12-07-2023, 07:26 PM
image description:
[image description: a spice jar type TCP with pastel blue tinted glass with white polka dots, a dark blue cap, and a white tag with a dark blue floral pattern on it. she also sports freckles underneath her eyespots.]
COURTNEY- 5/11/316
A new project always feels like a wonderful thing, something fresh and fun...one of the few things that makes Courtney consistently brighten up. It’s so easy to caught up in the anxieties of day to day life, especially when running such a bustling forum like Felid Factor...but knitting this scarf for Mabel will be a welcome break from all that. Not even a scarf for work, just a fun thing for a dear friend. She’d put her 110% into it, for certain.
But even so, her thoughts stray to other things...namely the site, as usual. Whenever she wasn’t thinking about how to run her online knitwear shop, it was all about FF, the forum that the three TCPs living here in Sunside Cottage started together. Not her idea, of course- that would be Honey’s- but it was hers to bring everyone together to one central location, starting when Mabel had that severe breakdown working for corporate...that just wouldn’t do, she couldn’t stand to see it. Honey had jumped at the chance, but Mabel took some convincing to move all the way out here and buy a place...and it had all been worth it, even if money was strained.
Very strained.
Even if the site hadn’t been Courtney’s original idea though, the melancholic spice jar type cared about it dearly. How could she not? It had brought her and her friends together and given them a life closer to one another, and for that she was truly grateful. And now, she runs all of the community events...though such a job on an unprecedented venture requires more trial and error than she’d like. Still, such a thing isn’t too out of line for her- she has to do that kind of thing with her creative work as well, trying new variations on patterns to keep her stock fresh and exciting for her sales.
The last major community event had been a mess, however. There were a few minor ones run with the help of community members- some gaming ones for the most part- but she had tried to get a digital card and gift exchange going for Forge season. Despite the holiday having plenty of room for people with solely platonic relationships, many complained about it encouraging people to flirt and “hook up” with other forum members, and the drama that got stirred up as a result made Courtney’s head hurt just to think about it. Now she needs something for spring, and she’s running out of time- it’s already approaching mid May, and if she doesn’t move fast, it’ll be June soon enough.
Maybe something promoting gardening...spring is a good time for that in a lot of places. Wait...but that’s a lot of places, not all of them, I’m sure that some zones still have winter this time of year. Or...all times of year. Or summer all times of year. Shoot. And then there’s cities, though I suppose you could just buy a nature type-made potted plant. It’d have to be nature type centric in general, most plants are too big for TCPs to take care of, and...agh, asking people to find a nature type would cut back on accessibility to a huge degree, and exclude those who live alone…
I should think broader, and have a focus on something that anyone can do...maybe something that helps the environment in general- no, that still limits people, especially people who live in crummy places. Life improvements, maybe? I worry about people who have abusive situations, then, it might just make them feel bad if they can’t get anything completed...unless I offer things for people to do around the forums as well, that could work. Little tasks for people to do both online and in real life, goal setting, encouragement...prizes for people who complete the most goals, perhaps? We’d have no way of verifying who’s completing the most, it’d be total honor system, but that’s just kind of how it is with these things.
It could work. I’d still need to figure out the prize system, that’s going to take money to commission an artist of some kind, ack…I’ll figure out some way how. The site’s worth it, and this could really help people out-
Courtney’s thoughts are interrupted by a crash from the room next door, the spice jar TCP getting up out of her wicker chair and dashing to see what happened.
COURTNEY: Honey?! Honey, are you alright?!
[image description: a fur type TCP with gray body fur and a very, very subtle lighter spot pattern. its face is dark, black as if hidden by shadow- with its eyespots a bright yellow for contrast. it has claws emerging from its furry hands in the same shade of yellow.]
Honey is sprawled on the floor of its room, covered in dye even more than usual and trying to right some spilled bottles on its tarp setup. The polka dotted fur type's claws keep knocking into the glass and spilling them further, its eyespots narrowing as it frantically tries to clean up.
