#also known as the chapter where i test tumblr's photo limit

[choupichoups]

Press F (Instagram/College AU) Ch.13

Lucas swears he’s the absolute master of undetected stalking. Or: Eliott is instagram famous and Lucas is the disaster gay who accidentally likes his post.

“If I lose this lighting and ambiance, I swear to god,” Abe calls out from his perch on the staircase behind Eliott, camera casually hanging in his hand by the lens. “You guys will literally see each other in a few hours, this is ridiculous.” 

His ranting goes ignored and Lucas tries his hardest not to spare him a glance, keeping his eyes locked with Eliott’s while they both act as if Abe’s voice is a mere gust of wind. He nibbles on the inside of his lip to keep from bursting out laughing.

“He’s got a point.” Lucas smirks up at Eliott, who still looks a tiny bit dazed in the early hour. 

“I don’t care,” Eliott says softly, hands lifting to run his thumbs across Lucas’ cheeks. “I’ll miss you either way.” 

So they’re really becoming that kind of couple. Ah well, Lucas can’t find it in himself to care. “Me too.” 

Eliott leans down, knocking their foreheads together. “I’ll most likely get back before you but do you have the spare key just in case?” 

Lucas nods, eyes closed. Their noses brush together sweetly and the warmth of Eliott’s breath is a comfort in the midst of the chilly morning air.

“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit then,” Eliott says, but he still doesn’t make a move to leave. 

Lucas’ pleased smile turns into a fit of giggles when Abe exclaims profanities in the distance. 

“Jesus,” Eliott whispers between them and then, “I’m coming, quit fucking whining already!” is shouted over his shoulder. It does nothing to taper Lucas’ laughter. 

“The setting, Eliott, the setting!” Abe shouts back quite desperately. Lucas takes pity on him even if Eliott doesn’t, and steps back from Eliott’s arms. The latter pouts at this, making Lucas coo and pinch his cheeks adoringly until his hands gets pulled away. 

“I’ll come straight home from mass,” Lucas promises, sliding his hands out of Eliott’s tight grip. 

“No, don’t do that.” Eliott shakes his head, reaching over to fix the jacket on Lucas so that the right side is no longer drooping off his shoulder. “Take her out for lunch or something, you guys deserve some bonding time, I’ll try to survive by myself,” he finishes off with a dramatic sniff. 

Lucas laughs, arms climbing up to pull Eliott into another hug. He can hear Abe’s disgruntled ‘oh for god’s sake’ and it only prompts Lucas to lengthen their embrace. “Okay, have fun with your demanding photographer.” 

Eliott rolls his eyes as they pull back. “This is free labour, do you know how much other people would pay to take pictures of this face?” 

It’s Lucas’ turn to roll his eyes. “Careful with the ego there, Mr. Instagram Famous, you might hit your head on the way out.” 

“I might hit you myself if we don’t get going,” Abe says from beside them, having apparently come closer to physically break them apart seeing as his words just aren’t cutting it. “Say hi to your mom for us, Lucas. Also ask her to pray for this guy right here, he needs it.” 

Eliott decks Abe on the shoulder, turning to quickly drop a kiss on top of Lucas’ head. “See you back home, baby.”

Lucas flushes, watching Eliott and Abe bicker as they walk away. The thing is, Eliott probably doesn’t even realize what he’s just said but here Lucas stands, all sorts of dizzy as the words see you back home repeat over and over in his head— a broken record he doesn’t want to fix. 

Either way, slip of the tongue or not, it feels good to have Eliott imply that Lucas has a home with him. 

Eliott looks over his shoulder to where Lucas is rooted right where they left him. He shakes himself out of the dumb expression he’s most likely wearing, only for a big, dumb smile to split across his face when Eliott sneakily gives him a dumb little wave. Lucas waves back, just as dumbly. 

Not many people attend the morning mass, and his mama explains that it’s because nobody wants to get up early on a Sunday, which, yeah relatable. Apparently neither does she, but the afternoon mass coincides with her book club meeting and she absolutely does not want to miss out on that.

Lucas sips on his iced coffee, wondering how he’s managed to surround himself with a bunch of nerds. 

“It’s really a pity you don’t read,” she says, making Lucas choke on the ice cube he’d been rolling in his mouth. “You’re really missing out on an experience.” 

“I read!” he huffs, indignant in the face of his mother’s amused smile. 

“Okay, honey,” she says, placating.

“I do!” 

“The textbooks your professor make you read don’t count.”

“Don’t be such a snob,” he scoffs, pretending to scowl at the laughter slipping light and airy out of her lips. He hasn’t had the chance to visit her since that last disastrous time, so caught up with his own issues as he’d been. It’s a relief to see her doing so well, though. There’d be hell to pay if his father had sent her back on a downwards spiral. 

“Has your dad reached out to you regarding the transfer?”

Lucas’ head whips up and he thinks he hears something snap actually but that doesn’t matter. “You’re going through with the transfer?!”

“No, dear.” She reaches out and brushes the hair away from his outraged face. “But I wouldn’t sign the papers so I figured he’d try to go to you.”

“He did,” Lucas grumbles, chewing at the edge of his straw. “I threw them back at his face.”

“Lucas.”

“What? He deserves it.” He’s glad they’re sitting on the outside benches of the cafe so he doesn’t have to watch the volume of his voice too closely. “He was an asshole about it too, so.” 

They lapse into a brief silence and Lucas slurps at the remainder of his drink while his mama picks at her sandwich.

“Don’t carry that anger in your heart, Lucas,” she says eventually, “you can’t do that forever.” 

Lucas stares down at his own hands. “How can I not? How can you not?”

“All we can do is live our own lives to the best of our abilities, God will handle the rest.” 

“Yeah, well, God is taking too long to handle anything.” There should be a special place in hell for people like his father. For people like Raphael. So how come they’re still out there walking around living better lives than the people they’ve hurt? Lucas doesn’t get it— especially doesn’t get how his mama can seemingly forgive his father in a blink of an eye. 

“Do you know what happens if you let those kinds of thoughts fester?” She sets her fork down on the side of her plate, the salad that comes with the sandwich left untouched. She’d always hated her vegetables, a fact that he’d found hilarious back when he was a child being forced to eat his vegetables. “You’d only hurt yourself in the long run.”

Lucas lifts his eyes to where she’s already looking back at him, gaze soft. “So?”

She shakes her head. “Not so, Lucas. If you’re angry about something like this for a long time, you start thinking of ways you could have avoided the experience. You start blaming yourself for making the decisions that lead up to it.”

“Mama, it’s not your—”

“Yes, yes, it’s not my fault that your father turns out the way he is, but I can’t help thinking that way sometimes. Your thoughts are your own worst enemy.” Small hands gently lay on top of his on the table and Lucas hasn’t realized that he’s clenched them into tight fists. “Because it’s the only thing you can’t ever escape from. That is what happens when you hold onto hatred, onto anger. It’s never gonna get better that way.” 

