Irhaboggle Pride (2022) Gaylor Swift's Version

King of My Heart, Dancing With Our Hands Tied, Dress

I was perfectly fine to live on my own. I made up my mind, I was better off being alone. We met a few years ago, now I try on calling you my friend like trying on clothes.

It was truly incredible how many curveballs life could throw at Dawn. She spent the first 16 years of her life without many close friends. Unlike what stereotypes in the media portrayed, she never had a female "bestie" with whom she had regular sleepovers, shared all her secrets with, or bought matching BBF jewelry for. But that was ok, she never minded. She also spent the first 16 years of life living happily and simply, normal and neurotypical. Then, at roughly 16 and a half, everything changed.

It was small at first, but as political tensions climbed, she fell down a rabbit hole on the intertwining history of sexuality and religion. Then the cold came, the dark days when fear crept into her mind. She finally understood, firsthand, the mental illnesses she used to think just meant being sad or worrying too much. If her desire for companionship was at 0 before, now it was negative. Those were curveballs, but more were coming.

She met Penelope. She got close to Penelope. She almost wanted Penelope to stay as a permanent fixture in her life. Then college happened and they drifted apart, as she knew they would. But that was ok, she never minded, even though the thought used to make her a little sad. But since she expected it to happen, she had time to emotionally steel herself. Then came more curveballs.

COVID. Discord. Nightly voice chats. Streaming anime and YouTube let's-plays. And all with Penelope, a girl Dawn used to think wouldn't mean much to her in the grand scheme of things, but had since become the most present figure in her life. Another curveball: all of this happened three and a half years after they first met! And speaking of "years after they met", it was funny to think they'd known each other since mid-2016, yet it still took Dawn until mid-2020 to even try calling Penelope her friend.

But, to be fair, she hadn't wanted to accidentally rush it, especially when everything about it was still so delicate. She didn't know how much time and bonding had to pass before normal people started considering one another friends. She spent so much time wondering if it was too soon to do this yet, then finally, she gave it a shot. She tried calling Penelope a friend like trying on new clothes. It was uncomfortable at first, weird and awkward, but she grew to feel like it fit just right, comfortable and fashionable. That was another curveball, in her opinion.

I've come to see, you're my favorite dream. Wouldn't you agree we make a real A-team? And we rule the kingdom inside our rooms. 'Cause all the world and its shining pearls, with its handsome guys and pretty girls, never took me quite where you do...

Even more curveballs, Dawn wasn't one for anime or let's-plays (not since her middle school Minecraft days, at least), but for some reason, when it was Penelope, Dawn supposed she could tolerate it. That girl managed to rope her into like five different shows and three different games, including the meme-level sensation of late 2020 that was known as Among Us.

"OH, HEY, IMPOSTER BUDDIES!" Even through the voice chat, Dawn could easily tell Penelope was hyped.

"I can't believe I let you rope me into this," Dawn grumbled, but she was smiling. Granted, she knew she would probably slip up while faking a task and get ejected immediately, but hey, this was what Penelope wanted to do tonight, so if Dawn died early, she was blaming Penelope.

VCs with Penelope were really the only time Dawn ever played Among Us. She tried before in other servers, with other people, but those games never took her quite where games with Penelope did. Even when she and Penelope together in those larger servers, with other people, Dawn would still spend more time focused on thinking about Penelope than the game.