#machine shop lafayette | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

batonrougepowersport · 8 months ago

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Your Inner Adventurer: Your Guide to Louisiana Power Sports

Louisiana, the "Sportsman's Paradise," isn't just about world-class fishing and hunting. It's a haven for off-road enthusiasts, adrenaline seekers, and anyone who craves adventure on wheels. Enter the world of Louisiana power sports, where exhilarating rides meet stunning landscapes, and the open road (or lack thereof) awaits.

This comprehensive guide will equip you with everything you need to know about diving into the power sports scene in Louisiana. From exploring dealerships stocked with top brands to the thrilling adventures Louisiana offers, this blog is your one-stop shop for getting your motor running.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

1. What kind of power sports vehicles can I find in Louisiana?

Louisiana dealerships boast a diverse selection of power sports vehicles to suit every need and thrill level. Here's a breakdown of the most popular categories:

ATVs (All-Terrain Vehicles): These nimble machines conquer rough terrain, making them ideal for exploring trails, mudding, or tackling farm chores. Popular brands include Can-Am Outlander, Polaris Sportsman, and Yamaha Kodiak.

UTVs (Utility Task Vehicles): These workhorses offer a blend of power, cargo capacity, and passenger seating. Perfect for hauling gear, exploring with friends, or tackling tough jobs, popular UTVs include Can-Am Defender, Polaris Ranger, and Kawasaki Mule.

Motorcycles: Cruise down scenic highways or carve through winding roads with a motorcycle. From touring bikes like Harley-Davidson Road King to sportbikes like Yamaha YZF-R1, Louisiana dealerships cater to a variety of riding styles.

Scooters: These fuel-efficient and easy-to-maneuever two-wheelers are perfect for navigating city streets or short commutes. Popular brands include Vespa and Yamaha Majesty.

Personal Watercraft (PWCs): For water enthusiasts, Louisiana offers a thrilling selection of PWCs, also known as jet skis. Brands like Sea-Doo, Yamaha WaveRunner, and Kawasaki Jet Ski provide exhilarating rides on lakes, rivers, and even the coast.

2. What are some reputable power sports dealerships in Louisiana?

The state boasts numerous dealerships with exceptional service, knowledgeable staff, and a wide range of power sports vehicles. Here are a few highly-regarded options, but it's always recommended to research dealerships in your area:

Lafayette Powersports (Lafayette): A family-owned business since 1975, Lafayette Powersports offers a massive selection of ATVs, UTVs, motorcycles, and marine vehicles across two convenient locations. They carry top brands like Polaris, Can-Am, Yamaha, and Kawasaki.

New Orleans Power Sports (New Orleans): Serving Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and beyond, New Orleans Power Sports is a one-stop shop for power sports enthusiasts. They stock a wide variety of new and used motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, scooters, boats, and personal watercraft from leading brands like Can-Am, Polaris, Yamaha, Sea-Doo, and more.

Louisiana Powersports (Bossier City): Specializing in Can-Am ATVs, UTVs, and roadsters, Louisiana Powersports in Bossier City caters to all types of riders. Whether you're looking for a mud-conquering Can-Am Outlander or a stylish Can-Am Spyder for cruising, they have you covered.

Loewer Powersports (Alexandria): This Alexandria dealership offers a comprehensive selection of power sports vehicles, marine equipment, and outdoor gear. They carry popular brands like Polaris, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki, making them a great option for a variety of needs.

3. Where can I find the best places to ride my power sports vehicle in Louisiana?

Louisiana offers a diverse landscape, from dense forests and rolling hills to sprawling swamps and pristine coastlines. This translates to a wealth of opportunities for off-road adventures. Here are a few suggestions:

Kisatchie National Forest: This vast forest encompasses over 600,000 acres of diverse terrain, with designated ATV and UTV trails perfect for exploring the beauty of Louisiana's woodlands.

Caney Creek Recreation Area: Located near Minden, Caney Creek offers a network of off-road trails for ATVs and UTVs, catering to various skill levels.

#atv louisiana #louisiana powersports

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murder-senpai · 4 years ago

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F A N F I C T I O N

Oh, hello there!! My name is Murder-senpai! I’m new here to tumblr sooooo don’t mind me being awkward n’ stuff. So this is gonna be like, what fandoms and characters I write for sOoooOoOo

AU’s and other stuff I’ll do: ABO, genderbend, hanahaki, soulmate, supernatural/power, soft yandere/ stockholm syndrome, coffee shop, modern, fantasy, baby/kid versions of characters, babysitter, neko, inu, kitsune, post apocalyptic, zombie, flower shop, book store, dragon, fairy tale, high school/college, mafia, pregnant, steampunk, merpeople, pirate, pirate/merperson, prison, reincarnation, famous, vampire, werewolf

There is more shit I’ll do but I can’t really think anymore so just request

(reader insert crap)

I will NOT do nsfw. This is a christian minecraft sever

You CAN request multiple character/poly and platonic stuff

If your not specific, I will choose between headcanons or a fic/drabble

If you request angst, I will give it a fluffy ending unless requested otherwise

Please be specific in your request ex: reader gender (fem, male, gender neutral)

Edit: I will now take character x character, character + character platonic stuff, aus (like, medevil bnha, or a story about friendship or enemies to friends or adoption, anything really), and stuff like that

Current hyperfixation (aka, what I will probably write better for/ do more): dream smp

Will probably put the scenario in a non specific arc

Fairy Tail:

Natsu

Gray

Loke/leo

Laxus

Sting

Rouge

Gajeel

Zeref

Jellal

Jackal

Lucy

Levy

Juvia

Guildarts

Freed

Erza

DBH:

Connor

Hank

Markus

Gavin

nines

ATLA:

Aang

Zuko

Sokka

Katara

Toph

mai

ty lee

azula

BNHA:

Izuku

Katsuki

Shouto

Denki

Eijiro

Tenya

Toshinori

Shouta

hizashi

fumikage

neito

mirio

takami

hitoshi

inasa

Enji

keigo

rumi

momo

mina

ochaco

dabi

shigaraki

overhaul

sir nighteye

kurogiri

toga

twice

Inuyasha:

Inuyahsa

kagome

naraku

miroku

koga

sesshomaru

sango

BNA:

michiru

shirou

nazuna

alan

marie

pinga

Sherlock:

Sherlock

john

moriarty

mycroft

greg

molly

Harry potter:

harry

ron

hermione

draco

cedric

Black Butler:

ciel

sebastian

bard

finny

ash

claude

alois

triplets

william

grell

ronald

undertaker

joker

dagger

agni

soma

pluto

beast

lizzy

mey-rin

ran-mao

edward

aleistar

vincent

real ciel (I refer to him as astre tho)

snake

charles grey

charles phipps

gregory

cheslock

joanne

maurice

herman

clayton

lawrance

mcmillan

edgar

blavat

seiglinde

MLB:

Marinette/ladybug

adrien/chat noir

gabriel/hawkmoth

nathaniel

marc

luka

alya

nino

felix

bridgette

chloe

TPN:

emma

ray

norman

don

gilda

leslie

Undertale:

sans

papyrus

frisk

toriel

chara

asriel

asgore

grillby

gaster

mettaton

blooky

AU’s- underfell, mafiatale, mafiafell, underswap, swapfell

Beastars:

legoshi

haru

louis

juno

gouhin

melon

Gravity falls:

dipper

mable

ford

wendy

robbie

bill

AU-reverse falls, monster falls

SVTFOE:

star

marco

tom

toffee

Hazbin:

alastor

angle dust

charlie

husk

vaggie

lucifer

val

vox

Pokemon:

Gladion

ash

clemont

serena

james

jesse

zeraora

lucario

mewtwo

zacian

zamazenta

literally any pokemon but those are my fave(and human versions ofc either is fine)

guzma

kukui

alain

lysandre

bede

hop

leon

milo

allister

raihan

marnie

piers

ACNH:

tom nook

raymond

lobo

kabuki

lolly

marshal

Isabelle

redd

fang

Avengers:

tony

steve

bucky

clint

natasha

dr. strange

thor

loki

peter

Voltron:

lance

keith

shiro

hunk

lotor

pidge

Aggretsuko:

tadano

haida

hyoudou

The hobbit:

literally JUST smaug

MLP:

twilight

pinkie

apple jack

rainbow

fluttershy

rarity

discord

Maid sama:

takumi

misaki

shoichiro

the three idiots

aoi (totaly gives off a ciel/lizzy vibe don’t even lie)

sotaro

tora

kanade

kuga

koma

yujiro

shosei

Naruto:

naruto

sauske

kakashi

itachi

gaara

neji

shikamaru

kurama

kiba

OHSHC:

tamaki

haruhi

hikaru

karou

both twins

kyoya

hunny

mori

kasanoda

nekosawa

Cells at work:

white blood cell

red blood cell

killer t cell

Little witch academia:

atsuko

diana

sucy

lotte

amanda

andrew

louis

frank

Pucca:

pucca

garu

tobe

abyo

Glitter force:

emily/Miyuki

kelsey/Akane

lily/Yayoi

april/Nao

chole/Reika

ulric/wolfrun

rascal

Glitter force doki doki:

ira

maya/Mana

rachel/Rikka

clara/Alice

mackenzie/Makoto

TMNT(2012):

leonardo

raphael

michelangelo

donatello

splinter

april

ROTG:

aster bunnymund

north

pitch

sandy

jack

tooth

Soul eater:

death the kid

soul

black star

maka

stein

Aot:

levi

eren

armin

mikasa

jean

erwin

IT(2017):

pennywise

richie

beverly

eddie

stanley

ben

bill

henry

patrick

victor

belch

bowers gang

losers club

kamisama kiss:

nanami

tomoe

mizkui

kurama

otohiku

mikage

jiro

The outsiders:

dallas

darry

ponyboy

johnny

two-bit

steve

soda

Diabolik lovers:

shu

reiji

ayato

laito

kanato

subaru

yui

karlheinz

kou

azuza

carla

ruki

richter

yuma

shin

Hamilton:

alex

john

king george

george washington

lafayette

hercules

philip

aaron

thomas

Venom(2018):

eddie/venom

Tokyo mew mew:

ichigo

zakuro

tart

pie

Kisshu

Fran bow

Fran

remor

itward

mr. midnight

Steven universe

steven

connie

pearl

amethyst

larz

sadie

garnet

lapiz

peridot

spinel

Haven't you heard i'm sakamoto

sakamota

Shou

Gargantia on the verdurous planet

ledo

amy

Animaniacs

yakko

wakko

dot

Over the garden wall

wirt

beast

Sonic

sonic

tails

knuckles

amy

shadow

Snow white with the red hair

Shirayuki

zen

obi

The sacrificial princess and the king of beasts(manga)

Leonhart

Sariphi

Lanteveldt

Anubis/Sirius

Jormungand

Fenrir

Nir

Joz

Ilya

Beetlejuice(musical)

beetlejuice

lydia

Creepypasta

Jeff the killer

slenderman

offenderman

trenderman

splenderman

ticci toby

masky

hoodie

BEN drowned

eyeless jack

laughing jack

homicidal liu

zalgo

clockwork

Jason the toymaker

puppeteer

Yu-gi-oh

Seto Kaiba

FNAF

Freddy

bonnie

chica

foxy

golden freddy

toy freddy

toy bonnie

toy chica

mangle (male and female ver pls specify)

marionette ^

springtrap

william afton/ purple guy

baby

funtime freddy

ennard

nightmare freddy

nightmare bonnie

nightmare chica

nightmare foxy

nightmare mangle

fredbear

nightmare fredbear

Cuphead

cuphead

mugman

devil

king dice

Bendy and the ink machine

bendy

boris

alice

Duck tales

Scrooge (aged down tho)

webby

della

donald

louie

dewey

huey

launchpad

lena

Dream smp

everyone (all platonic. Will do reader stuff, but would prefer more character +character interactions, specifically, SBI. PLSSS give me sbi stuff, ill marry you)

505 notes · View notes

a-portable-snack · 5 years ago

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@writer-who-cant-write135 Thank you so much for your ask! Wanna take a stab at what city I live in?

Detroit and Chill

Kai looked at the rubber duck sitting next to his computer. He just read his entire code out loud to said duck but it still won’t run properly. And the duck didn’t warn him it won’t.

“Ugh! This doesn’t work.” He tossed the duck behind him.

“Ouch!”

Kai turned to realize he didn’t hear Adam come into their dorm… which is somehow impressive on Adam’s part for being so quiet and Kai’s part for being so focused.

“Sorry, man. This code is driving me insane. I want to send it over to Reeve to look over but I also don’t want to send it over and have him be like ‘This is 100% wrong’” Kai rubbed his neck and turned back to his computer. He knows its probably a simple thing he’s missing and he doesn’t want Reeve to find it.

Kai went to start typing but his chair was suddenly pulled back. Adam stepped in-between Kai and his computer and started typing something.

