2019 September 10Tuesday
He remembered the dream he had st night. Something about having sex with the drummer of his ex’s band. Gil only knew him for one week before he was fired and repced with a drum machine, and Gil felt completely emotionless about this in said dream. He didn’t feel any more emotions when burgrs entered the house and he had to run from them with the beloved ex-drummer. Gil didn’t like his dreams much. He checked up on Dorley server, to find it rather thriving. It seemed there were a few members, namely Mia from yesterday, and another girl named Christine who’d been quite active discussing some computer and video game things. Not quite unlike the sort of things he heard the guys in his csses discussing, but meaningful in a subtle way. One particur exchange caught his attention:
#gamer-girls
> No, we will not add SSBU to the games library, Nintendo’s wyers are a greater threat to opsec than the NHS.
Jailed-for-coffee-crimes (Mia)
You know, it feels great that after a whole-ass year of nothing but whacking slimes in Stardew Valley, I can finally py some Hotline Miami again
OhGodCtrl-Z (Christine)
Is it really in our games library?
Jailed-for-coffee-crimes (Mia)
Mhm~ I would let you know that the age rating is only 16, and it is a very touching tale of doing what we do for who we love and not falling for radicalisation
OhGodCtrl-Z (Christine)
Cute, I know you only enjoy it for the murder
Jailed-for-coffee-crimes (Mia)
The music too! I should get just a *little* leeway after I appropriated all the thigh-highs in the wardrobe
OhGodCtrl-Z (Christine)
Do you do this on purpose?
Jailed-for-coffee-crimes (Mia)
I have to if I want to be the woman Aunt Bea wants me to be :grin:
Come on, I know you’re like me, don’t let your gf’s nagging stop you from enjoying a bit of the old ultraviolence
OhGodCtrl-Z (Christine)
a) We should have a rule preventing Clockwork Orange references, b) Paige isn’t my girlfriend, c) I am to be a woman, and if it means not engaging in the sort of hobbies I enjoyed in my previous life, than so be it, I suggest you give it a try too
Jailed-for-coffee-crimes (Mia)
I am a woman no matter what Bea and her granny-ass definition says, and she’s going to force me back into the basement on a steady diet of weetabix and taser, then so be it!
OhGodCtrl-Z (Christine)
You’re a feisty one aren’t you?
Jailed-for-coffee-crimes (Mia)
Guilty as charged, now if you’ll excuse me, I have some russians to go bludgeon
OhGodCtrl-Z (Christine)
Just don’t stay up too te
Gil remembered hanging out with groups of boys, way back when. Specifically, nerdy boys, and just how frustrated he’d felt at the hollowness of their social interactions beyond whatever thing they’d communally be into. It’s been forever now, he’s more than happy to hang out with girls and have an actually fulfilling social life, but there was always that nagging part of him that missed the good parts of hanging out with boys. How had he not released yet that trans women were the answer? I mean, these are girls, but they’re also like boys in the way they talk about and oh god Gil you’re being a prick.
They’re women through and through, no matter what weird jokes they tell each other, when would he put that in his skull? Still, even if they were women, they were different, and Gil didn’t realise how much they were missing from his life up until this point, he should’ve interacted with more of them in the past. It’s not like he hadn’t noticed any, he just… didn’t feel like he’d get anything out of it.
Morning has truly broken and now most of the residence is waking up, with Faye and a few others talking about what Gil infers is pstic surgery they had done for their transition. The thought of pstic surgery made Gil shudder, it always brought up the persistent memory of seeing Pete Burns on the cover of the Mirror years ago. Apparently doing all of that was what killed him in the end. It’s not that he was against it or anything, he just… didn’t want it for himself. Anyways, where was he at? Oh right, transition talk. It was a bit too personal for him, but he had an early css anyways and studying with Pippa right after so he needed to get going anyways. He does make a mental note to look into some different consensus servers ter today though, turns out they’re fun, and they’d likely be more so when he could actually contribute without being given a restraining order.
***
The residual summer sunshine was in full bst today, so Gil decided to extend his hot girl summer just a bit more with his fit today, sporting skinny jeans, an attractively too-small Gundam t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, and shades. Maybe he wasn’t fit enough to make the look completely work, but at least he wouldn’t stain something nicer with sweat. In the hour between his morning css and the study date, he got an idea, and dropped a snap to his friend Vivian.
Gil
Hey babe, heading to the library to read with a new girl, wanna join?
Viv
Sure, can Mick come too?
Gil
The more the merrier babe :wink:
Gil met the two of them promptly. Viv was a film student with impressive fake shes, doing much like Gil and taking advantage of the waning warm weather to wear an athletic crop and joggers ensemble. Dragged behind her was Mick, her boyfriend in economics with carefully boring blonde hair, a modest footballer beard, and a thoroughly unremarkable male sense of fashion. Dropping some small talk on the way, they headed for Sandison library and archives. Now, Saints had some nice old buildings across its discombobuted campus, but this library was not one of them. It was the sort of 70s brutalist concrete monolith that was likely funded by the government to serve as a set for whichever dystopian limited series the BBC felt like filming that day. Gil liked it more than most, which is to say semi-ironically. He weaved his way through the excessive escators to reach the philosophy wing, where Pippa was waiting for him, her table already cluttered with the semester’s entire reading list. She was wearing a suit and skirt nearly identical to yesterday’s save for the colour scheme. She squinted at the group, and opened by asking, “Did you bring your computer?”
