#also customers make me so fucking angry when they're like why did you close early yesterday that was inconvenient for me

[vault11overseer]

there’s a very particular kind of dread that is going into work the day after being robbed

[thisstableground]

If it's okay, I'm really in need of Ruben yelling at stupid people re. science and/or health (and Vanessa & Usnavi staring because they ain't used at Ruben being so assertive - also, ngl, it's kinda hot). Can be anti-vaxxers, flat earthers, or the kinds of stupid we're witnessing rn with people going out to crowded places bc they're "not afraid" and "I'm healthy/young anyway" (bc fuck vulnerable / chronically ill people right *headdesk*)

ruben is sointensely focused on the heated conversation he’s having with some rando when vanessa comes in that hedoesn’t even acknowledge her presence.  she slides behind the counter next tousnavi, who is eating jellybeans and watching the argument with a look of pure delight. 

“what’sup?” she mutters, stealing a handful of jellybeans as ruben is loudly saying,“–fully discredited, and if you don’tfind it suspicious he was trying to patent his own single-dose vaccines indirect competition with the MMR then you’re clearly—“

“we was chatting about work while i rang her stuff up, and she askedif i was ever tired or had problems focusing and i was like ahaha did you meanmy whole life and turns out she was just tryna sell me some of thatpyramid scheme supplement crap,” usnavi whispers back. “i took a leaflet to be polite andshe started trying to recruit me.”

vanessasighs. “again? usnavi, you gotta getbetter at just telling these people to shove it .”

“i know, iknow, she kept saying run yourown business, be your own boss and i was like, hi, welcome to my store that i own,”usnavi gestures all around him. “but i never know how to make them leavewithout being rude, you know?”

“and this?”  vanessa indicates ruben and the pyramid scheme woman, who is looking unconvinced as she tells ruben “i’m just saying, my children were never vaccinated, and not only arethey not autistic, they’ve never caught any of these so-called diseases so—“

ruben makesan explosively angry sound. “that’s called herd immunity! which is onlypossible because of vaccination! andpeople like you are ruining it!”

“honestly, ididn’t even know he was here,” usnavi says.  “she said it could help symptoms of things like ADD and depressionand autism and he just materialised out from behind the cereals like an angry ghost.it’s been like fifteen minutes. he scared off three other customers.”

“why areyou smiling so much, then?”

usnavishrugs. “i mean. look at him.”

they bothturn and observe him for a long moment. vanessa’s never seen ruben like this: he’s standing up straighter than vanessa’s ever seen,his gentle eyes glinting furiously, and he’s ranting “- a danger to public health, and the very idea that a horrific illness is better than being autistic is absolutely—“ 

she looks back at usnavi and they both nod in confirmation: yup, that’s a fine-ass science boy we got here.

“and besides,” ruben finishes, slightly out of breath, “if your pseudoscience sugar pills were thateffective at curing so many things, don’t you think science would have foundsome kind of proof of it by now?”

“if you do the research-“ the lady starts, but she’s cut offby ruben scoffing.

“you mean reading whatever blog you got your ‘facts’ from? I got myPhD in biochemistry when I was 21 years old, my research has been quoted by some of the most prominent scientistsin the world, and i’m autistic, and you couldn’t get me to touch your snake oil capsules for a million dollars.”

“you big pharma types—“

“okay, you can leave now,” ruben says abruptly. “if you stay any longer you might catch The Autism off me.”

“nobody knows who the fuck you are,” vanessa adds, making a shooing motion. “go on, get.”

“not that imind but neither of you actually got authority to kick folks out of mystore,” usnavi says mildly, ignoring the woman’s i’m just trying to help parting shot as she leaves, taking the leaflet she left behindand tossing it in the trash.

“sorry. i hate people like that.”ruben doesn’t sound particularly sorry, glaring at the closed door even thoughshe’s long out of sight. vanessa wonders if she can get usnavi to close thestore early so they can take some of this energy upstairs. dr marcado is hot.

“are youreally autistic?” usnavi asks. “you never told us that.”

“…ah,”ruben says, suddenly slumping back into his usually slouchy posture with his eyes all big and surprised, like a startledtortoise who didn’t mean to come so far out of the shell. “oops.”