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sydmarch · 2 years

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ok I guess my last post was a lie I'm writing it now. syd autism + sales ramblings ahead. so like obviously we are all in agreement about syd having autism but I need to talk more about how that plays into his job as a salesperson bcus its just like something I have too many thoughts on. sorry if te readmore doesn't work in on mobile!!

for background ive actually been in sales myself for over 5 years and experienced several wildly different approaches to training, strategies, type of sales etc bouncing between.. hmm 4 different companies now that were exclusively sales.

SO it's obvious that syd is good at reading people but ONLY in specific contexts where it's clearly like, learned and not something that's intuitive. it's 100% masking and totally the kind of thing that comes in sales training where they teach you the DETAILS of communication because that's where a lot of the psychology of the sale goes down. so not just the scripting (which is obviously helpful itself and obviously something they use a ton of at lucas) but the little things in both reading people and getting them to do what you want. I imagine at lucas a lot of this is based on body language and microexpressions and shit like that which I don't have experience with as an inside salesperson but like to get into how insanely detail oriented it can get from some of my training it was like obsessive detailing over when and how to use uptones and downtones and what the purpose of each was. & having your trainer listening to you practice and marking down which tone you used at the end of each sentence to make sure every single time you got it right and also understood WHY it mattered. & every single time you ask for something you put the WHY before the WHAT so "because our team runs a background check on each client I need the last 4 digits of the social" and it was also assertive language so I NEED not CAN I HAVE and it was also trying to distance sensitive information from the client so THE social not YOUR social. THE card not YOUR card. I can go on and on it was literally like every word out of your mouth was chosen so specifically with an exact purpose and so was HOW you said it and then you also had people teaching you things like ok you know what a downtone sounds like if you hear it from a client giving an objection this is what that means. if someone says this what they really mean is this. no matter what they throw at you here is an exact answer.

so like if you're an autist who had been manually learning how to read people & how co communicate because you just don't instinctively know these things all of this is GREAT it's like Advanced Masking Lessons. and then this makes you better at pitching than all your peers because you're USED to having to think out every detail of your conversations in everyday life when they're not. so to finally bring this back to syd same thing applies. he KNOWS how to read his clients and tailor what he's saying to the specific person. he gets Edward down completely he knows he's not "someone who's interest is merely passing" he KNOWS what he wants and how to sell him. & he's able to modify the pitch for vera and take more of a "you want what aria has" approach. yes his technique probably didn't matter much on that one because she was just there to run bugs but my point still stands. yes from a doylist perspective of course he's the one demonstrating the readiface at the investor meeting because he's the protagonist but either way that implies in universe that he's there because he's the best with the machine. he's the most tuned into the details of the face because he HAS to tune in because it doesn't come easy to him like it does everyone else. clearly he's a star employee because lucas comes to him like tell me if you hear anything about the missing machine and sends HIM to replace derek on the house call. anyways that's it for now mayhaps this is all just me projecting but even so I'm still right.

#texticles #antiviral #this is NOT a polished read like the autonomy one that wss planned out this is just word vomit lmao

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furiroad · 3 years

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every single day tlou 2 gives me a new bowl of microexpressions to obsess over and i slurp them up with a spoon

#u ever just stare at everybodys faces and glean new meaning from tiny little shifts in their eyebrows. fuck man its sick

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overthinkingkdrama · 4 years

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Exit Review: My Country

Synopsis

This drama is set in the transition between the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties, and follows turbulent friendship turned fraught rivalry between Seo Hwi and Nam Seon Ho. Seo Hwi’s late father was the greatest swordsman of Goryeo, but after being framed for embezzling military supplies he was executed as a traitor, a stain which hangs over Hwi and his sister’s lives. Seon Ho is the illegitimate son of a powerful state official, but due to his mixed parentage he can never fully belong to his father’s world and has an insatiable ambition and bitter resentment toward his father which drives him.

