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nightmaretyrantvantas · 5 years

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I am not my insecurities reflection- a truthful based oneshot

IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE PLEASE READ

Ok, this will be a long author’s note but please bare with me as this is very important for you to understand this oneshot. For some context here because I havent posted alot about her yet, this is a oneshot about my Dc oc Gracie Lucio, set kinda in the same universe(i guess) of the teen titans judas contract movie( with Damian as robin) and its a oneshot written partly out of a vent of my own body image issues and partly out of an expression of how I’ve learned to look past said issues slowly.

But this gets very angsty until the end

Now to give a bit more context for the piece itself. The oc herself, Gracie Lucio( because I havent posted any art of her yet) for the reader’s understanding, she is not human, she is a werewolf(it feeds into her story so dont get me started on it alot of research went into this aspect of her character and it plays into her body issues)and body wise looks similar to Dick in the first season of Young Justice. Shes a naturally thin figured , broader shouldered girl who could( if she really wanted to) pass as a feminine boy with short jaw/ barely chin length hair( think of a thick messy longish pixie cut of dark hair). So shes naturally lean and lanky and a little underdeveloped for a 13 year old girl and as a heroine she has toned muscles from years of hero work. Most wouldnt see her having too many insecurities about her body image and appearance, but in truth shes riddled with them. She ages a bit differently than humans, it takes her body longer to develop and even then in some areas it develops differently all together. She struggles to gain any extra weight or build up natural feminine curves, something she wants. She WANTS to look like other girls her age, with more developed and heavier bodies, with curves and more weight and an actual figure. But with a supernaturally high metabolism added on top of a already genetic based thin figure and a intense and sometimes rigorous training and workout routine plus her work as a heroine gives no leeway to gain really any extra weight, its always worked off one way or another. And this causes...comments to be made about why she looks that way by civilians. and though she never shows it publicly she takes many of these, usually not flattering and sometimes cruel and rude, comments to heart(much like I used to unfortunately) and it worsens her negative feelings. This is a small story of her seeing those problems and issues and trying to face and overcome them. This is more centered around Gracie and Dick and Jason and their platonic and sibling like relationship as they help her through her darker times( again, this is partly me expressing my own personal struggles with body image (which arent the exact same as the character but the language and the comments are very similar)and partly how those two helped inspire me to have more confidence in my body no matter what I look like) and also a deeper peek into her complex relationship with Damian(but thats not the biggest focus) Sorry this was so long I mightve info-dumped a little but its important to understand the story. I hope you guys enjoy?

This is also told in Gracie’s point of view

This will cover some pretty deep kinda issues like body image problems and over eating and weight loss/gain and mentions of eating disorders without really discussing them and bullying so if that upsets you in any way now is the best time to scroll past for your own sake, I dont want you to upset yourself over my crappy emotional writing

I do not look that bad.

That’s what I have to force my mind to accept as I look into the mirror, meeting my own aqua green eyes hesitantly.

I always hated looking in the mirror lately, especially after training or after bathing, like now as I stood in the middle of my room in a slightly loose training type sports bra and spandex shorts. I don’t even want to glance down at my body, out of fear for seeing the same thing I always do.

‘She so skinny...is she eating right’

‘She needs to eat more and gain some weight’

‘what a twig for a superhero’

‘how have bad guys not snapped her in half? Jesus Christ I could probably break her with a sneeze!’

‘What a bad influence shes setting for young girls with such an thin figure!’

‘I think He needs to eat more Christ that poor boy must be starving! Why isn’t Nightwing feeding him more’

The flashes of comments flooded my mind the moment my eyes flickered down to the rest of me. To my thin, unfeminine figure. My underdeveloped and flat birdcage of a chest. To my lanky, toned, too flat stomach. The pinched waist figure. The flat empty expanse I called hips that blended too well into my too dainty looking bony legs. I looked too fucking skinny. And maybe they were right...as a hero I was a role model to those younger than me, and I promoted a Bad Body Image for girls to idolize with my lanky boy figure.

And it was a horrible body type I had no goddamn control over.

My species was not an easy one to live as, especially not intermingled with humans. The team knew, the team understood, but the rest of the world didn’t. As a lupinotuum pectinem, or lycanthrope which in easy translation is simply “Werewolf”, my whole body inner workings were different. Most of my kind were naturally lean and thin, like tall healthily thin model athlete body types and in general the females, even alpha females, were practically born twig like almost. And on top of that our bodies developed....differently. I was not raised by a pack or by my own kind after age 8, so even I didn’t know the full extent but females bodies took longer to grow and it made it very hard for them to gain weight because of the unnaturally high metabolism. Add being a superhero who once trained under a certain league member to the mix and you go from being the “healthy and admirable” type of skinny to the “unhealthy and concerning”type of skinny.

I hated it, and I hated my body. I hated pictures of me from the neck down, because they all looked the same no matter who they were with. And I saw the comments everyone made. Whether its a surprise photo Garfield took dragging me into the picture to commemorate something or another or me taking pictures around Gotham or Blüdhaven with Dick on the social media Gar helped me set up, or even the rare photos I’d get to take with Jason or Damian or Tim and get to post. Every time the flood of comments were the same. The same things I now repeated over and over as I looked over my body angrily.

OMG look at that poor girl is she ok??? She looks like she needs to be hospitalized!

Christ almighty BB isn’t it too early to be posing with skeletons?? LOL

Dude not funny that girl must be anorexic or something.

Such a cute sibling couple but sweetie you need a fast food break to add some fat to those bones!

Fuck kid go eat something instead of taking pictures

Awwww you two look real happy! I hope you’re on the way to lunch or something!

Holy shit your guy’s size difference is so vast its almost worrying

how are you even alive with that little weight

Go eat some junk food or something before you pass out

OMG look at her shes so small and stick like! Her clothes look like they’re hanging off a scarecrow!

That girl cannot be healthy tell me someone is making her eat more

Every time its always the same damn thing....

I couldn’t do it anymore. I turned away from the mirror nearly in disgust and went back to changing into more casual clothes, bitterly noting how my clothes did in fact seem to hang awkwardly on my body as if I was too thin for them to fit correctly. Like they always did lately.

Ew look at her she looks so gross all stick-like like that!

What a fucking twig of a girl! Are those her ribs poking through her shirt??

Bitch go eat a fucking hamburger you need some damn food in you.

God that weight cant be healthy you need a doctor!!

“Kid? Yo kid you in there?” My head jerked up from the comments flooded screen of my phone to meet Jason’s eyes, catching the quirk of his eyebrow as he sat across the diner table from me. We were at a diner he favored whenever he came into town to visit, a little family owned treasure with delicious and greasy food and the sweetest staff on earth. We frequented the spot during his visits, our own personal little thing since we’d gotten closer. I plastered on a smile and ignored the slight narrow of those blue eyes, the small furrow of his brow got as I snapped off my phone and set it aside.

“Sorry Jay, BB tagged me in something dorky and I got distracted. So what were you saying?”

He didn’t believe me, and I didn’t blame him. I wasn’t the most convincing at that moment but I kept that damn plastic smile on my face and snagged some of his curly fries right in his face, making him crack a smile and smack my hand away from his tray.

“ Hands off my food, eat your own wolfie.” I rolled my eyes at the stupid nickname I’d been branded and let the plastic smile slowly be replaced by a more genuine one as we began chatting again, grabbing my over sized cheeseburger and finishing every last bite and moving onto the large fries and two milkshakes, hopelessly praying that maybe this time the calories would stick and trying to push away the comments to the back of my mind. I was with Jason and we were having a damn good time, and I wasn’t going to let those comments ruin his visit...not again.

You should be ashamed. All you’re doing is promoting bad eating habits looking like that.

You’re such a bad influence for young girls who idolize you with such a horribly unreachable appearance.

Shes too bony to ever be considered pretty

Does she have a eating disorder or something?

I stiffened instantly startled by a hand on my shoulder, turning off my phone instinctively and making the endless comments disappear into darkness before whoever could see them over my shoulder. The hand was big, calloused, and gentle and I felt myself relax as I looked up behind me with a smile.

“ Hey Dick, did you need something?” He smiled down at me with that big bright smile that made all the dark thoughts and feelings melt away and gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze, blue eyes meeting aqua green.

“ Well I was wondering if you’re doin’ anything right now or if you’d want to go catch dinner with Kori, Dami, and I. I noticed that you’d skipped your usual early dinner....” I wasn’t surprised he noticed, he normally did...

Once again that smile plastered itself on my face as I told him I’d love to, and to just let me go get changed into something better. I saw his hesitation at the fake smile, practically smelled it on him and prayed he wouldn’t bring it up right now, god please don’t ask now or I might just break...

Maybe god is listening because he didn’t mention it and just told me to meet them by the front doors of the tower in ten.

How are you not dead yet?

Jesus Christ stop promoting your eating disorder like its a good thing!

She looks so sickly is she ok? :(

Yeah shes sick, sick in the damn head for posting such disgusting pro-Ana pictures

How can you post pictures with a clear conscience looking like that?

Some “superhero”

I was wrong, no god was listening to me.

Dinner was rough to get through, even if it didn’t start that way.

For once I didn’t have to worry or dread possibly checking my phone for anything, I turned it off by the time we got to the restaurant. I even got a small compliment from Damian on our way in, though it was more a snark at me not tripping up the stairs. But it was Damian so I snapped right back with a smile, knowing he didn’t really mean it. Sitting beside Dick and across from Damian, I nudged his foot with mine in a silent gesture to cheer up even a little. He huffed through his nose but I saw his body relax and it made me relax. Those moments before the food came, our chatter and soft laughter as we looked over the menu, and the soothing knowledge knowing that Dick pulled me and Damian along to this dinner so we would go out on a date ourselves, ever the best brother and wingman. The mood was light and pleasant and I could see even the ever sharp and moody Dami lighten up a little by the time we ordered. Maybe the mood shifted into something different as we waited for our food and I was sipping on my tall glass of iced cola, when Damian’s fingers casually brushed over the top of my unused hand that laid peacefully on the table. The gesture was subtle and light, quick enough to miss if your senses weren’t sharp. I didn’t acknowledge it and neither did he, a silent understanding that words would just ruin whatever this was. I accepted that happily, as he was much more engaged in the conversations and even smiling a little more during them as he debated with Kori on leading strategies. Things were pleasant, comforting at that table in those few seconds before the decline, Dick smiling and chuckling at his lover and little brother, Said lover and brother having a more upbeat discussion about different leadership styles and their effects, and lightly debating which work better for what. And Damian’s hand next to mine, ever so lightly brushing against it in his wordless way to say I was still there and at even the smallest twitch I’d have his attention again. Dick ruffled my hair and asked how my online courses were coming along, since I didn’t attend schools publicly and I was more than happy to babble about my classes, and my current work in them. It was nice and I was happy, all the horrible feelings from before draining away as I tuned everything else but these three out of my enhanced hearing. Why had I even felt so shitty when I had great people like them in my life?

Then I heard it as that damned supernatural hearing tuned back in to the rest of the world.

The words and whispers and mutters and the blatant gossip and bad mouthing.

“Look at that younger girl sitting at that table dear...shes so thin I think she should be in a hospital not a restaurant.”

“Ewww mom look that girl looks like a skeleton!”

“ Honey shush….”

“Is….is that girl ok?”

“Dude of course she isn’t just look at her shes unhealthy as fuck. Probably has some kind of eating disorder too or something.”

It all flooded over me and all of my happy mood washed away under the wave. I couldn’t tell if the others could hear them so I grit my teeth tried to tune it all back out, trying so hard to focus more on Kori’s explanation of her points. My hands began to curl up subconsciously, making Damian’s attention snap to me. Fuckin I….no, I cant tell him...I shouldn’t. I forced my hand to uncurl and that stupid smile sprawled across my lips as if someone had put tape over them. I saw his eyes narrow and near begged mentally for him to not say anything or for Dick to distract him...anything.

“Ahem….your meal.”

I have never more thankful to a waitress before in my life...until I saw the look she gave me as she placed my admittedly large order of food in front of me, something that was normally a platter for two people’s worth of beef and sides. I caught the judgmental and suspicious look she had glancing between me and my food and I felt shame burn all over, starting to hang my head to avoid that damn look.

“ If this is all our food then your job is done. Don’t you have OTHER tables to be serving?” Damian’s curt and sharp tone cut through the air and briefly through my shame. This waitress knew nothing about me and i certainly owned no one any explanations about my eating habits, so why was she hanging around giving me looks about my food…?

“ Damian don’t be so rude!” Dick cleared his throat and I felt his strong arm wrap protectively around my shoulder as he leaned close to the edge of the table while Kori’andr apologized for Damian’s attitude vaguely. But I could hear it, there wasn’t much life to her apology. It sounded like a politely required apology, almost...defensive?

“ I am so sorry about my little brother Miss. He’s also sorry. But do you need anything else since we seem to be all set here but you’re still hanging around when you must be very busy…?” Dick’s words were sweet and cheerful, but there was an edge to his tone that gave a clear warning. His arm around me tightened a little protectively as he gave one of his signature charming smiles that could light up half the damn city as he then inquired if there was some sort of problem. The waitress stammered that there wasn’t any problem and that it was fine and for us to enjoy our meal before scampering away to continue her work. I felt other patrons eyes most DEFINITELY on us now and I couldn’t help shrinking into the taller man’s side to hide.

“ I’m sorry this keeps happening…” I murmured to him as our respective dates started eating and slowly reviving their conversation, moving on to mission recounts and training while Damian shot a dark look at the other patrons that made them look away. Dick gave my shoulder a squeeze and i moved closer for that familiar warmth and comfort...my chest felt heavy and my appetite had died and I wanted to curl up in my room and die of the shame. But I couldn’t, he wouldn’t have let me. So instead I instinctively sought out the safety Dick’s presence brought me, like a protective older sibling whose arms I could be enveloped in and forget about the harsh world outside them.

He knew without words, catching my body language before anyone else at the table. He knew me best.

“ Do you want to leave? We can get to go boxes and enjoy this meal all the same back at the tower, or even mine and Kori’s apartment. Is that what you’d rather do?” It was tempting, oh god it was so tempting to just say yes and let him lead me away while I re-gathered myself, same way he did when we were both 13 and living under the same roof...before…

I shook my head and forced those thoughts to the very back of my mind. I was in a dark enough place of mind already without that.

“ N-no...you guys set this up...i...i don’t want one nosy waitress to ruin our whole meal. Lets just eat ok D?” He smiled at the nickname and ruffled my hair with a nod, both him and Kori making sure I knew if things got too uncomfortable we could leave and the heaviness eased a little at their consideration. I started picking at my food and slowly regaining my appetite, once again nudging Damian with my foot to start up conversations. I ignored the words for the majority of the dinner, we even began to enjoy ourselves again. The last straw was probably as we were paying and putting leftovers in to go bins. I was admittedly nibbling on food out of my bin, despite starting to feel full.

“ I swear you are a bottomless pit sometimes Gracia.” I rolled my eyes at Damian’s remark and gave him a small smirk as I licked my fingers clean.

“ This bottomless pit can still kick your ass in training wonder boy~” He grunted and I saw the challenge glow in his eyes as he smirked back, an excitement for tomorrow’s combat training flaring up between us.

“ You really shouldn’t mix up your delusional dreams with reality alpha PUP.” I said something snarky back and we began to bicker halfheartedly over who was winning. I finally snapped shut my leftover box and stood with Damian as we stared each other down confidently, Dick chuckling at our competitiveness.

“ Tomorrow morning’s combat training will certainly be interesting with these two all riled up already.” The words didn’t fully process as I cracked my knuckles and squared up to the admittedly….taller boy.

“ Last I checked Damian I was ahead 11-10. And tomorrow, I just cant wait to make it 12.” He gave a hard laugh to my face and faced up to me with a smirk as our other two companions stood and shooed us more in front of the table so they could leave their seats. He opened his mouth to say something likely scalding and snarky back at me when the worst comment pierced between us both like a goddamn bullet.

“ Damn, I never knew such a sickly, too skinny bitch like her could eat like such a fat fucking pig.”

