#personal ref: fdl disclaimer

[secrettrashheap]

FDL ‘Verse - Standalone

Part three of what was initially a three part exercise!  Since starting, though, I’ve come up with two more ideas on the same line? So, depending on how the next couple of days go, exercise wise, this may end up getting a couple more parts? 

This is a continuation of the previous two pieces- moving from Lafayette to Hercules and now to John Laurens!

Also, I spent the entirety of this cursing the mechanics of including text conversations in fic. I’m still not sure I’m pleased with what I settled on. Formatting, why.

As always, please refer to my general disclaimer and my FDL ‘Verse disclaimer~

-In Which Laurens Reconnects With His Alexander. Kind of.-

John’s stretched out on the beach, feet buried in the sand where they stick off of the old sheet Alyssa and Carrie spread out earlier. Carrie and a few of her friends are down in the water, voices carrying easily with the breeze. He’s contemplating a nap when Alyssa nudges him, getting sand all over him.

“Phone’s buzzin’,” she says, voice heavy and lazy like maybe she’s had the same thought and has already been napping.

Groaning, he reaches for the bag his phone’s in. He’d ignore it, except there’s a high chance that Aunt Kim forgot to tell his dad that he was coming over to Folly with his cousins. If that’s the case, it’ll be easier to answer it and deal with him now rather than ignoring it and facing his wrath later.

He turns the screen on, keying in his password and trying to shield it from the sun so that he can see the screen. It’s a text, so it’s not his father. He could just ignore it, but he may as well check it at this point.

It’s a number he doesn’t know, and when he clicks it, he freezes up.

“You okay?” Alussa asks, and he knows why she’s asking, knows he’s probably making a preposterous face, probably gone pale.

But there, grinning at him from the screen, squashed between Lafayette and Hercules, is Alexander. They’re all three laughing at Hercules- he’s getting licked by some dog.

“M’fine,” he mumbles, struggling to sit up and send a response.

Except. He doesn’t even know what to say. ‘I’m glad you aren’t dead?’ ‘I miss you so much sometimes it feels like I’m dead?’ ‘Where have you been?’ He feels like he’s taking too long. He can feel Alyssa staring at him. He just knows that his three best friends are in New York, waiting on a response and judging him for trying not to have some sort of emotional breakdown.

He can feel his breath coming in shorter and shorter bursts.

“John?” Alyssa asks, sitting up and moving toward him.

“M’good, sorry, sorry,” he answers, but his voice feels wrong, sound’s forced and far away.

He types back a quick response- a simple ‘!!!’ that sums things up pretty well- and sets his phone down beside him. Pressing his palms into his eyelids, he takes a few moments to focus on breathing.

“So, what’s wrong with this picture?” Alyssa asks. He looks over, and she’s waving his phone at him, picture displayed on the screen.

“The, uh, guy in the middle? That’s… we haven’t heard from him in a year. We’ve been so fuckin’ worried about him. And just out of the blue? There he is?”

“Oh, shit! Is this that kid you were worried about when y’all came down for Katie’s wedding?”

He nods.

“This is good, then, right? I mean, if he’s with your other friends, that means he’s okay, right?”

He shrugs, but then nods again.

“So why’re you freakin’ out?”

He twists his hands together, eternally grateful that Carrie and her friends haven’t come up here yet, won’t spend the rest of the trip trying to avoid him because he’s some goofy little kid, freaking out because he misses his friend.

“I just… I don’t know. Yeah, he’s there, but where was he? What if he disappears again? We’re still here for a week and a half; what if he just vanishes again? What if. What if he’s gone. And I-”

“Johnny, dude,” she says, ignoring the face he makes and pressing a hand to his back. “Your friends are with him, and they’re not mean- they wouldn’t have sent you that just to tease you.”

“Yeah. I. You’re right. I just. God.”

“Hey, calm down. It’s cool, dude. Send them a text, tell ‘em you miss ‘em,” she hands over his phone. “Then, we’re putting it up and we’re going to go challenge Jamie and Max to see who can find the most sand dollars. By the time we’re done, you’ll be breathing easier and they’ll have had a chance to explain.”

“That’s. That’s a good idea. I can do that.”

So he does. He opens up a text- no response from them yet to the other- and sends a simple ‘I miss you’ like Alyssa suggested. After he’s sent it, he lets her take the phone and stash it back in the bag. With a sigh, he lets her pull him up and lead him toward the others, splashing their way into the water.  

---

John very pointedly doesn’t pull his phone back out of the bag until they leave. They’ve said goodbye to most of the group, breaking off to get into Carrie’s car. She and her best friend are in the front, chatting with one another, while Alyssa’s lost in a text frenzy of her own. He figures he may as well use the ride back to the house to see if anyone’s bothered to clue him in on just what’s going on.

As he pulls his messages up, he’s met by a handful.

There are only three from the number from earlier- Alex, obviously.

-I miss you, too!!! -I’m really sorry, by the way. I didn’t want to disappear on you guys. :( -When do you get back from Charleston?

Herc and Laf have sent him far more than that, though. He starts with Lafayette’s.

~ALEX!!! ~Alex’s new family seems to be very nice! ~His last family was NOT very nice, as we feared. ~Don’t hold his disappearance against him, my dear John Laurens! <3 ~I take it back. Both Alexander and Lin are horrible. :( ~Ugh!!!

He’s a little unsettled by those, biting his lip and trying to decide what Alex could do to make Lafayette change his mind like that. He decides to see what Hercules has had to say all day before responding to any of it, which turns out to be a smart choice. Not only do they shed some light on the situation, but they make him laugh out loud, drawing an encouraging smile from Alyssa.

