#Selling to Zebras

[suspiciousmammal]

Slightly horrified, to put it mildly

[vyunt-doodles]

Character adopt! [open]

Was experimenting and liked the design, so I’ve decided I’ll put this zebra character up for adoption! I’ve created two color palettes for them. The watermark will be removed once I’ve received payment— I’m thinking $15. PayPal only, DM me if you’re interested.

Reblogs are super appreciated <3

[divinekangaroo]

on Amazon for something and………..this cover photo is…the meal he sort of momentously DIDnT EATttttt???? One of many momentous meals he…didn’t….eat?

Every recipe in this book better be some combination of cigarettes and alcohol

The merchandise for this show continues to *wildly* confuse me

[tartagliove]

sourdough bread my beloved...

[neonchik]

Zebra!

This adoption appeared quite by accident when it came to summer and resorts. The kid is looking for a new home.

10$

payment on Юmoney/Ozon Bank

[sassyhazelowl]

Yesterday I was gifted a pair of beautiful, white fantail pigeons. I have no idea where I'm going to put them after the quarantine is done. Probably with the valleys or the coturnix quail. Really hope its not a m/f pair.

[lesbiten]

if tumblr permits, i would like to introduce the newest member of the family, birch!

juniper needed a friend and i was going to wait until this summer to get him one but i wasnt happy with how he was acting (bored, lazy, frantic at times) and figured if my parents were fine with it i should go ahead and do it now. birch has been with us for a little over a month now and they get along great. they're rarely more than a foot away from each other and love exploring and stealing my things to make nests together. theyve already reportedly stolen two worm on a strings to add to their nest. love wins

[muse-bs]

oh yeah guess who finally found a bikini top

it’s not nearly as trashy as I’d want but it’s cute. I hope it fits

[nickisnook]

ebay.com/usr/nickisnook

Savage X Fenty Animal Print Slip Dress SIZE SMALL

[fionnaskyborn]

Many speak of the perks of bone-deep understanding of another soul, but few talk about the drawback of receiving highly specific and hard-hitting callouts from the person who knows you best.

[stefanieroggemalerei]

Blick in mein Atelier. Das Gemälde Zebra auf großformatiger Leinwand 100 x 120 cm. Mehr Info auf www.stefanierogge.de

[everythingsinred]

christmas is my favorite holiday for a lot of reasons but these are definitely a big one

[apoemaday]

Eurydice

by Carol Ann Duffy

Girls, I was dead and down in the Underworld, a shade, a shadow of my former self, nowhen. It was a place where language stopped, a black full stop, a black hole Where the words had to come to an end. And end they did there, last words, famous or not. It suited me down to the ground.

So imagine me there, unavailable, out of this world, then picture my face in that place of Eternal Repose, in the one place you’d think a girl would be safe from the kind of a man who follows her round writing poems, hovers about while she reads them, calls her His Muse, and once sulked for a night and a day because she remarked on his weakness for abstract nouns. Just picture my face when I heard -- Ye Gods -- a familiar knock-knock at Death’s door.

Him. Big O. Larger than life. With his lyre and a poem to pitch, with me as the prize.

Things were different back then. For the men, verse-wise, Big O was the boy. Legendary. The blurb on the back of his books claimed that animals, aardvark to zebra, flocked to his side when he sang, fish leapt in their shoals at the sound of his voice, even the mute, sullen stones at his feet wept wee, silver tears.

Bollocks. (I’d done all the typing myself, I should know.) And given my time all over again, rest assured that I’d rather speak for myself than be Dearest, Beloved, Dark Lady, White Goddess etc., etc.

In fact girls, I’d rather be dead.

But the Gods are like publishers, usually male, and what you doubtless know of my tale is the deal.

Orpheus strutted his stuff.

The bloodless ghosts were in tears. Sisyphus sat on his rock for the first time in years. Tantalus was permitted a couple of beers. The woman in question could scarcely believe her ears.

