the recognizable yet faint scent of stale piss wafting off of him, accompanied by the scent of even staler crack and pungent fast food. Almost pungent enough to drown the rest out. Almost.

POSTAL 3 - 2/10: If you were to raid the wash cart after a double overtime football game, steal every jockstrap in the place, wring the sweat into a bucket, and then bring it all to a boil, you’d have somewhere in the realm of what a clean P3 Dude smells like. On average, however, this man has managed to combine the overwhelming sensory nightmares of cat piss and cheap spray deodorant into an almost lethal concoction, ONLY made breathable by the strange and overpowering smell of gasoline that seems to seep from his pores. Approach with caution and for the love of god: do not bring bleach or matches near this freak.

POSTAL 4: No Regerts - 5/10: Despite looking like he crawled out of a dumpster after a bad divorce or a fantastic honeymoon, P4 Dude is shockingly passable in terms of being able to stand next to him for a prolonged period without gagging or killing him. Having learned the efficacy of not being encased in leather in the desert, he’s managed to bring his pungency down several notches. Still reeks of sweat most of the time, and the smell of burger grease and pepperoni follows him like a specter of death, but the piss scent stopped clinging on as hard. He’s also upgraded from hose showers with no supplies to sink baths with tiny gas station travel soaps. It’s an improvement, trust me.

Brain Damaged - 2/10: Take a look at his living space in the title screen, then watch the game’s cutscenes. Just soak it all in. Now that you’ve done that, you can understand that his rank ass smells exactly as bad as you might think it does. If it can come out of his body, it’s probably soaking some part of him. If you think any of the clothes on him have been washed, you’re wrong. This man smells like if someone firebombed an outhouse and pissed on it to put it out. The best thing for him would be getting blasted with a firehouse and a box of laundry detergent. Please.

The Other Dude - 1-10/10: Entirely depends on how the BD Dude would imagine he smells depending on the situation.

POOSTALL Dude - 6/10: Despite the name, this one actually smells pretty decent. The clearly larger coat with the rolled sleeves implies some level of understanding about how not to smell like swamp ass and sweat soaked leather, and truthfully, he looks like he bathes semi-regularly, a rarity amongst these guys.

POSTAL Doe - 9/10: I admit fully and entirely to my lack of impartiality to this one, but I’m willing to stand by it even if I lose my Stink Judge License: first of all, sleeveless leather trench coat AND a crop top mean less overheat which means less sweat. Second of all, visually cleaner than pretty much any of the dudes which implies some kind of self care regimen. Third, and most importantly, girlstink counts positive. I will not be turning in my badge or my gun.

Movie Dude - 8/10: This may be controversial, but despite the squalor he lives in and the fact that hems a cuckold and that his life sucks and that he can’t get a job and that he’s a loser- I digress. I think Movie Dude is in the top echelons of Dude Stink solely because I think he’d have a breakdown if he smelled bad. This man uses Dr. Teals. He stinks like a mix of eucalyptus and peppermint. If ever there was a Dude who had a skin routine, he still wouldn’t, but he’d definitely think about it one day. I think by the end he gets an extra point just because he gets a little hotter the more deranged he is. Overall very pleasant but I still wouldn’t give him $4.

John Murray - 2/10: Hasselridge seems to have a very… interesting relationship with what is and isn’t normal, so unsurprisingly, Johnny Boy would probably smell pretty rough. Considering how dingy, run down and shitty everything in that town appears to be, I can’t imagine anyone else is smelling like roses either. Just avoid the entire place, not least of all because of the zombie thing.

Shtopor - 0/10: Bad.

Nottem Portant - 5/10: Despite the misanthropy, dollar store Nathan Explosion thing and the absolutely abysmal gameplay, Mr. Hatred is actually extremely middle of the road on stink. Sure, he doesn’t smell great, but shockingly he washes his ass despite the whole ‘death to humanity’ thing. He does get point deduction for not washing his hair though, grease mop motherfucker.

[ksywoo]

11:19pm / c.hs

pairing: vernon x reader pronouns: not specified word count: 764 genre: established relationship, fluff, sleepy vernon, sharing a bed, implied idol!vernon but could be read as non-idol, vernon tries to commit the cardinal sin of going to bed with wet hair (something i do literally always), domestic caretaking of tired vernon bc i want to put him in my pocket for safe keeping warnings: none note: i love vernon. also I'm back to writing more frequently WOOO

masterlist

The familiar sound of your front door opening made you perk up, surprised at the sudden distraction from your work. You weren’t expecting your boyfriend to show up for another few hours, but as you heard him drop his bag and take off his shoes, you were excited to see him after a long day. 

You stood up and all but ran to the front door. He laughed fondly at your sudden appearance and opened his arms to you after taking off his jacket. You quickly stepped into him, hugging him tightly and taking in his presence. 

“It amazes me how excited you are to see me even after a year of dating,” he mumbled into your shoulder. 

“You’re here early,” you defended. “And it’s been a long day.” You pulled away, arms still loosely wrapped around his torso. You gave him a kiss and he smiled in return. 

“Long day in a bad way?” he asked. 

You shook your head. “Just a lot to do. You?” 

He shrugged. “I’m very tired.”

“Did you eat yet?” You picked up his bag from where he dropped it and carried it to the bedroom as you spoke. 

“Yeah, a bit ago.”

“Then you wash up and get ready for bed and I’ll finish up my work so we can sleep. Sound good?” 

“Sounds amazing,” he agreed and dragged his feet to your bathroom. 

You and Vernon didn’t live together, but it was almost like you did. He came over so often to escape his members or just to spend a few extra hours with you that it sometimes felt like your small apartment wasn’t a home unless he was there. He had a key, spare clothes tucked away in a drawer in your room, and some of his clothes even smelled like your detergent from how often you threw his laundry in with yours just to make his life easier. In all the ways that mattered, Vernon and you lived together. He just also lived with his members half the time. 

After you got dressed in your comfiest pajama bottoms and an old shirt, Vernon walked in and peeled back the blankets on your bed until you stopped him. 

“Hey! Your hair is wet.” 

“Yeah? I took a shower?” he explained, eyes wide with surprise at the sudden disturbance in the peaceful atmosphere.

“Go dry it,” you waved him out of the room but his shoulder fell and he pouted. 

“Babe I’m so tired–” 

“You’re not getting in my bed with wet hair. Same rule as always.” 

He tried to protest your demands but you continued. 

“You could get sick but even if you don’t, I’m not cuddling you while your hair is soaking wet. It’s going to get the pillows wet and drip onto me and–” 

“Fine,” he groaned, trudging back to the bathroom. A few moments later, you heard the blowdryer turn on and followed the sound so you could brush your teeth. 

You smiled at Vernon with your toothbrush in your mouth. He was still frowning, looking deeply distraught and exhausted as he weakly pointed the dryer in his face, barely reaching his hair. 

“Idiot,” you mumbled around the toothbrush. He glared at you through the mirror before pointing it at you for a second. Your small yelp made him smile and he went back to doing a half-assed job of drying his hair. “Give it to me,” you demanded after you finished brushing your teeth. 

He gladly handed it to you and you stood behind him, ruffling his hair and pointing the dryer to get all of his hair. His eyes closed with contentment as you played with his hair, though he’d never admit it out loud to anyone except you that playing with his hair was one of his weaknesses. 

“I’m already about to fall asleep,” he mumbled just barely over the loud machine. “You playing with my hair is not helping.” 

Even when you were done and there were no damp pieces left, you threaded your fingers through his soft locks for just a few more moments before turning off the dryer and putting it away. Vernon opened his eyes and smiled at you through the mirror. 

