#that plus the fact that none of their investigations have turned up anything very sympathetic doesn't really scream 'TRY TO REDEEM THEM'

[jq37]

I'm like genuinely interested as someone who thinks a lot about the craft of critique and fandoms the ways in which the current Rat Grinders discourse shows why you can't really apply the same lens you use to critique a pre written story vs an improvised actual play show by a bunch of comedians who are first and foremost concerned with committing to the bit. Like Porter's a great example of this, he went from a nothingburher to secretly evil with a whole lore and backstory!

In the same vein the Rat Grinders probably could have turned out to be not as culpable in all of this had the Bad Kids really tried to bond with them, but instead they focused on other things with the way downtime was structured! And because they did that they could pass the Last Stand, and are safe from Porter's rage thing! Like legitimately I really liked the mechanics of downtime this season, it just also came at the cost of developing the Rat Grinders!

(Though to be entirely fair, the BKs did try to engage with Oisin, Ivy, and Ruben and then Oisin launched the house, Ivy was racist, and Ruben still attacked Wanda so)

I think it's really fascinating from a storytelling/game design perspective! The downside is the Discourse is so tiring

Yeah it's interesting. I covered some of this in other asks so I'm gonna hit on the stuff I haven't yet.

If you're telling a story that is based partially on user input, it's not entirely fair to be like, "This subplot was underdeveloped" if the reason for that was that the players didn't make choices to facilitate that development. When DM's push hard for the players to care about things they're not interested in, they get hit with railroading accusations.

And even outside of the player choices, there are also the rolls. A BIG part of D&D is the randomness of the dice. Even if the players care about something, it doesn't mean they'll get it. I'll mention again that Kristen tried to roll Insight on Buddy before the final fight and got a Nat 1. What is she supposed to do? Roll again until she gets a good read on him? That's not how that works. If the dice aren't cooperating, there's not much you can do. And you can make sure your big story beats don't rely on dice but at the end of the day they *will* shape your story in ways you can't control.

Another key thing about the medium, as you pointed out, is things can change on the fly. The confluence of high rolls and serious interest can change things that were behind the screen canon in an instant. In Burrow's End, Aabria planned for Bennet to have a family but as soon as Tula/Brennan expressed interest in romancing him, she Thanos snapped that family out of existence. I don't know how much Brennan wanted the Rat Grinders to be recruitable but even if he'd planned them all to just be foils and evil and nothing else, I can totally see him flipping one if they'd really wanted to and it would have made for a good story beat.

Anyway, yeah! Interesting stuff to think about. Even though D20 often feels like a TV show, it's important to remember that it's a different beast in many ways.

[mymanyfandomramblings]

Mabel's perspective in Sock Opera is equally, if not more sympathetic than Dipper's: An Essay

Most people generally wouldn't consider Mabel to have a terribly sympathetic plotline in Sock Opera, even those of us who don't necessarily feel that she's horribly selfish. I think that's because, from a narrative perspective, her plotline is (as it so often is) shafted in favour of Dipper's, and from a viewer's perspective, Dipper's makes more sense. We, as viewers want to know who the author is. We, as viewers, know that Gabe is inevitably going to turn out to be some variety of impossible, and we know that the Author of the Journals is a major mystery. However, from Mabel's perspective, none of this is true, because she doesn't have the luxury of knowing she is in a TV show. Even if you take out Gabe, her perspective still makes perfect sense.

At the beginning of summer, Dipper found this journal, and Mabel has generally been pretty happy to go along with his adventures as the journal has led them, but it's clear she doesn't have the same degree of fascination with it. Maybe she may have been a little intrigued by who the Author is, she's probably a bit curious, but not to the same extent. By the time of Sock Opera, she's probably reasonably ready for the Journal fixation to be over, considering that they nearly all got killed by a shapeshifter trying to find the author. She knows that trying to investigate the author is dangerous--Stan warned them away from the supernatural, they've all nearly died multiple times, but Dipper cannot be stopped. And now Dipper has decided to spend hours and hours and hours, forgoing sleep, sitting in front of a screen, typing in passwords. The fact that Mabel tries to drag him away from it is a good thing--anyone with a relative who spends excessive amounts of time in front of a computer can tell you that. Generally, having someone close to you become deeply fixated to the point of obsession with anything can be challenging, however in Mabel's case, Dipper has become obsessed to the point of prioritising getting into the laptop above anything, and this isn't just a regular hyperfixation: this is a hyperfixation that has nearly gotten them both (plus their loved ones) nearly killed multiple times in the last few weeks. It's absolutely the responsible, good thing for Mabel to do to not enable that behaviour.