“What, I’m supposed to just forgive them?” He doesn’t even realize his slip until her eyes turn sharp, and she’s silent for a beat too long as Lucas swallows. It’d be too suspicious to correct himself now so he leaves it be. 

“No,” she speaks low and careful. “You can start by forgiving yourself.”

“And what if you can’t do that either?”

Her thumbs brush soothing strokes over the back of his hand. “Then you work on it,” she says, “it might be a slow process, but you work on it, honey.” Her smile is radiant despite the obvious worry in her eyes. “Day by day.” 

Day by day, he repeats in his head, letting out a huge exhale. 

“Tell me one thing, Lucas.” The hardened tone in her voice has him looking up immediately. “Those clothes you’re wearing aren’t yours.” He sputters, mind racing to form half-assed excuses. “Don’t try to deny it, young man. You’re swimming in them.” 

“It’s… a fashion statement!”

“Don’t lie to me.” 

His mouth zips shut. 

“So this boy.” Her eyes run up and down the length of his jacket as if she has some kind of special motherly x-ray vision that would allow her to see Eliott through them. “Is he the one to make you cry?” The look in her eye is nothing short of murderous.

Lucas shakes his head quite violently. “No!” He’s hoped the evidence of his tears from the past two days have disappeared by now but he guesses he can’t really hide anything under the watchful eyes of his mama. 

“Okay.” She doesn’t press, which he’s eternally grateful for.

“Yeah.”

“So when am I gonna meet him then?”

“Mama.”

Lucas heads back to Eliott’s place when his mother leaves for her book club meeting. He’d pretended to huff and puff about her ditching him for her nerdy sci-fi loving friends but in the end, he’s just glad she’s found something to occupy her time— a lot of somethings actually. There’s nothing more important to him than seeing the light in her eyes as she talks, and laughs, and lives her life. 

Well, maybe there’s something just as important.

There’s music playing from the speakers in the kitchen, too soft for him to hear from the doorway, but he does hear the clinking of utensils together which, in other circumstances, would bring forth a feeling of comfort. However, considering who exactly is in the kitchen right now, it bodes more ominous than anything else. 

“What are you doing there?” Lucas hangs Eliott’s spare keys by the door, chucking his jacket off as Eliott guiltily turns around. He’s hiding a pot of something behind him and now that Lucas is paying attention, he notices a strange metallic smell emanating from it. “Oh no, you are leaving this kitchen right now, sir.”

“It’s my kitchen,” Eliott retorts indignantly and Lucas can’t believe this guy is a whole two years older than him. He bunches his sleeves up to his elbows, prepared to bodily shove Eliott out of the general vicinity if that’s what it takes.

“Yes, it’s your kitchen and you’re going to burn it down with your little experiments so please,” Lucas explains patiently, “step away from the stove and I’ll figure out what we can eat, hm?”

“I don’t want cheese bread.”

Lucas laughs, head thrown back as he swats at Eliott blindly. “You’re never letting that go, are you?”

“Nope.” There are hands slowly sneaking up his sides but Lucas twists away from them, cheekily biting his lip as he dances around Eliott to switch the stove off. “No, don’t!” Eliott protests, easily intercepting when Lucas tries to peek into the mysterious pot of gurgling liquid. 

“I just wanna see!” But Lucas’ attempts are useless, even more so when a laughing Eliott grabs him by the waist and deposits him, pouting and arms crossed, on the kitchen counter. 

“You don’t wanna see it, trust me.” Eliott finally admits, pinching Lucas’ nose fondly when he continues to pout. “We’ll just order some take out, okay?”

Lucas hums, stretching up to place his arms around Eliott’s neck, intending to pull him closer, but he’s forgotten to unroll the sleeves of his hoodie and Eliott’s eyes lock onto the exposed skin of his wrists. Bruises on him always look their worst two days into forming and these ones are no different— the mottled blues and purples are admittedly distracting and even Lucas winces at the sight of them. 

The mirth in Eliott’s eyes are quick to dull and Lucas can’t begin to guess what’s going through his mind. 

“Hey.” He pulls Eliott’s chin up, smiling in hopes of relieving the displeased furrow between Eliott’s brows. The expression pinches at his heart. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore.” 

“Okay,” Eliott whispers, and Lucas thinks he only says it for Lucas’ benefit. Eliott brings his wrists up and gently places his lips over the bruising, tiny little pecks that send warm speckles straight to his chest. “How’s your mom?” 

“She’s good.” Lucas loosely curls one leg around Eliott’s waist to tug him in, shaking out his arms so that the sleeves fall loosely down to the tips of his fingers. It’s easier to lift his hands and run them through Eliott’s hair this way, when all he can see is the dark fabric of Eliott’s hoodie rather than unwelcome reminders of what’s passed. “Still busy with her book club, I don’t know how they manage to read that many books in such a short time,” he snorts. “Oh, and she attends culinary lessons now.”

“Really?” Eliott says, raising an eyebrow when Lucas looks up at him with a teasing grin. 

“Yup, maybe you should join her, it’d be for the greater good.”

Eliott’s eyes form adorable curves as he laughs. “But I don’t cook for the greater good.”

“Hm, okay, for my good then.” Lucas scratches along the back of Eliott’s head, smiling when his boyfriend leans into the touch, emitting a pleased groan. 

Boyfriend. He can use that term again, right? 

It’s a stupid thing to be thinking about, propped up on the counter with Eliott’s hands anchored around his thighs, standing so close as if a single inch between them would cause physical pain. 

Eliott’s phone buzzes near where Lucas is seated and the latter reaches over, laughing when he sees Idris’ name multiple times on the notification banner. Eliott reacts similarly and then confusingly ends it in a groan— Lucas shoots him a quizzical glance but Eliott just shakes his head and thunks his forehead on Lucas’ shoulder. 

“Forgot I said I’d go shopping with him for his sister’s birthday,” Eliott mumbles, turning to bury his face into Lucas’ neck. “Can you cancel on him for me?” he continues, teeth tickling at the skin there, causing Lucas to shiver. He can feel Eliott starting to smile, breath warm as he kisses the spot he’d nipped and, okay, this needs to stop now before his boyfriend-slash-not-boyfriend gets any more ideas.

“That’s rude,” Lucas says a little too loudly, flailing as he tries his best to open up Eliott’s phone without dislodging him. Eliott’s full on chuckling by now and Lucas doesn’t appreciate this being at his expense, thank you very much. “You should go if you promised.” 

“I didn’t promise—”

Lucas gives him a look. 

Eliott sighs, “I just wanna be with you.” 

How dare this man child be so adorable? “I can go with you guys if it’s okay with him.” 

Eliott lights up at the suggestion. “Yeah! He’ll be fine with it, he really likes you. It’s a little worrying, honestly.”

Lucas laughs, meaning to fire back with a teasing, better watch out then, but when he unlocks Eliott’s phone, the screen it opens up to isn’t the chat with Idris and Eliott— it’s to Lucas and Eliott’s chat, where the messages from Friday remain to be the last thing that’s been sent. Lucas remembers seeing Eliott frequently looking down at his phone yesterday and this morning whenever he thinks Lucas isn’t paying attention. He’d assumed that Eliott had been reading up on his classes online or something and definitely not, well, whatever’s going on here.

