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bbugyu · 4 years

Note

hi! could i request a jeonghan enemies (or friends that bicker a lot) to lovers? ty and i love ur writing !!

i am so glad you requested this because i have had this in the works for so long that i had to throw it into a case converter because it had capitalization and i was Not gonna finish it if i had to type it proper (i'm a fucking gremlin ok)

thank u for reading my work and thank u for giving me the perfect excuse to be hopelessly in love with jeonghan!!!!

falling + yoon jeonghan

finally, he thought. someone on his level. what’s the catch?

part one | part two

wc.10009 (fuckin oops) | fluff, humor, uni/coffeeshop/enemies to lovers au, gender neutral reader, slow burn, drinking, like lk too much drinking, swearing, throwing it back to sistar, copious argumentive flirting, everyone is MEAN but like in a funny way, bff!mingyu, it's your resident mingyuzi shipper, the only person more of a little shit than jeonghan is y/n

i used to be a barista and i would get exceptionally hateful towards customers for really stupid reasons and the only thing that could stop it is if they were really hot. this seems to hold great jeonghan energy. also i made y/n, like, mean as hell. like not actually mean but like. Mean. sorry. also all bars mentioned are real bars on capital hill in seattle that i love so if you recognize them that’s why. enjoy this enemies to lovers courtship.

you were pretentious, jeonghan thought. you acted like you were better than everyone else, and he hated that he had yet to find a reason to call you wrong.

he saw you almost every day during the week, between the class you shared on tuesdays and thursdays, and the cafe he worked in that you frequented to study. your demeanor was always polite, but what most people would describe as cold. you had caught his attention the first day of the semester, something about you seemed familiar, but he couldn't place it until he made your coffee the next day. you usually sat in the row in front of him, a few seats over, and he would chew on his cheek and wonder how you could sit back in your chair, arms crossed and eyes hardly opened, but still get the highest essay scores in the class. at the end of lecture, after he was done spending all his brain power stewing about your ability to succeed in visual culture without really trying, he would text his friend that took the class last quarter and ask, panic stricken, if he still had his notes, the irony of the situation completely lost on him.

at the cafe, you would come in, order an americano, and sit yourself in a well lit corner to work on your classes for a few hours, the coffee mostly undisturbed on the table beside your favorite armchair, then leave. there was never a smile on your face, and you were always alone. jeonghan watched the ice in your americano melt, watering down the coffee he made. maybe he had let the shots of espresso sit too long before saving them. maybe he let them burn on purpose just to see the face you made. but alas, you hadn't even put the metal straw to your lips. he wondered why you even ordered a coffee if you weren’t going to reap the benefit.

joshua spotted him leaning against the counter as he came out of the kitchen and laughed, setting down the freshly washed milk pitchers. “ask them out.”

he stood up straight. “why?”

“why not? you clearly like them.”

“i really don’t,” jeonghan laughed. “you’re crazy for thinking i do.”

joshua rolled his eyes. “no one spends as much time as you do staring at another person if they don’t find them at least a little attractive. have you ever even talked to them? outside of taking their order?”

he hesitated. “no?”

“so what if they’re actually really wonderful and you have a lot in common?”

“as if.”

“wow,” joshua said, leaning against the counter. “i can’t believe yoon jeonghan is afraid to talk to his crush.”

jeonghan shoved his friend's shoulder, giving him a look. “absolutely not. i'm 99% sure they're a pretentious asshole.”

he crossed his arms. “what does that make you?”

“shut up.”

“whatever, han. i’m just saying it’s kind of pretentious to hate someone solely because they don’t smile wide enough for you when they’re saying thanks.”

“it’s not that hard!” jeonghan said, maybe a little too loud. “i don’t wanna smile either, shua! but i do it! so can they!!”

joshua laughed. “lower your voice and go say hi, you freak.”

much to his chagrin, jeonghan got shoved towards your spot in the cafe with the front of the tables needing to get wiped down. he looked at joshua and seokmin with a furrowed brow as he wrung the towel, both of them giving him thumbs ups with wide grins. begrudgingly, he slowly made his way over to you.

“hey,” jeonghan said, doing his best to project something other than the absolute turmoil going on inside his head. you looked up from your textbook, pulling the earbud out of your ear. “why don’t you drink the coffee?”

you furrowed your brow and looked at your untouched americano. “i- uh, what?”

“you never drink the coffee,” he repeated, nodding at the glass. “why do you get it anyways?”

you blinked up at him. “are you offended that i’m not drinking your coffee?”

he almost laughed at the look of disbelief you were giving him. “no, i just don’t get why you waste the money here if you don’t even need the caffeine.”

“it’s cheaper to buy an americano than it is to rent a stall at a study cafe,” you said, habitually hitting save on your notes document. “why are you so worried about me, yoon jeonghan?”

he faltered, surprised. “you know me?”

“nametag,” you didn't miss a beat, pointing at his chest and giggling. “do you know me?”

jeonghan’s lip twitched, feeling almost embarrassed by not thinking of his own nametag, and definitely not an involuntary reaction to seeing you smile for the first time. “uh, yeah. we have a class together,” he said as casually as possible as he folded the washcloth in his hands. “visual culture.”

you nodded, looking into space for a moment. “hmm. weren’t you also in child psych with professor moon last winter?”

he blinked back at you. “yeah? you were in that class?”

you nodded, holding in a laugh. “yeah, yoon jeonghan. i was. head in the clouds?”

for some reason, the way you said his full name made his ears heat up. “maybe you were easy to forget,” he said dismissively, even though you both knew that wasn't the case. “isn’t it better to study in a library? that one’s free.”

“there’s never any open tables at the library,” you said, unfurling your legs and sitting straight, textbook in your lap. “and the chairs are uncomfortable, unlike this armchair. and people usually don’t bother me here.”

jeonghan sighed. “well, if you’re insistent on going to a cafe, there’s one down the street with a better espresso bean and it’s less busy. less people to bother you and a better tasting americano that you won’t drink.”

you cocked your head, closing your laptop. “is that an invitation?”

and for the first time, you saw jeonghan stutter. “n-no? just a suggestion. i think it’s cheaper, too-”

“don’t you work here?” you asked, eyes shining. “shouldn’t you be happy i’m wasting my money here?”

he eyed you, beginning to turn his body to leave the conversation. “do whatever you want. i’m not your dad.”

you grinned, leaning forward in your chair. “are you busy after class tomorrow?”

“why?”

“i need you to show me where this cafe is.”

jeonghan sighed. “can’t you just look it up? cafe nomu.” he wrote the characters with his finger in the air. “no-mu. use naver.”

“i get lost easily,” you said, standing up. jeonghan wondered if you were telling the truth. “we can go together?”

jeonghan watched you pack up your things, confused. “why?”

you paused, looking at him. “why not?”

he was getting real sick of people asking him why not.

“did i drive you away?” he asked instead, nodding at your now packed bag.

“no, i was headed out soon anyways.” you swung the bag over your shoulder and picked up the untouched americano. “do you want this?”

jeonghan couldn’t help but scoff as you handed him the glass that had been the subject of his staring all afternoon. “you can't be serious.”

you grinned and patted his shoulder. “i’m y/n, by the way. i’ll see you in class?”

he squinted at you as you walked away, suddenly confused by the quick succession of questions you had thrown back and forth. you were cute, sure, and his distaste for you was misplaced, perhaps, but he couldn't help the annoyance that bubbled up in him as you sauntered out of the cafe like you had won a debate. he walked back to the counter and set down the americano, an excited seokmin waiting for him.

“so?” he grabbed the glass and dumped it in the sink behind the counter. “how’d it go?”

jeonghan looked at the door you had left out of. “i think i just got asked out.”

“what?” seokmin’s hands made fists in front of him while he grinned. “y/n did? are you serious? you said yes, right?”

“not really,” he replied, looking back at the younger and exhaling deeply. “but i don’t think i can avoid it.”

you had known of yoon jeonghan for a while. a class here and there, a few mutual friends, and of course at the cafe. but the night you learned his name really stuck out to you, when he had been singing at a karaoke bar right after finals last quarter.

it was common to celebrate the end of finals week with partying and drinking, and your friends had invited you out to barhop until the sun came up. you started at a dance club, had way too much rum at a hula themed place, took tequila shots at a gay bar, then landed at a karaoke bar with a can of beer in your fist and a grin on your face. your friends liked to sing, so you had fun encouraging them to get on the slightly raised stage and show their chops.

“no, no, no,” mingyu said, grabbing your hands as you tried to push him towards the dj. “no way, i recognize the names on the list. there’s real singers here.”

you looked at the screen that displayed the queue. “what do you mean? who?”

“that guy,” mingyu said, pointing at the screen easily, despite you having to crane your neck to even view it. “no way. he’s in jihoon’s band, i’m not following that guy.”

“hangguk’s angel yoon jeonghan,” you read, squinting. “sounds like a pretentious asshole.”

mingyu laughed. “wait til you hear his voice, you’ll see how he got the name.”

"y/n's right," jun interjected, leaning heavily against the standing table your quad squad had claimed, pouring more soju for himself and whoever would claim the other glass. "he is a pretentious asshole."

you pointed at him, brows raised at mingyu. "jun is never wrong."

mingyu rolled his eyes. "pretentious assholes can still sound like angels."

“where the fuck have you been,” you asked, startled by your third and final friend suddenly appearing beside you.

“around,” vernon said, sipping at the nondescript brown liquid in his glass through a bright pink straw. he laughed when you quirked an eyebrow at him. “soonyoung’s here with his posse, he caught me while i was getting another drink.”

“see!” mingyu shook your shoulder, nearly choking after downing jun’s companion shot. “i told you! jihoon’s band.”

you whacked his bicep. “who cares? just go queue a rap song or something, you pussy.”

the singers cycled through and you cheered on many of your fellow drunk university students as they sang with no remorse. jun dragged you onto the tiny dancefloor and forced you to help him hype up soonyoung - his dance team captain - as he screamed along to hurricane. then one of vernon's friends performed a near flawless rendition of shake it by sistar after yelling something about bringing the summer to this cold winter night, earning him a cheering and dancing crowd, and you had known far more of the choreo than you had thought. mingyu was whooping and hollering at you playfully every time you threw your ass out to the song, and he only got louder when jun and vernon did their best to follow along with you, and you had almost forgotten about the name that everyone insisted was to be feared.

“that guy?” you asked, the self-proclaimed angel stepping onto the stage. you recognized him immediately. “that’s my barista.”

mingyu made a noise that almost resembled whistling, if he had been capable of doing so. “i should start studying with you next quarter.”

and when he sang, it clicked. despite the tonal difference, you couldn't help but become enthralled by his voice. gyu was right. pretentious assholes could still sound like angels, and perhaps that was by design.

his voice drifted through your head again when you noticed him in your visual culture class, seated and giggling at his phone on the first day of the quarter.

"you have another class with him?" mingyu groaned a week later, walking beside you. "why you? why aren’t there hot guys in my major?"

"because pre-med kids are too busy to be hot."

he gave you a look. "damn, okay. like, you're not wrong, but damn."

you rolled your eyes. "don't act like you don't love being the pre-med heartthrob. you would be pissed if you had competition."

"anyways, are you gonna ask him out?"

you pause at the stop light to wait for your turn to cross, turning towards him. "why would i do that?"

“because he’s hangguk’s angel yoon jeong-honey voice,” mingyu said, moving his head as he dramatically pronounced each syllable in your face. “if you’re not already in love with him, you will be soon, and it sounds like fate's trying to bring you together. didn’t you say he’s your barista?”

you rolled your eyes. “yeah, and his americanos suck now. i don’t even drink it when he makes them anymore.”

he looked at you with a cocked eyebrow. “what the hell? why do you still go there, then?”

you pouted. “it’s quiet and there’s a comfy armchair.”

weeks passed, and you continued to spot jeonghan in your class when you arrived, hearing the faint sound of his singing voice in your head. when he took your order at the cafe, he had a vague snottiness to his voice, and while you absolutely believed that this was the same person as the one you saw sing a soft love ballad with a sobering intensity at two in the morning, you still struggled to connect it to the one you watched run off the stage, immediately curling into himself and laughing with his friends in embarrassment.

you became more and more fascinated by yoon jeonghan as time passed, but his americanos continued to suck. so when he suggested a cafe with better espresso, you lit up. and when he got flustered, letting down his guard unintentionally, you lit up even more. that was the drunk, embarrassed boy you had seen, pink faced and giggling as he hid behind his friends.

jeonghan sat in his usual seat in class, anxiously glancing up at the door every time a group of people entered the lecture hall. when you arrived, your usual minute before the turn of the hour, he rubbed his palms against his sweats. the sweats that he had worn with the specific intention of making sure you didn't think he was trying too hard to look nice around you. despite that fact, part of him still felt annoyed that you were also dressed down, swimming in a hoodie several sizes too big for you. he tried to make sense of the sudden nerves he had, but not once did he consider they were because he thought you were disgustingly adorable.

instead of taking your usual spot, you marched right up to jeonghan’s table and grinned. “is this seat taken?”

he blinked at you. “yes.”

you laughed and slid into the seat beside him anyways, ignoring the dagger stare from a girl across the room that usually sat beside jeonghan silently. “you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“how do you expect me to react? you’ve never even smiled at me before yesterday.”

shrugging, you put your bag on the table and leaned back in your seat, assuming your usual position for this particular class. “you didn’t deserve it before yesterday.”

jeonghan wanted to argue with you, but the professor cleared his throat and introduced the subject of the lecture.

after only ten minutes, jeonghan could have sworn he heard you snoring. he poked your shoulder with his pen.

you looked over at him, eyebrow quirked. you mouthed a “what” at him.

he exhaled suddenly, mouth forming a vague smile more in disbelief than from being entertained. he seemed annoyed with you, despite the fact that he was the one interrupting your allocated meditation time. he leaned forward, turning his body towards you and spoke in a hushed tone. “how can you do that every day and still be top of the class?”

you mirrored his body language, leaning forward over the desk and resting your cheek on a fist, speaking in the same hushed tone. “visual culture is subjective. as long as you understand the concept; i-e, how we as humans visually design the world around us and how that becomes an important aspect of our place in nature, in the universe, in existence, etcetera; then you can write about literally anything. my last essay was about skate parks. the more opinionated the essay, the better score you get.” you pointed a finger at the man speaking at the front of the class. “i watched the prof’s ted talk before the quarter started - every lecture is just a regurgitation of the same concepts. it’s an easy a, as long as you have strong opinions.”

jeonghan stared at you for what felt like an eternity. “you do seem like you have strong opinions.”

“and you don’t, yoon jeonghan?”

he supposed he couldn’t argue with that, but it still frustrated him to no end that you had found some kind of loophole that he had missed. you gamed the system better than he could, and he had been stuck pouring over his friend’s notes from the previous quarter and bullshitting some essays about architecture that he didn't give a shit about. and so, instead of spending his whole class stewing like he normally did, he decided to waste no time adopting your approach, pulling his sweatshirt hood over his head and catching up on some missed sleep. when he woke up again, it was to your prodding finger.