“Thanks,” he said softly before turning to you and kissing your lips. “Love you.”

“Bedtime, bud,” you smiled, sure he would fall asleep standing up if he waited any longer.

A few minutes later, with the lights off and Vernon’s limbs tangled with yours under the blankets, you pressed a kiss to his collarbone, telling him how much you loved him too. 

[25jiwheretheyshouldntbe]

how do you clean the plushies (or do they just have to stay dirty)?

For the larger sitting ones and smallest keychains (the ones with their faces printed on as opposed to embroidered), I usually just spot clean them with a wet cloth. It's generally all they need, and I want to preserve their blushes and mouths, respectively!

As for the nuis with embroidered faces and no airbrushed blush, I usually follow something along these lines

Throw them in a ziploc bag full of baking soda, shake them around so they're coated in it, and leave them in there for about an hour. Along with neutralizing any smells they've picked up, it also draws out any oils that've been embedded in them, ensuring that their colors stay as bright as they can.

Fill a bucket or sink with water as hot as your hands can comfortably stand, get a tiny bit of laundry detergent (a little under a teaspoon for every nui being washed is good), massage the soap and water into each nui for about a minute. Place them in the sink, squeezing the air out of them so that as much of them stays underwater as possible, and leave them to soak for 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how dirty they are and how much time you have.

Drain and refill the sink, again with hot water, and rinse your nuis out With Force to make sure absolutely no soap is left in them. Repeat this until the water no longer comes out discolored.

Wring your nuis out until either they stop dripping or your hands cannot carry on any longer, whichever comes first. Swaddle each one in a wash cloth or hand towel like the little babies they are, and squeeze them a few times to help the towel start to absorb the leftover water. Leave them like this in a place with good airflow (or, even better, directly in front of a fan) for about an hour, then unswaddle them and leave them there until they're fully dry. If it's especially cold where you are, you may want to enlist the help of a hair dryer on its lowest setting for a few minutes.

Notes:

If they're filthy beyond belief, like, they were forgotten outside or dropped directly into a mud puddle or something, add a scoop of oxiclean to their initial bath 👍

Don't worry about being too aggressive while washing your nuis. This is enrichment for them, they like it.

There is no easy way to clean up the pilling that so commonly happens on them. I wish I had tips for this, but alas, your only option is to spend thirty minutes taking the pills off by hand.

[bloodmoonmuses]

should've, could've, would've. | bang chan

genre: bang chan x reader with some good ol' angst! warnings: none!

I really could’ve picked a better time to have this conversation, you think as you saunter up to the familiar door. 

Despite your intrusive thoughts, you knock four times and, almost as if he were expecting it, Chan opens the door promptly.

“Hey. You’re drenched.” You yank at the hem of your rain soaked sweater and recoil from the feeling of it clinging to your body.

“Didn’t check the weather.” A pause. “Also… I couldn’t sleep,” You add sheepishly. The epithet ends up sounding like more of an excuse than anything, but it’s true. You couldn’t stand staring at the ceiling, thinking of what you were going to say to him, for another minute. It was driving you crazy.

Chan looks down at his apple watch. It’s 2:09am.

“Evidently, I couldn’t either,” he says, rubbing his sleep deprived eyes. 

“Well, I don’t wanna bother you so-”

“Oh, shut up. Get in here.” He gently grasps your elbow and guides you inside his apartment. It’s dark, save for the illumination from the two candles he has lit. You inhale. Bergamot. That’s new.

Chan quickly scans your face and you know he can tell you’ve been crying. He can always tell. You divert your gaze and, thankfully, he doesn’t say anything. But he knows. And the fact that he does gets more and more embarrassing each time it happens.

You’re finally made aware of how cold you actually are when you shiver in response to the body heat radiating off Chan.

“Shit,” he says. “Lemme get you some clothes.” Quick on the uptake, and so in tune with all things you. Sometimes it was exhausting. When he withdraws to his room, you take a seat on the navy blue couch you’re all too familiar with. 

Maybe I should’ve just gone home. What am I gonna do when I move?

Chan returns with a pair of sweatpants and t-shirt. You thank him and go to the bathroom to change. When you catch a glance of yourself in the mirror, you almost gasp. It’s fine, you think. Chan is my friend. This is what friends are for.

Chan was the one who recommended taking walks to soothe your insomnia all those years ago, and here you are- still heeding his advice. What he couldn’t predict, however, was that every time you went on said walk, you’d end up in his arms. The first few times were a fluke- awkward, clunky. His embrace caused more anxiety than comfort, and you were under the impression that it wouldn’t continue. But as the years went by, it became routine.

There wasn’t an instant click, not even when your friendship began. Everything was gradual, slow, deliberate. That was what defined your relationship. So when your feelings began to morph into something more than friendship, you weren’t surprised. Because that meant there was only a matter of time before those feelings became bigger than a fleeting spark, or a hand held for hours at a time, or dreams told over gin and white wine. 

Now, as you donned his clothes, smelling of detergent and something so distinctly Chan, you were anxious. Anxious to tell him you were leaving, anxious that even the slightest objection from him would make you stay, and anxious that he had that much power over you- even in your head. 

But it was your dream. And you couldn’t wait around for your feelings to bubble to the surface. You had to squash them down while you still had the chance. This seemed to be your only chance, unfortunately.

“Wanna talk about it?” Chan asks with soft eyes, extending a mug of tea in your direction. You silently thank him for it with a nod, and go to sit on his couch. He joins you.

“I’m sorry for doing this so often. It must get annoying.”

“You’re not annoying. I’ll say it every time if I have to.” He takes a sip of his own tea, and looks at you blankly. You wish you could read his mind, like he can yours. 

“Movie?” He continues, eyes boring into the side of your head. You fight the urge to return his gaze, but ultimately fail. Huge mistake.

Now you wish he'd stop looking at you like that- like this. Like he loves you. Like he’d do anything for you…

“Disney always cheers you up, yeah?” 

He picks up the remote and turns on the TV, trying to ease you into some type of comfort. Usually, by now, you’d be divulging every problem to him. The air is suffocatingly thick. 

I just wanna talk. Why can’t I say that? Chan, I wanna talk. See? It’s not that hard, you think.

 “Princess and the Frog,” he says with a smile. “That’s your favorite.” 

“I’m moving back to America.” Your mouth is moving before your heart has time to catch up. “It’s my dream job.” 

His eyes meet yours, painfully, as he registers the words that have come out of your mouth. It’s funny, really, with the opening credits of Princess and the Frog revving up in the background… Chan realizes this too, and slowly, he turns off the TV. When he puts the remote back down, his mouth is slightly agape.

“Oh. When do you leave?” 

‘Oh?’ That’s it? you think. Your heart is breaking. His tone is so… casual. Almost flippant. Anger flares in your chest for a second and then-

“Uh… in, like, two weeks,” you respond.

“Oh,” he says again.

And with your voice barely above a whisper, you say, “I should’ve told you sooner.”

“Yeah.” He looks down at his feet, shifting uncomfortably.

Now you wanna look away? Look at me. Say something. Anything. Please.

“Well, okay. I’ll see you around.” You get up to leave before the tears start flowing, but your vision is already blurred. “Thanks for the clothes,” You manage to mutter. 

Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry…

When you reach the doorknob, Chan stops you.

“Hey. Let me drive you home.” He can’t even look at you, not really. Even now, his eyes are cast towards the hand that delicately clasps your elbow. Nothing forceful, just enough to keep your attention. “It’s raining really hard,” he continues.

“I don’t think I could handle that.” You say, voice breaking entirely.

“Can I give you my umbrella then?” He pleads. 

