novelember A-2/C-2

This was supposed to be November writing challenge day A-2: First date with waifu, but I didn't have access to the internet and therefore the list of topics at the time of writing, so I guess it's route C now, so this would be chapter 2 of it?

 

Thus, I began my usual Friday ritual. Pass all the flyer couriers on High Street, stuff my rear pants pocket full of flyers. Perhaps I did it out of some fearful superstition - these kinds of people tend to know addresses and have a memory for faces, and I wouldn't want to offend them in any way, lest my mailbox at home get stuffed with non-addressed correspondence. Whatever the case, I'd always empty that pocket into the garbage cans bolted onto the train's inside walls when I got in.

The train arrived at the - empty, as usual (I've always wondered how that particular line stayed profitable, but it still runs today)- platform number 1. I climbed the communist-era metal stairs, took an empty seat, and readied my monthly ticket for inspection.

*Bang-screech. Bang-screech.*

The train croaked, a sign of its advanced age, but the sound soon settled into a rhythm and I was able to doze off for a while, waking up two stations before my hometown. The conductor never came; I guess he was just as tired after the week as I was.

Then came the standard routine - get off train, cross the tracks using the overhead walkway covered in football club graffiti, cross the street, walk home. Take off uniform, throw the shirt into the laundry room. Reheat dinner, make tea. Take tea upstairs, start computer.

The uppercase letters "KDE" greeted me the moment I took a seat before the monitor and double-clicked the custom shortcut for the command "firefox http://kupacz.an/b/"

"/b/ - Kyrgyz sculptures and futanari enthusiasts", the randomly generated title for the random section stated - this month's theme was a "Chinese cartoons" joke taken to its logical conclusion.

I caught myself doing things in the wrong order - I had forgotten to unpack first.

That chore over with, I resumed reading shitposts.

"

[+] Anonymous ## Admin No.12562 GROUND RULES

[+] Anonymous No.32889 FETISH GENERAL

[-] Anonymous No.35000 XD

[picture of pope John Paul the Second on a toilet]

filename: get.jpg

I shat and it stinks kek

Anonymous No.35671

filename: disappointed-Chinese-cartoon-girl.png

>>35000

post the best

(100 replies omitted, click on post number to view)

"

Unbelievable. All the threads on page 0 were either extremely low-quality, or I had already minimized them in disgust the previous day.

F5.

"/b/ - Tocharian cave inscriptions and heterosexual alpha males" was the only thing different, other than the bump order of the posts.

"This must be the fault of the underages, mod, ban them on sight!" or "ban all non-virgins", some intrepid revolutionary would suggest at least twice a week. But was /b/ ever good? I thought that mythical golden age was just an inside joke of the oldfags. Chans were always shit, they were just the addictive kind of shit.

I gave up and decided to check out my new homework instead.

"Work with a partner - discuss what you think the narrator is going through in *The Raven*. Point out more challenging language."

Oh, right. Partner. Lilly. I wondered what the hell brought her to Poland of all countries, with all the possible civilized and developed alternatives.

Well, she was driven around in an expensive black car by people in suits. And she was at least half Japanese. The Yakuza was a possibility, though a ridiculous one.

I was starting to look forward to next Friday.

The weekend passed lazily, and I decided to read up on the required books for the oral stage of the upcoming contest. It was not even a month away, after all. I chose "Dharma Bums" and "Disgrace" for a starter. I then got back into my usual weekday rhythm until that day.

Again, I arrived at the classroom later than her. She leaned against the empty hallway's wall with her cane hanging down from her wrist, presumably waiting for the teacher to come and open the door.

"Hello, Lilly."

"Ara ar- I mean, is that Anon?"

Ara ar? What did that mean? I noticed she could remember voices well.

"Mm-hmm. It is me."

"We only have two more weeks until the day."

"Are you anxious about it?"

"Not really. It just seems unfair that we won't be sure if we can use the books until a few days before the oral test."

"Well, most of them are good."

"True."

I checked the hour on my phone. It was 14:12.

"It's getting late. Maybe she's already inside?"

"You mean the professor?"