“Adam! Don’t mess with the code! I know you’re smart but I know you know NOTHING about code.”

“You’re right but Reeve does. I just sent it to him and you’re taking a break with me while he looks it over.” Adam turned back to Kai.

“You had no right to do that!” Kai stood up so he was eye to eye with Adam “Just because you seem to be ahead on your work and are bored doesn’t mean you can get between me and my work!”

“I’m sorry” Adam put his hands in the air to surrender “but it’s definitely the only way you’ll step away. I’ve been here for 20 minutes and you didn’t realize I came in. You’re hyper-fixating, overworking, and getting nothing done. I know I stepped over a line but I will do it again if it means you won’t work yourself to the ground!”

Kai knew he was right. Last year, Adam never stepped between Kai and his work and Kai’s perfectionist tendencies and ADHD had him almost to the hospital from overworking. Adam was just trying to help and take care of him. But Kai can still be mad.

“So,” Adam caught Kai’s eyes. “We are going out to do something fun. We’re going distract you until Reeve emails back saying what you’re missing and it’s ok that you needed help because Robotic and Megatronic engineering is hard as fuck.”

“Fine, but you’re fucking wining and dining me asshole.”

“Valid” Adam smiled and grabbed his coat. Kai had to change his close because his Pokemon pajama pants won’t cut it. Adam was on his phone searching for something when Kai came out of the bathroom.

“Let’s go!” Adam’s eyes were bright as he grabbed Kai’s hand. Adam pulled Kai all the way to Adam’s car.

“Adam! Not all of us are in perfect shape. SLOW DOWN!”

“Dude I’m so excited about this! It’s going to be so much fun” Adam jumped into his car. By the time Kai was in the passenger seat, Adam was buzzing. Adam’s excitement was infectious and Kai just smiled as Adam started driving. Kai couldn’t look away as Adam sped through the streets of Detroit.

Detroit is such an interesting place to live because there’s so many different types of people all smashed into southeast Michigan. So Adam could be taking him to anything between a cool tour of some car museum to Mexican Town having a deal on tamales. Kai really hopes its the latter. Adam’s mom has set standards for tamales that only Mexican Town can compete with.

When Adam followed the highway to the Riverwalk, Kai started to think they were heading to the GM building. But Adam turned away from it.

“Are we heading to Campus Martius?” Kai asked.

“Kind of! We’re going to Lafayette Coney then we’re heading to Campus Martius” Adam parked next to the historical coney place and Kai excitedly jumped out.

“Yes! I need a good coney! We can walk to Campus Martius from here. I’ll cover parking” Kai pulled this wallet out to put in the coins.

“No no no! Wining and dining remember!” Adam stood in front of Kai and took his wallet out of his hand. Adam reached around and put the wallet into Kai’s back pocket.

“I-i was joking” Kai couldn’t stop the blush from spreading across his face. Adam noticed and smirked at him.

Adam didn’t know what to do with Kai. The boy was adorable and smart and god they worked together so well. They’ve lived together for 2 years now in the dorms and they are a well oiled machine. It was almost impossible not to fall in love. But Adam truly did try. Adam tried to limit how much he talked with Kai over the summer so he could get some distance. Adam thought he had gotten rid of his feelings. He started to open up communication again and was ok with their relationship. Then Adam sent a snap of Captain America saying ‘My type of man’ and you want to know how this motherfucker responded?

I guess I need to work out. I GUESS I NEED TO WORK OUT. WHAT THE FUCK?

So Adam has feeling still and doesn’t know what to do. But here they were. On something that could be considered a date. Just, vibing.

“Let’s walk and eat” Adam said after he paid for the hot dogs. “I know the line at Campus MArtius will be long”

“Why?” Kai asked, mouth full.

“It’s the first day that the ice skating ring is open!” Adam put his hands up in excitement. Kai seemed to shrink down little.

“O-oh! That sounds fun! It’ll be great” Adam noticed the hesitance and feared he made the wrong choice.

“If you don’t want to ice skate we can do something else! I know there’s heated huts that shops rent out, the Riverwalk’s open, there’s a bar or two…”

“It’s fine! I’ve just never ice skated before so I’m kinda nervous” Kai fiddled with the wrapper on his coney.

“Don’t worry,” Adam snuck an arm around Kai’s waist and whispered in his ear. “I won’t let you fall.”

For moment, Adam thought Kai was going to jump away and blush but he was surprised. Instead, Kai leaned into Adam and said, “You better not.”

It was Adam’s turn to blush and become a flustered. Adam can usually serve out flirtatious comments like nothing but the moment they come back at him, he’s a puddle. And receiving flirting back from Kai, who usually shies away? Nope, Adam isn’t emotionally prepared for it.

“O-ok”

Kai laughed and laced his fingers between Adam’s. He seemed hesitant at first but when Adam firmly held his hand, a smile spread across his face.

“Let’s go get in line”

They finished their coneys and ran to rent skates. There were already a bunch of people on the small ring but Adam was ready to get out there.

“Ok! This doesn’t look too hard!” Kai watched people going around as he laced up his skates.

“You think so?” Adam smirked.

“Yeah! I’ll be fine.”

He was not fine.

Adam hit the ice and skated right off. He was able to file into the crowd nicely. He was graceful and obviously knew what he was doing. Kai on th other hand put on foot on the ice and immediately lost control. He gripped the rail like a life line tried to figure out his feet. They kept seeming to go in every which way.

Kai looked up and saw Adam rounding the corner to come back to him. He held himself up against the wall and pretended he wasn’t struggling as much as he was. Adam skidded to a stop next him.

“How’s it going?”

“Oh you know! It’s simple. Just gliding” Kai tried to brush off the fact that he could barely hold himself up.

“Come on. Let me take you around” Adam offered a hand with a small smile. Kai smiled back at his and took his hand. Kai pushed off the rail and immediately lost his balance.

“Adam, why is this so hard?” Kai clutched Adam’s arm like it was a life source. Somehow Adam was just skating like it was walking. Fuck him.

“Ha, for some reason physics doesn’t work when it comes to ice skating” Adam laughed. Adam pulled away little and Kai pulled him closer.

“Don’t you fucking dare.”

“Don’t worry!” Adam was trying so hard not to laugh at him. Adam held onto Kai hand and flipped around to skate backwards and pull Kai along.

“You just wanted to show off you could skate backwards”

“Maybe” Adam smiled “It’s also the best way to learn. Just focus on holding your hips steady and switching your weight from left to right. When you switch, give a gentle push.”

Kai followed Adam’s instructions, watching his feet and focusing on his weight. Kai found a rhythm as they made it around the ice rink at a reasonable pace. Adam smiled at Kai, unable to hold anything back. God, if only Kai knew what he did to Adam.

“You got it!”

“You’re right! This is easy.”

Kai looked up at Adam and he saw all the love and excitement. It was overwhelming. Suddenly, Kai completely lost all since of control and was falling. Adam wasn’t ready for it and fell with him. So there they were shocked, laying on cold ice, in the middle of a crowded rink. Suddenly and eight year old skated by with the grace of a figure skater.

“Tsk, lame”

Adam and Kai look at each other in shock then burst out laughing. Of course they would get called lame by an eight year old. Adam shift to get them up. Kai felt like a baby horse trying to find his legs on the ice. This rink really does seem to say fuck physics.

“Now that our pride is throughly bruised, can I interest you in a hot chocolate?”

“Definitely”

Adam led them to the edge and they stepped on to normal land.

“Is it bad I’m tempted to kiss the ground?”

“Definitely, this is Detroit. We have no idea what is going on down there.”

“Valid, not doing that.”

Adam was still holding onto Kai as they ordered their hot chocolates. They sat in the warming tent at a table. They talked and drank hot chocolate. They were completely lost within each other. Loudly talking about dumb teachers, and new Netflix shows, and that one kid on their floor who they swear is a wizard.

“No, I’m joking. He has a pet centipede in his dorm. I’m pretty the RAs are letting him keep it because they don’t want to have confiscate it. It freaks me out.” Kai laughed.

“There’s no way. I had a FISH they took away! I had to pull out a handbook to prove I could have him.” Adam shook his head.

“I’m sorry,” the girl that was working behind the counter came up to them. “It’s time for us to close down. You need to return your skates and head home so we can close.”

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry! We’re leaving right now!” Adam and Kai picked up their stuff and quickly left Campus Martius.

“Sorry I kept you out so late.” Adam said when they got to his car. He rubbed his neck nervously. Kai grabbed Adam’s free hand and pulled .

“Don’t be sorry. I should be thanking you. I really needed this. I would still be hunched over code, probably crying, if it weren’t for you. So, thank you.” Kai leaned gently into Adam with a soft smile.

Kai was suddenly kissing Adam. Kai wasn’t 100% what convinced him to do it but he couldn’t get the look Adam had on his face in the ice rink out of his head. Adam immediately leaned into the kiss and used his free hand to hold Kai’s cheek. Kai pulled back with a smile on his face.

“I’m so happy you kissed back because the drive would have been so awkward.”

Adam started laughing. He pulled Kai in for another kiss. His wide smile made it very difficult to properly kiss. Kai wrapped his arms around Adam’s waist. Kai pulled away and buried his face in the crook of Adam’s neck. Adam held him close.

“Let’s head back to the dorm.” Kai said. “I have a bag of popcorn and an illegal download of Mutant Spiders Paradise calling our names.”

“Sounds great” Adam unlocks his car and they went home.

#The Hollow #the hollow netflix #the hollow adam #the hollow season 2 #the hollow kai #kaidam #Kai #adam #the snack writes

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monoxidecahedron · 4 years ago

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Hamlaf Coffee Shop AU

This is the fic I was talking about in my last post! It’s pure fluff, and I love it. Tell me what you think, reblog and comments are always appreciated! I think I missed the “Alex is a food rider” part, but oh well. Below is the inspiration, done by @shanshala, who is absolutely amazing.

Lafayette smiled at the coffee shop counter. His hair was tied up in a big poofball bun, he was wearing the signature white shirt and purple apron of the shop that contrasted nicely with his dark skin, and a perfect customer-service smile. He was ready to start his shift.

And then in came human hurricane Alexander Hamilton, the bell tinkling as he shoved the door open, clearly in a rush, cheeks pink from the cold outside. Lafayette felt his customer-service smile drop, replaced by an absolutely lovesick expression.

“Bonjour again, Alexandre,” he said, grinning charmingly at Alexander, who huffed. “I need a black coffee with four expresso shots, nothing else,” he said, hopping from one foot to the other impatiently. Lafayette laughed, going to the coffee machine. “You seem to run on coffee,” he observed, and it was true. Every day without fail he came running in, ordered a black coffee with an insanely unhealthy amount of caffeine, and ran back out in a hurry.

Alexander nodded, not in the mood for small talk. “I do, which is why I need that coffee,” he said. Normally other baristas would be indignant, and in fact several other employees had quit the morning shift just to avoid Alexander. But Lafayette found this incredibly endearing, and he’d volunteered for it, begged for the shift, in fact. He was quite the romantic. But still, he wasn’t in too deep, he told himself; the manager paid him extra to work the shift. So it was practical as well.

Lafayette smiled, writing “Alexandre” in loopy cursive on the cup and handing it over. “Bonne journée, mon Alexandre,” he called after Alex’s retreating figure. Receiving no response, he sighed dramatically, returning to the coffee machine. He didn’t see Alexander admiring the fancy cursive Sharpie on his cup as he turned the corner.

This pattern continued as it always had; Alexander would rush in, Lafayette would flirt shamelessly with him, and then he’d leave, and Lafayette would pine. Then one day Alexander just…. stopped coming.

“What happened? Do you know where he went?” Lafayette asked Hercules the next day, trying desperately to be casual. He failed, judging by the huge grin on his friend’s face. “Why do you care?” he asked, knowing full well why. “No reason, curious only,” he said, flustered. “Well, I heard he went on vacation,” Hercules said. Lafayette nodded. “Ah.” And so he set about his day, resigned to wait until his Alexandre came back.

And he did. Two weeks later, he came back, hair in a messy bun that somehow seemed to endear him even more to Lafayette. He approached the counter and Lafayette immediately got to work on his order, knowing it by heart after months. “How was your vacation?” he asked flippantly, hoping for a response, even though the more rational part of his brain told him that he’d probably get a grumpy one-word answer in response.

