Troubles and emergency commissions. · 5:04am Jan 20th, 2022
So, honestly I didn't think I'd be posting a thing here about this sorta stuff, but times are insane, aren't they? For those of you who don't want to read the long answer, I'll give you the short of it here: We're in a lot of financial trouble right now, my family and I. 2020 onward hasn't been kind to us, and while we'd been hanging on by the skin of our teeth, our grip has faltered and now we're looking at potentially losing our house, having to put down our dogs, and moving out.
I know that sounds dramatic, because it honestly is, and I wish I could make it sound less dramatic.
For those who are willing to read the long of it, I'll talk about it below the break.
So, 2020 dawned all bright and hopeful and shiny, you know? Things weren't the best in the world, we'd been watching all the social unrest and stuff with unease, but we figured we'd be fine, right? Then the pandemic hit, and my mom's job became untenable (she was a tour guide at Boeing's largest factory in the world), so we lost her income, but that was okay. We still had my dad! Then his job went remote, and I think sometime last year or really late 2020 they laid him off. So we lost that income, which was bad, but not unrecoverable. He just had to get another job! Right? But he's in his 50s, can't really do the retail circuit, or fast food, and I'm unemployable in those sectors. So he went and got a much lower paying job in the mortgage industry, and my mom sorta got a job doing something else, and my youngest brother got a job while my other brother did the school teacher thing he went to college to do! Things seemed... *stable* ish. Then my youngest brother went and pissed away all his money on things. First it was a really big flashy wedding venue... that fell through due to the pandemic (I don't think he got his somewhere around 10k security deposit back), then it was lots of gifts to keep my sister in law (they're not actually married yet, but you know it's easier to just say that than fiancé') happy. Then he went to concerts (that is a whole nother bag of crazy), and so on and so forth. My parents were shouldering his bills on top of our bills, and we had to put our house into forbearance last year to keep our heads above water.
And then. And then my brother got injured at work and stopped collecting a paycheck, and L&I denied his claim so disability won't pay for his time off work. He started doing desk work, that paid basically nothing, and now we're really shouldering all his bills. So we were starting to get really really worried, because my brother's income was higher than my dads, and now it's not. On top of that, the financial help my dad's mother was giving us, much like a lot of her moods, suddenly turned and dried up because she thinks allowing her husband (my dad's step father) to keep helping us pay bills so we might keep our house is irresponsible and will make my father lazy.
That was last week. Like, the middle of last week that that happened.
And now, the piper has come for his payment. Our house is coming out of forbearance on the first. We have to start paying. And we can't.
Which leads me back to what I said above, we're in danger of losing a house we poured everything into during a time we were financially stable, when the world was looking better, looking brighter, before the pandemic. On top of that, both of my dogs, one of which is essentially my mom and I's emotional support dog, are next to impossible to rehome.
Our eldest, a Cocker Spaniel Chihuahua mix (He's adorable as all derpy heck) has been abandoned by no less than two families before us, and is aggressive and clingy to us, he would not take well to being taken away from us.
Our other dog, who is a Mini Doberman Pinscher mix of some kind has a semi-rare condition called Addison's Disease. For those of you that don't know what that is, here is a link to the wikipedia page. Due to this, she costs around $197 monthly for medication she absolutely needs on time, or she dies.
Because of this, my parents have decided if we lose the house, our two dogs lose their lives as we'll have to put them down. And, look I'll be honest, that scares me more than losing my house, you know? These dogs are as much a part of my family as my human family members, sometimes more so (my brothers can be absolute jerks, and they're more people than my extended family on both sides more often than not) and I just... I can't comprehend having to kill them? It feels inhumane, sick, cruel to do that to two animals that have shown us nothing but love?
It's honestly been why I've not been around writing, or blogging, or doing much more than escaping into other people's stories. The Sword of Damocles hanging over your head really sort of beats the desire to write out of you, you know?
