causticautist

[causticautist]

"I know you don't care, you never care." Sirrus reached over to muss his brother's hair up, gentle and careful like always. The audible smirk in his words likely forewarned Sollux that this was about to happen. "I try my best, I want everything to be okay for you." If asked, the eldest Captor would admit he wasn't an overly fun person.

"It wasn't so much that she couldn't swim, she just didn't notice the lake and walked into it. It was very strange to watch, I didn't even notice she was blind until after I got her out. Well, she had to tell me. I have never really been good at noticing things." He paused briefly to push another table out of the way, amazed they hadn't been told off for talking so much yet. "As for the tech office, you know me, I like to gather information. There wasn't anything of note though, not really. I think the boy I met might be alright though, he's a bit... argumentative, but that kinda suits me." 

Laughing quietly, he shook his head. "Anyway, have you met anyone interesting?" 

Routine Can Be Boring

"Guess how much I care." he scoffed, rolling his eyes a little. "You do a good job at doing both." he added in, smiling a tiny bit and glancing over at him. He didn’t like it when his brother got all down on himself like this, pouty and depressed… it wasn’t fun for anything.

 ”Wow, a blind person who can’t swim? How fucking original.” he scoffed, rolling his eyes and smiling a tiny bit to himself, amused. “Why were you looking through files in the tech office? Was there anything even worth while in there? 

[causticautist]

"Sollux can be stubborn sometimes. He will probably walk into the lake just because I warn him not to because he can take care of himself and doesn't need me babying him... So on and so forth." Sirrus chuckled lowly, pushing a stray braid back behind his ear. 

"Come on then, let's both get back in shall we?" He moved away a little to collect his blanket before returning to her side. "Ready?" 

Blind Girl + Lake=Bad Idea

"Yeah you can walk me back to the dorms if you really want." She shrugged. She could get herself back to the dorms just fine but it never hurt to walk with someone. "I don’t plan on walking into the lake again anytime soon," she laughed a bit. "I’m pretty sure your brother wouldn’t be dumb like me and walk into the lake." A smile stayed on her face as she talked. 

[causticautist]

"I wouldn't use such an emotionally loaded phrase as slave, but I am your older brother and I am here to take care of and protect you. Not that I have ever been noticeably good at it." Sirrus' brow furrowed, a little hint of frustration and disappointment in himself creeping up to lay in his stomach, making him feel a little sick.

"Everything is going okay so far, I haven't had any trouble. I've met some interesting characters, I fished a blind girl out of a lake a few days back and someone caught me rifling through files in the tech office, but... nothing of note." 

Routine Can Be Boring

He huffed softly, smiling just the tiniest bit at him and nodding. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. You’re my slave, I get it.” he mumbled. He was, of course, totally immune to the stares from others. Which was good, because he wouldn’t have actually given a shit about it anyway. 

 ”Yeah, me neither.” he hummed, half teasing and half serious. “Everything’s fine, he’s a good enough roommate. Not obnoxious or anything. What about you?” he asked, quirking a brow in question. 

[causticautist]

"Nice to meet you. I'm glad I didn't manage to make it seem offensive, words cause me trouble sometimes." Sirrus smiled back at her, something that always looked goofy on his face and alleviated a lot of the worry about his size and gloomy demeanour for a lot of people. 

"I'm also glad you didn't get hurt. Will you let me walk you back to the dorms? I know they aren't very far, but I'm going that way anyway so it seems somewhat foolish not to at least offer. I'd also really like for you to not end up in the lake again... I'll have to remember to warn Sollux about it." 

Blind Girl + Lake=Bad Idea

Marita tilted her head to the side a bit and gave the other person a smile. “I get what you’re trying to say, you’re glad that there are people who can give you’re brother pointers and whatnot.”

"Name’s Marita, anyway thanks for helping me out otherwise I’d probably would have hut myself trying to get myself out of the water." Her cane didn’t exactly work in the water. She had learned that from experience, and landed herself in her bed for two weeks, having sprained her ankle.

[causticautist]

"So what you're saying instead is that you would rather label those - all those - who identify themselves as champions of 'social justice' or whatever and vilify them instead? Okay. That is what you're doing, you realise that? You can't be 'anti-social justice' and actually claim to want equality, I'm sorry, I just can't buy into that." Sirrus, having placed the battery back in, was attempting to turn the thing on again. There was a moment where nothing happened and then success! 

