---- CODE OF HONOR.

LINCOLN R. REED; 34. computer nerd. son. brother. CEO ofKAPOOR INC. to be honest, I'M PROBABLYmore a t t r a c t e d to a well w r i t t e n computer code, than i am to o t h e r human beings.

[ssweeneys]

“Dude, don’t swear on the internet. That stuff lasts forever.” -Friend in yellow hoodie

[lincolnreed]

You can eliminate one of your five senses to substantially strengthen the others, which one and would you do it?

It’s probably be smell. Out of all my senses, I definitely think that’s the one I could live without. Because while there’s some amazing smells in life, there’s equally some not so great ones. Would I go out of my way to do so? Nah. I could always see a little better, but I’ve learned to live with that one. So.

[lincolnreed]

SUTTON MATTHEWS;

“You would think.” she shrugged. Sutton never understood those types of people and why they would go out of their to cause trouble like they did. “That’s a Karen for you. It’s a shame that they don’t care who they hurt. They just care about themselves” she shook her head. Sutton looked over at the barista to study her in order to try to estimate her age. “Yeah I think that would be a decent guess.”

“Slightly off topic, but I’d truly love to know what Karen pissed someone off this bad that every person with said name is now collectedly gathered in with this trope.” He mumbled, then shrugging, he looked back over at the girl who was clearly trying her best to get on with her day in the best mood possible. Admirable if nothing else. Glancing back over at Sutton, “Serious question, -- if someone walked up to you and offered you up, lets say, enough to possibly pay off a semester or two; and told you it was their tip for the wonderful coffee... would you be offended?” He asked, genuinely curious as he wasn’t always the best with social cues. Sometimes what seemed generous to him, might absolutely be offensive to someone else.

[lincolnreed]

SUTTON MATTHEWS; 

Sutton didn’t know how to react to what she just saw. I mean it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen something like that before but this type of town sometimes seemed like the last place one would see it. “I mean I can appreciate aesthetic as much as the next person but that’s way to dramatic.” she shook her head.  “I’m going to assume it’s a some social media influencer type Karen.” Sutton loved coffee to much ever just not drink it. “All I know is that that employee will be getting a generous tip from me today.” It was the least she could do after witnesses what she just saw. 

“Probably, but I mean -- damn, there has gotta be a line.” He responded, as he looked back over at the poor barista whom day was at the peak of it’s worse. “No damn aesthetic is worth a coffee thrown at someone. And you and me both, to be honest.” Looking back at Sutton, he smiled softy, “In fact, I’m thinking I’m about to make her day ten times better. What would you say? Looks like she may be a college student, right?”

[lincolnreed]

CAM DEMIR;

“You’re welcome, Reed.” Cam placed the wallet in her friend’s hand before taking in his tall appearance. He seemed tired, there was something off with him. Her sister had kept her company during the Dance A Thon because Lincoln hadn’t been there. “Alright, mister. I don’t know what plans you had for the rest of the day, but if it was work, you are going to cancel it. Call this an intervention because you seem to need some time off and a bed.” She placed her hands on her hips, trying to show him that she was being serious here and that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer, despite her being a lot smaller than him and him also being stronger.

A genuine smile crossed the male’s features as his friend spoke her next statement. A chuckle escaping in the same instance, if almost to say he couldn’t believe her. “Are you going to throw me over your shoulder and force me to abide to these new rules?” He asked, amused at the sentiment, while still grateful for it. “Don’t know Cam, unless you tie me to this bed, I don’t see that being a thing. I’ve got so much work to catch on. But I could really use an extra shot of expresso, so if you’re up for coffee, it’s on me.”

[lincolnreed]

ZAHRA AMMUN;

You could say that her already negative view on the entirety of Founders Week had been made substantially worse the moment she’d been left waiting for nothing the very first day at the stupid ball. Zahra vividly remembered nothing but anger as she’d chosen to head home that night, shoes in hand with nothing but a need to sleep and not bother with anything else having to do with it. Which she had done to a certain extent since she’d stayed home with her dogs working on her bike. Maybe she’d been expecting too much, maybe she’d been a little too eager in thinking that not everyone was the same, maybe she’d chosen to like him a bit more than she’d thought. The sad part was that she’d been at least expecting a simple explanation the day after. An explanation that never came which only angered her further. 

Now it was almost a whole week later and Zahra’s mind was still swimming with those thoughts as she sat stood under a car waiting for oil to leak out of it in order to change it. Her co-workers minded their business and didn’t ask her anything but that didn’t mean they didn’t notice the way she rolled her eyes when they told her she had a visitor. ‘Tell him to go fuck himself’ she’d mumbled but was met with looks, ‘then he can wait this time.’