I think I stopped breathing as my body flinched at the following laughter. The man was clearly on the tipsy side and sitting at a larger table with a group of laughing friends, though the one who said it was standing next to the table with a drink that reeked of the cheapest alcohol this restaurant probably sold, and he didn’t stop there. Oh god of course he didn’t stop there. He kept laughing and loudly making obvious comments at me and openly mocking me and how much I ate to his table, either fully aware of what he was doing and that we could clearly see and hear him or too drunk to really care as more insults and name calling that I had heard and seen and read plenty of times before fell from his mouth. My heart was pounding in my ears as the next few moments happened slowly.

I thought I had seen anger plenty of times before, the worse being the one and only time someone made a malicious joke about my appearance to my face when I was walking beside Jason and it took all my supernatural strength to drag him off and away the guy before he murdered him in broad daylight and to keep him walking to wherever we had been heading.

I had seen pissed, but I had never seen downright hellish fury until that moment when I looked at Damian and Dick.

I had seen Damian mad, and angry, and pissed, a few times in our first meetings at me personally. I had seen Dick mad, angry, and pissed off a a fair chunk of times, even if they had never been directly at me. I had never seen this expression on either of them in those times. And in those few moments that passed almost in slow motion and Damian began to lurch forward with murderous intent the thought finally hit me. ‘ Was this...the first time these two had really heard the comments about me? Oh god…’ I felt like I was moving in honey as Damian stalked past me and I tried to reach out to him slowly, a gleam to his eyes that made my blood go cold.

If someone was to ask me in the future what I believed Death looked like, I would say with completely conviction that death would have the exact eyes Damian had in that moment: lethal, merciless, and furious. And he would have Dick’s cold expression, a look I never wanted to see on the normal cheerful man’s face ever again.

Time snapped back to a normal speed like a whip and my hand grasped nothing but air as Damian stormed over to the man.

“D...da--”

“What did you just say you disgusting drunk.” I might’ve shivered at his tone and I felt Kori’s hands on my shoulders tugging me back protectively as she looked down at me worried.

“ Gracie...don’t listen to him, there’s no reason to cry.” Cry? What was she talking ab--

That’s when I felt it, something warm and wet sliding down my cheeks and dripping off my chin. I...I was crying. My walls and my limit of bottling things in for one day was crumbling away as I watched Damian go to confront the man, my voice disappearing under the surge of hurt and anxiety. I couldn’t even say his damn name. I felt frozen and helpless as Dick stalked after Damian, fists clenched.

I had to do something say something anything to stop them before things went badly I had to I had--

“Eh?What the fuck did you say to me brat?”

“ You heard me you worthless piece of filth. Apologize to her, now.”

I needed to do something anything as I felt myself crumbling. Why wasn’t Dick stopping him why

“ And what if I don’t pipsqueak? You gonna hit me? Now scram. Maybe take your little bitch to a hospital for treatment instead of parading her around a restaurant with normal people!”

“ He might not do anything, But I will. Now take it back before things get messy.”I think my body began trembling as I watched panic swelling. I just wanted to leave and go home. I didn’t want to see this unfold, I just wanted to be home at the tower curled under my covers to simulate the warmth of another person holding me. I wanted to be anywhere, anywhere else then stuck in this nightmare.

So I moved without thinking and lunged, aiming for the back of Dick’s jacket to grab and ready to swallow any shards of pride and beg to leave. Instead I collided with Damian’s back and rolled with it, hugging him tightly from behind and tugging back with a whimper.

“ P-please you two...l...lets just leave...please lets just go home please…” Kori grabbed Dick’s arm firmly and tugged him back.

“ Dick...shes in the midst of an anxiety attack, let it go and lets leave. We need to get her out of here.” He took a difficult deep breath but nodded glaring down the man harshly enough that he flinched and scurried to the bar with his tail between his legs mumbling insults. One of his friends started to stand and began nervously apologizing, though one vicious look from the boy I was holding shut him up fast. It took me and Kori working together to drag the two out of the restaurant and the ride home was tense and silent. I couldn’t look at any of them, instead opting to stare at my feet wiping my eyes.

“ Does that happen often. People talking about you like that.” His cold tone made me flinch a little. At this point I was so upset and anxious and emotionally drained on the inside that I thought Damian was mad at me of all people for what happened. Those dark thoughts began to slowly bubble up to the surface and my insecurities screamed that he blamed me for what happened in the restaurant. I remained silent, too upset to answer. I heard his growl of annoyance and I began to hunch up, ready for a verbal fight.

“ Damian drop it for now. Shes in no right place of mind to talk about it.” Dick warned from the driver seat with a low voice that reminded me he was also upset and angry. When we got back to the tower I didn’t wait for anyone to say anything, I just bolted for my room as fast as I could, at a inhuman, unnatural speed that they couldn’t keep pace with.

I stayed locked in my room for three days, not willing to face any of them the next morning during training. Everything was heavy and hurt and it was hard trying to rebuild those shattered walls of protection, that image of unbothered confidence. I stayed in bed locked away from the world and curled up under the weak protection of my sheets mostly unresponsive to those outside it.

The first to come knocking and checking on me was Kori, asking if I was ok and if I needed to talk. She left after a little while of trying for a response unsuccessfully though, saying she’d come back to check on me later. It was maybe an hour later that Garfield came knocking, asking why I’d missed breakfast AND training. His voice was concerned as he asked if everything was ok and if I was even in there. The concern poked painfully into my silence, tempting me to speak and make myself vulnerable.

Vulnerability killed. I knew that first hand. So I forced myself to stay quiet until his knocks and footsteps faded away.

The rest of the day passed in a bit of a self deprecating blur, only marked by Kori’s two other attempts at my door. The last one I barely noticed as exhaustion kicked back in and I drifted off into an unsteady sleep

The next day after I woke up things still went by in a near timeless blur. I could hear my phone buzzing and vibrating and rattling for my attention but I left it there on the nightstand unnoticed and curled further under the sheets, lost in a slate tinted world of dark thoughts and darker temptations. But that day was harder to drift away through.

The first to stop by was Jamie, knocking a few times and calling out to me with concern and worry clear in his voice as he asked if I was ok. He asked if I’d eaten at all since yesterday, since he hadn’t seen me leave my room. The thought of eating made my stomach stir and my body curl around it ashamed. He knocked a few more times after that, his voice growing a bit more worried at the lack of answer. After awhile I heard him walk away and I barely lifted my head as I hugged my too skinny too unhealthy body close, feeling those blaring imperfections and flinching at myself.

It was no wonder everyone said those things...if so many people said them so often then they must be true.

The next to come by was Raven. She only knocked twice and gave a small sigh.

“ Gracie...I know you’re in there. If you need someone to talk to...my room is in the next hall over, and I will be here to listen. I wont force you to come out...just please remember you aren’t alone here. You have the team behind you.” I bit my lip hard enough to make it bleed to keep my ensuing whimper silent. The words, soothing and reassuring in context, stabbed into my heart and my resolve. I WANTED to depend on them, to throw open the door and break down under the assurance I could and would not be treated differently after, and be assured and comforted and remind of the positives. I wanted it so badly I was scared of it. Or maybe...I was scared of it NOT happening as those damn fears and insecurities and dark thoughts sowed heavy doubt through me. She lingered a little longer than Jaime, eventually her footsteps disappearing. I remember meekly poking my head from the sheets to stare absently out the half covered windows lost in thought, time slipping by me once more to the point I almost didn’t register Garfield and Kori both stopping by my door again at least twice more worried.

When Dick stopped by as the sun was setting was when the harder pain set in.

I heard the knocks and ignored it in favor of the changing color sky the sunset offered, my room washed in a dim orange and amber gleam. Then I heard his voice, soft and sick with worry from the outside and my heart thudded so hard it hurt. Hard.

“ Gracie...C’mon Gracie-girl please open the door. We’re all worried about you...I’m really worried about you. You haven’t eaten for a day and a half...Please let me in...” I almost broke completely at the pain in that familiar voice, the voice I never wanted to be the cause of being in pain or anguish again.

Well looks like I did a GREAT job of preventing that didn’t I?

He knocked again, asking and pleading and trying to reason, anything to get that door to open. My eyes burned with hot fresh tears and I curled up into a tight ball whimpering softly and breaking my vow of silence.

“....D-dick...p-please...j-just leave me a-alone…I-i just need some t-time alone…”

My voice came out pathetically weak and shaking with tears, which I know he heard. There was a silence for a few moments, perhaps shock that I actually answered this time. I felt warmth sliding down my cheeks as he sighed and reluctantly muttered that he’d come check back on me tomorrow and that there was leftover dinner ready for me to heat up on the kitchen counter before he slowly walked away. His fading footsteps echoing in my ears. Was my heart breaking on every step away? I couldn’t tell. That feeling slipped into the dark thoughts that followed the setting sun. Dark thoughts that also reminded me of the one person who HADN’T come to check on me, and the resulting pain of his absence.

The third day had been mostly quiet. It was almost a painful relief, quiet meant no additional pain of--

“ Gracia.”

That one word coming from Damian’s mouth sent so many things through me and sent any resolve I had spiraling away. His tone was a forced kind of neutral, he sounded as if he was trying to stay calm but it wasn’t exactly working. There was something to his voice I had no energy to figure out. He didn’t knock and there was silence for a few moments but I felt his presence remain.

“ You haven’t eaten since the restaurant.” No questions with him, he didn’t need to ask, always calm and analyzing.

“ ...You cant just stay in there forever Gracia.” A stern lilt to his voice, weakly enforced by the faint sound of his hand on the door. I could only whimper and curl up more. There was another stretch of silence before he sighed and his footsteps continued down the hall.

He was the only one to come check on me, a blessing and a damnation.

The day and night went by so listlessly I didn’t remember falling asleep, only waking up to banging knocks on my door. The volume grated on my sensitive hearing and made me flinch. Who would even be knocking like that…?

“ Oi. Kid. I know you’re still in there. Open the door.” Jason’s hard and no shit taking voice shot through me. Why...Why was Jason in the tower? Why was he in the city?

The knocking continued relentlessly, unlike the others. It even got louder and angrier.

“ Kid I said open this goddamn door.” There was no request or plea in his voice. It was a command, a harsh, cold command. I tried covering my ears with my hands and curling into a tight ball as the knocking continued. He wasn’t about to give up to a little girl.

I knew this too well.

“ Graciea Rosica Lucio I swear to god if you don’t open this goddamn door in the next couple second I will break it down. Now get off your fucking ass and answer me.” I don’t know what it was, but hearing his threat sent my body into mechanical motion, trudging over to the door and reluctantly unlocking it and letting it slide open with a low hiss, the banging finally ceasing. I couldn’t look him in the face, empty and ashamed it took threats to get me to open the door. So I stared dully at his boots and took in his scent as he grabbed the front of my shirt and dragged me back inside. I stumbled clumsily along with as he sat me on my bed and stood in front of me. I kept my gaze down towards his knees, the smell of nicotine wisping off his body in a way that told me he very recently had been smoking, no less than an hour ago most likely. Smoke and city is what filled my room. There was only a beat of silence before he spoke.

“ Look at me.” I lifted my head and stared at his chest and his crossed arms, unwilling to look him in the eyes. I couldn’t bare to see what kind of disappointed look he likely had on his face. Perhaps I didn’t want to see my reflection in his eyes, see the sickly, disgusting and bony figured girl with greasy hair and dark circles under dulled eyes and sallow cheeks. I heard the slight growl that rumbled from the back of his throat in warning and I briefly wondered if I would be forced to look him in the eyes. His arms uncrossed and I prepared myself for anything.

Anything except for two big plastic grocery bags filled with fast food bags and orders was dropped onto my lap, the contents still hot. I blinked slowly once, twice, and finally got enough courage in my confusion to look up at his face. When I did I was a little startled.

“ Eat. And you aren’t moving until those bags are polished off understand me?”

He looked visibly angry, eyes narrowed and mouth locked in a fearsome scowl with eyebrows furrowed. But his eyes were soft and worried and it took me a minute to realize worry was what was making his scowl so harsh. He crossed his arms across that broad chest again and I realized he was in his work gear, all the way down to the guns strapped to his thighs. All he lacked at the moment was his helmet and domino mask, his dark hair messier than usual and the white streak falling between his eyes. We had a staring contest and in those pupils I saw myself, I saw the shell I had become and it made me sick, breaking me briefly from the depressive haze.

How the hell had I let myself fall this far, this deep?

We didn’t speak until he grunted, eyes narrowing more in a way even those concerned blues didn’t weaken the glare as he spoke gruffly.

“ You better start eating before I start just shoving it down your damn throat.” I knew he would too. He wasn’t fucking around, I didn’t doubt he’d follow through with any threats made. Slowly I looked down at the pile of food and reached for the first bag, pulling it open and blinking fast as fresh tears stung my eyes.

It was from our favorite diner, and it was my usuals two cheeseburgers and large lightly salted fries with a second order of fat steak fries and fried pork strips. He’d even gotten all the little sides I enjoyed with it and I looked back up at him with a pained look. Maybe that look made him relax because his expression softened slightly, his voice quieting to something gentler.

“ C’mon now...I brought you all your favorites, now start eating...it’s been three days and your body cant handle that. We can talk after.” My shoulders slumped as all the tension stored in my body dissipated a little as he continued to speak, like a tightly pulled strong finally cut loose.

“ Kid I’m not mad at you. No one is. So just eat the food and then we’ll figure shit out, just like we do on any other visit.” I think the tears started falling because his face got blurry and there was warmth in my face. If I did start crying he didn’t say anything, just nodded at the bag. I gulped and slowly but surely pulled out one of the burgers and slowly took a bite, struggling a little to swallow it with a throat that was closing up from emotions. Once I did though my hunger kicked me hard and I began devouring the food, one bag after another.

It took me about a half hour to finish both plastic bags but I did, followed by slamming through at least two water bottles and one thick milkshake that almost made a mess. Jason simply watched over me as I ate from his spot in front of me. The silence was almost soothing, not painful as it had been before. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand as I looked back up at him and we made eye contact.

“ So are you going to tell me what happened? Really happened?” I broke his gaze to stare towards the floor as the acidic shame began to creep back over me. He sighed.

“ C’mon kid just let it out already. Who am I to judge? So why don’t you trust me like you USED to and tell me?” Those words shot through my heart and head.

I...I wasn’t trusting him...trusting anyone...I…i...

It was like Jason opened a flood gate.

It all came spilling out with a new surge of tears and mid sentence cracking sobs, my body physically heaving from the intensity as it all came out. All the months of insecurities and pain and doubts and fears and comments and negativity and hate and bullying came rushing out like a tidal wave and Jason took to all, listening to everything without a single word as I let everything out and let myself break down completely, wails and sobs replacing words eventually. I felt him shift and kneel in front of me, felt big strong sturdy hands grip my shoulders to steady me and keep me anchored as I buried my face into my hands and gasped out cries and pained wailing yowls that filled the room and spilled out of it. I vaguely remember the sounds of multiple hurried footsteps coming towards the door but I didn’t care. All I felt was Jason’s hands on my shoulders and his steady, continuous heartbeat in my ears as well as he strong breathing. One set of footsteps dared to enter the room and hurry over, only stopped by Jason’s calm voice.

“ Let her get it out, its the only thing that’ll help.” The footsteps stopped and eventually the wails faded into blubbering whimpers and whines and hiccups, constantly sniffling. I lifted my head to look at him through blurred eyes and got one brief sight of Dick standing behind Jason that sent me into a whole new wave of sobs.

God I’ve been nothing but selfish and now I’d fucking hurt Dick again even when I swore I’d never do that again and i--

I let out a high pitched whine that turned into pathetic blubbered and wailed apologies. Over and over like a broken record I couldn’t stop apologizing to them for everything even parts that weren’t my fault in any way I still apologized for it I just couldn’t stop. Jason’s grip on me tightened only slightly before slipping away and for a single moment I was terrified I’d annoyed him with all the apologies and was about to add that to my list of them when two strong arms wrapped around me and and Dick’s scent surrounded me.

