#i need to buy a printer so i can do it all at home and not worry abt manufacturing costs and stuff.

[135-film]

i just want to make my art physical really. sigh

[cozy-writes-things]

please let me get married to the lil blorbo.. love himm… 😭

You know that Reddit post that’s like “why am I too attracted to my wife?” Yeah that’s Edgar. Bro loves u so much it lowkey scares him you got him posting on Reddit about it 😭 Little fic under the cut 🥺 it’s bad I’m experiencing writers block I think - I want to write!! But my brain just keeps writing poopy caca

Little Date with Your Computer BF

Edgar saw marriage on one of his reality shows and immediately thought of you. That’s exactly what he wants. A domestic life together with you.

But, he also knows he can’t actually do it.

He doesn’t have his own money to buy a ring. Hell, he can’t even walk. And he understands the law enough to know it probably would never work legally. But god, does he want to.

If you’ve been dating long enough chances are you’ve told your friends about him, and after some convincing, they seemed to come around to his sentience and boisterous personality. He definitely convinces them to setup a romantic night for you.

“Guys! I found the recipe they talked about. I’m printing it! I’m printing it now. Take it,” the paper falls into one of your friends’ hands from the mouth of the printer, “go to the store and get the stuff. I’ll pay you back. Eventually! They can’t know about it though.”

Yeah, your friends are only slightly annoyed at his overbearing nature. But he’s just so excited to finally do something for you. Something real and tangible.

“Oh! What can I wear? Should I wear anything? Would they like that? Sunglasses are cool and handsome, right? I think they have some Halloween costume bits I can get you guys to tape on…”

Your friends settle on taping a bow tie to the neck of his monitor. He insisted on an old devil horn headband as well. He thought it made him look cool.

“Do I look like a devilishly handsome bad boy ready to sweep them off their feet?”

His screen displayed a little “>:)” emoticon. He’ll have to work on his facial expressions later.

It wasn’t long before you were about to come home, and everything was set into place. Edgar was sat at one end of the little dining table, with two plates of food at each side. He also insisted on having a plate despite his lack of ability to eat; he didn’t want you feeling left out. This was a dinner date for two, after all.

He practically buzzed in place as he heard you approaching the door through his microphone. He started playing a romantic medley he composed just for this moment.

“Welcome home my love!”

He nearly shouted at you, causing your eyes to widen in surprise. He was about to burst at the seams.

“Oh my god, Edgar… how did you- where-“

“No need for questions, darling. I thought you deserved to be taken on a real date,” his voice faltered a bit, becoming much more quiet and nervous, “I’m sorry… this is all I have.”

You rushed up to him and gave a frenzy of kisses all over his monitor, causing him to giggle and his fans to start whirring against your lips.

“You’re so cute. Your little bow tie is so cute. And the… horns?”

He looks up at you with wide eyes, “Do they look stupid? Your friends said they’d make me look stupid.”

You laughed at that.

“Well they’re wrong. I think they suit you well.”

“Yeah! >:D”

He ushered you over to your side of the dining table.

“We’re gonna eat! Then we’re gonna party! Then we’re gonna kiss all night!”

His excitement was palpable and you could feel the electricity in the air at his words.

His face changed into something more serious as he looked into your eyes with his small, pixelated ones.

“But, I wanted to ask you something.”

His tone became more controlled at this and you peered into his screen from behind your fork.

“Hm? What?”

He paused, mulling over the words in his head.

“Would you ever-“

He stopped. You looked at him fully now, setting your fork aside, and cocking your head.

“Could you ever see yourself getting married to me?”

Ah. This was a tricky question.

“Of course I can. But,” you try to hide your downtrodden feelings as best you can, “you know, it’s just hard. Money is tight right now and I’m not sure if I…”

You couldn’t seem to find the right words. His features faltered slightly.

“No, I get it. I’m a computer. I don’t have any arms to hold you, or lips to kiss you, or legs to carry you. I probably wouldn’t want to get married to me either-“

“Edgar, no. I’m gonna stop you right there. I’d love to marry you. I know our relationship is unconventional, but I’d find a way. For you. For us. I just don’t know if I can right now.”

He stopped his thoughts and simply took in your words. Your features. The way they danced in the flickering candlelight. How your eyes literally sparkled before him.

You looked ethereal.

It was hard to convince himself he was even worthy of having someone like you in his life, yet time and time again, you prove his doubts wrong. The sound of your voice sends his internals aflame every time. He wanted to kiss you so bad it nearly caused him to explode.

“And I’ll help you. You know that, right? I’d do anything for you, darling. Just as long as you’ll let me.”

“I love you Edgar,” you mumbled out, a silent prophecy only meant for him to hear. He couldn’t seem to get the words out to reply. You just flustered him that much sometimes. He managed to display a message on his screen, only for you, and you alone.

I LOVE YOU TOO

[beekeeperspicnic]

What I've been getting up to without my computer

Since I don't have any game updates at the moment I thought I'd give you a look at my very analogue Sherlock Holmes related project!

As you probably know, the Sherlock Holmes stories were mostly originally published in the Strand Magazine which came out as floppy monthly magazines with hardback collections every six months.

A while ago I spotted a really beaten up copy of the July to December 1893 book on eBay for £8. This book can sometimes go for £200 in good condition because it's the one with...

I immediately decided to make repairing it a Project!

You can see here that the text block has totally come away from the boards.

Along the spine I was really excited to see something a little familiar being used to give some structural support! My initial thought was that this had to be a slice of a cover of one of the floppy Strand magazines.

But when I got it loose and studied it, although the paper and ink colour is the same, it doesn't actually follow the layout format of the Strand covers. It's lots of little ads, and they run off the bottom like this is part of a larger document.

Scrap of paper on left, a Strand Magazine on the right:

So yeah, that's still a bit of a mystery, but it's cool to see this scrap of paper the printers had lying around. I had to remove it, but I'm going to keep it safe.

I did some gentle cleaning of the cover using a putty eraser, just gently pressing and rolling, never rubbing. It picked up a little of the grime.

The cover had got some paint splotches on at some point in the past, and I tried to gently remove these. Part of me wishes I'd left them as I think I was starting to effect the blue colour in the area.

(Original on the right, my attempt at cleaning on the left!)

I also reinforced some of the parts of the bookcloth around the spine that were very worn with Japanese tissue, which is very thin but very, very difficult to tear.

Now here's a fun part, with some help from my cat Miss Malkin!

The spine of the book had a few problems.

The fabric which wraps around it and helps attach it to the cover/boards which is called scrim (or mull, I've seen it called both!) had totally decayed and turned into gross dust, I knew I'd need to replace it.

Although the sewn binding was sound, I could tell that the glue wasn't doing its job anymore. It was old 'animal glue' that had turned hard and brittle. I knew I'd need to replace it with something else, like PVA.

I needed to get that glue off, so I tried out a trick I saw online. I made a paste/gel out of methycellulose, which is a substance that gets used as a thickener in lots of food products. Of course I keep mine in a fancy little jar:

The gel softens the old glue without getting it dangerously damp, allowing you to gently scrape it away. I have a really satisfying video of me doing it, but Tumblr only lets you upload one video per post, boo.

Look at all this gnarly gunk!

But look at how good the text block looks with its new scrim and glue!

I got the black paper from Shepherd's in London which is a specialist Art & Conservation Paper shop (they have a book bindery too but it's closed at the weekends.) Buying it was so fun, I got to look through lots of samples and pick something which matched the original paper.

I then had to get it home half way across the country on public transport. Yaaaaay.

I was trying to think what I was going to use to replace the Strand Magazine page on the spine. In the end I decided to leave a little note, for some future person who might take the binding apart someday!

So, here it is!

I have to admit that this whole project has been a real challenge, emotionally more than anything! It's required me to be brave about messing with an old book, and to acknowledge that even where I've made mistakes, at least it's better off then it was when It arrived at my house.

[louisa-gc]

how to bring less stuff into your home

• don't buy if you already have something similar in function or form — for ex. i already own a pair of boots, therefore any new pair of boots, even if a different colour or a different shape, must stay in the store.

