bottlecaplogs | October Catchall! (a Mix of Open and Closed)

That easily pulls a smirk out of him. Even if only one or two manages to make it into the bonfire, it's the thought that counts.

"No better way to roast chestnuts," he says, in spite of the fact that he's been getting pretty good at roasting seeds with his electricity. Bigby takes out a few more accessories for her, only to pause. "Need me to, uh. Hold anything steady?"

He's definitely no seamstress, though Dolly certainly proves he could've found the time to learn if he had bothered. Still, with his pair of thumbs and better eyesight, he can't help but offer.

Dolly perks her ears up at the offer, she definitely could use a paw for help with the sewing project. Sure the dummies would be roughly the shape of a Twinkie snack cake, but those darts..she'll definitely need help with drawing that out on to the fabric.

"I would love that, in return, I'll show you how to sew if you'd like? Its a pretty relaxing hobby to unwind to."

Dolly goes to show Bigby some of the tools she managed to get over at the shops for sewing, its pretty adorable how eager she is to share with the sewing hobby.

There's another pause before he tilts his head at her response. He clearly wasn't expecting a whole lesson in return for what seemed like a pretty small favor from him, but already she seems enthusiastic about the idea. Hard to say no to that.

"... Would be good thing to know around here." Already, he's thinking of how to make it useful for some future quest, completely missing the point of what a hobby even means. "Sure, why not. What's the worst that could happen?"

His signal to her to please start him off with something easy.

Taking note of needing to start easy, Dolly goes for the easiest and most important lesson for sewing: seam allowance for sewing. Dolly had a mock up done earlier for getting the shape right as she goes to show Bigby.

"Well, I'll be needing you to help me with cutting some of the pieces out. Scissors with the feelers was something else earlier when doing the mock up pattern." Dolly goes to show Bigby the mock up as she carefully points out the extra fabric outside of the drawn lines. "When sewing, there's something called a seam allowance. Its there to give extra space for sewing as well as ensures that the finished product is the desired size."

Dolly goes to show what else the seam allowance is for as she shows the notches that were carefully clipped on the extra fabric. "Its also for clipping notches along circular sewing projects to ensure that the finished product is perfectly circular."

"Cutting. Yeah, I can do that." Definitely as simple as it gets when one has thumbs. His ears flick as he looks over the pattern at her direction, eyes following the lines while she explains. It all makes sense, until she hits that last part. He tilts his head, wanting to get this right.

"How do I know where to put the notches? You draw the lines for those too?"

Oh that's right, that would be a new word for Bigby! Dolly thinks about how to explain it when Bigby gave her a good idea, "Sure, I can draw the lines for the notches to be cut."

Gently with the chalk she had been using before when drawing the pattern out, Dolly drew tiny lines that stopped a few centimeters from the sewing line. With a smile, Dolly goes to help Bigby out with explaining notches.

"With notches, they're basically little line cuts going inwards towards the seams. You do have to make sure it isn't too close to the stitching, otherwise it could unravel the stitchings over time."

Ah yes, the grotesque aftertaste of saying time, never gets old for Dolly as the bitter aftertaste kicks in behind that smile.

Good of him to have asked; no doubt he would have thrown off the spacing if he had to guess himself. He watches her map it out for him, those ribbon feelers putting in quite the work, though he keeps himself from hovering too closely.

"Pretty big responsibility," he hums back, noting her words of caution. Don't cut too much. Surely nothing can go wrong. Among the materials she already laid out, he manages to find the scissors in question. Admittedly, they're harder to fiddle with using paws, but not impossible. He gives her a bit of a grin. "Sounds like you've dealt with that before? The unraveling, I mean."

What could possibly ever go wrong here with tiny paw hands handling scissors? Oh...he's catching on, Bigby is catching on big time as Dolly glances over to him. Well Dolly, she knew the law of the fae very well as she goes to answer honestly.

"I have, it was one of my first mistakes back when I first left home suddenly. I had to learn how to sew my own clothing back then. Before, clothes were something that was a given thing at home rather than having to make yourself." There's a bit of a chuckle on Dolly's end as she remembers. "My younger sister, she was a lot more impatient when introduced to sewing for the first time. Ended up having the outfit fall apart within the first few hours of wearing it all because she couldn't bother to anchor the stitches."