“ Shh shh shh shhh….shhh Gracie its ok now shh shh its ok I got you its not your fault…” I sniffled and wailed out more sobs and begs for forgiveness as I clung to him like he was a life preserver. And at that moment he was. He hugged me tighter and practically cradled me into his chest stroking my hair as he murmured reassurances, assuring me I was well forgiven and it wasn’t my fault. Everyone got insecurities especially when facing so much negativity. How I was so strong for fighting it for so long regardless. But it was ok to not always be strong and be able to handle it. That he was there and it was ok now. It took awhile but eventually all my noise quieted down to sniffles and hiccups and the occasional whimper as my trembling and heaving finally eased away into a limp tiredness. I felt exhausted but in a way different than the past couple days. I felt lighter and the more Dick spoke gently the lighter and more relaxed I felt,all the pain easing as he banished every dark thought one by one.

“ You ARE a hero Gracie.”

“ you aren’t a skeleton or a scarecrow or a twig.”

“ You are not too bony.”

“ You’re beautiful.”

“ You aren’t sick and you don’t need any doctors.”

“ You’re ok. The way your body works and retains weight naturally is not your fault.”

“ You’re only thirteen you’re still growing kiddo.”

“ I was scrawny and thin until I was at least sixteen Gracie its not that uncommon.”

“ You do NOT have to hold yourself to stupid human beauty standards.”

“ You’re beautiful to us, that’s all that matters.”

“ You’re ok, you have us.”

Each and every statement cleared my mind and I slumped against him with tears still falling down my cheeks. His hand carefully cupped the back of my neck in a soothing gesture to ease the wolf side of me, adding a very small amount of pressure to ensure the sense of security and safety the movement brought. I whispered out a hoarse thank you, my throat sore and raw but already beginning to heal. He smiled into my hair and I let my eyes slip shut in contentment. I felt...stabilized, as if the whole world had been constantly tilted dangerously under my feet for months and now it had finally been returned to normal, balancing me once again.

I felt a second, no technically third, hand tangle itself into my thick and greasy hair and ruffle it affectionately, fingers tangling themselves in the dark chestnut locks.

“ We’re always here for you kid. Whether you like it or not. You can be honest and confide in your inner circle Gracie. We aren’t going to look at you any differently...so next time don’t keep your mouth shut.” My nerves settled and I leaned into his hand with a loud hiccup, making him snort. I looked up and saw both older men smiling down at me, both with their own kind of soft expressions. I rubbed my eyes and wiped my nose and smiled back shakily, feeling like everything was going to be ok for the first time in a long while.

I learned a few things a few hours later, after I’d fallen asleep in Dicks arms and woke up on the couch out in the Tower’s game room with Garfield and Jaime looking after me. My head was resting on Garfield’s leg and he had his elbow rested on my upper arm comfortably as he and Jaime played some kind of two player video game, keeping their voices lower than usual to be considerate of me sleeping. Opening my eyes was difficult as they felt dry and crusted and stung from crying so much. But my throat was no longer sore. When they saw I was awake they paused the game and and told me they were happy I was up, as I had been out cold for at least a solid couple hours. That was when I learned the first thing : Dick and Kori had informed the team of the incident at the restaurant after the first day I stayed locked up in my room, and Garfield had let it slip in his rage that he thought I had finally stopped getting those comments, and confessed that I’d been getting bullied and harassed about my appearance online for months. What I found out was all those months what I failed to notice was Garfield fighting back on my behalf every chance he got. He defended me, constantly called people out for harassment and even worked on getting some of the worst and most aggressive ones banned. For months he’d been do it as relentlessly as he could, filling his own social medias with both our pictures and his constant defense and positivity towards me to fight it back. It got lost in my own comment section so I stupidly didn’t realize. It warmed my heart knowing he’d kept my back even when I never noticed or mentioned it, though he waved it off and just gave me his big old smile telling me it wasn’t that big a deal,

“ After all, you’d do the same for me in a heartbeat!” And he wasn’t wrong. But I still hugged him tight in thanks anyway, an embrace he happily returned as he warned me next time I lied about being harassed there’d be hell to pay.

I assured him there wasn’t going to be a next time anymore and for the first time in months finally wholeheartedly meant it.

The second thing I learned was Jaime told me during those first two days I was locking myself away Damian had gone back to the restaurant and used Bruce’s name to hunt that guy that had been harassing me down and gotten a few hefty harassment charges and minor endangerment charges slapped onto the guy, throwing in a sob story of how I was now in emergency care in the hospital because of him. I knew he didn’t throw his last name around often, didn’t exactly like having to do so to be taken seriously. The fact he did for me…

I had a lot more feelings for Damian after that knowledge.

The third thing I learned was that the only reason Dick and Kori hadn’t come by to check on me yesterday was was because they spent the entire time hunting for Jason to get his help with getting me out, and when they DID find him he stormed for the tower and made it there before they did somehow, he was that angry.

As they were telling me this and retelling a very tense video call between Nightwing and Batman during the second day Damian came in in his full Robin attire, regarding us stoically. When I saw him I stood and the room quieted as I approached him, the both of us observing each other. When we stood a foot apart I stared into his masked eyes quietly and he looked into my tired eyes. I saw his mouth start to open to speak and my body lurched forward without me, hugging onto him tightly.

“Thank you...you didn’t have to do that for me thank you thank you thank you…” He was quiet and I was about to let go and move away when I felt his arm come around me and grip the back of my shirt, returning the embrace. Neither of us was at a point that we were really physically affectionate by any means but my heart swelled when he hugged me back, leaning his head against my own and allowing me to bask in the warmth of his arms and his scent. When I felt him roll his shoulders I took that as my cue and slowly pulled away, gently pressing a kiss to his cheek as I did before retreating back to give him his space.

I think I saw his cheek flare pink but I’ll never say for sure because that would mean admitting just how red my own cheeks were.

I’d love to say that after that everything ended happily and perfectly and things went great forever and ever. But I cant, life doesn’t work like that.

But things did get better.

I was under heavy supervision several weeks, with almost stricter watches on my food intake to make sure I didn’t try to over eat or try to force weight gain. Bruce had me stay with him and Damian for a few weeks as well to make sure I didn’t slip back into that dark place. It was a bit smothering at times...but in all honesty I welcomed the smothering because I knew it meant how much they all cared. And staying with Bruce again...it brought up my mood believe it or not. Being in the manor brought back happier memories of my childhood and seeing the man I considered a fatherly figure more often perked me up. Plus I got to see Tim a lot more than usual in those few weeks, a perk and joy all in itself as he kept me company when he wasn’t too busy with his work. Tim was also the one who disabled all comments on my social medias one calm rainy evening in the lounge. I was grateful and he patted my head after as he read his case files. I think I might’ve fallen asleep against him, I cant say I fully remember. With each passing week I felt better and better. It took a long time for my self esteem and confidence to rebuild itself, but it got some jump starts. Perhaps the best part was two months later after a sparring session with Kori. She was giving me tips on striking with a staff when Dick and the big bad bat Brucie himself walked in.

“ Batman? Has something happened?” He shook his head and put his hand on my shoulder.

“ I’m going to borrow Gracie for a few minutes.” Dick gently took her hand and smiled as he whispered something to her as he led me out of the training room and placed a long bottle of what looked like red chewy vitamins into my hand. When I looked up at him confused he gave me some of the best news of my life.

“ These are specially created vitamins designed to accommodate your body’s inhuman metabolism. Tim helped me create them. They're designed to help regulate fats and carb distribution in your body and allow your body to hold onto and gain more weight without immediately burning it off. Take one every week and in a few months you should be up at least one weight class if not more as long as you keep to your regular healthy eating habits, just like you wanted. By Tim’s calculations within the year you should gain enough weight to have a thicker figure, though you may always retain this thinner “ballet-ques” figure...you will more closely resemble the figure of girls your age.” I stared up at him then at the vitamins and sniffled, fighting off tears of joy. All those weeks with Tim and his seemingly just curious questions about my species and their anatomy...the “ case files”...I owed Tim a lot for this.

“ It was Dick’s idea, after all that happened two months ago.” The softer tone brought a smile to my face and I nodded, barely restraining the urge to hug Bruce while he was in the cowl.

“ T-thank you...thank you this means more to me than you know…” He nodded and turned to leave but I caught the ghost of a smile on his face as he walked away.

And once he had I ran back into the training room and tackled Dick to the ground with a ecstatic howl, shifting mid leap into wolf form and licking his face in gratitude, making him laugh as he lazily tried to push away my affection.

I started taking them that day, and it took a few months for a noticeable difference to take place, but it did. My clothes and uniform stopped hanging off me like a walking scarecrow and I started developing the beginning of a feminine figure. I stopped trying to stuff my face too much at every meal and with every week after my self esteem raised back up a little higher. Maybe people saw it in the big, wide crooked smiles in pictures of me now, no matter who they were with. Or maybe the team saw it in the fact I stopped trying to hide my body in layers of clothes, walking around in my favorite tank top after missions instead of over sized sweatshirts and shirts, or the fact I didn't mind sudden pictures taken of me. Regardless it showed and in time I was more than happy to show off that confidence. Throughout it all Jason made near constant visits between jobs to make sure I didn’t have too major of setbacks and Dick stayed by my side as often as he could, supporting me and being a physical reminder almost that I was never alone.

And I didn't feel alone.

And one day as I was getting ready for an outing I paused in front of the mirror and looked at myself, looked at my slightly more filled out tank top and the small curve of slightly more defined hips and an actually fairly filled out stomach, a fuller figure to match my broader than normal shoulders. I slowly looked into my own eyes and after a moment I began to smile.

Somehow….I didn't hate looking into the mirror as much as I used to.

“ I do not look that bad. I look fine.”

“ Gracie c’mon you coming? C’mon the others are gonna leave without us!”

I smiled at my reflection wider before running off out of the room after Jaime’s voice.

“ Im coming!!”

I dont look that bad.

And now I could finally start to see that.

The end.

OOOOOOOH ITS FINALLY DONE ITS FINALLY DONE!

Ive been working on this for three months now and it was really difficult to finish. Originally it wasnt supposed to be so angsty but...it turned out really angsty at the end.

@phantommoonpeople

@kid-crashed

@call-me-n0ni-chan

Tagging those I know will want to read this

I hope you all like it!!

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itsomgitsgreenblogging · 6 years

Text

Keeping it Classy (Chapter 2): A Solangelo fanfic

I finally got the inspiration to finish this week thanks to Solangelo Week! This meets the College/Roommates prompt so I’m just going with it. Enjoy!

Read on AO3

Chapter 1

Preview:

“You are such a sourpuss,” Hazel said with frown. “Nico, would it kill you to be a little more positive?”

“Honestly it might,” Nico said with a shrug. “I don’t know who positive is but she sounds bothersome.”

“Just meet him for lunch,” Hazel told him. “Give the cute boy a chance.”

“I’m telling you, this is a horrible idea. I’ll mess this up badly, I just know I will,” Nico said as he trudged forward, kicking a pebble in his path.

“Didn’t you just tell me yesterday that you were going to find out if he was interested?” Hazel asked with an impatient sigh.

“Well I changed my mind! I’m allowed to do that it’s a free country you know!”

“Listen, Nico, I know you’re pissed at me, but seriously stop toying with the scissors,” Thalia whined exasperatedly as she snatched the hand towel to dry her face. Nico looked up and gave her a look, bathroom scissors still in his hand.

“What? Am I not even allowed to cut my nails?” Nico asked her sullenly.

“You aren’t cutting your nails, you’ve just been glaring a hole in the wall! Listen, I don’t know how many times I can apologize. But I’m already suffering here! My head feels like it’s being split open, literally, like I might die from this hangover!”

“Then perish,” Nico told her.

“You suck,” Thalia said, throwing the towel at his head. He ducked it and stuck his tongue out at her. They both glared at each other for a solid minute.

“Hey, we’re going to brunch. And you’re coming with us Nico,” Annabeth announced as she walked into the bathroom in just a bra and underwear which made Nico lose his balance and slide off the toilet.

“Woah! Annabeth! Put some damn clothes on!” Nico demanded of her, watching as she picked up the blue toothbrush and began brushing her teeth. “And oh my god, that’s Percy’s toothbrush! That’s disgusting!”

“Please stop yelling,” Thalia begged, taking the position of cuddling against Nico who was now wedged between the tub and the toilet and the wall. Annabeth just watched them, obviously amused before swishing and spitting.

“Thalia, get off of me,” Nico told her.

“Bathroom party!” Percy said, only wearing boxers as he walked in, giving Annabeth a sloppy kiss, which left both of them smiling like dopey idiots. Annabeth put toothpaste on the toothbrush and stuck it in Percy’s mouth.

“You’ve got morning breath,” she explained.

“Babe you can shove anything in my mouth and I’d be into it,” Percy promised her, voice muffled between the toothbrush and his teeth. Annabeth just snorted in amusement.

“Ew,” both Thalia and Nico said.

“Anyways Annabeth told you guys about family brunch, right? It’s mandatory,” Percy said as he brushed his teeth.

“Family brunch?” Jason chimed in, popping his head in as he walked by. “Awesome! Thalia, you coming with?”

“Sorry, I have to go back to my dorm. I feel like I’m gonna die,” Thalia said as she got up unsteadily.

“I’ll walk with you over there. I’m gonna go pick up Piper, Leo, and Calypso from their dorm,” Jason said as he gave his sister a smile.

“Nico...thanks for last night,” Thalia said honestly. “I hope everything goes well with the boy.”

“Get out of here before I change my mind about the scissors,” Nico said as he pulled himself up. Thalia leaned in and kissed his temple, making Nico squawk and swat her away. Both Jason and Thalia were laughing as they left the bathroom.

“So brunch?” Percy asked curiously.

“If we go somewhere where there is enough maple syrup to drown me so I no longer have to deal with this wretched plain of existence then I’m okay with brunch,” Nico told him seriously.

“Sounds good, will do. But don’t forget I’m a lifeguard so I’m like contractually obligated to administer CPR,” Percy reminded him before he swished and spit.

“Percy, you’d find me shoving my entire fist into your big mouth way less sexy than anything Annabeth has planned for you,” Nico told him as he managed to get himself unwedged.

“Yeah I know isn’t she sexy?” Percy said dreamily.

“That wasn’t where I was going with this,” Nico said hopelessly. “Come on, doofus or we’ll miss brunch.”

Nico, Percy, and Annabeth disembarked from the dorm and took an Uber over to the restaurant. Nico generally didn’t mind third-wheeling it with Percy and Annabeth, since they were generally a good time with their antics and penchant for getting into trouble. However on that particular morning, they were basically attached at the hip. Whatever kind of sex they had last night had to have been either extra good or extra weird, Nico thought as Percy blew bubbles into Annabeth’s water and she giggled. Nope, definitely extra weird he corrected.

“So you got Will Solace’s number last night?” Percy asked curiously.

“I did, before I had to save Thalia’s life,” Nico told him as he swirled the ice cubes around with his straw. “It doesn’t mean anything though. He probably just feels bad for me.”

“Highly doubtful,” Annabeth said with a roll of her grey eyes. “When are you going to get it through your thick skull that people find you attractive?”

“Um excuse me?” Nico called the waiter over. “I just want to make it clear that we’re not splitting checks.”

“Okay sure,” the waiter said before walking off.

“There’s going to be seven of us!” Annabeth gasped in indignation.

“Yep, and you’re going to have to check all that math when we pay because I know for a fact that you are anal retentive about that stuff,” Nico said with a vicious grin. “Today’s a good day to exploit my enemy’s weaknesses.”

“Nico you petty bitch,” Annabeth said darkly. “I was giving you a complement and this is how you treat me?”

“What can I say? That’s how I roll,” Nico said with a shrug. Suddenly hands were placed on his shoulders. Nico looked up, glaring into Jason’s face.

“Why are you touching me?” Nico asked him.

“I’m breaking up whatever fistfight that was going to ensue before it even starts,” Jason said calmly before releasing Nico and sitting down next to him, Nico brushed off his shirt.

“You’re no fun at all,” Annabeth told Jason while pouting.

“Babe, we can’t get kicked out of here before we even order pancakes. I really want blueberry pancakes,” Percy told Annabeth with puppy dog eyes, and Annabeth sighed as if Percy had just made a really good point.