And then if you add the puppet show back into the equation, then yes, it is kind of ridiculous of Mabel to put on a whole show of that kind of magnitude just for a boy (regardless of whether the boy deserves it), however, as viewers we must accept that this is, in fact, thoroughly within character for Mabel, who is kind of ridiculous. Any kind of production of that size is a huge commitment, especially if you've given yourself a week to work, and I'm not remotely bothered by the fact that Mabel has to get everyone involved on this. And to Mabel's credit, she does try to help Dipper as soon as he appears to her in puppet form, she just isn't immediately willing to stop the show. Back in high school, my drama class did a play that I mostly wrote, mostly managed and also had a small acting role in (yes, I was an overachiever in drama), and let me tell you, it would have taken a lot to have gotten me to call off the show halfway through, much less publicly sabotage it. A demon threatening the lives of one of my siblings? Probably yes. That probably would have done it. And Mabel does allow the thing that she poured blood, sweat and tears into to go literally up in flames in front of everyone, once she realises that's what she has to do (and personally, I don't think that there's anything wrong with not immediately being willing to drop everything for this. It's not like Dipper doesn't dig in his heels about doing what's best until the very last possible second). I don't know why people insist it's not 'technically a sacrifice', because while, yes, obviously Dipper's life was more important, and she 100% made the right choice, it's not easy to wreck something you worked hard on in front of people.

All this is to say that although it's easy to become irritated at Mabel during this episode because she's hindering Dipper's ability to figure out who the author is, it's also very easy not to realise that she has a thoroughly reasonable perspective, simply because the narrative puts greater emphasis and attention of Dipper's perspective.

[schraubd]