Gil was taken aback, so few girls had ever been interested in that thing that st night’s exchange was a rhetorical exercise for him. Then he remembered: trans girls. He tried to py it off. “The speccy? Oh, I didn’t think you were actually interested, but I’ll see if I can remember to bring it next time. Hope you don’t mind that I brought these two instead? This is Viv and Mick.”
To Gil’s surprise Pippa looked genuinely disappointed, and her smile seemed forced as she replied “No, I don’t mind, the more, the merrier, right?”
“Words I live by love.”
Pippa fumbled with her books a bit before finding this week’s reading. Gil had brought his work ptop-cum-sticker gallery to read the pdfs, but eagerly took to paper instead. Viv and Mick had their own respective assignment, but that was short-lived. As expected, things quickly turned to current affairs among the interlocking friend group system, along with some reminiscing various pertinent stories from the past. The couple had known each other since grade school and as such had had many particurly funny escapades and shared experiences over the years. Gil was very much enjoying himself, though noticed that Pippa was barely contributing to the former conversation subject, and not at all to the tter. Realising he’d once again been just a tiny bit of a prick, he told the other two he needed some time alone to discuss their ethics css in particur. Viv begrudgingly accepted, under condition Gil would finally stop being a snob and go to a night out at Legend with her and her girls. She left in her usual theatrical fashion, an apathetic Mick in tow. Waiting for them to disappear down the escator, Gil turned to Pippa, telling her as he should. “Sorry, I invited them off the cuff like that. Viv is a wonderful girl when you get to know her, and Mick is perfectly inoffensive, but I get she may have come off strong.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” Pippa answered, “I just don't have much of a frame of reference for all of those alleged tarts she was talking about.”
“Don’t worry, at the st count only 36% of them have been found guilty of being tarts in the court of w.”
Pippa fshed her first genuine smile of the entire afternoon.
“We can study seriously now of course,” Gil continued, “and if you want, when we have some leisure time, you could perhaps come to my pce to py with the computer? If you still want to? We could even watch a movie or some other activity afterwards if you’d like.”
“Gil, are you asking me out on a date?” Pippa asked.
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like that!” Gil replied pyfully, “I’ve just never had a solo friend like you I could say. Not that I’m saying you have no friends, I kn-- I’m sure you do, but I’ve personally never had a friend who I didn’t know via someone else or was a package deal with a whole different group. You’re just you, and that’s interesting and new to me and I want to try it out.”
Pippa seemed to take Gil’s slightly awkward expnation well as she said, “So I am an outside-context problem for your social life?”
“If by problem you mean an interesting puzzle I cannot wait to study and solve, then yes, you are a nice outside-context problem.”
“Good,” Pippa said as she opened their textbook, “it’s really good that you feel this way, because that’s what we have to study next.”
And that’s what they did, Pippa fully dedicated to the task, Gil multitasking with his internal argument.
Trans women are just so nice, I’m so gd I got to finally have one of them as my friend.
It’s Pippa and she’s her own person you idiot.
They got their work reasonably completed before they called it a day. Gil wanted to chat with Pippa a bit to know more about her and her life, but she made it clear she was done and left with her books. Gil could always see what she was up to on the server of course, but it would’ve been nice to get to know her without being a creep. He checked his snap to find that the graphic design girls had invited him to the new vietnamese restaurant downtown. With an hour left before they were to meet up, Gil headed to Nightmares on Wax, the best record store in town to perhaps find a few new things for his set this weekend. As he was waiting to pay for his few finds, he made a mental note to invite Pippa and some of her friends to the night, get to meet more of them in person. Later, when it came time to chat while waiting for their orders, the girls asked how Pippa was. He answered that she was nice and studious, but didn't like Viv very much. Lex was was quick to drop a quip:
“To be fair Gil, it’s not like any of us like Viv, your new lesbian friend is just the only one honest enough to be open about it.”
“Totes agree,” Alice said as she was showing a fumbling Lena how to use chopsticks, “she came out as a sapphic, a socially controversial and dangerous thing to be, aka the complete opposite of hating Viv’s guts.”
“Viv’s a bit difficult, but she’s not Piers Morgan Alice,” Gil replied. “Also, how do you know Pippa’s a lesbian? Was she part of one of those secret snogging sessions Sonia surreptitiously crept on?”
Alice, who had non-verbally communicated to Lena that she had given up, turned to face Gil in full. “Gil, you of all people should know that most can just tell these things? Didn’t your kind invent the gaydar?”