To his surprise, Alexander started talking. “Oh my god, it was horrible! Well, the vacation itself was pretty fun, me and a buddy went down to LA, and yes, it’s way more sunny than the Seattle weather here, I swear I was almost blinded-” Lafayette giggled- “but once I got used to it, it was complete heaven, like, it was actually warm! Can you believe that?” Not stopping for an answer, he continued on. “And the beaches were amazing! But the horrible part was that all the hippies there made the coffee shops assume that I wanted, like, creamer or something,” he said, emphasizing creamer as if it was some instrument of the devil. “And the barista at the coffee shop near the place me and my buddy rented was horrible, just yes or no answers, not friendly at all! The customer service in LA sucks,” he finished. Noticing Lafayette staring at him, he blushed slightly. “Sorry, I know I haven’t been the best customer either,” he said sheepishly. Lafayette began to reassure him that it was no problem, really, but Alexander talked on. “But yeah, really, sorry for that, y’all must go through some shitty people,” he said, still talking at the rapid pace he had been for the past five minutes. “Oh my god, was I talking too much? Sometimes I get overexcited, shoot off at the mouth, I’ve been told it’s very annoying,” he said quietly.

Lafayette wasn’t a very violent person, but at that moment he wanted to punch whoever told him it was annoying. How could anyone possibly say that, with the way Alexander’s eyes shined as he talked and the passionate way he described everything? Lafayette felt like he’d melt any second, he was so smitten. “It is alright, Alexandre,” he said. “I quite enjoy it, actually.” He winked. Alexander flushed, but recovered quickly. “Oh yeah, I forgot- the worst thing about that coffee shop in LA was that the barista was nowhere near as attractive,” he said, grinning. Lafayette blushed. “Is that so? Perhaps time away from me has made you realize you’ve grown attached?”

Alexander grinned. “Exactly.” There was silence for a bit as Lafayette busied himself with adding something extra on his cup, handing it over as Alex’s phone pinged. He pulled it out of his pocket, grabbing the coffee with a hurried “thanks” and rushing out the door, same as always.

Except several hours later, when Alex got off the phone with his boss, he found a number written elegantly beneath his name, in which Lafayette had added a little heart.

And several hours later, Lafayette felt his phone buzz as he cleaned up in preparation to go home.

“Bonjour?” “Hey Laf! This is Alex.”

And several weeks later, the number labeled “❤️Alexandre❤️” texted him, telling him to meet at the park.

And several minutes later he was there, Alexander looking nervous as he sat across the park bench from him, fumbling with his words.

And several hours later, Lafayette left, lovesick smile on his face as he kissed his new boyfriend goodnight.

And years after that first time, he was kissing Alexander again, this time in celebration as a ring glinted on his finger.

Yes, the customer service is trashy eight times out of ten in LA (although there are some really nice people) and yes, it’s set in Seattle because I just thought it fit. And yes, I’ve been there, and yes, the weather is very grey, although I might be biased because I’m used to sunlight.

oh yeah, and the Space Needle is awesome.

#ficlet #hamilton #hamilton fanfiction #hamlaf #hamlaf fanfiction #hamilton ficlet #alexander hamilton #marquis de lafayette #lafayette #coffee shop AU

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ubernoxa · 4 years ago

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The Slippery Slope: An Izzy Stradlin FANFICTION

Chapter 3: An Apetite for Destruction

Story Summary: After leaving Guns N’ Roses, Izzy find himself in a rut, and decideds to visit the local zoo. While visiting the penguin exhibit, he meets a red head named Poppy. Will they manage to keep standing while on their slippery slope?

Chapter Summary: Poppy calls an old friend for advice, and Izzy runs into Poppy at a record store and hope to corrects things.

Tags: @slashscowboyboots @smokeandmirrorz

Masterlist coming soon, but Chapter 1 Chapter 2

“Ohh god I made such a fool of myself, he is never going to talk to me again. Why am I so awkward?” Poppy whined into the phone as her old college roommate, Lissa, sympathetically listened. This wasn’t the first time Poppy had been freaking out about a guy, and she knew that it wasn’t going to be the last.

“Calm down Poppy, you are probably overanalyzing it,” Lissa was trying to calm Poppy down, but it wasn’t working.. She wished that Poppy had called her right after the date instead of the morning after. It was clear to Lisa that Poppy had spent most of the night overanalyzing and imagining future scenarios that wouldn’t happen.

Poppy sighed as she plopped down on her bed, still holding the phone to her ear. She wanted to kick herself. She wished she became an engineer instead of a biologist, so she could invent a time machine and travel back in time.

“Do you want to tell me what happened? It might help,” Lissa’s voice cut through the silence.

“So it is all the stupid busboy’s fault!” Poppy shouted into her phone. Lissa playfully rolled her eyes at the very limited story she told.

“I am going to need more details hun.”

“So everything is going great. He is super sweet and really funny. He started off super quiet, and barely spoke at the beginning of dinner. Once the food came he became kinda chatty,” Poppy began telling the story while Lissa nodded her head as she listened over the phone.

“What did you wear?” Lissa interrupted earning some confusion from Poppy.

“I don’t see how that is relevant.”

“Hey, it helps paint a picture of you on your date at some fancy italian restaurant in the middle of nowhere Indiana,” Lissa rebuttled earning a groan from Poppy.

After a couple moments of silence, Poppy broke the silence, “I wore the short gold dress.”

“Thanks, now you can continue the story,” Lissa sarcastically replied earning a light chuckle from Poppy who wished her old roommate was here in Indiana, and not in the middle of nowhere Maine.

“As I was saying, everything was going great. The food was spectacular, and we were clicking. Every once and a while silence would fill the space between us, but it was a comfortable silence. It was when we were looking at the menu or eating. We even shared our dinners. Like Lissa...this is going to sound really cheesy, but he even fed me his food. You know, like in those romance movies we watch all the time?”

“Aww that is really sweet of him. If he has a twin I call dibs,” Lissa half joked.

“Anyway, we both finished our dinners and this busboy….ohh god the fucking bus boy,” Lissa froze as Poppy swore. She had known Poppy for 5 years, and she had only heard the girl swear a handful of times.

“What did the busboy do? Did he make fun of you or something like that?”

“No. So the busboy goes and asks ‘Did you enjoy your dinner Mr Stradlin?’ Then I mumble something like Stradlin is a silly last name which it is! It didn’t sound like a real name to be honest. Sounds kinda like a sex joke. Anyway the busboy turns to me and says ‘Well I guess that is one of the perks of being a rockstar…you get to choose whatever name you want. Plus it’s not the weirdest name, he has a bandmate named Duff and another named Axl’. I fucking froze when the busboy said that. The reason Izzy didn’t want to talk about his job was because he was a part of Guns N’ Roses. That is why he never mentioned his last name to me,” Lissa didn’t need to be in the same room as Poppy to know that she was most likely dramatically flapping her arm in the air like the penguins she took care of.

“Wait wait wait...you went on a date with Izzy Stradlin,” Lissa was attempting to connect the dots and understand Poppy met a rockstar.

“I guess..” Poppy mumbled back.

“What do you mean I guess. You didn’t recognize him from all of the magazines that have been littering the checkout counter at practically every grocery store ever since he left Guns N’ Roses? It was also all over the radio!” Poppy groaned at Lisa’s comment. She should have known. Izzy wasn’t a name like Mike or Mark where there are thousands of people walking around with that name. There were probably a handful of people named Izzy, if any at all. An Izzy in Indiana who is a quiet musician and has brown hair could only have been Izzy the rockstar.

“God I’m an awkward idiot…” Poppy once again mumbled. She wanted to slap herself silly.

“What else happened,” Lissa asked after a couple moments of silence.

“Well anyway, once the busboy pointed out that Izzy was a rockstar, things got awkward. The busboy left, and when the check came he didn’t even look over it. He just handed our waitress his credit card and told her to process it as soon as possible. It was clear that he wanted out,” Poopy’s heart sunk as she recalled the moment.

“How were you the awkward one?” Lissa asked, trying to follow Poppy’s questionable logic.

“I haven’t gotten to that part yet. So we start to leave the restaurant and I missed that he offered to take my hand. Then when we were outside the restaurant waiting for the valet to grab our cars, he offered for us to go and walk to a nearby gelato place that I mentioned during appetizers. The problem was that I already saw the valet driving towards us in my car, and it felt like he was doing it out of pity…so I said no. The whole drive home I was kicking myself!”

“Doesn’t sound too bad hun. Also, he might have just been trying to get out of the restaurant before everyone else recognized him. From what I’ve heard from interviews and stuff, he never was the one who wanted to be the center of attention. Poppy...getting gelato might have been because he didn’t want the date to end…” Lissa was trying to lift Poppy’s spirits by giving an alternate scenario, one that Lissa believed to be the real reason.

“You’re just stressing yourself over nothing,” Lissa added trying the break the silence once again.

“What do I do, Lissa.”

“Go to a music shop. Find his albums and buy them so you could listen to them. Worst case you case you could show up and get some music for your penguins to listen to…”

“I’m going to stand out like a sore thumb….”

“Poppy...you will not stand out in a music shop”

After 20 minutes of Lissa convincing Poppy to get dress and head to the music shop, Poppy found herself standing outside the music store. The closest one was in Lafayette which was a quick drive from her apartment. She took a deep breath before she walked in.

Poppy almost jumped when the bell on the door rang.

“Welcome to Halls Music Shop,” On the outside Poppy smiled and waved at the man who was working the register, internally she wanted to bolt out of the shop because she felt several eyes on her.

The first floor was filled with records and cassette tapes. Poppy wandered towards the section labeled rock as she was determined to find the record and quickly leave as soon as possible. She sighed as she quickly realized how large the rock section was, this wasn’t going to be as easy as she expected. She was under the assumption that there were two maybe three type of rock music; classic, punk, and heavy. There were 15, 15 type of rock.

“Hey, I’m Ryan! Are you looking for anything in particular?” A tall brunette pulled her out of her thoughts of trying to figure out which one of the types of rock Izzy’s band was.

“Yeah….umm...it’s called Guns N’ Roses,” Poppy sent Ryan a soft smile who sent it right back to her.

“Good choice! I saw them live a year ago, and it was insane. If you ever get the chance I would highly recommend seeing them live. It’s almost impossible to believe how insanely awesome their shows are,” Ryan said to Poppy remembering most of the night from the show. His ticket was worth every penny, and he was hoping they would add more tour dates soon.

“Cool, I had a friend recommend them to me. She said I’d like them,” Poppy replied trying to keep the conversation going. It wasn’t a complete lie, but it was a rehearsed one.

“You haven’t been listening to them? They’re the only thing everyone is talking about!”

Across the small store, Izzy stood on the second floor looking through their guitars for sale. Did he need one? No.

Was he looking to distract himself from his date last night? Yes.

Everything was going perfect in his book. He was playing all the moves that his old band mates had taught him. From being overly sweet like Duff to making her endlessly laugh like Steven. Then the damn busboy had to blow his cover. Granted he really didn’t have a cover, but he still hated the busboy. Once the busboy opened his stupid mouth. He knew the entire time all that was going through Poppy’s head was that Izzy was a rockstar with a rockstar lifestyle.

He shook his head before deciding to just pick up his new strings, and headed down the stairs to the checkout. He found this place within the first week of movie back, and was forever great fun for it.

As he headed down the stairs, he immediately saw the redhead. Unsure of what had taken over him, Izzy headed towards the rock section where he saw Poppy looking through cassettes.

“Hey Pops,” A smile grew on Poppy’s face as Izzy stood next to her pretending to look through some of the cassettes.

“Hey,” Poppy felt her heart rate immediately skyrocket when he got even closer to her.

‘Don’t be awkward. Just keep breathing. Maybe Lissa was right about overanalyzing this entire situation’ poppy mental told herself.

“Looking for anything in particular?” Izzy was slowly piecing the pieces to the puzzle that was Poppy’s brain.

“Well I’m obviously looking for the perfect album,” Poppy teased back as she continued to purposely search away from the Guns N’ Roses section. After a couple of seconds of perusing through, Poppy smiled when she found the perfect cassette to tease Izzy with.

“Ahh, here we go,” Poppy grabbed a Motley Crue cassette and proudly showed it to Izzy, earning a playful eye roll from the guitarist. Poppy didn’t know a lot about rock bands, but she knew about the tension between Axl Rose and Vince Neil. There was a solid month where that’s all the magazines that littered the grocery store checkout aisle talked about.

“Girls, Girls, Grils?” A smirk was present on Izzy lips when he spoke.

“Yeah! First off I’m a girl, so obviously this album is for me. Secondly, there is nothing hotter than guys on bikes. Lastly, these songs just speak to me,” Poppy said, attempting to hide her laughter.

“These songs speak to you? Ohh do tell!” Izzy asked, a smirk never leaving his lips.

“Well, the first song Wild Side...clearly as you can tell by just looking at me I have such a rambunctious side! Plus I have worked with wild animals.”

“Ohh I can see it now, you and your penguin sidekicks probably get in all sorts of trouble,” Poppy laughed at Izzy’s comment before continuing on with her explanation.

“Girls, Girls, Girls….self explanatory. The song is clearly written for me...a female,” this earned a chuckle from Izzy who knew that Poppy had clearly never listened to the song before.

