Post
You are a criminal/artist in a cyberpunk and/or fantasy world with intricate fancy social codes. As a ner-do-well you have never needed your own symbol to stamp in wax for your letters (you just used your thumb) But, exciting new opportunities have you moving up in the world rapidly... suddenly you must pick a small object in your abode to make an impression: literally.
What do you choose as an impromptu standard?
With what object will you make YOUR mark?
The "stitch counter" (aka "pick counter" aka "linen tester") that my mom gave when I was a kid.
If you're not familiar with these, it's like the one at the link below. (I'd take a picture of my own, but I have a cat in my lap.) It folds up into a delightful flat inch-long object that you can put in your pocket. It's perfect for looking at tiny things.
Mine was a freebie from a fabric company, but it's very sturdy and has held up for decades.
https://nationalscientific.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Pick-Counter-Magnifying-Glass.jpg
@futurebird I can cheat a little -- I have a small block that I bought years ago with an engraved "H" on it that I already use on the odd occasions I want to use sealing wax.
Failing that, the corkscrew and the sawblade (pressed separately, alongside each other) from a Swiss army knife.
@futurebird I am disqualified from this, as on my real desk I have a wax seal stamp with my kitten tech logo
Alaric I have not one but TWO ant-themed stamps right here. Hence, the context: you are a ner-do-well in your den/workshop.
@futurebird Sauce whisk. Because if you pressed it just enough, it would look like this
@futurebird
I would choose my grandmother's sugar tongs, that I use to fish tea bags out of my mug. Two small spoon like shapes and a little embossed floral work on the outside, but put sideways it looks interestingly grabby and possibly dangerous.
@futurebird I have a lot of coins, so I’d probably spend way too long looking at all of them so I could select the Very Best and Least Incriminating or possibly Most Insouciant one.
@futurebird
Probably a trinket from my charm bracelet. A tiny sad iron, if it works in wax sideways. Everyone who knows me would know it was my seal.
@futurebird A wine key (waiter's corkscrew). Haven't decided if I'll use the screw part or the part that braces against the lip of the bottle or maybe even the foil cutter. I guess I could change it up depending on the recipient, or the message I want to send about the letter's tone.
@futurebird I have a glass that was etched with some chemical structures from my thesis (along with the publication details for that paper) so I'd attempt to use that (structure chosen based on what size wax blob I had), though I'm not certain the etching is deep enough for a wax impression. It might depend on the exact quality/temperature of the wax. It would give a raised image rather than an impression, so sort of different than most options for what people have around the home.
@futurebird I'd use a guitar pick if mine weren't all Dunlop branded 😭
Idk… lighter?
@futurebird my ball peen hammer. It was the first tool a job bought me that I got to keep, and I've been using it ever since. Oddly enough, never for its intended use; it makes a pretty good smooth face finish hammer and the peening end is great for knockouts on boxes.
I really like that the grip is shiny with wear and the steel has a good patina. I'll post a photo of it
@futurebird bread tag!!
@futurebird an enamel penguin 🐧
@futurebird an old company seal I bought at an auction once, the business is long gone but I like think one day it could be the name of a collective bargaining co-operative I create to get better prices for people for things like childcare or nursing homes or something, it's also a nice designed stamp which is also totally unconnected to me so a little mysterious red herring
@futurebird Unused bicycle headset spacer
@futurebird The plastic cup that normally sits on the end of the pipe that is my bedpost. It has some sort of thread.
@futurebird@sauropods.win hm. and I can't just carve something into a potato.
empty pistachio shell? inscrutable truck part? inscrutable truck part. I shall use the end of an inscrutable truck part I think. although that might just be round so pistachio (and stop the shell from breaking by reinforcing it with wax and tape)
I know it’s how our world worked, but how odd that it’s the fancy rich people who have handily stealable signets. You’d think *they’d* use their noble thumbprints and I, Frida Protagonist, would use persona-specific and deniable doodads.
Fossil trilobite; a bit large but there’s enough detail
Considered some handmade craft-fair earrings but I think they’d get stuck in the wax and also bend with heavier use. Trilobite it is. Let’s hope they differ from each other
@futurebird I have a broach which is a treble clef. I would use that except that the impression would be reversed. So perhaps as a ‘I have to do something now’ I would use that broach, but in the mean time order a reversed one for later use.
