Molly's - Chapter 3 [Tankiverse Fanfic]

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

Molly’s - Chapter 3

Fanfic in the Tankiverse by Hippin_in_Hawaii

 
I came back the next day, Sunday, telling my parents at breakfast that I’d be home for dinner. I packed a pb&j and bicycled over. I was excited, and I couldn’t tell you why. All that had happened yesterday was that I’d swept pounds of dirt and tiny parts out of that place, then wandered around pawing through the piles of stuff. The woman never spoke a word to me; as far as I could tell, she never even looked at me again. When she started turning off lights, I took that as my cue to leave.
 
When I walked into the showroom, there was a mop and a bucket waiting by the door. I picked up the bucket and went back into the dismal hallway, looking for a source of water. Then I mopped.
 
Mopping, it turns out, is an excellent way to see just how bad you were at sweeping. Once I had the entire floor a uniform consistency of muddy, I emptied the bucket and resumed my browsing. The woman wasn’t in the showroom for most of the day. She’d step in for a minute or two to type on the computer or to shuffle through some papers, then she’d disappear again. I was alone in there for hours, and still somehow, by the time she started shutting off lights, I felt like I’d barely gotten started.
 
During the week, visiting Molly’s wasn’t possible. School was a fairly mandatory daily commitment. Don’t get me wrong, I was known to ditch on occasion, but somehow I felt that if I started ditching to run out to Molly’s, it would quickly become an obsession. Besides, I was a good student. Not a complete dork or anything, but I did well, and found the maths and sciences somewhat interesting.
 
Saturday morning came. Breakfast, pb&j, bike ride to Molly’s. Where the mop and bucket were waiting again. I was more diligent this time, changing the mop water when it got dirty (which was often), working systematically to make sure there weren’t gaps, even actually pressing down to get stubborn spots. I hadn’t finished the entire floor when she started turning off the lights. “Don’t worry, I’ll get it tomorrow!” I sang out as I rinsed the mop. She didn’t reply.
 
Sunday morning, I was in a bit of pain. My back and shoulders ached; my hands were blistered. Who knew cleaning floors was such hard work?
 
My parents began to press me about my activities. Having their child disappear weekends wasn’t new behavior, but somehow they smelled that this was different. They decided one of them should come with me to Check Things Out. You know, Stay Involved with my life. Show Interest. Sigh.
 
I loaded my bicycle in the trunk of Dad’s hatchback and off we went. I directed him around to the back gate, opened it for him to pass through, then climbed inside for the ride up to the building. Dad’s eyes were a little wide as he took in the surroundings. “How did you find this place?” he asked.
 
“TV,” I replied.
 
He balked a little at the smell in the hallway, but by now I knew where the light switch was, so we made it through without injuring ourselves and without Dad messing up his work clothes. Inside, the mop and bucket were waiting. She was behind the counter.
 
“Hello, um, ma’am,” I stuttered, realizing I didn’t actually know her name. “This is my dad. He wants to make sure that it’s OK I come over here.”
 
She lifted her gaze to him, then nodded with her head, inviting him to join her in the office behind the counter. She lifted the counter, held it while he walked through, then followed him into the office and shut the door, all without even acknowledging I was there.
 
I wandered around, looking at this and that, but I felt despondent. What if my dad decided I shouldn’t be here? What if she didn’t want me here? I kicked at the ground with my toe, and noticed I was standing in an area I hadn’t mopped yesterday. “Well,” I thought to myself, “at least I can finish this.” So I filled the bucket and went to work.
 
After a while it occurred to me that I probably should have heard something by now. I turned to look towards the office, and saw one of the most memorable things of my young life. My dad was standing there, frozen mid-stride, with his mouth hanging open. Literally. Actually hanging open. Like, catching flies open. When he saw me looking at him, he closed it with a pop, just like they do in comedies on TV! Behind him, the lady was silently chuckling.
 
Dad came walking up to me; she retreated to her office and closed the door.
 
“I’ll talk this over with your mother, and we’ll have a family chat if we need to. But today, you can stay, if you want to.”
 
I walked to the car with him to retrieve my bicycle, then went back to mopping. I could not stop grinning like an *****!


 

Mahalo (thank you) for reading; I hope you enjoyed! This story is part of a series. Information on the series, and links to the other stories, can be found here.

[LOLKILLERTOTHEDEATH 1,921]

Approved!

 

Wonderful as usual. After a great deal of scrutinizing, I could not find anything that was blatantly wrong. 

[thethiefofvictory 339]

Ah. Great as always! I'll be waiting!