On the Oberlin Verdict

You might have seen the news that a bakery won a $44 million dollar judgment ($11 million in compensatory damages, plus $33 million in punitive damages) against Oberlin College (under Ohio law, the punitive damages are capped at $22 million, so that will likely be reduced). The short background is this: An Oberlin student tried to buy alcohol at the bakery with a fake ID. The ID was rejected, and he tried to leave with the bottle anyway. A store employee gave chase, a scuffle ensued, and the student and two friends (all who were Black) were arrested. Many on campus believed the incident was one of racial profiling, and protests by Oberlin students against the bakery quickly ensued. The bakery was labeled a "racist" institution, and the college briefly suspended its contracts with the bakery. Ultimately, the students plead guilty to a crime; and follow-up investigations suggested that there was no pattern of profiling by the bakery. Under these facts, it seems pretty clear that the bakery was treated poorly by the Oberlin community. That said, a damage reward of this magnitude poses a massive threat to free speech on campus -- a concern that many of those crowing over the verdict seem worryingly unconcerned about. The evidence that Oberlin, as an institution, was responsible for the allegedly libelous statements by the students (and we should wonder whether claims of racism--an evaluative opinion--can qualify as libelous, though in context it's arguable that here it was an opinion based on undisclosed facts) is quite thin. Not non-existent, but thin. The administration let students use the copiers. They didn't censor the student government (an independent body) which issued a condemnation of the bakery. Administrators were "present" at the protests and didn't try to shut them down. One reportedly helped pass out fliers, and then wrote a remarkably bratty message considering "sic[cing] the students" on a dissenting professor before deciding that the college needed to "put the matter behind us." Some of this -- like the "sic" message -- is genuinely bad behavior. Some of it is the college not proactively censoring its students. None of it comes close to justifying an eight-figure damage verdict. But if the idea is that this verdict "sends a message" to colleges, what is the message they're likely to receive? Put differently, what is the compliance takeaway here, if you're a college administrator? Here's a hint: it isn't "don't libel local businesses". It's "don't do anything -- whether in the form of action or inaction -- which could even hint at tolerating speech that the most hostile possible jury could consider to be libelous towards a sympathetic plaintiff." The latter is quite different from the former. One thing I've learned from spending some time in "free speech" oriented social movements is that free speech has a lot of fair-weather friends. There are some principled actors. There are many more whose avowed commitment to free speech is in fact wholly one-sided, and in fact are eagerly insistent that colleges and universities in particular act against student or faculty speech that they dislike. They want faculty to be fired and students to be punished, suspended, or expelled; they want their clubs defunded and their newspapers pulled from the shelves; they harbor a deep populist resentment towards the entire modern educational system which yearns for an outlet. That doesn't describe everyone, but it describes enough potential jurors that -- when tens of millions of dollars are on the line -- colleges are pretty much going to be forced to accommodate them. All the more so in communities where town-gown relations are frayed. I've heard that was already true in Oberlin. Certainly, the decision by a local judge to disallow the students what seemed to be a perfectly normal plea deal because doing so would supposedly validate the student protests -- something that I've mostly seen to underscore the community "standing up" to campus bullies -- to me instead underlines a deep-felt hostility and antipathy towards Oberlin, a desire to show those snooty hippies what's what. (Likewise, if my alma mater of Carleton College -- which in many ways has a similar profile to Oberlin as a rural, highly-ranked national school with a liberal student body, an elite reputation, and iffy town-gown relations -- got sued by a local business, I imagine any trial attorney they'd hire would try to do anything and everything to keep the case away from a local jury). And when you're trying to comply with that juror in mind, the need not to just avoid bad actions, but also avoid anything that the most negative possible factfinder could stretch to interpret as bad, ends up encompassing a lot of wholly innocent (or even laudatory) conduct. For example, having administrators observe student protests without interceding might seem to be a responsible, mature decision -- unless a hostile jury views it as a tacit endorsement and wonders why the administrators didn't try to proactively tamp down on the student speech. Which, in many circumstances, would itself be a free speech violation -- a fact which in turn emphasizes the impossible situation colleges will find themselves in. Or another: in a bid to reduce tensions, Oberlin tried to cut a deal with the bakery where it wouldn't push to criminally prosecute first-time shoplifters. The bakery refused, saying shoplifting was a major source of lost revenue. They had every right to give this answer, but again, I've seen Oberlin's gesture interpreted in the most hostile possible light -- as granting all of its students a "get out of shoplifting free" card -- as if nobody had ever heard of alternatives to prosecution for first-time, low-level, non-violent offenses (let's not forgot the other side of the coin of bringing the full hammer of criminal law down upon every single shoplifting case).

I actually suspect that at least some, if not all, of the verdict won't survive an appeal. The damages are just so wildly out of sync with the college-qua-college's bad conduct, and the line between what the college did and the alleged libel so attenuated, that it seems very vulnerable. Plus, the conservative lawyers who've been backing the bakers have already got their headline, so I think they'll be more amenable to settlement than they had been before. All of this is fully recognizing that the bakery was -- again, to reiterate -- treated poorly by the Oberlin community. The sort of conduct that many Oberlin students engaged in isn't just righteous anger or blowing off steam -- it hurts real people and impacts their real livelihood. But this verdict isn't about making a wronged bakery whole. It's a shot across the bow at institutes of higher education which many people simply loathe -- loathe for censoring speech and loathe for tolerating it, loathe for strangling student freedom and loathe for letting students run wild, loathe for their liberal uniformity and loathe for their diverse students bodies, loathe for thinking they're special and loathe for not making their specialness sufficiently accessible. That sort of loathing isn't healthy. And when it can get its hands on massive tort verdicts, it's positively dangerous. via The Debate Link http://bit.ly/2MOuuXj

[svubloods]

Imagine your biological father, Rafael Barba, filing for full legal custody of you (TPELB PART FIVE)

(A/N: I read up on actual case custody law in the state of New York and I have simplified the process for the purposes of the story. So I apologize to any experts or anyone who picks up on the discrepancies. I wanted to keep the story flowing. Beside from that I hope you enjoy this) 

Masterlist with all the Parts HERE

Imagine your biological father, Rafael Barba, filing for full legal custody of you

“What do you mean?” You asked, looking up at your Grandpa.