"Yes", I said while twisting the doorknob. As it turned out, I was right.

"Ladies first." I was no expert at savoir-vivre, but at least this much had been drilled into me throughout my life.

She smiled at that. Was that not the expected minimum back where she came from?

"Aah! I'm sorry, you two. I forgot to come out." said the English teacher, sitting at her desk, some sort of document visibly open on her computer's screen.

"It is not really a problem." Lilly replied.

After the usual hand-out rite the teacher practiced, we got to the assigment at hand.

I gave out a half-baked interpretation along the lines of "the raven represents the narrator's pessimism, and the 'tomes of curious lore' are a belief in an afterlife with Lenore that he wants to keep despite his better judgment".

The good thing about interpretation tasks is that there's no absolute correct or incorrect answer, you just have to sound like you're making sense.

Thankfully, Lilly agreed without much argument, then slid her hand over her Braille sheets and pointed out "censer" as an example of an uncommon word, involuntarily giggling.

"Hey! I don't swear all the time!"

"Of course not, Anon. Just when introducing yourself." She clearly had not quite lived down our first encounter, but an inventor of witty comebacks I am not. I blushed - this was one of those times I was glad she's blind.

"So what have you worked out so far?", the ever-helpful professor came to my rescue.

We retold her our interpretations and she didn't give out any sheets this time.

"Next time one of you will present one of the books you chose, as if for the contest. I'd speak to both of you, but we won't have time for that. Are you ready, Anon?"

"Yes."

"So Lilly will present hers the week after that. Now pack up, goodbye."

"Goodbye" we both told her at the same time, setting out.

I looked through the window. The clouds blotted out the sun completely, creating an unpleasant, grey view.

"*Kurwa*, what weather", I muttered under my breath in my mother tongue. I had kind of forgotten about the girl behind me, even if she didn't understand what I was saying.

"What? I don't understand, I've only been here for a month."

She had damn good hearing.

*Brain to Face, you know the drill.*

*Memory to Brain, she's blind, there's no point!*

The brain ignored the logical objection and I went completely beet-red.

*"Nevermind"(Lie)/admit to the truth?*

*Admit.*

"Um. I was griping about the weather." I switched back to English.

"I caught that much, but what was that first word? I hear it so much around here, but no one's ever explained what it means."

*Lie/explain?*

She obviously knew that I'd said something to be embarrassed about, if not the exact meaning, but she wanted me to be her guide to the country? Fine.

*explain*

"Well, it's... vulgar. I won't tell you what exactly it means, because it would require more explanations, but it can be used as a kind of... auxiliary noun. An intensifier. Doesn't Japanese have something similar with 'ne'?"

"Not all the time, you say? And to answer your question: not really, it is hard to exactly translate. The meaning depends on context."

She smiled, though I couldn't exactly see why she'd do that the second time she caught me being foulmouthed.

"Thank you for the explanation, though."

Since we were alone, I could take the time to take a closer look at her while walking alongside. She had a very feminine face, with a small nose and jaw, and her hair was done up in a wavy ponytail with some sort of black ribbon in it, leaving a fringe covering her forehead and a pair of bangs in front of her ears. She had big eyes, too, even if she didn't expose them.

Cute. Actually, more beautiful than cute.

A "see you next week" jolted me out of my thoughts.

"Wait, 'see'?" I wasn't thinking very quickly.

She made a displeased face.

"You know, you're the first person I met here that didn't immediately make a big deal out of my blindness. It was nice."

She was right, I couldn't remember bringing it up.

She went back to smiling, and added "You needn't tiptoe around everything like that, or change how you speak on account of my blindness."

"So... see you next week, Lilly?"

"See you next week, Anon."

I heard the same voice in the distance as I had the previous Friday, except now calling out for a "Lilchan".

Huh. I didn't know their family was so bilingual as to switch between languages even for greetings.

It seemed I was making a friend besides the usual cast of memelords. It wasn't until I'd reached the station that I realized I had forgotten to ask her about why she came here from halfway across the globe. Well, there was next week.