“what time is it,” he said immediately, squinting at his surroundings. he suddenly remembered he was in class as he saw fellow students packing up their things and filing out. he looked at you, blinking at your grinning face.

“time for coffee,” you said, tugging on the drawstrings of the light blue hoodie he wore. “did you have any sweet dreams?”

jeonghan shoved his blank notebook into the tote bag he used for classes and stood. “of course not.”

“i did,” you said, throwing your bag over your shoulder and following him down the hall steps. “i dreamt you paid at the cafe.”

he turned, eyeing your shiteating grin from behind his hood. “yeah, keep dreaming.”

“worth a shot,” you said, trotting down beside him. “so, what’s your major, yoon jeonghan?”

he rolled his eyes, almost forgetting about your habit of calling him by his full name. “do you really care?”

“what else are we gonna talk about, my drinking problem?”

despite himself, jeonghan laughed, looking over at you as you left the lecture hall. “maybe! how bad is it?”

you grinned, feeling successful from making him break his serious persona. “wouldn’t you like to know.”

he clicked his tongue, pushing open the doors of the social studies building. “no fun.”

“you’ll have to invite me to a bar next time,” you said, following after him out the door into the sunshine that cascaded over the quad. it was a beautiful spring day, but a bit chilly, and you shoved your hands into your sweatshirt pocket.

“hmm,” jeonghan said, letting his blue hood fall off his head as he stretched in the sun. “i only really go to one bar.”

you watched him bask for a moment, wondering how many sides of him you had yet to see. his hair was dark, but the lighter chocolate tones reflected in the sun. “bet i can guess which one.”

jeonghan paused on the sidewalk, making you walk ahead of him a couple steps before you turned towards him questioningly. “okay, yeah. guess. you won’t get it.”

you size him up a moment, taking his words as a challenge. “if i guess right, you buy coffee?”

he exhaled, an amused smile on his face. “why are you so obsessed with me buying you coffee?”

“it tastes better free.”

“okay, fine. but if you’re wrong, you buy.”

you groaned. “do you know how many bars are in this city? that doesn’t seem fair.”

jeonghan resumed walking, gesturing for you to guess. “i’ll give you three tries.”

you chewed your cheek, trying to conceal your sly grin. “okay, three tries. deal?”

he nodded. you made it way too easy for him to win. “deal.”

“let me think.” jeonghan watched your feet fall easily into step beside him. “what bar has a stupid gimmick you would be into... pie bar?”

he shook his head, almost laughing at your teasing. “i’ve been there before, but it's not really my thing.”

you exhaled sharply. “shouldn’t that count for a stick of gum or something?” jeonghan laughed, insisting that this was an all or nothing situation. “then i give up.”

“you can’t give up!” jeonghan said. “you said deal. no going back.”

“fine," you pouted. "why can't i remember any bar names? uhh, r place?”

he stopped. “the gay club?”

you stopped, looking at him expectantly. “well?”

jeonghan laughed as he walked again. “no, not r place. jesus. you have one last chance. i’m really excited to order something expensive today.”

you chewed your cheek. “where would someone like yoon jeonghan go to drink… hanguk’s angel yoon jeonghan…”

he stopped in his tracks. “what did you just say?”

you tapped on your chin with a finger, arms crossed. “yoon jeong-honey voice… where would someone like him go? maybe… a karaoke bar?”

“hey, hey-” jeonghan pointed at you accusingly. “are you serious? you’ve seen me?”

“hmm,” you continued, laughing as you avoided his gaze. “oh, i know! the rockbox!”

“yah!” jeonghan was laughing, pointing at you in disbelief. “what the hell! this isn’t fair!”

“you said deal, no going back.” you grinned in victory. “wow, maybe i’ll order something expensive. i can’t believe i won.”

jeonghan’s tongue ran over his teeth as he watched you giggle and happily trot ahead of him. “fine, fine. you win. when did you see me there?”

“after winter finals,” you said, cheesing. “i was there with friends and you sang.”

he tutted. “damn. did i just miss you or did you not sing?”

“i don’t sing,” you said, smiling as he continued walking with you. “my friends do, though. and i was forced to be in soonyoung’s hype squad for hurricane.”

jeonghan clapped suddenly, remembering in his perhaps too drunk stupor that seungcheol had pointed you out, calling you “the cutie that keeps looking at him.” he had, admittedly, checked you out, despite the fact that he had been too embarrassed by his too-serious song to go and talk to you, and he had thought you looked familiar. “oh my god! yes! i did see you! how do you know soonyoung?”

“mutual friends,” you said. “chwe hansol?

he nodded. “we’ve met once, i think. were you there with junhui?”

“yeah, actually,” you said, remembering the opinion of jeonghan your friend had volunteered up for you. “how do you know him?”

“i haven’t talked to him a lot directly, but i know both his roommates pretty well,” jeonghan said. "we do music together.”

“ah, yes,” you nodded in recollection, but refusing to acknowledge how insanely pretentious it was of him to say something like we do music together. “jihoon’s unnamed but immensely prolific band.”

he rolled his eyes. “why is it jihoon’s band? why can’t it be jeonghan’s band?”

“don’t ask me,” you said, putting up hands in innocence. “i didn’t even know it existed until that night. mingyu wouldn’t shut up about it.”

the name sounded familiar to jeonghan, but he moved on as the two of you reached a stop light. “do you go there a lot? or was that a one time thing?”

you eyed him. “this is starting to sound like an invitation, hannie.”

he didn’t comment on the nickname, despite the weird way his arms tingled at it. “you should learn what an invitation actually sounds like. you tend to assume a lot.”

you laughed heartily, and jeonghan ignored the way his stomach flitted while you started to cross the street. “call it wishful thinking, but i think i get you, yoon jeonghan.”

“the hell is that supposed to mean?”

you never answered his question, but grinned instead, which gave jeonghan a sense of unease and a touch of curiosity. as he led you to cafe nomu, he caught himself smiling. laughing. enjoying your company and conversation.

maybe shua hadn’t been completely off base.

by the time jeonghan had realized that his feelings towards you might have evolved from vague malice into something more akin to genuine interest, he was pushing open the door to the cafe for you and mentally double checking that he had put on deodorant that morning, cursing his inability to control his own nerves. ah, he thought. that explained the weird feeling he got waiting for you in class, too. and why he got flustered the day before at his work. he only snapped out of his crowded mind when he heard you ordering an iced americano.

“and for you?”

jeonghan blinked at you, then at the barista that was addressing him. “make that two.”

“thank you for the coffee,” you said, pressing your hands together as he inserted his card.

he waved you off, chuckling, but kept his eyes as far from yours as he could. “a deal is a deal.”

you looked around the quiet cafe, quickly scoping out the seat options as jeonghan accepted the buzzer for your order. he thought it was a little silly, considering the two of you were half of the customers in the cafe currently, but said nothing as he turned it over in his fingers, standing next to you.

“there?” you asked, pointing at a table by a window.

jeonghan bit his cheek, thinking about how joshua would likely be walking down this street to go to his shift, if he had one. “yeah, wherever.”

you were already on your way to the seat when he responded, and he followed, dropping his bag off his shoulder to hang on the hook under the table.

“i thought you were going to get something expensive,” he teased, sitting across from you.

laughing lightly, you pulled your phone out of your hoodie pocket and set it on the table. “you said the espresso was good, i wanted to try it.”

“don’t you not like coffee?” jeonghan asked, squinting at you.

“i love coffee,” you said, quirking an eyebrow.

“then why don’t you drink the americanos i make?”

he was leaning forward, staring at you, fingers folding over each other on the table. you pouted, avoiding his eyes suddenly. “no reason.”

leaning back again, he kept a wary eye on you. “that’s convincing.”

“good, it’s the truth.”

jeonghan decided to put a pin in that interrogation in favor of asking you your major.

you laughed again, making a small smile appear on his face. "communications," you answered, despite thinking of how he denied the same question from you earlier.

he let out a low "wah" and cocked his head. "what's up with that? same major."

"really?" you leaned over the table. "what year are you?"

"third."

you put a peace sign next to your eye like you were posing for a photo. "second."

you couldn't help but giggle at the "pfft" that spilled out of jeonghan's lips as he laughed at you, muttering a "really" under his breath at your pose. he was running a hand through his extremely soft and fluffy looking hair when the buzzer went off, and you blinked yourself awake from your trance to nod after he said he would go get the drinks.

admitting to it was the last thing you wanted, but you couldn’t help but hear mingyu’s voice rattling around your head, telling you that you would fall for jeonghan eventually. you had once thought he was completely up his own ass, but you kept getting glimpses of this really cute, really sweet version of him, and it made you want to get to know him better. additionally, it was getting harder to find people that would happily play along with your teasing, and he had no qualms teasing you right back.

when he returned with the americanos, you pressed your hands together in another thank you before taking a sip. he slid back into his seat and looked at you expectantly. "well? what do you think?"

you paused a moment, appraising the flavor. "delicious. thank you."

after he sipped at his own, he nodded. "the beans here are really good. balanced. i wish i could convince my boss to source better stuff."

you watched him sip again, letting out a praise under his breath. you sighed. "i have a confession."

his eyebrows quirked at you, and he did his best to not show the way his stomach flipped. "what kind?"

"i don't drink your americanos because they're shit."

there was silence as he processed your words, and you wondered if you had royally fucked up by saying something. suddenly, he was laughing, and you stared at him in shock as he calmed down. "oh my god, yeah, they are."

"wait, you know?"

"i-" jeonghan paused, rubbing his face, still laughing. "god, this is so stupid. i burn your shots."

your jaw dropped open, but a smile creeped across your face as you understood. "wait, on purpose?"

"you never smile!" he attempted to explain himself with a bit too much enthusiasm, finding his own pettiness ridiculous in hindsight. "not even when i smiled at you. i had a grudge. i'm sorry."

you were sipping your non-burnt americano with a sly look on your face. you wanted to be mad at the wasted money on countless gross americanos, but somehow, you couldn't be. "do you hold grudges against everyone or am i just lucky?"

"uh, depends," jeonghan said, crossing his arms and thinking. "when the prof that failed my roommate comes in, i burn his shots, too. i think he might like it that way, though, because he's always really nice to me."

you almost snorted. "well, you owe me a lot of coffee."

he nodded and sighed, resigning to his fate. "when you come in, your coffee's on me. and i won't burn it this time."

you pouted a second, and jeonghan barely caught it, but he thought the expression was far too cute. "i was hoping you would invite me out again."

"again?" he asked, letting a few 'ha's fall from his lips in quick succession. "you mean for the first time?"

you gestured to the cafe you sat in. "was this not your idea?"

he rolled his eyes. "you invited yourself out and held me hostage."

"does that mean you have stockholms?"

he laughed at the diagnosis, remembering the class you claimed you had both taken the year before. "you're a very charming captor."

you smiled at the compliment, despite the sinister implication.

the next time you saw jeonghan, it was saturday. you had rolled out of bed far earlier than you had intended to when you had fallen asleep at 4 am after a very drunk and extremely conflict heavy game of uno with the guys. you winced at the sunlight streaming through your shitty dorm blinds, fumbling your way to the water dispenser on your desk to rehydrate.

you stared at your roommate's empty bed, remembering they had said they worked early shifts this weekend as you brushed your teeth, and you wondered how they had dealt with you stumbling into the dorm in the wee hours of the day.

you almost gagged on your toothbrush. an empty room on a saturday morning with too little sleep and a nasty hangover, you thought. bad decisions could never be made under these circumstances.

"does jeonghan's cafe do breakfast sandwiches?" you thought aloud with a mouth full of toothpaste, leaning over the sink to spit. you kind of remembered seeing them on the menu, though you never thought to get anything beyond the occasional muffin. maybe today was the day.

after washing your face and cleaning up your hair a bit, you had to dig in your clothes to find your favorite pair of black sweats and a shirt to tuck in. you last minute decided to bring your good headphones, just in case hanguk's angel wasn't there to bug, and ran out the door with your wallet and phone, a pair of sunglasses shoved onto your face.

the walk to his cafe is short from the dorms you lived in, which was another reason you liked it there. it was warmer than it had been during the week, and you watched a big muscular dog running alongside its owner. before long, you were tugging open the door, seeing no line. you grinned at how lucky you were as you pulled your headphones down to your neck.

"yoon jeonghan! you are working!"

he seemed startled by your voice, his shoulders raising slightly as he turned towards the door. "oh, what the hell? what are you doing here at 9:30 on a saturday?"

you pouted, walking up to the counter and tugging off your sunglasses. "are you not happy to see me?"

his laugh was genuine and completely out of his control. "sure i am. nice eyebags."

that, you noted, was the first time jeonghan had ever greeted you with a smile, and it seemed appropriate that it was paired with an insult. "thanks, i'm violently hungover right now." you said, noticing your best friend's roommate standing further back behind the counter, pretty obviously pretending to not be listening to you.

"do you wanna redeem a free americano?" he asked, poking at the touchscreen register.

you hummed, crossing your arms and staring at the menu board. "not today, i wanna try a latte. something tasty, and something for breakfast. what do you think?"

jeonghan stared at you, and you stared back, a small smile on your face. he blinked. "have you ever tried lavender?"

"lavender?" you shook your head, genuinely surprised. "is that a good flavor?"

he nodded, looking down at the screen and adding items to your order. "we have this seasonal syrup that we make in house," he said. "it's my favorite one of the year. honey, lavender, and vanilla bean. big one?"

you blinked at the cup sizes, trying to remember how many bottles of soju you had bought the night before, and subsequently how much money was left in your account. "uh, yeah."

"will you be offended if i give you a vegetarian sandwich? it's the best one."

you cocked your head. "i mean, if it's the best one…"

jeonghan smiled slightly, pulling out his wallet from his back pocket. "it's the best one. and it's my secret hangover cure."

you noticed his card too late. "hey, what are you doing?"

he quirked an eyebrow at you. "buying your coffee. like i said i would."

"that was way more than an americano."

"and i've burned way more than an americano," jeonghan reminded you. "and if you don't accept that, i'm buying you breakfast as a peace offering."

your eyebrows raised. "a peace offering?"

he avoided your gaze. "i've decided you're not a pretentious asshole."

you laughed at his word choice, and how it mirrored your own. "i mean, i can be kind of pretentious sometimes. and a major asshole a lot of the time."

jeonghan grinned. "me too."

he washed his hands and passed along the sandwich order to his coworker as he moved to the espresso machine, briefly explaining to you that he was completely useless with food as soon as a heat source becomes involved, but assured you that seokmin was a master with a turbochef, and that your sandwich was in the best hands.

you giggled, watching his hands as he found a squeeze bottle and shot the contents into a glass. "i trust you."

his eyes flicked to you briefly, and you leaned against the drink pickup counter, squinting at the syrup. he held the glass that would soon be your drink up for you. "see the specs? real vanilla."

you hummed. "it smells good."