 

Loved daddy's reaction to the mopping :lol:

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

So, I'm wondering at the asterisks. The word I used, I also used in the General Fred series once, and it got censored there, a fact I remembered the instant I saw the asterisks. But I'm wondering about the "why." It's a word that, at least in the US, isn't really even rude. I mean, sure, you can contextually make it rude, but the word itself isn't regarded as intrinsically foul. One could use the phrase that I used to end the story at a Sunday church lunch without raising any eyebrows. And I've certainly seen words that carry much stronger negative bias used in stories here and not be censored. Heck, I've used a few myself that escaped asterickification.

 

I wonder, is this one of those national cultural differences? I'd love to know why!

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Was it the synonym of fool or what?

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

Was it the synonym of fool or what?

Yes, a synonym for fool. Archaically, it was used in the medical profession to describe a person with mental ******ation who functioned at or below a 2-year-old level.

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Smiling like a nitwit would work, no?

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

Smiling like a nitwit would work, no?

Any number of synonyms would work just fine, as would simply shortening the sentence to "I could not stop grinning." 

 

I'm curious as to why this particular word merits redaction, though.

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

A female dog is given special recognition, too in the form of asterisks.

I guess there should be an option for mods to exempt some words from censorship.

Edited August 14, 2018 by P.4.R.K.O.U.R

[shafter9 156]

A female dog is given special recognition, too in the form of asterisks.

I guess there should be an option for mods to exempt some words from censorship.

It can't be that; the preceding word is "an," meaning the mystery word starts with a vowel.

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

It can't be that; the preceding word is "an," meaning the mystery word starts with a vowel.

He wasn't saying that I used the b-word. He was merely sharing that it, too, is subject to redaction, despite having legitimate use as non-profanity.

[Viking4s 10,791]

The asterisk is a new automated thing and the redacted word is nothing really. But with the asterisk if make it look it is something bad.

And no, mods cannot change this automated amendment, so your options are

- leave it redacted

- changed to a synonyms which is not redacted

- make a typo

- rewrite the sentence

A skiĺled writer like you should be able to overcome this little hurdle.

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

The asterisk is a new automated thing and the redacted word is nothing really. But with the asterisk if make it look it is something bad.

And no, mods cannot change this automated amendment, so your options are

- leave it redacted

- changed to a synonyms which is not redacted

- make a typo

- rewrite the sentence

A skiĺled writer like you should be able to overcome this little hurdle.

I'm not interested in overcoming anything, I just want to understand why such an innocent word is on the naughty list. 

[Viking4s 10,791]

I'm not interested in overcoming anything, I just want to understand why such an innocent word is on the naughty list.

I'm as clueless as you. Try [stupid].

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

So, I wrote to the company that makes the software which runs this forum, UserEcho. According to them, their software does not have any form of autocorrect. They suspect a plugin. So, we're back to the idea that someone HERE has set this up, and presumably, has control over the list of words.

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Illuminati propaganda.

Edited September 4, 2018 by P.4.R.K.O.U.R

[thethiefofvictory 339]

So, I wrote to the company that makes the software which runs this forum, UserEcho. According to them, their software does not have any form of autocorrect. They suspect a plugin. So, we're back to the idea that someone HERE has set this up, and presumably, has control over the list of words.

Must be the tanki devs then. Or the admins. Contact Nives maybe?

[CooperO 7,956]

I'm not interested in overcoming anything, I just want to understand why such an innocent word is on the naughty list.

It's a commonly used insult, which is why it was decided to add it to the censored list.

[Magenta 5,165]

 

Illuminati propaganda.

 

Please don't quote me out of context.

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Sorry, I just wanted to write what you said and give you the credits.

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

It's a commonly used insult, which is why it was decided to add it to the censored list.

Aha! Finally a response from someone in the know!

 

Would it be possible to get a list of the words on the proscribed list? I imagine many of them are self-evident, but clearly not all of them are. It's really rather frustrating to spend time working on an article, wait for it to get approved, only to see that redactions have taken place that could have been avoided. 

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Lol, I hope the list's not redacted itself.

[CooperO 7,956]

Aha! Finally a response from someone in the know!

 

Would it be possible to get a list of the words on the proscribed list?

 

That's not possible. Most of it is common sense indeed like you said. If you want to make sure your articles don't contain any censored words, simply check the preview of your post before publishing it.

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Even stupid is being considered as an insult while being used in a non-provoking manner.

[Person_Random 4,991]

Well, I'm unlucky, horrible, lonely, and stupid.