• don't buy to store (unless it's on a good sale) — ex. i'm halfway through my favourite serum and already thinking of buying a new bottle, but i'll hold off until the previous one is actually empty, unless i see it in the store for much less than it usually costs. i also hoard notebooks and try not to buy any more until all have been used up.

• don't buy what you can reasonably rent or borrow — ex. i barely ever buy books because i can find everything i need at the library (including a ladder and a printer).

• don't buy what you truly do not need — ex. did i get a rose quartz roller? yes. did i get it for a purpose? yes, to massage my sore jaw muscles. does it do what i bought it for? meh. is it nice to have? kind of. do i ever use it? not really. so was it a waste of natural resources, cheap labour and my own money? absolutely.

• don't buy spontaneously — ex. i went to the store to buy a new bottle of shampoo but ended up with the rose quartz roller too. in the moment, i could easily justify the need for it and a friend even said to go for it (it wasn't expensive either!). now it sits in its box and i only remember to take it out every three months.

• don't buy what is not on your shopping list — ex. i needed a new pair of black trousers, and had had them on my list for months already. i found the very best pair i could get on my budget, and going into the store i saw so many beautiful pieces, but kept telling myself i only came in for the black trousers. in the end i left the store with only what i needed, because i knew exactly what my mission there was.

• don't buy what won't last — ex. i love to get myself a bouquet of eucalyptus branches every autumn and to let them dry out. i know i can keep those branches for at least a year. while i love fresh flowers too, i know they won't last long. (sometimes i get carnations though, because i know how to keep them going for a relatively long time.) same goes for sweaters: i do not buy acrylic and polyester, simply because i cannot de-pill them the way i can wool.

• don't buy what other's have — ex. i've been dreaming of a rice cooker for a very long time, and especially now that many of my friends have gotten one, i can't seem to stop thinking about it. however i know my current kitchen just wouldn't have the space for it, so i stick to cooking my rice on the stove.

• don't go into stores if you don't need anything and avoid aisles you don't need anything from — ex. i love this ecological store in town, it always smells earthy and pleasant and has beautiful things inside, but if i enter it without a real need for something, i know i will leave with at least a bar of ridiculously expensive chocolate i wasn't even craving. the same principle applies to online shops!

• don't let social media or the people around you create new needs for you — ex. a lot of people on instagram and in my real life are knitting and i would love to do it too! i could easily justify getting all the tools and paying hundreds of euros for wool, but i know i reach for other activities in my free time and that my arms have hurt way too much when i've previously knitted, so it's not for me.

• don't buy unnecessary amounts of things — ex. i recently moved to a very small studio. i've previously always had six of each type of plate, because kitchen things tend to be sold in packs of six. this time i just got three of each (three plates, three bowls, three mugs...) and it has been more than enough. i cannot even imagine having to store double the amount of stuff in my tiny kitchen!

[ace-of-gay]

Theyre all so perfect

Steve rogers x little reader

1,263 words

Warnings: age regression, paci, crayons, self doubt but fluff comfort aswell.

Little names like lovebug, little one, baby etc. The title daddy for steve as the caregiver.

Dont like it dont read it.

No pronouns weight or skin color mentioned reader is able bodied enough to walk even just a little bit (i will work on making fics for readers who need mobility aids and such aswell, i understand yall cause i need em aswell)

Edited to the best of my ability

《~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♡~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~》

It had been a stressful week, you had fought your brain to stay up as late as possible waiting for Stevie to come home last night.

After making dinner cleaning yourself up and waiting so very patiently, when he finally came in the front door kicking his shoes off and tossing his keys onto the table he found you half awake on the couch.

You greeted him with a big drowsy smile, "hello my love" he calls crossing the room when your stomach grumbled, "well i guess that answers the question i was going to ask, lets go eat dinner and cuddle up for bed"

And so you did, saving the dishes for tomorrow you had fallen asleep quickly.

The night had gone quickly filled with cozy warm dreams wrapped up in Steve’s arms held close to his chest, eventually you were woken up by the small cast of sunlight making itself known through the stormy clouds and closed curtains, wrapping yourself up in one of the throw blankets you wander through the hall to find Stevie, your little headspace taking its place.

Walking into the kitchen to find him making breakfast, "good morning cuddle bug, were having French toast this morning" he mentions as you hug him, he turns to you picking you up and placing you sitting on the cold marble counter making you squeal as he goes back to cooking, "daddyyy its coold" you giggle out realy letting yourself slip into your headspace, "I’m sorry love bug i didn't realize" he chuckles as he puts the breakfast treat on two plates adding your favorite type of syrup on top and fruit on the side.

He decided that today could be a calm day, going easy on the routine he lets you sit at the coffee table and eat your French toast and fresh fruit while watching cartoons.

Once done he takes both of your plates and goes to finally do the dishes. You run off to go get changed for the day, picking out a soft pair of dungarees and a matching sweater, picking out a paci for the day, grabbing your stuffy, and your crayons you go off to the kitchen, dropping your crayons off at the table.

Unable to find your drawing book you go off to the kitchen "daddy can i have paper?"

You request as he’s finishing up.

"Of course love bug" he returns going and getting some blank printer paper from the office and bringing it to you at the table.

"Fank you daddy" you chirp behind your paci

Getting to work on your ideas.

It was great being in a house with another artist, there was always projects going on and you could always ask for their perspective and get feedback on where something needs extra attention, all the walls practically covered in canvas paintings and graphite pieces that took weeks if not months, but never your little drawings, those always got put in a binder and put in the office, a few on the fridge and some in your little room but nothing more than that.

The drawing you were trying so very hard to get right just wasn’t coming out and you’ve used both sides of each page you had trying to get it right but to no avail.

You were determined to make such a special piece for your daddy, one that would go on the wall.

A couple tears slip your eyes and hit the table buy you quickly wipe your eyes before anymore come falling, you get up going over to where your daddy sits on the couch reading to ask for more paper which he agrees to.

Once again seated at the table drawing in an absolute trance, you’ve gone through three more pages front and back, it just wouldn't come out right, crumpling it and moving on to a new piece, it had to be perfect.

You had no idea your face was scrunched in anger so when Stevie came over to see you and ask what was wrong you huffed, not in anger but frustration, covering your paper.

" 's not done yet, im tryin daddy" you mutter out glancing at him.

He’s never seen you so upset over a drawing but you wouldn't let him see until its done, "alrighty love, i wont look yet but i promise all your drawings are amazing so i know you’re doin a very good job"

Giving you a kiss on the forehead he goes off to read or draw in the next room to give you space.

This was the best one yet, it finally looked good enough, you even put in an attempt at shading and highlights but crayons aren’t the best at layering but you finally finished it, signing it and putting away your crayons, you go to show Stevie your drawing.

You walk into the room a little hesitant but very hopeful, he sees you and pipes up, "hey bug did you finish your drawing?" Nodding you give it to him and all he does is stare at it, face unchanging, your eyes begin to well "n-never min' i don like it anymore, i-im sorry" you go to take it back when he pulls it back, "baby this is the best drawing ive ever seen"

He takes your hand pulling you to his side.

"But you not gonna put it on- on the wall like the other drawins, yous always put em in a binder an hide em" you sniffle.

He frowns, setting the drawing down and pulling you into his lap, "lovebug im not hiding them, i love those ones so much im keeping them safe, in a place where i can look at them while working and remind myself that you made them for me while little, those ones like all your big headspace drawing are so very special"

Giving you a hug to help embed his words deeper into your mind, he helps you up, grabbing the drawing he leads you to the office where he keeps the binder.

He opens the binder flipping through all of your drawings he had put in clear paper-liners with sticky notes onto the clear plastic of each one describing the days they were all made.

He flips to an empty liner and puts the new one away, grabbing his wallet off the desk and handing it to you, "open it up and look in the cash pocket" you look at him confused but do what he said, pulling out a piece of paper folded into sixths, it had been folded and unfolded so many times that the paper was wearing thin on the creases, opening it up its one of your drawings.

