While I appreciate the fact that Skyrim wants to make you feel like a master at everything you try to do, it always feels kind of lame when citizens say the above sentence to me as I walk away with all of their freshly lifted possessions.

Seems a bit weird.

I went to a friend’s place to play another game of Twilight Imperium, and as opposed to taking thirteen hours like it did last time, we cut our completion time to a blazing fast ten hours. Perhaps the trend will continue, however I believe it would operate more as a curve than as a line.

Anyways, we finished just after midnight and I began my trek home. Usually the subway is pretty empty at night, but considering it was a Saturday, things were bustling. In my particular compartment, there was a mother with a group of three kids: a teenage girl, a boy aged somewhere between nine and eleven, and another boy that was about six or seven.

The youngest boy started to climb the hand pole, which set the mother off. Despite the considerable volume of her screams, the kid did not dismount from the pole… that is until the older boy got up and punched him.

I took removed my headphones and put away my Rubik’s Cube, things were about to get interesting. My eyes darted to the mother, surely she’d have something to say about the punch.

“%$#@ YOU, YOU $%$!#* #(%%$# SIT DOWN OR I”LL #&$*!#)% $%[email protected]&*)(”

The above, I admit, is paraphrased. However, even after her profanity laden verbal explosion, the only thing she accomplished was garnering the attention of everyone on the train… her children began to fight.

It seemed like playful, “boys will be boys,” style fighting at first.

Then a kick to the stomach. Then a punch to the face. Then another punch to the face.

The older sister took it upon herself to grab the youngest child and have him sit in her lap while ordering the other boy to sit on the bench across from them, safely out of reach.

Good for her, I thought. It was nice to see her do the job her mother should have been doing.

As the train pulled into my station, however, the older boy ran from his seat, smacked the kid, and quickly sat down while simultaneously adopting an angelic face.

The doors closed behind me before I got to see what other “fun” skirmishes they’d have before their destination was reached.