“Anything look good?” Piper asked as she plucked the menu right from Nico’s hands and gave Nico a smile that made it virtually impossible for him to complain.

“I love the omelettes here,” Leo said as he slid into the seat next to Percy, bringing Calypso with them. She laughed as their chairs collided.

“Great now I’m like the seventh wheel,” Nico mumbled under his breath.

“You could’ve invited Will, I’m sure he would’ve come,” Piper told him.

“Listen, I have a bone to pick with you over that,” Nico told her with an angry huff. “Don’t just go blabbing about my business to everyone and their mother, and I mean that literally I’m half convinced Sally’s going to call me by one over this.”

“Oh, you mean Will Solace?” Calypso asked curiously. “He was at the party last night, he’s the same Will that Piper was talking about?”

“Great, you know Will Solace? Does everyone know Will Solace?” Nico lamented. Everyone at the table looked around for a minute, before there seemed to be a general consensus made.

“Yeah, I think everyone does now that I think about it,” Annabeth concluded.

“He’s in the Orientation Club, he showed me around when I transferred here. Had one of those super slick white jackets, you know the ones? The ones the people wear when they give tours around campus? He’s a really cool dude,” Leo said with a envious nod. Nico definitely knew the ones. The whole jacket and dress pant combination that the student-led tour guides wore that was a combination of both over eager and incredibly good looking that he had admired from the second floor of the student union as they walked by leading hopeful high schoolers and their parents.

“His brother Austin is in the drama club, Will went to like all of the performances we put on of Anything Goes,” Calypso said as she rested her head on her chin. “He even bought an ad, it was so sweet and thoughtful.”

“Will helped out with the Habitat for Humanity thing last spring break with the rest of the mission from his church,” Annabeth said with a shrug.

“He’s part of the Biology Society, so we meet with them for student government,” Jason said thoughtfully.

“How the hell does he do all of that stuff?” Nico asked suspiciously.

“He’s the kind of person who can’t help but get involved when people ask for his help,” Percy explained easily. “Somehow he just sort of...does it?”

“He’s perfect,” Nico said as he was locked in a deep unfathomable horror. “He’s a perfect human being. Literally he was probably carried to Earth on a sunbeam.”

“Probably,” Percy agreed.

“I can’t deal with this, nope. No way. I thought he was in a totally different league but now I know he’s from a like different planet. How the hell do you guys think that I can just casually ask a guy like that out?” Nico demanded of his friends. “Especially when I’m...like...me?”

“Nico, you’ve got a lot of good qualities,” Piper promised him.

“Name one,” Nico challenged.

“You buy your sister breakfast every morning because you love her and you know it makes her happy,” Piper immediately said.

“Shit, I wasn’t expecting you to come up with one that fast,” Nico admitted as he looked away pointedly, feeling his face flush from the unexpected compliment.

“Why is it Nico takes compliments from Piper and not me?” Annabeth asked Jason, who shrugged.

“Aside from the fact that Nico should totally go for it, does everyone know what their getting because I’m starving and ready to order,” Percy said, thankfully bring the topic around to something Nico could actually deal with which was stuffing himself up to the gills with pancakes. The conversation shifted to something Clarisse had done during a soccer game, and Nico half listened as he tried to think through his own issues as he dumped more maple syrup on his stack of pancakes and poked the yellow of his sunny side up eggs and watched the yoke run.

He was lucky to have great friends, even if they drove him up the wall. But he also knew that their perspective was skewed by their obvious hope that Nico would find love as if he was on some sort of Lifetime movie. What Nico needed to do was do what his dad always said...even if it burned him to think that way. He needed to think like a freaking lawyer.

Now Nico’s dad was possibly one of the most infuriating people Nico had ever met and they disagreed on basically everything they could. Hell, if they could argue on the color of the sky they probably would do that too. But they were also a lot a like in a lot of ways too, and even if what his dad usually spat out was a load of garbage he sometimes did give valid advice. He had to think defensively: to protect himself and to do that he needed to proceed slowly, find the traps, measure and calculate the risk. And above all, never, ever let anyone see him sweat or be weak.

First course of action he could take was to do absolutely nothing. He didn’t have proof that Will was at all interested in him, save for being friendly at the party. This whole thing was probably all of them thinking about this too hard, really. If that was the case all he needed to do was avoid, which should be easy because before last night Nico had never come in contact with Will Solace before. Second route would be to pursue Will Solace and find out if he was interested in Nico. That was the hard one, since Nico sucked at flirting in general. But hey if it didn’t work out then at least he could say he tried.

So what should he do?

Nico thought long and hard about this. He had Will’s number but Will didn’t have his. When Will saw him at the shop, would Will be weird about the fact that Nico hadn’t texted him? He doubted Will would though, he seemed so effortless in everything he did. Hell, Nico knew that Will certainly was not interested in him like that. Nico hadn’t probably even come across as an actual human being during his interactions.

But…

As he walked a few steps behind the group as they excited the restaurant, Nico pulled out his phone. After a moment of thought, he bit the bullet.

Hey, Nico typed. He waited for a moment, stepping over a crack in the sidewalk. But then just as he was about to put his phone away, there came a reply:

Hi there!

Nico smiled.

“Hey,” Will greeted, and when Nico looked up Will was insanely close and insanely smiley. Nico couldn’t help but jump, but be settled as quickly as he could and pushed over so Will had room to stand next to him. Will smiled gratefully.

“Woah, uh, hi,” Nico said, and he wasn’t sure what expression he was making but it didn’t damper Will’s positivity in the slightest. That had to be a talent of his.

“It’s nice to actually, I don’t know, know who you are,” Will explained as he stood right next to Nico as they both awaited their orders. “So I’ve got to ask, you always get two coffees. Is it for the girl that meets you here or do you just drink both because no judgment.”

“Yeah, that would be my sister Hazel,” Nico explained with a shrug. “Our schedules really conflict, so it’s nice to get to see her.”

“Oh, wow. That really is nice. I wish my siblings bought me food,” Will said with a pout that was so cute Nico thought he was going to have a heart attack. “I guess they don’t love me.”

“Well, I am the older brother,” Nico pointed out.

“Shoot, I guess that means I’d have to buy food for them,” Will said with a sigh and Nico couldn’t help but snort and laugh at Will’s troubled tone. Will met his eyes and grinned.

“You’ve got a great laugh,” Will told him, blue eyes catching the light.

“Ugh, no I do not. I’ve got a horrible laugh,” Nico dismissed with a scoff, cheeks feeling warm. He hoped that Will didn’t notice.

“But I like that,” Will said.

I like that, I like that, I like that, Nico parroted in his mind. The sound of that was divine, even if Will was seriously probably on drugs. Nico’s laugh was pretty hideous. But somehow Will sounded like he meant it, like he really did like Nico’s laugh. After all, Will seemed like the kind of person who really and truly found good in everyone. That was an admirable quality for sure, and not something that came easily to Nico.

“So do you have class later?” Will asked as Piper presented them both with their coffees. For a split second Piper stared him down, and he pointedly ignored her before walking out the door quicker than he needed to.

“Yeah, today’s my easy day though. I’ve got one class at ten and then my other one at eleven. Done at twelve,” Nico explained easily.

“Well if you see me at Hestia come on over,” Will said, saying the name of the main cafeteria building.

“Okay sure,” Nico said before his brain had a chance to catch up with his mouth. It was at that precise moment that Hazel turned the corner and waved to him before walking over. She plucked the coffee out of Nico’s hand.

“Hi there, and you must be…?” Hazel asked, obviously being coy. If Nico didn’t love her he would hate her in that moment.

“Will. Will Solace, nice to meet you,” Will introduced.

“I’m Hazel, Nico’s sister. It’s nice to meet you too,” Hazel said, giving Nico a knowing smile.

“I’m going to go to class, but I’ll maybe see you later,” Will said pleasantly.

“Yeah, later,” Nico said, fumbling the words out of his mouth like he had stuffed it full of peeps. Will walked off towards the science building, and thankfully Hazel only started teasing him when they began their own walk and they were out of earshot.

“Later? Later? What does later mean, Nico please you have to tell me what later means!”

“Later just means Later! Like I might see him later, that’s it!” Nico said quickly, trying to defuse Hazel’s excitement but he found that it was far too late.

“But he wants to see you later,” Hazel told him as she bounced on his arm and Nico quickly traded his coffee with his other hand to keep it from spilling.

“We just became acquaintances he probably is just being friendly!” Nico told her quickly. Hazel sighed dramatically and got off his arm. “Will Solace is just a friendly dude.”

“Well I think he is interested in you,” Hazel said as she looked at her phone, grinned madly, and then held up the group chat for him to see. “And everyone else thinks he is too.”

“Shit! Piper!” Nico grumbled, as he watched Leo’s response of about twenty kissy-face emojis flash by the screen as everyone else spammed with reaction gifs. He batted her hand and got his phone out of his line of sight. “You guys don’t get it. Even if Will Solace is into dudes, which hasn’t even been confirmed, he’s probably not interested in me like that. I doubt he goes out with every gay guy he meets. Really, he’s just being friendly.”

“You are such a sourpuss,” Hazel said with frown. “Nico, would it kill you to be a little more positive?”

“Honestly it might,” Nico said with a shrug. “I don’t know who positive is but she sounds bothersome.”

“Just meet him for lunch,” Hazel told him. “Give the cute boy a chance.”

“I’m telling you, this is a horrible idea. I’ll mess this up badly, I just know I will,” Nico said as he trudged forward, kicking a pebble in his path.

“Didn’t you just tell me yesterday that you were going to find out if he was interested?” Hazel asked with an impatient sigh.

“Well I changed my mind! I’m allowed to do that it’s a free country you know!” Nico told her before running a hand through his hair, probably not helping any of his cowlicks at all. “Okay, okay I know I’m being slightly ridiculous--”

“Slightly?” Hazel asked him.

“Okay, very ridiculous,” Nico corrected. “But every time I’ve tried the whole romance thing it’s ended up being a total disaster.”

“It hasn’t been a total disaster,” Hazel tried to tell him but Nico shook his head.

“Hazel. Albania.”

“Okay, fine it’s sort of been a disaster, but really what do you want me to say to that? I think you should give it another shot. Meet him for lunch, he already offered and you already agreed.” She had got him there, Nico realized. He had already agreed, and if he skipped out then it would be rude of him. Usually he didn’t care about being rude but Will Solace had never done anything wrong to him, so Nico knew he didn’t deserve that. Nico would meet him for lunch, if was pretty much decided. As if sensing her victory, Hazel sipped on her coffee with a content smile.

So that was how Nico found himself in the cafeteria, nervously playing a dating sim on his phone as he waited for Will to get back from the lunch line. Will was all smiles as Nico sat across from him in the cafe. In fact, Nico didn’t think he had seen Will frown at all. Nico wondered if it hurt his face to stay like that all the time. Nico hoped it didn’t, Will had a very attractive face after all. Nico wouldn’t want him to hurt...unless he was into something like that.

“So, tell me, how’s your day going?” Will asked as he stuck his fork into his salad.

“Pretty normal I think,” Nico responded as he scooted a carrot across his plate, eyeing it with distaste.

“Not a fan of carrots,” Will asked with a chuckle.

“Not really,” Nico admitted. Then watched with horror as Will picked up the vegetable and popped it into his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it. Holy shit, was Nico’s immediate thought. My fork had touched that. Oh my gods, am I in fourth grade? Nico’s more conscious mind asked, thoroughly annoyed. At this point Nico was probably gaping at Will like he had just grown another head. Will just continued to smile as if he had no clue what had befuddled Nico so thoroughly. Oh, he was tricky. Nico thought.

“So...um, you mentioned you have siblings earlier?” Nico asked, hoping to get onto a topic he felt he could contribute to. Will nodded as he continued to eat his lunch. “How did you all end up going to the same University?”

“Well, my deadbeat dad sorta kinda donated a whole bunch of money to this school as his Alma mater, so, I got in for a nominal fee as did they,” Will said with a shrug. “Well, also it’s a pretty awesome school with stuff we all liked.”

“I’m sorry?” Nico said, his voice creeping up awkwardly.

“What for?” Will asked curiously.

“Uh...for having a deadbeat dad?”

“Oh, well, Apollo’s not that bad really,” Will said as he waved off the concern. “He’s harmless, just super irresponsible and also utterly incapable of keeping it in his pants. I tend to be more of the parent in most cases. It’s just annoying, but he’s got money so I can’t really complain.”

He didn't say it in a bragging way, nor like he was looking for pity, instead he seemed matter of fact about it. Nico didn’t really know what to say to any of that. Nico’s family...well it was the definition of complicated. Hell, Nico wasn’t sure that he’d told the therapist he had been seeing for three years about half of the drama. Nico’s relationship with his dad was light-years ahead of where it had been even a year ago, and it was currently functional (which was the first time he could even say something like that). But Nico knew about having an absent dad. Not that this was the conversation he wanted to be having with Will at all, actually if he could help it he wouldn’t be nudging this topic with a two foot pole.

“Well, I have Hazel so I get what it’s like to have a sibling go to the same school,” Nico said, switching the topic back as fast as he could. “Plus...I guess Percy and Jason count as family sort of, but you aren’t allowed to tell them that.”

“Speaking of, they aren’t having another party this weekend are they?” Will asked with a glint in his eyes.

“Not that I know of, but I’m usually the last to find out. Why?” Nico asked suspiciously.

“Would you like to come out with me tomorrow night? Grab a drink or something?” Will asked hopefully.

“Sure, yeah, of course,” Nico agreed in an awkward tumble of words. “I mean, I’ll go out to get a drink with you.”

“Awesome,” Will said with another of his signature smiles that basically melted Nico’s brain into mush. Nico wasn’t even sure how he functioned for the rest of the day. He certainly didn’t breath a word of what was happening to any of his friends of Hazel, especially now that he knew that they had some kind of bet going on. With as little fanfare as possible, made better by the fact that it was date night amongst his friends, Nico slipped out of the dorm and arrived to the designated spot.

Will had chosen to meet Nico at The Gladiator, which was a five minute walk from campus, and was generally a hustling and bustling establishment. Since it was so busy, Nico hoped he wouldn't see anyone he knew. And as they made it to the bar, it just seemed to be people Will knew who all greeted him in the same fashion that everyone else did. By the point that Nico managed to sit down he was almost certain that he was breaking out into a cold sweat.

“So what do you drink?” Will asked curiously as he leaned against it, white t-shirt looking almost horrifyingly good against his tanned skin. Nico wanted to bite it...which wasn’t great for his focus because he already had a difficult time processing what was being said to him.

“Depends on what mood I'm in,” Nico said with a shrug, managing to get the words of his mouth without blubbering. “I think I'm just in the mood for a vodka tonic or something.”

“You got it then,” Will said with a smile.

“I can buy my own drinks,” Nico argued weakly. “I--”

“Oh hi Will, and hi--ohmygodNicodiAngelo!”

That wasn't a particularly good sign. Behind the bar was Mitchell, and Nico groaned. He had forgotten Mitchell worked here. He was a distant relative of Piper’s, a nice enough guy but with the backbone made of gelatin and a gossip monger’s brother. Dangerous combination if you asked Nico (though people tended not to).

“People tend to have that reaction to you don't they?” Will asked, a mirthful glint in his eyes. Nico wanted to sink into the floor.

“Oh, hey Will!” A voice greeted from the side, a group of people waving at him.

“Give me a minute?” Will asked apologetically, and Nico waved him on numbly before returning his attention to Mitchell who was standing dumbfounded behind the bar just staring at him as if he had grown another head.

“Vodka tonic please Mitchell,” Nico said glumly. Mitchell made a sound that was a cross between a delighted giggle and a boiling kettle.

“Oh my God, like oh my God,” Mitchell said, nearly pulling himself over the bar in his enthusiasm. “You are on a date. With Will Solace. In the gay bar I work at. And I'm witnessing it with my own two eyes. Oh my God. I'm going to die, I have to text Lacy right now.”

“Didn’t I order something?” Nico asked crossly.

“Oh my God you aren't denying it! Ahhh! This is the best day of my whole life!”

“We are not on a date!” Nico said harshly. “We are just friends, this is platonic!”