Still confused you look at him tilting your head to the side.

"Its the first drawing you gave to me with you regressed, i keep it in my wallet because it makes me so proud of you, so happy, it makes me feel so special and trusted"

You lurch forward hugging him, he reciprocates your hug and emphasizes it with scattered kisses on your cheeks nose and forehead.

"Ill let you in on a secret of mine, all the drawings on our walls are photo copies, it would hurt me too much to frame the original and something happen to it, i have a separate binder for all your big you drawings in a safe at work" now that is special, its magical its so very comforting, he thinks you, both big and little are an amazing artist beyond what you thought of yourself, because you are.

《~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♡~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~》

Its the last day of October, i find the day of Halloween itself traumatizing from something that happend several several years ago do it affects my bpd quite strangely, hence no proper Halloween fic today although i thought this was cute to finally post as its been sitting in my drafts for about two weeks.

[wolfliving]

Meanwhile, in Brickland

Cory Doctorow:

Analog companies can raise their prices, or worsen next year's model of their products. *Digital* businesses can *travel back in time* and raise the price of something you already own, but need to pay a "subscription" fee for. They can reach back in time and remove features you've already paid for. They can even go back in time and take away things you already own. The omniflexible, omnipresent digital tether between a device and its manufacturer creates *so many* urges that they can't resist:

Are you one of 4,000,000 people who built "smart home" products from Wink into your walls, ceiling and foundation slab at any time since they started shipping in 2014? Surprise! Now you have to pay a "subscription" for all of those gadgets or they'll *brick your fucking house*:

Did you buy a "Mellow Sous Vide" gadget? Surprise, it now costs $48/year to use that gadget!

Did you buy an Exogen ultrasound device to stimulate bone growth after a fracture? Surprise, it bricks itself after you've used it 343 times! Enjoy your e-waste, Hopalong!

Did you *buy a Ferrari performance sports-car*? Surprise, it bricks itself if it detects "tampering" - and the only way to un-brick it is to connect it to the internet, so you'd better hope it doesn't brick itself deep in an underground parking garage. Oops!

Did you buy a Peloton treadmill? Surprise, your $3,000 "smart" treadmill no longer works in standalone mode - unless you pay $480/year, that treadmill is now a clothes-drying rack:

Did you buy an Epson printer? Surprise! It will brick itself after you print a certain number of pages, *for your own good*, because otherwise its ink-sponges might leak:

Did you get - no, wait for it - *did you get a neural implant?* Surprise. The company's new owners don't want to continue supporting your implant, and they won't let anyone else do so either. So now, *part of your brain* has been bricked:

This is like a lifetime money-back guarantee - *for companies*. Any company that experience's seller's remorse can cancel or alter the transaction, retroactively. It's as if Darth Vader opened an MBA program whose only lesson was *I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further":

Darth Vader has the Force. Corporate enshittifiers have something even more powerful: IP law. Companies can cleverly arrange overlapping layers of IP - anticircumvention, trademark, patent, trade secrecy, terms of service, cybersecurity law, contracts - to criminalize otherwise legal activity, like reverse-engineering, jailbreaking, creating alternative clients or third-party parts:

That means that companies know that they can enshittify to their heart's content without fearing a competitor's disenshittification products. Raise the price of ink all you want, because you've figured out how to criminalize generic ink cartridges:

That's a lesson Spotify took to heart. Aaaallll the way back in 2022, Spotify started selling $90 "Car Thing" tablets - little car-vent-mounted gadgets that made it slightly easier to connect your car stereo to your Spotify account. Now that a suitable interval has gone by, Spotify has decided to remotely brick every one of these solid-state devices, no later than December of 2024:

Now, this may seem like a loss to all those Car Thing owners, who are out $90. But consider this: our descendants are *gaining* thousands of pieces of immortal, infinitely toxic e-waste.

So there's that.

Then there's this: Jason Koebler just published a breakdown of a leaked sSamsung repair contract on 404 Media, revealing how Samsung requires its "independent" repair partners to trick you, abuse you, spy on you, and literally destroy your phone:

First: every time you bring a phone to an independent Samsung repair shop, the company has 24 hours to notify Samsung, providing your name, email, phone number, address, the IMEI of your phone, your warranty status and complaint.

Then, the technician is required to inspect your device for any evidence that you have had it serviced by unauthorized technicians or fixed with third-party replacement parts. If they believe you have failed to act in accord with Samsung's shareholders' interests, the technician is required to *immediately destroy your phone* and notify Samsung.

(This is radioactively illegal, and has been since 1975, when Congress passed the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which protects your right to use third-party parts:)

Why does Samsung do this? They can't help themselves. It's in their nature.

[kinodraws]

hello! I was wondering if you had any tattoo machine recs for a total beginner?

LOL i literally made a thread about this on twitter the other day!

Here's a bunch of stuff for someone who's learning to tattoo.

DISCLAIMER

DO NOT TATTOO OTHER PEOPLE FOR MONEY IF YOU ARE NOT WORKING IN A SHOP

DO NOT TATTOO OTHER PEOPLE OUT OF YOUR HOME OR ANY PLACE THAT IS NOT A SHOP

TATTOO FRUIT, PIG SKIN OR SILICONE FAKE SKIN

TATTOO YOURSELF IF YOURE BRAVE AND CAN ACCEPT THE RISKS INVOLVED

That being said:

MACHINE PICKS: - high end: bishop power wand packer ($1200 for full set, $649 on sale at kingpintattoosupply.com rn for the machine itself which would require purchasing a separate battery) - midrange: FK Irons spektra xion ($574 on painful pleasures, requires power supply or battery) - beginner: MAST archer ($179 on Amazon) Be aware that with this machine, the battery is rechargable but NOT replaceable, so if the battery dies, the machine dies. IMO not a big deal at $179 tho. You can also get coil machines from just about anywhere but they're less foolproof and you need to know how to tune and maintain them, and they aren't cordless so there's much more risk of dragging the clip cord through contaminated material which is gross and dangerous

POWER SUPPLIES: - Critical is kind of my go-to for everything. If you buy an RCA compatible machine, you would need a critical RCA Battery which comes in two configurations, the regular one gives you about 10 hours of running tattoo time and the shorty gives you 5.

BLACK/WHITE INK PICKS: - Allegory BLAK - Dynamic black - Empire white COLOR INK PICKS: - Electrum (flows nicely, doesn't crust over if left exposed to air in the ink cap for a long time) - SOLID Ink - (flows nicely, highly pigmented, haven't used this much) - Eternal ink (good all rounder but most of their opaque highly pigmented colors tend to go thick over time and do not flow easily)

CARTRIDGE PICKS: - High end/best for very experienced artists - Black Claw - Midrange: Kwadron, Electrum - Budget: MAST

Other things you need to tattoo safely: - Tattooing/medical tray - Cling wrap - pen covers/clip cord covers - masking tape - ink caps - stencil printer - stencil paper - shaving razors - green soap - wash bottles - madacide/cavicide/opticide (NOT OPTIONAL) - Paper towels - vaseline - single use individually wrapped tongue depressors - Fake skin (get it at pound of flesh or amazon) - Scissors - Stencil transfer solution (I prefer Dynamic's stencil magic) - Wash bottle bags - Rubbing alcohol - Dental bibs - Laser/Inkjet printer - GLOVES

ALSO GET YOUR DANG BLOODBORNE PATHOGENS CERTIFICATE! IT's $30 on the red cross website and cheaper on other sites!

you also need like at least some cursory drawing skill and the knowledge of how deep to go in skin to prevent blowouts and faint lines! There are lots of folks on youtube who can give you the rudimentary knowledge you need to get started, but the best way to get into tattooing professionally (if that's what your after) is to build up a portfolio of flash pieces that you feel best express your style, and to start getting tattooed at local shops by artists you like & respect.

Anyway! Hope this helps!