Hwi and Seon Ho have been close since childhood, but when they end up going head to head in the state military exam a tragedy follows that will drive a terrible wedge between them. Eventually circumstances will force them to pick sides between General Yi Seong Gye (the first King of Joseon) an his ruthless son, Yi Bang Won, in the fight which will give shape and purpose to a newborn country.

Review

Story: My Country is a difficult drama for me to review objectively, in part because I loved it so much. Watching this drama was a truly absorbing and gripping experience for me, and it plays to so many of my story preferences. I was unequivocally obsessed with this drama from the premier to the finale, but during the weeks between airings I couldn’t help but feel like I was arm wrestling with the script.

It was characterization more than anything that gave me fits. I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse the show of giving us thin or two dimensional characters. To the contrary, each of these characters has a fully realized matrix of conflicting desires, loyalties and ambitions that inform their choices and alignments. However, it is often difficult to sift through those murky motivations and draw a clear line between a character’s internal desires and their external actions.

This drama starts out with an incredible cold open that raises all sort so questions about who these characters are and immediately invests you in finding out how they ended up in this situation. It’s truly masterfully done, and I probably rewatched it upwards of 10 times through the run. It kept me asking those questions all the way until the pay off. But because the writers were so invested in keeping their cards close to the chest, clear characterization was sometimes lost in the shuffle.

That said, this drama really is one beautiful, tragic escalation after another. Just taking the first two episodes in isolation is quite a ride. I really thought after the first few weeks, or hell, the first half, that the drama would get bogged down in plotting and politics or have nowhere left to go, but to my great joy it really doesn’t let up a single moment until the finale.

Acting: Where to even begin with the acting in this drama? All three of the main male leads: Yang Se Jong, Woo Do Hwan and the inimitable Jang Hyuk are perfectly cast and give inspired performances. Everything from posture to voice to subtle microexpressions is so stunningly on point.

I came into the drama already a big fan of both Woo Do Hwan and Jang Hyuk as actors, having followed them through other projects, so it wasn’t surprising to me that I liked them both here as well. However, what did surprise me was the extent to which they were able to show off their range and talent. As a long time Jang Hyuk fangirl, I would confidently argue that this particular rendition of the Yi Bang Won character is him at his absolute best. I also went into My Country relatively indifferent to Yang Se Jong, or at least not overly familiar with or impressed by his previous work. I’m happy to announce that that is no longer the case, as his performance of Hwi is one of the most memorable of the year for me, and his sheer level of commitment to the role is awe inspiring. There’s a video of him talking behind the scenes about a moment early on where he actually yelled himself hoarse embodying a moment of panic and grief, which made me appreciate the level thought and effort he put into playing this character.

I don’t want to limit my praise to just that trio of actors either, because the entire cast is incredible. I didn’t know much about Seolhyun before this role, but I thought she was really strong as well, though her character doesn’t feature as heavily as one might like or expect from the promotional material around this drama. The villains too are captivating, especially the detestable Nam Jeon played by veteran actor Ahn Nae Sang. Wow, you are really going to love to despise this guy. I just cannot say enough about the performances from top to bottom, because we would be here all day. The acting is really what makes the drama, especially the stunning chemistry between the characters, and more specifically the chemistry Yang Se Jong has with all the other leads.

Production: There is some movie quality cinematography throughout this drama. It just looks very, very good both in the way it is shot and the attention to detail, the props, the costumes the sets. There is a beautiful long tracking shot following Hwi through a battle field in episode 3 or 4 that was just jaw dropping. It really felt like they were flexing, honestly, and it’s refreshing to see this kind of cable quality coming out of South Korea and ending up on American Netflix for people to watch and appreciate.

I love the music in this drama. Some of it can come across a bit camp, like the electric guitar and strings heavy instrumental “My Country” that accompanies many of the sword fight scenes, but I loved Bang Won’s wailing violin theme music every time it showed up, and the OST definitely sets a mood.