“Eliott.” He taps on Eliott’s shoulder, making him look up from where he’s breathing softly against the side of Lucas’ neck. The loss of Eliott’s warmth isn’t exactly ideal but there are more pressing issues at hand. “Why do you keep looking at these?” He turns the phone around, watching Eliott’s expression morph from its content daze to a quick curtain of vacancy. “Hey, don’t do that,” Lucas says, running his thumb under Eliott’s downturned eyes. 

“I don’t know,” Eliott mutters, moving to grab his phone from Lucas’ hold but Lucas pulls away, hiding it behind him. “I can’t stop thinking about it. Fucking… Eliott 3259 probably had his phone switched on and— and Eliott 9867 would already be there waiting to walk home with his Lucas before closing. Number 5437 would have, I don’t fucking know, convinced his Lucas out of working that shift. I can’t stop thinking of everything I could have done differently. Of everything that would have happened differently if I were a better version of myself—”

Lucas uses his free hand to grab the back of Eliott’s head, arching up into him to bring their faces close together as he wordlessly shakes his head, their eyes locked on each other. It works to slow Eliott down and Lucas can feel him exhaling through his nose.

“What if something like this happens again, Lucas? What if 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years from now, you need me and I’m not there? What if I can’t be there? What if next time, I’m too late?” Eliott says, quiet words pouring out in the small space between them. “I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

Lucas holds them in that position for a second longer, closing his eyes as he thinks of what Eliott’s just told him. He gets it, really, if he allows himself to plunge into the darkest part of his mind, he’d also be spiralling into similar trains of thought— of not being strong enough for Eliott, of not being good enough for someone so fucking special, because truth be told, if they’re pointing fingers here, none of this would have happened if Lucas had just watched his mouth during that time at the clinic with Eliott. 

But no, as a wise lady once told him, they can’t keep dwelling on those things. They have got to stop doing that to themselves.

He leans back slightly, just far enough so that he’s able to bring Eliott’s phone in front of him. He opens it back up to their messages, hits the back button, and promptly deletes their entire chat history. Eliott practically shrieks at that, almost making Lucas laugh despite the heaviness still hanging above their heads. 

“Why did you do that?” Eliott whispers, wide eyed as he stares helplessly down at the phone in Lucas’ hand. Lucas knows the sentimental idiot is mourning the loss of their first exchange, the sweet good night messages, the shameless flirting. None of that matters, though, because Lucas has a better plan in motion. 

“Because we’re going to start over,” he says, plopping the phone into Eliott’s slack hands. Eliott fiddles with it, still in shock from what Lucas has just done. “We’re going to start over,” he repeats, more firmly this time as he nudges Eliott’s chin upward. “And we’re not gonna think of what we could have done differently. We fucked up, yeah, but we’re here aren’t we?” 

He waits patiently for Eliott to nod, which he does soon enough, if a little begrudgingly. Lucas allows a chuckle to pass through his lips. “And we’re also not going to think of what’s going to happen because there’s literally no point in that, we’d be stressing over nothing. We don’t know shit about the future.”

Eliott huffs, “Okay, so what can we do then?” There’s a hint of that lovely little smile tugging at the corner of his lips and Lucas brushes a finger to it. 

“What we can do… is live it day by day,” he says, echoing his mother’s words from earlier, but then he thinks of how an entire day can get overwhelming at times, hours upon hours of the unknown, and shakes his head. “No, wait.”

“No?” Eliott’s smiling face greets him when Lucas looks up.

“No,” he says, “We’ll do it minute by minute.”

Eliott steps into his space and Lucas hears the soft thud of his phone dropping on the counter. “So what are we doing for the next minute?”

“I don’t know,” he responds, coy smirk at the ready. “You pick.” 

When Eliott kisses him, Lucas inhales, deep and audible, only to feel the breath he’s taken leave his lungs a mere second after. Eliott has a hand gently cupping one side of his face while the other wraps big and warm over his thigh. That hand climbs up, up, up until it’s secured around Lucas’ waist and he feels himself being dragged closer, now only seated by the edge of the counter.

It dawns on him, startlingly, that this is the first kiss they’ve shared since that mess of a Saturday too long ago and, well, now he wants more of it.

Lips parting easily, he throws his arms around Eliott’s shoulders, tightening like a vice grip when Eliott goes to pull away too quickly for his liking. It makes Eliott chuckle, which prompts Lucas to punch him lightly on the chest, which then forces a bigger laugh out of Eliott, and it just becomes a vicious cycle of push and pull until they’re both laughing into each other’s mouths, unable to stop long enough for a proper kiss. 

“You’re so dumb,” Lucas breathes out, half heartedly shoving Eliott away. Eliott anchors his hands on the corners of the counter and bounces back into Lucas’ space with ease. 

“You started it,” Eliott says, dropping a tiny kiss on the tip of Lucas’ nose. It scrunches up in retaliation. 

“And how exactly did I—” 

But Eliott doesn’t let him finish, dipping down to connect their lips softly, pressing harder as they open up in synch. Eliott pulls and pulls until slipping completely off the counter becomes a legitimate worry for Lucas and he tries to put all his weight backwards, one hand around Eliott’s neck just in case he does lose balance while his free hand feels around for something sturdy to hold onto.

His hand accidentally hits the speakers at the other end of the counter and the volume ratchets up, blasting the kitchen with, what the fuck, booming dubstep music that have no business entering Lucas’ ears. The sudden noise scares the living shit out of Lucas while Eliott… looks worryingly delighted.

“This is a sick one,” Eliott says, carefully fixing up Lucas’ perch on the counter so that he’s no long in danger of falling off before pulling away, completely, like an inconsiderate bastard, just so he can—

Lucas looks on in wonder, flabbergasted as Eliott starts jumping and rolling his arms and dancing (can he even call it that?) to the atrocity coming from the speakers. 

“Fuck,” Lucas mumbles, biting his bottom lip against the laughter bubbling up his throat. “Are you for real?”

Eliott gives him an offended look, as if he’s the one who has the right to be offended in this scenario. “Yeah?”

“God, it’s like… I’m in the twilight zone or something.” He’s not sure what Eliott sees in his face but whatever it is gets a giggle out of him. Lucas shakes his head. “When you think you’ve found the man of your dreams but it turns out he listens to fucking dubstep.” 

Eliott’s entire body freezes one second and then he’s rushing back into Lucas’ space the next, megawatt smile perfectly in place to blind a surprised Lucas. “Say that again.”

“What?” Lucas asks, still blinking from the sheer joy displayed over Eliott’s face.

“I’m your what?”

“My…”

“Come on, you said it!”

Lucas slowly figures out what he means but he refuses to repeat himself— he can already feel the fierce blush rising up his cheeks just from Eliott looking at him the way he’s doing right now. Lucas would actually drop dead if he has to say those words again. “I didn’t say anything.” 

“Yes, you did.” 