“Uh, sure,” you say meekly. Chan retreats to his room and returns with a black umbrella. 

“Here.” 

You’re fully crying now, desperate for air, unable to take a full breath. 

“Thank you. For everything.” You say between gasps. You reach to take the umbrella, but are interrupted by Chan pulling you into a hug instead.

“I’m gonna miss you so much,” he says, the end of his sentence catching in his throat. He holds you tighter than he ever has before. “I’m so proud of you.”  He leans back a bit to look at you, and wipes the tears off of your face with the pads of his thumbs. “You’re gonna be amazing.”

Maybe it’s his messy, curly hair- or the pinkish tinge to his beautiful nose, or the overwhelming feeling of him touching your face- it’s too much. Too much to keep those simmering emotions at bay. And you want to touch him, transfer the heat from your body to his, let him know how much he means to you in ways that words just can't- and it’s painful. He’s still cradling your face in his hands. You silently beg him to let go- let you go.

“I love you.” That’s not enough. “I love you so much.” The confession escapes you in a squeak, broken sobs ripping through your chest.

“I love you too. Shh… it’s okay. It’s okay.” Another hug. This one is impossibly tight, like you could disappear at any moment and Chan is the only thing tethering you to the earth. 

“No, you don’t get it. I love you more than anything Chan.” Then you kiss him, because the words don’t hold enough weight. You need him to understand- to feel your desperation and unspoken devotion.

It’s a gentle peck at first, so soft it could’ve been imagined. It’s timid and cautious, but it’s real. The fire it ignites in you only makes you want more. You don’t even look to see Chan’s reaction before you crash into his lips again, then again, and again- deepening the kiss and letting yourself indulge in the sensation. Toothy, clamoring, and unorganized. Feverish fervor that leaves your fingertips buzzing. 

When you finally come up for air, meeting Chan’s watery eyes, your heart breaks all over again. How much time have you wasted? How many memories had you opted out of in fear? Fear of rejection? Fear of losing your best friend? Fear of being undeserving of a love so all consuming and white-hot? It’s soul crushing. 

Chan speaks, voice slightly hoarse. “Two weeks?” It’s a question.

“Yeah. I leave in two weeks,” you say. Chan nods to himself, places the umbrella he’s been holding against the wall, and takes your hands in his.

“Any stretch of time spent loving you is time well-spent. No apologies. No “what-ifs”. No regrets. If this is how I come to love you-”

“But I should’ve-” you start.

“It’s worth it.”

He tucks you into bed that night, the rain and his warm embrace lulling you to sleep, and for a bit- in that space of limbo right before your body succumbs to slumber- you agree with Chan. 

If this is how the chips fell, it was worth it. The years of confessions held at the tip of your tongue, the myriad of stolen glances, your quiet love- It was all worth it. 

You don’t know what awaits you in the morning. All you know is that you love Chan and he loves you. For now, that’s enough. 

[plushieanimals]

hello!! i checked your faq and couldn't find this question, but you seem like the person who could answer it. when you acquire pre-loved or vintage plushies, how do you disinfect/wash them? especially beanie babies? like beyond spot cleaning

This turned into my masterpost of how to clean plushies! I also have a tag for plush care where i’ve answered asks about damaged fur, and brush recommendations + more!

How to wash and clean stuffed animals:

🧸 1. Prep! 🧸

I vacuum/lint roll the plush to get any stray hairs/dust/debris etc. I have a soft bristle brush attachment for my vacuum that i bought off amazon that i use exclusively for stuffed animals

I always hand wash my plushies when possible, but i’ve included a section on both spot cleaning for less dirty plush and machine washing under the wash section!

NOTE: if your plushie has a voice box or joints or anything inside that is incompatible with water then don’t submerge it!!

🧼 2. Soap! 🧼

I use Woolite brand soap because it’s gentle and safe for synthetics. You can also use dawn dish soap at even more diluted ratio. I dilute the detergent with water in about a 1:6 soap:water ratio in a small container (i usually use the detergent cap) Be aware that the more concentrated your soap is exponentially increases the amount of time it will take to rinse it out!

A good rule of thumb for your soap:water ratio is you want the solution you are using to be just a little slippery when rubbed between your fingers.

i use woolite but any gentle detergent safe for synthetics will work. Stuffed animal fur and stuffing is generally made of plastic! NO FABRIC SOFTENER! And no shampoo, conditioner, or soap made for human skin! The moisturizers used in these products will never “absorb” into the plastic fibers! These products will all leave a residue!

You can use very diluted cheap conditioner to detangle a plush but you will need to wash out the conditioner with a a detergent afterwards.

🫧 3. Wash! 🫧

Hand washing: I soak the plush under COLD running water first, and then with my hands i apply and lather the soap in to the fur/fabric and make sure i thouroughly saturate it with the soapy water.

For plush that can’t be bathed/aren’t super dirty/only need a spot clean I use a damp microfiber rag dipped in a mixture of lukewarm water + a tiny (like a drop!) of soap (woolite or dawn) and rub them down all over with it. Then I go over them with a rag damp with clean, soapless water until all the soap is gone. If your plush has medium or long fur you still will want to brush it out to make sure the fur dries soft and not clumped up! Check my section on drying/detailing below.

For machine washing put them in a pillow case to protect the eyes, and put some pillows/ blankets/ towels in the machine with the plush to pad it. use gentle detergent and wash it on “delicates” (or your machines gentlest cycle) with COLD water! Top loading machines do best for this and you’ll want to arrange them sitting up with their backs to the wall of the machine if possible. For front loading machines just throw a bunch of extra pillows/blankets to pad it. skip to step 5 if you end up using a washing machine. I find this method works very well for larger, sturdier plush like build a bears. NEVER PUT PLUSH IN THE DRYER!!!

🚿 4. Rinse! 🚿

Use cold running water! Make sure no soap remains. I smell the plushies periodically to be extra certain i’ve gotten the soap out. You can gently squeeze the plushie depending on the stuffing type. Some plush may need to be washed twice or three times depending on the filth-level, or rinsed multiple times depending on the soap concentration.

Beanie babies and some other plush can be squeezed because of their beans, but plush made out of purely soft stuffing can have their stuffing deformed if you squeeze them too much. Some brands like douglas have stiffer plush with beans and stuffing and they actually can be squeezed too. (DO NOT “WRING OUT” ANY PLUSH!!)

🧽 5. Pre-dry! 🧽

after the soap is 100% out and you are happy with the cleanliness of the plushie, you have two options to pre-dry them:

My favorite way is to put the plush in my washing machine and run it on “spin” cycle only, which is very effective at getting excess water out. In my experience the plush barely moves in my top loading machine, but you can always put the plush in a clean pillow case or put a bunch of clean towels in with it to pad/stabilize the plush in a side loader or if the plush is fragile

If you can’t use your washing machine for any reason, then try your best to get as much water out without damaging the plush. Consider wrapping it in a towel and making a sling with a second towel and spinning it around you, lol. It will be okay if you can’t do any of these things, though! You can also just use a towel and press it on your plush to try and soak up as much water.

Only you know how durable your plush is. The more well made it is (think big brands like douglas, jellycat, wild republic, aurora VS an antique) the more your plush can take without risking damaging the seams/parts. PLEASE don’t “WRING OUT” your plushies as this can deform them!

I NEVER put my plush in the dryer, it can melt the fur fibers and cause matting/damage!! Some people use the “air dry/no heat” but i don’t like to take risks

🧺 6. Dry! 🧺

⭐️ This is the most important part, you must set your plush up to air dry thouroughly!! I prefer to use a fan pointed at the plush. but if you don’t have access to any kind of fan then a hair dryer set on cool could work, and plain air drying works too, it just takes longer.