One of the more distracting choices the drama made was to allude to certain historical characters like Poeun, Sambong and Choi Young but never have them actually appear as characters, in the present or in flashbacks, opting to address certain important events and philosophies through fictional expys such as Nam Jeon and Seo Geon instead. They even resort to filming certain scenes in strange oblique ways so that we understand Sambong is in the room but we don’t see his face.

The only thing I can figure is the writers wanted to use the audience’s familiarity with these historical figures without chaining the story too closely to the actual flow of historical events. Or perhaps they decided to exclude these characters in order to avoid too much direct comparison to the critically well-received and highly rated drama, Six Flying Dragons, which covers much of the same time period.

Feels: For me My Country watches like a bitter-sweet tragi-romantic melodrama centering on a toxic love triangle with a historical backdrop. And when I say “love triangle”, I am 100% referring to the interplay between Seon Ho, Hwi and Bang Won (my sincere apologies to poor Hui Jae) because that’s how the entire drama is structured. My Country is one of the most purely homoerotic things I’ve ever watched. If it weren’t for a few limp attempts to imply Seon Ho’s romantic interest was in Hui Jae and not his former friend, I would say “unapologetically homoerotic” but alas, South Korea isn’t quite there yet.

The romance between Hui Jae and Hwi never quite caught fire for me, though lord knows they were trying. It always felt like a side dish to the main course that the drama really wanted to serve: namely the star-crossed relationship of Hwi and Seon Ho. (And this is not meant as a dig toward those who liked the Hui Jae/Hwi romance. This section of the review is just about my subjective experience.)

There were moments where I worried, or couldn’t quite tell where the drama was taking us with regard to Seon Ho and Hwi, or where I feared everything was going to end in senseless destruction and they couldn’t successfully bring the plot to closure in just 16 episodes. But for the handful of issues I had with the writing of the drama, its final resolution was poetically, heart-wrenchingly, perfect.

My Country just pushes so many of my narrative and aesthetic buttons and plays heavily to my id. This is a drama that I’m going to be thinking about for a long, long time. I will definitely be watching it again and I will try to get as many other people to watch it as possible. I liked it that much.

Would I recommend My Country: The New Age? Yes, oh god yes. Please watch it. Watch it and then come talk to me about it. Definitely one of the best of the year.

9/10

#my country #my country: the new age #woo do hwan #yang se jong #jang hyuk #kim seolhyun #kdrama reviews #exit review

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anepiphany · 4 years

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7 & 26

hi sammy! hope you’re doing well today :) thanks for asking!

7 - your favorite board game

okay, without a question, clue. i love clue so so so much! i love literally everything about it. and i’m actually pretty good at it too, i’m good with my poker face and also really good at catching people when they’re bleeding (like with their cards lol). also, i manage to read microexpressions well when playing the game, and i tend to make good guesses. plus i’m super fucking competitive.

yeah so basically what that paragraph shows is that playing clue with me is like solving a literal murder, especially now that i’m even more obsessed with crime shows, movies, channels, and podcasts. i read fbi cases for fun.

26 - the film you watched most recently that you could watch again and again

the last movie i watched was avengers: endgame, because i had a marvel marathon and binged every single marvel movie in order. i could watch pretty much any marvel movie over and over again. i love marvel.

#it's sammy!#hi! thanks for asking :)#ani talks #ani rambles (i'm sorry for that lol)#soft questions <3

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magdalyna · 5 years

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More Like a Flashbang Than a River Stone

I have been thinking about Jango Fett. Something I often do these days, sure but like.

Jango Fett, during and around the year before the Naboo Invasion --- waiting for Boba to be grown for the normal amount of time.

Telling himself he doesn’t care about the fate of the rest of his clones so long as he has his special son. Fantasizing about the demise of the Jedi.

Sure, Legends/EU and the Prequels tell us what happens next but what if that didn’t happen?