“Nope,” he denies, turning away when the heat in his face feels too much to handle. 

“I heard you say it.” Eliott nudges at him with his nose, reminding Lucas of a giant puppy. 

“If you heard me then you don’t need me to repeat it.” Lucas makes to hop off the counter, hopefully to escape Eliott’s grasp in the process, but of course it doesn’t go the way he wants it to— Eliott grips him by the waist and digs his fingers in until Lucas yelps, squirming away from the ticklish sensation. “Stop that!”

“Not until you say it.”

“Eliott!”

Running away is fruitless, Eliott only places him right back where he started for every time Lucas manages to slip halfway into a standing position. His laughter is louder than his protests and Eliott’s chuckling right along with him, only slowing down when Lucas hangs onto his shoulders weakly, breathless as he whispers the words right into Eliott’s ear. 

“What?” 

“Well now you’re just being a dick.”

“No, sorry, please just one more time, baby,” Eliott implores. 

“You’re…” He stalls, enjoying the childlike anticipation in Eliott’s clear blue eyes. “The dude of my life.”

A pause. “That’s not it.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“Lucas!”

“The weirdo of my dreams.”

“Fuck’s sake.”

“You’re so fucking demanding.”

“Lucas,” Eliott’s straight up whining. 

Lucas huffs, squishing his boyfriend’s — because yes, that’s what they are again — cheeks together while Eliott resumes his sulking. Lucas kisses the pout off his face, hands sliding down to Eliott’s neck as he places another innocent little kiss on his lips. “You’re the man of my dreams.” 

He doesn’t get a warning before Eliott scoops him right into his arms and squashes him into possibly the tightest, warmest, most enthusiastic embrace he’s ever been subjected to. 

Breathing is going to be a challenge soon enough but Lucas doesn’t say a thing. 

“Did you hear that?” Eliott suddenly crouches down and Lucas realizes that Champ has woken from her nap and has toddled over to check out the commotion in the kitchen. “You heard that right? He said I’m the man of his dreams,” Eliott says, looking at Champ expectantly. She stares back at him with blank, beady eyes. 

Lucas laughs at the pair until a different dubstep song comes on and Eliott gasps, looking excited all over. 

“Jesus,” Lucas groans out, wiping a hand over his face as Eliott starts dancing again, this time with Champ running circles around his ankles. Eliott’s eyes are focused on the little dog, careful not to step on her while at the same time engaging as if they’re supposed to be dancing together.

It’s ridiculous. Eliott’s ridiculous.

Lucas is ridiculously in love. 

“Eli monkey?” 

Eliott groans, taking his phone from Lucas. “It’s from when we were kids.”

“That’s cute.” Lucas laughs, untangling his limbs from Eliott so he can get up from the couch.

“Where are you going?” Eliott asks, winding his arms around Lucas to prevent him from leaving.

“I’m gonna change into my clothes.”

“Why?”

“Mama made fun of me for wearing yours.”

Eliott’s head perks up, smile giddy as his arms tighten— Lucas doesn’t even attempt to struggle out of it. “So she knows about me?”

“No, not really…” His eyes slide sideways, gauging Eliott’s reaction. “Do you… want her to?”

“If you want to.”

“So you want to.”

“Do you?”

“Oh my god,” Lucas sighs, exasperated. Eliott’s laughing into his shoulders by now, likely aware of the difficult time he’s giving Lucas. “You’re so annoying.”

“So I’ve heard.” 

“She asked when she can meet you,” Lucas mumbles, tracing the veins running up Eliott’s arms to occupy his eyes. He’s too nervous to have this conversation otherwise.

“Anytime,” Eliott answers a little too fast. Lucas tucks a smile behind his own hand, stupidly pleased with that response. He’s been dying to replace the memories of Eliott and his mother being in the same vicinity with more pleasant ones and he can’t wait for it to finally happen. 

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“I’m still changing clothes though, so get off of me, you giant octopus.” 

[honney-boy]

Wonder (Part 1)

Rudy Pankow x Oc!Reader

gif by → @riobeth​

Wonder Series Masterlist | Wonder Playlist

Chapter summary:  Rudy and Nevaeh meet in person for the first time and things aren’t awkward. Yougurt cups, bananas and ice blended in a cup and maple syrup.

Full Summary and Story Concept

Warning(s): language, shenanigans, jet laggness, social media zombies, teenage girls

Words: 5k+

A/N:  This is my first attempt at a Rudy fic. My first series too! But if this flops, let's pretend it never happened, okay? :) But If you guys want to read more, please do let me know. Your love and support is the encouragement I need. I got the concept from tik tok haha. Fair warning, I am handwriting out chapters with a pen and paper before converting it digitally, so updates with be spread out. THERE WILL BE GRAMMAR MISTAKES! I'm human, and Tumblr is my test run for this series. Anywho, hope you enjoy :)

taglist

One | “Social Zombies”

            In Nevaeh's opinion, airports were the worst. It wasn't due to the 38,000 feet in the air flying ride or the nothingness in the sky you see your whole flight; it was the people, the airports themselves, and the limited space.

Airports were much worse than flying - especially the San Francisco International Airport. Also known as SFO Airport. The few times, literally very few times, Nevaeh has been to the airport, she had poor experiences. Now, SFO Airport is definitely smaller than LAX and not as busy - it's a nightmare. You would think with a much smaller airport, there would be fewer crowds, but no, it's like a family reunion every day but with strangers. If you bump into the wrong person, your day on the off chance will get ruined.

Along with the busy crowds, there are many places to eat. From pizza to Italian to pie, your choices are endless. That's until half or more restaurants are closed or have long lines. Nevaeh never ate airport food, so she couldn't give her opinion on it. She'll leave that to the professional reviews. She wasn't at SFO Airport to judge the food or traffic flow, not even the staff's attitude - except she already gave a flight attendant a glare. The flight attendant took a bathroom break before their next flight and griped at Nevaeh because she used the last paper towel so they couldn't dry their hands. Air drying is a thing, and it works well, she thought to herself while leaving the restroom. She was not going to let one grumpy flight attendant ruin her great mood. She was going to meet someone who she hopes is special today.

Over the past two months, Nevaeh and this person had gotten to know each other well, virtually, that is. They met online, and Nevaeh lived in San Francisco while they lived in Alaska. Countless messages, facetime calls, photos, and videos were exchanged, and a bond was formed. Who would have thought that two people could meet through a video sharing social media app and hit it off? Most people start with dating apps, meet and get to know different people, but Nevaeh met them all because a video of hers popped up on their for you page.

Nevaeh created and shared a variety of things on the app. From cooking to creating and her little hobby of disco skating. She wanted to keep her followers and supporters entertained and herself; she didn’t want to be stuck, making the same content, so she did many things. Nevaeh thought maybe one of her disco skating, videography, or cooking videos drew them in, but it was one of her mini vlogs. In the video, she showed how she would scout places before spending the day getting footage for a short montage film or scenes for a movie she is working on. Not long after the discovery, they - he sent her a message asking about a more in-depth explanation of her process, and it went up from there.