Like it or not, I must follow him back to our life -- Eurydice, Orpheus’ wife -- to be trapped in his images, metaphors, similes, octaves and sextets, quatrains and couplets, elegies, limericks, villanelles, histories, myths…

He’d been told that he mustn’t look back or turn round, but walk steadily upwards, myself right behind him, out of the Underworld into the upper air that for me was the past. He’d been warned that one look would lose me for ever and ever.

So we walked, we walked. Nobody talked.

Girls, forget what you’ve read. It happened like this -- I did everything in my power to make him look back. What did I have to do, I said, to make him see we were through? I was dead. Deceased. I was Resting in Peace. Passé. Late. Past my sell-by date… I stretched out my hand to touch him once on the back of the neck. Please let me stay. But already the light had saddened from purple to grey.

It was an uphill schlep from death to life and with every step I willed him to turn. I was thinking of filching the poem out of his cloak, when inspiration finally struck. I stopped, thrilled. He was a yard in front. My voice shook when I spoke -- Orpheus, your poem’s a masterpiece. I’d love to hear it again…

He was smiling modestly, when he turned, when he turned and he looked at me.

What else? I noticed he hadn’t shaved. I waved once and was gone.

The dead are so talented. The living walk by the edge of a vast lake near, the wise, drowned silence of the dead.

[ebonytails]

Happy Disability Pride Month!

The Disability Zebra for the Pride Animal series is finally here! (The series where I take requests and design animals based on flags) I designed this all the way back in March, and thanks to everyone's feedback, I was able to narrow it down! (Special thanks to @yomcloud for a lot of helpful notes :-]c) This will never be perfect, but I've gotten a lot of love and joy from myself and disabled friends seeing this little guy :-]

You can get this guy on Redbubble! For local conventions, I'll be selling this as stickers with the gray outline!

Fun Fact! Zebras are also used as a symbol to represent rare diseases! This is based on the quote "When you hear the sound of hooves, think horses, not zebras." In regards to what doctors should consider when diagnosing a patient. This ends up with many disabled people not getting the right diagnosis, being ignored, or their conditions not being researched enough. All this because something is considered "rare", when in fact people with these disabilities are still large in number, diagnosed or not- a lot of disabled people even feel that their diagnoses may even be more common than we think. Because of this, the animal has been embraced by what doctors may call "medical zebras", now being used to represent many different disabilities considered "rare" such as Ehler's Danlos Syndrome, CACP Syndrome, and many more!

If you are disabled or know someone who is disabled, this pride animal is for you! If you are or know someone who is considered a "medical zebra", I hope this zebra brings you joy!

[jo-harrington]

Standard Operating Procedures 1.04 (Eddie Munson x Store Manager!Reader)

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

Summary: The summer is ending, school is about to start, the seasons are changing...and so are things between you and Eddie.

Previous Part: Corrective Action

Warnings/Themes: AU where the Upside Down doesn't terrorize Hawkins. Reader works at the Claire's at StarCourt. Eddie works at TapeWorld. Mutual Pining and Slow Burn, Fluff, Food/Eating, Talks about the Future, Romantic Tension/Sexual Tension

You can find my masterlist here for more featuring our resident Store Manager and all of my other writing.

Please do not interact if you are not 18+.

Enjoy!

---

Eddie had always had a sweet tooth.

His mom swore, up and down, that her only craving had been for Zebra Cakes when she was pregnant with him.

His favorite food as a baby had been mashed peaches.

And now he was sure his body was chemically composed of more Dr. Pepper than water.

So it should have been no big surprise that he was so attracted to you.

Ahem.

So it should have been no big surprise that he would have planned a snack cake taste test extravaganza for your usual Sunday Not-a-Date Date.

You'd revealed early on that your grandparents were both "in the sugar business."