"it tastes like sunshine, i swear to god."

your eyes followed his hands as he expertly filled and packed the portafilter with fresh grounds. he felt you watching him, and did his best to suppress the itch to fumble. you watched him not burn your shots, stirring them with the syrup and pouring milk from a jug. he added ice, put a metal straw in the tall glass, then placed it on the counter in front of you.

you made sure to smile when you told him thank you, and jeonghan was pretty sure he would have collapsed from how cute he found you if he had slightly less resolve.

"veggie sando for… y/n?" seokmin announced to the cafe, eyes creasing into a laugh as he appeared with a plate.

you gave seokmin a nervous smile. "sorry for staying over so late. i didn't know you worked this morning."

jeonghan looked between you suspiciously as seokmin assured you it was fine, claiming he was knocked out by midnight and didn't even know when you left. who did seokmin live with again? jeonghan chewed on his cheek as he put your drink and sandwich on a tray.

your eyes flicked over to the front counter as a few customers entered the cafe, seokmin already heading over to greet them and begin the order. you tried not to let your disappointment show when you told jeonghan you should probably let him get back to work. he tried to not let his show, either, when he nodded in agreement. neither of you did a great job.

"someone's clocking on in half an hour, i can take a break then. don't leave?"

his almost pleading tone made your lip twitch upward. "don't act so clingy, hannie."

he grinned, then stopped you before you picked up the tray. "first- hang on," he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and unlocking it, quickly going to the keypad as he looked over his shoulder at the customers. "give me your number."

your eyes met his briefly as you took the phone, quickly punching in your digits and tapping to add yourself to his contacts. he smiled at the profile name - "americano" - as you picked up your tray and headed to your favorite armchair. even as he was making other drinks and serving other customers, he couldn't take his eyes off you, sitting in your armchair with your headphones on. it had only been two days since he saw you last, but he hadn't thought of anything but you the entire time. he had almost considered asking shua to swap shifts with him so he could have a chance of seeing you the day before, but he knew his coworker would refuse to take the saturday opening shift. he spent his whole afternoon off sitting on the couch in his apartment, staring at the back of his roommate's chair, trying to figure out why he didn't ask for your number.

"hey," jihoon said, and jeonghan had only then noticed that his roommate had spun his tall cushioned chair around to look back at him. "i said, do you know when seungcheol invited people around tomorrow?"

jeonghan stared at him for a second, then sighed dramatically, rubbing his eye.

"woah," the younger laughed and leaned back in his seat. "who'd you sleep with last night? i need to warn them you're crazy."

"no one," jeonghan pouted. "what the hell? i'm not crazy."

"hyung, i say this with the most respect i can," he said, leaning forward. "you're batshit, especially when you catch feelings for a one night stand."

"ugh, whatever," jeonghan pushed the pillow off his lap and ran a hand through his hair. "we didn't even do anything."

jihoon squinted at him a moment. "okay, hang on, i feel like our definitions of not doing anything are different."

he rolled his eyes. "we didn't do anything," he repeated, standing from the couch and walking over to the kitchen to get water. "like, nothing. we didn't even touch each other. not once."

jihoon looked around, trying to understand what he meant. "i'm confused. you didn't touch your one night stand?"

"it wasn't a one night stand!" jeonghan threw a dagger glare at the other before he drank his water, muttering a "really" beneath his breath.

jihoon's face didn't change. "so… you went on a date?"

jeonghan swallowed the water hard, putting the glass down on the counter and leaning against it. "kinda."

"you are really not making this easy for me at all."

"we got coffee," he said finally. "we have a class together, and we made a stupid bet over who would pay, and they fucking tricked me, so i had to pay for it and we talked for, like, a stupid long time, and i think i actually really…" he exhaled, both hands rubbing his face. "i think i really like them."

jihoon whistled. "i just wanna say before the moment passes that it is incredibly on brand for you to fall for someone because they conned you into buying them coffee."

jeonghan glared at the younger, but he couldn't argue. "we got coffee and talked and then they just…" his palms faced the sky as he gestured, shoulders raised. "they just left. i didn't even get their number."

"okay, and?" jihoon swivelled back and forth in his chair. "you have a class together. you'll literally see them next week."

he groaned, pressing his forehead against the fridge. "but i wanna see them now."

and now, he was seeing you. much sooner than he had expected, yet not soon enough. the saturday morning rush began to pick up, and even when an additional barista arrived, jeonghan wondered if he would actually be able to slip away for a break.

"go ahead," seokmin said, grabbing the steamed milk pitcher from his hand. "me and hyejoo can handle it for a minute."

jeonghan looked at the shrinking line and nodded, quickly pulling off his apron as he walked around the counter. he knew he didn't have a lot of time, and pulling up a chair seemed silly, so he instead just squatted and folded his arms over the arm of your favorite seat.

you looked up from your phone at the motion, pulling your headphones off and grinning. "hey! the drink is delicious and extremely not burnt."

he smiled, noticing it was almost gone. "i'm glad! it's still busy, so i can't really take a proper break, but i wanted to ask you something."

you squinted at him. "what kind of something?"

"do you have plans tonight?"

"depends," you said, turning your body to face him better as you sucked on your cheek. "what's going on?"

jeonghan exhaled, amused. "my roommate is having people over for a few drinks or something, it'd be cool if you came by?"

you looked at a light, gauging the state of your hangover. your voice almost cracked when you asked "tonight?"

"you don't have to drink," he said, remembering what you had told him earlier. "and you can, like, bring a friend if you want. i know it's weird that i'm inviting you to my place."

you thought a moment. "don't you live with lee jihoon?"

jeonghan blinked. "uh, yeah?"

"i'll bring a friend," you said, tapping your fingers on the back of your phone. you looked back to him and smiled. "text me details?"

jeonghan stood. "yeah, i'll text you," he said, glancing up at the door where more customers were walking in. "fuck, i should go."

you followed his gaze. "i think i'll stick to weekdays. this place gets crazy on the weekends."

"tell me about it." he started to walk back to the counter. "i'll talk to you later?"

you smiled and nodded at him, and you waved enthusiastically at him as you were headed out about ten minutes later.

"i'm still waiting for a text," you teased, peeking over the counter as he made a drink.

he laughed. "i'll get to it when i get to it."

"thanks for the sandwich, seokmin! it was delicious!"

seokmin waved at you with a big grin and you looked back at jeonghan.

"i'll see you tonight?"

he nodded, a smug smile teasing his lips. "yeah, i'll see you tonight."

you didn't show the way your stomach flipped when he made eye contact with you, but you slid your sunglasses back on and put your headphones back on your head, and walked to the rhythm of love songs in the sun on your way to your friend's apartment, a stupid childish giggle threatening to surface the entire time.

"hey, is mingoo around?"

minghao blinked at you, standing at his front door with a smile on your face. "dude, you left like four hours ago. what are you even doing here."

"uh, no, myungho, i left like seven hours ago, get it right." he let you walk past him into the apartment. "is he still asleep?"

"is that actually a question?"

you trotted into mingyu's room, humming along to the song playing through the headphones around your neck as you pulled open his blinds.

"god, what the fuck," his rough voice went behind you. "the hell is wrong with you. go home."

"that's not a very nice way to treat the person that's gonna set you up with your future ex-husband."

mingyu's hair stuck in several different directions and his eyes were still squeezed shut, but he had pushed himself off his pillow enough for you to know you caught his attention. "which one?"

you grinned. "the one with the pretty voice."

"wait," mingyu fumbled with his comforter as he tried to sit up. "wait, hang on. jihoon?" you laughed and nodded as he sniffed noisily. "he is not my future ex-husband, y/n. he's it. he's the one that's gonna make an honest woman out of me."

"well, lady, get ready to be honest, because i got an invite to a kickback at his apartment tonight and i snagged a plus one."

he squinted at you. "what's the catch?"

you rolled your eyes. "there isn't always a catch. maybe i'm just trying to be nice."

"yeah, uh huh." mingyu flopped back onto his bed, rubbing his eyes. "why didn't you just text me or something? it's so early."

"it's like, barely morning."

"it's ten."

you exhaled. "it's 11:17, asshole. are you going with me or not?"

mingyu groaned and flopped around, his head aching from the drinks that had stopped too recently. "when?"

"uhh," you stalled as you checked your phone. no new messages. "not sure yet. i'm waiting on a text."

he squinted at you. "who's texting you? soonyoung?"

you shrugged. "sure."

"oh my god, it's jeonghan, isn't it?"

"whaaaaaat?" you deadpanned, walking over to mingyu's bed to sit on the edge, staring at your phone. "why would i be waiting on a text from that loser?"

"i knew you were acting stupid yesterday for a reason," he accused. "and you asked jun what his deal was. you like him, don't you? what did he do? did he corner you?"

"absolutely not," you said, sighing and throwing your phone down on his bed, slightly offended by him saying you were acting stupid but truly not being able to remember if he was wrong. "i cornered him, at his workplace, no less. then i made him buy me coffee. then i showed up to his workplace, again, incredibly hungover, and he still asked for my number."

mingyu's lips formed a pout as he hummed, rubbing his eye again. "never would have pegged jeonghan as the simping type, but sure."

"shut up," you laughed, and mingyu whined about whether or not you had washed your hands when you plopped your palm against his face. he pushed your wrists away. "do you still have that bottle of white wine?"

"you mean the one hao refuses to drink even though i spent good money on it for his fucking birthday? yeah, why?"

you grabbed your phone again, despite it not vibrating. "it'd probably make a good first impression if you bring a nice bottle to the kickback you were last minute invited to. i bet jihoon will be so impressed by your manners."

mingyu blinked heavily. "you're devious. what about you?"

"i don't need a good first impression," you said. "i already made an awful one and he still likes me."

he sighed. "you always have been a charming dickhead."

you grinned at your best friend. "thanks, babe."

mingyu groaned against his palms. "god, fuck, i was supposed to study for my exam today."

you clicked your tongue. "that sucks dick."

"you suck dick."

you pouted out your lips when you got a text from an unknown number. "i'm trying."

you hadn't fully decided yet how you were going to make sure jeonghan really liked you, especially after jun regaled his "disgusting sexcapades," as he described them. you took his words with a grain of salt, considering the guy had an extremely low opinion of him from the get go, but either way, could you really blame jeonghan for putting his incredibly good looks and charm to use?

you, however, found flings incredibly uninteresting. most of the men that went after you were dull at best, and definitely would have fallen for any stupid prank you had played on them. with jeonghan, though, there was a challenge. there was always the chance he would out-trick you. it was new and exciting. playing with people, you decided, was only fun when there were some stakes involved.

inviting you to have drinks at his place seemed like such a transparent ploy to get laid, but you couldn't help but expect more from him. something told you he knew that you wouldn't be that easy, and you wondered what his game was.

i think i'm here >

which apartment was it? >

you definitely could have scrolled up in your conversation with jeonghan to check, especially since mingyu was complaining next to you on the street outside the apartment building, but you preferred the power move of asking again. you hadn't considered, though, that jeonghan was absolutely the type to know exactly what you were trying as soon as he saw the notification and make you wait. you squinted at the window that clearly had a party going on inside of it, willing the boy to respond.

"bro, it's apartment 2-b. soonyoung says he's 'the b in 2-b' like, every chance he gets. let's just go up."

"hang on, i'm plotting," you said, putting up a finger and scrolling through your contacts.

mingyu groaned as you put the phone to your ear, pressing the cold wine bottle against his eye. "you are the most annoying person i've ever met."

"yet you ask me to hang out constantly."

mingyu glared at you with his uncovered eye. "i also watch a lot of shit television, so don't take my taste as gospel."

inside, soonyoung patted down his pockets when he heard his ringtone, then looked at the kitchen counter where he had left it when he was making drinks. he grinned wide when he saw the contact info and practically yelled when he answered the phone. "y/n! please tell me you're finally coming over?"

jeonghan heard your name, his head whipping towards the sound. he stared at soonyoung, phone to his ear as he laughed into it, and he exhaled when he realized what you had done. he looked down at the ignored notification on his phone, his thought process being that you would call as it became more urgent.

and you had, just not him. he cursed under his breath. you were always one step ahead.

"yeah, second floor! come on up, i'll meet you at the stairs!"

jeonghan watched soonyoung shove his feet into a pair of slides and exit the apartment, then quickly downed the rest of his drink. he was gonna need an excuse to ask if you wanted one.

you followed soonyoung down the hall as he excitedly chattered about how he didn't know you were coming.

mingyu laughed. "yeah, we didn't either. y/n got an invite from jeonghan this morning."

"jeonghan?" soonyoung looked at you. "i didn't know you knew each other."

"i enjoy being a mystery," you said, checking quickly to see if your message had been seen yet.

soonyoung couldn't help but laugh at the idea of you and his roommate, especially with a few drinks in him. "you definitely suit each other."

jeonghan hadn't lied when he said people were coming over for drinks, but he had definitely made it seem much smaller than it was. the living area had enough people that you didn't want to bother counting, but probably somewhere in the twenties. there was music playing, but the conversational chatter was still audible over the beat, and people were laughing with each other on just about every surface you could see. you noticed jihoon by the kitchen counter as you were taking off your shoes, and grabbed mingyu's arm to face him towards you.

"jesus, fuck," he stumbled over his own shoes. "why do i hang out with you?"

"he's in the kitchen and he's alone," you said, your fingers digging into his bicep. "now's your chance. ask him where you should put the wine."

mingyu peeked over his shoulder, then looked back at you with wide eyes. "are you serious? right now?"

"right now," you reassured. "you got this, big guy. you're hot, smart, and tall. say you like his music and blow his mind."

he exhaled, his lips forming an o, and shook his hand nervously. "okay. okay. thank you. i love you. i'm sorry i ever called you annoying."

you laughed, smacking his arm. "love you too, goo."

he shut his eyes and spun, walking towards the boy of his affections. you watched him for a moment, though slyly, as you wandered into the party. you wondered where soonyoung had gone so quickly, then clenched your fist in victory when you saw jihoon get wine glasses out of a cupboard and laughed at something mingyu said.

"oh, y/n!" you spun to the familiar voice, spotting jeonghan leaning against a wall casually, half engaged in a conversation. he pushed off it as you closed the short space between you. "you made it! why didn't you tell me you were here?"

"i did," you said, cocking your head at him. "but you probably knew that."

a sideways smile creeped onto his face. "hey, are you drinking tonight? i don't wanna tempt your self proclaimed alcoholism, but i've been sitting on an empty drink for a while, i could make you one too."

you eyed the red cup in his hand. "what's on the menu?"

"paloma," he said, lifting the cup. "but i can make you something else."

you thought for a second, then looked at him. you hadn't had tequila since the night you saw him sing. "i trust your taste."

he tilted his head as he moved, gesturing for you to follow him to the kitchen. you nudged mingyu with your hip as you settled against the counter next to him to watch jeonghan make a drink for you. he looked down at you, then put an arm on your shoulder as he sipped the wine he had brought, and you noticed jihoon had a matching glass. you smiled proudly.