=dyou see that shit!!! =laf just found him in the park like nbd heres alex just fuckin chillin =wtf! =so we helped paint alexs room and im pretty sure im dead from laughing. lafs prob never gonna talk to us again. oops.

The last text from Hercules is the one that cracks him up, though. It’s a picture of Lafayette, spattered in green paint and scowling. It’s captioned “rip me lol”. Hercules is truly a gem.

It’s for that reason alone that he responds to Hercules first.

>Thats the best photo ive ever seen thank you so much omg

Lafayette is next, if only to give him more time to think about what he should say to Alex.

>Greens a good look for you, my man

He’s still trying to figure out what to send to Alex when Lafayette responds. It turns out that he’s chosen to convey his displeasure with a flurry of scowling emojis.

The laughter helps, loosening him up. It’s just Alex, one of his best friends. It shouldn’t be this hard to figure out what to say to him.

>It’s cool dude just try not to again? >I mean, I know you probably didnt mean to tho >Also, be back home next sunday :)

Alexander responds almost immediately, and John falls into a back and forth with him.

-I promise you, I will do everything in my power to keep from doing that again. <3 -It was definitely Not My Choice. -Next Sunday! I can’t wait! Do you want to hang out that week? Lin really wants to meet you and I really want to see you! -If you don’t, I get it, though, don’t worry! >Of course I want to hang out. Well make plans when I get back. >You have to tell me all about everything, i feel like im missing out on so much right now! -You’re mostly missing out on four people completely failing at painting a room? -I accidentally hit Laf with the paintbrush and it turned into some sort of paint war? Herc and Lin were a team and Laf and I were a team? Except I didn’t realize it was a team sport and mostly just went to make sandwiches. Laf isn’t speaking to any of us right now. Oops? >That. Sounds. Amazing.

As Carrie pulls into the garage, John slides his phone into his pocket, giving in to the urge to grin. Alyssa leans over, thumping her shoulder against his.

“Everything cool?” “Yeah. Everything’s awesome, actually.”

She wrinkles her nose happily at him, and they all pile out, heading into the house.

John adores his cousins, but he has to admit… he really can’t wait to head back home now.

[secrettrashheap]

FDL ‘Verse Disclaimer

A special disclaimer for one of the various ‘verses I’m working on!  Because I’m that wordy.  I’m so sorry, y’all. 

A few things regarding this ‘verse!  ONE - This whole thing is thanks to @damn-man-ham-fam / ohNooOOOOoo (AO3 handle), okay? I was just wandering along, minding my own business, and then I read her fics and instead of moving along to the next fics in line, boom! Suddenly all I can do is sit and be like “oh, but wait, what about something like this” and since she seems to have a bunch of prompts anyway and I’m too shy to prompt, I just pondered them more. And the next thing you know I’ve spent way too long considering things and plotting them out and so. I asked, and she’s a lovely human and agreed that, yeah, it’s probably cool if other folks prod around with the idea, so here we are. HERE WE ARE. (If you’ve not read her stuff, go read it immediately, it’s lovely~!) (Also, thank you times A MILLION to her, because I’ve been fighting frustrating creative blocks and this has given me so many scraps of papers with scenes, it’s insane and has been so good to be able to get things out and has even helped me get things out for other projects. You are a gem for letting me poke around with this idea and inspiring it and being so lovely to everyone in general.)

TWO - This is fanfic. About a founding father. Being fostered by a modern guy. Who wrote a musical about him. Obviously you’re exercising some suspension of disbelief already. So, here are my big “let’s just pretend this works” issues: ---I’ve played with the timeline. I feel like I read somewhere that Sebastian was born during Hamilton Tech Week. I have him being, like, one and a half or two-ish here, and I also have Lin still writing his magical play. It’s what I’ve got working for me, sorry if that bugs you? ---I know little to nothing about the foster care system, other than it’s a really great concept with a lot of flaws, filled with really great people that are often overshadowed by the horrendous folks who slip through the cracks and slide in- both working and fostering. That is, like, legit all that I know about it, so, yeah. There are probably issues with the technical side of how things work? ---I get a little weirded out RPF’ing about folks who aren’t so spotlight-y… I used to be in bandom and the band-girlfriends/wives stressed me because I admire them greatly but wasn’t sure how to tackle them? Obvs, I wanted Vanessa in on this, but I have that same issue? So there’s a lot of “V was at work” handwaving or not mentioning her when she’s probs around. SUPER DITTO WITH SEBASTIAN. I think V and Lin are probably those sort of parents you see who kind of make you reconsider your stance on kids because they make it look perfect, whether it is or not. But, for most of what I’m messing with here, I’ve left him out because I feel even weirder tackling him when he’s just a wee tiny baby who can’t help that his dad has fans like us. My bits and pieces of story will largely just assume he’s off with Vanessa when she’s not around or that he’s being watched by his grandparents (because, let’s be real, if you’re trying to get work at home done, very little is being accomplished with a toddler around) (aside from toddler wrangling) (plus he’s so cute how could you not just give up on work to look at that tiny adorable miracle you made?!)~ I mean, from what I’ve seen, Lin doesn’t even really post pics of him, or if he does there’s no face in the pics. SO. This is in no way trying to erase those two, or trying to downplay their involvement in this scenario, but instead trying to be respectful so that one day this kid doesn’t Google his mom or himself and end up traumatized by me. Other things, sure, but I can try to not add to it. <3 ---And as for Lin’s play!!! IDEK, for the moment, I’m handwaving it into a general Hamilton-esque play about the country’s founding in general? Which I’ll hopefully never go too into since Hamilton & crew are characters here? Srsly, suspension of disbelief is my bestie right now.