Bigby fiddles with the scissors a bit more before finally feeling comfortable enough to get started. He sits, pulling the fabric closer before, slowly, carefully, beginning to snip. One has to wonder what Pokémon these scissors fit best, because they sure feel weird to him.

"Makes sense. Never really had to think about making my own clothes either." His head tilts while he focuses on making each notch. Briefly, he thinks back to his time in Salem, his first introduction to being human. There was probably a good reason his headmaster handed off the matter of his clothes to local seamstress, instead of letting him have a try at it. "... Shit."

His brows furrow. Cut that one a bit too far; can't be helped now. He simply sighs, moving on. Back then, he'd probably be just as impatient as Dolly's sister.

"Eh. At least she learned her lesson." His ears flick as he glances up at her. "You both had to leave home young, I take it?"

"It's weird, isn't it? Like it's easy to never really think about having to make clothes on your own until suddenly finding ourselves having to make them." Dolly looked over to Bigby with wide eyes, happy to meet someone else that had been through a similar situation. Dolly was insanely lucky with her batch siblings in finding a local that could weave fabrics for them...oh dear.

"It's okay, this is your first try with cutting notches. You did pretty good too with those scissors."

There was a dry smile though when she heard that one, "Eh, I dunno, Ruis tends to repeat mistakes from time to time." She wasn't going to bring up the attempted hair bleaching incident though...that's a story for another time as Dolly heard the question.

"We were, just a lot of us suddenly found ourselves in a new situation in a world with a completely different convention than our own. I'm not gonna lie, we're still getting our footing with that one, it changes so quickly and often."

"Really weird." And Bigby can't emphasize that enough. He smiles over at her, knowing he can't get into his whole deal. "Good thing it's not something to worry about much around here."

Accessories aside, there is a part of him that's grateful for it. Even after hundreds of years, wearing clothes still felt a little strange. Too constricting for a wolf, one might say, but he can't go around New York without them. Well, as long as he can help it anyway. He looks down at the notches with a small sigh despite Dolly's comment. Practice makes perfect — or at the very least, better.

"Yeah, that'll do it. Moved around a bit myself for a while, but nothing's ever like where you came from."

"True, we got fur to cover up with." Dolly smiles along as she looks over to Bigby.

Sure, Dolly had fur even before the Pokemon situation, she still had to wear clothing. Sometimes being a Fae Queen sucks like that as Dolly returns her attention to what Bigby is saying. Bigby traveled a lot beforehand? That sounded like how things were beforehand. Then again, going from a pan-dimensional traveling island to Earth, then to Doriene, and then suddenly the Pokemon world...its a lot to unpack.

"Nothing ever stays the same, it changes in some ways or another. It can definitely give anyone whiplash after a while of traveling like that."

"... Hm. Definitely took a while for me to settle after I left home." He doesn't exactly frown, but his smile does falter just a bit. Shared sentiments should be comforting, but it's always been a mixed bag for him, one he can't quite reconcile. He misses the Black Forest as much as he appreciates a new start. "Helps to have a reason to stick around one place though."

With that, he finally cuts the last marked notch.

"How's this look, Dolly?"

"Same, it took a long time to settle in ourselves, there was a lot of new concepts to deal with." Well..Dolly definitely now has a reason to stick to one place. Its dead, it died screaming, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it...OH! Right back to topic!

"That looks great. I'll show you how to turn it inside out next. I think the stick is right back the pincushion."

Sewing has always been a great comfort, plus, once the target dummies are ready, it'll be great fun to put through the test drive. The stick, sure enough is close to the pincushion, ready to turn it out for the stuffing.

"You can say that again." If only Bigby knew the half of it; there'd be plenty more for them to talk about beyond the walls they've put up for themselves. The Homelands aren't dead and gone, but they might as well no longer exist for the Fables that managed to cross over. All that's left is a husk of itself, a world taken over by a parasite masquerading itself as its savior. "Sometimes feels like never settling would've been the easier choice."

Easier, and yet not the one he found himself following.

He glances around for the pincushion first before moving closer to pick up the stick and bring it over.

"Got it. Should I watch you do it or..."