His fingers flew over the keyboard, his face reading nothing but mild disinterest as he spoke without taking his eyes off the screen. "You're also still assuming that the people who often state these over generalised views are oppressing the people they are generalising - either that or you're arguing that someone who is neuroatypical saying they hate neurotypical people as a method of venting on the internet is the same as the daily struggle they go through to be seen as valid, capable human beings, as important, as not some problem to be fixed." 

He was in the OS' safety mode, trying to boot a system restore. It was going well actually, the guy took care of his laptop. The debating was just interesting on top of it. "What do you believe is already vilified? White people? Men? Or are you talking about oppressed groups? I agree with the stance that we should never allow a viewpoint where a group that is systematically and institutionally oppressed is vilified to stand, but speaking out about one's hatred of straight, white, able-bodied, neurotypical men, the same people who decide whether the law will allow people with wombs control over those wombs or not, who decide whether the police can murder Black and Brown kids in the street and get away with it, who decide which religions can practice without fear, who decide whether to side with the people who think all autism spectrum children should be killed before birth? Yeah, let them vilify those people. They fucking deserve to be vilified. You can't oppress a people who are in power." 

The system restore kicked in and the laptop restarted without a hitch. 

Lifeline

  "I have backups, yeah. There shouldn’t be anything significant if at all possible." Sillas watched the computer played with back and forth, and knew it was likely not going to survive intactly in this state. Predictable? Yes. Annoying? Also yes.

Read More

[causticautist]

When the machine didn't respond, Sirrus closed the lid and then flipped it upside down. "You said you backed this up, right?" Despite appearances, he was listening avidly while he tinkered with the damned thing, though at this point it appeared that whatever had happened had bordered on a critical failure. He had a few more ideas up his sleeves though. 

"/Right/. I understand you. You choose the title "anti-social justice warrior" because you think your stance is completely correct. You believe that we shouldn't fight hate with hate and we should open all discourse to something... more friendly?" Sirrus licked his lips without looking up. "In fact, by taking these social justice warriors as people who see only marginalised views as valid, what you're doing is lumping a lot of different people together that don't deserve to be lumped together." 

"The wonderful thing about the internet, you see, is that most of what you say you'll never be held accountable for." The tall man glanced up at last, pouting for a second. "So, some of those S-J-W's are, of course, trolls. Others, the one's who say "I hate all men" or "I hate all cis people" or "I hate all white people"? Those people are just venting. Like the way we say "fuck people, I hate people" when we're mad or there is a crowd or two many people are in the queue for overpriced coffee that isn't even fairtrade when we just want to get to class, you know?" 

Sirrus flicked the two buttons on the back of the laptop that released the battery. The ultimate off and on. Remove and reinsert. "So by claiming you're an anti-SJW, what you're actually doing - despite the best intentions and not wanting to clam up the discourse with hate speech - is undermining the everyday experiences and venting opportunities of people who suffer prejudice. And even if you're /careful/ and don't attack those people, what you're doing is then attacking teenagers who are still learning how to categorise their growing awareness of just how fucking shit the world is. As refreshing as your outlook on gender and sexuality and equality is, I just think that is a fucking terrible thing to do and regardless of how careful you are, if you write anti-sjw stuff, you've made at least one kid feel like their experiences of the world are entirely invalid." 

Lifeline

Sillas knew that he’d made the mistake of not just taking this directly to some hardware place. It would’ve been easier to try and replace it, or get it to somewhere not just the school tech office. He was sure that the other boy really was trying to help, but he’d arrived at the wrong time to get the…”professional” who apparently worked there.

Read More

[causticautist]

Well this just got awkward again. Sirrus couldn't do much but try to turn the hunk of technology on - if it was a hardware over software problem he wouldn't be a whole lot of use, he mostly dealt with programmes and code, not actual devices. If the parts were available, he could fix the damned thing, but not without the parts. He had to get it started. 

Looking over it, he frowned, holding the start button down and hoping that something. anything happened. "/Anti/-social justice? How can you be anti-social justice? You don't believe in equality or nonbinary genders? You think these people are all -- what is the word -- transtrenders making it up? Or do you just thing that the people who vie for equality between races and genders are full of shit?" 