"mingyu?" jeonghan asked, gesturing.

you nodded, then looked up at your best friend. "this is jeonghan," you said, pointing.

mingyu smiled at him. "good luck with this one. jihoon, this is my worst friend, y/n."

"i'm also the reason he's here," you said, leaning forward to direct the speech at boy you were being introduced to. "you're welcome."

jihoon looked at you, mouth parted into an almost smile. his eyes went to jeonghan, remembering their conversation the day before, then to mingyu again, who was covering his eyes with a palm in embarrassment. "this is why they're my worst friend."

jeonghan laughed, pulling your attention back as he popped open a soda with a bottle opener. "so you're like this with everyone?"

"i’m sure i don't know what you mean," you quipped, sliding out from mingyu's arm to grab the bottle and inspect the label. "jah…ritos?"

"jarritos," jeonghan corrected, pronouncing the h sound. "mexican grapefruit soda. it's the best for palomas."

"see, this is why people think you're a prick," you said, putting the bottle back on the counter. "you get fancy soda specifically for your fancy cocktails."

he just laughed at you as he poured tequila from a bottle into two cups of ice. "if i cared what people thought, i would have changed my ways years ago."

you let that marinate for a moment, then decided the two of you were much more similar than you had originally thought. he grabbed the bowl of cut lime wedges that seungcheol had prepared and squeezed two into each cup, and you watched as he topped the drinks with the soda.

"can you handle heat?"

you looked at him. "that's a loaded question."

he laughed again, and you wondered how many palomas he had before you arrived. "i like chili on the lime, but i wanted to be nice and ask before i did it for you, too."

"i'll try anything once."

then you tried it again.

and again.

jeonghan really was charming, you thought. and pretty. and he had a lovely voice.

at some point, soonyoung found you again, just to waggle his eyebrows at jeonghan when he thought you weren't looking, and you got introduced to seungcheol, who you both recognized and were recognized by. jeonghan rolled his eyes and shoved him away when he gave him a look, remembering how he described you at the bar ages ago.

you barely even noticed the time passing, but your drinks kept draining and you kept accepting more, and you wondered if you were really stupid enough to say yes if he asked you to join him in his bedroom tonight. but the more jeonghan talked, the more you were kind of okay with the idea.

"do you wanna get out of here?"

you blinked, chin in your palm and elbow on the counter, face inches from jeonghan's as he put down his cup. "and go where?"

he pouted as he thought. "i could really go for tteokbokki right now."

at that moment, you decided jeonghan really liked you. you grinned. "that sounds so good."

he smiled back at you, and you didn't comment on the way his eyes lingered on your lips, even if you really wanted to. "better tell your chaperone."

you rolled your eyes at the title mingyu had given himself earlier when he was trying to convince you to not take a fourth drink. "don't let his stupid height trick you, he's more of a lightweight than me."

"at least you don't have to worry about him, jihoon would never try anything. the poor guy is so shy, he was probably flustered just when mingyu said hi."

you quirked an eyebrow at him. "does he have to worry about me?"

jeonghan laughed. "if i wanted to get you drunk, i would have poured heavier."

"speaking of," you said, tipping your cup. "this one suspiciously tasted like not tequila."

he stood suddenly, palms on the counter, trying to force down the blush on his ears. "if you're gonna complain about every drink i make you, maybe you should stop asking for them."

you giggled, standing and imitating his stance. "just admit you care about me, yoon jeonghan."

he looked at you, a smile teasing his lips. "only after you admit you're in love with me."

you squinted. "a draw."

he grinned. "tteokbokki?"

#hi im in love with jeonghan!#what i wouldnt give for a fun teasing sexy realtionship with yoon jeonghan #yoon jeonghan imagines #yoon jeonghan scenarios #yoon jeonghan fluff #jeonghan imagines #jeonghan scenarios #jeonghan fluff #seventeen imagines #seventeen scenarios #i like this one a lot i hope yall do too #i wrote dis #hannie

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phoebehalliwell · 3 years

Note

This whole leo x Piper x Dan polycule got me thinking… are Piper and Leo legally married in canon??? Like they did a hand fasting ceremony and from what I remember that is all that’s mentioned? Like I know the kids take Piper’s name but is it not just for #feminism? Because it would low key be funny if Wyatt’s name was legally Wyatt Mathew Wyatt…like the poor kid would get so bullied he wouldn’t need Gideon to go dark side 😂😅

okay see. i don’t know if this is a yes or no. because for the life of me i cannot tell if this is implying they’re already legally married i wanna say yes but like. piper is literally forging an id document here so leo can get a passport. and lord knows he doesn’t have like. a drivers license. i think he has no verifiable piece of id to get married with. so huh.

in regards to kids last names i mean i don’t think they card you at your kid’s birth nor is there any requirement that the kid has to take the father’s last name so i think they’re fine in that regard tho i do think about like. pickin ur kids up from school. or like. meeting other parents at a pta meeting. being like. hi my name’s leo wyatt pleasure to meet you oh my kids name? yeah um wyatt. no he’s not wyatt wyatt he’s well he took mom’s last name wyatt halliwell yep no i’m all for it who needs two first names at least halliwells a last name amirite lads?? bc i think dads All The Time are like. your kids have your life last name? are you guys? no you’re not divorced or anything? no they just have her last name? so i think leo keeps a lot of dumb pack pocket excuses as to why they don’t have his last name. but, for the most part, i think people genuinely assume his name is leo halliwell because like they’re the halliwell family his wife’s last name is halliwell kids last names halliwell like oh hey that’s Leo Halliwell. it becomes a fun piece of trivia when you find out Wait That’s Not His Last Name? (pulling off on a side tangent of my own because you know Who Else Does This is warren and sheridan because like everyone was fully operating under the assumption that prue was gonna raise the kids they were gonna be her kids and jack was gonna be kinda peripheral so it’s warren and sheridan halliwell but whoops prue died now jack is raising the kids so he’s signing them up for school like hi i’m jack sheridan here are my two kids warren & sheridan. and the teacher’s like. warren sheridan,, and sheridan sheridan???? and jack’s like no haha they have their mom’s last name and the teacher’s like oh do you want to register mom as a contact as well and jack’s like no. bonus round of again the dad’s group they’re barbequing or whatever and they’re like how did your kids end up with mom’s last name did she keep her last name she didn’t even hyphenate or anything and jacks like noooo no so we never got married and they’re like oh. what happened there. and jack’s like well, we dated. for about. two months. and then we broke up but then as it turns out she was pregnant. and all the dads are like ????? and jack’s like yeah you know classic story haha twins! anyway she picked out the names everything because she was really gonna raise them and all the dads are like haha yeah but now you have to do all the pta function anyways lmaooo been there and jack’s like close! actually she died so now i’m raising my kids. and all the dads are like oh😶.)

#charmed #piper x leo #i feel like being born with a last name first name is less weird for wyatt bc there are no other wyatts #but like #for sheridan it's like there are Only sheridans like at family holidays he's literally just ''halliwell''#because they can't say sheridan they're like all sheridan too many people turn around #but there are only two halliwells ipso facto during christmas thanksgiving and graduations sheridan is now just halliwell #warren gets to keep warren despite that Also being a last name because again. the name's not in use anymore #💌

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harringtonstudios · 5 years

Text

bail. (part I)

plot: your weekend was supposed to be chill, now you’re running around early morning trying to figure out what exactly went wrong. part 2!

A/N: super long and different! i hope you like this anon! please lmk ur thoughts

taglist: @iamdorka @no-shxt-sherl @bakerkells @findingmyth @rosegoldrichie @mayaslifeinabox @itjustkindahappenedreally @hnbtx

Getting a phone call at 3:42am when you were knocked out on a hotel bed in Portland was not how you expected your weekend to go. The worst part was when you groggily reached for your cell phone, only to see a random number pop up on your screen. Shrugging it off, you pulled your head under the thick blanket, closing your eyes.

Two minutes later, the phone went off again and you snapped open your eyes. Grabbing your phone this time, you picked up the call, bringing it to you ear before murmuring, “Who the fuck-”

“Hey Y/N. It’s Colson,” the man said on the other side and you glared at the ceiling, immediately placing his voice. Of course, he would be calling you at almost four in the morning from some random number.

“Why are you calling me?” you muttered, pulling your covers back over you.

“So there’s a little situation see,” he started and you scowled, knowing that this was going to require you actually getting up.

“Where’s Rook,” you questioned, trying to figure out if your little brother was caught up in this mess. If he wasn’t, you would let someone else handle it. You weren’t Colson’s babysitter, both of you were too fiery to be put in a room together anyways. Anytime you were together, there were always bitten-back insults, glares thrown across rooms, and dumb competitions to prove you were better than each other.

“He’s here, he called, but you didn’t pick up. I got the phone after and you’re the only person we know here with us,” he rambled and you huffed, getting up off the bed.

“Where are you?” you asked, walking over to the bathroom, trying to see if you needed to pee before you left.

“County jail,” Colson muttered on the other end and your eyes widened. Before you could say anything, he blurted out, “Look I know, I know. Can you just bring us bail? I’ll pay you back, but we can’t stay the night here.”

Pulling on pants, you grabbed your coat and wallet as the line suddenly started to beep. “I’m coming,” you got out before the call cut off.

The empty, cold streets of Portland were not inviting. There was nobody around, the kid sitting on the main desk in the lobby, typing away on his phone. You had walked out of the hotel into total darkness, so you went back in, sitting on the couches as you called a Lyft.

Within five minutes, the car had pulled up. Getting in the backseat, you threw a smile to the driver, praying that he wouldn’t ask why you needed to go to jail. Your prayers didn’t work, a minute into the ride, the driver glanced in the mirror before saying, “So, county jail huh? What’s that story?”

You stared at the front seat. “My brother and his stupid friends got themselves locked up for the night,” you responded, keeping it simple. Chewing on the inside of your cheek, you stole a glimpse at the GPS setup on his dashboard. Just five more minutes.

“You going to bail them out?” he pushed, smiling when you glared at him in the mirror. “Something like that,” you murmured and he got the message, turning on the radio as you stared out the window.

The county jail came into view and you braced yourself for the mess you were going to walk into. “Thanks dude,” you blurted, before getting out of his car.

“Hey, good luck,” he threw your way, rolling his window to wave. You smiled awkwardly before walking into the building. The lady at the front desk was filing her nails as the man behind her sat with his head down. There was a bench, two guys sitting there, slumped on top of each other.

Grimacing, you walked up to the desk.

“Hi, I’m here to bail out a couple of people,” you started, and the lady gave you a look, eyebrows raised as she put her nail file down.

“Names?” she muttered, reaching down to sort through what looked like files.

“JP Cappelletty, Colson Baker,” you spoke, faltering at the end. “Did anyone else come in with them?” you asked, biting your lip, hoping for a no.

“Yeah, do you know his name?” she asked, slapping three files onto her desk.

“Um Slim,” you bit out.

“Government name?” she questioned, flipping open a chart.

“I don’t know that,” you responded, hand nervously tapping on the desk.

She looked up at you, glaring for a second, before shouting, “MIKE. BRING THE THREE GUYS UP FRONT.”

You flashed her a smile, reaching into your purse for your wallet.

“I’ll need you to sign a couple of papers. It’ll be $302 per person. You want a receipt?” she stated, reaching for her machine.

“A receipt would be great,” you responded, trying not to freak out about dropping over $900 on bail.

“You’ll have to call up your credit card company, let them know you’re paying a large amount,” she finished, reaching for the card in your hand.

“Yeah, okay. First thing in the morning,” you nodded, eyes clocking on the movement behind her.

Colson was shuffling in front, head hanging. You could see Slim at the back, nose looking slightly busted. Rook was in the middle of them and although, you couldn’t really see him, you knew he was probably scuffed up. They all were in handcuffs, clanking as they moved to the front, near the gated door.

“Lady! I said sign here,” the woman said, snapping at you. You looked down at the six different sheets.

“Sorry,” you mumbled, taking a pen from her. Signing off on all the documents, you pushed them back her way.

“Mike, they’re good to go,” the woman motioned, and you heard a buzz. Walking to the gated door, you stood back as it swung open.

Colson got uncuffed first, rubbing at his wrists. Your eyes widened at his knuckles, swollen and purple. Stepping out, he came to stand behind you, murmuring a soft, “Thanks.”

Rook was next, and you sighed, seeing his black eye. He looked up at you, eyes watering and you quickly pulled him in for a hug.

“You okay?” you asked, patting his back.

“Yeah, this is so fucked,” he muttered and you let out a little laugh as he sniffed.

“You’re lucky I won’t tell dad about this,” you responded, pushing him slightly as Slim stepped out.

“Y/N! You’re the best,” he boomed, as he leaned down for a hug. You gave him a quick one, head turning as you smelled the alcohol wafting off of him.

“Thanks Mike,” you said, arms shoving the three of them towards the exit. They all stumbled outside and you waited until the door of the office closed before turning to face them.

“What the FUCK. You’re all drunk, busted up, falling on top of each other, in fucking JAIL!” you shouted, arms waving around as they stood there.

“What’d you shitheads do?” you barked at them, eyes focusing on Colson, who was avoiding your gaze.

“Y/N, chillll,” Slim mumbled, swaying slightly.

“Oh fuck no,” you scoffed.

“I’ll tell you everything. Can we just get home?” Colson quietly muttered. He spared you a glance, eyes slightly red.

You called another Lyft, sitting down on the front steps of the station. Rook sat next to you, head falling on your shoulder.

“Don’t blame him Y/N,” he said, hand hitting your knee.

“J,” you started, “You wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for him.”

“That’s not true. We both know that,” Rook responded and you looked up at the sky, hoping you had enough patience to deal with this.

Sitting in the passenger seat, you stared at the driver’s mirror, watching the boys in the back. Slim had slumped against the leather, eyes closed. Rook was half on top of him, mouth open as he drooled. Colson was the only one awake, biting his lip staring out the window.

A part of you wanted to yell at him, scold him for getting your little brother tangled up with this lifestyle, being a bad influence. But another part of you wanted to give him a hug, stroke his hair off his forehead. And then there was a teeny, tiny part of you that wanted to kiss his stupid, chapped lips, play with his broken fingers, hold ice against his purpled knuckles.

That part of you was new. You had always thought you hated Colson, despised him for messing up Rook’s life, and that’s why you two were always biting at each other. But then this weekend, he had hurled his usual insults and you’d seen something sparkle in his eye. And then you’d both gotten fucked up off of ecstasy and he whispered your name, and all of a sudden all you could think about was him on top of you, panting out your name over and over again. You’d run off to bed then, claiming that you were tired, but really you were overthinking every single interaction you’d had with Colson since knowing him.