“Honey, please. Denial is not a good look for you,” Mitchell told him before fanning himself excitedly. “Oh my God Sebastian is gonna flip!”

“Mitchell, please, my drink,” Nico begged.

“Okay, okay. I'm cool. I'm cool,” Mitchell said as he took a deep breath. A giggle spurted out of him before he went to go retrieve whatever he needed to make Nico’s drink. Nico sagged against the bar. What was he even doing here? Five minutes in and he had already embarrassed himself. He should just quickly down his drink and then leave.

“Sorry about that,” Will said as he slid into the bar seat next to Nico.

“It’s fine,” Nico said, trying to come off cool and unaffected. He wasn't sure how that was going for him but he certainly could try. Mitchell came back with Nico’s drink and smiled at Will.

“What can I get you?” He asked Will who smiled. “Rum and coke, also, put Nico’s drink on my tab,” Will told Mitchell.

“Oh of course! I'll be right back with that,” Mitchell said as he nodded so hard he nearly dislocated something and then ducked out of the way of Nico’s annoyance.

“You aren't paying for me,” Nico informed Will curtly.

“Why not?” Will asked, sounding confused.

“Because I'm perfectly capable of buying my own drinks!” Nico huffed, greatly annoyed by Will’s very resistant denseness. If Will paid then this was definitely a date, and Nico didn't think he could handle that.

“I see,” Will said with a sly look. “Well you'll have to excuse me for buying this round.”

“Fine,” Nico said as Mitchell returned and placed down the drinks before running off to help another customer. Nico got bustled at the bar a bit, and managed to scare off a guy with a glare before sighing.

“So you mentioned to me you don't come here often, was there somewhere else you would prefer? If you really dislike--” Will began to say before Nico cut him off.

“It's not that, I just usually go to quieter bars. Like Easton Street or something.”

“Oh, so you like old people bars,” Will teased and Nico rolled his eyes.

“I don't see anything wrong with having fifty year olds buy you drinks all night,” Nico said with a shrug.

“But you don’t want me to buy you a drink?” Will asked with a laugh, and Nico felt his face flush.

“Because if you buy me a drink--we’re not on a date,” Nico spluttered.

“What would it take for this to be a date?” Will’s tone was curious and Nico swallowed heavily.

“Um…” Nico mumbled, and then suddenly Nico felt Will’s hand touch his fingers, curling around them. He looked at Nico, as if for permission, and Nico couldn't look away.

“Here’s what I think we should do,” Will said with a smile, staring at Nico so intensely that he was half convinced he had something on his face.

“We should finish our drinks, then go dance on the dancefloor, and then I think you ought to kiss me.” Now it was Nico’s turn to stare at him. Woah, okay, so this was happening, Nico thought before he eloquently concluded with: screw it.

“Why? Because you won't kiss me?” Nico asked him, as he slid his arm around Will’s waist, doing his best to give a flirty smile. “I don't think I've done anything that bad yet.”

“I think I like where this is going,” Will whispered in his ear, as a thrill ran up his spine.

“I think I do too.”

Will’s lips were hot on his as they burst through the door of his apartment. Nico grabbed the bottom of Will’s shirt and nearly ripped it as he aimed to get his hands everywhere they could go--and Nico gasped as Will curled his fingers in his haired and pulled just right.

“Are you--God, Nico,” Will gasped as Nico trailed his mouth down his neck, looking for places to mark his skin. “Are you sure you’re good with this?”

“Just shut up and make out with me!” Nico ordered, managing to shut Will up with another bruising kiss. Nico groaned as Will half sent them sprawling back on the couch, and how good his weight felt on him--how his touch traced fire down his skin. Oh, they would have time later to do all the things he had imagined, but for right now Nico just wanted more. Nico wanted whatever Will could give him and yet it didn’t seem like enough.

“God, you’re hot,” Will half-moaned into his neck, kissing down his shoulder, over his chest, down his belly as he fumbled with his belt and Nico desperately tried to kick off his boot.

“I know,” Nico said.

“And you’re cocky,” Will said, looking up at him with eyes a darkened blue that sent a shiver down his spine. “But I don’t dislike that.”

“Why don’t you put me in my place then?” Nico asked him with a grin, as he trailed his fingers under Will’s chin. “Unless you like it the other way around, I can be very obliging when I want to be. You always seem to be taking care of other people, I’d be happy to take care of you”

Nico watched Will have a physical reaction, eyes blown wide, cheeks flushing red, and he seemed to freeze for a single moment.

“Holy crap,” Will said, looking away for a second as if trying to compose himself before squinting at him suspiciously. “Are you sure you are a real person and you haven’t been hanging out in my head for a few months because you are like, hitting all my very odd specific kinks right now.”

“What can I say? I’m just that good. And plus I’ve been having plenty of my own naughty thoughts,” Nico said with a laugh as he pushed Will on his back on the armrest. Will was laughing--a low rumbling vibration that made Nico groan again and reach down--

The door slammed open.

“We’re back--holy crap!”

In that moment, Nico jerked to look up and his leg slipped. He felt Will attempt to grab him to keep him from falling, but the next thing he knew Nico was clinging the back of his throbbing head and laying half underneath Will who was sprawled over with their legs tangled up together. Nico looked up with a glare to see Percy, Annabeth, Piper, and Jason standing in the doorway all with various expressions of surprise, embarrassment, and amusement. Nico placed one hand on the coffee table he had bashed his skull into and glared.

“Didn’t your mom ever teach you to knock you goddamn degenerate?!” Nico demanded of Percy as he felt Will reach over.

“Shit, that’s going to be a nasty bump,” Will said, gentle fingers prodding the back of his head, and though his cheeks were reddened he carried on like business as usual. “You guys wouldn’t happen to have an ice-pack would you?”

“Yeah, probably,” Jason said as he quickly went into the kitchen, pulling Piper behind him who was offering a thumbs up.

“Wow, you really fell head over heels there, didn’t you?” Percy asked with a grin. Annabeth just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“You are definitely not helping,” Annabeth told him as she grabbed him by his shoulders, and physically steered him away. “We’re going to your room, I’m so sorry guys.”

“Please, don’t stop on our account! Keep making out,” Percy hollered at him. “Nice seeing you Will!”

“Yeah, good seeing you too Percy,” Will said, with a embarrassed laugh that was still good-natured and totally hot. Nico now felt his skin erupt into heat as he sank somehow further into the floor.

“God I hate this fucking family,” Nico said as he put his face in his hands, looking up only to see Jason handing Will the ice-pack which Will pressed to the back of Nico’s head. Nico looked at him and sighed as he touched it. “If you never want to talk to me ever again, I totally understand and support your decision.”

“Why would I do that when this is so much fun?” Will asked, and Nico tried to detect any sarcasm but saw nothing in his expression that indicated such. Will knotted their fingers together as they held the ice-pack together. “I would totally do this again...though, I always appreciate a head’s up for interruption. Do you think we could do that?”

“Yeah…” Nico said, nearly beaming. “Yeah, I think that can be arranged.”

“Get a room!”

“It’s my fucking apartment--Percy Jackson get over here so I can kick your ass!”

Will laughed, and somehow disaster appeared to be avoided.

#solangelo #solangelo fanfic #solangeloweek #solangeloweek2018 #nico di angelo #will solace #do previously posted fics count?#eh #whatever it can't hurt lol

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nataliecaves · 6 years

Text

Bittersweet Symphony: Chapter 3 - Surprise

chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 4 chapter 5 chapter 6 chapter 7

Fandom: Riverdale Pairing: Sweet Pea x Natalie Caves (OC) Summary: Natalie Caves lives a seemingly perfect life, but after spending a summer at her uncle’s, everything changes. Word Count: 2844 A/N: Finally I finished this chapter! Thanks to @kytty27 for editing and helping me out xxxx I hope you enjoy it :)

READ ON AO3

Natalie stood frozen in front of Riverdale High. It was her first day, and she had never been as anxious about anything before. She looked around, noticing a few students arriving, watching her cautiously. You’re being stupid, it’s going to be fine. She took a deep breath, straightened her shirt and made her way up the stairs. She entered into a long hallway, filled with lockers and tired students. Unsure of what to do, walked slowly down the hallway, trying her best to avoid bumping into someone.

“You must be Natalie Caves!” an excited voice appeared behind her. Natalie turned around and saw a beautiful raven haired girl smiling with her hand reached out to her.

“That’s me.” Natalie smiled and shook the girl’s hand.

“I am Veronica Lodge, and this is Kevin Keller,” the girl pointed to a boy standing next to her who waved, “and we offered to show you around today!”

Lodge. As in Lodge Industries? “Oh! That’s nice of you, but I’m sure I’ll be fine. I don’t want to-”

“Nonsense!” Veronica interrupted and locked her arm with Natalie’s. “This is gonna be great!” she gushed, grabbing Natalie’s arms and started dragging her down the hallway, Kevin following close behind.

Veronica led her to the principal's office to get Natalie’s schedule as well as her locker information. Veronica and Kevin were thrilled to see that they shared a few classes, and to Natalie’s relief, Veronica was in her Chemistry class first period. Kevin gave her a short hug before turning the other way, leaving Natalie alone with Veronica.

“So, how do you like our little town so far?” Veronica smirked, nudging her arm as the two girls walked towards their classroom.

“It’s… okay, I guess,” Natalie smiled. “I’ve only been here for a few days so my opinion is still neutral.”

“It’s pretty shitty compared to Boston or New York, but I promise you, you’re gonna like it.” Veronica laughed and halted to a stop. They were standing outside a classroom Natalie figured to be for their Chemistry class.

“Cute necklace by the way.” she winked, tilting her head slightly before turning around to open the door.

Natalie took the dog tag in her hand and smiled at her new friend. Veronica looked a lot like the girls from her old school, but she was friendlier and nicer. Natalie was glad to at least have one person she could talk to, even though it might not have been the one person she wanted to talk to. Her thoughts trailed back to the last summer, a familiar sting appearing in her stomach as she thought of SP. She hated the fact that she couldn’t even call him, just to hear his voice, missing him more with each day that passed.

The girls entered the classroom and Natalie felt everyone’s eyes fixated on her. Being the new kid was going to be something getting used to.

“Everyone, listen up. This is Natalie Caves. She just moved here from Boston.” the teacher announced. Natalie stopped dead in her tracks, raising her hand up in an awkward wave. “Now, take a seat and open your books to page 263.”

Natalie nervously searched the room and spotted Veronica sitting down by a table in the back, an empty chair next to her. She walked awkwardly to the back of the room, sat down next to Veronica and searched her bag for her book.

“Natalie,” Veronica leaned closer to her and whispered, “this is Betty and Jughead.” she continued, nodding her head to the table next to them. A blonde girl with a ponytail was smiling at her, and next to her was a dark haired boy wearing a grey beanie that looked like a crown.

“Hey, it’s nice to meet you guys.” she whispered to the couple and smiled.

When first period was over, Natalie had English class. After Veronica told her where the classroom was, her and Betty disappeared down the hallway. Natalie sighed and started walking in the direction Veronica told her to go.

“English?” she heard someone say, and turned her head up to reveal the boy with the crown beanie.

“Yeah, you too?” she smiled. Jughead nodded and started walking beside her. “Great! I probably would’ve gotten lost.” Natalie laughed, earning a soft chuckle from the boy.

They walked in silence to the classroom and once they entered, Jughead walked straight up to a table at the front to sit down. “You can sit here if you want.” he offered, and Natalie gladly accepted.

Jughead didn’t seem very talkative which Natalie was glad for. There was nothing she hated more than forced conversations about something irrelevant. The class went by quickly and finally it was time for lunch. She followed Jughead outside towards a table by the fence and spotted Veronica, her arms wrapped around a boy with red hair she hadn’t seen before. Betty and Kevin were sitting across from them, in deep conversation.

“Natalie! Come meet Archie!” Veronica called out when she spotted her, a proud grin on her face. “Natalie, this is Archie. Archie, this is Natalie.”

Natalie greeted the group and sat down next to Veronica. Jughead sat down next to Betty who gave him a soft peck on the cheek.

The friend group started interrogating Natalie about her past, why she moved to Riverdale and how she felt about the school so far. Kevin was very interested in knowing about her love life, and Natalie’s thoughts wandered again to SP, a soft smile appearing on her face.

“That smile tells me there was someone special back home.” Veronica smirked, “Spill!”

Natalie’s smile quickly disappeared and her cheeks turned bright red. “There was no one, I swear!” she giggled, her hand reaching for the dog tag around her neck.

“Oh my god,” Kevin rolled his eyes and grinned, “I’ll leave you alone for now, but at some point, you’re gonna have to tell me the details.”

“So, tell me something interesting about Riverdale.” Natalie said, changing the subject from her whatever-it-was.

“Wow, where to begin?” Betty laughed.

“How long do we have? Half an hour?” Kevin joked, narrowing his eyes a bit before turning to Natalie. “Okay so last summer, this boy, Jason Blossom, was murdered.”

“What?! Oh my god.” Natalie gasped, “Did they find out who did it?”

“Oh, that’s the best part,” Jughead stated, “his own father pulled the trigger.”

“Jughead,” Betty hissed, before turning to Natalie. “It was tragic. He threatened Jug’s dad so he would cover it up…”

“And now he’s in jail.” Jughead said blankly.

The group told her the whole story, how Betty and Jughead found Jason’s car, and eventually a video of the event. Natalie was horrified. She couldn’t believe someone would do that, and to their own child for that matter. The bell rang and they assured her those horrifying days were over, before waving goodbye and heading to class.

Natalie didn’t share the rest of her classes with any of the group. She didn’t know if she should call them friends or not. Maybe they were just being nice since she was the new girl. When the school day was finally over, Natalie headed over to her locker to return her books, and found a note lying inside.

Meet at Pop’s after class - V

Natalie had been at Riverdale High for three weeks. So much had happened since her first day at school. She had gotten very close with Veronica as well as the rest of the group. The first week had been a bit weird. Natalie felt too awkward to try and make friends, but thankfully Veronica had been very consistent on integrating her into her friend group. It hadn’t been until the Pop’s incident, Natalie had felt like she was a part of a friendship. When Archie’s dad had been shot, Veronica had called her immediately and Natalie rushed to the hospital, staying there with the rest of her classmates, waiting patiently for any news of her friend’s father. Thankfully, he ended up fine.

Everything seemed to be going back to normal until Jughead transferred to Southside High. Midge and Moose were shot, describing a black hood and green eyes of the man holding the gun, the same description as the man who shot Archie’s father. Everything became so much more real after that. People were scared to go outside after dark, Alice Cooper was blaming the Southside for the attempted murders, publishing a letter someone left on her front porch.

“I am the wolf. You are the flock. This is the bloodletting.”

The words were still fast printed in Natalie’s brain. There was an actual psychopath in Riverdale, attempting to ‘clear the town of sinners’. It only became worse after Archie and the football team posted a video online, calling themselves the Red Circle, threatening the Black Hood. How stupid. Her mother had almost banned her from going to school, but thankfully her father talked her out of it.

Natalie was walking down the hallway looking for Betty. Betty had gone to the Blue & Gold office to get the mail, and hadn’t showed up to class. Natalie arrived outside the office and knocked lightly on the door before opening it carefully.

“Betty?”

Kevin and Betty were sitting by the desk, Kevin was obviously shocked because of something and Betty just looked at her blankly. Natalie stopped, debating if she should leave or not.

“Sorry, uhm, what’s going on?” she asked sheepishly. Kevin gestured her to close the door so she did, before sitting down next to him. “Did something happen?”

Betty didn’t say anything but handed her a letter and a paper with a cipher on it. Natalie scanned over the letter, her eyes widening with every word. “Jesus christ. This is seriously fucked up.” she huffed, handing Betty back the letter.

“My speech...” Betty took a deep breath, shaking her head, “...inspired him. That stupid speech I wrote.”

“So, the Black Hood was at the Jubilee.” Kevin said.

“The entire town was there!”

“We should give this to Kevin’s dad.” Natalie offered, swallowing the fear that started to flow through her. Shit.

“The cipher, yeah, sure. But not the letter.” Betty’s voice was shaky and nervous. “This- This is just… for me. We can’t tell anyone about it.”

