literally a possum

Starry Night Microsweater

She does, however, work even smaller.

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OOP realizes his personality is the reason he can't get a date, so he sets out to change his personality to be more appealing. Specifically, he copies a fictional character who's more liked online. Makes sense, he's been copying manosphere incels before this, so we know already that this is how he learns to act like a person.

Breaking down his attempts at flirting:

He deletes his old profile, specifically citing that he now has the profile of a "pathetic wet rat of a man." This includes: an interest, what he's been reading lately, a picture of him in nice clothing, and "zero attempt to seem attractive or confident" in his own words.

Based on manosphere and incel circles, we can deduct that "seeming confident" likely meant "acting like an alpha" or being an annoyingly overbearing asshole with far too much self importance. "Seeming attractive" is, therefore, likely to mean that he was attempting to "looksmax" or whatever they call it now, and appeal to very basic forms of traditional masculinity as a crutch for what he calls a "very ugly" appearance. Mind you, he did show us a character that looks exactly like him, and no manosphere podcast or incel forum is going to call that man attractive by their standards.

Next, we get the gal reaching out. Based on his reaction to her making the first move, we can deduce that he's never been the one approached first. She asks about his reading material, politely and (we can assume) genuinely worries for his health, then makes a connection to her own life. This is how normal humans interact with each other.

OOP is so unbelievably flustered by this that I'm scared to ask how he was approaching women before. He says that he types in a "pathetic" and "honest" way, using the words interchangeably. Being honest is a dangerous step towards being cringe, and he's "tightrope walking" between the two. This is how he views talking about his health, family, and hobbies. He views speaking on his interests as inherently negative. Being "aware" of his family's health issues and how to be proactive about his health is cringe. Mind you, he's deliberately not telling her that he was doing "autistic research" so we can assume that his definition of "cringe" is "showing an earnest interest in things that spark curiosity" which is... A take.

Next, the two of them have a multiple day back and forth, talk about their lives and as OOP continues "being whimpy" she continues to reply. Clearly, whatever he thinks of as "a wimp" is what this gal thinks of as boyfriend material, because she starts to drop hints about going on a date, which he doesn't pick up on. If repeatedly mentioning a really great coffee shop is too subtle for him to even pick up on, I worry what he thought was being "direct" and "confident" all this time.

The gal then takes charge again and directly asks him on a date. This causes OOP to have a genuine panic attack for 35 minutes.

He's had tinder for a while and never gotten a date, so we can assume he's been unbearable for a decent while prior to this, and now his first experience with a girl being interested causes "a full system shut down" for over half an hour. In that time, the other party recognizes she might have been overbearing herself, and backs down, likely assuming he wanted to remain friends or she came on too strong.

OOP then reassures her with a classic "no its okay I'm just so shocked you like me that I completely had a full system break down for like 30 minutes" which, if I'm honest, does sound kinda cute. Clearly, this is her "type" so to speak, and she eagerly looks forward to their date.

On this date, OOP dresses nicely (in his cosplay gear. I guess) and mimics the mannerisms of Viktor Arcane. A quick search and some time wasted shows me that Viktor is somewhat fidgety, often drops and resumes eye contact, and uses one hand for gesturing when he talks. Though that last part is because Viktor uses a cane. He then says things that are "mortifying" because of how honest they are.

So to recap, we can assume that OOP showed up for his date dressed nice, visibly nervous, and was open with her. In fact, he seems to think that being honest at all is some kind of repulsive turn off, from a guy, that is, because he isn't even questioning it from the gal he's talking about. This is some incel weird law where men have to dress casual, be overly confident, and closed off.

No wonder THIS is what got him attention.

He basically managed to copy a fictional character so well, he became a very basic first date experience. He wore nicer and more professional clothing, looked nervous but engaged, and tried to be as honest with her as possible. He talked to her about his life, family, and interests. He told her about his day, talked about hers, engaged with her directly and showed interest. He waited for her to make the first move, then eagerly accepted, and clearly, he was exactly her type, because she reached out first on top of being the one who asked him out.