Pulling up to the hotel, you thanked the driver. Opening the back door, you helped the three idiots, trying to keep their limbs in check as they sleepily slumped out. Colson was the last one, slamming the door closed before throwing you a weak smile. Holding up Slim, he asked, “I’ll make sure he gets back to his room. You trust me enough for that?”

You nodded, wrapping Rook’s arm around your neck so you could lift him slightly. “Can we talk before you go to bed?” you pushed, knowing that if you put this off until tomorrow, the conversation wouldn’t happen. He wasn’t sober, but this was the closest you would get to hearing the entire story of tonight without all three of the guys changing around details.

“Yeah, come over after Rookie’s in bed,” he murmured over his shoulder. You smiled at the use of Rook’s little nickname, and then caught yourself quickly, throwing a neutral face back on. Getting into the elevator, you suddenly felt exhausted, the night taking a toll on you.

Stomach grumbling as soon as you pushed Rook into bed, you looked around the floor for any snack machines. Remembering the cereal box you had stolen from breakfast back in your room, you went upstairs. Reaching your door, you stood in front, rooting around in your purse for the key card. Coming up empty, you frowned, trying again to feel the cool piece of plastic. Nothing.

Then, it hit you. You had left the key on the table next to your hotel bed, taking it out of your purse since this was supposed to be your last night here. “Fuck,” you muttered, rushing to the elevator door. Walking out into the lobby, you went to the front desk, only to see it empty. There was nobody around to talk to and you let out another curse as your phone buzzed.

Colson Baker: you can come over. room 536.

Deciding to go up first, you got back on the elevator, praying for an easy talk. Knocking on the door, you edged it open before walking in. Colson sat on his bed, leaning against the backboard. His long legs were stretched out in front of him and he’d kicked off his shoes, socked feet crossed at the end. He was holding a jar of peanut butter in one hand and a spoon in the other, and you pushed his feet aside as you plopped on the edge of his bed.

“Pass the peanut butter?” you asked, gesturing to the jar in his hand. He snorted before leaning off the backboard to give it over. Taking the jar, you hesitated before reaching over to take his spoon too. Dipping it in, you scooped up a nice spoonful before eating it.

“Mmhm, I’m starving,” you murmured between thick peanut butter.

“Me too, give it back,” he said, arm reaching out as you moved back out of reach.

“Nope. Not until you explain this shitty situation,” you said, smiling sweetly as you took another spoonful.

He sighed before leaning back fully, hand rubbing over his face. He had a little bit of stubble, highlighted by the dim yellow of the lamp. His knuckles looked worse here, deep purple and you reached out before you could help yourself. Bringing his hand up to your eyes, you ran a finger over the bruises.

“Colson,” you sighed out and he shifted a little, sitting upright so that he was closer to you.

“I know,” he started, and you looked up at him.

“What happened,” you asked, letting his hand drop in between you both.

“We were at a bar. I was fucked up already. Slim and Rook had smoked a little, but then they drank and got crossed. There was a group of girls and we danced around a little, but they didn’t want to do anything so we backed off. Then, these guys started getting all up on them and they weren’t listening, so I threw a punch. Things get kinda hazy after that,” he ended, eyes staring straight at you.

You didn’t say anything, processing the information. Of fucking course they had started a bar fight. Biting your cheek, you asked, “And then you got arrested?”

“I guess. Next thing I know, I’m in fucking handcuffs and we’re getting pulled out of the bar. Rookie freaked out, tried to call you once we got there. And then they let me go, so I tried again and you picked up,” he mumbled, pressing down on his own knuckles.

“Okay,” you breathed out, “I’m not going to yell at you.”

He snorted at that, leaning back, putting both his arms above his head.

“But the next time I get a fucking call from jail, I’m leaving you all to rot there,” you finished, putting the peanut butter jar on the bed, towards him.

“Noted,” he nodded, closing his eyes.

Taking in his appearance, you grimaced at the state of his hands. Picking up his key card from the nightstand, you got up. You left the room with an ice bucket before he could even realize, walking to the machine on the floor. Gathering a few ice cubes, you unlocked his door, walking back in.

“Where’d you go,” he mustered out, sounding a little hoarse.

“Ice,” you responded, before taking a few tissues from the desk. Making a makeshift ice pack, you sat back on the bed.

Carefully reaching for his arms, you pulled one down. He extended his fingers, looking down at them himself.

“Yeah, I guess I fucked myself over bad,” he said, moving his fingers slowly.

“You’re an asshole who can’t stop himself,” you responded, gingerly laying the ice across his knuckles. He winced a little and you lifted it up.

“Keep it there, feels good,” he mumbled, using his other hand to guide yours back to his bruises.

Looking up, you made eye contact and the world softened its edges for a second.

Kicking into a panic, you quickly moved back, pulling your hand out. He gripped on the tissue ice pack, confused. You let out a breath before getting up, walking over to the desk where the hotel phone sat. Finding the reception number, you picked up the phone, dialing in the numbers. Crossing your fingers, you were on the line for a second before the message started up,” We’re sorry. No one is available at this time.”

“Fuck,” you muttered, slamming down the phone.

“What,” Colson asked, and you looked over at the bed. His eyes were closed, the ice pack sitting on the nightstand, creating a little puddle.

“I locked myself out of my room, no one’s downstairs,” you explained, reaching for your cell phone. His eyes opened at that, and you saw him looking as you called Rook.

“Of course he isn’t picking up,” you muttered to yourself. It would be so easy to just fall asleep in your brother’s bed, living like you were kids again.

“Rook’s dead to the world,” Colson mumbled out as he slowly got up. You saw him moving and you paused, mid-pace.

“Just stay here. I’ll sleep on the floor or something,” he said, reaching up to stretch. His shirt rode up a little and you saw the triple X tattoo peeking out his waistband, tempting you.

“You can’t sleep on the floor, you just got beat up dude. Take the bed, I’ll sleep in the bathtub or something. Throw me a pillow,” you stated, shrugging off your jacket.

He gave you a look before shaking his head. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. Just stay on the bed,” he said, pulling one of the sheets off.

“No. I wanna sleep in the bathtub,” you threw back, reaching for the sheet from him.

“You’re gonna fight me on this too?” he asked, letting go of the sheet as you stumbled a little.

“It’s not that serious Colson. Go the fuck to sleep,” you spat out, turning around to the bathroom.

Walking in, you paused a little as your socked feet hit the cold tiles. The bathtub wasn’t really big, covered in a layer of grime. Trying to figure out a way to clean it up, you searched around, eyes only finding the little complimentary bottles of shampoo.

Stepping back out of the bathroom, you saw Colson already in the bed. The covers were pulled up to his head, blonde tuft sticking out. You knew he wasn’t asleep, hearing the sounds of his phone under the blanket.

There were two options here: you could either lay on the dirty floor, covered in stickiness from everyone’s bar-laced Converses or you could get in bed with him. The right choice was evident, and you reminded yourself exactly why you couldn’t stand him before moving over to the other side of the bed.

Placing the pillow you had taken back down on the bed, you laid the sheet down. You couldn’t really see Colson, he had taken over one side of the bed and you knew that he probably wasn’t sure that you were there. Nudging his shoulder, you lifted the covers from his head.

He looked up at you once, then saw the pillow right next to him. Shifting so that he was fully facing you, he grinned before saying, “Sleeping with me tonight?”

“God, could you be any more fucking annoying,” you muttered, sitting on the side of the bed.

“I’m just stating the facts,” he said, hands rubbing over his bare chest. You glared at him, before getting up and grabbing his white shirt from the desk.

Throwing it to him, you barked, “Put it back on.”

He gave you an incredulous look, before shrugging it on.

“Happy now? Thin cotton makes a great barrier,” he scoffed.

You looked at him once before grinning, muttering, “Just peachy.”

Getting into bed, you brought your knees close up to your chest. This was a comfortable position for you, and you wrapped an arm around yourself before mumbling out, “Stay on your side or I’ll cut your balls off.”

Not even waiting for a response, you let your eyes close. You had tired yourself out with this adventure, and within seconds you were sleeping.

Waking up an hour later, you blinked your eyes at the harsh light coming through the opened curtains. You had a pounding headache, letting out a little groan as you shifted. Moving just a little, you felt something slump over your waist. Lifting the covers, you saw Colson’s hand, leaning against your hip, heat radiating off of it. Your heart stuttered a little, before you slightly moved it off of yourself.

A minute later, you decided to get up for the day. You wanted to check with the receptionist to see if you could get back into your own hotel room. Pushing yourself up, you turned just a little to look at Colson’s sleeping form.

His head was smashed into the pillow, hair flopping over his forehead. One of his hands was outstretched, reaching towards you while the other was wrapped around his own torso. He looked peaceful, eyes closed, mouth slightly open. Taking in the sight of a quiet, angelic Colson Baker, you smiled before getting off the bed.

Walking over to the phone, you called the number again, twirling the cord as you looked through the window at the vacant parking lot.

“Portland’s Finest. How can we help you Mr.Baker?” a voice spoke, tinny through the phone.

“Oh hi, I um- I’m Y/N. I locked myself out of my room,” you mumbled into the line.

“Oh, sorry about that Ms. Y/N. Why don’t you come down here and we can figure this out,” the receptionist spoke and you responded quickly, hanging up the line.

Grabbing your purse, you pulled on your shoes. Picking up your coat, you passed Colson sleeping as you stood at the door. Waiting for a second, you shuffled back to the bed, leaning down. Kissing his forehead quickly, you sighed before walking out the door. It was going to be a long day.

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caswlw · 3 years

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ok but like the income/financial situation thing...i recommend looking up NYT's The Middle Class Crunch (https://www(.)nytimes(.)com/interactive/2019/10/03/your-money/middle-class-income.html). people kind of ignore personal choices and i get that it can be uncomfortable but they are very, very important. where you choose to live, house size (which massively affects your utility bill and the amount of space-filling stuff you buy), the car(s) you have, how frequently all those things change. also habits, e.g. regularly buying expensive alcohol is normalised in upper-middle-class economic tiers and that can EASILY cost hundreds a month. same thing with eating out/ordering in. america in particular has such a fucked-up idea of living within one's means that a lot of people struggle unnecessarily. i firmly maintain that folks making upward of 100k could live comfortably if they had an older (but fuel-efficient) car, lived in a smaller house, and bought less shit (especially on credit cards--cc debt will put you in the hole for a long time). like yes it's fucked that healthcare and college cost what they do in the us. that is something that needs to be fixed with policy, not personal choices. however, people COULD make better choices for their own individual situation a lot of the time. the average american dies in $62k of debt and i recommend looking up the breakdown bc $25k of that is student loans but $17k is auto loans. fundamentally, income, financial situation, and standards of living are deeply influenced by how you are raised. none of this is meant to be a personal critique bc i don't know you or your life, but you see your parents' financial situation through the lens of someone who has grown up in that situation. the things your parents choose to spend money on may not strike you as conscious decisions bc they're parts of your environment. it might be an interesting exercise to do a cost/budget breakdown on what your family spends every month on different things, and maybe compare it with the middle class crunch ones

this is like weirdly assuming but let’s go with it

i’d say that the situation a family like mine is in isnt normal !! a few years ago we were pretty solidly normal middle class and then fast forward a few years and we’re on our way to that cusp of upper class and based on what my mom thinks, over that bump by the time i’m out of college in 2026

but like ? some of these suggestions aren’t feasible ? like we Have to move to certain locations bc my dad’s job has yanked us around to work in spec areas and if ur talking good schools that means housing costs go up immensely. we only every had enough cars for both of my parents and they’re both cheaper than what they can definitely afford until my dad inherited his dad’s cars a few months back which aren’t like. in use or anything. they don’t drink, we never vacation, and our house is the size for the shit we buy and def can afford bc since both my parents grew up pretty poor and my mom is an immigrant they are insanely careful when it comes to spending money and carefully documenting literally Every single time they spend anything in this mass taxes spreadsheet system 😩 they’re still paying off student loans and w my mom’s job we’re lucky to have pretty good health insurance to cover my poor dad’s insane bills and they still have time to do hobbies w money that’s specifically budgeted out for them to do so and bc this is newer money we’re coming into- there’s no college fund set up for me ! it’s all just up in the air and bc my parents have a perception of college from 30 years ago they’re expecting it to be wayyyy less than the insane amount college actually is rn and u can poke holes in their system all u want but as far as my family goes we’re considered living more frugal !! so like. yeah an article put it down for u like that but i’m pretty aware that if my family went from Solid middle class and no where near upper to where we are now bc they can handle money- it’s just the college is an out of left field new contender that’s more expensive than it would’ve been if we never left a job my dad took a few years ago due to financial aid n stuff so i Get it but. i know what my family is struggling with ok?

#both my mom and dad grew up poor and every single one of their siblings is making six figures rn and they think we aren’t living Enough #like! they’re frugal people and didn’t even do OOS college when They went #like. my parents have gone from u can’t buy that it’s too expensive to a $20 shirt to buying me clothes when i ask bc it’s in the budget #college is just. new and Bad #anon #long post

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currentfandomkick · 5 years

Text

Bio! Dad Strange Part 9

Jason returns, may be a 2 parter to cover tim getting kidnapped and the aftermath. Will let you know at the end. We are getting to Marinette dealing with Ladybugging soon.

Marinette wasnt sure what to think this year. She met The Barry Allen last year. She also figured out 2 heroes pre-flash revelation and two more after—in her defense Hero Stalker’s old theory on The first Robin did Batman in. it is not her fault 5 founding members have the multiple-persona game of a booger.

She was also Tetch (Mad Hatter. Doesnt deserve the name) and Mr. J’s, Jerimah’s, last victim before they died. Then some idiots revived Jerimah. She hates his cult a lot, okay.

Everyone was on high alert and trying to keep her inside. The thing is, she hates being inside. She’s inside for designing, sure. Research? She’ll live.

But 24/7 inside time?

Never a good combo with her.

Rose’s plants may be snitches, but they seemed to agree on the over coddling. She’s ten, can break phones by tapping them, and is defiantely more off her stickers than on at the moment.

The one on her was uring her into some alleyway. If she was reading the movement pattern right, a gang fight.

Lovely, she usually did these with some sort of supervision but they were all being rude and she needed time outside.

She checked her belt, a few pairs of ball weights tied together with one chain each to make bolas clipped to back. She has a taser in hand, and a few rubber bullet loaded gun on one hip and a stun gun her size in the other. She had a packet of zipties and rope up each sleeve. Easy to giftwrap and humiliate bad people, like Batman does.

She blinked once when she saw—new player? In a bright red full face helmet that looks horrible. And he’s holding that gun make all wrong to max out usage. Ugh, amatuers.

Some part of her groaned about a potential run-in with Batman and his new Robin—she was pissed about Tim not telling her still—and decided this was as good an anger management as any. New vigilante, maybe the sirens would help him find a team.

