#this is the story of me at almost 29 realizing that I've let a bunch of my friendships devolve into

[violetclarity]

gotta love the feature of depression that's like, can't tell if people in my life are actually being annoying or if I'm not handling things well and therefore overreacting to things that would normally not bother me!

[friendshapedplant]

Buying a Twiddle in 2022

[ID: Different colored Twiddle fidgets lined in vertical rectangular boxes. They are bunched up at the top of the box, and the rest of the box is packaging that reads “Twiddle, fidget, crunch, shape. unlimited fun, stress relief and more!” /end ID]

TL;DR: This could have gone a lot worse. If you want to buy a Twiddle, you can try and go through the official site. If you don't get a confirmation email or anything from Zorbitz, reach out to the company, they'll most likely get back to you. If you don't want to potentially deal with that, you can try going through eBay for (hopefully) less of a hassle.

To clarify: this isn't a review of the Twiddle itself, this is just going over my story of getting one. If anyone wants me to review the Twiddle, leave me a comment or somethin! Maybe I'll consider it.

Hi, I like fidgets and stim toys. One could say I collect them. I see a stim, I wanna get my grubby lil hands on it. This is what happened with Twiddle, a fidget by Zorbitz Inc.

Twiddle fidgets are like an in between for wacky tracks and snake twists; more joints than wacky tracks, less than a snake twist, got a bit of noise to them unlike a snake twist, but aren't as loud as wacky tracks, hopefully you see what I mean. I love clicky stims like wacky tracks, and I like the feel of the snake twist, so I thought this could almost be a nice in between! Thus began my journey to acquire one.

It was a bit of a rocky journey.

It's not a fidget I've seen around a whole lot; not one you can get in teacher stores or fidget resellers, from what I've seen. However, they do have a website, which you can buy them right off of! Except... not gonna lie, it's raises one tiny red flag.

Their website is twiddlenow.com, and if you look at the footer of the page, there is a part that reads, “©2014 Zorbitz, Inc.” That copyright year is supposed to be updated every year, but it's been 8 years since that happened, which left me a bit concerned.

Nontheless, I went forward with my purchase on December 29, 2021. I wanted to get a single black Twiddle. I processed the payment through PayPal, PayPal confirmed my purchase, and... there was nothing from the get go. I thought I would have gotten a confirmation email about my order, but nope. I figured, “Well, maybe they don't do that for some odd reason? We'll see if it shows up in afew weeks.”

I waited nearly a whole month, and still nothing. The business was US based, so I didn't think shipping times would be ludicrous. I decided to take it up with PayPal On January 22 to get a refund. Admittedly, right after I did that, I realized I should have tried reaching out to Zorbitz before doing so, as they have a contact page on their website. I went ahead and sent an email to both emails listen just to be safe, and this is the message I sent them:

Hello, I am emailing because on December 29, I placed an order for a twiddle through your site, twiddlenow.com. My PayPal was charged, but I never received a confirmation email from your site, and I have not received the product. I have filed a case with Paypal, and would like to either receive information about the state of my order or a refund.

Much to my pleasant surprise, I got a response:

Thank you for your patience with this. We never received this order. I just processed a full refund on Paypal. Let me know if you have any questions on this or need additional information. Thank you for your patience.

Sure enough, I got my refund! And I'm very glad I did, I thought my 22 bucks were gone for. I thus took this money and bought a purple Twiddle off of eBay, which took only afew days to arrive. I considered making a post about this back then, but I'm glad I didn't, because the story, surprisingly, doesn't end there.

Today, February 21, I got a packages from Zorbitz Inc. Inside were two black Twiddle fidgets. At first they looked exactly the same, but upon taking them out of the box...

[ID: The Twiddle fidgets formed into stars with several points on a white background. The one on the right has one part sticking out in a rectangular shape rather than a triangular point. /end ID]

They were pretty different. The one on the right's joints are very loose, and it's got a strange piece up in that part where it sticks out, and when I picked it up, it dropped into a more teardrop shape rather than holding its circular shape, like the left one does. Upon closer inspection, it turns out the weird piece that sticks out is a clasp.

