Status Updates From Shades of Grey: The Road to...

The market for good "star-crossed lovers" gifs really sucks 🙁 this is not the heartbreaking but hilarious gif I was hoping for 😕😅

“Blast, blast, blast!”
“Hey,” she said, taking my hand, “perhaps it’s for the best. The Grand Plan’s still on, right?”
“How can it be for the best?” I asked. “You’re Green. We’re complementary. We can’t ever marry and we shouldn’t really talk to each other."

“You are horribly arrogant. This is because you think you’ve got a better nose than me, isn’t it?”
Jane turned to look at her.
“I don’t think I’ve got a better nose than you. I know I have a better nose than you. If the arbitrary division by which the Collective is split were set by nose quality rather than color vision, I’d be head prefect.”

“I think the answer is in loopholery. Small changes can be effected by a certain degree of circumvention. We’ll use the Rules to change the Rules.”
“Defiance through compliance?”
She nodded.
“I like the sound of that.”

Awww 🫠

"But, hey, I’ve come to a big decision: That’s the last time I try to kill you.”
“Promise?”
“Absolutely. In fact, I may actually try to save your life if the opportunity presents itself. And if I ever threaten you again, you have my permission to give me a good telling-off.” She smiled again. “You can call me by my name, too—and I promise not to thump you. Will you kiss me?”

Aww 🥹✨

“So what made you change your mind and follow us?”I asked as we negotiated our way around a boulder the size of a garden shed.
“You may have noticed I have a temper,” she said, “but when I calmed down, I realized that this world, blighted and imperfect as it is, would be better with you in it.”
“That’s quite a compliment.”
“Savor it,”she said. “I don’t give them out often.”

I didn’t know who it was. In fact, I didn’t know lots of things. But that would all change, come the following day. I would achieve enlightenment, and then, in celebration of this, Jane would have me eaten by a yateveo. But it wouldn’t be personal. It would be a precautionary.

“I’m supposed to be meeting Violet,” I murmured. “I’d better be off.”
“Glad you’re coming around to the idea,” he said. “She’s not half as bad as she appears.”
But instead of going to see Violet, which was what I’d implied, I went to hide in the broom closet, which was what I’d meant.
So that’s where I was when Violet was looking all over the village for me.

“Don’t sweat it, Red,” she said, doubtless reading the despondency in my face. “Few people see anything at all. Everything might look fine and dandy on the outside, but behind the closed door there’s a fire raging. Now, will you stop this from getting any worse?”

“Watch out for that one. The village will go all to Beige in a match pot when his mother retires. You and I are going to have to take care of him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Take him out,” she said, “you and me. Together. Now that would be a first date to remember.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, hoping she was pulling my leg, “I never do death on a first date.”
She laughed. Delightfully so, in fact.

I think this attempt at funny censure tragically backfired 😂

I should have just told her to get knotted, but up-color girls seemed to have a tongue-tying effect on me. Besides, Violet was probably not the sort of person to accept a “get knotted”answer to anything she had set her heart on.

"The Outer Fringes have a greater purpose than you credit them. They are a receptacle for those who have done nothing against the Rules but are deemed ‘potentially problematical. ’ When it comes to Harmony, it’s far better to be safe than sorry. Counting chairs in the Outer Fringes is Reboot with a small r.”