HONEY: I didn’t get any on the project or the floor, don’t worry!
HONEY: Nothing broke, just a bunch bumping into each other.
HONEY: ...and getting on me.
COURTNEY: You scared me…
MABEL: Me as well.
Both of the TCPs turn to face the queen type in the doorway, Mabel's arms crossed.
HONEY: Sorry, Mabel…
MABEL: You alright?
HONEY: Just made a bit of a mess, but I clean up easy!
HONEY: It’s the project that you have to worry about getting spilled on, you need that to look nice for the clients.
It gestures to the sheet of fur on the ground, patterns in the process of being dyed in.
MABEL: Or the floor. It has enough stains.
HONEY: Yes, I said the floor’s fine! We’re good!
COURTNEY: You’re a mess, though…
HONEY: Nothing that a bath won’t fix!
The fur type rights itself, the full damage of the stains revealed.
MABEL: ...we should probably work fast.
COURTNEY: ...or we’ll have to shave you again…
HONEY: Like hell you will!
COURTNEY: Bath time…
MABEL: Bath time.
Both TCPs start gently pushing Honey away from its work and towards the bathroom, ignoring its protests.
HONEY: This isn’t so bad.
MABEL: It’s never “so bad”, you just protest like a big baby every time before you get in, and then when we’re in, you love it.
COURTNEY: It’s because we spoil it rotten...
HONEY: Maybe I like being spoiled by two pretty girls.
Courtney giggles a little, and Mabel is as shy as ever. The spice jar type knows that Honey’s just being silly, and it always likes to say things like this just for fun. There’s no way that it could actually find such a simple jar like her pretty, and that’s the joke.
...though, Mabel is legitimately pretty. Honey wouldn’t joke about that.
Huh.
Before she can ruminate on that too hard, Mabel passes her the showerhead, and it’s her turn to step up on a stool and get under Honey’s neck. The fur type always has trouble getting all this dye out of her fur whenever these kinds of spills happen, and the two of them get right to helping as best as they can. It’s a big scene, what with Mabel’s dress ruffles getting soaked down and any water spraying off of Courtney’s glass surface, but Honey is as happy as can be once they got it in the actual shower itself.
...though, Mabel is legitimately pretty. Honey wouldn’t joke about that.
Huh.
Before she can ruminate on that too hard, Mabel passes her the showerhead, and it’s her turn to step up on a stool and get under Honey’s neck. The fur type always has trouble getting all this dye out of her fur whenever these kinds of spills happen, and the two of them get right to helping as best as they can. It’s a big scene, what with Mabel’s dress ruffles getting soaked down and any water spraying off of Courtney’s glass surface, but Honey is as happy as can be once they got it in the actual shower itself.
HONEY: What would I do without you two here to help me?
MABEL: Look like a clown got ahold of you, probably…
HONEY: I could pull it off.
COURTNEY: ...You’d look like my last scarf commission.
Honey starts laughing, Mabel having to hold onto its back for dear life to avoid being shaken off her stool.
HONEY: Oh god, that thing?
HONEY: The one with the horrible yarn you had to pick up special?
COURTNEY: Yes, that! You’d have too many colors, and none of them would match!
HONEY: Okay, that’s a fate I think I’ll have to avoid.
HONEY: I cannot bear to look like some ill-advised craft store purchase.
MABEL: Congrats Courtney, you managed to talk some sense into it…
COURTNEY: It only took a reminder of the worst job I ever took.
HONEY: Hey, save that. You can use that as a bargaining chip forever.
HONEY: “Don’t give me a hard time, I had to go through the nightmare scarf experience.”
HONEY: “Let me rest today, I’m reliving the hell scarf memories.”
HONEY: “This scarf? It costs extra, because some jerk made me use this pattern on the worst piece of knitting to exist.”
Now all three of them are giggling, water going everywhere- only making the giggles worse, and everyone soaked.
It’s just another night in Sunside Cottage, and Courtney wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s just another night in Sunside Cottage, and Courtney wouldn’t have it any other way.