[ID: Closeup photo of the clasp, which has been pulled apart. /end ID]

The one on the left is almost exactly the same as my purple Twiddle off of eBay, though I think my purple one might have more joints, for I can't get it into that perfect star shape. I get the feeling this loose one with a clasp is supposed to be a necklace.

Also, as a bit of credential, this is the packing slip, my address obviously marked out.

[ID: Packing slip for the order. In the top right is the Zorbitz logo, and to the left is their address and contact information, which is as follows:

5948 Lindenhurst Ave Los Angeles, CA 90036 US 323-571-4944 ZorbitzOrders@yahoo.com

The ship date is 1/28/2022 and lists 2 Twiddle blacks as the items. /end ID]

They sent this out a week or so after I got my refund, so I get the feeling this was a gift to make up for what happened and so I don't talk shit about them? It was a pleasant surprise, granted, but also kind of strange.

So, now I have a purple Twiddle, a black Twiddle, and a black Twiddle (Boneless Edition). Pretty cool Zorbitz sent me those, and maybe if I want another flavor of Twiddle, I can try buying from them again, seeing as they haven’t disappeared into the void. I’m curious to see if anyone else has bought a Twiddle from them.

[mamichigo]

Title: glass bottles

Pairing: Kokichi/Shuichi

Rating: G

Word count: 2,1k

Tags: Fantasy, Fairytale Elements, Phantom Thief Thief Kokichi (with a twist), First kiss

Summary: Shuichi has something of his stolen in the quiet of night, by a boy with mischief in his eyes.

Notes: Gift for participant #29 in the @kokichigiftexchange

*

Shuichi had seen them only briefly. One glimpse of a large smile with sharp teeth and purple eyes that seemed to glow. They were light on their feet, quiet as the night as they made it inside Shuichi's room on their tiptoes, like a particularly graceful ballerina. Shuichi didn't have a chance to speak up before the person raised a hand and blew glittering powder into his face. He had collapsed on the spot, but not before the mysterious person supported his swaying body by keeping a hand on his back and another to the back of his head.

The next morning, Shuichi woke up with glitter in his hair and on his fingers, along with a sense that something had gone wrong. Or, like something had gone missing.

He didn't realize the source of that impression until his friend, noticing Shuichi failed to react at all to upsetting events, joked that maybe his emotions had been snatched while he wasn't looking. Kaede had also been startled when he pinned her with an intense gaze and agreed with a terse nod.

"Is it really possible to steal someone's emotions?" Shuichi asked.

Kaede, never one to ignore even his silliest remarks when he was serious about it, put a hand to her chin. "It's not impossible around these parts. I might have heard something like that before, but it's more of a story to scare children than an existing fact."

"But we can't say for sure it doesn't exist?"

"That's right."

Satisfied, Shuichi relented and allowed the topic to change. As soon as he was done, Shuichi set out to research if there was any chance that he had been robbed of his emotions after all. After days of talking to more people than he was comfortable with, Shuichi found somewhat of a specialist (or so that was what he claimed to be). He had an oppressing, almost scary aura to him, but the man spoke of tails that made Shuichi go a little bit starry-eyed.

"Spirits are quite the trick loving bunch," Korekiyo explained over a cup of tea, "perhaps to compensate for what they didn't have the chance to do in life."

"So they're dead…?"

Though Shuichi couldn't see Korekiyo's mouth, he was sure he was smiling somewhat mockingly. "Yes, that would be the logical conclusion."

Shuichi hummed and looked down at his hands. Maybe he'd feel a little sad for this person, if they hadn't stolen his ability to do so.

"Is there any chance for me to find them?"

"Luckily for you, I have many reasons to believe you've encountered a spirit I'm already familiar with."

From the subsequent long monologue that he listened to, Shuichi extracted two important pieces of information: go north, find the closed orphanage that stands at the top of the hill; and, his little robber was apparently a boy who called himself a phantom thief. Or rather, the Phantom Thief, capitalized. Shuichi was doubtful that was his true name.