There was a brief pause as the boy stared behind Sillas' head. "Or did you mean that you advocate for social equality, but believe that sometimes the internet can take it too far? Either way, nothing is ever going to change, there is no way out of the hole our births dug us." 

Lifeline

"I used to have a mac, but my dad got me a PC after it was a few years old, and I couldn’t really complain." He winced slightly at the bash at Apple technology, it’d been his cornerstone when he was younger, but had had to move on for monetary and…well like he’d said, his dad refused to buy him anything but PCs. "Didn’t turn on at all once it stopped working."

He set down the laptop quickly onto the desk, not wanting to linger and get second thoughts. Damn, the more he thought about it, the more he was dependent on a little metal box. Great way to go about things, Sillas. “I’m not expecting you to be perfect, but if you can do something or figure out what it is, then maybe I could take it to someone else if you can’t. Thanks for at least trying.”

He was surprised at the question. Most people weren’t interested when he mentioned that he wrote, especially since he didn’t often share it without prompting. “Well, I do some anti-social justice stuff, and also just…whatever pops into my head. I write down dreams sometimes, since I’ve gotten the hang of remembering them. They seem a lot more interesting once you can actually think about them and aren’t just waiting for your coffee.”

[causticautist]

"Yeah, that's what I said." Sirrus scratched at the side of his own face, then licked over his lips. "Will it turn on at all or are you getting absolutely no response? It isn't a macbook is it? I'm hopeless with apple tech, can barely be called tech really." Finally, he looked back up at Sillas, inspecting the other closely as he waited for an answer. 

"I'm not worried whether you're legal or not, hell I'm not, more worried about what I'd see, but I can take your word for it. If it'll start up I can try and get in through recovery and see if I can find the problem, but there are no promises." Sirrus pulled the chair out from behind the desk, settling down in it and tapping the desk in front of him in a command to deposit the laptop there. 

"What kind of stuff do you write?" His voice was a little softer that time, the tone rising at the end in genuine interest. 

Lifeline

Sillas had no idea who was supposed to be in this office. He had never had to come down here before. He tried to be self-sufficient when it came to his technology, mostly because he didn’t trust it with anyone usually. This was a last resort, trying to make sure he’d still be able to use his precious computer. It was worse to have it not work than to give it to someone to fix. He could survive without it for a couple days, but not for an extended period of time.

"So what you’re saying is the guy who actually works here is gone, but he’s incompetent so it doesn’t matter either way?" He was slightly confused at the combination of statements, but was sure that he got the gist of it. "I’m pretty sure it’s not that I got a virus from a site or something, I’ve only gone on the same three sites the whole day. Even if it was, I care more about having a working computer than how it stopped working in the first place."

He could tell that this other guy had no actual interest in helping him. Which was perfectly fine in his mind. He’d get…someone to help. Even if it was reluctant. Which was likely what he was going to get in this tech office. “There’s nothing like porn or whatever, though I am legal. It’s mostly my writing and stuff, but I really want to keep ahold of all of it. I have a backup, but this computer is sort of…well it keeps me going most of the time.”

[causticautist]

Sirrus shrugged his shoulders and the corner of his lips flicked up into a smile. "No problem. What I'm here for, after all." Of course, he was getting several pissed off stares from people who had been working on those desks, but the fact his little brother was comfortable was infinitely more important to him than some nobodies in the library. 

"I was just thinking about you when you appeared actually... I haven't seen you in a while. How are things going?" There was something odd about such a soft, quiet tone from such a large person, but he was well aware that they were still in a library and he had made enough noise today. "You're getting on with your roommate and stuff, right?" Fussy older brother. 

Routine Can Be Boring

He gave a little nod, and couldn’t help but smile a tiny bit when he heard the scraping of wood on wood, immediately recognizing that Si had simply pushed the tables and chairs aside… classic Si. Why would he expect anything else? He nodded a tiny bit, making his way forward with much less issue now- he could just tap his way along without getting his cane caught on anything, and walk normally.

 ”Thanks.” he hummed, throwing his brother a look. 