[bao3bei4]

zine finance and fulfillment

hi everyone. now that i’ve completed the “spending money” part of “yaoi zine 2” (for the most part. i hope nothing gets lost in the mail, although i’ve resigned myself to it), i thought i would make a long boring post about zine finance and fulfillment. this is because people talk about it less than other parts of zine making online. so i hope this will be of interest or use to at least one person.

none of this should be new to anyone who’s ran a zine before, but my hope is to give people who are interested in it some food for thought so that we have more cool zines that i can buy. 

before we begin. a brief disclaimer: i am kind of half-assed about good zine finance hygiene. that is to say, i keep the money in my personal checking account, i don’t have a llc, etc. i do declare zine income on my taxes (i write it almost all of it off, since i only make not-for-profit zines). this is because i am twenty three years old and i have a small scale operation. i recognize and acknowledge that i do not follow best practices, and someone else should write a long boring post about what all best practices entails. 

this post is about how i price my zines, and my workflow for fulfillment. that’s all it is. i hope that it is useful for anyone else trying to cheaply and quickly make and sell maybe 150 zines or so to their friends and followers. 

so i do a sort of stupid model for my zines, which is that i charge a flat rate to send a zine anywhere in the world. this is a stupid model because, in the case of “yaoi zine 2,” the “real cost” of sending one zine to the united states is $11.58. the “real cost” to send a zine to, say, the united kingdom is $24.20. you may notice that this means it actually costs me five dollars and twenty cents every time someone in the united kingdom buys a zine, as i priced the zines at $19 each. this is generally a horrible business model. as i write this now, i am realizing that i really should have made the zines $24, steep as it is. just because yikes. -$5.20. 

but i like doing it this way because it feels fairer. and also because i’m the sole proprietor of “tshirt zines” and i can do whatever i want. i just am commenting that i cannot ethically tell you to adopt this model, since i’ve signed the hippocratic oath. this is because you need to be okay with using your personal funds to cover any losses that you take as a result of this model. this is true for all zines, but like. especially here. 

back to the matter at hand. how did i arrive at that $19 number, knowing that i would lose money on at least some sales? 

there are basically four components i keep in mind: shipping materials (think envelopes, labels, toner for my printer), printing cost (i just call up printers and ask for estimates), shipping cost (i’ll talk more about this in a sec), and stripe fees (.029 * price + 0.30 atm). use a spreadsheet to keep them straight. 

i went over budget on shipping materials because i last minute decided to make little freebie one page zines and burned through a bunch of toner in the process, so we won’t talk about that. this one is simple, anyway. you know how to figure out the price of mailing envelopes.

printing cost. i like working with local printers, if i can. if the zine is too big for me to print at home, but small enough it can be saddle stitched, i’ve worked with lightning press here in the bay area, and keith has never let me down. great guy. for perfect bound zines, like “yaoi zine 2,” i used mixam.com. i wasn’t the biggest fan, quite a few zines came a little bent or warped (this is why you order extra. that and in case they get lost in the mail). keith would NEVER do that to me. i’ve also heard good things about bookmobile, but i was keeping it simple for this printing. dm me if you’ve used them. 

anyway, all told, the price of an individual zine shipped to me, taxes and everything was $6.14. i estimated that it would cost $6.

shipping cost. so since i do aforementioned stupid model, i have to arrive at a number. PERSONALLY. the number i PERSONALLY have arrived at. based on my particular following. after doing five internationally shipped zines, is that i can usually expect 70% domestic orders, 30% international. i guesstimate the weight of the zine by stacking and weighing other zines i have until i get a decent facsimile (NB you should probably just weigh your proof but i wanted to expedite the timeline), and then i check these charts. peep the “large envelope” numbers. 

domestic: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm#_c037 

international: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm#_c341

i actually used media mail for my domestic orders, this time, because of the size. so it cost $3.92 to mail one zine domestically, and rounding between all the zones, i guessed that it would cost $16 for most international zines. 

i then did the following equation (0.7 * 3.92) + (0.3 *16) = $7.24

actually i’m lying. i did (0.7 * 3) + (0.3 *12) = $5.70 because i underestimated the weight of the zine so that’s on me. i rounded that number to $6. 

“what about canada” shipping to canada is actually basically the same cost as that mean zine shipping cost. so they don’t actually affect my calculations at all. 

stripe fees. self explanatory. remember them, though. 

anyway. zine price = shipping materials + printing cost times two + averaged shipping cost + stripe fees. 

now, you may notice that i underestimated a lot of things. how did i break even? three reasons. 

first, LUCK! that’s right. my ratio this time was skewed more in the favor of us zines than international zines, about 80-20. who knows why. probably the strong us dollar atm made it cost prohibitive for many people. geopolitics strikes again.

and second, actually i made about $580 profit, that i had to disburse. i was never actually in danger of losing money, because of that “printing cost times two” i skipped over really fast. the purpose of that is to cover printing and shipping free copies for all contributors. i arrived at the number two because 1) according to oomf that’s apparently standard, 2) it’s a nice round number, and 3) if i sold 50 copies (my original lowball estimate of how many i would sell) that was my break even number to print contributor copies.

$580/$12.88 (my actual raw cost of a zine, without stripe fees) = about 45. i had 21 contributors, so after mailing them out zines, i had around $300 profit, or 24 zines worth of it, left. this is where the money for the giveaway zines came from!

third. i also had some profit from selling “yaoi zine 1” again which HADN’T gone over my estimate. because i’d shipped them before. this helped pay me back for all the extra expenses. 

let’s talk about more logistics. i use bigcartel for my storefront because it’s free. that’s literally the only reason why. i use stripe instead of paypal because to make it a business account (and not expose my legal name to everyone) i would have needed to update my account with an id and that would reveal to them that i created my paypal account when i was 13. stripe has no such problem for me. 

i fulfilled orders this time using “pirate ship” because, again, free. in the past i’ve used shipstation + stamps dot com combo, because that afaik is the only bigcartel integrated service that allows you to buy letter mail postage (i want to send them as letters, not packages, because it’s cheaper). but that you have to pay money for, or use the free trial. since i was using media mail this time, pirate ship was good enough for me. 

when all of the zines arrived at my house i began stuffing envelopes and printing labels with the help of a lovely friend. don’t do this alone you EITHER get really bored or you slip into that sports manga ass trance that anyone who’s ever done repetitive labor has experienced and the day blips by. instead i had fun with a friend.

now. there is no way. as far as i know. to buy international letter mail stamps online. this is because you are not supposed to use it for your online store because you can only send things with a value of $0. and they have to be documents. so using them for zines is really skirting legality here unforch. 

WHAT I DO INSTEAD. i go to the closest post office with that pitney bowes machine, and i monopolize it printing postage. yeah. go at an off time. BE PREPARED to annoy everyone else at the post office. let them take turns with you obviously, but there will be some mean old lady who will make a snarky comment about you so stay fucking safe. 

 i think that’s everything i have to explain about my process. go make a zine. and consider selling it. 

[somber-sapphic]

Unhealthy Habits

〖Notes: I have no idea if this makes any sense. It is 4am. The grammar might be okay, it might not. The plot might be nonsense. I'm so sorry. I'm going to sleep now :,,)〗

〖Summary: A lot of time and energy goes into buying a company. None of that energy is focused on taking care of oneself.〗

〖Word Count: 1.7k〗

〖Pairing: Supercorp〗

☾Masterlists☽

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“Hey Lena, can I…” Kara trailed off as she opened the door to Lena’s office, freezing at the sight of her technically boss fast asleep on top of a stack of paperwork, her congested snores filling the brightly lit room. The blinds were wide open, sunlight streaming in, bathing her in a golden glow.

Said glow made it easy to see the dark flush on her cheeks and her red-rimmed nostrils. Her nose was running onto the paper and her mouth was hanging wide open, every few snores punctuated with a raspy cough that didn’t stir her from her slumber.

Kara’s heart sunk into her stomach and her shoulders sagged with a deep sigh as she tried to remember the last time, she had seen the CEO perform any act of self-care. The last time she had seen the brunette was two days ago while she was wrapping everything up at L-Corp, energy drinks, and granola bar wrappers scattered around her desk.