“Well,” He began, taking a deep breath as he tried to mask the extent of his worry, “It means that as soon as the results proved that he was, in fact, your father and he was granted his Order of Affiliation he and his attorney filed for full legal custody of you which therefore means that he is looking for the removal as my rights of your legal guardian,”

“What?” You panicked, looking away, “Can he do that?”

“He can now, he’s officially your Father by law and not just biologically,” He answered.

“But it just doesn’t make sense,” You stated, “And he may he may be all of those things but he isn’t my Dad,”

“I know you’re upset…” He began once again.

“I will be upset,” You corrected, “But right now I’m just angry. Who does he think he is? He’s a stranger to me. A couple of weeks of conversations suddenly justifies to him to be my Dad? He doesn’t even know me! Now he wants to take me away from the only family I’ve ever had. Wait, I am not going to live with you anymore?”

“I don’t know,” He admitted.

“But I don’t want to leave you, Grandpa,” You whispered, tears welling in your eyes.

“I’m going to try my hardest to make sure he doesn’t,” He promised, cupping your face in his hands and wiping your tears as they spilled down your cheeks, “He may fight for you but I’m going to fight harder. I love you so much, Y/N.”

“I love you too, Grandpa,” You whispered before burying yourself into his bear hug, crying silently into his chest.

Over the next few weeks, it was all you could think about. Your family was all so upset, they’d hug you tighter and longer. They were walking on eggshells, trying to make it as normal as possible for you. Any conversations about what was going on were hushed and out of your per view. Your Grandpa always gave you the major updates, not wanting you to be out of the loop.

Your Aunt Erin had enlisted one of her law school friends who was very respectable family law attorney to represent your Grandpa. As both sides had DA’s on them with connections to the court system, the trial was moving along quicker than usual, as apparently the DA didn’t want it getting out that his Senior DA and one of his ADA’s were feuding the family courts so he tried to make it all happen quickly. However, Mr. Barba and his attorney had made it clear that they weren’t willing to negotiate any sort of arrangement so apparently it was pretty clear even before the first appearance that there would be a fully fledged trial.

On the eve of the first appearance at court, your Aunt Erin sat you down and explained to you everything that was going to happen and what might possibly happen. At the first appearance, there would be no testimony or witness just discussing the facts so that things were all cleared up. She also explained that you would be appointed a Law Guardian who will mostly likely during the time between his appointment to the trial being doing some investigations into all of your lives to report back to the judge at trial. Apparently, he sole job was to represent what you wanted but because you are under 14, that meant he also had to explain what he thought was best for you in conjunction with what you wanted. More importantly, she explained that there was a possibility that you may be put into someone else's care leading up to and during the trial. But she promised it was only going to be for around a month or so and that was only if it came to it.

You knew she was playing off that part to an extent. You thought that it was pretty evident that Mr. Barba’s side wasn't going to let you stay with your Grandpa during this process based on his previous actions.

You weren’t going, you’d be at the trial but not any of the preliminary hearings. You were still going to the courthouse though but that is to meet your Law Guardian while the hearing was going on, your Aunt Erin said that you’d probably get to know them pretty well. She also warned you that by the end of it all you may not be allowed to come home.

So once again that morning you missed school to attend court. You made sure to hug everyone extra tight in case you didn’t get see them for a while. Once you arrived, you were taken to a back room, clearly tailored for children as it was filled with toys. You were left alone for a while in the room, so it was a good thing that you had brought some work from school, that you had arraigned in response to your absence, with you. After about ten minutes, you had almost finished work and a nicely dressed tall man came into the room. You only looked up briefly, to see him before continuing.

“Y/N?” He asked in an accent that clearly wasn’t from the city, most likely a Northern city like Chicago or Cleveland.

“That’s me,” You confirmed, still not looking up and finishing your problem.

“I’m Garrett Prince,” He introduced, “Your Law Guardian,”

“Hi Garret,” You replied, closing your book with a flourish as you finished and finally looking back up at him.

“What were you working on?” He inquired, as he took a seat opposite you at the table.

“Geometry,” You informed.

“Can I take a look?” He asked, gently.

“Sure,” You shrugged, sliding it over to him.

He raised his eyebrows as he caught it and flicked through it. You watched the surprise on his face as he registered the problems and also probably how he couldn’t do them himself.

“You can do this?” He asked, surprised.

