Ask the Person Below You a Question

[Ebil Bunny]

The problem with naming least favorite holidays is that there's so many random days that people get off work or school, and that's literally all it is, nobody actually celebrates them. Labor day being both simultaneously my favorite and least favorite of the uncelebrated holidays because of the irony aspect. However, in regards to holidays that I personally have witnessed being celebrated, I'd actually have to say Valentine's Day. That's not to say I hate it or in any way dislike it, I just don't find it to be my cup of tea. That wasn't always the case, when I was younger my family would make homemade, specialized valentines for each other, and our parents would give us each a big ol' bag of mixed valentine's day-style candy. Now it's just kinda eh, whatever. I've never been interested in the romance aspect of it at all, so that would probably be why.

Question for the next poster, what is your favorite board game and why? I love board games, and like to think I have a pretty solid collection, but the best collections are the ones that grow. So if you're into board games as well, what would also be a board game you really enjoy that you don't think many people know about?

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

My favorite tabletop game is Dungeons and Dragons, but that only technically qualifies as a board game given it often requires a board, rather a map overlay. However, the intention seems to be more at traditional gaming, of which I admit perhaps the game I most enjoy, as stereotypical as it is, is Monopoly. Why so, despite the fact I am so actually unimpressed or uninterested with it? Because it is the entertainment derived from the participants in it; the people make the game in this case. You can create a lot of amusement from the conflicts and debates that arise, much more interesting than the game itself. Probably the most infamous yet enjoyable board game I know of for the same reason but on a more novelty level, one that while I equally dislike but is an arguably a better, more diverse and dynamic game is Settlers of Catan. Plenty of backstabbing, treachery, and debate with that game as with Monopoly but far more unpredictable.

As for other unusual games, it is not so much a board game as a domino game, but it does share some qualities and certainly has a more unique experience is being Mexican Train. It requires a bit of strategy and if played correctly can be pretty phenomenal, but it also requires minimal teaching time or experience with others to actually perform; it has a selling point there, given people tend to be fairly averse to learning new games.

For the next question, what is your favorite animal, your experiences with it, and why you adopt it in that place as your personal best? I am very curious to hear as much an in-depth analysis as one can provide rather than, "I like dogs because dogs are nice." or "Dolphins are cool." Try to sell us on your answer - always more interesting.

[Mariana Collie]

Looking at you with nothing less than a smile. Always happy to see you, ready to do what you need at a moment's notice. It has become clear to me after all these years that I like dogs because dogs are nice. You may ask yourself: how are dogs nice? I'm sure, not all dogs are nice all the time. That would be an absurd demand to place on them.

Yet I have felt nothing but love when looking upon dogs- even those doges that bork at me as I walk by their yard. I know in my heart if I were to approach most of them, they would not bite me. For approaching them calmly and slowly, speaking to them with respect, is all it takes. There may be the occasional exception to this rule, but they do more to increase my adoration of the dog. How noble, to guard your owner with your life.

Not surprisingly, my own experiences with dogs drive this love. My own dogs were nothing less than wonderful.

A border collie dog that spent every minute with me, talked to me when I talked to her. A dog who, when I was only a toddler and managed to get myself stuck on a cliff, ran back to my grandmother to get help, leading her to me. A dog so smart she could be trained to do anything, even dive to fetch a specific item from the bottom of a pool. A dog who is a little schizophrenic and scared of lightning, but whose personality is ever endearing. Can herd anything from the biggest cow to a child to the smallest duckling but loving and never hurting them, unable to hurt anything for being so sweet.

A black lab dog who guarded our home to his best ability, giving our road a reputation leading to the sign "Old Black Dog Road" being posted by a neighbor. A dog who watched over growing children and ultimately died in my arms...still trying to lick me lovingly as I cried over his broken body.

Many dogs whom, while never meeting me before, complete strangers, reacted to my voice with nothing less than calmness and affection, following me home, letting me love them...wanting nothing more than to be cared for. (Yeah, I can say the same for a few stray cats too.)

In conclusion, it really isn't difficult to see that I love dogs because dogs are nice.

Hey RPG, it's me doggo, why don't you tell me your fetishes...your most eccentric interest? One that people would definitely judge you for. Don't be shy, I love blackmail details.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

You certainly did not disappoint in selling your argument for dogs being your favorite animal, @Mariana Collie. That said, thank you for providing such an in-depth and comprehensive answer to it, as the passion is evident. Thus far this thread has had a good amount of it despite its location, so kudos to you and others who have taken similar time and effort. Though on a related note to your answer, a mirror of it, my eccentric interest centers on the other side of the coin, so to speak. The one that gets me the most attention and judgment?