"My grandpa," you told him once as you walked through the mall window shopping on your lunch. "Worked the chocolate chip line at the Maurice Lenell bakery."

"Are those the fancy cookie tins--"

"That they sell at Christmas? Yes."

"Wayne always gets one with his holiday bonus," Eddie reminisced. "The pinwheel ones with the red sugar on the outside are my favorite."

"And my grandma worked at the Hostess factory," you continued. "She always always brought home boxes of rejects. I probably would have been too shy to make friends at school if they hadn't flocked to me for baked goods."

Because of this though, you had never fraternized with the enemy, as Eddie so dramatically put it: Little Debbie.

"And now," his gaze turned dark and mischievous as he threw open the doors to the van. "You shall feel the full power of the dark side."

He outdid himself, truly.

Piles of snack cakes from the gas station, sorted into two neat little stacks, a little notebook for scorekeeping, and a 6-pack of Mountain Dew as a palette cleanser.

“You keep saying,” he said as you settled in amongst the pillows and blankets he’d set up in the back so you’d both have a cozy spot to snack. The radio was softly playing in the background. It was nice. “That you wanted to drink the water in the mall fountains. Did you know that Mountain Dew is the closest you’re gonna get?”

You’d both run garbage late one Wednesday night and thrown coins into the fountain on your way back to your stores. And that’s when you’d revealed your deepest darkest secret.

“Because they’ll both probably kill me in the end?” You joked.

“No, because Bromine is in both.”

“Ok nerd.” You snorted.

“Not…a nerd,” he shoved you as he plopped down beside you. “But I did this project for chemistry class last year. On Mountain Dew. And how it gets that color. And it’s also how they keep the fountain water clean. Or pool water? I can’t remember exactly right now.”

“Ok nerd.”

“I’m sorry,” he clutched his hand over his heart. “My lady wanted to taste only the finest of fountain water. And I deliver her the closest thing and am openly mocked? Twice?”

You stuck your tongue out at him and slapped his shoulder, then asked what the rubric was for the taste test.

And then you snacked til you made yourselves sick and did what you always did, balanced conversation and companionable silence.

That was a new thing. The silence.

Not for the two of you, but for Eddie.

He wasn't used to silence, he was used to loud music, noises and raucous laughter and adventure--real or fantasy--with his friends, but since the two of you started hanging out, he was getting used to the silence a little more. Enjoying it. Savoring it. Looking forward to it.

The anticipation of waiting for something wonderful--thoughts or observations or confessions--coming of your mouth made him feel warm inside.

Eddie had pondered your friendship earlier in the day as you'd run in to let him know you couldn't take lunch together.

"There's this crazy long piercing line and I'm just running to get a slice of pizza and then going back up. I'm so sorry, I'll see you after work ok?"

Your energy was frantic and your words faster than lightspeed, but your eyes were filled with concern and care for him. The little hitch of your eyebrows and the extra pause you took so you made sure that he understood that you weren't ditching him you just...couldn't do lunch and didn't want to leave him hanging.

Even when everything was falling apart around you, you cared to make sure he understood.

It was nice.

And it wasn't just you. But it was nicer when it was you.

He didn't get a lot of understanding like that. Especially not in Hawkins where his last name and his appearance caused everyone's hackles to raise a little. And even the people who did want him around...well it was hit or miss if they decided to stick around.

But since working at StarCourt, things had been different. He had a boss and coworkers who liked him, inside jokes with people who worked at other stores. He had you. He wasn't Eddie The Freak Munson. He was Eddie from TapeWorld. And Eddie from TapeWorld seemed to help people warm up to Eddie Munson.

What a weird concept. People wanting him around. Coming to StarCourt and being around people who accepted him and valued him...understood him. He'd only felt that way with Hellfire...and with Corroded Coffin.

People were good and people liked him. A sweeter treat than all the Hostess in the world.

It had been a few months now; a few months of an actual job, a consistent crush friend, and everything seeming to look up for him. Give or take a few minor hiccups but...he was feeling good.