Now, after all this time of them chatting back and forth, they get to meet. Nevaeh gets to meet him. 

Standing by the arrival gate, her eyes bouncing around the room at different things just to keep her mind centered and not all over the place. She wanted to pick at her nails, or hold her hands to her chest but she couldn’t hold them in place for long; she opted for playing with the white beaded bracelet he bought and sent to her in a box full of other things. It was so sweet of him; just thinking about the box she received makes her smile and her heart swell. Just last week she received a box full of thoughtful gifts. Inside were some of her favorite snacks, a movie she loved, one of his hoodies - it was the hoodie he wore the first time they facetimed. The hoodie was one of his favorites, but he had the urge to send it to her, he just wanted her to have it. And finally was the white beaded bracelet with a single aqua blue bead on it - he had the matching one with all aqua beads and one single black bead. She was having an uncreative and pretty shitty day until that box arrived on the front door step of her shared apartment.

“I wanted to surprise you, so I messaged Birdie asking her for your favorite snacks, I added the hoodie and got the two of us distance bracelets. You know, because we are long distance.” He told her later that day when they talked on the phone.

“Until you come here, or I go there,” she replied. She hasn’t stopped wearing the hoodies since and she has had the bracelet on since the moment she got it.

Nevaeh watched different people walk past her; none of them were him yet. The dirty blond mess he sported for hair shouldn't be that hard to miss, but the longer she searched, the more she doubted her assumption. 

It was another couple of minutes that went by, and she didn't see him, so she pulled her phone out to see if he had sent something. Maybe he has to catch a different flight, and he forgot to tell her, or perhaps he didn't want to meet after all. Her fingers type out a message to send, but a figure stands in front of her before she hits the send button. Nevaeh could see the shadow of their body from her peripheral vision, but she did not look up, hoping they would go away - but they didn't. Sending her message, the woman was preparing to turn away until she heard the stranger's phone go off. It's just a coincidence that their phone went off a couple of seconds after I sent a message. She said to herself, then she looked up and there he was. Dirty blond hair - a little long all over, but instead of it being in his face like it always is, it was pushed back and tucked underneath a red cap. His eyes were more lovely in person. The pair ranged from a light blue to gray, depending on the day. Today they were light blue. He sported stubble across his chin and cheeks with a blond mustache above his top lip. He wore nothing flashy, just a simple red ACDC sweatshirt, cargo shorts, and a pair of vans. He looked tired, but that didn't throw off the good vibes and smile he had going on. She couldn't help but smile back. He's here in the flesh. Rudy.

"Hi," he said light-heartedly, breaking the silence.

"Hi," she echoed; the smile on her face grew some more. "Wow, you're really here in the flesh."

He chuckled, and the sound woke up the butterflies in her stomach. "Yeah, I am. And you...the pictures and videos don't do enough justice for the actual thing." His eyes scan over her, noticing the navy blue Hilfiger sweatshirt he sent to her. Nevaeh couldn't help the dust of blush that appeared on her cheek.

“Talk about me, what about you? Who knew those Snapchat filters were hiding such a god-like person.”

“Oh, stop, you’re making me blush,” he joked while bashful. No matter online or in person, Nevaeh was still able to get him flushed; it was something he didn’t want to admit, not while he was flying blind with this.

Nevaeh smiled and had a tiny giggle; the full laugh was muffled by the hand she brought up to her mouth in an attempt to hold the sound back. He could watch her smile for a while. Is that weird? “How was your flight? I hope it wasn’t too horrible.”

“It wasn’t too bad,” he admitted. “Definitely long, but nothing a pair of earbuds, music, and a couple of movies couldn’t fix.” The two quickly began walking toward the direction of baggage claim. More of Rudy just following whichever direction Nevaeh was going. She did know the airport better anyway.

“Which movies did you watch?” she asked.

“Since I had six hours to waste - Joker, 1917 and Pride & Prejudice.”

“Oh, I see you listened to my suggestions; not surprised you watched Joker again,” Rudy shrugged his shoulders with a hum. “I’m surprised you didn’t watch the Harry Potter movies.”

Rudy rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Actually, I already watched them a couple of days ago,” Nevaeh hummed as if she were to say, ‘of course’ “You can judge me all you want. I won’t pay you any mind. Just the same as I did with the guy that had the aisle seat in my row. I guess other guys find it weird that a guy decided to watch a period drama on a flight.”

“He was just jealous he didn’t think of it first. Mr. Darcy’s pinning for Miss. Bennett and the film’s  overarching theme is too good not to watch.”

“That it is, who would want to miss the warnings heeded against trusting one’s first impression or prejudices?”

“Or the character arcs that grow throughout the storyline. I pity that aisle sitting man.”

“I do too,” Rudy agreed. “He missed out on a classic and had to get up to let the other person and me out to take a tinkle.” He did it again. He made her laugh genuinely. The conversation between them flowed. The small worry Nevaeh had earlier about the two of them not being able to continue the light-hearted and enjoyable nature they had over text had diminished. He seemed just the same - goofy, charismatic, charming, and caring - as he was over the phone the past month and a half. She, too, was still kind, compassionate, and sarcastic as before. Yet both of them had their own doubts about the thing they were doing; they didn’t know what it was or where it was headed, but they were willing to find out.

           In the car, Nevaeh drove the route she knew from the airport to her shared apartment. Rudy sat in the passenger seat; his gaze focused out the window, watching the San Francisco scenery appear, disappear and morph as they passed by the window. The radio played while they sat in a comfortable silence - it impressed her how easily they fell into it. Wasn't it common for an uncomfortable silence? Two people who just met for the first time should struggle in an attempt to make a conversation, but not them.

To Rudy, the comfortable silence was almost expected. Granted, he did expect one of them to talk the other's ear off - he's glad neither of them was. The six-hour flight took its effect on the man, but he wasn't going to let his fatigue ruin the time they had together. He'll rest later. Spend time with her now, sleep later.

The car rolled to a stop, a red light shined on the traffic light hanging in front of them. Rudy's eyes watch a girl across the street riding down the sidewalk on a skateboard. Her stance relaxed, feet planted in a way that helped her ride easily; she was experienced, probably skated regularly. Watching her skate triggered a longing in Rudy for his board back at home. He rides on concrete and in the snow, but he was missing snowboarding the most. It was beginning to be summer, so the temperatures in Alaska were warmer. To warm for snow but warm enough for the evergreen to take over. Now he was in California, the state that was sunny all the time. The state that thrived in the summer and its soil hardly ever to never had the chilled touch of snow. His longing grew more for the chilly weather and white flakes.

The woman sitting next to him took the next couple of seconds between the light change to look at him. Catching the moment of his gaze out the window of her jeep. "I know you're probably tired from your flight. I had some ideas about the things we could do, but we don't have to do anything today." She spoke and after, glanced at the traffic light only to see it was still red.

Rudy tore his gaze from the distant image of the skater and met Nevaeh's. "I am, but if you want to do something, we can. I'm more than happy to hang out." He said.

Trying to reason, she said, "I know, but you just got off a six-hour flight." 

