"I said 'All aboard,' damn you!"

[Verfremdungseffekt]

There's this girl -- a train conductor, apparently; I imagine she'd be good at that -- who frequents the cafe. When she appears, everyone must pay attention to her or else. She talks loudly, at length, about nothing. She punctuates her sentences with screeches and hoots. Once she brought a guitar, and spent an hour singing inane folk songs in a piercing, warbling alto.

Lately she has taken to setting upon me. She can't end her tour without twice bombarding me with smarmy compliments and trying to wheedle conversation out of me. Each visit, she is a bit more insistent. I, being me, respond by retreating to one and a half times the extent she pushes. I figure most people would get the point and leave me alone.

Today she really got on my case: blocked me in, wouldn't leave, wouldn't stop staring, doubled up the intensity, and confronted me about my reticence. She picked on my "shifty" body language, my lack of eye contact. In return, I offered her as little to go on as possible: "Well, then." "It would seem so." "I couldn't say." At one point she demanded, "You don't like people much, do you." "Sometimes I do," I said.

If the genders were reversed, she would be facing a punch in the nose.

 

[Salomé]

Extroverts :rolli:

Too short?

Nice retort!

Why am I the only person commenting in your blog?

/feels self-conscious

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

I assume they've realized something you haven't?

The mystery continues.

 

[ring the bell]

I think the girl might not have made it after I was done with her.. OR she would be very resistant to picking at anyone ever again...

 

[Costrin]

That would piss me off so much....

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

I've got all these plans for the next time she bothers me. Watch me drop them all over the cave floor, the moment I see the cougar.

GAH CAN'T RESPOND GO AWAY WHAT THE HELL

...

I just remembered that a few minutes before she walled me in, she sat outside and kept whistling cat calls at someone. Not once, but over and over. More and more insistent.

Much as my father would do. If anyone asked him to stop, he'd just sit there and go into overdrive until everyone was generally furious for the rest of the night.

Yikes. Okay, let's not dwell. Zen.

 

[Blank]

Just say, "Tits or GTFO."

If she shows her tits, say, "I've seen your tits, now I'mma get the fuck out."

 

[ring the bell]

You may have encountered a crazy...I can't say for certain, but the it seems like a good chance...

 

[The Decline]

At those times, I simply walk away before I explode. I could give a fuck about their feelings if they don't mine.

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

Right. The problem is thinking quickly enough. If she'd go away for fifteen minutes then come back, I'd work out how to reply. As it is, you know how combos work in a fighting game? One of the players strings together moves so the next blow always hits moments before the other player recovers from his stun reaction. People who spend far too much time memorizing command strings will come in and mop up less dedicated players -- even if they theoretically know how to play well enough -- by never even technically allowing them a chance to hit back.

That's how it tends to work with me, in social situations. Especially when a strong extravert is involved. I'm lucky if I can raise my gloves and block most of it -- which I generally what I did here, by handing her as little as possible to react to.

And again, she physically fenced me in so I had nowhere to go. I did make motions suggesting I wanted to leave, but she didn't budge. Instead she mocked me for it.

 

[Einnas]

splendid i must say