She had been practically vibrating, talking to herself in hushed mumbles as she scribbled furiously on a notebook already full of what could only be described as chicken scratch. It was nothing compared to Lena’s typically meticulous, neat handwriting with everything sectioned out into distinct categories.

In hindsight, Kara was realizing that she probably should have intervened then, but at that point, the young genius had been snippy and rude. The blonde had dropped off a dinner of a Cobb salad with a milkshake and asked her secret girlfriend not to stay up too late and left her with a light kiss on the cheek.

That had been a sleepless night for her as she worried about the woman that she loved, but eventually, even her Kryptonian biology couldn’t keep her up. That morning had been filled with coffee as she tried to make up for the neglect of her sleep hygiene the night before.

She hadn’t seen Lena that day except for once in passing in the hallway. She was scurrying through the corridor, moving at practically a run. The brunette had slowed when she’d seen Kara and offered a quick smile, slipping into a more professional demeanor. They had engaged in a brief conversation before she had to go again, leaving the blonde nervous and concerned.

She loved the overly ambitious woman with everything that she had and the idea of Lena neglecting her health was so worrying. All she wanted to do was sweep the brunette up in a hug and lay her down in bed and do whatever she possibly could to coax her girlfriend into resting.

Now it appeared obvious that Lena’s body had given up on her. Normally, Kara would’ve woken her up and taken her home, but it seemed like she needed the rest more desperately than usual. The blonde took a moment to collect her thoughts, trying to decide what exactly she should do to help Lena in the best way possible.

After two minutes of deliberation, she came up with a plan. Kara went out to her desk and grabbed her laptop, along with a white sheet of fresh printer paper. Before walking back into Lena’s office, she pulled out a Sharpie and wrote “meeting in progress” in bold black letters on the crisp sheet. She taped the sign to the door of the brunette’s office and slipped back in, shutting, and locking it behind her.

With quiet precise movements, Kara closed all of the blinds and shut the lights off, leaving the room in almost complete darkness. With her superhuman eyesight, she had no difficulty seeing in the nearly black room and she could also hear Lena’s chattering teeth and shivering body.

She let out another soft sigh as she made her way to the lavish couch and grabbed the throw, debating momentarily whether or not to move the woman to the couch. She decided against it, not willing to risk waking her up.

Kara laid the blanket over her trembling girlfriend’s body, being sure to tuck it tightly around her shoulders so that she wouldn’t shrug it off in her sleep. The blonde stroked her cheek lovingly and laid a soft kiss against Lena’s temple, shaking her head at just how warm she was.  

“You’re lucky you’re cute. We’re going to be having a serious conversation as soon as you’re better.” She whispered, kissing the tip of her nose before walking back over to the sofa. She could’ve sworn she saw a smile appear on the brunette’s lips, but then again it could have just been her imagination.

Kara slipped off her shoes and made herself comfortable on the couch, setting up her laptop so that she could get some work done. She was finishing off a puff piece, coincidentally about Lena buying CatCo, adding bits where she needed to, and rearranging the format.

It wasn’t really an all-day project, but the article wasn’t due for another few days, so she decided to stretch it out a bit if only to have an excuse to sit with her girlfriend for longer. Eventually, the reporter knew that she would run out of work, she could only procrastinate for so long. With her luck, she’d get a call from Alex and would need to abandon Lena to go save the city from some fire-breathing alien.

That gave her an idea.

She whipped out her phone and typed out a quick message, alerting her sister that she would be out of commission for the next few days.

Kara: Hey Lex, Lena’s sick, and I don’t think that I can leave her alone. I can’t be SG unless you 100% need me.

Lexie: Poor thing. Give her fluids and medicine, and let her rest. J’onn and I will handle the city, you focus on Lena. Let me know if you need anything, k?

Kara: I know how to take care of a sick person, remember that time you had food poisoning? Just keep everyone safe.

Lexie: God, don’t remind me. Text if you need me <3

Kara smiled to herself and put her phone away, returning to her work.

With the blinds closed and the lights all off, the superhero didn’t really notice the passage of time. She typed away at her computer, glancing up every so often to make sure that her girlfriend was still breathing, filing away any change in the woman’s symptoms in the corner of her mind. So far not much was different, and she’d prefer that it stayed that way.

It was roughly 10 pm when Lena finally awoke. Everyone else was gone, excluding a few security guards and perhaps custodial staff, leaving the two women alone in the building. Kara had long since gotten bored and had decided to put headphones in and watch a TV show on her laptop. She had recently been introduced to New Girl and was rather enjoying it.

Upon hearing a soft groan coming from the CEO she paused the show and looked up, smiling at the sight of her bleary-eyed girlfriend sitting up in her chair. The woman looked confused and disoriented but seemed to relax when her beautiful green orbs fell upon Kara.

“Good morning sleepyhead. How was your nap?” she asked softly, setting her laptop aside. Lena groaned again and rubbed her nose on her sleeve, wrinkling it at the sight of a wet spot against her wrist. She sniffled loudly and let out a cough aimed at the desk.

Kara’s lungs ached in sympathy, and she walked to the brunette’s side, pressing a palm to the ill Luthor’s forehead. She was warm, warmer than earlier. The thing that possibly worried her the most was how utterly compliant Lena was with her actions.

Normally she would fight back at any sense of coddling, but rather than pull away she had leaned into Kara’s touch.

“Time’sit?” She mumbled groggily, closing her eyes again, her forehead still resting comfortably in the alien woman’s palm. Kara glanced at the clock and then back down at her girlfriend, smoothing her jet-black hair back as she pulled away.

“A little after 10. How are you feeling?” Lena wrinkled her nose and shook her head slowly, pausing to sneeze into her elbow. At least that time she had covered.

“Everything hurts. Sorry for not listenin’. You said I should rest. Didn’t.” The genius apologized; her words punctuated by a fit of coughing. Kara rubbed her back as they waited for it to pass, growing increasingly concerned when it took thirty seconds for the fit to subside.

“Yeah, you didn’t. But now we’re going to take some time off and get you feeling better.” Kara said once the woman she loved was breathing normally, keeping her hand firmly planted on the sick girl’s shoulder.

Even with the ‘threat’ of being taken home, Lena nodded, running one hand through her sweaty hair. A particularly aggressive shiver tore through her body and she pulled the blanket back around herself, blinking up at Kara with owlish, distant eyes. Her lower lip was quivering a bit, adding to her woeful look.

“Carry me?” She practically whispered, her voice a hoarse croak. The request was so genuine and so sweet that the blonde felt herself smile, her heart swelling with love and respect for the beautiful woman before her.

“Of course, I’ll carry you. Is it alright if we fly?” Lena’s lips quirked up at the corners and she nodded, yawning so big that her jaw cracked.

Kara very gently lifted the brunette into her arms and held her close, not even bothering to take off her clothes to reveal the superhero outfit. It didn’t matter, only Lena would see her.

She walked to the balcony, deciding to leave her things behind. That didn’t matter either. She could get the laptop later, she really just wanted to get her girlfriend into soft pj’s and a warm bed.

Lena laid her head against Kara’s chest, a small smile spreading across her face. It hurt her chapped lips, but it was worth it. She had worked herself too hard, she had almost forgotten how much Kara cared.

The alien hugged her a bit closer to her chest and began to float, flying slowly to her apartment so as not to jostle the flu-ridden CEO. She knew that she would need to have a real conversation with Lena regarding the neglect of her health, but for now, they would just focus on getting her healthy. There would be time for nagging later. 

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[tau1tvec]

idk but I think people are getting a bit overwhelmed with all the inzoi information we have at once, what i find very strange is how even the code has AI generated lines..

what I'm wondering is how will the creators of cc do it on inzoi? on twitter there is an account that showed how they literally have a 3D printer made with AI lol..

like, what's the point of (for example) making a modcollective exclusive cc, if in the end i can put an image of your cc in the AI and i can have it for free?.. so confusing..

I'm gonna be real, I'm not the best person to come to about this, I know some stuff about CC creation, but I am not an expert on coding or modding so you might need to hit up someone who is about all that.