You nodded.

“That’s really impressive,” He complimented, “I don’t remember doing problems this hard,”

“That’s because it’s college level,” You explained, “And I have a feeling you did Pre-Law in college,”

“You’re right,” He chuckled, “When they told me that you were a genius…”

“You didn’t think they meant an actual genius?” You offered.

“Yeah,” He smiled.

“Should we get to it?” You suggested.

“We can do whatever you want. I am your lawyer, I represent only your best interests,” He responded.

“Yeah, I did some research. I know what your job involves,” You started.

“That’s good,” He commented.

“And I also know what I can do if I don’t like you,” You continued.

“Are you referring to the fact that you can fire me?” He speculated.

“I didn’t refer to anything. You just made an assumption,” You corrected, “Plus I also know that since I’m not 14 your job is not only to represent what want but to balance that with what you think is best for me regardless of my opinion,” 


“Technically, but I have a feeling the judge will see you as an exception,” He elaborated, “Because you know, the genius thing,”

“The genius thing,” You repeated chuckling.

“I know this must be a very difficult time for you,” He started, his tone sympathetic and serious, “I read the file and honestly I can’t imagine going through this at such a young age.”

“Well, you don’t have to,” You commented, “You can watch me go through it. So what’s going to happen at the hearing?”

“Well,” He breathed, “First the judge is going to try and get the parties to reach a mutual agreement,”

“Unlikely,” You huffed, “I hear my ‘Father’ is being a real stubborn bitch. I can swear, right?”

“You can say whatever you want,” He reassured.

“That’s cool. I’m not allowed to swear at home,” You revealed, in momentary excitement.

“What’s home like for you?” He diverted delicately.

“We aren’t doing that yet,” You insisted, cutting him off, “What will happen after the judge knows they can’t agree,”

“Well, he’ll most likely try again. No judge wants to go to trial for child custody cases,” He explained, “And when that won’t work he will probably set the court date for a couple of months time. Though in your case it might be a bit quicker because of…”

“Politics?” You offered.

He nodded before continuing, “And after that’s set they will probably deal with issues like when they want my report if they want you psychologically evaluated, when you’re meeting with the judge and where you will be staying during this period until the trial.”

“Don’t you mean whom?” You corrected.

“Basically,” He confirmed and also adding, “As well as who can and can’t come see you during that time,”

“Realistically, how likely is that I’ll get to stay with my Grandpa?” You questioned, hesitantly.

“Truthfully?” He inquired.

You nodded.

“Based on what’ve read. Highly unlikely that you’re Dad…” He began.

“He isn’t my Dad,” You interrupted.

“It’s highly unlikely that Mr. Barba will let you remain with Grandpa,” He corrected, “In fact, I’ve been told that he has made claims to the court that your family may turn you against him,”

“He did a pretty good job of that himself,” You commented, shaking your head in disbelief, “In fact, I find it insulting that he would accuse my family of that. He’s the one making everything difficult we wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t doing that,”

“What do you mean?” Garret pressed, his interest peaked.

“We aren’t there yet,” You countered, realizing your slip of the tongue.

“Okay,” He accepted, “On that subject, the judge will very likely ask me where I think would be the best place to put you during this time,”

“What are you going to do?” You asked.

“What do you want me to do?” He questioned back, “I don’t want to make this even harder on you. None of us do. We want to make sure you’re happy and this doesn’t disrupt your life to much. So I’m asking you, where do you want to stay,”

“With my Grandpa,” You admitted.

“I know,” He smiled sadly, “But that may not be possible,”

“I was made aware of that,” You sighed, “So I took it upon myself to make alternative arrangements,”

“You did?” He asked, surprised.

“Must be a genius thing,” You joke lightly, “And yeah with my friend Will,”

“Y/N…” He began.

“Will is not thirteen,” You interrupted to clarify, already knowing what he was going to stay, “He’s name is Will Gorski and more importantly he is an adult around his late thirties in fact. He’s an attorney and previously a member of the NYPD. So he already has had multiple court standard background checks. He lives in the same neighborhood as my school minimizing disruption. He has a spare bedroom in his apartment which he owns by the way. He’s employed at one of the biggest law firms in the city handling most contracts. He volunteers at youth shelters and does pro bono work. He even had a dog named Dexter. He’s a Great Dane,”

“You really have thought about this,” He commented.