Poppy felt the nerves vanish as Izzy laughed. She felt her cheeks and ears redden. She felt smaller against the tall guitarist.

“What about Dancing on Glass?” Izzy asked, breaking the silence between them.

“Well as an ex-ballerina I don’t not see the appeal to dancing on glass…”

“It is about Nikki’s, the guy who wrote the song, Heroin overdose, the shit he and his band went through to get to that point in time, and how he wouldn't go through that routine again. Like he said,"it's just like dancing on glass” Poppy nodded as Izzy briefly talked about the song.

“Did you write any songs?” A soft smile formed on Izzy’s lips as he headed over towards where the Guns N’ Roses cassettes were. Poppy put the Motley Crue cassette that she had no intention of buying back and followed him.

“One of the most popular songs I worked on with Guns was Sweet Child of mine. It was definitely one of those all hands on deck situations, but I provided most of the chords. The intro bit is 100% Slash’s warm up. Out Ta Get Me was another one I wrote. It’s a fun song to play,” Poppy quickly interrupted Izzy by teasily correcting him, “Out to get me….out ta get me isn’t proper English.”

“Well I’ll have you know I’m the only one in Guns to have a high school degree, so grammatical correctness wasn’t are highest concern,” Poppy simply giggles at his remark before he continued talking.

“Mr. Brownstone was another good one Slash and I wrote. It’s about what a day in the life of being a struggling LA band on the strip.” Poppy watched as sorrow grew on his face.

“What about Patience, that one doesn’t sound at all like a rock n roll song,” Poppy tried to distract him by bringing up another song on the cassette that she was holding. It was called G N’ R Lies, a rather odd name for a album, but she assumed they had some sound reasoning for it.

“It’s not really,” Poppy nodded her head at his comment. He then went completely silent looking at the cassettes, memories of both good times and bad flooding his head.

“Well, maybe you should play it for me sometime.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Poppy felt a soft smile across her lips as he replied.

“You have too many albums Izzy..you make it hard to choose just one,” Poppy teased, still trying to lighten his mood.

When that didn’t work, she snatched the cassette he was holding, “Hmm Appetite for Destruction sounds like the one for me.”

“Ohh so are you telling me you crave destruction?” Izzy finally spoke again, a smirk lingering on his features.

“I’m a biologist who studies dangerous animals for a living, I don’t just crave destruction. I control it,” The words were coming out faster than she could think. What she was saying felt silly, but when she looked back to Izzy who now had his arm wrapped around her wrist she didn’t regret the words one bit.

“I would trust penguins under the dangerous animals category,” Izzy smugly replied.

“What about polar bears or mountain lions?”

“Okay, those...those are dangerous,” he didn’t look at her when he responded, but a smile lingered on his face.

“Is that all for you then today?” Ryan asked as Izzy placed the guitar strings he needed to buy on the counter.

“And a cassette of Appetite,” Izzy offered his hand and Poppy placed the cassette in his hand.

“Buying your own albums now?” Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow towards the guitarist.

Izzy shrugged before handing the cashier his credit card. Once the transaction was done, Poppy immediately reached down to grab his hand, slowly stroking it with her thumb.

“Do you have any plans for the afternoon?”

Poppy shook her head no before following Izzy to his car. She was expecting some luxury sports car, but instead he drove a burnt red truck. She couldn’t explain why, but it fit him perfectly.

He put the cassette in, and drove back to his place with Poppy along for the ride. She by no means was a singer, but she was quick to pick up on the refrains.

“You know that the song ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ isn’t very welcoming. I do not feel welcome in whatever jungle y’all were in when you performed that, and I have been to many jungles...if I may add,” Poppy said once Welcome to the Jungle finished. This earned a small smile from Izzy who was surprised that listening to his old album wasn’t making him incredibly pissed off, he figured it was because of Poppy who was dancing and poorly singing next to him.

About half way through ‘It’s so Easy’ Poppy just started cracking up.

“What?”

“It’s nothing,” Poppy tried to hide her giggle as she spoke.

“Sounds like something,” Now Izzy was curious to see the red head’s opinion on the song.

“It’s so easy, when everyone is trying to please me!” Poppy jokingly sang, mocking the song. Was his band seriously that cocky?

“Mock all you want, but that song is inspired by the life we lived,” Poppy dialed back on the mocking and continued to jokingly dance in her seat, clearly earning stares from nearby cars.

By the time Nightrain came on Poppy was pretending to play guitar and drums. Izzy couldn’t help, but smile at the reaction she had to his music.

“Your place is beautiful,” Poppy said as they pulled up to what she assumed to be Izzy’s place. It wasn’t an extravagant LA mansion, but it was home. It was also was a huge fuck you to Axl, since they both talked about living in the house growing up.

“Thanks,” Izzy replied as he unlocked the door. He couldn’t have unlocked the door faster.

Once Poppy made it inside she practically felt herself slammed up against the now closed front door. She looked up to see Izzy, who wore a look that made her want to melt. Holy fuck he looked hot towering over her.

“So, is this how you welcome most guests?” Poppy asked, unable to look away from his eyes.

Even though it was no later than 3pm, the foyer in his house was dark. His face was partially hidden in the shadows, but she could still see the outline of his face and his deep hazel eyes that she swore changed color in the afternoon sun.

She expected him to taste like a mix of alcohol and cigarettes, but she was quickly proven wrong. He tasted like caramel. The type of warm Carmel that you would find in pie. It was calming, as she felt his fingers dance down her sides.

As if on reflex, Poppy intertwined her fingers in his hair. Her mind went blank, unable to focus on any single thing as she felt Izzy’s tongue in her mouth. Izzy began to slowly guide Poppy towards his couch with intentions that could only be described as those belonging to a rockstar.

#gnr fanfiction #gnr imagine #gnr fanfic #guns and roses imagine #guns and roses fanfic #guns and roses fanfiction #guns n roses fanfiction #guns n roses imagine #guns n roses fanfic #guns n’ roses fanfic #guns n’ roses imagine #guns n’ roses fanfiction #izzy stradlin fanfic #izzy stadlin fanfiction #izzy stradlin imagine

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automatedproduction · 1 year ago

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vimeo

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sourkrause94 · 5 years ago

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If you’re in the Purdue area, an EPICS team has put together a new PPE made from housing wrap that can be used to sew isolation gowns and scrub caps. They are looking for people to help cut materials daily and then home sewers to pick up packs of 10 to sew the PPE outfits at home. I just picked up a packet today and have set up shop in the apartment to put this PPE together. They are aiming to make 1000 sets, so if 100 people volunteer to each make a set, we’ll reach that goal quickly! If you’re in the Lafayette area and have a sewing machine, e-mail [email protected] to arrange picking up a set. If you can sew, but don’t have access to a machine, let me know and I may be able to lend you a machine from my department, I have to check with my adviser. If you can’t sew, but are handy with a pair of scissors, consider volunteering to cut material for shift. We can do this together. Bonus puppy for added comfort. . . . . . #sewunited @singersewingcompany #sewing #ppe #covidcrafts #staysafe #stayhome (at West Lafayette, Indiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_VAzx1ltmY/?igshid=1oug2xtzgqtkp

#sewunited #sewing #ppe #covidcrafts #staysafe #stayhome

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ahmeddocuments-blog · 4 years ago

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Day 5, (Paris: Downtown; Montmartre, Opera, Galeries Lafayette, L'église de la Madeleine, Bir Hakeim ), 29-9-2019

Written by Ahmed Hassan, edited and corrected by Aya Ashraf.

My day started with raindrops on the roof window right above me, waking me up after a nice day I spent earlier. Looked down the street to realize it’s gonna be a very rainy day. Pointing out the irony, that was the day I planned to do my laundry. There was a laundry place near Islem’s, so I prepared my stuff. Islem shared his washing machine detergent to allow me to save money, Went down and it was slightly raining, the spiral staircase at Islem’s had a window view on the train tracks.

Started doing laundry, which cost me around 6 Euros, including both washing and drying. I gotta say having a close self-service laundry place near home is something we really miss in Egypt. The whole experience isn’t that bad, I’ve literally left my clothes to be washed and went out to have breakfast and then I came back to find it almost done. Spent some time for it to be dry then took it all home.

Started my day from Gare du Nord, that’s where I made an amazing discovery! You can get your photos printed in printing machines inside the station, which I later discovered it’s all over Paris, and the picture literally costed me 0.25 euro only!

Took the metro to Anvers to visit Montmartre, started my visit by Sacré-Cœur, which is a beautiful basilica on the top of a hill looking over Paris. This beautiful place was featured in one of my favorite French movies to date; Amélie.

As climbing up there tends to be quite a tiring experience, the view later can always be as calming as it looks. I always do nothing except sitting on the stair up there, and just stare at this to catch my breath.

One of the things that I’ve always wanted to capture is the sinking building of Montmartre. As I shared earlier, the basilica is on a higher land. And accordingly if you tilted your phone to the right or left aligning with the up-going hill, the building will pretty much look like this:

Here’s something quite obvious about the basilica; It gets bigger and more beautifully detailed the more you’re getting closer. I always tend to spend some time getting a lot of photos of the executive exterior.

And as much as it had a beautiful exterior, entering the building feels different. The Interior ceiling is high with some beautiful natural light, allowing you to feel calm and enjoy the scene.

I didn’t stay there for long to avoid the crowds arriving, and instead, treated myself with some Montmartre street-walking. It is absolutely one of my favorite neighborhoods in Paris that truly captures a never-forgotten old city spirit.

Passing by some remarkable Montmartre landmarks like Le Consulat restaurant, which is an Iconic building that shapes most of the Montmartre pictures and paintings.

The neighborhood also contains a beautiful semi-spiral street showing the basilica in the background, leading the way to Buste de Dalida.

As an Egyptian, I’ve always been fascinated by Dalida. Her appreciation and devotion for the Egyptian culture, given the fact that she lived there for a while, didn’t make her any less French. She used to be a resident of Montmartre, and she’s memorized by a statue for her in the end of the above street.

And not very far from this place, her beautiful house is located.

The neighborhood also contains another location for another important residents; The Apartment of Theo Van Gogh, Vincent Van Gogh’s brother who always supported Vincent financially. This is also the place where Vincet Van Gogh stayed at in Paris. The two brothers shared an apartment on the third floor of this building from 1886 – 1888.

Last but not least, Moulin Rouge. One of the world's most famous Cabaret and show business venue, which has been running for more than a century.

I started moving from this neighborhood towards Galeries Lafayette via Metro. Galeries Lafayette is a very luxurious shopping mall right in front of the Paris Opera house, Palais Garnier. It contains most of the well known clothing brands with the latest fashion trends, all under one roof.

The mall features a free roof access to look at Pairs from a higher position, displaying a back view of the opera, Parisian buildings and Eiffel Tower in the horizon.

I proceeded to the opera entrance to get a shot of the Iconic golden figures featured at the building front, It’s obviously one of Paris’s fanciest neighborhoods.

I was originally heading to Le-Champs-Elysees, and on my way I was stopped by a very beautiful church, which I also wanted to visit the year before. L'église de la Madeleine is a church which was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army.

I entered and I was so lucky to find an ongoing choir for Mozart’s Requiem, performed by Nancy Ducale choir and orchestra. The echo caused by the choir singing is one of the indescribable feelings in the world, specially inside such a beautiful place like this one.

Here’s a preview of how it felt listening to that

youtube

I remember I stayed there for like 20 minutes listening to this ongoing act, before I started moving to downtown. I passed by the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the President of France. Passing through Le Champs-Élysées, I started to get hungry and headed for my first economy option, McDonald’s. Fun Fact: In France, McDonald’s serves not only French Fries, but also wedges. The Meal roughly costs 8 euros, and it was a way to treat myself on after an exhausting walking tour in Paris.

I was later joined by Mohamed near Arc de Triumph and started heading towards Bir Hakeim. I told him there’s a surprising scene that I really wanted him to experience. Part of Metro line 6 crosses over the Seine, revealing a very beautiful panoramic view of Eiffel tower.

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Leaving the station to capture Seine view near the bridge, couldn’t help but enjoy the symmetrical view of the bridge. It was wildly popular as it was featured in “Inception”

Pont Bir Hakeim is centered by La France Renaissante, a beautiful statue pointing towards the Seine, but when captured right, It can create a beautiful scene with Eiffel tower.

and since we were already on Île aux Cygnes, we took a walk literally in the middle of the river to reach one of the three versions of statue of liberty around Paris.

It was going really well until it started to rain heavily. I’ve never witnessed such heavy rains before my entire life. And Since no metro or bus stations were nearby due to the fact we’re isolated in the middle of the Seine, we had to walk under rain to the nearest bus station. And to make it worse, buses weren’t arriving on time so we stood there till a bus finally rescued us and luckily was heading towards Montmartre.