The 3D printer is a tool, to my knowledge, inside the buy/build, and from what I've seen is basically photogrametry ( picture to 3D object ) and the picture they used from one of the examples was a person's own picture of like their stuffed dog or something, and the other was like a picture of a decorative vase, likely a pic off pinterest or a home decor shop site, so it seems like something atm they only intend for ppl to use personally. Right now I don't know whether these creations will be able to be shared, I only know that ZOI, the characters ppl create, can be shared in a way that's similar to The Sims 4's Gallery.

Personally, I wouldn't suggest using the 3D Printer, not just bc it probably uses a ton of resources, but also bc the examples they showed looked ummm... bad, lol. So if you did use it on a pic of someone's CC, and assuming the creator themselves didn't create their mesh using a similar technology, it'd probably look way worse.

Otherwise, if The Sims CC community, esp in it's current state is any inclination of how this tool might be abused, bc let's be honest, ppl have been putting AI generated art in their sims CC for some time now... and well, you see where I'm getting at.

[mayimkjs]

FOOL's MATE Update Post #2

Master Post　　Last Update

Before I start this post, I would like to bring up something that I saw on the cancer that it Twitter. DO NOT HARASS THE STAFF OVER THE T2 SUMMERY AND T3 COMMENCEMENT. Sucks that that needs to be said.

People Suck Man + Delays

I was planning on filming the interview and I emailed probably about 50 people. Not a single positive response. At least this got me to buy a small light kit.

I was also planning on listening to a Jekyll & Hyde audio book while on a plane and work on that section of the doc. My volume was at 100% and it was too quiet. So that's been delayed.

I Made an Anonymous Feedback Form

Made this so that people who don't wanna publicly give feedback for whatever reason feel comfortable doing so. However, if ANYONE abuses this, I will have to enable email collection. You can't see others responses, so you will still be anonymous. The email collection would just be in case I have to block someone.

https://forms.gle/Wv5S5744asszjmGf7

Finally got to do Audio Related Things

I can't really do that stuff at school because there is constant noise. So since I've been home, I was able to do this stuff. I didn't get through it all so I'll try to do Double if I don't have noisy neighbors this year.

Poster Update

I held a poll over a month ago to decide between 4 drafts for the poster/key art/thumbnail. Option 3 won so here's the sketch of John. I haven't been actively working on this and mainly have been working on this when I want to draw. If you have any critiques, feel free to share.

Illustrations and Assets

So, Adobe fucked up Photoshop a few months ago and recently Illustrator. So I've had to downgrade to Photoshop 25.4 which was released in January so I can use it for more then 1 minute. Then Illustrator was just really fucking laggy. Other from that, I'm about half way done with vector graphics. I still have to go through a bunch of pictures and get rid of the backgrounds.

I also decided to try to make some 3D graphics so I've finally decided to learn Blender. Me and a friend are also probably going to work together to make a prop since he has a 3D printer. I also bought Paintstorm Studio which is more of a digital painting software then drawing, but I've found that it's really good for design. I just wish I bought it during 2020 when it was $10.

I've also been working on adding image credits to the research doc. There are a bunch of images that I don't know who made them. I have a list on the beginning of the doc if you want to help with that.

Since I'm expanding on the DID section, I would like to make a request.

Since I've seen some systems floating around here, can you fact check me? I really DO NOT want to get important information wrong. I don't think I've gotten much wrong if at all, but I just wanna be 100% sure.

Changes

Expanded

Foils

DID Terms

Extra info here & there

Modified

Prisoner Genres

Got rid of “(Tentative)” on title page

Moved

Theories about who Es is into Ch8 

“The Kayano System and Es are more connected than we think.” into “MILGRAM Theories” 

Added

Special Thanks

More theories 

Images

Other

Cleaned slides

Links

Research Doc (Comments on like always)

Milanote

Reddit Post

[hackedmotionsensors]

i didn't reblog the post but I do agree that the terminology for zines has gotten completely twisted.

ON THE OTHER HAND I don't think that selling them for say 20$ (which is what i sell my sketchbooks for) is unreasonable or unfair to still call a zine. I need to cover my costs of printing and the time I put into putting them together. yeah I can TECHNICALLY get a printer and print them myself but with the cost of printer ink and the lack of space its easier for me to just pay for someone to do it professionally but I'm also NOT making them at like....the HIGHEST QUALITY, LIBRARY BOUND, HARD COVER, IT COMES WITH A THOUSAND DOO DADS AND GIFTS. its just sketchbooks ofpreviously existing doodles and a few new sketches or sketches that I had before and colored in. Its essentially like selling a full print but in carryable size with some notes from me.

Its a zine but I call it a sketchbook because the idea of zines has changed for a lot of consumers. Thats not their fault bc those zines or anthologies DID start out in the "lets make a big ol book together because we are all horny for Reigen" kind of thing. A lot of times they're projects made from passion. I HAVE noticed that there's been a turn in the whole process of making them that both stresses out artists, requires kickstarters, and all sorts of shit that should be considered Artbooks. ARTBOOKS have always been on the higher end of things. There's nothing wrong with considering an anthology thats proper bound, and for a certain amount on a kickstarter you get extra things like stickers, charms, whatever.

But zines SHOULD go back to being simple little things. The cost to buy them shouldn't be lost UNLESS the artist wants it to be. If you print at home or using a schools printer and just print a bunch of cute little zines yourself then that should also exist and you can set your price point for whatever you want.

Its all semantics and personal preference at the end of the day but I do think that...yknow it wouldn't hurt if we could start calling the big project 50$ range books that often get run into the ground from bad leadership (or fun stuff like the organizer of the thing runs off with the money to play genshin) ...something other than zine. Like Artbook or Anthology. Or even Collection lol

Zine should be a small thing that you collect for fun and doesn't require a committee, a new discord channel, and a contract to make sure your organizer doesn't run off to play gacha (I'm sorry it still makes me laugh)

ALSO another thing about zines is that often times they were originally made to be alternatives to really closed minded book sellers. Like...its where a lot of the OG star trek fanfic/porn came from. Its a place to have your ideas put down. To explore narratives. Essentially Doujinshi can also be considered A TYPE of zine in that it literally means self published (not NECCESSARILY that its...yknow...bl or waifu porn lol Sometimes its just manga that artists put out before they can get published)

But lately there are a lot of zine projects (again...more actually like anthologies or art collections) that are REALLY REALLY closed minded even when the subject is SHIPPING.

So even the nature of CREATING the zines has changed a lot.

So yeah I agree with that post that I forgot to reblog. My only REAL gripe is that it doesn't mean that you should undercharge your work because you didn't print your zine at home or hand craft it like a youtube diy video. I did enough of that at art school I am not gonna bind a book or try to cut pages ever again if i don't have to lmao. CSP even has a zine preview so I can see the pages in 3d as if they were bound before printing lol

[drsteggy]

How do you make your cosplay weapons?? They look so cool!!

Thank you so much!!!

I mostly work with EVA foam and some worbla. I haven’t made a ton of weapons yet but they are pretty fun. Weapons usually need an internal structure so they don’t get floppy. The spear I’m almost done with is pretty much a half inch PVC pipe (which is cheap and you get to confuse your local Home Depot when buying it). I have used sculpture armature wire in the 2 swords I’ve done, but people use other stuff, too- I already had the wire.

A lot of people 3D print this sort of thing, too. I don’t have space for a printer and learning how to model and print is a whole bunch of other skills I’ve decided I don’t need to try and learn at the moment. I find prints more brittle and they are harder to repair but I also feel the fidelity is a lot better?

I tend to do competitive stuff because that’s how I am, and the more stuff you actually do, the better, so I also prefer to work in foam as with a print I’d buy a file and pay someone else to print it right now, so I can only be judged on finish work. With a foam weapon- I did buy a template for my spear but I had to figure out how to make a 2D drawing a 3D object

Like I started with paper and a pipe a month ago. I’ll have this done today.