"I couldn't agree more..it was home. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was still home." There was no way of being able to stay though, Tir Na Nog had been past the point of no return and that was why her entire generation left. Dolly looked over to Bigby, it was nice to talk to someone that understood.

Sure, she didn't understand to what extent, but still, settling is universally the toughest thing to deal with. Back to focusing on the project, they're both getting close to getting the first dummy made.

"Thank you Bigby, I think it's a good idea to watch this one. The stick is going to be used for both turning it inside out and getting the filling in."

With a smile as Dolly goes to getting the first dummy turned inside out, "So, what sort of face should we draw onto the dummy?"

He nods at Dolly, understanding her in more ways than one. Just as she told him, he watches her attentively, taking mental note of each motion until this step is complete. Bigby smiles back with a small head tilt at her question. Much to consider when creative decisions are not his area of expertise.

"Ah, well," he starts, paw rubbing the back of his head. Bigby exhales a low laugh, mostly at himself. He's so bad at this. "Something scary, maybe? Or, I don't know... the kind of face you want to hit."

Edited (typo) 2025-11-30 07:16 (UTC)

That was a wonderful point Bigby brought up as Dolly went to consider this. What would constitute for a highly punchable face? She had so many to choose from thanks to being around a long time...wait one minute. There was a perfectly punchable face to use!

Not wasting another moment, Dolly went to carefully place a face on the dummy. It was the snobbiest expression ever on that dummy's face, one that would read 'I'm so much better than any of you lot, now worship me as a glorious sun god right this ver moment'. Oddly, it has a rabbit-like appearance to the face, how very odd..

"I think that's a pretty good punchable face, what do you think?"

His head tilts, curiosity getting the better of him as the gears are clearly turning in Dolly's head. Whatever her idea happens to be, he's watching it unfold right before his eyes until the final reveal.

Now that gets a real big grin out of him.

"Oh, yeah. Exactly what I was thinking." The rabbit features are an interesting spin, but he supposes it better fits with the theme of everyone being turned into funny little creatures. "Might be hard too hard to stop punching this guy now."

Dolly was thanking the Stellar Sea and Mac Lir that Bigby didn't see the rabbit face as weird, much less have to explain that the rabbit was a literal massive asshole relative back on Tir Na Nog. Upside, the dummy gets a big grin out of Bigby and is a success for punching the living daylights out of!

"I dunno, I think he can take plenty of blows to the face with attacks. I ought to filled him with something hilarious once busted opened, not sure what though."

Truly a new thing to tackle though, should the dummy have a special filling? Dolly was strongly tempted to fill it with rice paper confetti if she can find any.

More creative decisions. He tilts his head into the palm of his paw. For a wolf, there's really only one thing to expect when tearing into someone, but that's not exactly hilarious.

Well, maybe it is a little bit sometimes.

"Fake guts and confetti?"

He's so entirely deadpan about it too.

"I'm fully onboard with the confetti and fake guts. I think the chunkier red yarn should work for guts."

This wasn't the first time Dolly had made a plush doll like that as she remembers the interactive mummification doll she helped the Foxlings make for their video.

Came with functional canonic jars fit for a doll too...Dolly your humor...

"Think I should make little plush organs or should it be good with the chunky yarn?"

His ears perk when the idea seems to stick. Nothing wrong with some morbid humor, he supposes, and Dolly doesn't seem much too phased about it either. The fact that she immediately leaned into it with ideas of her own is a plus in his book.

"I mean, just the yarn is fine but... the fake organs might really sell it." He laughs, awkwardly scratching his cheek. "I could help too. Good practice, right?"

"That sounds like a deal to me, let's make some fake organs to go with it."

Dolly would go on with bigly helping along with learning to sew and stuff the dummies with fake organs, yarn, and confetti. It would take a long time, but soon, oh so very soon, they would have the practice dummies for the attack training. Thanks Froslass for the dresses! The Dummies are now highly fashionable as they get pelted with attacks.

October Catchall! (a Mix of Open and Closed)

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CW for trauma, island(?)death mention and grieving

cws continued (kinda)

cws continued (kinda)

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seems like a cute spot to wrap? c:

I love this for the wrap up X3 this will be my last tag on my end :'>