It soon rolled around. I presented Coetzee's "Disgrace" as more of a novel about old age than about the decay of late apartheid South Africa, and it seemed to actually work this time. Maybe it was the familiar setting and low pressure that gave me confidence.

"Excellent work, Anon. I don't get why you never pass that stage."

I shrugged.

"Third time's the charm, I guess."

"Oh, and Lilly..." the teacher started.

"What is it?"

"This year they'll have the facilities for blind test-takers on site. You came here a year too late to meet miss Supernerd, but she was the reason they decided to do that. Anon could tell you more about her."

"So we will be going..."

"To the University of Silesia, yes. I mean, you'll go anyway if you pass to the oral stage. Don't forget your passport. Goodbye, you two."

"Goodbye", we repeated chorally.

"Passport?"

"It's a joke we have here down south. Świerkłowiec, where the linguistics faculty is, used to be part of Russia rather than Prussia and Germany, so the people there don't really... belong in our district, and it used to be just over the border."

"Oh." She didn't find it funny. To be honest, I didn't appreciate this joke either. I lived in a small town without a strong sense of local identity and the banter that came with it.

Tap. Tap. I was kind of getting used to this.

"Anon?"

"What?"

"Can I do something? I want to look at your face."

I raised my eyebrow, but I knew better than to get hung up on the terminology.

"Huh? Oh, go right ahead."

She then raised her right hand to head level and grabbed my face. She slid her palm over it, as if reading her Braille print. The sensation was not unpleasant, but it felt strange, invasive.

"I like your nose."

Wait, what? I remained silent. I'm pretty sure she felt the heat on my cheeks, though.

"Well, I can still have preferences in the shape of things, if not their looks, right?"

"Makes sense, yes."

"I'll be off now, Anon."

It wasn't until I was well on my way home that I realized that something was happening, if not exactly what.

*Oh, not this shit again. Remember the last time you had a crush on a blonde girl?*

*I didn't say I had one on Lilly!*

*You both, shut up. We need an external judge to see what we can do.*

I also realized I had forgotten to ask her the second time in a row. "Damn it, Anon, get yourself together", I thought.

/b/ was much fresher that day. I decided to make it the external judge. It helped a few people get laid, right? Hell, I could end up on the Bibliotheca Anonoma if I reposted it on an English board.

 

"/b/ - Mongolian tomb paintings and homosexual family men

Anonymous (You) No. 37781

[iStockPhoto picture of man unscrewing computer parts with a wrench]

filename: help pls am not good with these feels.png

eyy /b/ruthas

I've known this qtπ for three weeks. She's complimented me on my appearance and kind-of-sort-of said she liked a few things I did. Wat do, anons? I don't know how normalfags form relationships, other than "through shared friends", and we have none. T. clueless virgin.

"

It didn't take long for replies to appear.

"Anonymous No.37792

>>OP

post pics of her, else it didn't happen

 

Anonymous No.37793

OP, you indecisive weak faggot. Why don't you give her a big, strong African man as a present to show her how much you care for her?

 

Anonymous No.37800

OP-kun, tell us more about her. Different types require different approaches. T. sporadic sex-haver.

 

Anonymous (You) No.37810

>>37793

back2 >>>/fet/

>>37800

Grill is a transfer student a year older than me, I meet her every week in an extra class, actually the only regular class she takes to my knowledge. We're the only ones there. She seems pretty formal and polite. Kind of ladylike, now that I think about it. Also, she's foreign, which is why she's got this weird schedule.

 

Anonymous No.37820

filename: smug animu girl.xcf

women are whores

[spoiler]It's a trap OP[/spoiler]

 

Anonymous No.37822

filename: waifuism in a nutshell.png

>>37820

what this guy said, at least the 3D pigs

 

Anonymous No.37824

filename: intredasting.gif

>>37810

>3 weeks

OP you should act soon, unless you want to get friendzoned like a motherfucker.

>foreign

Pic related. Do tell more, is she some sort of mudslime? One of the new Syrian imports? Her family will probably cut off your head if they think anything funny is going on.