[causticautist]

Well, this was awkward. Even by Sirrus' reckoning, someone genuinely mistaking him for actual tech support when he was definitely not supposed to be in their office was definitely awkward. The neutral expression his face usually held was broken by the slow, but steady rise of a single eyebrow. "This is the right place, but the technician isn't here right now and anyway he's incompetent as all fuck. The man doesn't know the basics of computers and frankly I'm perplexed by how he got this job at all. I was going to dive through the system for information, but I spent the majority of the afternoon cleaning viruses out of the basic OS. Honestly. I think he watches more illicit material on the internet than anyone I've ever met." 

He found himself blinking at this stranger after that, clearing his throat and running a hand through his braids. "Fuck, sorry. I really hope you're not in the same situation and haven't watched anything really weird, so your systems aren't rife with data loggers and trojan horses, because now that I've rambled about it, it would be pretty uncomfortable for everyone involved." 

Nervous ticks were starting up. For the next minute or so, all Sirrus did was meticulously straighten the bottom of his shirt until all the creases were out of it and when he looked up, the disinterested expression was back on his face, but he didn't make any eye contact this time. "Uhm, but I could take a look at your laptop if you like. If it is a software or OS problem I can fix it, if it is a part that needs replacing or an overheating problem then at least I can tell you that? I promise I won't be too judgemental if there is anything weird on there." 

Lifeline

The eeriness of the nearly empty office was unsettling. Sillas liked knowing why for things. Why was the office empty? Why did his computer break? Why did people feel the need to steal double dessert and not leave any for anyone else? All important why questions he’d never get the answer to.

He was only slightly intimidated by the fact that a young man, who managed to be more physically large than Sillas himself, was the one emerging from a corner hiding place. The slow rise from behind a desk gave a sense of climactic irony because with anyone not used to being around strangely sized and proportioned others.

The eighteen year old almost winced. He wasn’t sure how it was supposed to work here. Could he just walk into the tech office for tech support? That was how it was supposed to be…right? He’d probably gotten it all wrong, knowing his track record at the academy so far. “Is this the wrong place? I was looking for the tech support, so yeah I need something. I don’t know what’s wrong, but my laptop completely stopped working earlier today.”

Oh thank you lord in heaven for backup drives.

[causticautist]

Sirrus on the other hand was very, very much up to no good. It had taken him a little while to get used to the servers and coding they used here, but he had it now. Sat on the floor of the tech office, typing away on his laptop despite the presence of perfectly good desks, he was quite content. Honestly, the added bonus of the tech office was that it was almost always silent and empty. 

Except when it wasn't. His shoulders rose defensively and his fingers left the keyboard when he heard footsteps and then a voice tentatively asking for some form of attention. People were so inconsiderate, didn't they know he was busy? Hefting his laptop from it's natural place in his lap, he placed it on the floor, then slowly rose from behind the desks. 

At first, just the top half of his face peered out, trying to scope out the interloper. Braided hair and different coloured eyes stared at Sillas for a moment, before they narrowed and the rest of the tall, widely built boy stood up. Sirrus pointedly eyed him up and down - after all, this person was being a nuisance to him simply by existing right now. "What? You shouldn't be here." 

There was little reaction on his face, eyes half lidded seemingly in boredom and lips drawn into a tight line. His eyes did look to the side though as he seemed to realise he was being a bit rude. "Hello?" He cleared his throat. "Did you need something?" That was better.

Lifeline

Sillas was very, very, extremely nervous. His computer, for the first time since never, had had such a bad malfunction (he had no idea why, he could never hurt his precious technology) that it was unusable. He had requested someone to get it fixed, someone to make sure that he could actually continue to use his lifeline. His way of talking to the people he really cared about, outside of any of his academy friends, and his way of letting out his thoughts.

He was hoping that whoever had answered his call for some tech support knew what they were doing. Sillas was a pretty mellow person, but this was a special situation. He would not hesitate to have anyone who broke his computer pay him back for it. AKA buy him a new one, and probably a better one at that. As his only form of technology besides a flip phone — he didn’t bother with a smartphone, his computer was enough — he treasured it more than any other possession. Other than his mother’s locket, but that wasn’t actively used enough to have a risk of breakage.

Whoever was supposed to fix his computer was hidden in some remote corner of the tech office because he couldn’t see anyone at a first glance. “Uh, hello?” He was holding his computer, liberated from his bag, to his chest, peering around the room. Maybe he’d come at the wrong time. Or maybe they’d forgotten. He couldn’t blame them, not really.

[causticautist]

Sirrus was already shutting his laptop down while his brother spoke. It was quickly tucked away into his bag with the charger and mouse, before he stood up. He swallowed as he did, a little upset with himself because he knew his brother had caught on to his fuck up. "Come on then." 

Once the backpack was on both shoulders, he skirted around Sollux. Instead of moving or navigating his brother, he chose to take a more practical approach. Instead, the taller Captor opted to just shove the tables out of his little brother's way. He somehow felt that that was less patronising. "Just keep heading the way you were going." 

Routine Can Be Boring

"Yeah, I guess." he sighed, frowning to himself and biting on the corners of his lips, looking down. Okay, so he was a royal fucking disaster. He didn’t LIKE it. He WISHED he was coordinated enough to get through here on his own, but evidently not. Seriously, just… fuck himself. He quietly accepted the offer for help, scowling and flushed slightly. 

 ”Yeah, sure.” he mumbled, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. As if he didn’t know Si well enough to recognize his hasty cover-ups for when he realized he said something too frankly. Whatever, he’d live. 

[causticautist]

Once she was steady and out of the water, he bent down to retrieve his hoodie from the ground, picking it up and pulling it back on. "Well, let me at least walk you back." Sirrus had one eye on his blanket, he needed to retrieve it at some point. "There are more blind students here than I anticipated. It's good." After he said that, he wasn't quite sure how it came out and so cleared his throat. 

"Uhm, I just mean that my little brother was blinded a little while back, it's good he has other people who... Fuck." Rolling his eyes at himself, he tucked one of his braids behind his ear. Now he was making a fool of himself, being a little too brash in his words. His face fell back to its natural, neutral state. "Sometimes I say things without thinking, I'm sorry. My name's Sirrus though, what's yours?" That was a good start, right? Introductions were always good starts. 

Blind Girl + Lake=Bad Idea

"Well, my guide dog’s been feeling a bit under the weather lately," she replied as she grabbed onto his hand. She probably looked ridiculous at that moment, soaked from the stomach down in water. That didn’t really matter to her, counting she couldn’t see what she looked like anyway.

She stood up, steadying herself before making her way out of the water. “It’s not all chilly out here, and besides the dorms aren’t that far away,” she replied, stepping onto dry ground. “I considered the lake I just lost track of how close it was,” she replied, her cheeks faintly turning color. She hadn’t planned on making a fool of herself today, but life had it’s ways of throwing obstacle in front of this blind girl.

[causticautist]

Sirrus was silent for a minute, mulling over the fact that she actually was blind before he took a step closer to the water, shrugging his hoodie off to ensure it stayed dry before stepping out on to one of the rocks, balancing carefully on it and reaching out a hand for hers. "Here. Don't you have a  guide dog or something?" He took her hand to help her up. 

Fortunately, the rather imposingly built boy knew his own strength, so was careful when he did, not pulling too fast on her hand to try and help her up. "I have a blanket with me if you're cold, but we should get you back to a dorm before you freeze to death." Right now, his expression was reading mild disgust, mostly because his hand was wet and he hadn't factored that into his day, wrinkling his nose as he thought on it. "I don't understand why you didn't consider the lake might be rude enough to get in your way." 

Blind Girl + Lake=Bad Idea

Marita huffed a bit in frustration. “No I didn’t see the water, I haven’t done a whole lot of seeing in quite sometime,” she spat a bit harshly. Her bad mood was being taken out on him. She realized this a frowned slightly

"Shit, sorry," she mumbled as she attempted to stand up. She lost her holding on a rock, slipping into the water once more. "Would you mind helping the soaked blind girl out?" she asked as she turned around to face the direction the voice had came from.

[causticautist]

It had come about that somehow, Sirrus had found himself sat under a tree by the lake in school grounds. He wasn't overly fond of being outside, bugs weren't something he was fond of and honestly people weren't that great either, but it was a pleasant enough day and his eyes were stinging from sitting at his computer screen. So, he'd figured spending a little time outside wouldn't hurt. 

Sat on a blanket that he'd brought out specifically to avoid the bug problem, he still found himself plucking errant ants off it and placing them safely back into the grass. However, he did look up in time to see a young woman just straight up walk into the lake. 

Sirrus' nose wrinkled for a moment and he made no move to aid her as he watched her fall backwards into the water, but he didn't laugh either. Only after a moment of listening to her string of what he assumed were curses did he stand up, walking to the lake's edge and clearing his throat to announce his presence. 

Still, diplomacy had never been his strong point. "Why the fuck did you just walk into the water?" Great. Good job, Captor. "Didn't you see it?" 

Blind Girl + Lake=Bad Idea

Marita decided that she was going to go on a walk along the shore of the lake. What made her think that was a good idea? She was by herself, leaving Pyral in the dorms in an effort to get a few moments of complete silence. 

The blind girl got caught up in her thoughts, not exactly paying attention to the path ahead of her. It veered off to the left to avoid going into the lake itself but Marita walked straight. She didn’t notice that she had walked into the water until she was nearly knee deep in it. 

"¡Maldición! Soy una idiota,” she muttered under her breath as she backed out of the water. She tripped over a large rock, falling backwards into the water. A string of Spanish curse words flowed out of her mouth. 

[causticautist]

Sirrus was just as surprised to see him. It was nice though, considering he'd just been thinking about the other Captors. He watched Sollux for a moment, before humming, glancing down the aisle of inconsiderately narrow tables and chairs. Considering the school catered to many young people with disabilities, it was somewhat ignorant of them. "Would you like some help getting through them? You're stirring up quite the fuss and it might easier and better for yourself and everyone else."  After he'd spoken, he sort of realised how cold that sounded. Clearing his throat, he smiled his awkward, half-cocked smile despite the fact his baby brother couldn't see it. "I know you're more than capable of getting through things by yourself, but if you knock a laptop over and someone yells at you, I will have to hit them. It risks getting messy. It really is more for my benefit than yours." 

That much was at least true. Plus, he felt the need to talk to him, just for the familiar company and comfort if nothing else, despite one part of his brain screaming in terror at the thought of breaking routine.

Routine can be boring

He seemed surprised, at first, to hear his brother’s voice. It took him a second to process it, to place the sound with the right name, even though it was easily one of the ones he was most familiar with. He just hadn’t expected Sirrus to be around here- he wasn’t expecting him, and it caused a slight delay in his processing.

 ”Oh. Yeah. I’m fine.” he mumbled, biting his lip, slightly frustrated and embarrassed with himself for nearly knocking over his older brother’s laptop. He was surprised he wasn’t fucking pissed. If he were anyone else, he’d probably be getting screamed at right now, if not punched, for even touching it at all. 

 ”The tables are just too fucking close together.” he explained lamely. Even to him it sounded like a stupid reason… but it wasn’t like he could help it. It was harder to shimmy his way past when he couldn’t see, didn’t know what stacks of books or papers or laptop to avoid as he tried to make his way past and over to the section where what he was searching for was hopefully at… 

[causticautist]

The elder brother's focus had been entirely on the problem before him, insofar that he utterly failed to notice his younger brother bumbling his way through the clustered library. His screen jolted once or twice and while it annoyed him, he tried not to show it too much on his face. Whoever was causing the disruption was getting closer to him, but he didn't quite realise how close until his hands shot out to grab his laptop, steadying it so it didn't fall as Sollux almost bumped it off the table. 

The mood he was in had been amiable. Now it was definitely not. Someone had not only disturbed him, but had almost destroyed his baby on top of everything else. Sirrus found himself prepared to unleash hell on whoever had bumped against him, turning around sharply and reaching out towards the inconsiderate fool. 

When he saw a familiar face however, with eyes that he knew didn't see him despite appearances, he softened instead. Sirrus' hand moved back to hold the back of his own chair and in the softest voice he could manage - a sort of low grumbling noise - he spoke, not wanting to startle the younger Captor. "Sollux? Everything alright?" 

Routine can be boring

Usually, Sollux would not break his own routine to go out of his way to go seek out his brother. He had his own routines to keep to, his own hoops to jump through, his own compulsions to tend to. Perhaps not nearly to the extent that Si did, but…

 Besides, he didn’t as much seek Si out as much as he ran into him. He just wanted to go to the library to try to get some audio books for English class… that was all. 

 He obviously didn’t see his brother… he was just trying to walk past the tables, shimmy his way past them- they were all pressed way too close together, and the fact that it was a struggle to get by was stupid.

 The fact that he almost knocked his brother’s laptop off the table was even stupider, and he didn’t even realize it right off the bat.