Nonetheless, Shuichi set out just as instructed. On the sunset of the next day, Shuichi had found himself facing the building that looked a bit like an abandoned church rather than an orphanage, if only because all the windows were stained glass colored vibrant red and pink, for the most part. Shuichi squinted at the building as he struggled to catch his breath.

Though Korekiyo had believed the opposite, Shuichi didn't feel safe, after all. Even a village kid as him knew the stories about people who encountered spirits and never came back afterwards, and knew even more of the ones who returned but not as themselves. Shuichi clutched the sleeves of his shirt.

While he pondered if he should go in or not, the doors slammed open on their own. A giggling voice could be heard, distant; a whistle of the wind. Shuichi tensed up, but shrugged to himself. That was as much of a friendly invitation as he would get, he decided.

The atmosphere inside the orphanage was strange, but perhaps only because he passed rows and more rows of open bedrooms, with beds as small as the ones he used to have in his room when he was nothing but a child. The place was covered in dust and debris, as well as wildlife, like it had been standing so long it was now splitting at the seams.

Though Shuichi was sure he had been wandering without aim, his feet took him to the only room that seemed lived in, to a sense. The dining hall had a table in the middle that went on for miles, and it was the first object Shuichi saw in here that was not dirty. It was also lined with candles in fancy candelabra, making the room just a bit too warm.

The room changed once he stepped properly into it. The bare, rotting walls were now covered in an intricate, elegant wallpaper; the table was surrounded by too tall chairs with plushy looking cushions; the table itself was now full of plates of all kinds of sweets that Shuichi had never seen before. At the center of it all, a carefully balanced tower of beautiful glass vials, adorned with flowers or stars or wings.

Finally, at the head of the table, swimming in his chair, sat a boy who watched him predatorily. Shuichi recognized his teeth first, bared in a childish smile. His face was framed by swirls of red paint, but the rest of his attire was perfectly pure white.

"Phantom Thief," Shuichi greeted.

"So you already know who I am," the Phantom Thief drawled his words, pleased with this outcome. "I'm so glad you went through the trouble of finding me!"

Guessing it was alright to do so, Shuichi sat on the opposite side of the table. The glass tower in the middle obstructed their vision, and they both inclined their heads at the same time to look at each other.

"Of course I did, you have something of mine," Shuichi said, straight to the point.

The Phantom Thief pouted. "We could've made a game out of it, you didn't need to say that right away." He heaved a forlorn sigh. "The rudeness of it all."

"Game?"

"Of course, I love games. Don't you?"

"Occasionally."

The Phantom Thief nodded twice, then dipped his finger into the nearest platter of food. He stuck his finger into his mouth, and promptly spat out whatever it was he just ate.

"Let's talk business, then," the Phantom announced magnanimously. "You're here for what I've stolen from you, is that right?"

"Yes."

"And what are you willing to do to have it back?"

Shuichi blinked. "I don't have to do anything since it's rightfully mine."

There was a stunned silence, followed by loud laughter. The Phantom Thief clutched his sides and his head dipped out of sight for several moments, but Shuichi could imagine the amused expression that was currently on his face.

"That's not how it works here, sorry." He didn't sound apologetic at all. "You have to try harder than that if you want your flask back."

Immediately, Shuichi's eyes were drawn to the glass standing between them. The Phantom Thief applauded him.

"That's right, that's where it is!"

The Phantom Thief stood up and turned to face his chair, then he put one foot up on it, followed by the other. He climbed onto the cushion, then the table with the nimble movements Shuichi just vaguely remembered from their first encounter.

"You see, this wasn't my first heist," the Phantom spoke while he kicked food, delicate china and expensive cutlery aside with the tip of his shoes. He walked to the middle of the table until he could reach for the vials shining in the candlelight. "Yours wasn't all that difficult to catch, either. But it's very special to me, so I can't give it back so easily."

The vial at the very top, placed in the spot of honor, was removed from the overall tower by the Phantom's hands, then held to his chest as if cradling a child.

"So, what is your proposition?"

Shuichi frowned as he watched the navy blue liquid inside slosh. He wondered what would happen if it fell, then broke. Shuichi clutched his hands to his knees.

"What could you possibly see in my sadness?" Shuichi inquired, and if he sounded miffed, well. He was. "Wouldn't it be more rewarding to steal someone's happiness?"