"Nevaeh, it's fine. I'm not that burned out. Time zones are an hour apart, and seven am isn't that bad." she begins to give him a skeptical look. She heard his words but feels as if he was only saying that to make her happy. He sat by her, leaned back, and relaxed. His head sat lazily against the headrest, and the smile he was giving her was light but tiresome. She switched her gaze from him to the traffic light, which turned green, and she didn't know when. Nevaeh eased her foot off the brake and to the gas pedal. "Seriously, we can do something."

“Fine,” She says after a moment. “I won’t wear you out too much more.” Flicking her left turn signal on after checking her mirror, she merges into the lane beside her. “There’s somewhere I wanna take you - well, maybe two places, but we’re going to the apartment first.”

“Alright, sounds good to me.” Nevaeh drove them to the apartment she shared with her long term friend. Rudy followed behind her as she led the way; they only spent a few minutes there. After a short tour, a bathroom break, and dropping off a couple of suitcases later, Rudy and Nevaeh left the place. They began a walk along the San Francisco hills to the mysterious place Nevaeh had in mind.

“This place is somewhere I walk to every other day. It’s Birdie’s and my favorite place.” It was a short six to eight-minute walk. Nevaeh reassured him before briefly going into a conversation about the impressive things you see in the city. Just like Nevaeh told him, they both come up upon a corner shop with a couple of large windows to see inside and out, a brown exterior with outside tables with green umbrellas and foldable outdoor chairs. The corner shop was known as the Nasik Cafe. For a small cafe, the place was doing well. There were a handful of people inside sitting, chatting, or ordering and quite a few sitting outside.

“This place is pretty health-oriented, and like Starbucks, it has things you could make at home for free, but their stuff is great,” Nevaeh explained to the man.

"So you spend way too much on yogurt cups, fruit drinks, toast, and other food you can make at home?" She nods her head like it was evident at what he said. Rudy shook his head. "Couldn't you just spend ten dollars on a yogurt cup?"

"Oh my goodness, they don't have yogurt cups, Rudy." She shook her head in disbelief.

"Okay, so ten dollars for a banana blended with ice in a cup - still sounds ridiculous to me."

"I can't with you," She tilted her head back, but she wasn't annoyed. She found his witticism amusing. At this rate, Nevaeh should prepare to always smile all the time around him. "You should find a table out here, and I can grab us something - wait, do you want to sit out here?"

Rudy nodded, then began to scan the area but only briefly seeing a couple of empty tables. "Yeah, it's nice out, let's enjoy it. Out here is great."

"Great," she says, pleased. "I'll grab something; I wanna surprise you. I'll be back." Nevaeh turns to walk inside. The smell of strawberries, oranges, and granola invaded her nose. It wasn't a new smell to her, but a new one for the day. She would always smell fruit and granola wherever she would walk into Basik. Some days it smelt like bananas and chocolate, or honey, peanut butter, and coconut. The smells varied, but the most prominent one was the tropical smell. To her left at a table was a couple enjoying smoothies. Both cops were a little under half full. A person sat at another table, invested in their laptop. To her right, more people sat. Art adorns the walls as realism paintings along with abstract images. There was a line at the counter; no more than four people stood waiting. She took the time to look up at the big and wide wood board hanging from the ceiling. When Nevaeh told Rudy she wanted to surprise him with something, she knew what she was getting for the both of them. The colorful and fruitful acai bowls.

Nevaeh and her roommate Birdie loved acai bowls. Birdie was the one to introduce her friend to the fantastic bowls she grew to love. Now it was her turn to turn another friend onto them.

The line moved along smoothly and grew smaller by the minutes. Once Nevaeh got closer, her lips stretched into a grin as her eyes caught sight of the barista.

"Hi, what can I get you? Could I interest you in our new fall to-Vae! Hey." the blonde barista's mood brightened significantly when she realized she was taking Nevaeh's order. She leaned across the counter and grabbed hold of Nevaeh's hand, and laced their fingers together. "What are you doing here? I thought you had to pick up your friend." She said, then making finger quotations. The barista was her roommate, Birdie. Birdie was a full-time college student and full-time barista to get by. She was more than happy to talk to her friend now that she wasn't as busy - Nevaeh was the only person in line for now.

"I was - I did pick up my friend. No air quotes, we're friends."

"For now."

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes at the blonde. "He's here with me, just outside." Birdie looked past Nevaeh and out the window in search of this guy. Nevaeh looked around for him, too; she didn't get to see where he chose to sit. "He's...the one with the red cap, right there." She pointed out once she spotted him. Birdie hummed and squinted her eyes to get a better look, which was difficult with the angle he sat at.

"He looks nice...from here," Birdie leaned back, so her fingers could let go of Nevaeh's and tap the terminal screen as she put her friend's usual order in. While Birdie did that, Nevaeh nodded in agreement but kept her gaze on him. "Lemme guess, the usual?"

"Kilauea; everything but-"

"No pollen and extra honey." Birdie finished with assuredness and not a drop of doubt in her answer. Her friend smiled, her eyes looking to Birdie with amazement.

"You know me too well."

"Well, you order the same thing almost every time."

"Touche," she couldn't argue with that. When it came to her acai bowl, she liked the Kilauea - made with mango juice, granola, berries, papaya, honey, and acai - the best. "And water, of course - make that two." She stepped back to look over the menu. Rudy wasn't familiar with the place, and he didn't know what they served, so Nevaeh wanted to get him something he hopefully liked. She decided to go with something not too fancy - directing her attention back to her barista friend. She went ahead and finished her order. "And...let me get the Islander acai bowl." That one was made with hemp mylk, granola, banana, berries, cocoa shavings, and honey.

Birdie rang up the rest of the order for Nevaeh. After catching a glimpse at the total, Nevaeh reached in the little card pocket of her wallet and grabbed her card. Unbeknownst to her, while she was getting her card, Birdie took her name tag and gave her friend her employee discount - she got it for half the price.

“I know you’re an independent woman and paying for the first date, the least I could do is give you a discount. Just don’t tell Daniel.” She winked, and Nevaeh gave her a thumbs up with one hand, and with the other, she made a zipping and locking motion over her mouth before throwing the key.

Outside, Rudy sat at the table he picked out for the two of them while waiting. While Nevaeh ran inside to get their order, he observed the small San Francisco scenery around him. California weather was sunshine with fluffy clouds. Just about everyone was either in shorts, a tank, and a cut-off shirt or any other summer clothing that provided them some comfort in the blazing sun. He dressed just right for the weather, though in Alaska, it was more on the chill side, causing him to wear a sweatshirt while he left. Now that he was basking in the California weather, he took off the warm sweatshirt and left it at Nevaeh’s apartment.

There were other people outside along with him. A group of girls sat a few feet away at a table in front of him, trying not to giggle as they attempted to make a video. At another table, there were two guys, perhaps brothers. They were eating something colorful from a bowl - it looked like yogurt to Rudy - and having a conversation with one another.

