✨stay mad, stay mystified✨

Not knowing better, she wanders into the kitchen in search of her. Grant berates her for it & chases her out, & then she explains that she meant no harm while unable to meet his eyes. She's just there for her friend.

He immediately feels guilty & she offers to wait outside for her instead to not upset him further. But it's dark & he wants her to stay in where it's safe. So she sits & waits quietly in a corner booth. He asks if she's hungry, but now afraid & intimidated she says no & that she'll eat later.

So he goes back in the kitchen & demands her friend tell him the one thing he can make that she'll love. It's something simple, like macaroni or idk a fucking cheeseburger or something.

She just stays silent bc she's not pissing boss man off. Bc he wants her friend to stick around so he can make her something, he tells his employee to go through the inventory for tomorrow or sum. Meanwhile, he makes a 4 cheese baked macaroni with cream cheese that's to die for.

Once he's presented it to her, he tries to stir up a convo about what she normally has for dinner. And she sheepishly tells him that she doesn't really have the time or money to buy fancy ingredients, so she just eats Easy Mac (ofc) Rice-a-Roni, Ramen, Taquitos, frozen pizzas, etc. And he grows more & more horrified. "So, prepackaged frozen meals full of preservatives..."

She doesn't justify it with an answer.

He encourages her to come back soon and he'll make her anything off the menu that she wants, free of charge. But bc she genuinely thinks he's joking, she doesn't. So he finally asks her roommate some time later what gives, & she goes home & tells her to please come back for 1 more meal so Grant doesn't take his frustrations out on her.

So reader does. And when he comes out to greet her, she's staring down at her phone & is very upset. He asks what's wrong & it takes a bit of prodding bc they don't really know each other before she divulges that her laptop has bit the dust, but hoping that it could be repaired, she took it to a shop for a quote.

More than she can afford. And she needs one. Partially for work, but also bc she is working on a book on the side (imma make her a lil librarian bc it's my dream job 😌).

When I was a teenager writing fic, I remember finding out that one of my favorite authors was in her 50s and that just was SUCH a revelation for me!! What do you mean, 50 year olds can write fanfic?!? Does that mean I can write fics when I'm her age?? That's AWESOME! I seriously looked up to her so much. And now I'm 35 with a husband and kid, and I'm still writing fanfic and posting fandom content - and I have no plans of stopping!

I don’t want to sound like I am hating on younger people in fandom, but god, y’all need to stop it with the ageism. You don’t have to give up what you love once you’re an adult. Honestly, the belief that you have to is pretty bad. It sounds like it would make people afraid of aging. Granted, modern society is so very afraid of aging.

Teenagers don't have the resources and skills to build something like AO3, it has to be people with degrees and money doing that, and that translates to a 30+ crowd. But teenagers especially need the protection and legal advocacy that something like AO3 offers them.

Part of the reason the then 30- and 40-somethings who built AO3 did what they did was so that someone with as few resources and as little support as the average 15-year-old fic author can safely and comfortably share their fanfic and find fic to read.