She snuck up behind a few members, quick to grab the guns and move them out of reach. No need to give anyone playing possum an easy out, right—she saw a mix of her people in with the gang. She needed to teip this guy up before he hurt the RKC street kids and honoraries tangled up in this.

“Hey helmet, if you’re gonna shoot them you’re holding the gun wrong.”

Helmet turned to see her. She didnt grab her usual harley-knock off outfit for helping today. She wanted to be Pixie Pop for a bit. And if the Rogues forgot that she’s Pixie well, better for her, right? Pixie just wore her hair like Tinkerbell and wore a bit of green.

The guy he was aiming at made to run.

Marinette grabbed a makeshift bolas and threw it at his knees. She recognized him from one of the RKC hit lists—human trafficker. He fell with them wrapped around tight and defiantely injured bith his knees with how the weights hit him.

“I, Pixie Pop?” Weird, no one had seen her as Pixie in two years. How’d he know it was her?

“Yeah. Havent been around much lately.” She threw another bola at another guy. “You new?”

“Talk after i kill these guys.”

Marinette rolled her eyes, because really?

She threw a knife to screw his aim into non-lethal on one guy. “Kick their ass first, some RKC are in here.”

Helmet oddly did as she said, switching from guns to—is that. A. Sword?

She twisted to punch the guy sneaking up on her. Helmet threw a sword and landed it in his shoulder.

“Thanks!”

“Holy shot you’re really here this time.”

“Did you get hit with feargas as a baby or something?” Her partner being prone to dellusions and good with weapons was a bad thing.

“Just came back from the dead is all.”

marinette hit the guy going for helmet with her stun gun.

“That’ll do it!”

Helmet turned to one of the guys, gun at the ready. She had a feeling Helmet needed a lot of help, or else one of Rose’s agents would be down.

“If you know about pixies, you should know she got an upgrade to having some trust dust.”

Marinette walked over to the guy, letting her tracker plant take a look. The flower bloomed and he got a face full of ‘filter-less pollen’ that’s as close to a truth serum as Rose could make. After all, people can turn sides.

“Truth pollen?” Helmet was staring at her closely.

“Yep.” Marinette turned to her victim. “Are you helping the traffickers?”

“Does infiltration and killing them count as helping?”

Helmet stared at them then.

“Which team?”

“HKT ma’am. How did you get rose to give you one of those?”

“Think for a minute who she gives these to.”

“Comanding officers of the the RKC reconn and interigation but there’s only 15 and i met them all when i joined in the fall.”

“Im the summer help when theyre not puppy gaurding. Now, i have to do zipties on the traffickers, think you can help?”

“I lost coordination from the pollen.”

“Of course you did.”

Marinette turned to see Helmet staring at her. Like she should be dead, not the new revival guy.

“Good enough.”

“I thought only Poison Ivy could do things like that.”

“I have a badass team, well, when they aren’t going overboard. One week kidnapped and suddenly im made of glass.”

“Pixie you are what, ten?”

“So? Two of my best friends went missing becuase no one stepped up, one of them resurfaced as an idiot a year later but still.”

Helmet stopped then. “Two?”

“Hero stalker went after our big brother vanished.. he came back as an idiot.”

Helmet paused. “Hey, you check the others and i’ll help you drop off the good ones at a doctor or something.”

“Zipties are at the ready. Mind doing your share?”

Helmet did as she asked, working with her until all was squared away.

“Okay, my tracker gave off a signal to the RKC to gather our guys here, and—why are bleeding?”

Helmet looked up at her then. “I am?”

“... you’re coming with me since i dont know if you need a transfusion, but i know a guy who can help.”

“I’m driving.”

“On what?”

“Motorcycle.”

Marinette let him walk her to it, and she got on first. He ‘drove’ them while the plant told her when to turn. They ended up at her dad’s clinic as ‘Mr. Smith’. He was so grounding her.

“Smith, i need help,” she tried.

Her dad came out and paled when he saw her carrying Helmet. Before he passed out he let her take it off. “Red hoodie... oh god he said he was revived.”

Her father worked out the blood bags while she checked the wound, bullet still in there. She got it out with tweezers. No major damage to the muscles and shit. How many scars did he have? Pre or post revival?

When he came to she turned to her father and said one thing.

“So this is my new brother. Dont try to get out of it, he kept me alive when i was comstantly pixie, and you said if he was in a bad place then you’d take him in, no questions asked.”

Strange sighed, nodded, and went back to fixing Helmet up.

The next day he was forced moved into an extra room by hers. Somehow there was already clothes his size and style in it.

“Pixie...”

“Im determined and my honorary aunt is a cat burglar.”

Helmet hugged her.

“So for the documents, what do you want to go by?”

Helmet said he didnt want it to be obvious, given who he was before.

“Its not like you were robin.”

“I was.”

“.... i know two robins now, pre-robining. What is my life?”

“ you are ten, calm down. And you knew dick?”

“Met him as Nightwing, not very friendly. But uh, remember hero stalker?”

“The idiot who followed me and B?”

“Yeah, so funny thing, it was a thing that he wanted to be Robin when you went off from Gotham, and then he somehow managed to convince bats to take him on.”

“That Child is Robin.”

“Will be another hero soon if he knows what’s good for him—he’s too easy to make.”

“Wait, you know who he is-is or—”

“I know 5 secret identities and want to lodge a formal complaint about heroes having no secret identity game.”

“Youre ten. I refuse to let you deal with legal things.”

“But illegal is still on the table?”

“I am a vigilante, of course it is.”

“Good, so can we tlak about how dumb Supes secret id is? I photoshoped glasses on as a joke and looked at my file and knew.”

“Wait have they found you yet?”

“No? I dont think so. Not the mom and step dad or father one yet.”

“But its.”

“I know, but i can keep multiple secret identities. They cant handle one. What is this bull they drop in my lap? No masks for two of them, and the three with cant even manage a basic gait switch?”

“I am so glad you noticed too.”

“Also we need to intervene with Hero Stalker.”

“Does your father know-know or...”

“Knows i know, but knows im not telling even in death.”

“Fair. So, heads up i am going to yell at the JL after killing B for impact.”

“How about beating him up instead and kidnapping Hero Stalker? Bats is fine just needs an adult working with him.”

“Maybe. If my mind wasnt so fucked i’d send the Dick a text or something about this, but i think he hates me so that probably wouldnt work.”

“We have planning time, that’s what my house arrest is good for. Now name.”

“... i want to go by Jay.”

“James work?”

“Sure.”

“James “Jay” Smith then. And we are fixing your vilagante outfit.”

“What’s wrong with it.”

“Your helmet has a nose. And the who this is shit for discreet armour. I’ll get a rant in fifteen on armor history from a fashion obsessed friend and make something for you using that, ok?”

“Do i have a choice?”

“I am your little sister offically. resistance is futile.”

—

So the long awaited return of Red Hoodie/Red Hood/Jason Todd.

For refrence (as age is weird here) Jason looks 14/15 here, but due to dead years is technically 18

Tim is 12

Marinette is 10

Dick is 20something.

Bruce is 30something

Heads up, this will be a two parter for this summer. As i love the next part but need sleep.

@ilovefluffbutsmutisalsogreat @emeraldpuffguide @dast218 @weird-pale-blonde-person @mystery-5-5

#maribat #maribat au #ml au #my au #my idea #marinette strange dupain cheng #marinette strange dupain cheng part 9 #bio! dad au #bio!dad strange #bio!dad au #this was so long guys #jason is back though #next one is chaos and tag-teaming and so much #its a ride and then we get ladybugging after

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rorysfm · 4 years

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hllo demons n nerds ! i’m sage, coming 2 u live frm the est gutters! i am... v excited to be here but i am literally the worst at intros so i’m jus gonna diiiiive right into rory below !

(ISABELLA JONES, CISFEMALE) - Have you seen AURORA LEBLANC? RORY is in HER SOPHOMORE year. The DANCE AND SOCIOLOGY MAJOR is 19 years old & is a LIBRA. People say SHE is LIVELY, MAGNETIC, IMPULSIVE and UNRELIABLE. Rumors say they’re a member of CALLOWAY. I heard from the gossip blog that HER PARENTS ARE COVERING UP THAT SHE WAS KICKED OUT OF YALE FOR PLAGIARISM AND NO OTHER IVY WOULD ACCEPT HER, SO THEY BOUGHT HER WAY INTO YATES

ok, so.. rory is a brand new muse of mine so.. pls bare w me while i sort her out. if u want to skip the mess below & just vibe check her.. here’s her pinterest!

BACKGROUND

born and raised in greenwood, south carolina to oliver and lauren leblanc. her parents were high school sweethearts who were voted most likely to get married and have a dozen kids running around

they stopped at 2 because they jus... their kids were a handful but rory will tell you they stopped after her bc they hit perfection :~)

her mom’s family teetered between lower-middle class, her mom entering a bunch of pageants to bring in some extra cash for them.

her dad’s side on the other hand, is where all the connections are baby!!

the leblancs come from a long long line of being wrapped up in the political world. governors, members of the state senate, mayors, advisers... you name it - a leblanc has had that position.

her dad’s goals were no different than the rest of his family’s ... some would say even bigger bc he wants to do what no other leblanc was able to do, which is... run for president. (yes hello.. rory as the future first daughter?)

growing up her parents were honestly... not the best. like above all else they put oliver’s career above their kids and it wasn’t not being there for an important recital, or a parent-teacher night; it was being there for all the wrong reasons.

every little thing they did was calculating to make the leblancs look like the perfect family. hugs and words of encouragement loud enough to filter through the room aimed at their darling children only for them to turn cold and criticise every single thing they did wrong as soon as they got into the car. it was pretty clear that oliver and lauren were a team, and their kids were just props.

when rory was 12, lauren started making monthly appointments at the hair salon to dye rory’s hair blonde... she had a standing appointment every tenth of the month to have her roots touched up

rory’s mom jus rly... pushed rory on her looks and enrolled her in pageants, debutante balls, anything that showed off rory’s looks... lauren pushed her towards it.

rory and her brother declan stayed in their hometown for school until college bc their parents thought it made them look like more of wholesome family so instead of sending them off to boarding schools in london or new york, they opted for private schools in south carolina

both of them were of course pushed into going to well renowned schools, their grandfather had pushed them into going to yates since he, himself had been part of calloway and they were practically legacies and while declan followed thru with it... rory watched the cinderella story one too many times and like hilary duff..... sis went to princeton for political science!!!

only it ended up in flames bc tbh she was like a bull in a china shop, the freedom of not having her parents around to judge every single thing she did? or pushing her into doing things she hated? she od’d on FREEDOM. rory rly just did her own thing, kinda spiralled out of control.. never hard drugs but lots of drinking and partying.

she ended up getting put on probation and was flunking nearly every course. the pressure really got to her (like she knew her parents would get involved if you got kicked out or if she failed all her courses) so she ended up plagiarising an essay ... but gueSS what!! she was caught and her parents got involved anyways.

her parents ended up being able to keep things ... quiet by paying off the teacher that had caught her. the dean also agreed to stay mum about it (after accepting a hefty cheque), so nothing ever went of her record, nothing would ever be documented of this mishap.

but... it’s likely people still talk and while rumors can’t be proven, it still stopped rory from getting into yale, harvard and columbia when she tried

finally with her grandfather’s pull and the promise to build yates a new library with the next 5 years... rory was accepted just as declan had graduated.

PRESENT

pulled up to yates in her vintage baby blue mercedes benz convertible from the 60′s

she’s brand new to yates, and switched out of political science.

out of all the activities and hobbies that her parents tried to push her into, dance was the only one she actually enjoyed doing and fell in love with

her parents let her major in it, as long as she did a double major.. so sis took sociology because why not?

spent her summer dancing with the new york ballet company in their production of a midsummer’s night dream.

honestly.. loved it but also was lowkey bummed out she missed out on a proper summer

right before declan had graduated, rory had come up for a campus tour and ended up partying at yates for a weekend

probably got herself into a bit of trouble, and probably made a nice little impression on a few people!

PERSONALITY

honestly.. chaotic good. she’s always been a little more on the wilder side than declan.. a little more carefree and daring and just always needed to be told to behave

in fact has a tattoo that says BEHAVE on her forearm, that she got one night back in princeton.

that said, she’s very good at playing her part in the family

dubbed as the golden girl... bc she is just that kind of girl that has a magnetic pull to her, a smile that could combat the sun and just naturally very charming and genuinely nice?? very good a convincing you without being manipulative about it

does only angel by harry styles play when she walks in the room? possibly.

the kind of girl that you spend weeks thinking about after one (1) conversation

still gets her hair dyed blonde the 10th of every month, bc her mother has convinced her she is just not meant to be a brunette :/

honestly.. she’s insecure abt a lot of things because of her mom :/

has really great posture and etiquette from all those pageant days. also really good at making cranes out of dinner napkins from being bored at functions her parents forced her to go to

would probably throw hands if she caught someone talking badly abt her brother bc she’s protective of him

very much a hopeless romantic, gets heart eyes very easily and likes to chase until it isn’t fun anymore and falls in love with multiple people a day.

tragically likes country music :/

promised her brother she wld.. try to be good and stay out of trouble but i reckon.... she won’t plagiarize an essay ever again but everything else? the partying? fair game.

CONNECTIONS

tbh i will take anything yall will give me... i am @ ur service serving rory on a silver platter to u

i’m also big on chemistry so we can just see where things go as well since rory is new to yates this could be fun!!

a few people she met while she was visiting last year.. someone she clicked with and they stayed in touch, maybe someone she flirted with but doesn’t remember then (even tho she’ll pretend she does!), someone she hooked up with perhaps? someone she spent all night talking to?

a brother’s friend she’s met a couple times?

good influence/bad influence

family friends

family rivals

cousins could be fun

a roommate

a tutor?

tinder matches? hook ups, flirtationship .. anything angsty!!

friends!! pleathe i will take them all.. a girl squad would also be quite fun!

ok.. that’s all tht my lil brain can come up with.. im sorry this is so long and such a mess but hmu if you’d like to plot!!