What if a time traveling Maul, not unlike the one featured in Ripples, one who was a Force Ghost who spent his afterlife watching the histories of those he was obsessed with, frankly. Mainly Kenobi of course, but you can not have a Kenobi without eventually stumbling into a Kenobi surrounded by clones.

And hadn’t that been a fascinating web of events to unravel, how the face of a bounty hunter ended up shaping the galaxy.

Maul prides himself on his study of his Nemesis, his Kenobi, the trials and tribulations of his Jedi upbringing, the madcap adventures of his Padawanship, the strain of his unorthodox Knighthood as he trained the so called Chosen One.

Maul no longer has an appetite for being a mere tool of some other person or thing’s greater destiny and Kenobi sparks so vibrantly in the Force that Maul is galled upon his behalf that Kenobi was relegated to such a position by his own Order.

The Kit of Kenobi has always underwhelmed Maul, even with the sheer strength at his disposal.

Kenobi is a blade that has shattered and been reforged several times over, and Maul is ecstatic, humbled, shamed that his own slaying of Master Jinn was one such sunder point.

Sometimes Maul wonders what they could have been if they had been able to meet as allies in the first meeting, and not their last.

Being drawn into the history of Jango Fett is almost refreshing, after a fashion.

Maul can admit he finds an odd sense of kinship between them: both had been shaped by the ravages of the galaxy’s brutality but still managed to come away with a moral code of their own making. Their own sense of honor.

When he is sent back in time by the Force, which clearly has its own sense of humor, he rejoices.

Returned to a body state that he took for granted at the time.... it is invigorating. How wrong was he to lament his self-perceived limitations of physical prowess! His body was never his enemy. A strange but calming sentiment.

He is able to cloak his matured awareness from his false master and fortuitously is within a window of time between missions and recuperation from said missions that he is able to intercept Fett before a particularly gnarly job in Fett’s original timeline went from inconvenient to worse.

After, he considers the best way to approach a notoriously suspicious Fett.

“Let us dispense with the fiction that we are true strangers to each other. You are contracted with my master through another to be the genetic stock for a cloning project. I was available to assist in this other matter. You are waiting for the final form of payment to be ready, yes?” Maul knows that starting thusly on Slave 1 is risky, but life is not without risks. “You desire the destruction of the Jedi for grievous wrongs.” Jango nods, a tight smile on his bare face.

Maul leans closer, barely.

“What if I said that you could revive your people and cause an equally devastating fate to the Jedi. If not more so than mere death.” Maul let the question hang in the air between them, watching his quarry’s microexpressions.

“Go on” Fett allows, but with the clear mien that he would not suffer fools gladly.

“What if you used your clones to retake Mandalore and repopulate it? Cut down every last New Mandalorian fighter where they stood, sent the captives back to Kalevala where those Kryze snakes belong. You as the Mand'alor recall all the True Mandolorians left. And then,” here Maul waved a hand vaguely “offspring. Clan Fett will have numbers and renown the galaxy over.”

Jango Fett had by now raised a single, eloquent eyebrow.

Maul rubbed his chin in the way that Kenobi would often stroke his own facial hair during the Clone War.

“Tell me, Jango Fett, son of Jaster Meerel, do you know the difference between revenge and vengeance?” Maul asks instead of getting on with the point like Jango Fett wants him to.

He had aeons of time in the afterlife to ponder how this phrasing had been his means of salvation in those final moments held so tenderly by his Nemesis, in his Kenobi’s arms. Had that really been the only time they had embraced, for all that destiny had twined them to one another, like strangling vines?

“The truly sublime thing about this, Jango Fett, is that the avatar of the Justice who has taken up arms to right this wrong has also been harmed by the Jedi.” Maul smiles as he shows his teeth. He’s always aware of not overdoing it on the teeth bit, since humans are the singularly unnerving species in the galaxy where showing ones’ dentin is not an immediate sign of aggression. Such strange apex predators they are.