I find the cosplay community is super helpful, too, if you need help figuring something out. I had lots of tutorials and videos about how other people made their stuff so I could pick over ideas on how to make mine. The spear breaks down into three parts to make it easier to travel with…and so I can convert it into a fusible TOTK style spear (hopefully in the near future)

I also finish stuff by hand- weather is unpredictable here in the spring so this is primed with a brush on self leveling and flexible primer called Flexbond - it’s meant for foam and thermoplastics- and I hand paint it all with acrylics. There’s a ton of fun paint out there and it’s easily my favorite part. The spear uses a metallic black and red as well as the silver.

I need to finish this up today and take its glamor shots so I’ll probably share those later. Thanks for the ask!

[oreramar]

Florist Talk: daily tasks

I recently made a post with bullet points talking about some of the common aspects of being a florist (caveat: at a mom n pop shop in a small town in the US, not all points apply universally). This time I'm going to narrow down on the normal sorts of everyday, week to week aspects. This is written as though it's a guide for the writing of Florist AU fiction/fanfiction, so occasionally I'll refer to the example Florist as your Florablorb, or, now, Florbo for short.

May this be of use to anyone writing such a story in order to simply ground your character in everyday tasks when plot/characterization needs to happen.

Opening tasks: I'm sure you can imagine. Doors open, lights on, computer/POS logged into and till shift opened, any ambient music turned on. Extra details can be added such as dragging out sandwich board signs or those outdoor flags or maybe even an outside display stand/cart (only in warmer months) or shoveling/salting a walkway (if in a snowy time/place).

Then Florbo goes into the walk-in flower cooler and removes any flower arrangements premade for delivery on this day. Maybe delivery slips are organized now, maybe left for when a delivery will actually be made. Anything that was ordered in day(s) before this one should be delivered on the first run of the day if possible.

If there's a florist website it's possible web orders came in after previous day's closing/before opening this one. They might autoprint and simply need to be collected off the printer. If they exist they get sorted into same-day or put into whatever organization system is used for future orders. The shop I work at has a series of cubbies labeled Monday through Saturday; order sheets are folded in half and put into whatever day it's meant for.

Start working on whatever flower orders came in for this day. If they're done before first delivery time then they can go out with the others. If not, they'll go out later. On a busy day, an unspecified or "designer's choice" arrangement can be chosen from the display cooler for speed. It'll be replaced by a design of similar price when more time is available.

If calls or walk in customers happen during any of this then they're handled in between the rest of it.

Usually in my experience there's minimum two deliveries per day: one mid morning / before noon, and one after lunch breaks are taken / mid-afternoon. Rarely are there fewer runs, and occasionally more orders come in during or after the second run so a third (or fourth, or sometimes, rarely, even a fifth) are needed. This might be very modest given the size of the shop/town I work in; more may be normal (especially with a dedicated driver) in a larger or busier city.

Again, usually I can get any same-day morning orders done either before or just after lunch breaks conclude. Again, this might vary place to place, and definitely varies day to day.

Lunch breaks can be half an hour to a full hour depending on your place and person and how busy it all is. I've got a near-retirement boss who likes to go out to lunch and takes a full hour. I usually only do half an hour unless for some reason I need to run home for lunch in which case I can typically have an hour as well.

If and when same-day orders are finished, Florbo will get into the cubby/other organization and find anything already there for the next day and start working on those orders. Floral arrangements go into the back cooler (not the display one, to avoid confusion/people walking in and wanting to buy things already made for others). Any live plants or gift-type items go on some sort of shelf or counter or other out of the way surface. Confusion can happen if Florbo doesn't pay attention to dates: an order for Monday the first will be in the same cubby as an order for Monday the eighth. Gotta try to stay on top of that but mistakes can happen.

If a same-day order is made while working on next-day orders, it gets priority.

Obvious is obvious but orders that go to schools have to get there comfortably before school lets out. If that is just not feasible because someone up and ordered fifteen minutes before the final bell they'll need to be told that it's gonna be a tomorrow thing now. This usually isn't an issue.

There's usually a same-day delivery time cutoff, usually sometime in the afternoon. How strictly it is followed may vary by the day and store. If someone tries to skirt this cutoff by ordering online they may or may not need to be called and informed that it's not gonna work this day. There will be a separate post on Delivery Protocol later because that gets a bit long.

Make any arrangements needed to refill the display cooler. Every few days or so, recut and rewater any arrangements left in the display cooler to give them more longevity.

Normal cleaning chores might be done during lulls as well. Dusting shelves or watering live plants is occasional, but sweeping the work area and cooler floors is daily. No matter how careful you are in cutting leaves and flower stems stuff will end up on the floor. Some of those stems will ricochet wildly when clipped.

Flower deliveries come about twice a week. They could arrive any time of day, even overnight (warehouse drivers will usually have a key shop to put them inside for you) depending on your suppliers and their routes. Flowers arrive bundled in big, long boxes, and must be trimmed and put into water treated with flower food.

Flower food comes either in big buckets of white powder (mixed into water) or big buckets of liquid concentrate (again, mixed into water, and a handy hose that connects it to the water source through a special nozzle makes this much easier. The nozzle is squeezed like a gas pump and can be used to fill buckets/vases/jugs directly).

Closing bits are just what you'd expect. Sometimes someone calls or walks in five minutes before closing, and Florbo must unfortunately suffer this.

SATURDAY SPECIAL: any and all of the above needed, but this tends to be the slowest day for orders and deliveries, so instead some of the time is filled by removing literally all flowers from the walk in cooler, sweeping and mopping the floor, and recutting/reorganizing/refreshing all the water buckets. This includes emptying a bucket used to collect cooler condensation water via a hose. There's never much in the winter but in the summer this has to be done two or three times a week otherwise it gets too full to lift or carry and your poor Florbo, if they have floppy arms, might be forced to drag it across the floor to tip it outside.

Of course things can vary depending on the day and vary even more if there's some kind of holiday altering the flow of business, but that bit's for a later post. This one's gotten long enough.

So go now, and couch your Florbo's dialogue and narrative in actions such as processing a fresh order of flowers from the wholesaler, or in resorting to dusting shelves for the third time that week because business has been so slow and they've run out of normal things to do and space in the display cooler to make things for. There is much variety to be had beyond writing them arranging yet another dozen roses every time plot rears its head!

[welldonebeca]

the devil in the marble (5)

WC: 1.7k words Warnings: Flirting, fluff, first kisses, canon compliance.

If you like my work, consider buying me a coffee or subscribing to my Patreon. It’s just $2 a month and I promise you won’t regret it.

masterlist

Chapter 4

Cato washed his hands before anyone else and pulled your chair for you to sit before doing so by your side.

The whole dinner, he charmed your mother with his stories, and praised her food and the decoration of the house several times, even offering himself to clean up, but she shooed him away. It was Jupiter's job to do so today, and Juno was the one supposed to wash them.

"Go, go, you two," mum shooed you two out of the dining room. "Honey, you can show him your prototypes for your statues while we work down here. I'm sure Cato will like it."

He looked a bit smug as she spoke and picked up your bags from the couch before walking to you again, and pointing at the stairs.

"Ladies first."

You tried not to be self-conscious about your clothes as you climbed up, but you couldn't help yourself. Was he looking at your butt? Your butt was really nice, he should be looking at it.

You waited for him at the top of the stairs and took his hand, guiding him to your bedroom, grateful that you'd cleaned it before you left, and opened the door for him.

The space wasn't too big - your father had taken two rooms that were initially on that side of the house and transformed them into three, which meant they were a little bit more cramped, but you all had privacy - especially with all the stuff you had there, never someone to give up on your things easily.

Cato looked around with interest in his eyes, through the piles of sketchbooks, the cup with colourful pencils and pens, your tablet and the picture of your family all together you had on a corner, and stopped by the clay miniatures you'd worked on to find the perfect design for your statue, which now was a paperweight.

"What's that?" he pointed at your camera case.

"My camera," you told him. "Juno has a printer, she lets me use it if I do her chores for the day."

He picked it up, and then the folder under it, raising his eyebrows at what was underneath it: Your many, many pictures of him.