“I’ll admit, she does fit the mold, but I would wait until peer-reviewed evidence comes out that she isn’t straight before publicly ciming so, it's the base amount of respect you know what I mean?”
Yes Gil, bravo on being a model of respect in regards to her queerness.
But if I hadn’t clocked her, I would’ve never gotten to get to know her better or witness her amazing group. It all bances out in the end.
Between the massive portions and this being a Tuesday night, Sonia’s call to go out drinking after dinner went unanswered, and everyone scattered to their respective residences. Gil headed to his functionally empty house, holed up in his room in a fashion not unlike Colin, spun Speak and Spell by Depeche Mode (the only album of theirs he enjoyed) and got ahead on some general coding assignments. The task done, he moved to what he was really excited about: getting on some more consensus servers. After tracking down some IG pages, websites and resolving to just looking them up on the app itself, he had now joined a dozen servers as Gil Nova. Saints compsci, the queer rights group he often pyed sets for, and various medium and big servers dedicated to his hobbies. He read rules, picked roles, copy-pasted his introduction where necessary, and dove headfirst into the ocean of digital chatter spread before him. Well I’ll be damned, I understand Colin now. Okay, just a bit, not much. Ew actually.
Yes, it wasn’t the most fulfilling space for someone like him to engage with, but he was genuinely enjoying himself. He was following a particurly amusing argument on a vintage synth server and wait… he recognized that username. He checked which pictures he’d sent and yes, here he was being gently obnoxious about his System-100m, in the exact same way he used to be with him and Malcolm.
Wave to CEMsAreBest
GilNova
Hey, are you Flo? Florian Bragg?
CEMsAreBest
Oh hey Gil, long time no see, how have you been?
GilNova
Still at Almsworth, doing as good as ever. I just really got into consensus tely and started looking out for some more pces. How’s your work going?
CEMsAreBest
Just fine, it’s not the most exciting line of work, I either solo ads, or get asked to retouch a patch in the remix of a fairly famous Moldavian pop star, it’s a living. Is your SH-2 holding up?
GilNova
Cleaned the contacts again, I think I’ll try to integrate it in my set next weekend, I’ve already had success with the RX the st couple of times, I’m actually happy to do some live pying again
CEMsAreBest
Neat, and the Spectrum?
GilNova
Same as it ever was, I turn it on sometimes, don’t have much more to do with it that I haven’t already, it’s just nice to load Atic Atac for an afternoon at times. Actually, there is some new development now that I think about it, I met a girl who's interested in it. She’s really nice, a philosophy student by the name of Pippa, she might come over this weekend.
CEMsAreBest
Well colour me impressed, 15 colours in fact, that’s a rare find, especially a nice girl it seems like.
GilNova
She really is nice :heart:
Do you still keep in touch with Malcolm, how’s he doing?
CEMsAreBest
He’s doing fine
GilNova
Any retionship things happening on your end?
CEMsAreBest
Not really, no
I did mod the Apple ][ software to be a bit more efficient, loading times are finally adequate. I might get another 140 for the 100m.
GilNova
Cool, send me vids of whatever you do with it
Oh wait, you’ll probably just post them to the server lol
CEMsAreBest
Yeah, probably
GilNova
Anyways, I’ll leave you to it, have a good evening Flo
CEMsAreBest
G’night
Oh yeah, right the hollowness. Still, might be useful to ask him for some tips on syncing his drum machine with the records. That would wait for now though, time to log off as Gil Nova, log in as NeonLights and spectate some real conversation.
#music
> As punishment for the events of st month, there will be no discussion of a certain artist outside of Tay-Tay Tuesday until further notice.
> No one on consensus is legitimately trying to sell you concert tickets for less than 50 quid.
WheetaBex
I get that Lover isn’t her best record, but Cruel Summer is so good you guys, you’re all sleeping on it bad
OhGodCtrl-Z (Christine)
Eh, I’ll stick to 1989 thanks
Turn-The-Paige
Wow, big controversial opinion from Christine, 1989 is her favourite
OhGodCtrl-Z (Christine)
I still pronounce “insane” with an American accent because of this album, it’s the least I can give it
Jailed-for-coffee-crimes (Mia)
Okay but Chrissy’s right, just the production on this thing sps. Style guitar my beloved
Stealing-your-pronouns (Faye)
Truee, I actually want to learn music production so muchh, why are there no musician girlies here?
Well, there was one musician present, but he wasn’t that kind of girlie, and he also couldn’t join in. He wished he could though.
PippaLongstockings
The whole Tay-Tay Tuesday thing is so dumb though, it's not like most of us have any other music we're cmouring to discuss
Local-MILF-Lover (Jodie)
I listen to The Cure sometimes...
PippaLongstockings
I'll be damned, a Dorley girl with a unique taste in music
...Okay, well at the very least, it's looking like Gil will be expanding some musical horizons this weekend.
She dresses so nice, I thought for sure she was into something cool
Gil you're such a man oh my god
Mhm, sure am. Un gars unique depuis toujours.
SynGirl