“This is evidence!” Kevin argued, and turned his head to Natalie for support.

“I- I don’t know...” Natalie muttered. She understood why Betty didn’t want to give the letter to the sheriff, but at the same time, it seemed like a bad idea not to.

Kevin and Betty argued some more about what to do with the letter and Betty explained how this was obviously a test, meant only for her. Kevin finally gave in and the trio left the office in silence, tension forming with each step they took.

The rest of the day, Natalie felt numb. Was this really happening? Betty did give her mother the cipher and the day after, it was on the front page of the newspaper. Natalie decided not to go to school that day. She’d rather stay at home with her own thoughts than the chaos that would be Riverdale High at the moment. In the afternoon, she got a call from Betty, asking her to come with her to Jughead’s trailer and work on the cipher. Natalie wasn’t ecstatic about getting involved, but was getting bored out of her mind, locked up in her room, so she accepted.

Kevin offered to walk with her to the Southside, since Natalie had never been there before. Natalie didn’t know much about the Southside. She had heard talks of a gang called the Southside Serpents, and apparently Jughead’s father was their leader, but she knew little else. The fact that the gang was called the Serpents made her think of SP’s snake tattoo. What a coincidence.

When Natalie and Kevin arrived at Jughead’s trailer, Betty was already there as well as a pink-haired girl called Toni, Jughead’s friend from his new school. She had on a leather jacket, a huge serpent printed on the back of it. The design was awfully similar to SP’s tattoo. That’s weird. They ordered some food and started working on the cipher, without much luck.

“These symbols look so familiar to me.” Betty suddenly broke the silence. “It’s like I’ve seen them before, and it’s driving me crazy I can’t figure out where.”

“Maybe if you loosened your ponytail.” Toni said, causing the other four people in the room to look at her with furrowed brows. “What? That was… a joke, guys.”

“Betty’s ponytail is iconic, and beyond reproach.” Kevin said, offended, making Jughead and Natalie chuckle.

“Kev, it’s fine. At this point, I’m willing to try anything.” Betty sighed and removed the hair tie, letting her hair loose.

There was something extremely uncomfortable about the atmosphere in the room, so Natalie started going through the papers again, hoping to avoid the tension.

“Where did you get that dog tag?” Toni suddenly asked her.

Natalie looked at her in confusion, and without thinking, her finger started clutching the necklace. “Oh, uhm, my friend gave it to me. Why?”

Toni narrowed her eyes for a second, before turning her attention back to the book she was holding. “It’s just that my friend has one exactly like that.” she stated dully.

Okay, that’s definitely weird.

“Let’s go back to the basics.” Jughead sat up from the couch, “What do we know about this guy? Who is he?”

“He’s a white male, in his 40s. Like, almost every serial killer ever.” Toni answered.

“No, I mean, like, why… Why is he killing people?” Jughead wondered, “Or at least, why now?”

Betty, Natalie and Kevin shared a look before Betty spoke up. “We know the Hood’s obsessed with cleansing the town of sinners and hypocrites, right? And he seems to be attacking anyone with ties to the Northside.”

“Here we go with the fake news again.” Toni interrupted, clearly annoyed. “You Northsiders and your privilege! All you do is demonize the Southside, so of course you think the Black Hood’s from there.”

If Natalie thought the atmosphere was uncomfortable before, she was dead wrong. Kevin looked at her with a look that clearly said ‘Oh shit’. Betty and Toni kept arguing and suddenly Toni announced that Jughead was lying to Betty about sitting with the Serpents at lunch. Natalie wanted to disappear in that moment, the tension was unbearable.

“I’m gonna go...” Kevin broke the awkward silence and Natalie had never been as thankful.

“Yeah, I should go too.” she said and stood up, and to her surprise Toni started packing her things and headed to the door as well.

She closed the door to the trailer behind her and saw Toni storming away. “Toni, wait!” she called and ran after her. She needed to ask her about the dog tag and her friend. She had to know. She finally caught up with her and managed to grab Toni’s arm.

“What do you want?” Toni rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

“Sorry. Uhm, why did you ask me about the dog tag?” Natalie asked and swallowed.

Toni looked at her for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows and sighed. “Were you in Pittsburgh this summer?”

Natalie’s stomach turned. How did she know that? Was SP from here? How could this be happening? She opened her mouth to say something when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She mouthed a sorry and picked up the phone, opening the text message from Veronica.

Come to the tracks, the Serpents showed up and the Bulldogs are getting ready to fight them, need help - Veronica

“Toni?” Natalie stuttered, still looking at her phone.

“What?” she spat back, hands still crossed.

“Apparently Archie and the football team are about to fight some Serpents by the tracks...”

Toni dropped her hands to her sides and clenched her jaw, letting out a frustrated sigh before turning on her heels and walking away. Natalie stood there, frozen, until Toni turned around and called, “Well? Come on then!”

By the time Natalie and Toni were halfway to the tracks, it started pouring rain. A few hundred feet away, Natalie saw a group of boys, standing opposite each other in a line. Motorcycles were parked on the Serpents side, and a few cars were behind the Bulldogs. Toni grabbed Natalie’s arm and led her behind one of the cars to get a better look. She saw Archie in the front, taking a step towards the line of Serpents. A tall boy was sitting on a motorcycle, his raven black hair dripping wet from the rain. He stood up and walked up to Archie, towering over him.

Oh my god. It can’t be.

She watched, terrified, as Archie took a step back, clenching his fist, and using his whole body weight to slam it into the Serpents jaw. Natalie let out a loud gasp as she watched SP fall to the ground and chaos broke out between the rest.

chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5 chapter 6 chapter 7

#sweet pea #bittersweet symphony sp #sweet pea x oc #sweet pea fanfic #sweet pea fanfiction #riverdale fanfic #riverdale fanfiction #sweet pea x natalie caves #sweetalie #sweetpeaspodsquad

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certifiedskywalker · 7 years

Text

All I Have - Archie Andrews

You're a carbon copy of Jughead Jones, you dress the same, act the same, you even write alongside him. When Archie starts to hang out with the two of you, you're annoyed at first; but when the prospect of losing Jughead to his new group of friends arises, Archie’s the only thing that can keep you grounded.

“You what!?” You stared into the eyes of your long time friend Jughead Jones, trying to figure out what was driving his madness. “This is the same Archie Andrews that was too busy banging a teacher to hang out with you Juggie.” Jughead simply rolled his eyes, popping another fry into his mouth. You scoffed and leaned back against your side of the booth.

“He explained the,” Jughead paused his speech and you raised your eyebrow, “what he was going through over summer and I forgave him.”

“You just forgave him?” After you asked, Jughead simply nodded. You leaned back over the table, meeting your friends gaze dramatically. “We don’t forgive people just like that,” you hissed, “we hold grudges.” You watched, reading Jughead’s reaction to your words. You started to refer to the two of you as ‘we’ in the third grade; when you friendship started to turn into a dependency.

Where one of you went, the other trailed not far behind. You’d swing together on the playground at school and would hang out constantly on weekends. Your closeness with Jughead inevitably lead to your family befriending the Joneses. Both of your parents constantly joked that maybe they accidentally split up a pair of twins. The idea didn’t seem too farfetched to your young mind; you and Jughead were born merely a few days apart. As you grew older, your shared characteristics became more apparent. The same dark clothes crowded your separate closets and the same music ate up data on your phones. Your style choices weren’t the only thing you and Jughead shared. His interest in writing also wore off on you, inspiring you to write your own account of Jason Blossom’s murder. During the summer you acted as his rock when his other best friend, Archie, left him alone. You never truly liked the red-headed boy, but when he ditched Jughead, you burned with an untamable hate. Archie Andrews was far too cliche for your liking with his jock personality and the attention span of a five year old. Plus, the last thing you needed was someone to steal Jughead away from you. You needed Jughead like you needed air; he was your only true friend and the thought of him being stolen away hurt you inside.

“I know that Y/N,” Jughead said finally, breaking your thoughts. “I just think that I should give him another chance.” You let out a gruff chuckle when you realized his motive.

“And this, re-friending of Andrews has nothing to do with gaining the favor of a particular blonde?” You wiggled your eyebrows and smiled when your friends cheeks blushed. “Wow Jug,” you teased, “Betty has a hold on you.” Jughead didn’t respond, his head lifting slightly to look at the door of the diner. You turned your own head and watched as Archie Andrews scanned the diner for his friend. His red hair, normally styled to perfection, appeared messy when his eyes locked with yours for a moment. You were caught off guard at the rich brown that made up his irises; a shade of brown that looked like bitter chocolate.

You turned back in your seat, giving Jughead another burning look as Archie sat down next to you. You stifled a groan as you scooted away from him.

“Hey,” he said with a small smile. Don’t trust him, you thought as you looked at Jughead once more.

“Hi Archie. You know Y/N L/N right?” You glanced at the boy next to you, who was studying you.

“Yeah, of course. You two are always joined at the hip,” he gave you a smile, “hi.” You rolled your eyes, silently wishing he’d take the hint. Sadly, Archie didn’t and this caused a smile to bloom on Jughead’s face when the boy extended his hand to you. You glanced at Archie’s extended hand, then to his face. Despite your hate towards him for hurting Jughead, the glint in his eyes sparked your interest. You took his hand carefully, trying to pull yourself out of the overwhelming waters you had just dived into.

After around two weeks of nearly constant contact with Jughead’s new group of friends, you found yourself changing. The desire to keep Jughead close to you, protecting him in a way, started to fade around in the background. You started to see his relationship with Betty, the sweetest girl you had ever met, and how much he liked her; but whenever you thought about Jughead moving on without you, you grew defensive. If his friendship fled from your life, you’d be as lonely as ever before. The only thing that seemed to distract you from the impending doom of losing your closest friend, was your closest enemy. Ever since the day you and Jughead met up with him at Pop’s, Archie just wouldn’t let you be.

“Hey Y/N are you doing anything after school?” You let out an audible groan as you turned to face him. You met his warm brown eyes, the ones that had started this whole mess, and sighed.

“Yes, I doing all of my well-hidden, hardcore drugs under the bleachers after school.” His bright eyes widened at your statement and you let out a true laugh. “I’m kidding, jeez. You really think I’m capable of doing drugs?” He simply shrugged in response and you raised your eyebrows.

“Well if you’re not too busy, I was wondering if you would want to go to Pop’s after school.” You heart stopped for a moment, internalizing his words. From the moment you locked eyes with this untrustworthy boy, you knew he was trouble. He was naive for one thing, but the puppy-dog look in his eyes seemed to make up for that. Throughout the conversations at lunch, you had learned of a different side of Archie Andrews; the side you never had the pleasure of meeting before. You had only known the boy who was too girl-crazy to focus on a solid thought, not the musical soul who was simply looking for someone to love.

You hated that you didn’t hate him, hated that you actually liked him. Of course Veronica, the know-er of all things romantic and dramatic, picked up on your stubborn feelings. She pestered you to no end and at first you thought she was jealous; but as she continued to ask about your feelings for Archie, you realized she was looking out for her friend.

“You seem nice Y/N, but I’ve heard things about you,” Veronica had said. “Things from Jughead mostly, about how you scorn the earth Archie walks on. I just wanna know why the sudden change of heart.”

Her words had opened you eyes to a truth you had tried so desperately to avoid. With the years of only trusting Jughead Jones, you had grown weary of everyone else. So the moment Archie did something wrong, your eyes were drawn towards the negative; not the positives his friendship could bring about. After silently observing his actions and picking apart every word, you found out you were wrong. He wasn’t how you thought he was. In fact, he was a far greater friend than yourself. He supported Jughead’s relationship with Betty, despite the awkwardness it made him feel. He wasn’t selfish to the point where he’d steal Jughead’s attention away from everything else; that was you. You liked Archie because he was the first thing you had ben wrong about in a long time.

You looked back up at the boy who was waiting quietly for your answer. Archie shifted his weight from one foot to the other nervously. You smiled to yourself, meeting his eyes once more.

“I’d love to,” you said finally. Archie smiled, a boyish grin that made you blush slightly.

“Great, I’ll meet you there at four.”

“So what do you think? You looked up from the paper Archie had given to you and saw the hope in his eyes. You gave him a soft smile, glancing back down the lyrics he had written.

“I think it’s beautiful,” you said, “you obviously care for whoever you wrote this for. It’s always nice when a song writer uses real people and events to center their songs around.” Archie smiled widely at your feedback.

“Thanks Y/N,” he whispered, taking the paper from your extended hand. His fingertips brushed against yours, causing a shiver to run down your spine. A blush bloomed on your cheeks and it grew warmer in the booth when you noticed his cheeks were red too.

“So who did you write it about,” you asked quickly, trying to move forward from the embarrassment.

“Um, I just wrote it really. No one in particular came to mind,” he said quickly. You raised your eyebrow at the boy, who gave you a goofy look. You laughed lightly, then grew serious again.

“Veronica?”

“No.”

“Is it Betty?!”

“No!”

You leaned back against the back of the booth, thinking about who it could possibly be. There was no way it couldn’t have been about someone; the lyrics were too specific, too true to his heart. Whoever it was about was lucky, it made even you feel jealous. Then you gasped, causing Archie to give you a weary look.

“It’s about Kevin!” Archie laughed loudly, drawing the attention of the other diner patrons. You smiled as his laughter filled your ears, sounding like a friendly melody.

“You got me,” he said, still smiling. You grinned but then frowned slightly. Normally, it would be you and Jughead goofing around at Pop’s. Sharing jokes and making the other laugh until they couldn’t breathe. What had happened to you two? How far apart have you drifted? The one person you trusted was no longer around as often. Maybe this is what happened to friends in High School; they get distracted by girlfriends and boyfriends and never have time. Your heart stopped briefly for a moment. Did you just reference Archie as your ‘boyfriend’?

“You okay Y/N?” You looked up from the table, meeting Archie’s gaze once more. You shook your head, pulling yourself out of the booth. You walked towards the door of the diner, pushing through the door.

You stood outside, taking in the fresh air and clearing your head. You fought a groan when you heard the door to the diner open and shut again. “Hey Y/N, what’s wrong?” You turned and faced Archie; nightmare turned daydream, enemy turned friend, your bane turned crush.

“Why do you have to be so confusing?” You crossed your arms over your chest, awaiting an answer. Archie just stared at you like a lost dog, not knowing what to say. “It was easier when you hurt Jughead’s feelings and I hated you for it,” you said, trying to sort out your own thoughts. “But now Jughead isn’t even here with me and you’re all I have.” You curled your lip under you teeth, still working through your own thoughts.

“Jughead is just busy, Y/N. You’re his family, you know that. Not even Betty can change that.” You glanced up at Archie, who had moved closer to you. You could see the little flecks of amber in his eyes due to how close he was. You felt your heart beat pick up when he took another step towards you. “As for me being confusing,” he met you gaze, “your feelings wouldn’t be confusing if they weren’t important. I learned that not too long ago.” You glanced from his eyes to his lips, feeling a coil loosen in your gut. The good year you had convinced yourself there was nothing redeemable about Archie Andrews faded away. You leaned forward, pressing your lips softly to his. His hand reached up to cup your cheek gently as you pulled him closer.

He pulled away slowly, eyes still closed. “Ya know, I’ve wanted to do that since the diner,” he whispered and you opened your eyes.

“It hasn’t been that long then,” you teased and Archie let out a breathy chuckle. He finally opened his eyes and he smiled.

“The first trip to the diner,” he whispered, pulling your lips to his once more. You smiled in the kiss, feeling a sense of warmth you hadn’t felt in a long time. All of the muddled feelings melted away too, leaving you in the moment alone with Archie Andrews.

I know this is bad but the idea wouldn’t get out of my brain! I hope it was enjoyable though! Toodles my friends!

#archie andrews #archie andrews imagines #archie andrews imagine #archie andrews x reader #archie andrews fanfiction #riverdale #riverdale imagines

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iwasnthere622 · 7 years

Text

Zack Taylor Designated Driver Squad

AO3 Link: Chapter 4

AO3 Link: Chapter 3

AO3 Link: Chapter 2

AO3 Link: Chapter 1

Tumblr Link: Chapter 3

Tumblr Link: Chapter 2

Tumblr Link: Chapter 1

CHAPTER 4: THURSDAY

Zack climbed up the rocky slope, moving slow, thoughts still back in the trailer with his mom, fingers curled loosely around his notebook -- Billy's mom always made sure he had all his stuff when she took him home, and Trini would just make him walk back home and get it if he forgot it.