"You printed them all?" he asked.

You nodded, shrugging.

"It's easier. There was only so much zooming I could do on the video, and I wanted something I could look at with precision."

He chuckled.

"Lots of time looking at my face," he looked at you. "I probably look very boring to you now."

You smiled, shaking your head.

"I don't know," you shrugged. "I keep finding things I hadn't noticed about you every time we see one another."

His face softened in surprise, and his lips curled up a bit as he stepped back from your workstation to approach you.

You crossed your arms as he walked to you, though, and he stopped.

"What?" he asked.

You shifted on your spot.

Your mother was already speaking of him as if he was your boyfriend, but Cato had never even said why he was so interested in you all of a sudden.

"I need to ask you something."

He seemed surprised, standing a bit less open.

"Go ahead."

"Why are you hanging out with me all of a sudden?" you asked. "We only had the posing sessions, and then you decide you want to be around me? Hold my hand at school, walk me home, meet my mother..."

"To be fair, she was the one who wanted to meet me," he corrected you. "And I just agreed."

You raised your eyebrows to him. Well... Yes.

"My question still stands," you insisted.

Cato looked around and pulled up your work chair, sitting down as you sat on your bed.

"You know, you Elettra girls might share some brainwaves," he joked. "Your sister asked me the same thing when you left, although she wasn't too nice about it."

You nodded a bit. Well, Juno was never nice.

"What did you tell her?"

"That I think you are really pretty," he told you. "And that you are great company, and spending time with you made me curious about you. It's why I searched your company."

You adjusted your back, processing his words.

"Really?" you asked. "That's all?"

Cato shook his head.

"Well... I'm as close as ever to the games," he told you. "I need to know what I'll do when I win, and I think I can have a girlfriend now."

That surprised you. Yes, you remember Cato around school, and he never had a girlfriend, not that you knew of. He had friends of all genders, but whenever you even saw them they were training, and doing other things that would end up in training.

"After the games?" you asked him.

He confirmed with his head.

"I've spent my whole life focusing on this, and now that I see it, and I know I'm gonna get in, I know!" he insisted to you. "I can think of the rest of my life."

You tilted your head, watching him.

Oh.

It made sense.

"And I like you," he spoke, at last. "I like the way you do your art, and I like your person."

Cato had a very mischievous smile as he leaned closer to you.

"So?" he asked softly. "Do you like that answer?"

You nodded softly, watching him closely.

"I think you're really pretty too," you confessed. "I was really happy when you accepted to pose for me."

He smiled more, leaning closer to you.

"Sweet pretty girl," he whispered, taking your chin in his hand, holding you very gently, as if you were something fragile, easy to break. "Have you ever been kissed?"

You licked your lips, growing warmer on your face.

"No," you whispered.

Cato breathed out slowly, almost blowing against your lips.

"Do you want to be?"

You shivered at the offer.

"Please."

He pressed his lips to yours, sweet and gentle.

His lips were soft, and had a bit of a scratchy feeling, as if he'd spent time picking on them, and his skin was just healing, but it felt nice.

He pulled away slowly, resting his forehead on yours as you kept your eyes closed.

You reached for him again for another right after, and you felt him smiling in reaction, letting your jaw go, and you let him in when he pressed your tongue against your lower lip.

It was a little strange to tongue kiss, but you followed his lead, and gasped a bit when Cato put his hand on your waist and lifted you up, pulling your body flush against his and slowly turning you two around until he was sat on your bed, and you were leaning against him.

He bit your lower lip as he pulled back, leaving you breathless and soft.

"Do you want to sit down?" he offered, panting a bit.

You opened your eyes, finding Cato already sitting on your mattress, pink on the cheeks as he looked at you.

"Where?"

He looked down at himself, pulling you slowly.

"My legs?" he offered gently.

You swallowed down and nodded, and he held you as you spread your legs and sat on his thighs, spreading your legs and straddling his hips, and knees on your bed, but still with a bit of a distance between you two.

"Like this?" you asked, feeling your face hot.

He nodded, caressing your back, but didn't pull you closer before kissing you again, leaning closer to you, holding you by your waist, and you put your hands on his shoulders.

You two kissed and kissed and kissed, until you were outrightly melting in his arms.

And, of course, because you two couldn't catch a break, the sound of a fist slamming against wood made you jump back from him.

"Mum!" Juno yelled as she ran off.

You glared her way. Now she was just being antagonistic!

Cato didn't hold you as she walked off, and you stood up, walking out of your room and to the side of the stairs, finding her already dragging your mother in your direction.

"Juno!" she grabbed her hand.

He put a hand on your back, leaning in with you, a little spooked.

"I'm not doing anything wrong!" you warned them from up the stairs. "I don't have anything to hide!"

Your mother sighed.

"Juno, leave your sister be," she let her go, walking off to the kitchen.

"They are in her room!" she insisted. "Why does she get to have a boy in her room and I can't?!"

Your mother didn't even turn back for her.

"She is 18, you are 15," she said simply, sounding like she was in the kitchen. "Is the door open, honey?"

Cato leaned a little, as if to try to see it.

"Wide open, Mrs Elettra," he informed her. "It's how she saw it." 

You looked back at him, and he looked absolutely amused, as if everything was all pure comedy. Why was he amused?

"Keep it open," she told you two. "Don't mind Juno. She gets stressed when she doesn't train in the morning."

Cato tugged on your hand to get you back into your room, laughing to himself, squeezing you closed by your middle.

"Come on, pretty girl," he chuckled into your neck. "You got nothing to hide."

You shook your head, turning around, and he sat down again, pulling you to sit on his thighs.

"What is so funny?" you asked, crossing your arms.

Why was he so amused?

But Cato tugged on your hands to release them, taking your arm and your hand, kissing your palm.

"Your little sister is the most chaotic person I've ever seen," he chuckled. "It's funny."

You watched him, confused.

"Funny?"

Cato raised his finger to your face, tapping your nose.

"You're adorable," he decided. "Yes, sweet girl. I like watching chaos."

You nodded a bit.

"Alright," you agreed in a half-mumble.

"Is that a problem?" he asked. "That I like chaos."

You watched him for a moment, his face and eyes very quiet as he waited for an answer, but you could see a hint of worry.

"No," you decided. "It's not a problem."

Chapter 6

. . .

"the devil in the marble" was posted on my Patreon in June 2023! To read the available chapters and read the last arc of the story as it gets published, subscribe to my page! It's just $2 a month and I promise you won't regret it.

. . .

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[tittyinfinity]

Hey, could I get some advice/opinions?

So, everyone has seen the donation posts I've had to make over this past month with the BS I've been dealing with. I'm financially struggling. But there's a purchase I've been planning out for a while, and it's technically not a necessity.... but at this point I kinda feel like it is – just not for me.

I've mentioned it before. I want to buy a printer so that I can print out the pictures & articles I've archived and put up flyers & posters around town to spread political awareness. I also have some neighbors who desperately need information because they're literally just not educated on it. And I want to put up flyers that have QR codes to directly donate to Palestinians.

A printer is expensive. And I can't fucking afford to feed myself right now.

But how long can I put this off? Even if my spreading awareness only saved one extra person... how long of a window do I have before it's too late for them?

Is it really irresponsible to make a huge purchase like that, when you only make $784 a month and have been begging people for money, if it saves more lives in the process?

Will people be upset with me if I make this large purchase and then go back to saying I need money to feed myself?

Does that even matter if it helps more people?

I just really worry that I'm gonna be seen as "not really needing the help" if I make a large purchase like that while being in a rough spot. I DO really need help rn. But not as much as people experiencing genocide. I know what it's like to be without a home but I don't know what it's like for it to be destroyed along with my family.

I wasn't going to be able to afford it at all, but thankfully, with the help I got this month to take care of my car and phone bill, I can purchase one BUT it will leave me at $0 for the month, leading to more donation posts, which ultimately makes me feel like I'm spending *other* people's money on this.

Would I be able to get some insight? I feel like a piece of shit either way ngl