Rudy shook his head at the drastic difference between the two tables. Maybe it was just him, but it was amazing how much the world - more specifically America- was wrapped up in technology and social media. Sure the brothers at the one table had digital watches that told them the time and lit up, catching their attention with a vibrate when a text or notification went to their phone. But at least they could carry on a conversation without having their phone in their hands. On the other hand, those girls haven’t put their phones down longer than a few seconds. After those seconds, they tap away or show the other something they thought was worthy enough to gauge a reaction out of them.

Rudy wasn't one to judge. He didn't have much right to because while watching them and waiting for Nevaeh, he had the urge to pull out his phone. It was almost like a habit, but he chooses not to feed the temptation. He wanted to enjoy the day with Nevaeh; notice the burn on his skin from the sun, get to know her, have fun, pick up on little cues she has, and find out what he likes the most about her. And though it was kind of ironic that the two of them met through social media, he hopes Nevaeh is not one of those social zombies. Then this trip would be a waste of time and effort.

Ruby pulled his sunglasses down due to the sun starting to bother his eyes. Then he also wanted to cover his eyes and focus on something else while he waited. A minute later, Nevaeh walked out of the cafe's door backward with her back pushing the door open. In her hands, she had what she ordered; he wondered what she got. Rudy briskly stood up out of his seat to help her out.

"Hey, let me help you out," he walks around the table towards her, but she only nods him off.

"I got it, you sit."

"You have all the food and drinks in your hands; it's the least I can do." he stood off to the side, not interfering but reading despite what she said. He watches her struggle a bit and almost drops the stuff. Rudy immediately reached out, but Nevaeh had already saved herself and looked at him with a smile.

"I got it, Rudy. I was just pulling your leg." He picked up on the playfulness in her eyes, which made him pull his lips into a smile matching hers; her smile is definitely contagious.

“Alright, alright,” he raised his hands, backing away and then taking his seat. Nevaeh took her seat across from him, sat everything down before passing him the items she got him. “What’d you get us?”

“Well, I don’t know if you have had this before, but it’s my go-to thing to get here. It’s an acai bowl,” Nevaeh’s eyes caught his confused expression before he tried to cover it up with an understanding.  She laughed softly and explained further. “It’s like a smoothie bowl with other things in it.”

“Smoothie bowl…” he murmured more to himself, but she still heard it.

Shaking her head, she continued. “Acai palm is the main ingredient along with bananas and granola, but you can add other fruits or peanut butter and syrups. Or take things off.”

“Like maple syrup?” he asked, looking at the acai bowl she got him.

Her face begins to twist in disgust until she covers it with a shrug and looks down at her bowl, ready to dig in. “Uh, I guess if that’s what you want, then yeah.” She answered, and Rudy nodded his head and grabbed his spoon to take a taste. Before Nevaeh tasted her own, she watched Rudy, waiting for his reaction. He took a bite, letting the flavor invade his taste buds.

“Wow, this is good,” He says after swallowing. He glanced up, catching Nevaeh already looking at him. She quickly looked away and stirred her bowl.

“I’m glad you like it; it’s my second favorite one,” she peeked back up, and Rudy was still looking at her. Laughing softly to herself, then shaking her head, she takes a bite of her own, almost moaning at the taste. “I’m surprised you haven’t had one before.”

“ I have wanted to try one, but never really went with actually going out to get one.”

“Well, maybe now you will get them more often,” She says but stops herself before taking another bite. “Wait...you aren’t allergic to any fruit, are you? Or granola?”

He lifted a brow while getting another scoop. “Oh, only bananas,” He replies. Nevaeh watches him as he lifts the spoon to his mouth and takes another bite that includes bananas before she could reach across the table and stop him in time. “What?” he looked at her. Her eyes were wide with shock and fear, her mouth opening to say something but closed when nothing came out. “Is there something wrong?”

Nodding her head slowly, she sat down her spoon and reached for her phone in her pocket just in case. "You ate a banana, and you just told me you were allergic to them." Nevaeh wanted to yell at him for being so careless, but that would mean she was too for not asking before ordering something random for him. She pretended to remain calm but was internally panicking.

"I actually eat them all the time," he held back the smile easing its way into his features. "I eat them quite often. They're a great source of potassium and vitamin C."

"So you aren't allergic to bananas?" she noted, and Rudy shook his head. His mouth broke out into the smile he managed to hold back for a few seconds. Nevaeh relaxed a bit, her shoulders dropping as she was no longer tense. "You're an asshole, you know that, right?" Rudy gasped softly, a hand placed on his chest as he looked at her, offended at her comment.

"What, me, an asshole? That can't be right, I'm really nice," he said and made Nevaeh huffed. "What do you not believe me?"

The woman shrugged, the smile still on her face when she looked down at her food. "Well, you did play a mean joke just now; I thought I almost killed you." She reminded him and picked at her bowl.

"I wanted to see how caring you were, and you passed the test. Now you love me, don't you?"

"You wish," she said, taking a bite then pointing at him with her spoon. "We're going on a road trip together, let's see if I survive that, then I'll let you know if I like you enough to be your friend or jump out of a moving car because you're an annoying little shit."

Rudy raised his eyebrows, smirking at her now. "Me being an annoying little...alright. Let's make a deal," he starts; Nevaeh gestures for him to continue. "If you survive this road trip, meaning - if you have a great time - I get to take you to my home town in Alaska. Ah, ah. I'm not finished." he held his finger up to stop her from making a comment. She rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair, attempting to hide a simple, but you could see the amusement on her face. "If you don't have a great time, I'll do whatever you want."

"So, If I understand right, If you win, you get to take me to Alaska - assuming I haven't been there already,"

“Wait, you’ve been to Alaska?” Nevaeh held her finger up, echoing his movements moments before.

“If you win, you take me to Alaska, and if I win, you do whatever I want, correct?”

“Yeah, as long as it’s not too inappropriate or impossible,” He says, already finished with his acai bowl, which Nevaeh didn’t remember seeing him eat the rest. It didn’t matter when he ate it, she didn’t care, but that was quick. Looking down at her own, she wasn’t more than halfway done. “So, so we have a deal?”

Nevaeh looked up from her food, meeting his ocean-like eyes. The pair were becoming more familiar over the past few weeks from countless photos and videos the two have shared over Snapchat. Messages over text and facetime calls. They got to know each other digitally, and now they have to learn more in person. 

“We have a deal.” She says, and Rudy sticks his hand out, which she gladly took. They shook hands. While doing so, Rudy thought of a million possibilities to get the woman across from him to a great time and not just so he could take her to Alaska, his home. He found her intriguing, and he wants to take the time to get to know her better and maybe have a solid standing friendship at the end of it all. If the cosmos had a say, perhaps something more would blossom.

➣ End Note:

So, I honestly don’t know how the next few or future chapters will go but hopefully they turn out well. Here are the Revaeh interactions we all needed and plenty more to come so just you wait. ;)

AGAIN IF YOU WANT ME TO CONTINUE THE SERIES I WILL, JUST LET ME KNOW.