And school was starting soon, maybe this would be the year the tide turned? No more waiting for the future to finally happen for him; he was making things happen for himself.

It might finally be his year...

"So," he leaned over, into your personal space, and fished a folded piece of paper from his back pocket. "Kyle gave me this thing yesterday."

"Oh yeah?" Your eyebrows raised in curiosity as you happily munched on a sugary treat.

He'd spiraled a little bit when he'd been handed the sheet. Three little words at the top.

Schedule Change Request.

Way back at the beginning of summer, after the initial shock that he'd gotten the job at TapeWorld, he figured he was just counting his days until he was fired and that the start of the school year would have been the final nail in the coffin if he made it that far.

Instead Kyle was...asking him to stay.

"I’m probably not gonna be able to give you as many hours with school,” he sighed. “Which is a real bummer. But I’ll put you on as much as I can."

"You're not kicking me out?" Eddie asked, shocked.

"What? Are you nuts? Ed, you're like...my best guy! I need you here. Selling those guitars, getting those sales bonuses. And because you're my buddy. So make sure you put your for-sure days off on there...you know I'm gonna forget.”

He explained it all to you, which led to you cackling loudly.

"Oh my God," you laughed. "Eddie!"

"What? I know it's silly."

"No, I'm not laughing because of that," you began. "My first position at Claire's had been a summer job too and I seriously thought that I was gonna get fired once school was back in session."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. And it's a real thing because no one tells you that you're done when summer's over. You're gonna see come Christmas, Kyle will have to hire seasonal associates--and hey, ok...seriously if Gareth or Dave come asking for a job...it might seem fun...but don't--and he'll have to make sure they have end dates on their paperwork otherwise it's a whole thing."

You went on and on about helping your old manager with paperwork and you'd forgotten to put an end date as you were filling everything out. And then someone's mom came to complain at the end of the season when their kid was let go.

"And she kept screaming and screaming. And that's why I have a strict parent policy at work. Even though I'm the reason that got so fucked up; trial by fire. Jen was pissed."

Eddie reached out and unwrapped your hand from the Sno-Ball that you had crushed as you told the story. He adored it when you got so animated, but the poor little pastry was now just a mess of crumbs and frosting and marshmallow goo on your fingers and now his as he plucked the half-destroyed treat from your grasp.

And the thing was...

The thing was, Eddie wasn't...he was decidedly not smooth. He was gross. He was a gross boy. He hacked loogies and did spit handshakes with the guys all the time. He had no five second rule when it came to food dropped on the floor; it was an optical inspection and then usually straight down the gullet.

He could be romantic and seductive if he wanted to be; he could charm the...ahem...pants off some people if the need arose. And he had.

But that wasn't this.

This was a caught up in the moment of having a good time with his friend and doing what he would have done if one of his buddies crushed a snack cake. He'd be his usual gross self and expect them to groan and screech and laugh at him. Boys will be boys and all.

This was a too little too late moment of realization as he, Eddie Munson, lacking the foresight of having napkins in the van for this little snack cake taste test since he usually wiped his honey-bun-icing slick hands on his jeans after he unhinged his jaw and shoved it in on mornings when he was running late, saw no other way to clean sweet frosting off your hand except to lick it off your thumb.

The van suddenly got smaller and hotter as his tongue traveled up the pad of your finger, over the ridge of each joint and to the center of your palm. His eyes traveled up to meet yours as he flicked the sweetness off of you, and his breath hitched when he saw the way your eyes widened.

How was he supposed to deal with this? How was he supposed to handle this epic potential fuck up right here? How was he supposed to stop his brain--and maybe some other parts of him--from wanting to take the hand that gently held your wrist and pull you closer so he could kiss the sugar from your lips and not just...

Lick it off your hand.

Jesus, he was an idiot.

Caught between a rock and a hard dick.

