04-02-13 So glad we had this talk

[Spidrift]

Who knows? The sound is going in her ears, but her conscious mind isn't processing the data. Some of it may go into storage for later access, but probably not all of it.

(This isn't really a realistic thing, so the answer is "whatever helps the plot". The nearest analogy is being zoned out, when I don't find that much I hear sticks. She'd probably hear and snap out of the state if someone yelled loudly at her, though.)

[sukebe senpai]

So, it's in through one ear, out the other. Someone reboot her, please.

[Don Alexander]

Of course, now I've predicted that, repeatedly, Andy will barely get a peck on the cheek before Ruby dives through the door. Possibly without opening it first.

I actually still have my strong doubts that Ruby wants this kiss in any form or fashion. to me, it feels more like she is brainshorting from total dread at having to go through this horror AGAIN, and while BEING CONSCIOUS.

But then, Spi tends to see the best in Ruby, while I tend to see the worst. ;)

[Spidrift]

My point would be more (a) Ruby is perfectly capable of saying "No. Shan't" to things she doesn't want, and I don't think that she'd accept that she was under social obligation to give anyone a goodnight kiss if she didn't want to, and (b) We know very well that she does have a working libido, however hard she's repressed it, because she keeps getting distracted by the yaoi. So I think she'll go through with that kiss, even if she ties herself up in verbal knots explaining her feelings about it before and after. Nor did her first reaction look like horror to me. Confusion, yes, but not disgust.

For that matter, when she thought she'd been kissed before, she seemed annoyed that she didn't know whether she'd enjoyed it or not, rather than just disgusted that it had happened. And when Amber told her that there was more to kissing than that, she asked what - and Ruby doesn't like letting her guard down in front of Amber.

So she's confused, but I reckon that wanting to try a kiss is a big part of that. If she was simply disgusted at the idea, she wouldn't be blue-screening, she'd just be looking for the door.

[Geeno]

Ruby is really two halves right now. One half is excited by this sexy stuff, the other half completely disapproves of that half. It's as if part of her wants to explore normal sexuality, but the other part of her feels that that would make her "no better than Amber". In a way, she can't concede that sexuality is important to her, because then she has to concede, in her mind, that Amber is better at something important than she is. She doesn't realize that sexuality is individual - Amber can't be better at Ruby's sexuality than Ruby is. Ruby just has to figure her likes and dislikes out for herself. </stream of consciousness>

[Spidrift]

There may be a bit of that. We do have hints that Ruby makes Amber feel stupid, and she probably played on that in the past.

Actually, this suggests a possible plot direction. Sooner or later, Ruby is going to admit to herself that she's interested in a romantic life - she's not stupid, her current denial is obviously fragile, and she's half-way there already. But, of course, she'll also realise that she hasn't got a clue how to handle this. So she may decide to grit her teeth and ask the only person available who she knows does know about love and sex from a female point of view - Amber.

Hopefully, Amber is too sensible to try and train Ruby in a full set of porn star behaviours (she got the hint about the dress options, after all). But we know from her conversations with Chanelle that she does still have a few weird assumptions that she's forgotten don't fit the normal world. I can see scope for comedy here; I would just hope that it wasn't built too much around humiliating Ruby. I identify with her too much to enjoy that.