Overwhelmed (Patreon)

Oof.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

For those of you at the $7 and $10 tiers, Dropbox links will go out shortly, but this is kinda important, so bare with me for a second.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, in a whirlwind year.

When I first started SaunterWing, I was in the last year of a part-time job (though I didn't know it at the time), about to be unemployed for almost a full year. At the time, I was very productive, because I had a LOT of free time on my hands, and I was taking SaunterWing as unseriously as I could, having been burned by my SFW persona's lack of success. Things started to pick up, when I got my new job, which brought in a LOT of new income, but also disrupted SaunterWing because I now had to:

• -Move for a new job
• -set up shop in a new state
• -new job
• -do off-the-job training for the new job

I also had to revive my SFW persona, in order for it to qualify as professional development for my new job, which split the free time I'd dedicated to SaunterWing in three.  I can't use SaunterWing for obvious reasons, and neither SaunterWing, nor my SFW persona generate enough income or stability for me to abandon my day job to become a fulltime independent content creator.

So, in a general sense, if you've ever wondered why my productivity has decreased, that's why. It's also why my publication schedule has fluctuated in the last year. New Job, plus new home, plus new extra/after-work activities has messed with a lot of stuff (and this was BEFORE Covid-19 turned my home life into my work life). 

I'd kinda hoped that things would calm down as the summer hit, but that really hasn't been the case either. Due to Covid-19, my niece's summer camp activities have all closed down, and, as a result, my sister has asked me to return home to supervise her. This, theoretically shouldn't be much of a deterrent; I packed my desktop setup into my car, and returned home safe and sound. However, I still have to re-acclimate to being at home, and checking on my niece occasionally to make sure she does her homework and the house doesn't burn down, which takes away a bit of attention from SaunterWing.

However, if you live in America, or you've seen some of my safe-for-work content and researched further, you have a pretty good idea of what's coming next.

I am, in real life, a person of color, specifically African-American. If things were ominous before, well, they're about to get a bit darker (no pun intended).

The murder of George Floyd is hitting real hard right now. I'm angry, and I don't know that I'll ever "not" be [angry], on some level.  And while I pride myself on a pretty decent level of self-awareness and self-control, even I have limits, and the events of the last few months are taking their toll even on me and my ability to create content. Its one thing to realize how blessed you are to be able to live your life, ignorant of the world's suffering. Its another to realize that you could be killed for anything (now, moreso than ever), going by the list of seemingly innocuous things black people in the United States have been killed for.  To the point of having to inform your loved ones and friends that you made it safely back home after a cross-country roadtrip, because you could... "not make it."

First thing's first:
I will not be using SaunterWing to make any political statements, nor will I be making any political statements of my own, beyond what can already be inferred through interactions with me. I'm not going to be using Abby to make any political statements. That's not something she was created to do. More particularly, as bondage, damsel-in-distress prone character, anything I DID do with her, could easily be misconstrued as conflating fetish/kink with real-world trauma, assault, and abuse, and take the sexy out of her character forever. So, I will not be using Abby to make any political statements. This may change, depending on how bad the situation in the US becomes, but for the time being, Abby, Scoops (and associated characters) are political-neutral characters. You can personally ask me where I stand, though, if you do, be prepared to not like what you hear. 

Speaking of, I will not be talking politics on stream (if I return to streaming). Should politics come up, I will, as gently as possible, attempt to steer the conversation away from them. If the conversation persists, however, I will make my opinions known, and then kick the offending party, even if they agree with me. I'm already on edge, and I have no idea if things will ever calm down, or get better. Now is not the time to test me.

Secondly:
I will not begrudge anyone if my implicit politics cause you not to want to support/endorse SaunterWing anymore. Despite the above, sometimes my politics will leak through. If you're super curious, check my likes on Twitter to have a pretty good idea of where I stand. But I will not be making any statements or art here. That's not what SaunterWing is for. That being said, if what you do find does cross that line for you, I won't begrudge you if you decide you can't support me. 

On a related note:
In light of the social distancing related to Covid-19, Please take care of yourselves financially, before contributing to me. I know some of you are furloughed, and some of you can't work from home. I need you all to take care of yourselves first and foremost. If the bank is acting wonky, or you don't have the funds at the moment, PLEASE take care of yourselves first. I'll be fine. Okay? 

Please take care of yourselves first.

Now that those are out of the way...

I'm really tired, you guys.

I'd like to get back on track, but I'm still a little woozy and blank, emotionally. I'm going to get out the dropbox links this evening, and try to have the last game over for Bonnefant done on Friday, but...

I'm just really tired. I'd kinda hoped that I could just jump back into kink once I got home, but I'm just too tired, angry and scared at the moment. I should have told you guys before I left (and for that I'm sorry), but I thought I could handle it, and it turns out, that's not as easy as I'd hoped. I'm gonna do better, but I need the rest of the week to compose myself. When the suggestion thread goes back up, please leave some stuff there. It'd really help.

Thankies,
Saunter.