The rain stopped when we were on board, and we finally made it to Montmartre. I took some beautiful night shots for the Basilica and Moulin Rouge, then headed home.

I later jumped on the Metro and headed home to rest after that heavy rain and exhausting day around the city, Islem luckily offered to order Pizza for both of us, which I remember was really delicious! I ate it and Immediately felt the need to rest.

Day 103rd of quarantine: Containing your sanity with an ongoing repetitive patterns can easily make you go mad. Now I understand how scientists, authors and writers might perform really well when they’re isolated, but accordingly lose some of their sanity or the way they deal with life in general. I’m none of the above of course, I’m just a normal human being who’s disappointed of how I’m taking this. The worst thing about the COVID-19 isolation is leaving me to my thoughts and who I truly am. Everything I’m feeling when I’m alone is a reflection to thoughts I’ve always chose not to see, to hanging problems or issues I’ve always delayed for 29 years of my life.

Every past midnight thought is another reason for me to doubt, fix and learn. I’ve been doing these reflections for quite a while, tried fixing and confronting but that wasn’t easy. It took me some courage to understand the worst about myself, and the value I’m not recognizing at the same time.

I’m writing this on June 27th, 2020. I’m in the worst state of mind in months, and I’m trying to survive my own thoughts. The repetitive patterns are killing me.

I want to feel alive again.

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airariaira · 5 years ago

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Troisième - 12/02/20

It’s been more than a month, and holy heck time has truly flown. Yet somehow I feel like I have been here for a while, too. I’m feeling more settled and comfortable here in Troyes - I can get to and from school fine, and I don’t jump up with fright at every bus stop on the way home alone, worried about missing my stop! I couldn’t even imagine getting lost now. I feel confident enough to explore a bit more, and this afternoon I took a walk a little in town and along the Seine, because the weather was gorgeous. That was of course until i was 15 minutes away from home and the wind picked up, then suddenly there was needles of rain soaking through my jacket and my bag and my jeans. Honestly, I felt very personally attacked by the weather at that point. On a day that only a few hours earlier had looked like this from my window?:

It was so gorgeous outside with my window open, I could hear the traffic and the birds and the breeze - the air coming in was a little cold, but in that nice fresh winter way. I couldn’t possibly not go outside. So, after my two hours of school this morning (Philosophy and English Literature), I decided to go on a little walk exploring:

^A padlock fence I saw while walking along the river

^This is one of the ol chimneys from the 19th-century factories in Troyes. Troyes has been a city famous for producing clothing and goods for hundreds of years, and you can see these bad boys pop up all around. I also met some cute new friends:

So what if these new friends are paintings of cats on the streets? This is MY blong, you’re not allowed to judge me.

Since my last blog post, a fair amount has happened, I’ll catch you all up... Which won’t be too hard for me to do, seeing as I started writing a travel diary to keep up to date with what I’ve been doing - unlike Mr Alex Gasson it seems, as he wrote in his blog (which, by the way, you can find on this link here) Lets go all the way back to Saturday the 26th of January, the morning of which I wrote my last blog post. That afternoon we took a trip out to my host family’s house by the lake (called La Lac d’Orient) in the pretty, historic village of Géraudot only a little while away from Troyes. We went for a walk around the nearby forest, which was gorgeous. We heard a woodpecker, too.

The lake is man-made, not natural, and is where water from the Seine is redirected to avoid flooding out Paris each year. On the shore, there’s a small plastic path down to the water to make the lake more accessible for those with disabilities. I thought that was good, I’m surprised I’ve never seen anythign like it before.

Following the walk, we went back to the house for a coffee and a board game. That evening on the way back to the city, we stopped by the outlet store shopping centre. I found a little bit of home there...

(I pinkie promise that the bag has gifts in it! For other people!) Sunday the 26th was a slightly warmer day, which I suppose was a bit of a last hurrah, because the forcast for the following week was not so good. On that day I went out with my host mother Marie, we went to another museum. This is in a building called Hôtel de Vauluisant, which houses both the Musée d’Art Champenois, and the Musée de la Bonneterie. The art section was so phenomenally beautiful - filled with old paintings and sculptures and stained glass from the many many churches in Troyes. The section on Troyes’ factory and bonneterie history had many machines from the early factories of the city. This is the area outside of the building:

After that, we went to a beautiful church just across the road from the museum. The inside of the church took me aback for two reasons. One, because if was so incredibly beautiful inside, filled to abundance with enormous paintings, sculptures, and flowers. Two, because it was so freaking cold inside. I coud see my breath cloud out probabaly more dramatically than it has during any winter commute to school in New Zealand. That said though, it was definitely worth the visit. I never knew churches could be so decked-out in beautiful things. I don’t think a picture could capture how pretty it was, but here you go anyway:

Monday the 27th was a pretty standard French school day. I ended up with a bit of a migraine so had a quiet day. That evening we (my host siblings Lola and Antoine, and my host mother Marie) did some English revision for Antoine’s upcoming English exam, which was fun. Tuesday the following day was another good school day. I had a lot of free hours, so I went into town for a while. Wednesday was of course my short day. That afternoon I went out with two new friends, Cheyenne and Alicia, to the museum and town. It was good fun! Cheyenne and I at the museum:

The weekend of the 1st/2nd was good. On Sunday in the afternoon we went bowling. The cousin of my host siblings, who’s from Boston and living in Paris for a year, came and joined us. Her name is Noa, and she stayed from Sunday to Wednesday to celebrate her birthday. On Monday I finally handed out the rest of my New Zealand souvenirs in my English class. At lunchtime I sat with Juliette and some others. Juliette lived in Christchurch for a year a little while ago! Tuesday the 4th was Noa’s birthday. School was interesting, with lots of free periods spaced out throughout the day (awkward timing!) We couldn’t find a spare classroom for French Literature which was weird?? That evening, we celebrated Noa’s birthday with raclette and then cake. On Wednesday she left back for Paris - I wonder if one day we’ll meet again in this big old world? That evening I went wandering around town with Marie for a while again, and I got a photo in front of the famous Cœur de Troyes:

It lights up at night and the red light beats like a heart. I’ll be interested to see how many couples will be taking their pictures in front of it on Friday for Valentine’s Day! Last Friday I walked to the bus stop with a new appreciation for how pretty the city is. I start school at 9, so get to see the way the morning sun hits the old buildings so beautifully. The sky was so blue and the light so nice, I don’t know if a camera could capture it quite so perfectly:

And on Saturday the 8th... Paris!!! I travelled over with my host sister Lola, and we met Marie there. The day seemed to last for so long while it was happening, but somehow I found myself suddenly sitting on the train back to Troyes again. Now, it feels like it went by so fast. We started with the Tour Eiffel, naturally, where I took a video - and unintentionally caught someone proposing! Everything there was so big and old and impressive - it sumultaneously felt surreal, and like it was exactly where I was meant to be.

Following the Eiffel Tower, we took a short cruise on the Seine on the Bateau Mouches to sightsee a little bit. It was so bitterly cold and windy on the water, but the sculptures and cuildings and bridges were pretty enough to make up for it. Here’s a picture of a scaled-down model of the Statue of Liberty, and the Eiffel Tower in the same frame:

After lunch, we had our little indulgence in consumerism by going to the Galleries Lafayette, where all the expensive brands and rich are piled into one big, pretty shopping centre. It was sparkly and dazzling, and I don’t think I’ve every been surrounded by so many expensive things in my life before. It smelled like money and every kind of perfume all at once. Just how Jay Gatsby would have liked it. Here’s me on the roof:

It was such a long way down! After that, we went to the Arc de Triomphe. It’s so incredibly huge in person. It was wonderful to see all of the avenues surrounding me while on the roof (getting rained on... am I making a habit of that?) The rain didn’t drain my spirits, however. It was so cool to admire the bustle of Parisian life happening all below me.

The view from the top:

(I think the stairs were worth it... I’m not sure what the other two think though... 🤔)

I was so tired after that big day that on the train ride back home I just stared into space for the entire hour and a half! Throughout the day, I kept waiting for one of those slack-jawed tourist moments to hit me, a feeling of helpless amazement when I looked at some monument or the like. But it didn’t - perhaps I’m just better at enjoying travel in a slow, contented kind of way. The rain in Paris on Saturday would prove to be the beginning of a storm that would last a few days. On Monday the 10thI was very happy to be sitting inside, writing my travel diary, rather than outside in that rain and wind I could hear against the roof and walls. All in all, I’ve been really enjoying my time on exchange. Sometimes I do truly feel a little out of my depth - like I’m wasting my time here is I speak much English, but I just can’t always articulate myself fully in French. Sometimes I feel a little out of place and behind when I’m around my peers and they’re speaking such rapic French. However, it does get easier each day. I feel happy and comfortable here.

Here’s some more photos, just so I can flex on my people back in New Zealand about how pretty this city is...

^A fountain the bus goes past each day, taken on one of the rare occasions that the bus isn’t packed to the brim and I manage to grab a seat!

^A pretty sculpture in town

^A church with a gorgeous roof that’s just behind the house

^Some more pretty houses (gosh I must look like such a weirdo taking pictures of all these buildings)

^A pretty street in pretty afternoon light

^A very ~zenn~ little square nestled in buildings in town

Aaand last but not least...

A prime example of the memes and doodles that are copied onto the blackboard during recreation. (Shh - don’t tell the teacher who drew what!) Until next time!

#france #student exchange #troyes #france exchange #nziiu #nziiu ambassador #nziiustudentexchange #aria in france

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takecareofyourblessings · 5 years ago

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Without Comment

The S2 is the so-called Avenue of the Presidents bus because its route is the handsome and seductive 16th Street corridor. The S2 travels from downtown Pennsylvania Avenue to Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburban town that borders D.C. at its northern edge.

The ridership of the S2 is black, white, and variously ethnic. Hispanics, West Africans, and Caribbean passengers, as well as other nationals, diversify the sophisticated commuter ambiance. Newspapers, books, and quiet conversations are standard as the S2 speeds its way to Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, the gold Coast, the end of the line, and back again.

Sixteenth Street-- lined with embassies, churches, respectable homes, and majestic trees swaying overhead from Lafayette Park to Silver Spring--this undulating, rolling hill climbs and descends with deceptive grace. At its side, in the middle of a Black gay ghetto called Homo heights, sits the once glorious, mystical park called Malcolm X by Black cultural nationalists, although its official name is Meridian Hill. At dusk it becomes a Black gay cruising ground, while during the day it serves as one of th city’s open air drug markets.

Vandalism and graffiti now mar its classic beauty like brutal knife wounds that have become keloids. The shrubbery has been hacked down in an effort to prevent crimes that still occur. The once green grounds are bald and littered with used condoms and assorted trash. Decay and decline exist here. Gloom and danger are ever present in the piss-stained air, air that is often thick with marijuana smoke and always filled with the hawker’s cry of drug dealers. And although children romp and wrestle on these grounds, and soccer players kick the game ball back and forth, the men appear who cannot contain their loneliness till dusk. They are not zombies. Their eyes are luminous with enormous, living hungers, but no one seems to notice except those of their kind. FOr Black gay men, this park, elegantly appointed with gushing fountains, grand stairways, moonlit plazas, and statues of Dante and Joan of Arc--for Black men seeking the kisses of one another, Malcolm X/Meridian Hill Park is now nothing more than a tomb of sorrow.

I remember taking the S2 home one evening, a Sunday, in fact. I had taken the X2 from H Street, N.E. to 14th and H downtown, where I transferred and waited for the S. From the corner of 14th and H you can view the warscape of AIDS and the remains of the casual sex zones reduced to rubble by the aggressive development of downtown. It is interesting to observe now, postmodern office buildings rise on soil where the seed of gay men was once spilled with reckless abandon.

Ten years ago this corner was a sexual crossroads. On either side of 14th Street, from H to I, there once stood thriving porn shops, movie galleries, and nude dance clubs. A block east of 14th, on 13th Street, the raunchy Black gay club, the Brass Rail, was bulging out of its jockstrap. Drag queens ruled, B-boys chased giddy government workers, fast-talking hustlers worked the floor, while sugar daddies panted for attention in the shadows, offering free drinks and money to any friendly trade. Everybody was seeking a sex machine. White folks were sneaking in for their “Black-dick-fix.” Sometimes the dose was fatal:Robbery. Murder. The pulsing music always throbbed like an insatiate erection.

A block north of the Brass Rail, Franklin Park was a soft cruise spot primarily because it borders K Street, 14th and 13th Streets offering too much visibility for most. But east of its lower end, bordering I Street, on the 13th Street corner, stood the notorious Curiosity Bookshop, complete the back room, movie booths, garish red lights, gusts of heavy breathing, and the popping noise of greased dicks pumping in and out of tight holes. The creaking floorboards were aging with semen and sighs. Every now and then you’d hear a man hiss, “Work that pussy, bitch,” as clusters of panting men gathered to watch an ass being fucked.