“I have,” You confirmed, “He is the only other person I would be okay with staying with besides my Grandpa,”

“How do you know him?” Garret asked.

“He was my Mother’s old partner before she died. It’s why he left the NYPD,” You explained.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” He empathized.

“Don’t be,” You breathed, empathised sadly not looking directly at him, “I didn’t get to know her long enough to lose her,”

“Still she was your mother,” He reminded, “That’s a traumatic loss to experience,”

“You can’t lose nor miss what you don’t remember ever having,” You admitted sadly, “I simply do not feel the same loss the other members of my family do. It’s the sad truth. One of which I rarely discuss or admit,”

“Thank you for being honest with me,” He smiled reassuringly.

“It was practical reasons not sentimental empathized, “I just want don't to make sure we didn’t do this again. It hurts,”

“I understand. Would this Will be willing to take you on?” He continued to probe, moving on swiftly.

“We talked about it,” You informed.

“You’ve seen him recently?” He asked.

“Every Friday,” You smiled, “It’s one of the highlights of my week,”

“He’s a very big part of your life isn’t he?” He inquired.

“Yeah,” You nodded, you could feel your eyes threatening to spill.

“Would he have any reason to try and influence to one side or the other?” He asked, redirecting the conversation once again.

“No,” You stated adamantly, “He doesn’t know Mr. Barba and he doesn’t really have contact with my family. It hurts them to see him, you know? Reminds them of my mother, I assume. But anyway due to that I don’t think anyone could think that he any others interests. He’s only concerned for my best interests,”

“That’s perfect,” He smiled, “I’m going to go talk to the judge and then I’ll come back and update you on everything that’s happened in court, okay?”

You nodded.

He left the room after that. You once again left alone, a court clerk did come in and offer you snacks and juice but you declined. Too on edge on eating or drink. You tried to read but your mind was too consumed. So you just breathed, trying to steady your breathing as your heart pounded for no reason but anxiety. You pulled out your phone and tapped Will’s number but he didn’t answer. You assume he must be busy or at work. Though he had promised you that he would keep his phone on for you. Your heart sped up again and you started to fidget. You didn’t understand what was happening to you.

And you didn’t have time to figure it out because the door swung open with two familiar faces behind it.

“Hey Y/N,” Will grinned at you.

“What are you doing here?” You asked, confused as you rushed over to hug him.

“What do you think?” He countered, holding you in his arms and leaning down slightly to be in straight eye contact, “I’m here for you,”

“You went to the hearing?” You questioned.

“I wasn’t going too. I was just here to be with you but I got pulled in by your Grandpa. He knew that you would want to stay with me. And when Mr. Prince hear agreed and confirmed my natural position and your wishes. The court agreed that it would be best for you to stay with me,” He explained.

“Thank God,” You breathed, hugging him again.

“You might not feel that way when you find out that you’ll be staying with me for two months,” He mentioned, still hugging you.

“Two months?” You demanded, letting go.

“It’s true,” Garret chimed in, “The dates been set for a little over two months from now,”

“Why?” You inquired.

“So I can conduct my investigation and so the psychologist can compile his report,” Garret explained.

“I have to see a psychologist?” You asked, looking at Will.

“It’s true,” He confirmed reluctantly.

“Why?” You demanded once again.

“It’s a common tactic in cases like this. The one seeking custody pays for the examination as a sign of commitment and dedication to the child,” He elaborated, “It makes them look better,”

“Dedication,” You scoffed, “What else,”

“Your meeting with the judge is the day before the trial starts and each side had been granted two supervised visits with you each week at Will’s residence,” He continued.

“Supervised?” You questioned.

“By me,” Will added.

“Okay and that’s it?” You asked, expectantly.

“Yes,”

“Can I go?” You asked.

“With Will back to his place? Yes,” He confirmed.

“You got other bags?” Will ask, picking up your satchel for you.

You nodded, “My Aunt Erin made me pack a week's worth just in case,”

“She mentioned that she would send you more,” Garret added.

“I can’t get my own stuff?” You asked.