“There is a Padawan ... pushed and pulled by the whims of the elders, and pushed some more. When finally his own Master betrays him so fully, and then when yours truly,” here Maul flicks his tongue along his front canines just because he is alive and can “defeats the master in single combat, then is when the time to strike has arrived. We shall take the Padawan from the battle field with us in the confusion. He will be utterly lost and in need of guidance. His death faked, he will be free to act accordingly.”

Jango Fett has the lines of deep thought drawn on his face. “Intriguing. It is at that, I’ll give you that.” He relaxes in his seat. “But why go against your master in this way?”

Maul sighs. The truth wills out.

“Because unless he is stopped, his foulness will cover the entire galaxy in misery, death and fascism. My preference is that he be launched into the heart of the nearest viable sun but alone I am not powerful enough. I know this to be true. In my own time I have already lived this horror once before.”

Jango Fett raises both of his eyebrows this time. “That is a good reason.” he allows solemnly.

------

ahhhhhk that took literal hours.

idk, eventually Maul fully explains the time travel thing and then he and Jango plotz together til Naboo. Important: Maul doesn’t kill Qui Gon Jinn just stabs him someplace dicey enough to need a long time in physical therapy, enough that Anikin is folded into the creche with the Initiates.

Jinn still rushed ahead so Obi still goes up against Maul all riled up and steaming and snarling like an angry Krayt dragon.

Hence faking Obi’s death to the Jedi and Darth Sleemo and faking Maul’s death to the Jedi so make sure they don’t let such an obviously powerful Force-sensitive child slip outta reach.

cut to Obi Wan waking up in restraints and force suppressors to some rando in authentic Mandolorian armor and Maul who has his Rebels era level of chill which is precisely zero, all over again.

��Greetings my ~~🧡~Nemesis~🧡~~ I sense that you are awake at last!” Maul says and really, Obi has any number of questions regarding this situation but mainly he wants to know how the weird looking Zabrak is doing that with his voice.

Behind Maul, Jango just facepalms, not caring that Obi Wan has him in his line of sight.

@sl-walker @shadowmaat @nawpitynopenope @sunsetofdoom @taule

#star wars #ficlet #maul #jango fett #maulobi

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not-a-perfect-metaphor · 6 years

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J2: body language (kissing/mouths)

So, I’ve been meaning to write this up for FAR too long in response to (well, no...inspired by) a comment from a dear friend of mine that was about a kiss between Jensen and Daneel posted on Instagram in late April.

First things first, though. I’m tagging this with the anti-wives tags, although really I’m going to do my best to stay generally positive and as objective as possible and stick to just outlining some facts (this post won’t contain a whole lot of my personal opinions is what I mean, besides the big obvious ones).

It’s also gonna be a long one...so heads up about that.

**********

Body language is such a fascinating topic, guys, it truly is, and yes we all know by now that I’m a bit obsessed with it. I admit it.

In the process of pursuing my psych. major, I studied body language + body psychotherapy pretty extensively, and it played a HUGE role in bringing me aboard ye olde J2 tinhat train.

In fact, my accidental (at first) body language observations of Jared & Jensen both together, separately, with friends/acquaintances/family/SPN-cast & crew/etc., and with their wives were singlehandedly responsible for convincing me to dig deeper into all of it in the first place.

So, basically put, the vast majority of us are well aware of body language cues, but not just the more obvious ones that we can consciously process through in our heads. We’re designed to intuitively understand/react to even the smallest of body language cues that can be as swift and subtle as a minuscule lift and lower of the eyebrows in a certain situation, although we often aren’t aware of WHY we’re experiencing the reactions we’re experiencing or even exactly WHAT we’re feeling some of the time.

So, take a thorough look at the following three pictures (really look at them, focus on the details).