Wonder Taglist:

@Scooby6, @ifilwtmfc​, @rudypankowswife​, @themaddies-obx​

[If your username is bold and slashed out it means i can’t tag you. If you want to be added to the taglist add yourself here! If you no longer want to be on it let me know. :) ]

[z5061241]

Something Awesome! Week 6

“The world today abounds in open information to an extent unimaginable to intelligence officers of the Cold War.” - CIA

Welcome back for another week of stalking... Last week I managed to find some social profiles, evidence of exchange, usernames and Andrew’s Full Name! (surprisingly hard to find). This week I’m hoping to be able to find more email addresses and social profiles like github/bitbucket, tumblr, twitter, etc.  Google Dorking + Social Media Searching I started with trying to target the social profiles first via google. Literally, nothing came up. I tried each site’s own search engine with the emails I found earlier, the two user IDs from Facebook and LinkedIn and sensible variations of his name as a username but I couldn’t find a profile that matched Andrew’s.

At this point, I was getting a little worried, because I’m sure Andrew has a github profile, twitter and he has to have tumblr otherwise I’m not sure how he will mark our work, but I couldn’t find any such profiles. It is entirely possible that he has made his profiles unable to be found via search, but I had no way of confirming this.  I tried to get creative, I know he is the wellbeing head at UNSW SecSoc, so I tried checking the twitter followers of UNSW SecSoc, Lachlan Jones (caff), Adam Smallhorn, Richard Buckland and some others. I wasn’t just looking for an @andrewcarmichaelTwitter account, I had a feeling he would use a username that was obscure so I even checked out most of the accounts with obscure usernames to see if it was even remotely possible for them to be Andrew’s Account. Nothing.  In a similar fashion, I tried on github. I checked the followers of unswsecsoc’s github account, Lachlan Jone’s account, etc. I was hoping he had made a commit in some repo and that information would pop up but still nothing. It’s quite possible that he doesn’t actually use github/bitbucket but rather something like gitlab where everything is already private. If that is the case, then there's no way to find his account. What makes it even harder is that he doesn’t have a personal website, usually people who have a personal website will have the code on github somewhere and you can find their account via the commits for that repo.  :( 

I still had hope. There’s one thing left to check. Google Docs.  Andrew made the initial doc for the first chapter of the course textbook, maybe there’s a way, perhaps through comments or version history, of checking his profile and getting his gmail address. Sadly, the OSINT Gods are looking favorably upon Andrew - not me. Google Docs doesn’t expose the email address of the person making changes, only the full name.  Maltego (pls...help meh)

Since last week I have watched a couple of videos on how to use Maltego so this was the perfect time to give it a go. As I’ve explained in some previous blog, Maltego is a data mining and visualising software, you basically add information as nodes in a graph and Maltego runs little programs on each node trying to find out more information! I decided to start with Andrew’s full name. 

This gave me a set of companies (mainly based in the UK), some really arbitrary documents and some names of people (again mainly based in the UK) who could be associates of Andrew.  The documents were very random and definitely not related to Andrew. Since most of the people were registered in the UK, I felt that they weren’t relevant. They could have been some cousins/extended family but I didn’t have a way of confirming this. I tried to look up his name without the second middle name. 

While the connections with people were the same, this search yielded the same kind of results as the previous one. A bunch of random documents/records from the UK ranging from 1600s-1800s. Upon reflection, I realised that this is most likely because Maltego doesn’t have access to Australian records since our current records aren’t public.  Interestingly, I ran all transforms available on both names and neither one revealed a useful email/social media profile/phone number. Some of this could also be because I’m using the community (free) edition of the software, thus I expect that the search results are limited.  I tried to run direct searches on the LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, but the main transform required API keys for a paid service. My search resulted in no new information. 

Lastly, I tried to use the known emails so far to generate new information. This was finally getting interesting! 

As expected, I found links to UNSW and UNSW SecSoc. I also found links to ANZNN (Australia New Zealand Neonatal Network), a research organisation that seems to be managed by UNSW. I cross-checked the phone number and email addresses found to the contact us page on the ANZNN website.  Is Andrew involved in international neonatal research? Since he is a mechatronics/compsci student with a strong interest in security, it seems unlikely. I tried to check for Andrew’s name media or papers released from the organisation but as expected I found nothing. I think the only useful information I got from running all this was finding out that his emails haven’t been breached according to haveibeenpwned.com. Namechk

I hit up bellingcat’s online investiagation toolkit again to see what resources it had for social media information and found Namechk. It’s a site that lets you test usernames to see how many different social media profiles already have that username taken. I think it’s good for people who only want one username on all platforms, for me however, I can use it to see if any of Andrew’s known user Ids are used anywhere else.  andrew-rc-carmichael: Apparently invalid on all sites since its too long? andrew.carmichael.395: Apparently besides facebook, this username is invalid on all other services?? (is this site broken or is there actually a 12-15 char limit?) arc: There are a few sites I found which could have accounts that likely belong to Andrew:

Twitter: Account seems like a bot, only follows Japanese content, no likes, no security-related content. Not Andrew

Flickr: 1 Follower who I can’t check, but joined in 2004 (Andrew’s approx age at the time would’ve been 7-8 - who has an email at age 7/8?). Not Andrew

Steam: From Profile: Szymon Herman (Slaskie, Poland). Not Andrew

Soundcloud: Profile photo doesn’t match at all. Not Andrew

CoderWall: Account belongs to an Aaron Crane. Not Andrew

Disqus: Old account (2008 - seriously, Disqus has been around since then??), only 1 comment about getting some bank ID? Not Andrew

Codecademy: Of course, I’ve left the best to last. This account belongs to a ‘Michael’. This is significant because there’s no or names or identifiable information on the profile. There's only ‘Michael‘ with the username ‘arc’.  Given Andrew’s last name and experience with code, it’s possible that this account could be his!!! This could be Andrew!

What’s the impact of having this data? None?? Given what we already know about him from his LinkedIn profile and University degree, having an account on Codecademy hardly adds anything new to his profile. What would be interesting, however, is if Codecademy had a known data leak/hack. If a hacker exposed user accounts/emails and/or passwords then by getting a hold of that dataset and checking for user ‘arc’, we might be able to find his password or email. Thankfully Codecademy hasn’t had any such data breach.  Reflection From a pure data gathering point of view, this week feels like a waste. I barely secured new information, and I think it’s better to move on to set a different goal of finding information such as where he might live or places he visits. I know this is harder to find, but I think I’ve reached a dead end here.  From a learnings point of view, this week has been fruitful! And that is more important to me. I came up with creative ideas for getting information (even though they failed) and that strengthened my skills of thinking like a security engineer and problem solving. I also learned how to use Maltego which is sooo common and widespread in the industry. Even though I didn’t get much information on Andrew from Maltego, I understand why, for American targets and under a professional Maltego license, investigators love this software. It allows you to step through the OSINT Methodology and takes a lot of the manual searching out of your hands so you can focus on organising and creating links in your data.  To put things in perspective for myself: My target is a professionally certified hacker and security tutor, it was never going to be easy.