Also

>we're the only ones there

>her only class

It's difficult for me to believe that, but try not to get an autism attack and you should be fine, given what you've written so far. She might actually be a bit lonely. Try asking her out sometime. Got any ideas?

 

Anonymous (You) No. 37829

>>37824

>Syrian imports

m80, I live nowhere near the Mazovian and Kuyavian shitholes they imprisoned them in. [spoiler]t. filthy coal eater[/spoiler] Haven't they all fled to Germany now, anyway, for all the refugeeyuros?

She's half Nip. Also, in two weeks we're going to a university on a school thing and we get a day off after that, we can spend it together somehow. Possibly we could go there a week later too, depending on how we perform. Oh, and she's disabled. Blind, if you need to know.

>autism attack

She seems to have ignored this sort of thing twice. I'll keep that in mind, though, third time's the charm.

 

Anonymous No. 37832

>>37829

>half Nip

In Poland? That's interesting. Also, in their culture you have to get her family's approval before you do anything. You have to bow and say the phrase "atashi wa korosaru fagoto, OP-kun desu~".

also

>school

REEEEE OP confirmed for underage! Mod, ban!

 

Anonymous No. 37845

>>37832

This guy is not me, in case you're wondering. Also, nowhere did OP say he was under 18. [spoiler]He just told you to call yourself a colossal faggot - in case you couldn't figure it out - that doesn't actually mean anything in moon. T. avid watcher of Chinese cartoons.[/spoiler]

Anyway, >>37829

They're not as crazy as some other cultures. What's her other half? And it's interesting that her family'd settle in this shithole of all places, unless she's on some sort of exchange program. Business, maybe? Japs do that sort of thing a lot.

>university

>day off

Well, there you have your date idea. It should have a cafe on campus, right? You could talk to each other in a relaxed setting, rather than in a class where you're under pressure. Also, be spontaneous with it. Or you could ask her some time in advance, if you've got the balls to do it - if she'll be genuinely interested but unable to come, she'll propose some other day.

>blind

Well, that simplifies the problem of dressing yourself for the occasion, just don't smell. How did she compliment you on your appearance, though?

 

I decided not to clarify my age, lest I get a premature ban. The university had more of a cafeteria than a cafe, though it did have a few quiet spots. The idea seemed fine and I chose to run with it.

 

BlindGirlOP!!107nG3 (You) No. 37867

I'll use a trip from now on so I can report on what happens over the next two weeks.

>>37845

>her other half

She's a half-Scot. Her mom was the Scottish part of the equation.

>that simplifies the problem (...)

I'm a fashion pragmatist, not a hobo, thank you. And we'll both be in school uniform - dress shirts and neckties, it's that sort of school. You're right, though.

>how did she (...)

She felt my face up with her hands. Inb4 this means she wants the D, she's probably done this a lot of times to other people.

Anyway, thanks, mate. The rest of you are all cancerous buggerfaggots. Will check back in on the 4th of December."

 

I made a screenshot and closed the window before I got any more oh-so-witty replies questioning my sexuality (">buggerfaggots - it's gotta be you, projector", I imagined) and decided to do an automatic update. Actually, I also needed to install Skype after my last Linux install.

"sudo su && pacman -S skype && pacman -Syu". Enter.

I didn't actually call many people, or receive a lot of calls, but I kept the piece of shit around for emergencies. It rarely even registered my microphone, thanks to unidentified driver fuckery. Or Linux fuckery, more likely. The box shut itself down automatically, as I had set it up to after every complete update.

 

I decided to sleep on all that.

From Saturday onwards, time seemed to drag on much slower than before. Yep, I was now certain that I was crushing on the senior girl. That sort of thing happens when you're looking forward to meeting someone.

Wednesday came, with it the extended math classes. Viete's formulas and their applications, precisely two. I felt like sleeping, despite knowing that I could fail the test next week if I wouldn't pay attention. I was glad I no longer had the sort of teachers that would publicly go "Mister Anonowski, if you feel like sleeping, do so outside the classroom!". My biology teacher in middle school was like that. There was no escape. Whether I hid my closed eyes behind my hands or the textbook, he'd see right through it. Thankfully he didn't carry over to high school, though those of my classmates who picked extended biology for the second and third year had to bear with him. I felt sorry for them.