He shook his head, “Unless you want me and each sides lawyers there as well,”

“You know I think she’s had enough for today, you know?” Will interrupt to state and ask even though he knew the answer, “I’m going to take her home and as her temporary legal guardian it’s within my right, right?”

“Of course,” Garret agreed, “But I’ll need to talk to both of you soon,”

“Here’s my card,” Will announced, handing him his card before swinging on your satchel and grabbing the handle of your suitcase, “Let’s go,”

He began walking out the door and you quickly followed. Flashing Garret a brief wave as you went.

“Thank you,” You breathed as soon as you were out of earshot.

“What did I say about thanking me?” He countered, “Let's just get out of here,”

And that’s what you did. He took you back to his apartment after that. He had already set up the guest bedroom in the likelihood that you would be placed under his care. But he assured you that you could do what ever you want to it to make it seem as homely as possible for you. It was mid-afternoon by this time. So it was too late for you to go to school. So you and Will unpacked for a while as he tried to distract you from today's events. Around six he went to go get dinner fro you favorite place while you tried to sort out your room a bit more. You finished earlier than expected and wandered through the apartment for a while. Trying to make yourself feel comfortable to no avail.

You eventually ended up sitting on one of the seats on the balcony. Looking at the view that Will paid a lot to see every morning. It’s when you saw the cities skyline like this with sun descending that you understood your Grandpa’s love for the city and realized your own. It was breathtaking and it was your home. And as long as you were in this city, you couldn’t ever feel homesick.

“Hey, what are you doing out here?” Will ask reappearing, takeout in hand as he clambered onto the balcony to see you.

“Just thinking,” You shrugged as he took a seat in the chair beside your separated only by a table.

“About what?” He probed.

“Sleeping,” You confessed, “I’m wondering how I am going to sleep tonight,”

“Still having problems sleeping?” He asked.

You nodded, looking out the view again.

“Well, we can marathon whatever show you want until you do,” He suggested.

“I have to go to school tomorrow,” You reminded.

“No, you don’t,” He corrected to which you responding by giving him a disapproving look so he elaborated, “What I mean is that I think people will understand that you need a couple days to adjust to your new situation and everything that is going on,”

“You already called my school didn’t you?” You sighed.

“Guilty,” He chuckled.

“What do have in mind?” You asked hesitantly.

“Sleeping in,” He winked.

“That actually sounds pretty nice,” You confessed.

“You know by sleeping in I mean past 8 am,” He clarified.

“You know that’s impossible, right?” You countered.

“Sounds like a challenge,” He grinned meaningly, rubbing his hands, “Anyway, I’ve got dinner,”

He handed your food and you continue to sit on the balcony as you ate. Staring out into the sunset and continuing to talk.

“Your Mom would have hated this,” He commented, before taking a bite.

“Do you think this would be happening if she were here?” You asked.

“I don’t know,” He confessed.

“Do you think she would have told me who he was by now?” You continued.

“She told me that she was going to tell you whenever you were old enough to understand,” He informed.

“So by now, she would have?” You mentioned.

“Maybe, I think it would depend on if she told him or not,” He mentioned.

“Are we all sticking with that story?” You questioned

“You don’t think it’s true?” He asked, surprised.

“I’m just suspicious of it all,” You played off.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked.

“Not really,” You confessed.

“So about theses visits,” He began.

“I want to see my Grandpa and the rest of them,” You stated.

“And Mr. Barba?” He continued.

“Not so much,” You stated once again.

“I only ask because he already called to arranged a meeting with you,” He explained.

“Did he now?” You breathed not really asking.

“He wants to see you,” He elaborated.

“Well, I don’t want to see the man who ripped me away from my family so,” You shrugged, aggressively.

“Have you thought about things from his perspective?” He inquired.

“I have,” You confirmed, “And while I was doing it I came up with a hundred different ways to handle this situation better. So, in conclusion, if he wants to be difficult so can I,”

“Y/N, this is may be your first ever act of teenage rebellion against your Dad,” He teased, dramatically.

You rolled your eyes and shoved him playfully.

“Don’t get angry at me you hormonal teen,” He swotted, shoveling another mouthful of food, “But seriously though you could try and give him a chance, possibly hear what he has to say.” He suggested, tactfully.

“I don’t know if I can,” You confessed.