For plushies with medium/long fur (basically anything besides minky fabric) I brush the fur out with a soft bristle brush once or twice while it’s drying to make sure the fur dries fluffy and soft. I use a build a pear paw brush. You can also use a plastic slicker brush and brush backwards with the direction of the fur to avoid pulling the fur fibers out. Don’t use a brush/comb that’s been used on humans or pets without super disinfecting it first, as the skin oils/dirt can damage your plushies fur!

For beanie babies or any plush with beans you must make sure the beans dry completely, they take way longer than the stuffing!

You need to rotate the plush every few hours or so to make sure it’s drying throughly. Make sure the bottom of the plush gets just as much exposed drying time as the rest of the plush, as gravity will pull any water downwards.

Try not to dry it in a humid room, like a bathroom! There is a risk of mold if a plush doesn’t dry completely before being packed up/sealed up.

I also wouldn’t risk drying your plush outside due to sun bleaching and possibly debris from wind/trees landing on it. You can dry it in a window that gets sunlight still as long as you don’t leave it there for weeks on end. Sun bleaching takes quite a while so the risk is very small.

✨ 7. Detail! ✨

(optional) after the plush is completely dry i go back with the brushes and detangle/fluff up the plush! This is almost necessary for any long/medium furred plush to keep the fur soft and detangled. I use the soft bristle brush for all, and plastic slicker brush for long fur. You can get a small plastic slicker brush for kittens/small dogs at walmart for like $3. Just make sure to be gentle with any combs/slicker brushes to avoid damaging the plush/ripping out the fur. ^_^

This was super long! I have hand washed like 25 plushies of all different sizes at this point and this is what works for me. I have a lot of thrifted plush and they dont always come in great shape. you can reply to this post or send me a message if you have any questions!

extra tip from reblogs:

[bro-atz]

IRRESISTIBLE CHAPTER SIX: HOW DID I END UP HERE?

pair: cmo!san/employee!oc word count: 2.5k chapter rating: r — nsfw genre: romance, drama, smut

table of contents ♤ previous chapter ♤ next chapter

Gyuri blankly dried her hair as she sat on the couch in San’s living room. She had no idea how her boss had managed to convince her to come to his place after the window of his car shattered and covered in glass. She remembered telling him that she would just take care of it at home, so why was she at his place? No, why did she take a shower at his place, and why was she sitting on his couch wearing his clothes? There was only one thing Gyuri knew for certain: she could not leave his place until her clothes were dry. She wanted to avoid the whole minefield of returning each others’ clothes at work, so she had no choice but to settle for this fucked situation.

Seeing as how her clothes just went into the dryer and had another hour to dry completely, Gyuri sighed to herself and remained on San’s couch. She looked around. He had a really nice place— everything from his furniture to his rugs and paintings matched each other. Despite the walls being some sort of muted eggshell white, the whole place looked kind of dim thanks to the dark hues of everything else he owned. His place had floor-to-ceiling windows that displayed the lights of the city so clearly that Gyuri felt like she was on top of the world. His whole apartment was so picturesque and lovely, and like his work, his apartment was well maintained and detailed. It kind of pissed her off that his place was so nice, but he was one of the founders of their company, so it only made sense that he had this kind of money.

Gyuri checked the status of her clothes again, only to see that a mere two minutes had passed. She still had a while. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, her body exhausted by the turn of events of that night. It was well past midnight at that point, but she remained awake, wary of her boss still taking his time in his bathroom. With every inhale she took, she got a tiny whiff of San’s clothes. She didn’t understand why his clothes had to smell so nice. They didn’t smell of detergent, but rather what Gyuri could only imagine was his natural scent. The worst part about that was that his clothes smelled so nice that it was turning her on. She hated that she was turned on.

In order to get herself to calm down, Gyuri immersed herself in her thoughts about work. She was so immersed, in fact, that she didn’t even realize San exited his bathroom until he walked into the living room, the sound of his house slippers on the hardwood flooring snapping her out of her trance. Since she had only ever seen him in suits and button-down shirts, Gyuri didn’t expect San to emerge from his bedroom wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants. Obviously, he wouldn’t wear a suit to bed, but she really didn’t think he was the type of person to wear the standard grey sweatpants with a black shirt. For some reason, she imagined him in a flannel set— something fitting of a rich asshole; but no, he was wearing the same outfit that her ex-boyfriends from high school used to wear on a regular basis.

Gyuri couldn’t help but observe him thoroughly. His black shirt was tight and displayed his muscular, veiny arms clearly. She was honestly surprised that he had such big biceps to the point where she wondered how his button-downs and suit jackets slimmed his arms so much let alone fit in the first place. She watched him brush his wet hair out of his face, revealing his sharp, piercing gaze. To her, his eyes were super sexy, and she was questioning herself— since when did her boss look like that? She also never really noticed his jawline until that moment, which looked so sharp that it would, in fact, cut her if she touched it. Her eyes lingered on his hair. San’s slicked back hair was also very hot, but his hair was also still soaking wet. He didn’t seem to care.

Once again, Gyuri glanced at the drying machine. It had been another two measly minutes. With a deep sigh, and without making eye contact, Gyuri said, “You really didn’t have to bring me here…”

“I can’t have my employee get sick because of me,” he responded swiftly, causing the girl to make eye contact with him.

“You could’ve taken me home, though.”

“And have my car get more wet with the broken window? No thanks,” San scoffed.

While usually, she would have blushed upon seeing a man this hot before her, Gyuri was more annoyed than anything. For one thing, this was the boss that pissed her off to no end, and the fact that this man’s hair was so wet that it was dripping water onto his shirt bothered the shit out of her.

“…Come here,” she told him strongly.

“Why?”

“Just come here.”

Surprisingly, San obeyed, confusion written all over his face. Using the towel she was using to dry her hair, Gyuri placed the towel over his head and started drying his hair. San was clearly taken aback when he tried to get away from Gyuri while asking, “What are you doing?”

“You’re going to catch a cold if you don’t dry your hair… Also, you’re dripping water everywhere,” she nagged.

“It’s my house. It’s fine.”

“Fine, but you still can’t get sick either… We have to meet with the client tomorrow.”

Exhaling loudly, San complied. He bent down slightly so that Gyuri could dry his hair a little more comfortably, earning a snort of derision from her. “If you’re going to bend down to let me dry your hair, you might as well just dry it yourself.”

“I don’t really care if it’s wet or dry, but clearly you do,” San shot back.

“For someone who’s so detail oriented, that’s so out of character. I thought you would be a little more concerned about the state of your hair.”

“Details about my hair are irrelevant at night. I usually style it in the morning.”

“You’re so fucking annoying,” Gyuri rolled her eyes; yet, she continued drying his hair.

“Then stop drying my hair.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“You have OCD.”

Although Gyuri actually didn’t have OCD, she paused. She was surprised that this was coming from his royal highness who hated if any detail was slightly out of place, but then, she started questioning herself. Because she was silent, San looked up, his face asking if she really did have OCD, but the words didn’t leave his mouth. Instead, the two made intense eye contact, their faces incredibly close to each other. Gyuri watched as San’s ears started turning red, and she felt heat rush to her cheeks. It felt like they were frozen for eons.