At the most historic spot downtown, where, on the corner of 14th and H, one could watch the parade of flesh all summer long, the quest for the perfect abuse was keen. Now the area is almost desolate of nightlife, the players scattered, the seekers scared to venture out.

I wait for my bus. Shortly before it arrives, two Black men cruise by. They appear to be in their thirties-forties. The shorter, stockier, fair-skinned, clean-shaven Homeboy has his arm thrown around the shoulders of the slightly taller, slender, darker daddy. The tall man is obviously older, mustached, and somewhat attractive. Homeboy carries a hustler’s air about him. They swagger by, slightly drunk and horny. I am surprised when a few stops later they board the bus and sit at the back.

The bus crosses K Street and continues up 16th without incident. The seats fill quickly. By the time we cross P Street standing room is all that’s available. A murmur begins to rise from the back of the bus. It explodes into a startling confrontation.

“You my bitch!”

“No! Uh Uh. We are bitches!”

“No! You listen here. I ain’t wearing lipstick, you are! I ain’t no bitch! I fucked you! You my bitch!”

This argument continues without resolution until we arrive at 16th and U Streets. The bus is packed with passengers, and as we approach the stop, I see ten more waiting to board. Just as the first person at the stop steps aboard, a strident, hysterical voice cuts loose from the back:

“I’m a 45-year-old-Black-gay-man who en-joys taking dick in his rectum!” SNAP! “I’[m not your bitch!” SNAP! “Your bitch is at home with your kids!” SNAP! SNAP!

We are entering the fifth dimension of our sexual consciousness. THe ride is rough. There is no jelly for this. The driver is trying to call the police on the bus phone. No one has said anything. No one else attempts to board.

The air is charged with tensions unleashed from an ancient box of sexual secrets. The older man abruptly leaves by the back door. Homeboy follows. They have violent words outside. The children sitting at the front are wide-eyed and speechless. All the homosexuals on the bus have frozen. So have I. The driver is frantically calling the police. The older man suddenly pushes aborad wielding a Flash Pass with Homeboy in hot pursuit. The driver drops the phone and jumps between them. Homeboy pulls out a knife and waves it toward his companion.

“You gonna pay for this dick!” he sneers.

“I ain’t paying for that tame shit!”

The children’s heads snap back and forth during the ensuing shouting match as though they are watching a Ping Pong tournament and not two grown Black men giving high drama. In a stern voice the driver orders Homeboy to leave the bus. He backs down the steps, waving his blade, threatening to catch the Black gay man on the street and make him pay dearly for the dick he got. Homeboy is last seen stalking east on U Street with his glinting knife clenched in hand.

The bus pulls off and begins to climb 16th Street. Every homosexual on the bus is still frozen. So am I. The police never arrived. The children are quiet for the reminder of their journeys. So am I. Occasionally, a very nervous, a very terrified schoolboy laughs out loud then subsides into silence. The 45-year-old-Black-gay-man who enjoys taking dick in his rectum rides the rest of the way without further incident. At the back of the bus he sits--his legs crossed at the knee.

#Essex Hemphill #black poetry #ceremonies #takecareofyourblessings

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jumpingjackets · 6 years ago

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the spot (alexander hamilton x elizabeth schuyler)

Prompt:

Lafayette makes Alexander Hamilton an online dating profile. Angelica Schuyler does the same for Elizabeth Schuyler. They cross paths.

Word Count: 1255

A/N: I rarely see Hamliza fics, and I am here to provide because I love them. Hope u enjoy, my sweets.

“I just don’t see the point, Laf,” an exhausted Alexander told his friend, who was currently entranced in his laptop. “It never leads to anything.”

“Nonsense, Alexander. I refuse to continue sit around while you mope about being alone,” said a muffled French voice, vigorously typing away.

“I’m gonna go on one date with someone who will either A. only be looking for an easy hookup or B. end up being a notorious serial killer who will store my liver next to a pumpkin pie, and I’d love to avoid that last one.”

“You are maddening sometimes, Alexander,” Lafayette said in French.

“Are you done or will it take another hour?” Alexander sighed, rolling on his back on his bed.

“Just about done.” Lafayette replied, moving the laptop for his friend to see his work, “Just need questions from you.”

“Fine, shoot.” He said with a sigh.

“About how long do you want your relationship to last?” Lafayette didn’t look up from his computer.

“I would prefer the rest of my life,” Alexander said truthfully. He heard his friend clicking the mouse pad.

“Which word best describes you, carefree or intense?”

“Both, I would say.”

“How important is religion slash God in your life?”

“Somewhat important,” he said, and got up, “I’m gonna get something to drink, do you want anything?”

Lafayette took the computer and headed down with his friend to his kitchen. He continued to ask another series of questions until it was finally time.

“Okay, we’re done. Look.” Lafayette said, turning the laptop around to where Alexander was standing.

Alexander looked down as he took a sip. He scanned the entire page.

24. Male. Bisexual. Single. 5’7”. Some cheesy self-summary.

“You even put my weight here. Good lord.”

“You’ll find someone in no time, mon cher. Trust me, I made your profile.” Lafayette said, winking at his friend.

“Oh, you French little shit.” Alexander said, smiling. “I can’t believe you made me do this.”

“Oh, boohoo, I’m getting you laid. What a ‘orrible friend I am.” Lafayette feigned distraught, a hand to his forehead and everything.

“Alright, alright, and how do I message people?” Lafayette stood up, walked over the counter and stood beside his friend.

“Okay, so you go to these profiles. Here,” He pointed at some percentages at the top of someone’s profile, “This tells you how compatible you are to them based on the answers you gave before, like for example. You aren’t very compatible with this person, which is why it says ‘80% enemy’.” He finished explaining.

“He probably had a small dick anyways,” Alexander said, winking at his friend and sipping on his mug. Lafayette laughed.

“Okay, we’ll come back to this later when the messages start rolling in.” Lafayette said, walking back up to Alexander’s room.

After hours of talking, laughing and spending time together, Lafayette was set to leave for his home.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, mon lapin, and don’t forget to check your messages!” The French man waved as he walked to his car. Alexander blew him a kiss, and shut the door to his house.

Scratching the back of his neck, he reluctantly opened his laptop at the kitchen counter and sat down. He refreshed the page on where they left it previously, and it seemed like he had five new matches from other people.

He clicked on the first profile. It was a young man, with a ‘75% match’ next to his name, but some of the answers he gave where too big of deal breakers.

The next, another man, older this time. 82% match. He’ll sit on it. Onto the next.

A beautiful woman, about his age. Bisexual as well.

“97% match,” Alexander read out loud, clicking on the woman’s pictures.

She was definitely beautiful. There weren’t many pictures, but there was one with the woman in a coffee shop uniform, smiling over a coffee cup. Another picture she was with two other women, all of them hugging and laughing. Another was an adorable selfie with those cute filters everyone uses.

Alexander clicked on the messenger icon in her profile and typed a quick hello message, before deleting it. She probably gets millions of ‘hello’s and he wasn’t about to be swept aside by this Elizabeth.

‘Hello, Elizabeth! You said in your profile that you enjoyed poetry, do you write it or like reading it?’

He sounded it out a few times, before he added an ‘x’ at the end for good measure.

He saw the other two profiles, a cute freckled guy who Alexander also messaged, and another girl, and he shut down his computer and closed it.

He grabbed his computer and went up to his room, opened it again, and saw that he already had a message from the woman he liked first. He placed the laptop on his bed and read.

‘Hello, Alexander. I love to do both, I think poetry is such a beautiful art. Do you like poetry as well?’

Alexander smiled, and began writing his response.

He had planned on catching up on schoolwork that night, but he found himself refreshing the message window countless times as he exchanged messages with Elizabeth. He kept it up until it was dark outside. He had enjoyed his conversation so much that he thought through his last message.

‘Hey, listen, I’m about to head to bed. Are you free tomorrow?’

He yawned, exhausted from the day to day struggles of Alexander Hamilton, and waited a minute until he refreshed the page again.

‘I am :)’

‘want to grab coffee tomorrow with me?’

‘I would like that, Alexander. how about The Spot at 3?’

‘sounds good! see you there x’

‘bye x’

And with that, Alexander got up with a smile and headed to the shower, then afterwards crashed into his bed and slept.

He woke up later than usual, which is not something he was happy with. Groaning, he groggily walked to his kitchen, got the coffee machine started and headed to his shower. He took a quick glance at the time on his phone, which read 2 in the afternoon.

The Spot was about 10 minutes from his house, so he wasn’t really worried. He got out of the shower, dressed in his usual coffee date attire, and headed out. When he got to The Spot, a little coffee shop just a few blocks from his house, he sat down at a booth by the window. Looking around, it’s a cute shop. Heavily trendy, bearably hipster. Just as he was about to order ahead of time, a woman approached him

“Alexander?” She said, clutching onto a purse.

“Elizabet?” He said with a smile. She seemed to smile back.

“Please, everyone calls me Eliza,” She said, sitting down. “Oh, gosh, am I late?”

“Not at all, I was early.” He responded, which calmed her down. Her shoulders untensed and she shot him a warm smile.

“I’m very new to this, I’m sorry.” She said, setting her purse to the side.

“Online dating or dates in general?” He asked, sitting up straight to look at her directly.

“Dating in general,” She laughed, “But online dating is a new for me too. My sister insisted.”

“I know how you feel. My friend bursts into my house one day proclaiming that I was going to make an online dating account.” He said, standing up. “What type of coffee will you have?”

“Oh, um, a black coffee with two sugars, please.” She said in a sweet voice.

“My type of girl.”

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thenonsenseuniverse · 7 years ago

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Coffee Cups & Leather Jackets pt 4

Hamilton Modern Au Thomas Jefferson x Reader Hamilsquad x Reader PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 4, PART 5 , PART 6, PART 7 Summary: The squad begins to worry as the weekend passes and they still don’t hear any news from you. However, as Monday comes, it means it’s time to return to reality, and for Y/N that means going back to work and facing the boys.

All four members of the Hamilsquad winced at the sound of the door slamming behind you. None of them dared to move from their spot for a solid 2 minutes. It was as if they were waiting for you to come back.

“They’re not coming back, are they?” John muttered, starring at the spot where you once stood.

“Shit,” Alex whispered quietly at first before his face paled with distress. “Shit! We fucked up guys! We fucked up really bad. Tonight was supposed to be a fun night! We were all supposed to laugh and celebrate, not tear each other part. Oh my god, what have we done?”

Hercules placed a hand on his shoulder, and gently lead him to the couch so that he could sit. “We know, Alex. Calm down, we’ll figure something out.”

“Non.” Lafayette breathed as he sat down beside Hamilton. “ ‘e is right. We ignored d’em for two months. D’ey said d’ey were done, and I t��ink d’at d’ey meant it.”

John groaned and sat down on the floor in front of the couch. “If we could just get them to listen! This all just one big misunderstanding. I’m going to call, and try to explain everything.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket but was stopped by Herc snatching it from him.

“No, they need space. We need to give them tonight at least to cool down, and then we can reach out in the morning. We owe them that much.” The tailor smiled at them optimistically. “Things will turn out alright again, we just need to wait. You’ll see, we can work this whole thing out tomorrow.”

Laurens sighed as he flipped the sign open sign for the coffee shop. He glanced at the clock as he walked back over to the guys. You were supposed to be here any minute now. “Do you think they’ll actually come?” He asked as he sat down on one of the bar stools.

Lafayette shrugged as he pressed all the necessary buttons to turn on the various coffee machines. “Je ne sais pas. D’ey are scheduled for today, but I ‘aven’t ‘eard from d’em all weekend.” He paused in thought. “I am worried about d’em.”

Alex scoffed as he threw back one of his four daily espressos. “Well, I say good riddance. They don’t care enough to listen to our side of the story, why should we care about them?” Even though he tried his best not to show it, everyone could tell that he didn’t mean a single word he had just said. The pain that was laced behind those words was too raw for it to be true.

Hercules shook his head and counted out the morning float. “Come on, man. They have every reason to be mad at us. We screwed up. We basically shunned them for two whole months. We could’ve at least popped in once a week to say ‘hi’, or made some plans after work, but we didn’t. Now we have to pay the price.”

Hamilton didn’t say anything in response. He only swallowed down another one of his espressos before beginning his cleaning routine for the shop. They all continued the way they would every other morning, only much quieter. As time passed, they continued waiting for your arrival. Even though you were now half an hour late, they all had hope that you were just stuck in traffic, or that the stormy weather outside had slowed you down. But there was still no sign of you.

As the doorbell jingled, signaling the coming of another customer, Herc sighed from his place behind the counter and turned to face them. “Welcome to 1776, how can I help you to-” He stopped midsentence as he realized who he was talking to. “Y/N?!”