My feline obsession, which is made up of a lifelong pursuit and emulation. There is no moment of waking, even dreaming life, that I can draw from memory that did not include some sort of feline influence or mythology for myself, as far back as my recall extends. I admit, the love of all things cat, primarily the great cats but the lesser cats are certainly an interest of mine, is at least as old as my "first" memories. Granted there is a great amount of memory I have lost, damaged as it were, but what bits I do know range from my first "character" to roleplay was a big cat and that many formational periods of my life in youth were punctuated by them. These range from the odd, that wherever I went cats would flock to me if they were in the area, to the coincidental as with the first two reports in youth I ever wrote were randomly drawn from a hat and both were on sabertooth cats, done by two separate teachers in two separate classes, to the remarkable where I came across a sterling silver ring with a snarling sabertooth stuck in the crack of a sidewalk, to the amusing where I was "abducted" by a white and orange Bengal tiger who were at a show - not allowing me to leave despite it being closing time - to being able to attract felines to my side at a menagerie, zoo, or compound, among many others.

This eccentric quality has unusual notes, in that I can recite and recall the information on whim easier than a phone number or even my own name; I can explain to one the mechanics and forces applied by the one-hundred-twenty-eight degree gape of Smilodon fatalis' jaws and that it was the leverage of the cat's neck muscles and shoulders that gave it such a deadly bite or that the only way a white tiger is produced is by having some amount of Bengal genetics introduced and that they can create other color morphs as the golden tiger or snow white tiger, but ask of me the names of any home I lived in I cannot tell you the address or the names of the people I knew there. Among a smattering of other things, few really, there is nothing else that has held my attention or interest consistently, let alone acted as a means for self improvement. The great cats have always been my source of inspiration and not just creatively either. They have been reliably the only thing there in interest even in periods of desolation.

So here I am today, surrounded by relics, fossils, furs, skulls, paintings and the like of cats, all part of an ever expanding private collection and increasingly official personal study. At this rate before my time is done I should have enough for a very modest museum. That said, I suppose it is time for the next question, isn't it?

What is your "best worst experience" as it were? What situation was terrible but brought you and or others out for the better in the end?

[Exit]

So growing up, I had difficulty learning to swim. I never really achieved anything beyond the doggy paddle even with lessons and some guidance. There were a few times in my life where I'd nearly drowned for one reason or another so while I never actually had a fear of water, I had a fearful respect for it? If that makes any sense.

Anyways, my parents decided that because I'm obviously a water child, they'd enter me into a competitive swimming team. This team mind you takes this swim stuff a little too seriously. We had a coach with a name what was synonymous with water. Surge. Yeah. He was Russian or some such. Strict as hell, as are all the best teachers and mentors, and had a real swimmers body. Like muscles cut from stones and gorilla glued to his bones. The only way to tell his age without asking was to look at his face because those were the only muscles he never used.

Anyways, this guy. Day one he threw me in the water. Like I said I can't really swim so I doggy paddle from one side to the other. I can't even make it halfway before I start to flounder and grab the edge of the pool. Now this pool is 25 meters across. It's half the size of your Olympic pool also known as a "Short Course". I swam all of ten meters and I was out of breath.

Day two and it's more of the same. At this point they have me in my own section because I'm fucking holding up traffic. I'm the annoying old lady in the slow lane still going slower than you. I cannot go any faster and I cannot for the life of me make it to the other side without stopping to catch my breath.

Day three turns into day four and this cycle of near death by ice cold water continues. Once I can finally touch the other side I think I'm good. NOPE. Time to learn how to do somersaults in the water you stunt double you. Now do them without stopping midstroke and looking at the wall. Now do them on your back without any reference at all. (No, that tiny string with flags moving all of the fucking place in the wind doesn't count)

Now do this stupid stroke called the "butterfly" because normal people swim like this.

Competitions arrive and.. yeah... I come in last of course. It's 100 goddamn meters. Four laps and I can still barely make one. Every time I come out of the water, I'm physically dying and to make it worse, the next heat is already at the pool waiting for me to get out. And of course my time is being blasted into the crowd via giant billboard.

Like I said, I have issues leaning to swim so this cycle continues for four years.

My very last year during my very last race... I don't finish last. I finish 6 out of 7. For the first time when I exit the pool, my body doesn't feel like it's dying and I'm waiting on someone else.

Later that year I take a job as a lifeguard and a year after that, I ended up rescuing a kid who was unconscious at the bottom of a pool.

