Half time goes by, suddenly you're wise

[iamnotgod]

Date: October 6th, 2018
Characters: Walter Weekes; anyone who wants to bug the birthday boy!

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A year before, and he might not have paid attention to the date on the calendar, with how he tried to keep himself busy.

Oh, he never forgot it; he'd just never asked for anything spectacular as a gift. Close friends either found out the date through casual conversation or ferreted the information out somehow on their own, but his family had never thrown lavish parties and he'd never wanted one.

(Haley had gotten one, once, once she'd chosen her degree back in London. Everyone involved had agreed afterwards to Never Speak of it Again.)

But he found the day special for a separate reason - or perhaps the same one, if people considered "discovering who you were" to be a form of rebirth.

What with what he now knew as a Numbered, though - that this day, six years ago, had been the activation of his first Echo/flashback/remnant of another's memory - it was all the more surreal.

[This is a post for Network communications, threadings for birthday shenanigans at the flat, and one (1) bike run in the evening!]

Comments

[dragoonrouge]

"What about still life? There's a dearth of drawings of fruit and you could fill such a vital niche in the market Walter."

She giggles, "All joking aside, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do Walter."

[warped_replica]

"If you studied stocks I would fear for the stock market," he jokes. "But no, I meant drawing from references as opposed to creative illustration." There's a vast difference in skill of capturing the image in front of one as seen with eyes than in capturing the image out of one's mind.

With Sadie offering their friend encouragement, he nods, "As am I. Whatever you draw, you should enjoy it."

[iamnotgod]

Walter's outright chuckling now - these two.

"Understandable, that. And- I appreciate it, both of you."

He gently taps the sketchpad again.

"Now, I'll confess I didn't have any big plans for the day, but while you're both here..."

And one last joke:

"Hangman?"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie descends into full-on laughter as Walter suggests a game of Hangman, having to place her mug down to stop herself from jostling the hot tea too much.

"Sure, let's use the high-grade sketch paper for a rigorous round of Hangman. Walter, you can choose the word first, it's your birthday after all.!

[warped_replica]

Benjiro holds back his laugh into a hard snerk deep in his throat, lips parting into a wide smile after. He shakes his head once, "Well it is your paper...but Hangman is much more challenging if you have to play the game in your head."

Maybe when it's his turn to select something he can really give Walter a test with a word in Japanese.

... I am so tempted for the word to end up triggering an Echo where he remembers his name, now.

[iamnotgod]

"I'm certainly not going to write in the book, that's for sure!"

Instead, he flips the sketchpad over, and starts writing on the cardboard back.

"Right, then. Seven letters... and no clues for you two!"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie has to smother down her laughter as it does indeed turn into a serious game of hangman. And there was one key strategy for hangman.

"Okay then. A?" Vowels first!

Since this *is* Hangman, tag order is W->S->W->B->W until game finishes!

[iamnotgod]

There's a patient, amused hum before he responds.

"Mmmm, nope!"

And he draws a line - for the base of the platform. It looks like he's expecting this game to be a long one~

Sounds good!

[warped_replica]

Taking back up his cup of tea with the drink cooled enough to enjoy without the risk of a burn, he sips on it as Sadie makes the first guess. The generously slow start to the hanging of their person is begging for a quick solution.

Benjiro sticks to the strategy and moves to eliminate the next candidate, “An ‘e’ then?”

[iamnotgod]

As reply, Walter makes a show of hovering his utensil just above the sketchpad...

And filling in the second blank.

"Only one of those this round. Next?"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie leans forward, "Well it would have to be 'i' next. We shall save this man from an unjust hanging Walter!"

[iamnotgod]

This time, outright laughter.

May as well give them something to chew on, he thinks, and puts one 'i' down in the fifth blank.

"Anyone else want to wager a vowel?"

[warped_replica]

With ‘a’ out of the running and two spaces after the ‘i’, his inclination is to follow with the next vowel in line. His only hesitation comes from that baiting line Walter speaks, but better to eliminate it than be left wondering.

“Hm. You’re too eager for this but let’s confirm. Is there an ‘o’?”

[iamnotgod]

"No~"

And with that, he draws another line - just one vertical at one end of the horizontal.

It's a long one.

"Next?"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie doesn't answer immediately answer, maybe now was a good time to start on those consonants.

"Okay, I'll take the plunge...N."

[iamnotgod]

Walter dances the pencil across the page, plopping down an n on the slot after the i.

"Now, that wasn't that bad, was it?"

[warped_replica]

A word ending as '-in_' leaves few choices for consonants to complete it, so Benjiro doesn't hesitate to offer one possibility.

"How about a 't'?"

"Sorry not sorry," I almost wrote. XD

[iamnotgod]

And there's the other vertical line of the platform.

"Sorry, no. Next~?"

He's starting to get a real feel for what he's looking for, now.

[dragoonrouge]

"L?"

[iamnotgod]

"Nnnope!"

He is absolutely trolling them now, he acknowledges, and he is loving it.

That hanging platform is now a very tall rectangle.

"Next?" he asks, flipping the pencil through the air almost like he's making it dance.

[warped_replica]

Considering the dwindling options, he decides to exclude a trick he remembers his sister enjoys in this game.

“S?”

Because there's only one Webmind~

[iamnotgod]

"Definitely no."

No plurals this time around!

Walter adds one vertical line on top of the block. Ignore any artistic liberties he may take with the noose.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie stares at the word. "It's not a nonsense word right?" She asks in amusement before making her next guess. "What about 'D'?"

Word now reads "_e__ind"! Just to keep track.

[iamnotgod]

"It shouldn't be," Walter snarks - and that D goes right on at the end! Something's tickling at the back of his brain, though, and he's not sure what that's about yet.

"Any other guesses?"

[warped_replica]

No T, L, or S. That eliminates 'rescind' as an option, but narrows it down to similar words.

"An 'R'?"