There was no doubt that it was you standing in front of him, however, he was shocked to see that you had changed. Instead of your normal colorful outfits with playful prints, you were dressed more elegantly. You had on black jeans, that were rolled up past your ankles. An ivory colored, v-neck shirt was only half tucked into the pants, as the other hung loosely by your side. It was all covered by a long, cream-colored coat, that had a single black button for if you decided to close it. On top of all of that, it seemed that you had also dyed and styled your hair to be more modern.

It wasn’t your appearance that threw them all off, however. It was the ice cold stare you were giving them, along with the distant aurora around you. You only rose an eyebrow in response to them before heading to the staff room to switch your jacket for your apron.

John pointed to the door with a frown. “Is it just me, or did a Y/N, that absolutely did not seem like Y/N just come in?”

As if to answer their question, you walked through the room towards the kitchen. “I’ll be b-baking.” You claimed as you went to do your job. But your voice lacked any of the emotion that it usually did. They waited until they could hear music playing before continuing their discussion.

“I am...Confused.” Lafayette stated causing Alex to snort as he wiped down tables.

“You’re not the only one, Laf. That was not our Y/N. Our Y/N is constantly smiling and wears silly colors and shit. They were always joking around with us and hanging out here with us during the morning shift. There is no way that’s them.”

Herc looked at the kitchen with a pained expression. “Their stutter’s back.” All the other guys fell quiet as he pointed out the small, but important fact. “They’re stuttering around us again.”

John groaned and placed his order pad on the counter. “Okay, something’s up. I’m going to go talk to them, see if I can straighten this whole thing out. Maybe I can get them to hear our side of things.”

When Laurens walked into the kitchen you were already beginning to fold the dough for a fresh batch of croissants. He smiled as he remembered the day that they had finally convinced you to join their team of baristas. You were hesitant at first because you didn’t want to interact with strangers. But one day when you had the squad over for dinner, you gave them some homemade cookies, and after that, they basically begged you to bake sweets for the cafe. You had been apart of their daily routine ever since.

“Hey, Y/N.” John greeted with a smile as he closed the door behind him. You looked over your shoulder at him but said nothing. “I... um... I like your haircut.”

You felt your heart scream at you to hug him, or tell him it’s okay, or anything, but you had to remember Thomas’ training. These boys don’t want you. They were only using you. You sighed and turned to face him. “What do you want John? I’m trying to work.”

He held his hands up in defense at the sharpness of your voice. “I didn’t come in here to fight. I just wanted to talk, you seem...different.”

You scoffed and turned back to your dough. “Oh, d-do I? Are you sure th-that I didn’t j-just change during th-the two months wh-where I apparently didn’t exi-exist?”

John quickly went over to your side in an attempt to get your attention. “Y/N, please. We are so so sorry for what we did to you. But you have to believe me, that it’s not what you think. It’s-”

You closed your eyes in frustration and threw the ball of dough into a bowl. “Please, I don’t want to hear it. I had a really hard time this weekend, and I just want to forget about it all.” You grabbed some flour to start on a new batch of cookies, as you heard the doorbell chime. “You have customer, you need to get back to work.” You finished coolly.

Lauren’s mournfully nodded and left you to do your work. He walked over to Lafayette to help him prepare orders for the customers that were beginning to come in. The french glanced at him and frowned. “I take it d’at it did not go well?” John shook his head, causing Laf to sigh. “We will ‘ave to try again tomorrow. We ‘ave to believe d’at we can get d’em back.”

The rest of the day went by agonizingly slow and was filled with longing glances towards the kitchen. You only left your workspace to re-fill the sweet racks and did a minimum amount of talking with the boys. It was hard, and a part of you just wanted to cave in an forgive them. At those moments you thought of Thomas and knew that you were doing the right thing.

Five minutes before closing, the door rang once again, and Alex groaned when he saw who it was. Thomas Jefferson. He wanted nothing more than to go up to him and tell him to get the hell out. That and rip a hole in that tacky magenta leather jacket of his. But he knew he had to keep his cool if he wanted to keep his job.

Jefferson walked up to the cash and grinned at Hercules. The man glared at him. “What can I help you with?” He gritted out. All of the Hamilsquad, excluding Lafayette, hated this man. He was always sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, and although no one knew exactly what it was, they knew he was up to something at all times.

“Now Hercules, is that any way to talk to a paying customer?” Herc clenched his teeth at the rich man's tone. Lafayette quickly intervened and took over Mulligan's post before a fight could break out.

“What can I ‘elp you with, mon ami?”

Jefferson looked up at the menu and nodded. “I’ll take a tall, non-fat, latte with caramel drizzle. Oh! And a tall, iced, white chocolate mocha with two pumps of cinnamon dolce syrup.”

Each of the boys frowned at the second order. That was your coffee order. It didn’t matter if it was -40 out, you would always get your iced white chocolate mocha. When Alex first saw Jefferson here, he was angry. He thought that he was only here to mock and tease him. But now he was suspicious. Lafayette nodded and wrote the names onto the cups before handing them to Hercules to make.

Thomas leaned against the counter and played with his phone as he waited for the drinks. For the first time that day, you walked out of the kitchen without a tray of sweets in your hands. The squad watched in confusion as you marched up to Jefferson with confidence. You stood in front of him and glared up at him as you crossed your arms over your chest. “What are you d-doing here, J-Jefferson?” The boy's eyes widened at the snarl in your tone.

Jefferson looked down at you with an unimpressed look for a solid minute, before cracking into a grin, and ruffling your hair. “I have to admit, that one was pretty good. We just got a work on that stutter of yours.”

You pouted, threw your arms by your side. “I c-can’t help it! I swear I-I’m cursed or s-something.” Thomas laughed again.

The squad stared at the two in shock. You had barely said a word to them all day, and when you did it was extremely cold hearted. But then Thomas Fucking Jefferson walks in, and suddenly you’re back to your normal self. “I’m sorry,” Alex interrupted with a confused chuckle. “But how do you two know each other.”

The cheerful energy around you was gone in a flash, and you opened your mouth to reply, but Thomas beat you to it. “Y/N and I are close friends. “

John laughed loudly at this and came to Alexander’s side. “Oh, that’s funny. Yeah, no. I’m pretty sure we would’ve known if our best friend was speaking with the likes of you.”

You sarcastically gasped at looked up at Jefferson. “You hear th-that, Tommy! Suddenly I-I’m their b-best friend again.”

He smirked at your sarcasm and mentally congratulated himself on training you so well. “Is that so? Last I checked they had thrown you to the curb like you were trash.” Although his words were more directed to the boys than they were to you, they still hurt.

Hercules growled and stepped forward. “Look, we never meant to hurt you. It’s all just one big misunderstanding-”

“That lasted two months?” Thomas scoffed and wrapped one of his arms around your shoulders. “I find that unlikely. Lafayette silently slid the two coffees across the counter. There was anger in his eyes, but he knew better than to go up against Thomas. He knew what Jefferson’s business was, and he didn’t want to be caught on the bad side of it. Jefferson passed you your coffee and gestured for you to go grab your coat.

Once you left the room, he stared down the squad with unmasked glee. “Y'all screwed up by letting them go. Y/N is an amazing ally to have, but from what I can tell you wouldn’t want to be their enemy.”

Hamilton snarled at him and passed John his mop. He stormed over Thomas and grabbed his jacket to pull him down to his height. “Now you listen here, you obnoxious, self-centered prick. I don’t know what lies you’ve been feeding them, but I am not about to let you steal our friend away from us.”

Thomas smirked at him and pushed him away. “I can’t steal what’s not yours. You four lost them all on your own.” He wound his arm around you as you came back, and walked towards the door. He gave the squad one final mocking wave before taking Y/N and leaving.

Once again the boys found themselves staring at a door you had just walked out of.

“Shit.”

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spellucci · 3 years ago

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It’s Prep O’Clock

Saturday, September 18, 2021

Planning for our long-awaited trip has reached a fever pitch. All the projects, rearrangements, new gear, shopping, packing, and fine tuning is finally under way. Whoopee!

The Grand Plan™ is to leave for Glenn and Jeanne's in Lafayette, CO on Monday. From there, we will head with them to Mule Canyon, UT and explore the wilderness there for several days with Native American ruins, petroglyphs, and more. Then we rejoin civilization at the Albuquerque (NM) International Balloon Festival for a few days to watch more than 500 hot air balloons festoon the sky. Rumors abound that after that we will head off to Antelope Slot Canyon, UT, which the Jeannes have heard of, but the Tims have not. Finally we will say goodbye to Glenn and Jeanne, and join friends Frank and Kelly for a four-wheel-drive meetup in Arkansas called Rendezvous in the Ozarks.

Today’s projects range from the domestic, like restocking (paper towels, shampoo, spices, and don't mix them up), to the more ambitious.

Tim had learned from the Storyteller Overland (our brand of motor home) Facebook group that many of the electrical systems can be powered directly via the battery, rather than from the DC-to-AC inverter. Leaving the inverter on drains the battery in two days. Leaving it off has promise, but we need to charge phones and run our CPAP machines overnight. Jeanne to the rescue: she found a quality portable inverter that will draw much less current than the one in the rig's electrical cabinet. We mounted it on the wall where it can draw DC power directly, and power our appliances at night. Stay tuned to this channel to find out how we make out with it.

On a past trip, our port-a-potty got dropped and cracked. Repairs slowed but did not stop the leak. We bought a replacement, somewhat larger, which required some shimming of the cabinet where the port-a-potty resides. And of course, our crack QA department subjected it to a rigorous test. It worked.

Also on our last trip, our brand new roof top carry bag let in a bunch of water, we believe through the zippers. We unloaded it, dried things out, reconfigured it to be 90 degrees from how it was before, and reloaded it.

Finally, Jeanne took a pass through all the cabinets and pruned everything we didn't need. A dozen extra wash rags? Put them in the house. Two jars of mustard powder? Combine them. Travel books for Maine? Put them away for next year. We don’t need 4 dishcloths. Where is Tim’s backpack? Right, Mike borrowed it. That plastic bin that we don’t need for the fridge will be perfect for holding toilet paper. Refill the dishwashing soap. Have you got any more quarters for laundry?

Now all we need are clothes and food. That’s a well-polished list. We will be able to leave tomorrow.

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legrandepapillon · 6 years ago

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The Not-So-Secret-Santa (pegtha)

Summary: When one has the trademark loudmouths, Thomas Jefferson, Hercules Mulligan, and Alexander Hamilton, in on a game that requires secretiveness… let’s just say, things don’t go as planned. Prompt: Secret Santa Beginning Notes: more christmas gays!

When Angelica Schuyler walked into the coffee shop her group of friends─and little sisters─frequented, she commanded attention. Especially judging from the way a scowl painted her gorgeous features, and her eyes seemed narrowed into thin, angry slits. Now, it may just be James Madison’s imagination playing tricks on him, but the young man is almost a thousand percent sure that the entire─extremely busy, what with it being colder than a well digger’s ass outside─coffee shop goes silent when she enters.

“Angelica!” Eliza says, looking up from where she’d been texting Alexander─who, out of their merry band of friends, was the only one not in attendance─and waving her sister over. “Over here!”

Angelica maneuvers her way through the crowd of people─but not before stopping briefly at the cash register to order a coffee─and joins the group sitting in the back. They’ve somehow managed to crowd themselves into the only booth big enough to fit all twelve of them─and even so, several people have pulled chairs up to the table in order to fit comfortably. Angelica takes a chair from Lafayette─who goes to drape themselves over the laps of Hercules and George─and slams her coffee cup down onto the table.

“Where the hell is Alexander? And Samuel, King and Charles?” she asks with an edge to her voice, noticing the absence of bickering that usually went on between her brother-in-law and his frenemies. None of them were anywhere in sight. “I thought I told you that I need all of you here.”

“Alex got caught up at the station,” Eliza says, pausing to take a sip of coffee. “And those three had to go and meet Charles’ parents for lunch. Sammy just told me to text him whatever you needed to tell us and he’d relay it to the group.”

Sighing at her friends total inability to follow simple instructions, Angelica looks around at the people that were there. Thomas, James and Aaron had all managed to show up─which was a feat in and of itself. For a polyamorous couple, it seemed very rare that anyone managed to catch more than two of them together at a time. There was always one out of the three missing─at work, running errands, out of town.

George was there, as well, which was pretty shocking. He was so busy with being a congressman most of the time that he was hardly ever around─so much so that for the first year of his relationship with Hercules and Lafayette, Angelica had thought it was just those two. She hadn’t even known that George was a part of their romance until she attended a housewarming party for Peggy and accidentally walked in on three of them getting hot and heavy in a closet.