That was when the weirdest thing happened. San’s hand reached out and caressed her face, their eyes still locked. She didn’t expect him to hold her face so tenderly, nor did she expect him to kiss her. She was shocked and a little confused when his lips met hers, and she had half a mind to push him away and slap him, but she found herself leaning into his kiss. His lips connecting with hers just felt so right, and she finally understood why her drunk self went with San to the hotel that night. When the kiss ended, San leaned back, his hand momentarily lingering on her cheek before immediately withdrawing. He looked guilty; he already turned his head— it seemed as though he was waiting for her to slap him. However, when the kiss ended, Gyuri was filled with disappointment. She wanted to kiss him again and again because, while she knew it was wrong and a horrible idea, it felt so right. So, she slowly and delicately ran her hands up his chest and to his shoulders, her lips meeting his once more. It was another soft kiss, but her libido flared, and next thing she knew, she was pinning San on the couch, her lips enveloping his lower lip.

San’s arms wrapped around her as they kissed passionately. She could feel his body pushing up towards her more and more with every kiss. His scent was just surrounding her completely, which turned her on even more. He smelled way too fucking good, and the way he was touching her made her want him more. She kept kissing him as though she would die if she didn’t. He sat up and supported the bottom of her thighs as he stood up. She wrapped her legs around his waist as the two continued kissing, San carrying her out of the living room. She held his face gently, her fingers brushing lightly against his ears. She pushed her tongue into his mouth. Gyuri felt San shiver slightly as he moaned. Feeling him moan made her go crazier, which is why she was grateful San brought her to his bedroom. He tossed her, quite literally, onto the bed, the bed springs squeaking lightly as she landed. She was completely out of breath and felt like if he continued kissing her, she would die of lack of oxygen; yet, she longed for him now that they weren’t making physical contact, but she had nothing to worry about because she knew he was going to give her what she wanted.

It was dim in his bedroom when they arrived, and despite the lack of light, Gyuri was able to make out the faint outline of his dick pressing against the fabric of his pants. He was just as turned on as she was, which excited her even more. He climbed onto his bed and straddled her. San from an above angle was so goddamn attractive that Gyuri felt herself getting more and more antsy with every passing second. She watched him slowly tug his shirt off and throw it to the floor. Tingles went down her spine as a smirk grew on his face. She hated how he was able to turn her on so much, and she hated how hot he was. She felt like his arms got thicker after he took off his shirt, and the reveal of his firm chest and solid abs just made him look so fucking sexy. Gyuri really hated that.

San pinned her down and kissed her strongly, all of her hate immediately vanishing and being replaced by lust and desire. Gyuri held onto his shoulders and the back of his neck as she brought him into her. She seriously could not get enough of his sensual kisses and roaming hands. She got so impatient, but in the same breath, she really just wanted to keep kissing him over and over again; so, when he cut their chain of passionate kisses, a new wave of irritation overcame her.

“…Are you sure about this?” San whispered, his hot breath tickling her neck and collarbones.

In response, Gyuri brought her knee up and pressed it lightly against his crotch. “Just kiss me,” she whispered back before bringing him back towards him.

Without missing a beat, they returned to their restless kissing. San’s hand slipped under her— well, technically his— shirt, his large hand firmly kneading her breast. Gyuri unintentionally arched her back and moaned upon feeling his touch on her bare skin. She moaned profanities as his fingers tugged on her nipples, his pinch tight. His other hand, meanwhile, had slipped past the waistband of her— his— pants and clutched her buttock tightly. However, an impatient Gyuri wanted much more than his burning touch. She rubbed her knee against his crotch, and she felt his dick stiffen more, if at all possible. His lips released hers as his breathing hitched before letting out a deep, shuddering sigh and then kissing the side of her neck. She could hear him breathing heavily, and she watched his chest puff out ever so slightly. Since she was so hot and bothered, she loved that he definitely was as well. With no time to lose, San stripped Gyuri down to nothing quickly before removing the rest of his own clothes. He leaned towards his nightstand and grabbed a condom before swiftly rolling it on.

Gyuri couldn’t take her eyes off of his erect penis. She wondered how she managed to have sex with him the first time because of how freakishly big it was, and not going to lie, she was getting a little nervous imagining the large thing enter her. The worries immediately vanished as she felt him rub against her entrance lightly before entering. Although he was moving slowly, he continued so far so that all of him was inside her; just him entering her alone felt so damn good, albeit it also hurt. She felt his dick throb within her.

Her hands clutched the bedsheets as San started moving. He kept up his slow pace, letting Gyuri get a little more comfortable with his size. She moaned every time his hips smacked against hers. She craved more, and without uttering a word, he understood. He pressed his lips against her neck and ran his tongue up her neck to her ear before tracing along her jawline. She felt his lips suck on the skin right below her jaw, his tempo steadily increasing. The faster and harder he thrusted, the more Gyuri felt like she was losing her sanity. She flung her head back and let out moans with every thrust, each moan louder than the last.

“You like that?” San asked with a low growl, his lips near her ear, his voice reverberating in her ear.

“Mmhmm— Fuck!” Gyuri gasped— San’s hands pushed her thighs up, and his lips sucked painfully hard on her nipple.

With a resounding pop, San’s lips left her breast. The bed creaked louder beneath them the faster he went. His breathing was getting hotter and rougher, and with a final thrust and grunt, San finished first. He let out a sensual sigh as he pulled out. However, Gyuri had yet to hit her satisfaction, so when he pulled out, she was annoyed at his selfishness. She sat up and was about to let him have it when he moved his head down to her waist and slipped his fingers into her. His mouth met with her clit, causing her back to arch once more, another loud moan slipping out of her. The painful suction of his lips and the flick of his tongue along with his artistic use of his fingers brought Gyuri to her climax faster than she ever had before— San knew exactly what to do and how to do it, which Gyuri truly appreciated as she finally finished, a cry of sweet pleasure echoing in his bedroom.

The two of them panted as sweat rolled off their bodies and onto the bedsheets. Gyuri closed her eyes to bask in the lovely feeling of having fulfilled sex, so she didn’t realize when San hovered above her once more. She felt him brush her hair from her face, and she opened her eyes to see his lust filled eyes; he, clearly, was not finished with her yet. Gyuri pulled San down in towards her and left a heavy, telling kiss with him. She, too, was not finished with him just yet.

table of contents ♤ previous chapter ♤ next chapter

irresistible tag list:

@eyeryis @choisanswifexo @jennylychee @kirilunimimi @hyukssunflower

@imgenieforyou-boy @hwallazia @starlletsblog @chillyambrrrr @woomyteez

network: @cromernet

apply here to be part of the taglist!

[mail-me-a-snail]

18 for silvereurovance 👁👁 (or if thats boring 20 for whoever 🫶)

oh this is like, one of my FAVORITE things to write about . as a person with a sensitive sense of smell this is so much fun ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

18. Write about how each member of your ship smells. 

kerry smells like runny mascara that's caked on your cheeks and sponsored cologne that is so pungent, you can taste it in the back of your throat. it's a sharp, clean smell; it's a cover-up.

you can smell the night before on his skin: the sweat he couldn't quite scrub out; the iron scent of a groupie's long nails striping his back; the cigarette he had put out on them.

for kerry, there's a genuine human warmth under the scent of tangy metal.

johnny is nicotine and three more shots of tequila than is medically advised. he reeks of menthol cigarettes--more specifically, the same brand that's still going as strong today as it did fifty-four years ago during the original johnny silverhand's time.

johnny is gasoline; the poorly ventilated dressing room in the back of a shitty dive bar; the stench of bleach and hair dye (though he had never used either products himself); the thin blue vapor a struck matchstick exhales.

he's lighter fluid--he's the ash and the burning at the same time.

vance smells like johnny's menthol cigarettes. he'll say it's the ghost's fault, but he'd be lying. regardless of johnny's interference, vance has been a smoker since his arasaka days--much to the dismay of his tech team--or maybe even before then.

vance carries with him the soft smell of laundry detergent. something flowery and light, not something you'd expect in a gutter of a city like NC. lavender, perhaps, or that of milk and honey.

he's clean; almost too clean, considering the work that he does. but even in this, he's careful. even in this, he's kitbashed together.

there's a whiff of kerry's god awful cologne here, in the crook of his neck and on his hands; there's the taste of tequila on his tongue.

he smells like a ripper's clinic--not sterilized, no.

sometimes blood settles into the seams of a person's cyberware; gets into the little x's of screws and bolts; mars what is otherwise beautiful and sleek.

vance is that human rust, and he is also the metallic tap water that soaks up the red.