---

What is your earliest memory?

[Ebil Bunny]

ANSWER: That's a really tough question, since while I have plenty of memories from before I was five, I have no sense of when they happened in correlation to each other. Using some logic, however, I might potentially get it down to a few memories.

For example, I remember the time I slid head-first down an elephant slide in a church nursery during a Thanksgiving dinner, and a pin I was wearing ripped down the front of my chest (I still have the scar, it's almost three inches long). However, I also remember being given the pin before going to the dinner, so while much less in significance, being given the pin was an earlier memory.

Another is a nightmare I had about a giant fish that could swim up waterfalls. However, I remember waking up in a hammock, and I know that me and my siblings slept on mats on the floor before we had bunk-hammocks. Therefor, I know that my incredibly simplistic and probably insignificant memory of standing in a room wall-to-wall in my many siblings' mats is older.

While I have no real way to tell whether the pin incident happened before or after standing in the room of mats, my guess is that the mats is my earlier memory.

QUESTION: If you could create a completely new biome for earth, what would you make and why? For the sake of this thought experiment, imagine that the laws of physics changed to make said biome possible, however the change doesn't impact anything else.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

A new biome you say? I would much prefer a previous one, that which was part of the "mammoth steppe", which had thrived for well over some one-hundred thousand years and ended only relatively recently some ten-thousand years ago. It should be obvious why I welcome a reintroduction of this period, essentially reverting back to the Pleistocene epoch and its pronounced glaciation. More or less the objective would be a "reset" of sorts, predominantly to reintroduce the megafauna of the past and have somewhere to preserve them in an appropriate habitat. Not that the change of the environment was a mistake, the Earth has had countless cold and warm periods, with many, many more subsections within them, but primarily to return to how things were prior to man's ascension.

That said, what is your preferred drink? Tea? Coffee? Soft or hard liquor? Other?

[SleepingSilence]

That's a quick answer. My preferred drink, is still probably soda. (Getting specific, would be tricky because that changes frequently.) Though it's changed to 0 calorie variety's to not drink empty calories. Been drinking more flavored water and coffee to have a more healthy alternative. But I'm also at a weight where I don't really have to be hyper aware of my consumption.

To anyone reading some good fantasy novels. If you could recommend someone a fantasy novel what would it be? And opposing that, what's the worst written fantasy novel, you've had the displeasure of reading?

[Ebil Bunny]

The Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe, it's so good! Book two is coming out this year and I'm getting it as soon as it hits the shelves, I'm so hyped! The tl;dr is that it's about a world where the gods created towers at various points about the map with traps, puzzles, and enemies within. People can enter the tower and if they escape, they're blessed with a mark that grants magical power, with different marks giving different magical abilities. However, after they've gotten their mark they can go in again to attempt getting further up the tower for other rewards. It goes really in-depth about the magic system and life in a society with that type of magic, and I love it so much. I don't want to go into too much detail since I don't want to spoil it for you, but if you're even remotely interested in magic systems and/or tabletop RPG inspired fantasy, I highly recommend checking it out.

I can't say I have much experience with bad fantasy novels. As crazy as this might sound, I think Harry Potter might be my least favorite of the ones I can remember reading. There are so many books out there that I'd like to read that I just don't bother with any that might be considered poor. Harry Potter of course got a lot of hype around it so I finally got around to checking it out a few years ago and I wasn't really a fan of the writing style. It was very Roald Dahl, which I can respect as he was a famous author and an inspiration to many, but his stories weren't grounded enough for my tastes.

-

On the topic of fantasy, what is your favorite fantasy species and why? It can be from books, movies, games, doesn't matter, just give an explanation to what they are perhaps for those of us who might not be familiar with the material. It doesn't have to be a species you'd want to be yourself, just a species that you felt was well thought out and designed.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

My favorite fantasy species? I suppose if I had to choose any and out of them all, even the tenants of supernatural in reality, that would have to be spirit beasts. While more or less animal ghosts they tend to be more exotic and more fantastic than their human counterparts, good and evil souls alike, most being neutral or at least in different. I have always been fond of the natural themes of some fantasy and magical practices, both fictional and real alike, but I find it more fascinating to consistently encounter them where they do arise and find myself wishing for more. They make for interesting phenomena and something close enough to home to understand or appreciate. Many of their supposed talents are wonderfully flavored as well, being bodies and ethers of rolling, shaped mists that come and go, blink between forests and wilderness, or stalking shadows that drift and disperse at moment's notice.