And Peggy. Peggy always seemed to be working at her actual job─she worked at the very cafe that Angelica told them to meet in─or on her youth programs. She─along with John Laurens, who seemed very zoned out on whatever he was doodling on the cafe napkins─was an activist that ran several non-profit charities for youth. Big Brother, Big Sister mentoring guides for LGBTQ+ kids, scholarship programs for inner-city kids and all-girls empowerment summer camp for preteen and teenage girls. The poor woman was so busy with all of these endeavors that it was rare that Angelica and Eliza were able to get together with her, which is why Angelica chose her lunch break during work to meetup with the gang.

“What’s up, Angie? Why’d you need us all here?” Thomas asks, snapping the woman from her reverie. Angelica exhales, looks around at the group one last time before making sure to turn her attention to her sisters.

“Mom and Dad called me last night. They said we won’t be having our annual family Christmas like usual,” she pauses here to gauge her sisters reactions, and is surprised to not find the level of distress that she thought she would. Both girls seem pretty bummed, but not as devastated as she’d expected. “So, I was wondering if the rest of you were busy this Christmas, and if not, if we could plan something for us here. Like a family.”

“Well, my Dad doesn’t want me bringing these two back if I go down to Virginia for Christmas, so I’m pretty freed up,” George says, adding a packet of artificial sweetner to his coffee in an attempt to look bored─though everyone sitting at the booth can tell just how hurt he is at this. “Hercules just has James here and Marie said she can’t go back to France.”

“My grandmother… when I told her I was trans, she uh… she told me that she never wanted to see my face again. However, Adrienne is coming into town. If I celebrate with you all, can she come as well?” Marie asks, leaning her head on the heel of her hand. Angelica waves her hand in dismissal, though she can tell by the way Marie’s eyes light up that she’s made her friend extremely happy.

“That’s absolutely fine, hon. What about you guys?” Angelica nods towards the end of the booth, where Thomas, Aaron and James were chatting quietly amongst themselves. They all look up in confusion─making it obvious to the woman that they hadn’t been paying attention. “Doing anything for Christmas?”

“Well,” Aaron begins. “I usually spend my Christmas’ watching Lifetime movies and eating takeout, so… no. I’m free.”

“Ever since Herc and I’s parents passed, I just spend it doing whatever Hercules does. Why?”

“I’m not going back to Virginia this year, my mother has a new boyfriend and I don’t really feel like being around all that mess.”

“Good. You’re spending the holidays with us. Alright, I’ve got Marie, Thomas, Adrienne, James, Hercules, George, and myself. Eliza, Peggy?” Angelica begins scribbling the names down on a notepad from her purse, formulating a guest list so that she’d know how much cooking she’d need to do for the holiday at hand.

“I’m down, but can I bring Martha? She’s like the Scrooge of Christmas─hates the holidays. I wanna show her true Christmas joy, y’know. It’ll be romantic. Might even get laid.” John audibly groans at how cliche Peggy sounds, before reminding her that she’s talking about his stepsister─so show a little decorum. The woman sticks her tongue out at him, and Angelica laughs at the two before agreeing.

“Well, since Martha is going… John you might as well go,” Eliza says, looking to her boyfriend─who wrinkles his nose. “C’mon. Alex and I are definitely going, and you know you don’t want to go back to South Carolina for Christmas. It’ll be fun! We can do Secret Santa!”

“Ooh, yes!” Marie exclaims, removing her sketchpad from her satchel. She flips to an empty page and begins scribbling everyone’s names down. “Okay… Angelica, let me see your beanie.”

Angelica hands over the hat, eyebrow raised. With careful and precise fingers, Marie rips the paper with the names into small little shreds─each shred of paper holding someone’s name. She folds them in half before dumping them all into the beanie.

“I’m adding Charles, King and Sammy in here… Eliza, you can pick for the three of them and text them who they got,” Marie says, dumping the shreds of paper into the hat and mixing them around. “John, you pick for Alex but don’t look at who he got, alright? Just give him the paper when you see him. Rules for the Secret Santa? You obviously can’t tell the person you’re buying for that it’s you, no going over thirty dollars for materials, no buying gift cards, and you have to make it.”

There’s voices of protest at the last rule, but the look Marie sends the group could rival Angelica’s. It doesn’t, of course, because Angelica is the queen of glaring─but it could.

Marie takes a slip of paper from the hat before passing it to Hercules, who repeats the motion. The beanie goes around the table until it ends with George removing the last piece of paper.

Angelica grins at the name on her piece of paper. Eliza and Thomas both groan─probably because the people they chose are difficult to shop for. Peggy does a fist pump, John smiles wistfully, James, George and Aaron seem to be indifferent either way, and Hercules gives a smile that says ‘oh, this will be very fun’.

“Who did you get?” John asks his girlfriend, as he, Eliza and Alex push their cart around the crafts shop. They’d all agreed to go shopping for their materials at the same time, in the same place─to save money, and gas. However, the young brunette sitting in the cart is quickly becoming to regret agreeing upon that─seeing as this is the sixth time John has asked her this question, and Alexander had asked twelve times before. Eliza looks up at him with an expression that can only be described as a mixture between ‘offense’ and ‘exhaustion’. “What? I’m just curious!”

“Yeah, and curiosity killed the cat,” she teases, before directing him to turn down the aisle that has yarn. “I’ve already said this, John! I can’t tell you! It’s called a Secret Santa! What if you tell them that I’m the one making their present? Geez, I know you’re a rebel, but it can’t be this hard for you to follow the rules.”

“Wow. You’re really passionate about the do’s and don’ts of Secret Santa, aren’t you?” he asks, as she directs him to put some navy blue yarn in the cart. She nods her head just as Alexander comes bolting towards them with arms full of markers, crayons, colored pencils and pens.

“Alex! You’re supposed to be shopping for materials for your Secret Santa, not thing you like,” Eliza chastises playfully, before squeaking in indignance when he dumps all the materials on her.

“Shut up. I’m making John a poster,” he says.

“Alex!” Eliza whines, and John laughs loudly. Well, at least he could trust that his gift would be made with love.

Lafayette sits cross-legged in the middle of their living room, hands gently maneuvering the clay on the pottery wheel. Their eyes are concentrated on the machine, all of their attention focused on the design of the clay to make the shape they want.

“Laffy, I’m sorry darlin’, but I’m curious. Who in the hell would want a homemade clay pot?” George asks, looking down at them from his spot on the couch. He’d been focused on CNN news, but the gentle whirring of the machine had drawn his attention several minutes ago and the curiosity had been eating at him. Lafayette doesn’t offer a response, simply shrugs their shoulders and continues to gently knead the clay on the wheel. “I can’t think of anyone in our group that would find use for that.”

“Then you’re not thinking hard enough,” they respond calmly, reaching their hand into the opening in order to manipulate the shape even further. George opens his mouth to retort something equally as sassy, but Hercules enters their apartment at that very moment─arms filled to the brim with varying colors of yarn─soft pinks and blues, bright neon greens and yellows… and just as George is confused as to who in their circle of friends would want a flower pot, he is confused as to who would want all those colors clashing together.

“Y’know, mo chroí, you’re an awfully hard person to drum up ideas for,” Hercules says, dumping the materials beside George on the couch to press a kiss to their forehead. Lafayette gives a squeal of annoyance at Hercules having revealed who he was Secret Santa-ing to; and by relation having revealed who Lafayette’s Secret Santa is.

“Herc, mon coeur! It was supposed to be a surprise, non?” they exclaim, finally tearing their eyes away from their pottery. “You’ve ruined it for me!”

“Aw man, I’m sorry, Laf!” Hercules responds, plopping down beside them on the floor. At first George believes he’s being sarcastic, but when his eyes land on his boyfriend’s face, he can tell that he’s genuinely apologetic. It’s cute, how he recognizes the importance of this to Lafayette and respects that. “This Secret Santa thing slipped my mind.”

“Hey, darlin’, the surprise isn’t entirely ruined,” George pipes up, easing down onto the floor with the other to. “You don’t know what he’s going to make. I promise, I’ll help Herc hide whatever he’s making for you, so that you can be surprised on Christmas. Sound good?”

And though Lafayette is still pouting, both men can tell that this considerably makes it better.

“I don’t even know Maria that well!” Thomas exclaims for what seems to be the billionth time since they got who they’d be making presents for, as he scrolls through ideas for gifts on Pinterest. “Why can’t I just buy her something? It’d be so much easier!”

“Firstly, Thomas, the whole point of Secret Santa was for us not to know who you’d be making a present for,” Aaron reprimands, for what seems to be the billionth time in response to Thomas’ complaining. He’s making what seems to be personally designed coffee mugs─using blank templates and markers designed for ceramic art to design them. He’d been pretty good at hiding who his present was for, though Thomas can just barely make out a ‘G’ on one of the mugs. “Secondly, you’re supposed to make it because it’s supposed to come from the heart. These aren’t just our friends, they’re our family, too.”

“That’s lame,” the Virginian huffs, tossing his phone onto the coffee table. He dramatically drapes himself over the armrest of their couch, tossing his arm over his eyes like the drama queen he is. “Why can’t I just pay someone to make something for me?”

“Can I pay someone to kick your ass? Maybe then you’d stop complaining,” Aaron murmurs under his breath, picking up another marker to doodle something on the coffee mug. Surprisingly, he’s met with silence─until his phone chimes with a notification. Curiously, Aaron picks up his phone to read it─finding that it’s from Facebook.

Thomas Jefferson ─ with Maria Reynolds, Angelica Schuyler and 15 others.

Need help coming up with ideas for Maria’s Secret Santa present… anyone care to help out?

“Goddamnit, Thomas, it’s supposed to be a Secret!” James yells from the other room─obviously having got the notification as well. Thomas gives a groan of annoyance at this, probably remembering that tagging the person you’re going to be Secret Santa-ing for is not the smartest idea.

“But keeping it secret is hard!”

“Looks like I won’t have to pay anyone to kick your ass,” Aaron chuckles, setting his phone down and glancing towards his boyfriend. Both Thomas and Aaron’s phones are blowing up with notifications─though neither of them need to check them to see it’s probably their group of friends reprimanding him on sharing who he was supposed to be the Secret Santa for. Thomas quirks an eyebrow, and his lover finishes with, “Angelica is probably going to do it for me.”

By the time Christmas Day rolls around, most of the people in the group participating know who their Secret Santa is─and those that don’t know for sure at least have some sort of inkling. What with loudmouths Alexander Hamilton, Hercules Mulligan and Thomas Jefferson letting everyone know not only who their gifts were for, but who their spouses gifts were for and gossips Peggy and Maria spreading around rumors as to who made presents for who… yeah, the whole idea of the Secret Santa actually being a secret was moot.

And Angelica was quick to let the perpetrators know just how disappointed she was in them for not being able to hold water.

“Well,” she says, after they’ve all retired to her living room following a pretty amazing Christmas dinner. Her eyes travel over their faces─and at least most of the culprits have the decency to look ashamed. “This was supposed to be a Secret Santa, but thanks to a select few that can’t seem to let anyone enjoy anything… you might as well tell you who brought your gift for that it was you. I’ll start.”

Crossing over to the Christmas tree, Angelica removes a small wrapped box and hands it to Peggy’s girlfriend, Martha. “I looked up how to transfer photographs onto wood, and then I got this picture from Peggy. It didn’t come out as good as I thought it would, but I figured you would like it.”

It’s a professionally taken photo─probably taken by Charles who was a photographer. The two women were on the beach, and Martha had her arms draped over Peggy’s shoulders. Peggy’s hand came up in the photo to hold Martha’s, and her head was turned just slightly to the side to press a kiss against her cheek. Martha had that picture posted across all of her social media accounts─it was her profile picture for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter… she’d told Peggy countless times that it was her favorite photograph.

“Aw, Angie, I love it!” Martha exclaims, taking the block of wood from her adopted sister. “Thank you, so much! I’m going to put it up in my office.”

After hugging Angelica in thanks, Martha goes over to the tree to get the present that she made for Peggy. Except, she didn’t make it. It’s a small box, wrapped in gold wrapping paper, and when she presents it to Peggy she drops onto one knee.

Everyone in the room either gasps or goes deathly silent.

“I admit, I cheated,” Martha chuckles, looking up at her girlfriend as she removes the wrapping paper and flips open the lid on the box. The ring inside is gorgeous─and it has two birthstones on it, with a small engraving that no one can really read. “I didn’t make this. I bought it, from George. I um… I’ve been dating you, Peggy, for about two years. When I first met you at John’s birthday party, something told me that I’d need to do anything to keep you in my life forever. From your big heart to your sweet soul… I knew you were the one for me. And day in, day out you prove that to me. So I’ve decided that I need to do something to prove it to you. And this is it. Will you… will you marry me?”

Peggy is speechless. She opens and closes her mouth several times, eyes watering with tears, before finally she throws her arms around her girlfriend─fiancee now─and simply nods her head.

Well, at least some secret presents could be kept.

Translations

mo chroí ─ my heart (Irish)

mon coeur ─ my heart (French)

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