 

Friday finally came around. Lilly had picked "The Enchantress of Florence". I didn't know much about the book, other than that there was some Indian emperor - Akbar? - who gets a visit from a Florentine claiming to be his distant relative, and I think that his court mage memed himself into not existing later on - that was 8ch's /bane/'s take on the book, at least.

I found that I didn't actually pay attention to what she was saying - I just stared at her. At the end, I was not intellectually enriched to any noticeable degree, though I learned that it got into the history of the Mughal dynasty.

*Get yourself up, Anon. You're lucky she didn't see you staring.*

I managed to get out of this mental state before I got scolded for not paying attention. Well, the English teacher was not really the scolding type, unless one forgot to turn in a particularly important homework assignment. And definitely not the teasing type, thankfully. I woke up to the briefing on next week's transportation to the university.

"Anyway, meet me next week here at school at 8 in the morning, unless you have some way of getting there on your own, in which case you'll need a written permit to go back home on your own too. Either way, we're supposed to get there at 9 AM. You're eighteen, Lilly, you can sign one yourself...", the teacher paused, clearly embarrassed, not wanting to add "in Latin script".

"It's alright. I'll just get Akira to copy it in my name. I'll go from Katowice."

I hadn't known she lived there. It was the district capital and the communications hub for everything east of the Neisse. Belarus and Russia, the Danubian countries, everything had a direct connection there. Except Ukraine and Lithuania, but nobody this far southwest cared about those.

Akira? Was it the suited girl that drove her to school?

"You, Anon? You've always gotten off at Katowice when returning, is it the case this year too?"

"Yeah, I'll get my parents to sign it."

"That's all. Don't forget."

"Will not, goodbye."

"Dou wizena" was now what Lilly's accent sounded like applied to the phrase for "goodbye". Well, she was learning fast. It was interesting, though, how she didn't have a Japanese accent that noticeable in English. More practice with it, I guess.

I closed the door and started the usual march down the hallway, only to be chased down by Lilly. Tap-tappity-tap. Well, the word "chase" doesn't really apply to walking speed, but the principle was the same.

"Ara ara, why have you been so silent today?" - I had to think quickly.

"I'm j-just anxious about next Friday, I guess." What remained unsaid was "in more than one way".

"Oh. I can understand that."

"What does 'ara ara' mean? You've said it once before." I tried to fill the silence.

"It would translate to... 'oh dear', I guess."

"I didn't know you've done this twice already, though. It seems you don't really have a reason to stress out.", she continued.

"Passed it twice. I've gotten to it three times so far."

"...How long have you been at this school?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It will be - five years now? Yeah, that many. I went to middle school here too."

"Oh."

"I didn't know you lived in Katowice of all places.", I decided to take the initiative.

"I was not given much of a choice, though it's not a bad city. It is where my sister got her job and apartment." Not a bad city? Didn't 70% of one ward's households have open domestic abuse cases? Still, I guess it was livable in the expensive parts. Besides, that was Upper Silesia for you - by day all neon lights and modernization, by night a decaying alcoholic colony, at least in the big cities.

"Sister?"

"Akira, she's a lawyer for the company my father works at. They recently opened a new office here, and she was offered a position there. I moved in with her."

"Oh, so that's..." I didn't get to finish my question, making the answer ambiguous.

"Yes."

I seemed to have gone too far, so I decided to end the conversation quickly before going into the cloakroom. It now snowed semi-regularly and I had to change my shoes to not get mud on everything. Then came the usual - pace back and forth on the platform, board train, show ticket, get home, eat.

As soon as I got to the computer, I used the electronic grade management system to write my tutor a request for two additional days off, citing my participation in the contest as the cause. "Miss English Teacher has recommended that I use that time to read the source material for the test.", I summed up.

Soon enough I got a notification on the desktop - a waiver was issued for the second and third of December. I relaxed a bit, knowing that I now only had Monday and Tuesday to worry about, other than Friday.