[smute]

but how were you able to tell which part of the washing maschine needed replacing? teach us your magic - sincerely, aging userbase

One must think of the warshing mashing as a friend. You see, she has a mouth and a brain and a belly and a butt, just like all of us, and if she isn't feeling well it's easiest to find out what's wrong by a process of elimination.

If she isn't drinking, there could be something wrong with her sippy straw (supply hose) or her mouth (inlet valve). If her tummy isn't making any noises when you feed her, it could be paralyzed (motor damage) or she could be suffering from constipation (gunked up detergent drawer or some other internal blockage). If she is making happy noises but pooping out clothes that aren't really clean or still soaking wet, that probably means her stomach isn't churning hard enough (broken drive belt) or she can't pee properly (blocked drain). She could also always have brain damage (electronic controls). Sometimes your warshing mashing can even get gallstones (hair clips or other bits and pieces) stuck in her urethra (drain hose).

In my case, she was drinking and eating happily but started to smell of burnt plastic while peeing her last pee. She stopped before she could pee out all the pee and when I checked her urethra it was clear, but there was still some pee left in there. That's how I knew it had to be something else to do with drainage. I can't think of a good human anatomy simile for a broken drain pump except maybe an enlarged prostate but I feel like that would just overcomplicate the situation at this point so... yeah

tl;dr: inlet was fine, washing/spin cycle worked fine, drain was clear but it stopped draining once i smelled burnt plastic -> had to be a busted drain pump

There's actually a ton of good information online for this kind of thing. I have to say though, it's a 17-year old Miele washer, so that probably makes a big difference in terms of repairability. It predates the era of smart appliances, and it's an exceptionally well-built machine for which spare parts are plentiful. I probably wouldn't have attempted to fix a 3-year-old wifi-controlled off-brand washing machine lol

[willowser]

also thinking about rei hugging or just being so sweet and soft towards oc cuz this is the friend touya made!!this is the girl he likes and rei treating oc like so kind and oc getting emo from the softness like omg DHAKAJJXKAKSJDIJZSNS FERALSCREECHING MORE

friend, i am here with the promise that more is said on this particular subject in the next chapter 😌✨️🪻 but !! in the mean time, i will give you this !!

she almost doesn't hear fuyumi.

too wrapped up in the still lingering warmth of the shirt in her hands, the end of her pinky fiddling with a hole he's already worn into the sleeve; it's touya's, and when she brings the material to her face, she can only smell the fresh detergent, the sweetness of their fabric softner — but that is his scent, these days.

safe in her home, where he belongs.

the words settle eventually, and she looks up to find her daughter frowning; cheeks round and girlish. "who was it?"

"i don't know," fuyumi grumbles, tossing a pair of socks into a pile she'll most certainly dump at natsuo's door. "some random girl off the street that was — all bossy."

the image that comes to mind has rei stifling a light laugh, made of memories; fuyumi in the kitchen with her hip cocked out, hair still wet from her shower, demanding touya finish eating so they could play before enji arrived home. the pout on her lips is identical, as well as the furrow of her brow. still too young, still in charge.

"mom," fuyumi murmurs, but now her face drops with a familiar sadness, one that ages her immediately. she looks hesitant to speak, as if she's asking for an answer she knows she isn't ready for. "do you think he still talks to those people? from before?"

rei doesn't know — but she thinks touya might.

instead of answering, she brings the shirt back to her face, as if she were hugging him instead of it. warm against her cheek, cozy; it hugs his thin frame nicely, rei thinks, and highlights the still-there softness of his marred face.

it's a long-sleeve, and that must be why he likes it; touya often complains of being too cold now, though it's difficult to find something that doesn't irritate his skin. this is a piece he'll wear for days in a row, if they let him, like he tends to do with any clothing he deems comfortable.

rei fiddles with the hole again and thinks of him, young and afraid. who dressed him then, when he was alone? who made sure he was warm enough?

"i don't know how to let them go," is what he'd told her, one night in the pitch-black of his room. with his head in her lap and his face turned inward, quiet and clinging to her, like always. "i just—have to now."

she doesn't know much about them, aside from the hell they reigned down upon japan — but they must have been like touya was, in the past; small and afraid and wanting.

"they were you're family once, too, right?" she'd asked, running a slow hand through his hair when he grunted quietly. "it's not going to be easy, but that's okay. we'll figure it out."

"i don't know if he does," rei tells her daughter now, lining up the ends of touya's shirt carefully. "is that where you think this girl is from?"

at the mere mention, fuyumi frowns again, even rolls her eyes; a little sister through and through. "i don't know. she didn't—seem to know him all that well, and she was hanging around dr. matsui's office—"

"so, maybe from there, then?" rei smiles genuinely, hoping to lessen the worry in her daughter's voice. "a friend he's made?"

fuyumi finally concedes with a shrug, grabbing another shirt from the basket sitting between them. it's black, too small to be natsuo's, and the thread near the collar is fraying, like it's been caught on something too many times. she, too, lets the residual warmth soak into her hands and then carefully matches up the edges, before placing it gently in the stack of clothes in her lap.

[ghostwriter-of-silly-things]

Time To Crawl Into A Hole And Die

Word Count: 2,320

Warnings: um.. cringe writing? (/hj), emetophobia warning

let me know if anything needs to be tagged

Benjamin made a noise, then rolled over. He was lying on one of the less icy couches in the place, using my freshly washed army jacket as a blanket. Although the couch still crunched underneath him. 

  I laughed quietly to myself. "Hey, sleepyhead." I seriously thought I was going to get whacked round the head for that, but nothing happened. Maybe he was too tired. Benjamin opened one of his eyes a crack and looked at me. Then, he closed it again. 

  "What day is it?" Benjamin said blearily, his voice sounding like he had just eaten a load of chocolate. 

  "Still the same day it was when you passed out," I answered. 

  Benjamin rolled onto his back. "Ugh. I'm tired. How am I still tired? This is getting old." I guessed this was more of a rhetorical question, and stayed silent. Benjamin stretched his legs and arms out on the couch and lay there, staring at the ceiling. 

  "So," I began, then realized I didn't have anything to say. 

  "... Yeah," came the flat response. "We haven't been 'destroyed' by the hockey guy yet then?"

  "Apparently not." Silence filled in the gaps in our conversation, if it could even be called that. Muffled noises from the other room joined it, possibly Cal's beloved hockey. He had shown me to a mini laundromat, where I could finally clean my oil-soaked clothes. It was nice to be back in something that didn't crackle when I moved. Also, the detergent smelled good. I had to get the brand they used off of one of them. 

  "Is, uh... this your jacket?" Benjamin asked tentatively, after he'd looked down to assess the new weight he felt on his torso. I answered in the affirmative. "Do you... want it back? I'm fine without it, and we really don't need you getting frostbite right now." Benjamin turned over to look at me, and I couldn't help noticing how much younger he looked like this. It was weird.

  There was also a kind of... pallor to him. Almost sickly. Once you got past how intimidating he was, it didn't look like there was much there. 