Anyway, I need to get off my backside and actually, you know, do something, anything, to try and lift a little bit of the burden off of my parent's shoulders. Any, my only real marketable skill is writing, so I'm going to put it out there again, and say I am open for people to pay me to write.
Commission Info:
So, I'm not asking for a lot, $20-25 USD per 1,000 words base. $20 for the run of the mill stuff, and $25 if you want me to dig deep into the books and pull out something really technical and researched, which I'll give examples of in a bit. Theme might add extra, too, depending on if you want me to go dark or violent. Which I can do, as anyone who has ever read Canterlot in Flames knows.
That said, there are things I won't write. Partially because I don't want to, and also because I'll be honest there are better people for it out there?
Gore: And by this I mean really over-the-top stuff. Battlefield stuff is okay, but I'm not spending an entire paragraph typing out how someone dies choking on their own guts or whatever.
Fetish Content: Look, I'll be honest, I'm human so I have some weird things in my head too, but I don't want to write yours. There are better people on the website (some of whom I may read the stories of myself *cough*) and I think you'd be better spending your money talking to them about writing your nsfw stories.
Foalcon: I'm putting this specifically here and not just using the Fetish Content blanket for this because, I'll be perfectly honest, you try to commission me to write a story about this I will flat out block you and refund you. I don't think it's anything other than disgusting, so please, don't ask.
Real World Politics!: I will write politics, but only in universe politics. No Nazis, no Communists (except Starlight, okay I'll write her), no zebras taking over Equestria or getting the tar beaten out of them by the Royal Guard. Just. No.
There are other things I am sure I am missing, and I reserve the right to say no to stuff if I feel it's something I am not comfortable writing.
I tend to lean towards writing shipfics, adventure/dramatic, dark but not edgy, world building and alternate universe stuff, period military things, and stuff involving age of sail and age of steam air and surface ships.
To that end, though, I'm going to put some of my work in the past, well I guess five years down below here so that you know that I'm not just some random writing in a sea of writers begging for work, and that I actually can do the work.
Canterlot in Flames <- Bit older than 5 years, but honestly I still love it.
The Ships in the Fog <- this was a commission I did around five years ago. Written over the course of a year, it was originally supposed to be a supplementary adventure for ROAN, but due to a few things I ended up abandoning the project, however it was mostly finished, and I still like to list it as something I am proud of doing and some of the best writing I've done to date.
A ship-by-ship breakdown along with a bit of a ramble about the process of writing the ships, and the story behind some of them, can be found here
Sigrund's Bochoard <- So this was a story I actually got commissioned and paid to write. It's the first chapter of three, but the other two are not posted as of yet by the commissioner.
Storytime<- Also from longer than 5 years, but also one of my favorite stories I've written.
This is about what my general level of skill is at, it's a bit of a wide range, I've progressed further since Storytime, and I've continued practicing even while I've not published stuff since Ships in the Fog. The best example is Sigrund's Bochoard but I understand if you don't want to download a story to simply read it to get an idea on my level of skill.
If, however, you do not wish to commission me, but you want to drop a few bucks in the bucket, I made a Ko-Fi today, because as my friends remind me, there are nice people out there and they don't always need a reason to be nice or anything in return.
Ko-fi. <- My Ko-fi, if you're willing to donate you have my eternal thanks. It has it set to "tips" because I honestly feel bad with calling it "donations" because my anxiety hates not doing nice things in return for people's kindness.
Anyway, this blog has gone on a while, if you made it this far, thanks for reading. I... really hope you all are having a better 2022 than I am. And that it continues to favor you and that you find yourself and your life flush with opportunity and good times.
Until the next story is written,
~Sylvian
EDIT: I totally forgot, please DM me here on Fimfic to talk about commissions if you want one!
Sorry to hear that, Syl. Hope things turn around for you soon,
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Thanks. I've got some prospects, and I'm going to keep commissions open for a bit, so hopefully we'll be okay.