Yeah, I'm not sure what they're teaching in incel schools over on 4chan, but that's very basic Dating 101.

if people mention intersex people often those who believe so firmly in essentialism will tacitly acknowledge intersex peoples existence only to immediately act as if it has not relevance to the conversation and that intersex people are a dismissible statistical error

see a therapist immediately

I actually used to hate it! Like, actually despise it! Yellow was too bright, too loud, discordant, unruly, and clashed with everything. Nothing like what I wanted in my life, nothing I wanted to be.

When I first moved away from home, everything I owned was black. Jet back. As black as I could get. Smooth, cool, sleek, discrete, calm, unassuming. Flexible, cohesive, agreeable black. Fashionable black.

I had a really, really bad time. Unrelated to the decor. It was my first year out of a toxic place I'd grown used to my whole life, my first year acknowledging a mental illness I'd believed to be normal, my first year fending for myself with very little money or sleep or companionship.

I'd grown up on instant white rice and unseasoned ground beef. One day I realized that everything I'd been raised on tasted like cardboard. While out on an assignment, I passed a tent with a woman selling spices, and bought myself some turmeric. I went home and tried making curry with it. It was so yellow.

Another time, my professor took us out to a modern art gallery. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but when we got there, the whole building had been painted bright sunshine yellow.

The artist's theme was "happiness".

What it is. How we make it. How to share it.

All bright, lovely yellow.

The house I grew up in was beige. The walls were white. The appliances were post 9/11 stainless steel. My job was to be quiet, compliant, presentable and agreeable.

Black goes with everything. Black is neutral. Black is quiet, reserved, elegant and mysterious.

Yellow is warm. Yellow does what it wants. Yellow tastes sweet and spicy and hot and cool, like a summer breeze, like sunflower petals, powdery like dust on a long dirt road and soothing like well-worn linen.

I still like the look of black. I like the look of most colors. But I like the way that Yellow makes me feel.

I don't mean like those prepper type people. I mean keep a granola bar in your purse or backpack. If you have a car, keep a jar of peanuts in there.

This is good for if you miss your bus, or forget your wallet somewhere, or get stuck in traffic. You never know when you are going to feel shaky, and it's better to have something quick and easy on hand, in case you need it.

the city of los angeles

the city of new york

sex

how drinking alcohol works

how getting high works

how a child of any age speaks

how nuclear physics work

how [my job] works

how debilitating being shot in the shoulder is

how hypothermia works

things I have never before seen someone fake their way through writing about, until today:

SHRIMP COCKTAIL:

banahbanah: #flashback to that one fic where Peter Parker frets about drinking shrimp cocktail because of the alcohol

generaldeliciousness: adding: what a prawn/shrimp cocktail is

#why is your character turning it down because they're under 21 #do you think prawn cocktail is a cocktail #this lives in my brain rent-free constantly #the rest of the fic was so normal #and good enough that i'll still re-read it #but bro

And then many, MANY, people wondering if this was actually authour mistake, since Peter really would do this!

POMEGRANATES:

zhajhassa: #haha where's that post that was like someone describing someone eating a pomegranate but they ate it like an apple

thornhands: #once someone wrote persephone biting into a whole Pomegranate #had to stop and stare at a wall for a minute

sungsingsanguine: I once saw someone very confidently write about a character eating slices of pomegranate.

FRUIT TREES:

zagreuses-toast: #given a very endearing glimpse into a writers blindspots by seeing them describe someone sitting under a ''pineapple tree''

salatrash: I remember something about picking watermelons... OF A FUCKING TREE

baander: #cranberry trees

DOUGH/BATTER:

maycelium: #I'm a chef so I'm really used to people not accurately describing how to cook food #But I was surprisingly flabbergasted when someone was writing making a cake and was kneading it. Which uh #Not necessary for cake. It was interesting for sure but just bizarre

livebloggingmydescentintomadness: #the one that drove me nuts was when a character set aside a batch of PASTA DOUGH 'to rise' #pasta doesn't have yeast!! #it does need to REST but it will never RISE #you do not want an airy crumb on your noodles

lovesodeepandwideandwell: #THE ONE WHERE THEY MADE COOKIES BY LADLING BATTER INTO A TRAY

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