#yatesintro #omg whew chile.. this got so long #im so sorry #4 this and 4 this mess

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ofcatalysis · 4 years

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^^^ we’re vibing, we really out here vibing. hi everyone ! my name is reed, i’m 19 years old, chillin’ in the est timezone, and use they/she pronouns (the more you alternate, the more i’ll fall in love with you!). click that funky lil keep reading to learn more about this fucking bitch ! also, feel free to click around her blog to read some more headcanons and see the non-bio i wrote if ur so inclined !

skeleton: the eye in the sky

name: indiana “indie” ascencio

age: 27

gender: cis female

pronouns: she/her

faceclaim: ana de armas but like specifically ana de armas with pink hair

HISTORY / PINTEREST / WHOLE ASS APP

yes, she was named after indiana jones. her parents met during production of the raiders of the lost ark where her dad worked as a production artist and her mom worked as a props assistant. they credit the movie for being the reason they met, fell in love, and had a child in the first place, so it only felt natural for her to be named after the movie.

fun fact, she was originally supposed to be a boy and they were going to name her harrison, but when it was revealed to them that she was a girl, they decided to go with indiana instead

she picked up a knack for technology almost immediately, taking to every new device that her parents brought into their home. she used to get in trouble with her babysitters for sneaking out of her room to spend time in the computer room, playing with word art on empty microsoft word documents and searching for pictures of dogs online

during a computer science class her freshman year, she was the only woman in the class and her teacher resented her for it. he made some comment during the semester about how a woman would never pass his class. she brought it to the principal, who said he couldn’t do anything about it, so she hacked into the grading system and changed her grade herself

she recognized the power of knowledge almost immediately, as well as the power of being understated. her teacher would never suspect her to have been the one who changed her grade, he didn’t think she was smart enough and when the boy who sat next to her in class got in trouble and expelled instead of her, she vowed to never do it again unless she really needed to. from this experience, she learned the power of being underestimated

this promise to herself lasted less than a year, when she suspected that her boyfriend was cheating during her sophomore year. he assured her that he wasn’t, that the texts he kept getting were from his mom. a part of her didn’t believe him, and so she hacked into his cell phone provider and read the texts to his ex that dated all the way back to the beginning of his and indie’s relationship. from this, she learned to always trust her gut

although she told herself she should stop before things got out of control, during her junior prom, the music was so boring and the computer lab was right down the hall and it would be so easy to get into the dj’s software and change the playlist and before she knew it, she was in front of a computer and the music blaring from down the hall shifted into something else entirely. from this, she learned to stop running from what she was good at

this began a long fight with her parents, who always wanted her to go into special effects work and work with them in the movie business, but after long talks and lots of back and forth they finally agreed to support her decision to go to college and major in mathematics with computer science, the full ride to m.i.t. didn’t hurt either

college for indie was a breeze. with her skillset, she was already far ahead of the other individuals in her classes as far as programming went, and so often times she found herself hacking for fun to keep herself entertained

during sophomore year, she found an online puzzle called cicada 3301, ended up solving it, was put in a forum of people who solved it, and when the forum was deleted soon after she thought nothing was going to ever come of it, but when the mastermind contacted her, they got her name from a list of people who finished the puzzle

she currently has a day job working for continga soft, a new orleans based software development firm, as a software engineer, but she’s worked in the IT departments of a few different companies over the years, and also does freelance website and app design when she feels like it

WANTED CONNECTIONS

roommates in new orleans ! indie is an extrovert and hates being on her own so if anyone wants to live in the city with one of the most unorganized people u have ever met in ur life, lmk !

hacking lessons with professor indie ! maybe ur muse wants to learn more about hacking and programming for fun or bc they want to contribute more to the heists or maybe they just like spending time with indie (i don’t blame them, she’s great)

exes/ex hookup/current hookup ! she’s very queer so this is open to everyone ! maybe they were dating/hooking up but decided to stop bc they didn’t wanna make things weird for the team. maybe they are currently hooking up to fill the void in her heart left by the mastermind’s unwillingness to just ask her on a date already, who knows? but this could b very spicy very fun

these are just a couple ideas i have but i’m up for anything ! let’s get spicy !

#heistintro #first #but i wrote my intro for my app so it doesn't really count

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innuendostudios · 6 years

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Research Masterpost

This is my research list for The Alt-Right Playbook. It is a living document - I am typically adding sources faster than I am finishing the ones already on it. Notes and links below the list. Also, please note this does not include the hundreds of articles and essays I’ve read that also inform the videos - this is books, reports, and a few documentaries.

Legend: Titles in bold -> finished Titles in italics -> partially finished *** -> livetweeted as part of #IanLivetweetsHisResearch (asterisks will be a link) The book I am currently reading will be marked as such.

Media Manipulation & Disinformation Online, by Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis Alternative Influence, by Rebecca Lewis The Authoritarians, by Bob Altemeyer*** Eclipse of Reason, by Max Horkheimer Civility in the Digital Age, by Andrea Weckerle The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt On Revolution, by Hannah Arendt Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein How Propaganda Works, by Jason Stanley*** This is an Uprising, by Mark and Paul Engler Neoreaction a Basilisk, by Elizabeth Sandifer This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed, by Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson Healing from Hate, by Michael Kimmel The Brainwashing of my Dad, doc by Jen Senko On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt The Reactionary Mind, by Corey Robin*** Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram X. Kendi Fascism Today, by Shane Burley Indoctrination over Objectivity?, by Marrissa S. Ballard Ur-Fascism, by Umberto Eco Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, by Lindsay C. Gibson Anti-Semite and Jew, by Jean-Paul Sartre Alt-America, by David Neiwert*** The Dictator’s Handbook, by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith Terror, Love, and Brainwashing, by Alexandra Stein Kaputt, by Curzio Malaparte The Anatomy of Fascism, by Robert O. Paxton Neoliberalism and the Far Right, by Neil Davidson and Richard Saull Trolls Just Want to Have Fun, by Erin E. Buckels, et al The Entrepreneurial State, by Mariana Mazzucato

Media Manipulation & Disinformation Online, by Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis (free: link) A monstrously useful report from Data & Society which- coupled with Samuel R. Delany’s memoir The Motion of Light in Water - formed the backbone of the Mainstreaming video. I barely scratched the surface of how many techniques the Far Right uses to inflate their power and influence. If you feel lost in a sea of Al-Right bullshit, this will at least help you understand how things got the way they are, and maybe help you discern truth from twaddle.

The Authoritarians, by Bob Altemeyer (free: link) (livetweets) A free book full of research from Bob Altemeyer’s decades of study into authoritarianism. Altemeyer writes conversationally, even jovially, peppering what could have been a dense and dry work with dad jokes. I wouldn’t say he’s funny (most dads aren’t), but it makes the book blessedly accessible. If you ever wanted a ton of data demonstrating that authoritarianism is deeply correlated with conservatism, this is the book. One of the most useful resources I’ve consumed so far, heavily influencing the entire series but most directly the video on White Fascism. Even has some suggestions for how to actually change the mind of a reactionary, which is kind of the Holy Grail of LeftTube.

(caveats: there is a point in the book where Altemeyer throws a little shade on George Lakoff, and I feel he slightly - though not egregiously - misrepresents Lakoff’s arguments)

Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff An extremely useful book about framing. Delves into the differences between the American Right and Left when it comes to messaging, how liberal politicians tend to have degrees in things like Political Science and Rhetoric, where conservatives far more often have degrees in Marketing. This leads to two different cultures, where liberals have Enlightenment-style beliefs that all you need is good ideas and conservatives know an idea will only be popular if you know how to sell it. He gets into the nuts and bolts of how to keep control of a narrative, because the truth is only effective if the audience recognizes it as such. Kind of staggering how many Democrats swear by this book while blatantly taking none of its advice. Lakoff has been all over the series since the first proper video.

(caveats: several. Lakoff seemingly believes the main difference between the Right and Left is in our default frames, and that swaying conservatives amounts to little more than finding better ways to make the same arguments. he deeply underestimates the ideological divide between Parties, and some of his advice reads as tips for making debates more pleasant but no more productive. he also makes a passing comparison between conservatism and Islam that means well but is a gross and kinda racist false equivalence)

How Propaganda Works, by Jason Stanley (livetweets) A slog. Many useful concepts, and directly referenced in the White Fascism video. But could have said everything it needed to say in half as many pages. Stanley seems dedicated to framing everything in epistemological terms, not appealing to morality or sentiment, which means huge sections of the book are given over to “proving” democracy is a good thing using only philosophical concepts, when “democracy good” is probably something his readership already accepts. Also has a frustrating tendency to begin every paragraph with a brief summary of the previous paragraph. When he actually talks about, you know, how propaganda works, it’s very useful, and I don’t regret reading it. But I don’t entirely recommend it. Seems written for an imagined PhD review board. Might be better off reading my livetweets.

Neoreaction a Basilisk, by Elizabeth Sandier A trip. Similar to Jason Stanley, Sandifer is dedicated to “disproving” a number of Far Right ideologies - from transphobia to libertarianism to The Singularity - in purely philosophical terms. The difference is, she’s having fun with it. I won’t pretend the title essay - a 140-page mammoth - didn’t lose me several times, and someone had to remind which of its many threads was the thesis. And some stretches are dense, academic writing punctuated with vulgarity and (actually quite clever) jokes, which doesn’t always average out to the playfully heady tone she’s going for. But, still, frequently brilliant and never less than interesting. There is something genuinely cathartic about a book that begins with the premise that we all fear but won’t let ourselves meaningfully consider - that we will lose the fight with the Right and climate change is going to kill us all - and talks about what we can do in that event. I felt I didn’t even have to agree with the premise to feel strangely empowered by it. Informed the White Fascism video’s comments on transphobia as the next frontier of bigotry since failing to prevent marriage equality.

On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt Was surprised to find this isn’t properly a book, just a printed essay. Highly relevant passage that helped form my description of 4chan in The Card Says Moops: “What tends to go on in a bull session is that the participants try out various thoughts and attitudes in order to see how it feels to hear themselves saying such things and in order to discover how others respond, without its being assumed that they are committed to what they say: it is understood by everyone in a bull session that the statements people make do not necessarily reveal what they really believe or how they really feel. The main point is to make possible a high level of candor and an experimental or adventuresome approach to the subjects under discussion. Therefore provision is made for enjoying a certain irresponsibility, so that people will be encouraged to convey what is on their minds without too much anxiety that they will be held to it. [paragraph break] Each of the contributors to a bull session relies, in other words, upon a general recognition that what he expresses or says is not to be understood as being what he means wholeheartedly or believes unequivocally to be true. The purpose of the conversation is not to communicate beliefs.”

The Reactionary Mind, by Corey Robin (livetweets) Another freakishly useful book, and the basis for Always a Bigger Fish and The Origins of Conservatism. Jumping into the history of conservative thought, going all the way back to Thomas Hobbes, to stress that conservatism is, and always has been, about preserving social hierarchies and defending the powerful. Robin dissects thinkers who heavily influenced conservatism, from Edmund Burke and Friedrich Nietzsche to Carl Menger and Ayn Rand, and finally concluding with Trump himself. There’s a lot of insight into how the conservative mind works, though precious little comment on what we can do about it, which somewhat robs the book of a conclusion. Still, the way it bounces off of Don’t Think of an Elephant and The Authoritarians really brings the Right into focus.

Fascism Today, by Shane Burley Yet another influence on the White Fascism video. Bit of a mixed bag. The opening gives a proper definition of fascism, which is extremely useful. Then the main stretch delves into the landscape of modern fascism, from Alt-Right to Alt-Lite to neofolk pagans to the Proud Boys and on and on. Sometimes feels overly comprehensive, but insights abound on the intersections of all these belief systems (Burley pointing out that the Alt-Right is, in essence, the gentrification of working-class white nationalists like neo-Nazi skinheads and the KKK was a real eye-opener). But the full title is Fascism Today: What it is and How to End it, and it feels lacking in the second part. Final stretch mostly lists a bunch of efforts to address fascism that already exist, how they’ve historically been effective, and suggestions for getting involved. Precious few new ideas there. And maybe the truth is that we already have all the tools we need to fight fascism and we simply need to employ them, and being told so is just narratively unsatisfying. Or maybe it’s a structural problem with the book, that it doesn’t reveal a core to fascism the way Altemeyer reveals a core to authoritarianism and Robin reveals a core to conservatism, so I don’t come away feeling like I get fascism well enough to fight it. But, also, Burley makes it clear that modern fascism is a rapidly evolving virus, and being told that old ways are still the best ways isn’t very satisfying. If antifascism isn’t evolving at least as rapidly, it doesn’t seem like we’re going to win.

(caveats: myriad. for one, Burley repeatedly quotes Angela Nagle’s Kill All Normies, which does not inspire confidence. he also talks about “doxxing fascists” as a viable strategy without going into the differences between “linking a name to a face at a public event” and “hacking someone’s email to publicly reveal their bank information,” where the former is the strategy that fights fascism and the latter is vigilantism that is practiced widely on the Right and only by the worst actors on the Left. finally, the one section where Burley discusses an area I had already thoroughly researched was GamerGate, and he got quite a few facts wrong, which makes me question how accurate all the parts I hadn’t researched were. I don’t want to drive anyone away from the book, because it was still quite useful, but I recommend reading it only in concert with a lot of other sources so you don’t get a skewed perspective.)

Healing from Hate, by Michael Kimmel (Michael Kimmel, it turns out, is a scumbag. This book’s main thesis is that we need to look at violent extremism through the lens of toxic masculinity, so Kimmel’s toxic history with women is massively disappointing. Book itself is, in many ways, good, but, you know, retweets are not endorsement.)

A 4-part examination of how men get into violent extremism through the lens of the organizations that help them get out: EXIT in Germany and Sweden, Life After Hate in the US, and The Quilliam Foundation in Europe and North America. Emphasizing that entry into white nationalism - and, to an extent, jihadism - is less ideological than social. Young men enter these movements out of a need for community, purpose, and a place to put their anger. They feel displaced and mistreated by society - and often, very tangibly, are - and extremism offers a way to prove their manhood. Feelings of emasculation is a major theme. The actual politics of extremism are adopted gradually. They are, in a sense, the price of admission for the community and the sense of purpose. The most successful exit strategies are those that address these feelings of loneliness and emasculation and build social networks outside the movement, and not ones that address ideology first - the ideology tends to wither with the change in environment. The book itself can be a bit repetitive, but these observations are very enlightening.

(caveats: the final chapter on militant Islam is deeply flawed. Kimmel clearly didn’t get as much access to Qulliam as he had to EXIT and Life After Hate, so his data is based far less on direct interviews with counselors and former extremists and much more on other people’s research. despite the chapter stressing that a major source of Muslim alienation is racism, Kimmel focuses uncomfortably much on white voices - the majority of researchers he quotes are white Westerners, and the few interviews he manages are mostly with white converts to Islam rather than Arabs or South Asians. all in all, the research feels thinner, and his claims about militant Islam seem much more conjectural when they don’t read as echos of other people’s opinions.)

Terror, Love and Brainwashing, by Alexandra Stein A look at totalitarian governments and cults through the lens of attachment theory. While not explicitly about the Far Right, it’s interesting to see the overlap between this and Healing from Hate. Stein stresses that the control dynamics she discusses are not exclusive to cults, and are, in fact, the same ones as in abusive relationships; cults are just the most extreme version. So you can see many similar dynamics in Far Right organizations, like the Aryan Nations or the Proud Boys. It’s made me curious how many of these dynamics are in play in the distributed, less controlled environment of online extremism, and makes me want to look further into the subject before drawing conclusions.

(caveats: book is, as with How Propaganda Works, sometimes a slog and rather repetitive. I clocked a 4-page stretch in chapter 8 where Stein did not say a single thing that hadn’t been said multiple times in previous chapters. also, when talking about people coerced into highly-controlled lifestyles, she offhandedly includes “prostitutes” among them? it’s that liberal conflation of sex work and trafficking which is really not cool. this isn’t a major point, just something to notice while you read it.)