Hard place. Fuck.

But that was the conundrum right? Because Eddie did want to kiss you; he enjoyed kissing...a lot actually, and it would be...nice if all of these dates were actual dates so that he could just kiss you and squeeze you and all of the nice things that came with...having someone who liked you back. So he didn't have to shoot Kyle a dirty look every time he teased "have a nice lunch with your girlfriend" knowing fully well that it was exactly what Eddie wanted.

He'd heard the spiel many times when Kyle had come back from his own lunch and then stood over Eddie as the younger man unpacked shipments, and told him, flat out, hands on his hips "you just need to ask her out man I'm getting sick of this."

And the guys had teased him a bunch.

And Wayne kept asking when you were coming around again.

Well this could be it.

A horrible start to asking a girl out on a date but wouldn't that be a funny story, and Eddie really did like a funny story.

This is. This is the moment.

Eddie opened his mouth to say something and so did you. You both backed down from actually saying anything. Eddie's hand tightened on your wrist and he was sure he could feel your heart beating faster. And was that you leaning a little closer to him? And did your eyes look at his mouth as he licked over the seam of his lips really quickly for courage.

He opened his mouth again...

Courage. He could do it. This was gonna be his year, and you were gonna be his girl.

...and then slammed the broken remains of the SnoBall in.

Quite literally slammed, shoved, fingers flailing as he tried to smoosh the chocolate cake and pink-coated marshmallow and remnants of frosting inside.

He let go of your wrist and then backed away from you as far as he could.

Idiot.

You let out a nervous laugh and looked down at your messy hand. You tried to use a discarded wrapper to clean yourself up when Eddie just...pulled off the flannel that he'd layered on to help wipe you off instead.

Like he probably should have done in the first place.

You didn't say anything, just smiled gently at him, like you always did. Always patient. Always forgiving of his mistakes.

What had you even been talking about before?

Oh...right.

"Note to self," he muttered around the SnoBall. "Never becoming a manager."

Your eyes crinkled a little as your smile got bigger and you grabbed onto the front of his shirt and shook him a little.

"Save yourself!"

The rest of your evening went by unremarkably.

You both got too hyped up on sweets and Mountain Dew, ran a few circles around the van in the StarCourt parking lot, headbanging and screaming, after Eddie threw on a tape he said the two of you could dance to. Then to Dairy Queen where you soaked up all the sugar with chili cheese dogs.

An otherwise normal Sunday for the two of you.

Mishap forgotten.

Nerves forgotten.

Misplaced feelings...forgotten.

For now.

---

Next Part: Standard Operating Procedures 1.05

[n7punk]

i'm going to shill again because i was talking about my splints and it got me thinking about how life-changing they were. if you have hypermobile joints or experience a lot of finger/palm pain after typing, playing video games, assembling something small (like lego/models), etc i cannot recommend enough you look into swan neck splints and lateral support splints!

(photos from Zebra Splints, my personal recommended source because they sell them cheap for accessibility reasons)

they're literally just rings. thats it! completely unobtrusive, and they can get pretty decorative (see the right), but they support your joints and prevent them from bending in directions they're not supposed to that cause pain and sometimes damage. i prefer individual swans because they're easier to fit than the joined kind, but i cannot emphasize enough how much these transformed my life overnight. on my average day i wear ten of these across my knuckles the entire time im at the computer (for work, relaxation, or writing). i used to be in so much pain and need a physio to work out the knots in my hands constantly, these actually saved me a lot of money in pain mitigation lol.

they have a lot more kinds of simple supportive devices for fingers, so i encourage you to take a look at it and research what kind of device might help you if you are having hand pain. the best part about these is pretty much no one clocks them for what they are and i get compliments from my coworkers on my rings. i don't actually recommend the more decorative ones because the additions can dig in depending on where they are, but i don't think i've ever made a better purchase in my life for what i ended up getting out of it