@futurebird Face and abnormally tall brow of my mother’s fukurokujin netsuke.
@futurebird My captive enemy's fingerprint. Maybe the (institutionally captured, corrupt and digitally compromised) prime minister's fingerprint?
@futurebird 10mm 12 point wrench
"Order of the Tamed Nuts"
@futurebird stegosaurus earring
"Order of the Bird-Hipped Dragons"
@futurebird I am a potter and I literally could make a fired clay stamp to mark my wares but I have no idea what to make my symbol. So this is a good prompt!
In the context of the (contrived) question you are in a hurry and must use an existing found object. No time to design anything.
@futurebird knitting stitch marker end - the safety pin kind with the circle on one end and U on the other (where the pin folds in). So I suppose…a safety pin end.
@futurebird@sauropods.win
assuming that its a fantasy world and my villainous character is being established in this scene, i'd probably pluck a small, living creature unique to the setting out of its natural habitat amid the filth of my workspace or person, and press it violently into the wax with my thumb
I would use the end of my nail clippers sideways so it looks like the mandibles of an ant.
"The Order of the Open Maw"
KimiK2 says "I reach into my guts and pull out a single data-chip, a tiny brass octagon,
I press it into the sealing wax.
The impression is perfect: an octagon with a scar. Symmetrical but damaged. Official but punk. The kind of mark that makes a clerk squint and wonder if it's legit or if they should call security—but by the time they decide, I'm already gone.
It's not my thumbprint anymore. It's better.
It's the scar of the Sprawl, worn by someone who survived it.
@futurebird the handle of the house key I broke the other day (flat like a coin)
@futurebird
Either the end of a curiously shaped angular piece of flint I found as a kid. Or the end of a sanshin pick.
@futurebird business end of a wrench. Maybe without noticing, I'd use the side with the size mark. What symbolism will the movement see in "3/8" in the years to come?
In the narrative arc of this story whatever you pick will end up being the symbol of a great movement or criminal art gang (or both)--
But you have no time for design right now. Just a found object that can do the job.
@futurebird (it doesn't make much more sense with context, but here's the context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcm-J7lQT3w )
@futurebird You have one expensive bottle of liquor that has a medallion hanging around the neck of the bottle.
@futurebird My oldest child’s baby tooth.
"Order of the tooth!"
@futurebird I 3D print a stamp from a sentimenally important photograph.
@futurebird The business end of my house key.
@futurebird my first thought was "a rubber duck" because it matches my avatar and I could replace it with a pottery duck if this is a pre-rubber fantasy society.
But I don't know if either of those things would make a good wax seal impression for a letter, so really I'd probably just get some clay and bake some kind of customized cylinder seal.
You don't have much time to make anything. You need to send out these documents right away.
@futurebird I'll use the face of a die then. I got a pair of novelty dice that you roll to get a fantasy TTRPG alignment; the "Neutral" alignment face has a scale by it and the word "neutral". I'll use that, but upside-down.
@futurebird thinking too much about this question, I think a better choice would be an ordinary 6-sided die, because were I caught by the secret police with one it would be less suspicious.
I think I'd use the 3-side to mark the wax three times at 120 degree angles, making a pattern of nine dots in three rows, so it would be less than obvious that a die was used to make the symbol.
1/2
@futurebird ... of course by the time I had that idea all the documents would have already shipped, and historians would later be scratching their heads at why the Neutral Revolutionary Front called themselves that and also used an upside-down scale as their symbol.
2/2
oooooh that's good!
@futurebird actually it's very... neutral
(put on shades, but upside-down)
I roll those alignment dice to decide what kind of "problem of the day" we'll have. (in math class)
"Lawful Evil?"
"Chaotic Neutral?"
(I realized without mentioning this was for a math class it could be a little confusing or creepy)
@futurebird I've cnc'd stamps in aluminum, so I'm probably going to choose some cool looking kanji like 薬 and mill that.
As that's not really in line with the question, second choice would probably be a wee trilobite fossil.
my cat's face. my cat will not object at all
Well, that's one way to bring the story to an unexpected end fast.
For the fantasy version, you boop their nose into soft clay, then use it as a mold for the seal. Or the cyberpunk version you laser-scan their face and then 3d print the seal.
This assumes that the seal is really the cat's nose, not their whole face, which would be too large anyways.
@futurebird like one from my irl house or my ideal tool?
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