Now, what you may or may not have just discovered is that the three pictures above contain so many negative body language cues that the result of examining them closely for longer than just a quick moment is a sensation of discomfort and ‘unpleasantness,’ to be kinda vague, despite there not being many blatant cues that are obvious enough to jump right out at everyone from the get-go.

But the emotional/sense-knowledge of the negative body language is much more widely accessible, especially since we’re talking a double whammy, here: the faces of all four specifically, faces being a huge part of how we all read people, and an act that’s associated with intimacy (kissing).

Let’s break down what we’re looking at, but first, here’s this picture:

It’s a textbook image used as a visual aid to depict positive facial body language specifically during a kiss.

Okay, but back to the first three pictures. That one is just a reference for compare & contrast purposes.

What’s going on in the J2 + Gen. and Dan. photos firstly is something called “tense mouth,” in all three photos actually although particularly in Jensen’s case (in both of the Jen. + Dan. pics). The pushed-together lips, the tightened jaw, these are both signs of emotional tension, anxiety/frustration, and the big one: emotional self-restraint (holding back one’s true feelings and/or thoughts). I don’t even need to explain, of course, how very very significant that is, and what’s popping into my head actually right now is the way one of my professors described this exact thing, which was a metaphor of the lips as a dam holding back the flood of truth.

Now, the pucker in and of itself.

I’m just going to toss in this screenshot which summarizes it perfectly, and that’s less writing for me :p.

And ask yourself this: outside of maybe those first few awkward teenage kisses and perhaps some from adulthood with either a brand new lover or with someone you maybe just didn’t feel super comfortable kissing, do you actually do the close-mouthed pucker with your significant other (or have you with a past S.O)? Nahh. No. Nope.

^^ excluding that “hello/goodbye” peck, of course.

The pucker is often part of “tense mouth” and holds a lot of the same meaning, but I’ll add that it can also signify indecision.

Okay, now the cheek kiss (that Jared + Gen. photo).

Cheek kisses can mean so many many different things, and I won’t overly discuss it simply because it’s less of a pattern for Jared to kiss Gen. on the cheek and more just something I’m using as an interesting example, whereas “tense mouth” absolutely is a pattern for Jensen when he’s kissing Daneel. Absolutely, 100%, undeniably so.

But the reason I chose this picture of Jared and Gen. is because it could quite literally be the textbook photo for “strictly platonic cheek kiss.” In every...single...way.

Middle of the cheek as opposed to close to the mouth or, even more indicative of sexuality/romance, the ear if you can believe it, completely puckered and pressed-together lips, and lastly, notice the angle of Jared’s neck. See that sharp lean? All that space?

I know this seems like more than any sane person could possibly have to say about three pictures *chuckles* and I’m actually having to reign myself in, which is just ridiculous, but I’ll try to wrap things up.

The following things are definitely important to consider when discussing/examining body language, so this will be a good way to conclude everything.

1. Patterns, like I mentioned above, & circumstances (whenever circumstances can be determined) are very significant for as-accurate-as-possible interpretations.

2. Negative body language between two people does not always mean that they hate or even dislike each other (it can mean that, yes, but certainly not always). I’m not stating any of my personal opinions here, either. I’m just pointing it out because the word “negative” has its connotations, but it can just as often mean that whoever is displaying the N.B.L cues is simply uncomfortable in the specific WAY they’re coexisting with another person, like for example: kissing someone they’re not sexually and/or romantically attracted to.

3. I’ve said it time and time again, and I’m saying it here too. Body language can be faked. Of course. Absolutely. And there isn’t a human being alive on this planet over the age of two who doesn’t know that to be 100% true from personal experience. However, that being said, there also isn’t a human being on this planet who’s capable of faking body language without slip-ups, and some kinds of body language really can’t be faked, for all intents and purposes anyway, mainly because we’re rarely (if ever) even aware that we’re doing it. How well we can mask our truths, the little ones and the big ones, can depend on something as seemingly small as whether or not we’re well-rested, and even under a perfect set of conditions, false body language cannot be maintained without fairly regular tells.