The Phantom contorted his face into a grimace. It made the paint on his cheek distort disturbingly.

"For the record, we don't steal anyone's happiness. That's against the rules." He tilted his head. "Right?"

The question wasn't directed at him. He saw nine heads, nine people all dressed similar to the Phantom Thief, nod in agreement then disappear before Shuichi could process that he wasn't hallucinating. He shuddered as he realized he was being watched by whoever those people were.

"I suppose that's fair," Shuichi conceded. He added, mildly, "But that doesn't explain why you did it, and why you won't return it to me."

The Phantom Thief rolled the flask in his hands and spun a circle himself as he went over the question.

"You wouldn't remember anyway," the Phantom decided.

"Enlighten me."

The Phantom was slightly taken aback by the response, a small stumble to his steps a proof of it.

"...Huh." The Phantom thought and thought, and finally said, "You felt sadness for me."

Shuichi furrowed his head. He was sure he wouldn't have forgotten about an encounter like that.

"When?"

"In a dream."

The Phantom decided to continue his track, this time towards Shuichi. There was more clatter as everything in his path was damaged beyond use. He came to stand above Shuichi, chin tilted up as he looked down on Shuichi.

"Or maybe I'm lying,?" The Phantom Thief challenged. "You'll have to find out yourself, all you have to do is remember. Now, I'll be taking this--"

Shuichi grabbed his ankle before the Phantom could turn on his heels. The Phantom tested the strength of his grip, but didn't try to break free.

"What do you want?" Shuichi asked.

"Oh?"

"We could strike a bargain."

The Phantom smiled in clear self-satisfaction, and from this angle it looked especially cat-like.

"Aren't you the courageous type," the Phantom complimented.

"It can't be anything too bad," Shuichi defied, but the words weren't convincing even to himself.

"You're so lucky I have just the thing in mind today, and it should cause you little to no pain, as long as you don't struggle too much." The Phantom Thief bent down, and suddenly he was crouching and leaning close to Shuichi. "How about it?"

"I'd like to hear what it is, first."

The Phantom Thief giggled. "Alright." He tilted the vial this and that way, showing it up to Shuichi. He inched himself a tad bit closer. "I'll give you your precious emotions, the one I've been treasuring… I'll give it to you, as long as you kiss me in return."

Shuichi couldn't help but gape. He was back to clutching his knees, for an entirely different reason. 

"...Is that all?" Shuichi choked.

"You're blushing," The Phantom pointed out without mercy. He watched Shuichi as his face went through the full spectrum of the color red. "So, what will it be? Take it or leave it, I won't take any other bargains, and I won't wait forever. Tick tock, Shuichi."

Shuichi swallowed dryly, and, with his head blessedly blank, pushed himself up by the chair's armrest, and his head met the Phantom's halfway. Shuichi expected him to be cold, to be a corpse covered by a porcelain face, but the Phantom was warm and pliant above him. The Phantom's hands trembled and Shuichi had to grab for the vial before it fell. The sudden touch of skin on skin broke Shuichi's thread of reason, and his other hand found the Phantom's hair and stroked the back of his head.

The Phantom's lips tasted of nothing. Shuichi exhaled softly and found some echo of a distant memory, not his own. Shuichi pulled back, vial in hand.

"Was that enough?" Shuichi asked, voice hoarse.

The Phantom was unresponsive for a beat. Then, he leaped forward, kissed the corner of Shuichi's mouth and demanded, "Call me Kokichi."

"I can do that."

Without a moment's delay, Shuichi downed the contents of the glass vials. It went down like a block of ice. Shuichi watched Kokichi from the corner of his eyes, and the boy did the same.

"This won't be the last you'll see of me, you know," Kokichi commented.

"I'm not afraid."

Kokichi smiled, sharp teeth in his mouth and glitter at the corner of his eyes, with a mess of a hair that framed his innocent looking face.

"Good, I won't stop until I have your heart."

Shuichi chose not to reply. As he left Kokichi standing alone atop the table, too small among the too big furniture, Shuichi could finally feel the stab of sadness that came from the sight.