"Hey."

Zack jumped a bit, looking up only to realize he'd made it to the abandoned train car and Trini was waiting for him.

Trini raised an eyebrow. "You okay?"

"Fine, Crazy Girl, still half asleep, that's all," Zack lied, grinning and dropping his notebook next to her bag on the ground. "Dunno why you insist on doing this before school, what time do you even get up to beat me here?"

Trini studied his face carefully, mostly ignoring what he was saying -- Zack could talk his way out of a paper bag, so if you wanted any kind of real answer, you had to know how to read his body language instead -- watching him tense the longer she studied him, deciding to leave it for now. If she pushed too hard, he'd react just the same as he did to Jason, and the point of this was to get him more involved with them, not push him away.

"Dawn," Trini answered eventually, crouching to turn on her music, the rock jarring compared to the peaceful and quiet setting.

"That's my bedtime," Zack teased, relaxing when Trini didn't push, bumping into her slightly as she stood.

"You're ridiculous," Trini said, standing and putting some space between them so she could start stretching and moving through her poses.

"Says the girl doing death metal yoga at 6am," Zack teased.

"Muscle memory is totally a thing, homeboy. So's being flexible."

"Ooh, right, gotta twist into a pretzel for the ladies."

Trini kicked a rock into his leg.

"Ow!" Zack hopped around on one foot, hands clutching his no-doubt bruised appendage. "Sheesh, someone woke up on the cranky side of the bed today!"

"Shut up and start moving," Trini ordered, giving him a look.

Zack rolled his eyes, but he did start mimicking her movements, because as much as he hated to admit it to her face, this stuff was helping him during their practices in the pit.

The playlist that Trini had set up ended a half hour later, signaling that they needed to start the walk to school to make it on time. Zack stretched out slowly, feeling a bit more relaxed and a bit more capable of shoving his worry down for now.

Trini packed up her things, waiting for Zack to pick up his notebook before taking off down the path, letting him reach out and tangle their fingers. She squeezed once but otherwise held his hand loosely, letting him know she was here without putting pressure on him to talk and joke around.

Zack loved hanging out with his friends, he did, but Trini was the best, because she got him. Maybe it was because she was a loner before all of this Ranger stuff, too, but she understood the pressure he felt sometimes when they were with the whole group, the outsider feeling that made him feel like a phony and clogged his throat.

They walked the whole way in silence, only letting go of each other when they were a block from the school.

"You good?" Trini asked, once they'd dropped each other's hands.

"Yeah," Zack said, bumping into her. "I'm good. Don't worry, I won't mess up your streak as the best DD."

Trini smiled a little. "I do like winning."

Zack laughed, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "Then win you shall," he declared. Sometimes, even with them bringing him to school and checking with him throughout the day, it got to be too much and he skipped out. But so far, he'd never skipped out on a Thursday, a fact Trini liked to occasional rub into everyone else's face. And if something as dumb as him staying in school for the day made Trini happy, then he'd do it.

"Us outcasts have to stick together," he murmured, letting go of her so they could walk into the school, meeting any stares coolly.

Trini ignored everyone and kept to the edges of the hall so she could go where she needed to go, heading to hers and Kim's locker, Zack trailing her.

The Pink Ranger wasn't there, and Trini couldn't help but notice the way Zack shifted, body betraying the fact he was not in the mood for people today, not even Kim.

"Go to homeroom. Your homeroom," Trini ordered.

"Spoilsport," Zack said, but his heart wasn't in it, all these kids laughing and flashing their care-free lifestyles all while staring and judging him making his skin crawl and the ball of worry, guilt, anxiety in his gut tighten.

"Go," Trini said, softer, nudging him. He could hide in a desk, doodle in his notebook, escape.

"...go Power Rangers," Zack whispered back, kissing Trini on the cheek before leaving her at her locker, heading to his real homeroom and ignoring everything, sinking into the back desk by the door and taking a slow breath.

He made it to second period before he couldn't anymore, the teachers, the kids, these fucking walls, he just couldn't. But it was Thursday so he had to stay, for Trini, so instead of going to math he went to art.

He saw a patch of yellow and felt like he could breathe again, bee lining for it and taking the empty seat next to her.

"What're we drawing today?" Zack asked Trini as he sat down.

"You have math now," Trini said, but in a resigned tone, knowing there was only so much even she could get Zack to do.

"Are you still on still-life, or have you moved on?" Zack continued.

Trini sighed, opening her sketchbook. "Still-life," she answered, nodding at the cart in the corner, covered with a variety of paint cans and paint brushes and pallets.

"Snoozer," Zack muttered, drumming his fingertips on the table.

The teacher stood at the bell, wheeling the cart to the center of the room. "All right, everyone, resume your drawings -- you should be about halfway done!" She looked around and only paused slightly at seeing Zack, humming to herself and moving to the clay shelves for her ceramics class.

"Don't watch," Trini mumbled, trying to use her arms to block her sketch from Zack's view while also working on the piece.

"Aw, c'mon, lemme see!" Zack teased, nudging her, pulling back and blinking when a brick of clay landed on the table right in front of him, looking up. "Ah, hey, Ms. Bucala..."

"Zack," Ms. Bucala said, amused smile at her lips. "I think you can entertain yourself with this, hm? I'll even fire whatever you decide to make."

"Cool!" Zack grinned, that constricting feeling loosening, fingers grabbing the clay and squishing it curiously.

"Don't overwork it," Ms. Bucala advised, offering Trini a smile before moving on to guide the other students in their work.

Trini made a mental note to have Billy hack the school systems and give Ms. Bucala a raise, drawing and watching Zack play around with the clay, the cloud that had been over his head slowly fading.

Zack played around with the clay, realizing the art teacher was right that he couldn't overwork it, because the small ball he'd been mashing was starting to dry out and crack. He frowned, setting it down and staring at the rest of the brick in front of him, thinking... He glanced around the room for some inspiration, spotting some racks near the front of the room and getting up to take a look, realizing this must be the ceramics class's work, looking at vases and mugs, some with designs scratched in or clay designs lumped on.

There were even some smaller pieces, what appeared to be key chains, and then he knew what he was going to do.

He went back to his seat and got to work, slipping out of his jack and breaking off a chunk of clay. He was nowhere near done molding when the ball rang, but he didn't stop.

"Zack," Trini said, uncertain, glancing at Ms. Bucala. "You have science and then lab..."

"'m busy, I'll see you at lunch," Zack answered, pausing only long enough to offer her a smile.

Trini hesitated, but when Ms. Bucala nodded her head at them and then told Trini to get to class, she gave in, ruffling Zack's hair and grinning at his squawk of protest, heading to class.

Zack huffed, shaking his head to try to settle his hair, the next class entering and taking their seats, eying him warily and whispering to themselves, but Zack ignored them all. Two down, three to go...

It took him the whole period to finish molding, sitting back with a grin when he was done, carefully taking his pieces to show Ms. Bucala.

"All done?" she smiled, looking them over. "Did you want them to be ornaments like this, or key chains?"

"Key chains," Zack answered immediately, letting her show him how to make a hole that'd be stable enough to support the weight. "All right, did you want to paint them?"

"Yeah," Zack said, nodding.

"Hmm... they need to dry out a bit first," Ms. Bucala said, watching his face fall. "I know, here," she said, standing and leading him to the counter along the wall, setting his pieces down and opening a cupboard, taking out a hairdryer and plugging it in. "One minute on each side," she told him, leaving him to it and checking on her class, dismissing them with the bell.

By the time the next class had settled, Zack was done drying out his pieces enough to paint, settled back in his seat with the colors he needed and brushes and some water.

The lunch bell rang just as he was finishing the last one, forcing himself not to rush, and then they were done.

"I'll fire them and you can pick them up tomorrow," Ms. Bucala said, sharing a smile with Zack, waving a hand when the boy thanked her and urging him to go to lunch before Trini came looking for him.

Zack laughed, washing up and grabbing his notebook and jacket, heading for lunch, where sure enough Trini was standing by their table and it seemed like the others were arguing with her to give him a few more minutes to show up.

"Miss me?" Zack grinned, punching her shoulder lightly and taking a seat with her.

"You missed lab," Trini said flatly.

Zack shrugged. "Was working on a project."

"What project?" Kim asked.

Zack grinned. "You'll see tomorrow. Now, c'mon, someone feed me!"

Trini watched him eat and joke around, and she relaxed a bit. Whatever had been eating at him, it was gone. For now.

#Zack Taylor #Kimberly Hart #Jason Lee Scott #Jason Scott #Billy Cranston #Trini #Power Rangers #Power Rangers 2017 #fanfiction #gen fic #high school #slide of life #character study #hurt/comfort #friendship

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plaidstiel-wormstache · 7 years

Text

Asylum18

My Experience at MY FIRST EVER CON!

Hey all,

So I’ve been away a few weeks, but now I’m back! And this past weekend (12-14 May) I was at Asylum 18 in Blackpool with my supernatural family!

It was an epic adventure and I loved every second of it!

If you’d like to read about it - click on keep reading, if not, and you just want photos, I’ll create another post! Just FYI - it’s flippin long, I do apologise.

THURSDAY I woke up, pumped, tired, but pumped, and picked up my hire car. Headed to the airport to pick up the first member of the fambam! She’d arrived from Germany and was overwhelmed! It was an easy 1hr and a bit drive to our hotel - where we did end up parking in the wrong area, but ... adventures! Then I ferried more of my family from the station to the hotel, in two lots. Now we’re all together, all checked in. Blah blah - met up with more family, had fish and chips for tea and just chatted about how excited we were for our weekend to start.

FRIDAY We had more family arrive, and now our group was complete. Today was registration, lots of lines, lots of waiting, perfecting the art of snake queues and figuring out where each member of the group were. By the time me and twinsie (a lady named Carolyn who thinks a little too much like me!) passed through registration, added extras and picked up our pre-orders - we’d probably passed 3 or more hours. Rookie moves were made by not packing water, so we then indulged in slushee’s after we’d passed out the other end of that mammoth queue. She checked in to her room, and we were taking a breather when we got the tweet - autos were happening. ARGH! So we met back up and headed straight to autos. I have a pillow case that I was getting signed - we started with Mark P (who was lovely and the only person who commented on the badges on my jacket - he liked). Moved on to Kim - the loveliest person ever, she looked stunned when I told her to have a good day, she told me to have a good one too! Then Lauren, who is just so precious. She thought I’d made the pillow case and was saying how smart and talented I am ... bless her, I had to say I’d clicked a button online and it showed up on my doorstep! Katherine Ramdeen was oh so sweet, had me wishing I had bought an op with her, she was so nice and genuine. The line for Briana and Osric were very long, so we went over to Chad, he was quirky, very sweet and kind though. Then we went to the line for Briana, and they closed the doors for autos, so phew we’d got in in time. Briana was oh so special! She told me to enjoy myself, and we’d moved on by the time I could think, and oh what a thought - kicking myself I didn’t say “often do!” And last but definitely not least, Osric. He was all smiles and happiness and the sun just shines outta that man. He was sweet AF, liked the pillow case and said he hoped I enjoyed the weekend, as I had wished him a fun one. That night most of us had dinner together, then separated and washed up for “the party” that night. Twinsie and I cosplayed (my first ever). We dressed as Howard and Bernadette from The Big Bang Theory - made funnier by the fact that I was taller than her and the blonde wig was just ... wigging me out! Everyone loved our costumes! But it was an early night as we were tired from queuing all day.

SATURDAY! I was up early at 0630 and showered and ready for breakfast by 0745. I went down the hall to a friends room and we had breakfast together in the hotel. Then stood in the queue (oh yes, another) for the main hall where the panel would take place. Myself and two new friends followed Jensen (no, not that Jensen. Yes, it was fun yelling his name and watching people turn round so fast whiplash was inevitable) into the hall, then realised he was up with the diamonds, and we were the cheapies. So we found seats at the back and got comfy for the rest of the day, practically! - First up with their panel was Kim and Briana - Adam Rose and Chris Gauthier were our co-hosts. The ladies were inspiring and brilliant and had alot to say about their characters, how they wished we would get to see more of them - so to keep an eye out for an upcoming side work! And Kim was very clear that Jodie was hers whilst she was in front of a camera, when she had a script, but then Jodie became ours to do what we will with her, that she supports all the creativity and ideas people have about Jodie, and that she encourages us to keep going, and even send her stuff! - Fifteen min break, then Adam and David - our beloved BMoL men. They said they were nervous but they looked like they were in their element. There were times where they would both keep saying “I’m sure this is boring, but I gotta tell ya real quick...” bless them - nothing you say will bore us! One of the questions was about their most embarassing job they’d ever taken. Adam said his had to be a stage play where he had the role of a gay male, had nude scenes and there was a lot of kissing the same sex. Apparently his sister was mortified when she went to see it and his Dad shook his hand and said “there was a lot of kissing in that!”, but his mum was proud. And David’s job was at a convention where he was dressed as a member of Devo and listened to Whip It nine hours straight for two days, and had to dance and stick stickers on people who came through the doors - he gave us a song and dance as example, much whistling happened! - Chad, Katherine Ramdeen, Chris and Adam Rose were up next. The boys were up there a while without Kat as she was still doing photo’s. I ran out to get Alaina’s auto at some point - SO SWEET, love her and she appreciated that I liked her daughters painting art that she posts on instagram. The four of them were actually quite interesting and sweet, although when I came back in Kat was talking about how she’d synced up with Kathryn on set, the boys then started making fun of her - not happy bout that, but there’s nothing I can do about that. - Misha ... and of course they posted a vague tweet about photo ops, maybe one I had, so I rushed out (knowing my seat was safe). Not my photo op, so I went back to my seat. Then Mark S autos were called, so I ran off again (my row is not too impressed by now). I get to autos and Mark is gone ... BUT Adam Rose and others were there and I have a ticket for him, so I text my friend with my bag, and ask her to pass back my wallet with all the tickets (as opposed to climbing back over everyone). David Haydn-Jones’s was very kind and said he was enjoying his second con so much and is impressed by all the love that this fandom has to offer and was surprised when I said I was from Aus but relieved when I said I’d moved so I hadn’t come up just for this! Adam Fergus didn’t have a lot of people at his table and he was brilliant, again enjoying his second con and loving the people he’s coming across. No one was at Adam’s desk so I got his autograph and got to have a lovely conversation with him. He was genuinely amazed that I had brought up his travels and loved following along on Insta and that I remembered that he had a dog and then we were talking about his pup, and then he said I should check out his youtube for more traveling. Then I was back to Misha’s panel. LUNCH (this is getting long, apologies, I’ll start paraphrasing). - So Osric and Lauren’s panel was first after lunch, but I was at Alaina’s photo op, again, she’s so sweet and said she hopped she got my request right - I’d asked for a raised eyebrow... she nailed it! Then returned to the LOsric panel, they are both darling. - Mark P and Alaina were up next, they were actually great up there together. Not a packed house, but a lot of questions and they had a great laugh together. - Mark S... he’s hilarious. He walked around the whole auditorium, he was rude and sassy and sarcastic and just brilliant. People were handing him chocolate bars and I was worrying cause I had Tim Tam’s for him (well his wife, heaven knows they didn’t get back to her!). He walked right behind me and was answering a question as I shook the packet at him. He smiled like it was christmas day and I’d given the best present. He then collected something else from the other side of the hall and went up to the stage, sat down and asked if there were any Aussie’s in the audience. I was the only WOO and he laughed, ripped into the Tim Tams, bit the top and bottom off one and picked up his tea. I was the only one to cheer, then he used it as a straw and then ate the whole thing. I screamed out “YOU’RE WELCOME”! That night my roomies were like - was that you? Yep uhuh thought so! - Hillywood were up next - but I was gone. I like their parody - but that’s all I’ve seen of them, and that’s not enough to keep me in my seat. Me and roomies got pizza, I drove out and picked it all up. Then I wandered down the hall to Jensen’s room to watch Eurovision. Jason Mann’s was performing that night and Briana made a surprise appearance (that Alaina pretty much said she was doing then sent her a text while in her panel). It was a fun night with a small room packed with nine people then eventually eleven.