I obviously can’t ramble on forever, and I promised myself I’d keep this post strictly to the kisses, but I’ll have to write up a few more of these (and space ‘em out) that cover some SUPER significant J2 body language thoughts/observations/facts/etc., because seriously...when you start really seeing these things, it’s just...I don’t even know...It adds a WHOLE lot of dimension to just about everything.

Like microexpressions. That’s gonna be my next long body language post.

Here’s a great way to finish this that just hit me: remember what I said about the whole ‘mouth to ear’ thing? Well...we could create an entire tumblr just devoted to the Js constantly doing their amazing full-body-closeness, mouth right at the ear, private little laughy-lovey whispers *grins*.

Just sayin...

Edit: let me also add, because I’m realizing it might not have been clear, that I’m not making the above observations based only on these photos or only on photos in general *smiles*. I’m just using them (the particular photos in the post) as visual aids. And I don’t create posts like this lightly or without having put a lot of thought and time into what I’m writing about (usually topics I’ve been looking into and adding to bit by bit for a long while), because being accurate and thorough is very important to me when it comes to this kind of thing. Please feel free to message me with absolutely anything you’re wondering about (if you want more info on something or if you don’t understand something I said or if you have something to add...anything at all). Thanks, guys! All the love!!

#j2 #j2 tinhat #jared and jensen #jensen and jared #padackles #body language #kiss #anti wives #anti daneel #anti genevieve

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ccrowsiie · 7 years

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I knew a girl in high school who did the 'bwahaha' thing every time she laughed. She had a complete and total lack of self-awareness and was overall a fucking weirdo. That's something, coming from me. I'll call her "K".

I was never friends with K, but she was really tight with a girl I used to hang with in. I'll call her 'C'. C was kinda troubled, but she was really sweet, genuine and pretty. The polar opposite of K. I always got the feeling that K had this love-hate relationship with C, but C was too kind to see it. Sad thing, I ended up being completely right on the money. They were thick as thieves during high school, but after graduation K totally cut C off from every form of contact they shared and apparently 'despised her'.

Remember that erotic friend fiction gag from Bob's Burgers? K and C wrote tons and tons of it together and carried it around in wire-bound notebooks everywhere she went. Apparently, it was a shared hobby C and her younger sister started, that K latched onto like a leech. They called them 'what-ifs' and they were almost always sexual in nature. K was really keen on letting all of her pals know that she had a rape fetish... And that she was also apparently schizophrenic (though she never showed any symptoms that I was aware of and seemed all too quick to proudly proclaim it to people). She was also obsessed with a certain substitute teacher from school, referred to him by a made-up nickname and was convinced that he was stalking her.

This is not a joke.

I know delusions like that are a common marker of schizophrenia, but as someone who grew up with two schizophrenic immediate family members (one of which genuinely believes that I am a demon trying to murder them), I was under the impression that the paranoia was a... negative aspect. She damn near swooned over the poor guy and would get excited (and dare I say it, turned on) when she spotted him around campus. So yeah, her Wikipedia diagnosis is absolute BS afaic.

C let me read their 'what-ifs' between classes. That same substitute teacher showed up in almost every single story as the villain/love interest/rapist (all at the same time). I remember the two of them getting banned from using the internet at school because they were searching up weird shit on google, and after graduation, K ended up cutting contact with everybody.

K thought of herself as some kind of manipulation queen, but as the reigning manipulation queen ATT, I saw through her act like rice paper. Game recognizes game and I hadn't seen that trick's face in my whole life. She acted peppy and friendly to my face, but as soon as I was away she'd turn around and gossip about me to someone else. I knew this because they'd come to me later and laugh with me over how gassed up she was. I also caught her dropping the facade a half a second too soon after we spoke. She really didn't know how to keep a hold on her microexpressions. I found it amusing.

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