  I hadn't recognized it until now, but Benjamin radiated a kind of old energy, like he had had to grow up too fast, and had way too many responsibilities to keep up with. In fairness, keeping me from dying had been a full-time job since we had met. But now, when he was only half awake and not actively trying to repel everyone, it softened. The worry lines on his face had relaxed. He seemed sadder too. That stoic façade he put up was clearly hiding something, and I knew all about that. It was definitely something to do with the death of his family. I knew about that too. And if that's the only family he had apart from his godly parent, again, like me, we must be more similar then he first realized. I stared at Benjamin, as if by doing so I might telepathically gain memories, and wondered what else we had in common. 

  "Hey," I said out of the blue. "Out of interest, how old are you?"

  "Well, I'm... uh.. 16," Benjamin said, then stopped. "What about you?" He said it quieter, as if anyone else hearing him would cause a natural disaster. 

  "I'm 15," I said proudly. After all, I had survived this long without getting brutally murdered by a mythical monster, and without a magic camp. That had to count for something. "Also, yes I would like my jacket back, it's below freezing in here."

  The corners of Benjamin's mouth went up at this. "Can't handle the cold, then, Fire Boy?"

  I faltered. "I -" I didn't take my jacket back yet. I ran hot, obviously, because of the... fire thing, and I could stand the cold better than most, but that comment dropped the temperature by ten degrees. I didn't like to think about the fire, and I hated that nickname. But I cracked a smile. "No, I'm fine, but I need it to complete my carefully constructed outfit. Don't you see how fashionable I am? The grease stains really added to it, but it was getting a little boring." I yanked my jacket off Benjamin, pulled it on, twirled around and posed like a model. "Just look at me. I ooze fashionista vibes, right?"

  Benjamin laughed. Well, more of a half-hearted chuckle, but I didn't really care. I had made him laugh, an achievement in itself. He was half asleep, but it still counted. It was kind of sweet, different than I'd thought it would be - given his normal demeanour. Benjamin's eyes lit up as he laughed, holding a hand up to cover his mouth, eyes crinkled up with amusement. He hardly seemed like the grumpy guy who had kept me from accidentally killing myself a few times the night prior, with random anvils falling from broken or fraying ropes, fire spurting from weird place that I hadn't heard because I was actually focused for once. That was a world away from what was in front of me.

  A world away from stony glares and clipped remarks. A world away from crossed arms and eye rolls. A world away from the weight of everything a demigod had to carry, and even though I was new to this, I knew it was a lot. 

  So I just sat and watched the laughter lines etched on Benjamin's face as they faded and his eyes became heavy and lidded again. I watched as Benjamin scanned the room before settling deeper into his depression on the couch, folding his arms into him in an attempt to stay warm. 

  "Oh shit," Benjamin whispered, eyes wide, and clamped a hand over his mouth as he gagged, miming slowly but frantically for something to throw up in. I hastily grabbed the nearest thing -- a frostbitten vase that was probably more expensive than Cal's entire collection of hockey gear -- and shoved it in the other boy's vicinity.

  He grabbed it, and held it under his mouth while he vomited at least three times over the side of the couch. Groaning, he flopped back onto the couch cushions and wiped his mouth on his hoodie. "I hate this," he mumbled. "So gross."

  Benjamin turned to make eye contact with me. "Thanks."

  We stayed like that for a while, and I didn't want to disturb the moment where I felt like maybe he didn't actually hate me. He'd just been so.. grumpy. Irritable. Cold.

  He was like that with Jason and Piper, too, but it still felt more than a little personal. And maybe it was. Maybe he just disliked me, personally, and honestly I could get why he would. I wasn't the easiest person to be friends with. Maybe he was just like that with everyone. Being a demigod wasn't the easiest life, to say the least, and I'd only been living it a few days. Maybe it was easier to just be angry with the world. 

  But maybe, secretly, he did actually like me. Even just a little bit. And maybe that was a nice thought to hang on to. 

  Benjamin yawned widely, covering his mouth, and his eyes dropped, and a new expression overtook his face. Confusion, shock, but also something else, something I couldn't quite place.

  Then, he spoke, softly, and I almost didn't catch his next words, mumblings of a sleep-addled brain: "You have... nice eyes."

  He dropped asleep again after that, but I heard what he had been trying to hide. There was something so deeply sad in the tone of voice when Benjamin said those words, the sound made my heart ache. It was like he had been talking to someone else. 

  My eyes widened as I processed the words that had so easily tumbled from Benjamin's mouth. Granted, like I had reminded myself over and over in the short time he had been awake, Benjamin was tired, sleep deprived, and in between naps, but that still didn't mean that he hadn't meant it. Did I have nice eyes? They were brown. Normal. No different from most people. But... they were pretty. Maybe. Hopefully. What color were Benjamin's eyes? I should have paid more attention. Should I have?

  But I felt heat spread into my cheeks. No one had ever said anything like that to me before, except my mom... but that didn't count and she was gone. I was reeling. And from such a small thing too. Was this normal? Was I sick? Maybe a cold? Was I delirious? 

  I hoped not. Then my nose caught fire, and I spent a good few minutes trying not to: a) set anything on fire, b) not break anything while panicking trying to put it out, and c) wake Benjamin up during said shenanigans. I knocked a frozen brass pot to the floor, which immediately shattered onto the ice. I was thoroughly startled and opted to sweep it under the couch with my foot, but thankfully Benjamin didn't wake up. 

  I realized, after a few seconds, that I was sat on the Festus Block. I busied myself with unfolding Festus while I waited for Jason and Piper to come back. While also not overthinking anything that was said to me at all. 

When Jason and Piper came back down to the entry hall, Cal, Benjamin and I were waiting for them, Benjamin looking considerably less knocked out and me considerably cleaner. Festus was also awake again, snorting fire over his scales to keep himself defrosted. As I saw the girl again, I couldn't help but to loose all sense of rationality, and all I could think about was her.

  I watched her walk down the stairs, combing my hair back through my fingers in an effort to look more presentable. She was so lovely, and I was convinced I was going to finally get a date. It had to happen sometime, right? Benjamin grunted beside me, probably disparaging at my crush on her. 

  At the bottom step, she turned to Piper. "You have fooled my father, girl. But you when not fooled me. We are not done. And you Jason Grace, I will see you as a statue into he the one room soon enough."

  "Boreas is right," Jason said, his disdain evident, "You're a spoiled kid. See you around, ice princess."

  Her dark eyes flared pure white. For once, she seemed at a loss for words. She stormed back up the stairs, tossing her beautiful shiny hair behind her before turning into a blizzard halfway up and disappearing. To me, it was still beautiful. 

  "Be careful," Zethes warned. "She never forgets and insult."

  Cal grunted in agreement. "Bad sister."

  I couldn't see what was so bad about her. How could someone so pretty be bad? 

  "She's the goddess of snow. What's she going to, throw snowballs at us?" Jason said. 

  I looked, devastated, at the stairs where she had left. "What happened up there? You made her mad? Is she mad at me, too? Guys, that was my prom date!"

  "We'll explain later," Piper promised. 

  Benjamin shifted from foot to foot, and shivered. I had got the impression that he didn't like the cold. I looked over, and saw the stony expression had taken it's space back on Benjamin's face He had folded his hands under his arms in an effort to stay warmer but it was still so cold his breath was visible. 

  I looked back at my friends. Jason looked away from Piper. "Yeah," he agreed. "we'll explain later."