There is plenty of inspiration form reality for them, mostly ancient or what we now view as "primitive" practices, but these totems, dream constructs, or animist spirits are always sort of universal in their own way. Fantasy tends to spin them in wonderful directions as that or from it, but out of them I admit I know no one series or universe that makes extensive use of them. I suppose Dungeons and Dragons is a great example, as is some Warcraft incarnations, but one-off pieces tend to catch my attention. Always better when I hear of them appearing elsewhere too, apparently Fallen London has some cat spirits that manifest as tigers in the real world; really a fascinating detail that goes back into how many of these things are portrayed throughout time.

The other component I enjoy about them is that it gives animals personality, not that they lack any, but in fantasy they tend to have a voice and varied presence from bombastic to humble. A hare totem might be silent and flitting about, then off the next moment until it vanishes into a rolling fog, while an eagle might be accompanied with a clap of thunder and like a bolt of lightning. Most even speak, at least the powerful sorts do. Imagery as this tends to be what evokes the best incarnation of it, at least for me.

Speaking to a personal level, they are some of the most fantastic things and I always seek out there themes wherever I can find them.

On a similar note, of all genres, horror, fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, whatever you wish, what genre garners your attention the best and holds it?

[gorgenmast]

You ever hear about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac?

He would stay up all night wondering if there really was a Dog.

[Mortim]

No, I haven't.

What's the worst fashion decision you've ever made?

[Ebil Bunny]

Sitting on an escalator in the Mall of America. I had to walk through the largest mall in the US with the seat of my shorts almost completely shredded. Luckily they were double-layered, so only the outside layer was ripped through. I doubt anyone would consider that in any way fashionable.

Since it's April 1st, have you ever fallen for an April Fools' joke, and if so, what was the most outlandish thing you've fallen for?

[mickilennial]

Absolutely nothing and that kind of terrifies me.

What are your opinions on April Fool’s jokes in general? Do they go too far or is everything fair game?

[Foster]

Deleting youtube accounts in the name of gun control is a pretty harsh april fool's joke.

And since this thread is gonna sit until june... How did you pick your avatar?

[mickilennial]

Well, she just so happens to be one of my favorite characters in animation. Ezy pzy. She's also my spirit animal.

How did YOU pick YOUR avatar, huh?

[Foster]

Was introduced to Warframe. Got Clem'd. Need I say more?
(Using characters played by Micheal Douglas was getting a bit old)

What is the most impossibly convoluted prank you've ever attempted?
(in my case, the planning/testing amidst collaborators was more amusing than the prank itself, it involved a flagpole, strangulation, an effigy in a sleeping-bag, a kid getting supplex'd from a picnic-table, and bear-hugging a person after getting doused in gasoline to not get lit-up**)

**Science-note: the gasoline will evaporate and cool the person while he is burning... the person being bear-hugged will not have this benefit. Plus vapor-trails. If you can still smell the gasoline, you're still combustable. Being hugged also makes it difficult to stop-drop-and-roll.

[Briza]

con·vo·lut·ed
/ˈkänvəˌlo͞odəd/
adjective

1. (especially of an argument, story, or sentence) extremely complex and difficult to follow.

synonyms: complicated, complex, involved, elaborate, serpentine, labyrinthine, tortuous, tangled, Byzantine

Byzantine → Briza went to Confession intoxicated one (1) time and during the following week, proceeded to confess being intoxicated during the previous Confession.

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Do you like socks?

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

No, I absolutely loathe socks, something about wearing them feels quite wrong. Textures in general evoke strange reactions from me, as it took years to accustom myself to ignoring them or staying focused on other matters. The same effect of distraction arises from bright light or noises, usually those higher pitched or just plainly loud. Socks are similarly irritating, as well as strange in perception. An odd opinion I hold to be sure, but no, I do not like socks.

How many near death encounters have you experienced in life, if any? Legitimate ones, rather than near misses. The sort of things where you dodged the oncoming train by seconds or hear the crack of a ricochet by your head, to the more mundane where you might have only by chance avoided death such as vehicular accidents. Not that the more extreme is better, just an interesting experience to hear of others' recountings and stories. I admit I have several, but wondering just what they were like for others is always a novel concept to me. Apparently they are not as common as I seem to know, at least in person.

[Ioua8654]

I never had any near-death encounters per say but I have had some near misses but most involve 2 years old me almost choking on a laundry detergent pod, which didn't any detergent in it, but my mother did always say II almost Grabbed a one that did have laundry detergent in it. ( this was in 1998)

What is the one character that you created that you would most likely be in a relationship with if that character came to life?