"Stitch" (2021)

𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔠𝔥;

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Tamara loved taxidermy. She'd spend hours bent over her pastel pink desk, cutting & carving, sewing & stitching, turning the regular into the fantastical using tanned skins and repurposed fur.

She made beautiful, unique taxidermy. Jackalopes, faux dragons & mermaids, three-headed bunnies & tiny horned beasts that adorned her desk, her Instagram page & the homes of her many, many fans.

Followers flocked in droves to watch her creations come to life, obediently tuning into weekly live videos, hammering hearts across her feed & vehemently snapping up her newest creations moments after they hit the shelves. Every week saw faster sellouts, record breaking, website-crashing success across the board.

It's why she had to plan something big. Her most sought-after piece, something that would catapult the internet famous into the land of superstardom.

So, for 3 long weeks, she'd been working on it. Bent over her pastel pink, blood-spattered desk, tools in hand, she cut flesh & carved sinew. She stitched & glued & wove, brushed & painted her perfect piece. The eyes had been the hardest part, a hot spoon proving the perfect tool for removing the fleshy orbs. In their place, she cast new, resin eyes, sparkling blue to match her carefully cultivated business logo. A flurry of drybrushing & a final stretch of stitching & her masterpiece would be complete.

Pink, oval nails reached into the closest drawer to pull out seashell lilac ribbon. Gorgeous & it'd match her IG layout 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒻𝑒𝒸𝓉𝓁𝓎.

Smiling, the taxidermist began to thread the pretty ribbon through the holes. Every gentle tug & she dreamed of the follower count. She flattened lilac over puckered pink & imagined the comments, the validation, the fame. She wove & pictured herself on Ellen, Late Night, Jimmy Kimmel. Oh, the possibilities!

A stifled, frantic mumbling broke her train of thought & her perfectly plucked brows pointed an aggravated frown at her mewling subject. With all the attention, the followers & inevitable impending fame, you'd think her biggest fan would just be 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓉𝑒𝒻𝓊𝓁 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒.

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Originally written and shared as part of Verbuary 2021: https://tinyurl.com/yc2x3met