  "Be careful, pretty girl," Zethes said. "The winds between here and Chicago are bad-tempered. Many other evil things are stirring. I am sorry you will not be staying. You would make a lovely ice statue in which I could check my reflection"

  "Thanks. But I'd sooner play hockey with Cal," she responded. 

  "Hockey?" Cal's eyes lit up. 

  "Joking," she said quickly. "And the storm spirits aren't our worst problem, are they?"

  "Oh, no," Zethes agreed. "Something else. Something worse."

  "Worse," Cal echoed. 

  "Can you tell me?" Piper gave them a smile. 

  This time her charm didn't work. The purple-winged Boreads shook their heads in unison. The hangar doors opened onto a freezing starry night, and Festus the dragon stomped his feet, eager to fly. 

  "Ask Aeolus what is worse," Zethes said darkly. "He knows. Good luck."

  He almost sounded like he cared what happened to us, even though a few minutes ago he'd wanted to turn Piper into an ice sculpture. 

  Cal patted Benjamin and I on our shoulders. Benjamin visible tensed up, looking wildly uncomfortable at the sudden touch. "Don't get destroyed. Next time -- hockey. Pizza."

  I had spent a bit watching hockey with Cal after Benjamin had fallen asleep again. It was pretty fun, actually. I did have to watch out for stray limbs. Cal caught my arm a couple times, which would probably bruise. 

  "Come on, guys," Jason stared out at the dark. "Let's go to Chicago and try not to get destroyed."

prev chapter • series m.list • next chapter

[vidilpoge]

[ID in Alt text]

Hema people, how do you clean your stuff?

If you even clean it, that is

Once a year, at the start of the summer break, I get to it and wash everything. Put thr jacket and the pants in the shower and douse it in hot water and dark laundry detergent soapwater. I then take a stiff laundry brush we usually brush the carpets with and scrub, inside and out. It takes forever to rinse and manipulating the soaked jacket is backbreaking, not to speak of the wringing the water out. You have to put a bucket under the hung jacket because it will keep dripping discoloured water for an hour at least even if you squeeze it the best you can in the shower.

For the mask I try my best to only wet the padding and not the metal parts, I've seen that the rivets can rust very badly on the lender gear. I also brush it to really get the filth out, even if it puckers the lining. Inevitably, the mesh gets water on it and I try my best to pat it dry before hanging it I keep it really easy for the gloves, just rubbing my hand back in and out of it with soapwater and then rinsing it and wringing them out. There HF light pair stink up much worse han the red dragons and I dunno why.

All the gear mentioned is first let drip outside, airdry and then also sundry in the full force of the southern italy summer sun. Keep it mind, the cloth may bleach out and the hard plastic breaks down in the long run if you keep it in the sun too much.

I don't care for cleaning the joint protection, like the elbows and stuff because I put them on not really often and I don't really sweat directly in them. They sure could use a wipe down for dirt and dust as they really often sit on the floor of whenever I'm gearing up. I just don't care enough for them, they are ugly and sad. I care a bit more for my chestplate (and I surely sweat on it a lot more as it sit beneath my jacket) but it just does not call for a wipe, you know? I don't really use it very much and it does not even smell a bit.

I don't own now use a mask overlay, nor a gorget/neckpiece, nor heavy gloves as I practice with plastic simulacra only. I, and I can't stress this enough, don't own any sword or weapon.

This concludes my gear deep clean routine.

Can I add something that bothers me and I dunno if I should let it bother me? I remember from driving school how putting stickers and paint on your bike helmet is against street code, because the solvents in the adhesive or paint may be incompatible with the plastic of the hard shell and create weak points, very dangerous for protective gear. Now, everytime I see people costumizing chest protectors and stuff some alarm goes off in my brain saying they should not have put anything on hard plastics! What if it eats away at it???

Let it be known I am an hypocrite as I don't even own or use a NAPE PROTECTOR. hell yeah going to be beaten down with a stick at beat each other with a stick night with no adeguate HEAD ARMOUR.

[starlit-mansion]

i might make the post where i was very critical of laundry stripping specifically in one person's 50k note post unrebloggable soon because my problem with the original post is that it's a bad resource for probably 90% or more of people and situations, and i don't think mine is a sterling resource either. I just think that it's important to be really critical of life hacks, ESPECIALLY one's with really dramatic visual stim elements like seeing a bathtub full of brown sludge as proof it's worked.

So my slightly more articulated points are:

Based on OP's comments, OP has uncommonly hard water and issues with at least one of the big common detergents, and specifically was talking about very old worn clothes. All of these are probably not applicable to you if you don't think your clothes are gross right now. If they smell and feel clean as is, then you don't need to torture them for no reason.

You can make your own laundry soap, it's cheaper than storebought but also particulate inhalation is no joke, and you might be at some risk from it from borax... if you can buy borax; it's banned in some places. i'm not fucking doing that, because i want the laundry detergent that i like that already has blueing in it.

The particular practice of alkaline soaking isn't bunk, but it can be harmful to a lot of fabrics, is better for whites and lights rather than your dark clothes (again, dye leech!)

You can just do this with oxygenated cleaners (oxyclean), and you don't need to make your tub unusable for 12-24 hours. the tub thing is a very bright white surface that you can see a very visible change in, but you can soak things IN YOUR WASHER. if it's modern, it probably has a setting for it. if there's not a reason for you to haul heavy wet clothes from your bathroom to your washer, you don't need to see the dramatic visual results of soaking, the same way you don't need to see your dirty dishwater when you've got a dishwasher right there doing the work for you

the real thing that experts have to say on it is just wash your clothes more effectively. don't overload the washer, use 2-3 tablespoons (or the 1 line in the cap) of detergent per load, don't use scented additives or fabric softeners, look up how to clean your washer, add white vinegar into the fabric softener dispenser or add it in and run another rinse to deal with any issues from your clothes not being rinsed out. this is not as tiktokable but it's easier and cheaper and overall a good choice for the environment

if you need to do this for stuff, you probably need to do it once before doing laundry in the above way to maintain it, to strip out buildup from fabric softener, deodorant, body oils, lotion, etc. I'd only bother with it if the laundry was gross! I don't actually have stuff that feels and smells nasty. I used to have a polyester dress that had a body odor funk, but i stopped wearing it and donated it to a thrift store. It probably could have stood a good presoak to get rid of the gunk. i'd have done it in the machine drum or a bucket next to the machine, personally.

really, this is just rebranded presoaking. it sucks that most of us aren't taught how to do laundry correctly and there is a genuine pitfall of residue-leaving products that make things worse, but i also think Big Laundry is less out to get you than it seems. washers are helpful and efficient and we don't need to start mistrusting them and doing laundry by hand

line drying in sunlight is genuinely nice and also good at getting rid of germs and saving power and wear on the dryer. I can't do it where i live now but i used to. If your really want to do something old-fashioned for the aesthetic, a line of nicely hung clothes is lovely. (You can pop them in the dryer for 5 minutes to get rid of crunchiness, esp on towels)

I would be hypocritical if i said wash stuff less. I don't, because something in my head says it's gross. i want my clothes clean and i won't rewear stuff after 8 hours of wear unless its an emergency or a polyester skirt. however, you can hang and air stuff for longer wear. just don't do it for stuff directly touching your junk and pits and feets. wash that.

...also fast fashion is not purposefully trying to get your clothes dingy to make you buy more. the other problems with it vastly outstrip those and that was the one part of the post that genuinely bothered me. why invent a problem when you already are dealing with another separate problem (people don't know how to do laundry effectively and rely on info from commercials, and also there's a lot of hard water in most places.)

finally: research this stuff on like at least one reputable news/interest site. they're gonna write articles about every trend some tiktokker popularizes, that's good clickbait right there.