Tldr: she ended up banging her “friend” in the band we went to go see.

Gal was a friend of a friend. Met her in passing at a show one time and said we should go out. She invited me to come over hers and we’d go see her “friend’s band play” at a nearby bar. Got ready with her and her roommate. Was around Halloween so I intended to splatter a bunch of fake blood and paint on myself for a zombie - her and her roommate helped and she helped herself to apply up under my torn up shirt so I was thinking “wow this is going swimmingly already”.

We go to the bar she seems to know everybody and keeps handing me free liquor. Watch a couple bands, talk to a bunch of her friends, and I’m honestly having a great time also getting pretty drunk. She introduces me to this one dude and the vibe is weird like he’s being subtly hostile. Turns out this dude was the “friend” in the band.

Anyway night goes on late she’s hanging onto me off and on, pretty handsy. We decide ok time to head back to her apartment - I’m not really expecting anything but she’s been sending pretty big signals all night and I’m happy to get back to hers. As we’re leaving her “friend” in the band calls after her. She tells me “oh hold on” and goes to talk with the dude. Conversation seems involved. I kind of just hang around a bit awkwardly just listening to the lingering conversations around me unsure how long this is gonna take. Eventually 20-30 minutes go by and I’m looking around and they’re nowhere to be found.

I’m pretty drunk and about 3 miles from this girl’s apartment - I decide fuck it I’ll walk back. I had left some things in her apt so I needed to get them.

Get to the apt after a long walk and knock. It takes a couple minutes for someone to answer - gal in question answers the door disheveled and scantily clad and says oh hey I’m sorry uh I kinda lost you. I’m kind of mad at this point and just say “yeah I just wanna get my stuff and use your bathroom if that’s alright.” She stares at me a second real awkward and says “uhhhh yeahh I don’t think that’s a good idea” and it clicks for me.

I burst out laughing my ass off in the middle of the night on this empty street. I tell her “dude just bring me my things please”. She doesn’t say anything else but goes up and brings my stuff down. I wait 30 seconds, piss on her front porch, and go to sleep in my car. Drive home hung over next morning.

I’m assuming American: Severe social anxiety, touch aversion, ptsd, strong desire for routine. Weight gain in the first few months.

Also a long time to adjust to how rude people are in public spaces compared to inside. Inside disrespect => violence.

My older brother did a few shorter stints over about 10 years but hasn’t been back for about 8 years or so. He still has a hard time dealing with crowds + parties but that may be his personality too.

He just needed personal space and time to adjust. It took him about the same amount of time as his sentences to get back to comparable normalcy. He has never been quite the same though. Much less outgoing. I miss the brother I had and I appreciate the one I have now.

Vagrant Story and Parasite Eve

Played them as demos back when that was a thing and I didn’t get why there’s spheres popping up making battle stop (semi-turned based combat) and why there’s a dude named Ashley.

Tried again a couple years later after playing FF7, connecting that they were all by squaresoft, and it all made sense. Absolutely became a couple of my favorites.