Alt-America, by David Neiwert (livetweets) A look at the actual formation of the Alt-Right, and the history that led up to it: the Militia and Patriot movements of the 90′s, the Tea Party, the rise of Alex Jones and Glenn Beck, and so on. Having been steeped in the rhetoric and tactics of the Far Right for so long, someone doing the work of sitting down and putting it all in chronological order is immensely helpful. Generally clear and well-written, too, and would be an easy read if not for how goddamn depressing the content is. Has an unfortunate final 7 pages, where Neiwert starts recommending actual policy. Falls into the usual “have empathetic conversations with genuine conservatives to turn them against the fascist wing taking over their party,” not recognizing the ways in which conservatism is continuous with fascism, nor the ways that trying to appeal to moderate conservatives alienates the people whose rights they deny. Means an extremely valuable book leaves a bad taste in the final stretch, but everything up to then is aces.

#the alt-right playbook #alt-right

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louu-7 · 4 years

Text

everything don’t know

on wattpad

CHAPTER 9:

I jump as my heart skips a beat before I look at Alyssa, shocked that she scared the hell out of me this way. “Girl... you freaked me out…”

“What the hell are you doing he-” Her face falls down when a though seems to cross her mind, her hand catch mine and she draws me towards my room before almost shutting the door with anger. I look at her, speechless, as her eyes are starring at me with rage. “What did I do? I just wanted to drink water, it’s the fourth time I wake up because of Dad’s footstep.”

“Why were you sitting on the stairs? Thara you can’t keep tabs on Dad, even less in the middle of the night.”

“I wasn’t listening, look at my face, I’m tired and I look like a damn zombie, and why would I listen to him, I don’t care of his little business, he does whatever he wants I don’t give a damn.” Her eyes don’t get off of me until I reopen my door to show her the exit.

I just wanna sleep, and yes I wanted to listen to these guys but obviously I can’t. And Alyssa’s gonna have me in her sight if I try again to listen to their conversation. “Well. Sweet dreams.”

“Maybe more sweet nightmares, let’s not forget that strangers are I in our house. But good night...”

I’m pacing up and down since half an hour, my legs are making the moves by themselves and I don’t need to think about walking because it became automatic. My brain is flat out, I can’t stop thinking about everything strange that’s happening lately, in other words, a lot of strange things.

My father’s and these men, the family meeting in the forbidden office and this stuff about rejecting me out of the business, I don’t know, it’s weird.

I have to talk about it to the group, even if they don’t believe me about the gold, which is completely intelligible because I don’t believe in it myself. My eyes are starring at my phone for a few minutes before I can’t stop my hand to take it and call Sarah. She’s certainly with the crew, we’re in the middle of the afternoon. “Heyy what’s up babe?”

“I have to talk to you all about something, are you with the crew right now?” I continue to walk in my room, agitated. “Yeah we’re all together. Something’s wrong?”

“Kind of. Let me go outside so nobody will hear me, I feel like they all have eyes on me lately, that’s fucking stressing me.”

“Thara is it serious like... I never felt you that tensed…”

“Gimme a sec.” I go downstairs to join the garden and be as far away as possible of the house. If they know that I suspect something I can say goodbye to my phone, computer and everything that can help me to communicate with the outside world. “OK, so, I surprised my whole family having a conversation in my Dad’s office last night, without me, and-”

“Are you calling because you think you’re neglected or because you really found something interesting to say?” JJ takes part in the discussion and I smile bitterly by hearing his remarks. “Just shut up and let me talk, it could be kind, thank you. So I was saying, they were together and, they talked about somethin weird, I heard a lot a whole stuff around some gold, and I know it’s crazy I didn’t understand any-”

“Wait what? Gold?” Sarah’s voice kind of shout out through the phone, making me wincing. “Yeah, gold. I know that’s not possible but-”

“At least we’re OK, that’s not possible, so why are you calling, really?” JJ’s cold tone got me gritting my teeth as the others make him stop. “Two men came in the middle of the night to talk with my Dad, I don’t think every parents are having little coffee with strangers while their family’s sleeping.”

A long silence follows my speaking and I can hear them letting out some sighs and, I also can feel them disturbed, kind of concerned. “OK and, what d’ya think ‘bout all this?” John B’s calm voice is making me raise my shoulders even if they can’t see it.

We all seem to start thinking about this weird stuff. I know there’s way weirdest things in life, but, they’re all strange lately in this house, and I don’t know if I can feel secure and in an honest family.

“Sooo, what do you wanna do?” I slightly sigh and whisper a little ‘I don’t know’, because I really have no idea of what should I do. Either I ask my parents, so they answer me, and I take the risk to only have lies as answer, or I look for answers by myself, and maybe with the crew’s help.

We talk about it for a little bit of time, more than I expected, and they kind of encourage me to make my own inquiries and find answers by myself. They’re even ready to help me, for the majority of them…

The call comes to an end and I come back inside of the house. They all seem to be gone, and it’s better this way, I don’t even know if I can trust them anymore, Alyssa’s behavior was so bizarre last night. Even if she helped me on the afternoon. I don’t understand her…

An open door in the corridor at my right catch my eye, and I frown. “What the…” I whisper in a sigh. One time is possible, not two times in less than a month. This door is never ever opened, and now it’s always opened. “It’s a fucking bad joke…”

“What did you said Miss?” Lucy asks from the kitchen. “Nothing, don’t pay attention to me, Lucy.” Because of her I have to be careful, but I can’t see this door totally opened and miss my chance.

I walk to the room, get in and close the door with kindness to look at everything around me. There’s this whole bunch of shelves, with so many old books, documents that comes from another century and… a lot of… I don’t know, it’s like my Dad’s looking for something.

To be honest, it feels like he’s completely crazy about this… thing that he’s looking for. The ‘gold’ maybe… I don’t know what to think anymore. My phone’s ringing in my back pocket makes me jump of surprise as I hang up the call. Sorry, Sarah…

‘girl why did you hang up on meee??’

‘sorry babe i’m in my dads office right now...’

‘omg, find sth?’

‘maps, documents, books and… i just notice sth, the name of my great great great great great grandfather’s a lot on the papers… idk why, weird…’

‘take pics and get out of here, ur in shit girl i’m stressing for uuuur lil ass’

She’s not wrong, I can take pictures of everything and observe it later. My heart is ready to stop at any moment if I’m not leaving this room right now, but there’s so much thing that it takes me almost ten minutes to take pics of everything I want. Then I get out, the silence is so loud in the house that it puts me under pressure…

I close the door and already have a plan, perfect to show my family that I’m not the bad little capricious girl, and that ‘I don’t care’ about their little business.

‘got pics, i’ll text u if I find sth weird, l8er’

I join my room and lock my door to be alone and peaceful. Now I have to figure out what all this means, because if I stay out of this little business any longer and that I know they’re constantly lying to me all along the day it’s gonna drive me crazy.

Like I said, the name of my great grandfather appears a lot. And with what I’m reading, I can say it’s only because he owned the vineyard between 1820 and 1905. He built this business with his father and son, and he was… pretty famous in this town. So the Abrams are living on this island since more than three centuries, that’s insane…

The fact that his name is everywhere is holding my attention, but I move on to something else. These documents are ‘proofs’ that there’s gold on this island, apparently, but, there’s nothing more. No name associated with this gold, no location, we don’t even know if it’s here, I mean, maybe it’s a trap so no one can find it. But it would be so stupid to hide a treasure and let nobody find it.

My phone vibrates as I receive a message from Kie.

‘giiirl!!! there’s a kegger tonight, ur in?’

‘my parents aren’t gonna let me come but enjoy it w/o me ;)’

‘nooo, ask ‘em anyway maybe they’re ok?’

‘ok i will, i let u know’

‘what bout ur dads office?’

‘not much except the name of one of my ancestor, weird stuff i think, have 2 look deeper into his history, i already have a plan’

‘great, we talk bout it tonight, i’m sure ur gonna come, l8r!’

I smile and sigh as I let myself fall on my bed, exhausted. What the hell is this family…

“Oh, Dad, your office was open today but I closed the door, I don’t think anybody get in.”

“And you, did you get in?” I look up at him and see in his eyes a bit of fear crossing his regard. “No, of course no, maybe that I sometimes break the rules, but not that one, I’m not crazy.”

“That’s my girl, thank you Thara.”

I smile a little and start to stare at him so he can understand that I wanna ask something. “What” He asks as if he already knew what I wanted to ask.

“Can you do me a favor? So there’s basically this party tonight, at the beach, and I would be so happy to go, even kooks are going say yes please! Just this time.” They all look at each other as the ambiance in the room suddenly change, becoming like they’re all on the same wavelenght. I frown and their silence is killing me, making me giving up as I walk to the stairs. “Thara, come back.”

A touch of hope is setting fire to my body, I need to go there to see them and let them see what I found and what’s strange, and also tell them about my plan.

“Alyssa’s coming with you, and you come back before 2pm.”

The smile on my face is getting wide and stop me from saying anything, I’m hugging my Dad before joining my room to text the crew and say them I’m coming. I can’t wait to see them, it’s been a few days that I can’t get out because of my Dad. Or because of me, and my little escape on John B’s birthday. But that’s OK.

‘i’m coming guys i’m so excited!!!’

I let my phone down on my bed and go get simple clothes in my closet because I didn’t put anything else but my pajamas today so… let’s say it’s only another unproductive day in my life. I choose denim destroyed shorts and a black bikini top. I shove a sweater in my bag, add my key because we never know maybe we’ll be locked outside, and I also put deodorant even if it’s never useful because I forget about it every time.

“When are we leaving?”

“Now, ready?” Alyssa arrives in my room, smiling and apparently really happy to come with me. “Yeah of course girl!”

We’re leaving the house, I ask the chauffeur to turn up the volume and we’re singing off key as the car��s running through the rich streets of Figure Eight. Once we’re arrived at the Cut, my smile widen as the music gets louder the more we move closer to the beach.

The sun’s setting in a beautiful color scale of red, orange and yellow. The sky is amazing and the party seems to be awesome. “Are your friends here?”

“Yeah, I’ve to talk to them, that’s confidential sorry babe.”

“What is it about?” She laughs a little and I do little more than raise my shoulders, with a little smile on my face. “Nothing. Don’t worry and have fun tonight, you’ll see that pogue kegger are really cool.”

“Yeah, OK, but don’t go to far away from this place please, I wanna keep an eye on you.”

“No problem.”

I hear my name the minute after we go through in the crowd, dancing and singing to the loud music, and Sarah, with Kie, run to me and grab my hands to take me to their spot where we’re gonna be able to talk in peace. “Later girl, have a great night!” Sarah shout out while looking at my sister as we leave her.

I can see the boys some meters away, John B’s making us signs with his arms, Pope’s doing the same, like idiots, and JJ’s… looking at us like a zombie would do. As usual when I’m here. I don’t know what’s wrong with me so he hates me that much, I never said anything nasty to him. I guess it’s because I’m a kook, but the girls are too…

“Boys we have to talk, right now.”

“’Bout what I think?” John B’s looking at us, waiting for an answer, as I raise my eyebrows.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking about but I think it’s what you think.” We smile and all sit in a little circle.

I take my phone in my back pocket and start my little recap of everything, and then I find the pictures in my gallery and show them as I continue with my theory, with my grandfather. They’re surprisingly all listening to me, and I all of a sudden feel important, and… not loved, but maybe that I’m part of this group more than I though. Great feelings in this blurry situation…

“So, you think your great great great great great grandpa’s involved in this gold thing?” Pope asks, looking at me as he raises his shoulders.

“Before I answer, can you tell me if you believe in this ‘gold thing’?”

They’re all looking at each other and finally looking back at me, their concerned and haunted eyes diving in mine give me goose bumps and I frown before I look away. “OK. Maybe don’t tell me... yeah, don’t tell me, I don’t wanna know.”

“I’ll tell you, but for now, we have something else to mind…” I agree by a nod of the head and we pay a little more attention to the pictures I took earlier in the day.

It’s been a while since we stopped talking about this ‘gold thing’, but the look of my sister’s constantly on me make me think she’s not enjoying the party at all… she looks like she’s waiting for something, or maybe someone… but I don’t think her Prince Charming is going to come here, in the Cut, to enjoy a kegger with pogues…

I’m about to stand and go talk to her to see how she’s doing when a hand grabs my shoulder with harsh, making me wincing and spinning around to see who’s behind me. My eyebrows are raising instantly when my eyes land on Nate. “I’m busy.”

A little smile’s drawing on his face as I feel all the eyes staring at us like a spectacle was ready to begin. What’s wrong with all of them, because the more I look at all the faces, the more I notice that they’re all kooks. “Did you hear me? I’m busy guys, leave us-”

“So after spitting in these fucking pogues faces you’re spitting on us? Fuck you Thara Abrams.” He snaps at me and the silence goes wild. “What’s your problem? You’re with ‘em now?”

“Why does it affects you, you never liked me and I never did so go back to your peaceful life of kooks.”

“Go fuck yourself dirty bitch!” A voice yells at me as others are doing the same, my heartbeats gets quicker and the voices end up by making me feel as little as shit. I’m standing here, surrounded by angry kooks, what a surprise when you think that I never spit in their faces of freaking rich. I’m one of them anyway, why would I do that…

“Shut the hell up and don’t forget where your asses are.” The booming voice of JJ resonate and is hushing everyone up. I shiver and an evil laugh comes out of Nate’s mouth, looking at me with rage and a bad smile on his face. “Listen I never said anything bad on you all so just have fun tonight.”

“So who said that we were rich assholes without brain?”

“Yeah, or that you were the only kook who were good to others?” The remarks go strong and everyone is adding his own comment on what I apparently said on them. “I heard that your parents locked you up because you were as dumb as a rock, so they were scared that you do something worthy of shit. I don’t-”

My brain stop to listen to these nasty comments that make a tear running on my cheek, slowly, as my feet take me somewhere I don’t even know. I walk, through the mob, shaking and in shock. ‘Slut’. ‘You disgust me, how can you say that on us and hang with these shit’. ‘You didn’t deserve to be born’.

hii! i'm so proud of this chapter i hope you liked it!! i'm doint my very best to write something great and this chapter makes me so happy!! moreover some plot ideas that i get lately are finally gonna b revealed so i hope it makes you as excited as i am, love uu, byye!

ps: sorry if i seem as excited, it's just that i'm really proud to challenge myself this way, it's something i never did, and i'm a lot under pressure bc of me, i'm scared not to be good enough so, tbh it could really help me to get your opinion, thank uu anyway for reading this story, and i hope you like it :3

#outerbanks #johnb #jj maybank #kiara carrera #pope heyward #sarah cameron #gold #secret #mystery #kook #pogue life #pogue #lies

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