SUNDAY Today was BUSY AF. I was back and forth and that hotel is spread out! Sat through the Mark P and Alaina panel to start my day then I went back to the room to get rid of some stuff out of my bag, use the loo, then as I reached the main hall Mark S was walking in front of me, he was slow and I wanted to go around him, but I was headed to his photo op, so why not stay behind him. But when I reached the room, they called all groups for Misha... - So in I go, Misha (it was go go go, I asked for an awkward prom photo, he spun me around and it turned into a weird pregnancy photo). - Had my Mark S photo, he was himself! But when I got up there with another packet of Tim Tams he smiled and said “I still have my other packet!” I said he better! And then explained I wanted to do it like a Tim Tam advert, he pulled me in close, it’s my fave picture. Then as I was leaving and after I’d said thank you, he said you better eat them and not share them! - Mark P was up next, I asked for a hug but with bunny ears, he was so tall I couldn’t reach, so it looks like I’m trying to grab his hair, but it’s a good photo. Left my copy there as the printers were jam packed, but headed over to... - Lauren and Osric, they were were the cutest and sweetest, and not many people were there for the duo so they were really taking their time with each person. I asked for an awkward family photo with the weird hands on hips and odd faces. Osric shotgunned back and Lauren was confused, but it’s my second fave photo, it turned out so well! - FINALLY got my Misha auto, I got to the desk and said “You’re doing an amazing job, not just here at con, but everywhere... in life.” And he looked at me as if I was the first person to ever tell him that and he said “Thank you so much.” Like it meant to world to him. And then I had to go and have a moment in my room (no not like that!) cause I didn’t expect for that to hit me like it did - but I could say that to you and I’d have the same reaction. (yeah YOU). Got changed, packed away the pillow case, reorganised my bag, went downstairs, got lunch (before the massive lines started) then joined my friends in the hall for Mark S’s panel - more walking around, more brutal than yesterday, just hilarious. LUNCH... - Had my Kim and Briana op, my friends (mum and daughter) in front of me had theirs first, they did the YMCA and it was BRILLIANT, Bri stood the wrong way round for the C then got it right, then was cautious to not have her arm in Dawn’s face. Then I asked for a sandwich but with faces that said someone smelt like BO - great photo! - Back to the hall to wait for my group to get called for Adam and David. Kat, Chad, Adam and Chris were up on stage when I got there, and only had two more people in line to ask questions and still had half an hour to go, so I thought I’d get up to save from being awward. I wrote out a question for Kat (as everyone had questions for Chad and Adam...) then Dawn said “ask them what their fave cheeses are”! A lot of waiting, i was last question, and just skipped the Kat question went right for the cheese. Kat was real animated cause I mentioned that she was Vegan so my friend Dawn was wondering ... it was a good last question, they all got a kick out of it! - THEN ADAM AND DAVID!!!! There was a long line, but they were giving each person a good amount of time with them, making them all feel special. I asked for a smushy hug, and it was heaven. You’ll see i got a little possessive. And David grabbed me at the end and looked in my eyes and said Thanks. And Adam was very thankful and sweet as well, wished me a good end of con, I said I hoped he’d enjoyed it. Then the steward was proper “MOVE” - doing their job! - Back to Panel’s, Kim and Briana, the goddesses that they are. And Kim talked about how much she’s learnt from her autistic daughter and that she’s realised she tried to mother everyone, now she just mother’s her child. Same for Bri, she’s more than happy to let her kid do whatever and figure it out for themselves cause they’ll never take you for your word. - Misha was last up, he was very grateful to everyone for coming along. Said how “nice blackpool” was (sarcasm - the venue was mediocre at best). He took of his jacket - the crowd went nuts as they do. He thanked the event organisers and just like that, an amazing weekend was over. - That night the few that remained played CAH and ate chicken meals, opting for an early-ish night before saying goodbye in the morning. I wouldn’t have traded a second of it for anything. It was a grand weekend, and amazing first con and I had an absolute blast meeting all those new people, meeting my family and seeing old faces. I can’t wait to go to another one!

Taking Pics Making Friends

#asylum 18 #supernatural convention #rogue events #SPN Family #crowley #lucifer #abbadon #castiel #kevin tran #mrs tran #bmol #mick davies #arthur ketch #jodie mills #donna hanscum

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gyanpoint · 6 years

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Distributed teams are rewriting the rules of office(less) politics

When we think about designing our dream home, we don’t think of having a thousand roommates in the same room with no doors or walls. Yet in today’s workplace where we spend most of our day, the purveyors of corporate office design insist that tearing down walls and bringing more people closer together in the same physical space will help foster better collaboration while dissolving the friction of traditional hierarchy and office politics.

But what happens when there is no office at all?

This is the reality for Jason Fried, Founder and CEO of Basecamp, and Matt Mullenweg, Founder and CEO of Automattic (makers of WordPress), who both run teams that are 100% distributed across six continents and many time zones. Fried and Mullenweg are the founding fathers of a movement that has inspired at least a dozen other companies to follow suit, including Zapier, Github, and Buffer. Both have either written a book, or have had a book written about them on the topic.

For all of the discussions about how to hire, fire, coordinate, motivate, and retain remote teams though, what is strangely missing is a discussion about how office politics changes when there is no office at all. To that end, I wanted to seek out the experience of these companies and ask: does remote work propagate, mitigate, or change the experience of office politics? What tactics are startups using to combat office politics, and are any of them effective?

“Can we take a step back here?”

Office politics is best described by a simple example. There is a project, with its goals, metrics, and timeline, and then there’s who gets to decide how it’s run, who gets to work on it, and who gets credit for it. The process for deciding this is a messy human one. While we all want to believe that these decisions are merit-based, data-driven, and objective, we all know the reality is very different. As a flood of research shows, they come with the baggage of human bias in perceptions, heuristics, and privilege.

Office politics is the internal maneuvering and positioning to shape these biases and perceptions to achieve a goal or influence a decision. When incentives are aligned, these goals point in same direction as the company. When they don’t, dysfunction ensues.

Perhaps this sounds too Darwinian, but it is a natural and inevitable outcome of being part of any organization where humans make the decisions. There is your work, and then there’s the management of your coworker’s and boss’s perception of your work.

There is no section in your employee handbook that will tell you how to navigate office politics. These are the tacit, unofficial rules that aren’t documented. This could include reworking your wardrobe to match your boss’s style (if you don’t believe me, ask how many people at Facebook own a pair of Nike Frees). Or making time to go to weekly happy hour not because you want to, but because it’s what you were told you needed to do to get ahead.

One of my favorite memes about workplace culture is Sarah Cooper’s “10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings,” which includes…

Encouraging everyone to “take a step back” and ask “what problem are we really trying to solve”

Nodding continuously while appearing to take notes

Stepping out to take an “important phone call”

Jumping out of your seat to draw a Venn diagram on the whiteboard

Sarah Cooper, The Cooper Review

These cues and signals used in physical workplaces to shape and influence perceptions do not map onto the remote workplace, which gives us a unique opportunity to study how office politics can be different through the lens of the officeless.

Friends without benefits

For employees, the analogy that coworkers are like family is true in one sense — they are the roommates that we never got to choose. Learning to work together is difficult enough, but the physical office layers on the additional challenge of learning to live together. Contrast this with remote workplaces, which Mullenweg of Automattic believes helps alleviate the “cohabitation annoyances” that come with sharing the same space, allowing employees to focus on how to best work with each other, versus how their neighbor “talks too loud on the phone, listens to bad music, or eats smelly food.”

Additionally, remote workplaces free us of the tyranny of the tacit expectations and norms that might not have anything to do with work itself. At an investment bank, everyone knows that analysts come in before the managing director does, and leave after they do. This signals that you’re working hard.

Basecamp’s Fried calls this the “presence prison,” the need to be constantly aware of where your coworkers are and what they are doing at all times, both physically and virtually. And he’s waging a crusade against it, even to the point of removing the green dot on Basecamp’s product. “As a general rule, nobody at Basecamp really knows where anyone else is at any given moment. Are they working? Dunno. Are they taking a break? Dunno. Are they at lunch? Dunno. Are they picking up their kid from school? Dunno. Don’t care.”

There is credible basis for this practice. A study of factory workers by Harvard Business School showed that workers were 10% to 15% more productive when managers weren’t watching. This increase was attributed to giving workers the space and freedom to experiment with different approaches before explaining to managers, versus the control group which tended to follow prescribed instructions under the leery watch of their managers.

Remote workplaces experience a similar phenomenon, but by coincidence. “Working hard” can’t be observed physically so it has to be explained, documented, measured, and shared across the company. Cultural norms are not left to chance, or steered by fear or pressure, which should give individuals the autonomy to focus on the work itself, versus how their work is perceived.

Lastly, while physical workplaces can be the source of meaningful friendships and community, recent research by the Wharton School of Business is just beginning to unravel the complexities behind workplace friendships, which can be fraught with tensions from obligations, reciprocity and allegiances. When conflicts arise, you need to choose between what’s best for the company, and what’s best for your relationship with that person or group. You’re not going to help Bob because your best friend Sally used to date him and he was a dick. Or you’re willing to do anything for Jim because he coaches your kid’s soccer team, and vouched for you to get that promotion.

In remote workplaces, you don’t share the same neighborhood, your kids don’t go to the same school, and you don’t have to worry about which coworkers to invite to dinner parties. Your physical/personal and work communities don’t overlap, which means you (and your company) unintentionally avoid many of the hazards of toxic workplace relationships.

On the other hand, these same relationships can be important to overall employee engagement and well-being. This is evidenced by one of the findings in Buffer’s 2018 State of Remote Work Report, which surveyed over 1900 remote workers around the world. It found that next to collaborating and communicating, loneliness was the biggest struggle for remote workers.

Graph by Buffer (State of Remote Work 2018)

So while you may be able to feel like your own boss and avoid playing office politics in your home office, ultimately being alone may be more challenging than putting on a pair of pants and going to work.

Feature, not a bug?

Physical offices can have workers butting heads with each other. Image by UpperCut Images via Getty Images.

For organizations, the single biggest difference between remote and physical teams is the greater dependence on writing to establish the permanence and portability of organizational culture, norms and habits. Writing is different than speaking because it forces concision, deliberation, and structure, and this impacts how politics plays out in remote teams.

Writing changes the politics of meetings. Every Friday, Zapier employees send out a bulletin with: (1) things I said I’d do this week and their results, (2) other issues that came up, (3) things I’m doing next week. Everyone spends the first 10 minutes of the meeting in silence reading everyone’s updates.

Remote teams practice this context setting out of necessity, but it also provides positive auxiliary benefits of “hearing” from everyone around the table, and not letting meetings default to the loudest or most senior in the room. This practice can be adopted by companies with physical workplaces as well (in fact, Zapier CEO Wade Foster borrowed this from Amazon), but it takes discipline and leadership to change behavior, particularly when it is much easier for everyone to just show up like they’re used to.

Writing changes the politics of information sharing and transparency. At Basecamp, there are no all-hands or town hall meetings. All updates, decisions, and subsequent discussions are posted publicly to the entire company. For companies, this is pretty bold. It’s like having a Facebook wall with all your friends chiming in on your questionable decisions of the distant past that you can’t erase. But the beauty is that there is now a body of written decisions and discussions that serves as a rich and permanent artifact of institutional knowledge, accessible to anyone in the company. Documenting major decisions in writing depoliticizes access to information.

Remote workplaces are not without their challenges. Even though communication can be asynchronous through writing, leadership is not. Maintaining an apolitical culture (or any culture) requires a real-time feedback loop of not only what is said, but what is done, and how it’s done. Leaders lead by example in how they speak, act, and make decisions. This is much harder in a remote setting.

A designer from WordPress notes the interpersonal challenges of leading a remote team. “I can’t always see my teammates’ faces when I deliver instructions, feedback, or design criticism. I can’t always tell how they feel. It’s difficult to know if someone is having a bad day or a bad week.”

Zapier’s Foster is also well aware of these challenges in interpersonal dynamics. In fact, he has written a 200-page manifesto on how to run remote teams, where he has an entire section devoted to coaching teammates on how to meet each other for the first time. “Because we’re wired to look for threats in any new situation… try to limit phone or video calls to 15 minutes.” Or “listen without interrupting or sharing your own stories.” And to “ask short, open ended questions.” For anyone looking for a grade school refresher on how to make new friends, Wade Foster is the Dale Carnegie of the remote workforce.

To office, or not to office

What we learn from companies like Basecamp, Automattic, and Zapier is that closer proximity is not the antidote for office politics, and certainly not the quick fix for a healthy, productive culture.

Maintaining a healthy culture takes work, with deliberate processes and planning. Remote teams have to work harder to design and maintain these processes because they don’t have the luxury of assuming shared context through a physical workspace.

The result is a wealth of new ideas for a healthier, less political culture — being thoughtful about when to bring people together, and when to give people their time apart (ending the presence prison), or when to speak, and when to read and write (to democratize meetings). It seems that remote teams have largely succeeded in turning a bug into a feature. For any company still considering tearing down those office walls and doors, it’s time to pay attention to the lessons of the officeless.

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2BoZEik from Blogger https://ift.tt/2L6rkYW

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webdevelopment010 · 6 years

Link

But what happens when there is no office at all?

“Can we take a step back here?”

One of my favorite memes about workplace culture is Sarah Cooper’s “10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings,” which includes…

Encouraging everyone to “take a step back” and ask “what problem are we really trying to solve”

Nodding continuously while appearing to take notes

Stepping out to take an “important phone call”

Jumping out of your seat to draw a Venn diagram on the whiteboard

Sarah Cooper, The Cooper Review

Friends without benefits

Graph by Buffer (State of Remote Work 2018)

Feature, not a bug?

Physical offices can have workers butting heads with each other. Image by UpperCut Images via Getty Images.

To office, or not to office

What we learn from companies like Basecamp, Automattic, and Zapier is that closer proximity is not the antidote for office politics, and certainly not the quick fix for a healthy, productive culture.

Source link

The post Distributed teams are rewriting the rules of office(less) politics appeared first on Fadsmedia.

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luthermolvera · 6 years

Text

Distributed teams are rewriting the rules of office(less) politics

But what happens when there is no office at all?

“Can we take a step back here?”

One of my favorite memes about workplace culture is Sarah Cooper’s “10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings,” which includes…

Encouraging everyone to “take a step back” and ask “what problem are we really trying to solve”

Nodding continuously while appearing to take notes

Stepping out to take an “important phone call”

Jumping out of your seat to draw a Venn diagram on the whiteboard

Sarah Cooper, The Cooper Review

Friends without benefits

Graph by Buffer (State of Remote Work 2018)

Feature, not a bug?

Physical offices can have workers butting heads with each other. Image by UpperCut Images via Getty Images.

To office, or not to office

What we learn from companies like Basecamp, Automattic, and Zapier is that closer proximity is not the antidote for office politics, and certainly not the quick fix for a healthy, productive culture.

0 notes

fmservers · 6 years

Text

Distributed teams are rewriting the rules of office(less) politics

But what happens when there is no office at all?

“Can we take a step back here?”

One of my favorite memes about workplace culture is Sarah Cooper’s “10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings,” which includes…

Encouraging everyone to “take a step back” and ask “what problem are we really trying to solve”

Nodding continuously while appearing to take notes

Stepping out to take an “important phone call”

Jumping out of your seat to draw a Venn diagram on the whiteboard

Sarah Cooper, The Cooper Review

Friends without benefits

Graph by Buffer (State of Remote Work 2018)

Feature, not a bug?

Physical offices can have workers butting heads with each other. Image by UpperCut Images via Getty Images.

To office, or not to office

What we learn from companies like Basecamp, Automattic, and Zapier is that closer proximity is not the antidote for office politics, and certainly not the quick fix for a healthy, productive culture.

Via John Chen https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes