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alpaca-clouds · 3 months

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The DnD Lore Problem - Accessibility and Characters (and how BG3 might not help)

You know what? I am gonna talk about DnD Lore and the accessibility of that lore. I talked about this exessively before. But to summarize that long blog very shortly:

Wizards of the Coasts currently makes the mistake of putting basically most DnD Lore behind a paywall, rather than offering official ressources. This leads to a lot of tables actually playing with their original worlds, rather than Toril/Faerûn, which in turn also means, that they are not spending money on official products. While my anti-capitalist ass things that the lore should be accessible just so that people can enjoy it, I also think that this inaccessibility actually costs WotC A LOT OF MONEY.

Today I want to talk about another aspect of this inaccessibility, that is kinda linked to some of the stuff I talked about before, but also is linked to the things WotC is currently not doing in terms of both Honor Among Thieves and Baldur's Gate 3. A thing, that also might not quite work with BG3, though.

See, the core problem of this inaccessibility is, that a) there is no official place where you can just get base information about the world and the timeline, b) this world has grown organically for about half a century, which lead to clutter, but also to the fact that things are at times showing their age.

I might actually make a post on the gods and religion in the world at some other point - but for now let me talk about something else: Extended universes and access points.

The Problem with Extended Universes

Okay, let's talk about how a lot of the big franchises for the longest time have told their meta stories - including DnD - and how it kinda struggles to find its audience. The extended universe.

I am frankly not entirely sure what franchise has started this. I am assuming it was Star Trek? But that is just a guess. But at some point in the 60s oder 70s someone had the idea that: "Hey, we could totally give the fans more to chew on by making official tie-in comics and novels!"

And that was how it worked for very long. Like a lot of the big franchises had at times around 10 novels and comics (if not more) releasing per year that would just explore other parts of the universe and allow the very engaged fans to... well, learn more about the world. Now, I am not going to talk about all the drama connected to the Star Wars stuff, but if you know, you know.

DnD did this too. (As did a lot of the big TTRPG systems, like Shadowrun and WoD as well.) Having a lot of tie in stuff - in the case of DnD mostly novels - that told more stories on the world and also established like some big player characters within the world. Elminster Aumar is probably one of the best examples here.

Those established some characters that play a big role within the world and also told just more stories of those big world changing events. In the recent DnD history that would be stuff like the Time of Troubles, the Spellplague and the Second Sundering.

Now, here we have one big issue. And one issue where I am not entirely certain where it arose from. But the fact is: In recent years, people invest way less into those kind of books. This is just a fact.

It is the reason why those big universes went from publishing like ten novels a year to often not more than three. We saw that in the failure of the extended Universe Disney tried to pull off for Pirates of the Caribbean (though I will still maintain that another big problem was that they barely marketed that at all - hi, everyone, who did not know there were extended universe novels for PotC). We also saw that with League of Legends, who really, really tried to tell a lot more stories with short stories and then also some novels set in Runeterra, before finally giving up, because most people didn't care.

In terms of Dungeons & Dragons I can totally see that a lot of people will also say: "I do not care what some other people's characters do within the world." Buuuuuut...

Stories actually can help you understand the world. Which brings me to...

The Elminster Problem

Okay, I do not know how to put this, but... If you look at the novels coming out for DnD literally half of them focus on either Elminster Aumar or Drizzt Do'Urden. Characters that have pretty much been around since the very beginning and. Look, I don't know how to put it but... It shows.

I am currently reading some of the newer novels and the fact is, that they do not really feel like fantasy books from the 2010s and 2020s. Because Elminster and Drizzt are very clearly characters originating in a very different time when stories were told very differently.

I mean, just look at Elminster. He is a wanna-be Gandalf character. He is from the early, early days of fantasy and... Look, I personally just really am unable to identify with a character like this.

And while Drizzt is a bit better as a character, but even he... How to put this delicately? They are both very much characters written by white cishet men for white cishet men. There, I said it.

I am noticing this a lot with reading Salvatore's books currently. Like, female characters are not overly sexualized, which is a plus. But they also very much exist most of the time in service to a man or at least in relation to a man. There is not a lot of female characters running around that have their own agency.

Which kinda leads to another thing. I actually saw this one brought up by one of those very cliché nerdy Youtube channels talking on DnD, who recognized the problem as well: There are basically two large groups of DnD players who barely intersect. One is the cliché nerds, the other is a largely queer and largely diverse group. And the youtube guy, who was very in the white cishet nerd group, suspected that actually the later group makes up more of the player base by now.

Buuuut... that is also the group who really do not get catered to by the canon lore so far. That was until 2023 with DnD:HAT and BG3 - both catering actually a lot to those groups.

Honor Among Thieves and the undermarketed books

Okay, here is the thing: Honor Among Thieves had two novelizations (one for young readers, one for older readers) and two tie-in novels. One featuring Edgin, Holga, Forge and Simon before the stuff with Sofina went down. And the other featuring Simon and Doric taking place at the time while Ed and Holga are in prison.

I am honest: I really, really liked the Ed and Holga novel. It was super cute and charming and really gives a better understanding of the characters.

But of course once again there is the thing: The books - just like the Pirates of the Caribbean books - were super undermarketed. Like, most people I know off do not even know that there were books released. Heck, even within the actual active fandom there are again and again people who will be surprised that those books exist.

And... I actually also think that the books waste one big ass opportunity, by not at all tying into the broader lore. They are super self-contained.

And that is actually just a waste. Because the place were Edgin lived in? Yeah, that place was super affected by the Second Sundering. Heck, that might have had to do something with his troubles.

Why is that an issue? Well, because... there was not a lot going on there that was inviting you to further interact with the world and learn more abotu what is happening. For once, again, because I think it is a super fun and interesting world. But also, because... WotC wants to make money and is so bad at it, that it really boggles my mind.

See, here is the thing: They could've used those characters - that really are fun and sympathetic characters - to create an accesspoint into that world.

Alright, so what about Baldur's Gate 3?

Which brings me to Baldur's Gate 3 and the thing that a lot of people have noticed: The other Baldur's Gate games - as well as some of the other games releasing around 2000 - had their own tie-in novels going into the characters, their background, but also what they were doing in the future.

Something that so far BG3 has not done, which some fans have already critized. Because a lot of people have actually gotten really invested into those characters. A lot of the kind of people especially who so far are underserved by a lot of the tie-in stuff: Queer and generally diverse audiences.

Like, I think there would be a lot of people, who totally would read a novel, about...

Astarion getting drawn into some sort of political intrigue in Baldur's Gate while serving Cazador

Karlach's time in Avernus

Some Adventure Wyll got dragged into while being the Blade of the Frontier.

Shadowheart going onto a mission for Shar (maybe together with Nocturne)

Whatever Gale was doing during the Second Sundering

Lae'zel's youth among the Githyanki

The Dark Urge and Gortash starting up the entire conspiracy

... whatever Halsin had been up to in his long live

Heck, people would eat that stuff up. And you could not only use it to worldbuild but also once more create some access into the world and what happened there. And they are kinda wasting a lot of potential by not bringing out those novels.

Of course, there is one big problem: BG3 makes it kinda hard to write about anything happening after the ending. Because as it is right now, someone is gonna be pissed if a novel set after the game does not go with the decision for a character they go for. Like, Ascended Astarion fans are gonna be pissed, if they go with Spawn Astarion - and the other way around. Same goes with every other character where you have those big decisions happening.

This is something they will have to tackle eventually if they plan on doing something with the characters in the future (no matter if we are talking Larian or WotC), but it is definitely an issue that just arises from the structure of the game.

Bonus of course is, that you just cannot define a canonical Tav. But without a Tav, you also gotta act as if the story of the game happened without a Tav, which still is not ideal. I am honestly not sure with how they are gonna deal with this on the long run.

Access via Characters

Alright, but what is the actual issue here?

Well, basically there are two hurdles to overcome for the accessibility of the lore. The first is the physical accessibility - aka, what I talked about in the last long blog post. The second meanwhile is more related to making the lore engaging. And that happens through characters.

It is for me what happened last year. I actually tried to engage with the lore as the movie came out - but only when BG3, that tied a lot more into the actual lore was released I actually found proper access to the lore. Because I had concrete things I could now look for because the game hinted at so much both through characters and major story events happening.

Here is the thing: If you just have the lore on its own, it is about as engaging as reading a history book. Sure, as your local history nerd I find reading history books fun, but most people really do not want to read a history book to engage with a hobby.

People will however engage with stories and characters that interest them. Which is where we get back to the thing I talked about at the beginning: Right now most canonical novels and stories still cater to an audience that is male, cishet, white and also, let's be frank, definitely over 30 years old. Leaving behind a lot of potential fans that theoretically make up a big part of the player-base, but actually do not engage a lot with the lore for this exact reason.

Look. DnD right now is fairly close to being an actual mainstream hobby, due to the recent proliferation of formerly nerdy stuff. And yet WotC is bleeding money, especially in regards of DnD.

If you ask me, sure... DnD should go into public domain. But it doesn't. And given that there are so many creative, skilled people working on this - no matter how dumb Hasbro is and how shitty of an employer they are - I actually do want them to succeed. I have really become engaged with this world now. And I think it is a pity that they clearly do not know how to market this stuff.

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funnyfooddatabase · 6 months

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Blue-Eyes White Dragon Cereal

Food

Type of Funny Food: Tie-In Product

Introduced: 2019

Location: FYE

A tie-in Yu-Gi-Oh cereal themed after the infamous Blue-Eyes White Dragon card, Blue-Eyes White Dragon Berry Blast cereal was released by entertainment retailer FYE in 2019. Aside from the packaging and licensing, the cereal wasn’t incredibly themed.

#food #funny food #store #ygo #yu gi oh #yugioh #tv #anime #tie in

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vintageadsmakemehappy · 1 year

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1973 Hefty Trash Bag advertising with Disney’s Mary Poppins tie in

#1973 #hefty #trash bag #Disney #mary poppins #tie in #vintageadsmakemehappy #vintage magazine #vintage advertising #magazine #advertising #70s #1970s

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arconinternet · 21 days

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Imaginext: Fortress of the Dragon (Video, 2003)

You can watch this toy tie-in video here.

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thriftrescue · 2 months

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Recencrly found Coca Cola SPICED a Raspberry!! WoOOOO!

this COULD have been a DUNE Part 2 tie in!!!!’ 😬

#off topic #flavors #seasonal flavors #coke #coca cola #raspberry #spiced #spicy stuff #soda #pop #soda pop #weird flavors #soda flavors #dune part two #dune part 2 #tie in

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prttygrlzatanna333 · 2 years

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zatanna in young justice invasion players

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theoperativeif · 2 years

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The Girl and the Kingpin

The Girl and the Kingpin (Part One)

Content warning for references to abuse.

This story is a tie in to a side plot in “The Operative” set before the main series. It contains possibly disturbing content and references to abuse. It is not vital reading so feel free to skip if that will be triggering content for you.

The food processors clattered as they sorted through the leftover scraps, long gone was their clean hum when Jed has first purchased them. He wondered if Maisie would mind if he tossed the damn thing out. He slapped the metal sides, it seemed to groan before quieting down a little.

"See it just needed some love darling." Maisie's voice sprung up from behind him.

Jed grumbled, getting to his feet and turning around. "It's not that expensive to replace if we just-"

"No, we are saving up for another waiter." She said, crossing her arms. She was dressed in an exotic red silk dress, ruby earrings seemed to flutter amongst the light. Despite both of them getting up there in years she still could quiet a room with her beauty.

Jed shrugged, smiling. "As you wish."

She walked by him, planting a light kiss on his cheek before walking into the kitchen, calling back over her shoulder with a teasing smile. "Remember to toss out the trash!"

As if on queue Binny the bin bot rolled over to him, chirping happily as it slowly rolled, weighed down after collecting from the various receptacles. Jed gently patted it on its tiny head before gesturing for it to follow him, for all the fancy things they gave robots they couldn't teach this one to open its own damned doors.

He passed by Griff the bouncer who chuckled to himself while enjoying a drink alone at the bar.

Unlocking and opening the double doors Jed peaked his head out, looking down one way of the back alley and then the other way. All clear.

Stepping out he watched as the bot slowly rolled to the giant trash bin, opening the top before extending itself nearly ten feet before overturning and slowly dumping out the multitude of bags stored inside. It froze, its tiny head swiveling to look inside the bin.

"What's up Binny?" Jed asked, raising an eyebrow. "Another addict sleeping in my bin?"

Binny slowly moved, dumping the trash out beside the bin before gesturing up at the bin with tiny outstretched arms.

Jed slowly walked up, peeking inside he froze. Inside, covered in various pieces of trash was a small form. A child, staring up at him with hauntingly empty silver eyes.

"It's okay," Jed started, slowly reaching down and pulling some of the trash away, that when he saw the blood, "I won't hurt you."

Maisie and Griff's eyes widened as Jed walked through the doorway, carrying the girl in his arms, she was a skinny thing, and her eyes darted around with fear.

"She was in the bin, she's hurt."

"Quick, get her to room two.' Maisie said, quickly leading the way while Griff moved behind the bar, grabbing up small morsels of food and a bottle of vodka.

They brought her into room two, which was one of the more fancy suites for their ladies of the night, happily today it was empty and just cleaned. Setting the girl down on a large towel his wife had placed atop the bed Jed stepped back, allowing Maisie to look her over. The girl didn't protest, staring past Maisie and towards the door.

Griff slowly made his way in, a pack of crackers and a bottle of water in his hands, the vodka bottle snuggly fit into his pocket. He silently offered the water and crackers to the girl who shrunk back, shaking her head.

"Sip it in front of her Griff," Maisie said calmly, peeling back some of her clothes, revealing cuts and bite marks.

Griff sipped the water before offering it again, the girl reached out and grabbed it, taking greedy gulps before biting into a cracker.

"We will take her to the hospital up the street, they should have some contacts with one of the local orphanages to take her in."

The girl's eyes widened as she shook her head, shrinking back into the bed as if some force would come and take her.

Maisie began wiping the girl off with a sponge, she wiped her neck and upper chest, brown and red blood coming off in large swaths. Maisie froze, her body going tense before standing up, and taking a step back.

"Jed, look..." She trailed off, pointing at the deep scars on her chest.

Three circles intertwining were carved into flesh, with a single deeper X laid out next to them. They all knew what it meant, this girl shouldn't even be alive, he would never leave one alive. Maisie tense, fists clenching as she turned.

"We can't take her anywhere, the Heartbreaker's have ears everywhere, she will stay here for now." Maisie said, gesturing to Griff. "Griff grab your guns and lock the doors."

"Oh fuck." Griff said, quickly turning and leaving the room.

Jed clenched his fist, he knew what it meant, she was personally marked by the monster that held the entire district in his hands.

Avarice, the hedonist kingpin, and he would come for his property.

#writing #the operative #The Girl and the Kingpin #The Rise of Roads #Just the beginning #short story #short fiction #abuse cw #Tie in

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smackdownhotel · 1 year

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King of Fighters soda cans have been spotted!

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mebssann · 7 months

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local old man finally gets new clothes

#this was inspired by that one AT comic where Ice King goes out and shops for new clothes with pb and marcy it was soo cute #but fr let this man wear something other than a suit and tie #adventure time #fionna and cake #simon petrikov #marceline abadeer #princess bubblegum #fanart #digital art #my art

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ifartconfetti · 2 months

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Hello neurodivergent people. I was wondering if I'm just weird or it is common to not being able to learn certain motoric skills at the same time as my peers and learned them MUCH later

#poll #a friend of mine only learned to ride her bike in her 20s #i didnt manage to snap my fingers until i was like 18 #i still cant reliably whistle or swim #i was a latebloomer with almost everything that involves having to copy someones physical movement #pretty sure i was the last one to learn to tie my shoes in kindergarten #oops i forgot the option for 'nope' sorry lmao

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funnyfooddatabase · 4 months

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Kellogg's Star Trek 2009 Cereal

Food

Type of Funny Food: Tie-In Product

Introduced: 2009

Location: Supermarkets

To promote the first in the Star Trek reboot series starring Chris Pine, Kellogg's created a special, out-of-this-world cereal.

The cereal included swirled cereal pieces and yellow, pink, and blue marshmallow bits.

Images courtesy of Rainbow Comics Cards & Collectibles on eBay.

#funny food #food #tie in #star trek #movie #film #supermarket

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desolationlesbian · 1 year

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The butch lesbian/trans man "funky printed button down" stereotype is true but you must understand that the men's section of so many clothing stores is a bleak and miserable place. Clothing manufacturers are simply convinced that no one who wears men's clothes wants anything besides the most boring outfits possible. Often stripes are the most exciting it gets. If you want to wear clothing designed for men but happen to like "color" and "joy" in your life then often the funky printed button down or the hawaiian shirt are simply your only options, especially off the clearance rack.

#i want bright colors and floral prints soooo bad but they're all so expensive #or harder to find #THAT SAID: i found a purple bow tie at the thrift store and I am eagerly awaiting an occasion for it :)

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arconinternet · 1 year

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Madballs: Escape from Orb and Gross Jokes (Videos, 1986/1987)

Based on the toys. You can watch them here.

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jmswallow · 3 months

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"Change one thing… Change everything."

Here's a new blog marking 2 decades (!) since my first tie-in novel The Butterfly Effect…

#the butterfly effect #tie in #novelization

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bahoreal · 1 year

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#polls #poll #im so curious cos i tie my hair back so it doesnt get messy but if i tie it too tight i get headaches #im very intrigued to see if ive missed an option too lool

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kenananamin · 6 months

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Tie my tie, marry me

Summary: The moment Nanami knew he never wanted to tie his tie by himself ever again and wanted to spend the rest of his life by your side. fluffy, nanami x fem!reader, nanami already loves everything you do but something about tying his tie was so intimate and special to him

It had been a year since Nanami officially asked you to be his girlfriend, but you had just started staying over during the weekdays. If either of you would stay at each other's houses, it would only be during the weekends when you both knew the next day could be dedicated to each other. Only recently had that unspoken rule changed.

You had both gone to the mall to shop for your new professional wardrobe and Nanami asked if he could buy a few extra things for you to keep at his house. You both knew what that implied and told him he could buy it, only if you could buy some stuff for him to keep at your house. You had both never been happier to spend more time and money at a crowded mall.

Nanami woke up a bit later for work than usual because of a power outage that turned off his alarm clock and did not charge his phone. You went into work after he did so you make his coffee and pack his lunch while he took a quick shower. You run into the bathroom to let him know he had less than 15 more minutes.

He steps out of the shower and grabs his razor to shave. You reach for the hairdryer he bought for you to keep at his house and start to dry his hair as he quickly shaves. You run out and start to rummage through his closet to set his clothes on the bed. Nanami finishes shaving and follows you out to get dressed.

"Shirt first, hurry," you take the shirt off the hanger and throw it to him.

Nanami begins to button the shirt when you get in front of him and start pulling his collar up and putting his tie around his neck. He looks at you with a questioning look and you quickly explain, "My dad taught me how to tie a tie. Never thought it'd come in handy since I never knew anyone who regularly wore a tie before you." You laugh at the memory but continue what you were doing to avoid making your boyfriend late.

Nanami however... his fingers stop buttoning his shirt. He looks at you, concentration and rush covering your features, but your fingers gently grazed his skin as you looped his tie. She's the first person to ever tie it for me, Nanami thinks. He had to learn how to do it from a video and was later corrected by some older male coworkers who showed him with their own ties.

The events of that morning finally dawn on him. You jumped out of bed right after you felt him jump out and started rushing around the apartment with him. He hadn't even mentioned that he was late, but you opened your eyes and knew what to do. He could smell the coffee from the room and heard the clanking of the leftover containers being opened and slid across counters from the shower. You dried his hair knowing that his route to work was not long enough to let it dry itself, and you took out exactly what he would have worn that day while he shaved. And now... there you stood before him, helping him tie his tie so his hands could do other things.

It seemed so... small. It was so small, so truly insignificant in the scale of life, something that could not hold weight in the world or change anything in the universe. But it changed his life, it was his favorite view in the world, and it would become his universe.

You look up at him and see him staring... and his hands not moving?! You move his hands away from the buttons and rush to finish buttoning it down. He takes your face in his hands and leans down to kiss you slowly. So very slow and soft. It stops you completely and you wrap your arms around his waist, relishing in the smell of his aftershave and body wash. Nanami deepens the kiss and moves an arm around your waist to pull you in closer. As much as you love when he pulls you in, the movement pulls you out of the kiss trance.

"Oh my god, Kento, hurry!! You're late, you're late!"

You step back and shove his pants into his arms. You tell him to hurry and that you'd grab his shoes to put by the door. You start yelling across the apartment that it would rain the entire afternoon and he needed to take the umbrella.

Nanami listens as you rustle through the closet looking for the umbrella and the light thud of what might have been his lunch bag and coffee thermal on the entryway table. He walks out the room putting on his suit jacket and sees you lightly jumping while telling him to hurry with his shoes.

Nanami leans down to tie his shoes but pauses after he's done. He goes to touch your bare leg since you hadn't even gotten dressed after waking up. You only wore his large shirt and underwear. He kneels and carefully lifts one leg to kiss your knee. He looks up from his kneeling position and says, "Thank you for helping. You really didn't have to."

His loving eyes close slightly while you lean down to give him one kiss as your response. "You're late," you whisper against his lips.

Nanami stands and takes his things while waving bye to you and your bed head. He heads out the door and begins a light jog to catch his regular train.

Yeap, she's the one, Nanami thinks.

Nanami spent his lunch break at the jewelry shop looking at rings that would look beautiful on your finger. There were so many engagement rings that would look gorgeous on you, but one caught his eye as he imagined that ring slightly moving on your finger as you tied his tie.

"I like that one. Do you have a size (your ring size) in stock?"

Nanami buys the ring at that moment and texts you to ask if he could come over to your house after work. He does not plan to propose on a regular Tuesday evening with no special plans, but he wants to hug you, smell your lovely perfume, take you some flowers, and give you a special thanks for helping him. And maybe, maaaayybe (most likely), stay over at your house to help him with his tie again the next morning.

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