Something Goes Here

My very first interview for OJST is up today and we're celebrating my good pal Gina Biggs of Filthy Figments!

I've posted some of my Filthy Figments comics here for $10 members before, and it's just such a lovely site to be a part of.

This coincides with the very first Filthy Figments member pledge drive to help keep the site alive, so consider checking out the site if you haven't before~

[ID: “Interview with Gina Biggs of Filthy Figments” a comic by Jey Pawlik is done in cool textured colours with mint greens and light pinks. Jey is a nonbinary person with a chubby build with short cropped hair with some greys, they sport big thick square glasses and casual comfy clothes. Gina Biggs is a cis woman with medium length and light-coloured hair, she sports catseye glasses with a strawberry necklace, a black t-shirt tucked into a cute floral long skirt.  

Jey is furiously drawing cute sexy character ideas on some paper while saying “Inspiration has STRUCK! What a super sexy story I’ve got on my hands! I’ll add some of this, a little of that—”  

Jey pauses. “—Hm. Where will it live though? The internet is just rife with censorship right now, there’s not many places I COULD post it… WAIT!”  

They run off, pieces of paper in their hand and flying and falling behind them as they run into a pink area instead of their usual mint green while saying “I know JUST who to talk to about this!”  

Jey enters a room and gestures happily to their friend Gina Biggs, who sits at a computer desk with a tablet she’s working on with two ladies smooching and the Filthy Figments website on the larger monitor. Jey introduces her “My good pal and fellow sexy comics enthusiast Gina Biggs and her site Filthy Figments!”  

Gina smiles and responds “Hey Jey~”  

Info about Filthy Figments lines the left side of the panel.  

❤️ filthyfigments.com  

❤️ $12.99USD/month or $99.95USD/year  

❤️ 50 new pages guaranteed every month  

❤️ 60+ creators, 200+ titles, & 15,000+ pages in the archive  

❤️ 100% human-created content!  

I'm a very vulnerable butch. I'm chronically ill, invisibly physically disabled, and have a lot of mental health issues. My masculinity doesn't inherently make me more strong or powerful.

But there's a huge amount of butch culture built on butches being protective of femmes, or just being strong and working in very physically laborious jobs. It feels disheartening to be locked out of a major part of my culture, just because I'm disabled.

So here's to all the disabled butches who want, or are expected to, be strong because toxic masculinity has taught us the mascs are the protectors, but we can't be.

Very much did in the sense that I literally do not know where my job is at the moment. But, for the time being I haven't been let go because nobody else including the store owner knows where it is either.

So, I don't wanna risk doxxing myself by posting pictures but goddamn am I tempted because this is not a believable event. This is a cartoon problem. For looneytoons.

But yeah, so, I work(ed?) at a kiosk selling boba tea, right? Freestanding kiosk in the mall with full water and electrical hookups and multiple fridges and sinks and a mini kitchen and the works. Fully functional tea shop. Very important to note that it was there last night, The work chat was discussing another issue last night at closing time. I'll get back to this.

It's been showing signs of being on the way out with how business is being handled lately and I've been considering other options, which is probably why I'm not as torn up about this as I should be, but maybe it just hasn't set in yet, but that's not the point. The point is there's been a lot of shit breaking and not being replaced and nobody mentioning anything about it until I walk into work in the morning and have to figure out why shit like the fucking cash register isn't there today. So I'm kinda used to having to ask questions about big things that nobody bothered to update me on. I was out for two weeks recovering from a surgery, so I came to work this morning assuming there'd be some kind of bullshit, yeah?

So, the question I had to ask the chat this morning was:

Not a text I ever thought I'd have to send in sincerity, but there it is. Because what I found instead was a fenced off patch of discolored tiles and a few holes in the floor where my entire place of employment used to be.

And the answer? Nobody knows! It was there last night when the mall closed, and every single trace of the structure and all its contents including drink making supplies and our safe and cashbox was gone when it opened again. And when I say nobody knows, I mean everyone from last night's closers to the actual (former?) owner of the store jad no fucking clue about this until getting that text from me this morning. For once I am actually the first to know. 🎉.

So. I guess I didn't so much lose my job as had it stolen. Not by AI, but good old fashioned hands-on human beings picking it up and carrying it away somehow. All mall security would tell me was that they were instructed not to tell me anything and have us contact our management. Who also don't know anything. And later on I came across some construction workers around the gravesite of the kiosk discussing filling in the holes, asked them about it, and was told that they "weren't at liberty to say".

So, not only is my job gone in the most literal physical sense of the word, but it was taken in some kind of super secret kiosk extraction in the dead of night without any warning or witnesses and nobody is allowed to speak of it. The store owner said she was gonna figure it out 10 hours ago and still no word back.

My mother in law thinks the FBI took it.

Not any of the other stores around the state. Just the one little kiosk.

Why? Because she loves a conspiracy and is just a little bit extra.

Also because she was around for the massive crackdown on Yakuza-owned businesses in Waikiki (in her homestate) that did actually involve the FBI seizing stores (no confirmation of making kiosks cleanly disappear in the middle of the night though).

Still no word from my job on what's actually going on, but the most likely theory so far is that maybe the kiosk was on lease and got repossessed? The mystery continues

According to the owner, based on what she's been able to find out, the kiosk was not removed legally and they're starting a potentially long process of legal action. I hope she gets to sue the shit out of whoever did it but for now at least I know for sure I'm unemployed.

Really hoping for more details in terms of who/why/how, so I'll keep updating if I learn anything.

For now the summary is: An unnamed entity that is most likely mall management (on account of mall security cooperating with them) stole an entire kiosk and all the contents including money and machinery with barely a trace in the middle of the night grinch-style, with zero warning or explanation, and ensured the silence of both security and the construction crew, in an action that was definitely preplanned and illegal, and as far as I know nobody knows its whereabouts.

Enjoy the unintentionally funniest text I've ever sent in my life

Aaand a close-up:

HEY HI HELLO THIS ONE'S MY FAVORITE

However, those places of Texas that are close to Arkansas, do not include “close to Fort Smith, Arkansas.”

The closest Texas gets to Fort Smith is about 185 miles (about 300km), at “a little closer than Texarkana.” (Dallas, fwiw, is about 275 miles/450km from Fort Smith.)