With her work done and her shift over, Zahra only tied the oversized flannel she was wearing around her waist as she fixed her tank top now that her hands were clean. Grabbing her things, the woman had been expecting that he would have been gone but as she walked out with her car keys in hand, she let out a sigh as she just saw Lincoln stood there waiting like some idiot. Her hands soon fell to her hips as she looked down at the pair of black timbs on her feet in an attempt to stop herself from being more snarky then necessary. “Hi.” Her tone was blunt as she stopped a good distance away from him. “Bold of you to just fucking show up here with your disgustingly pretty face and dumb ass apology expecting me to just let you make it up to me when I am this close to slapping you. You don’t just… fucking ghost me then act like it never fucking happened. Besides, I’m tired. Not everyone gets to sit in an office every day.” 

Why was she asking so many questions? Why did she care? Just go home, Zahra, just go home. Yet, she remained stood right there despite repeating those words over and over.

When one of her fellow mechanics had returned to him to inform him that Zahra was busy, and didn’t want to visit with anyone at the moment; Lincoln was hardly surprised. In fact, it was as he had expected. As he was told to come back later, he simply pressed his lips into a tight formed smile and nodded. Only, he had no real intention of leaving. Instead, he decided he’d simply wait. She was going to have to come out sooner or later. When she finally had, he mimicked the same tight form smile, as he took a small step towards her, a simple shrug of his shoulders following. “What can I say? I’m a bold individual.” He stated, the fact should have been rather obvious at this point. “And mark up this disgustingly pretty face? Sounds like a crime against humanity right there, Zahra.” He joked, as he took another step, followed by one more. “I don’t actually expect it to that easy, because I know that I’ve sucked this last week.” Understatement. They both knew that. More so when he was trying to show her that he wasn’t like the rest, and then processed to be like the rest. “Its been a bad week, and I know I should’ve given you more then a half assed text, but --” But what? Truth was, he truly didn’t wanna talk about it, there was apart of him that was usually not up for discussion. Nor did he ever go out of his way to make it so. 

Another step, closing the distance between them, and quiet possibly opening the line for the slap she had mentioned. “I don’t expect you to forgive me right now, or to even really care to listen. If I were you, I probably wouldn’t either.” He said, as he now stood mere inches from her. Brown hues staring down at her, the realization of just how much he had actually missed having her around the last week consumed him. He liked Zahra, there had been something about her that had stuck with him, and he couldn’t seem to shake that. Nor did he care to. “I would like to remind you that I don’t always suck. And despite what I’ve shown this last week, I don’t wanna shell out a bunch of excuses. Personally, I don’t ever see the point in that.” This he truly did believe. In fact, he believed in taking ownership of his actions, no matter how good, or bad, the reason was. “If you don’t wanna talk to me right now, that’s fine. I’m sure you’re exhausted, and would like to go home. But I can’t promise I won’t be out here everyday until you agree to speak to me.” He stated, “Perks of being the boss of that little office job. I can make my own schedule when I feel necessary.” With much thought, or truly any regard to his own safety it’d seem, he’d proceed to tug a strand of lose hair that strayed out behind her ear. “But -- if you feel the need to slap and yell, I’ve got some time for that as well.”

[lincolnreed]

JOSIE O’CONNOR;

The scene had been quite mortifying to say the least. Humans were something else. Josie nodded in agreement with the other patron. “I don’t think that was caused by a rough day. It was caused by a privileged life with no consequences and deflecting of blame by others that resulted in an entitled asshole.” She explained, letting out a sigh. “Their feeling is that their posts on twitbook and snapgram are more important than kindness and decency to the other people that they so desperately want the attention of.” The brunette was annoyed with the situation. While she’d take a coffee to what some of her upset clients might do, it still sucked. “And I doubt six dollars for a coffee they only wanted a picture of means anything to them, either.” She wouldn’t spend six dollars on a coffee if she hadn’t been given the gift card. “Some people just suck.” She said loudly in the direction of the person in question.

“You know what?” He gave pause, as her words sat in, not a word missing the beat. He shook his head in agreement, “I think you just hit the nail on the head. Couldn’t have said it better.” Lincoln was surprisingly aware of both sides of life. He grew up middle class, a little poorer then most, that was absolutely where his more humble traits came from. No doubt. But he also got a taste of the richer side of life growing up as well. When his father married Camila, there was absolutely a switch up in the aesthetic in his life. And therefore, it opened the door to those who were rather ignorant to anything that didn’t involve privilege and luxury. Truly, that could, at times, be hell of a scary world. “And now all I see is a post about ‘how some dumb barista messed up their drink, but don’t worry I threw it at her, and made her a new one’. And at least majority of the responses on that being a ‘good for you’ or ‘as you should’ve, how dare she’.” He thought out loud, disgusted by the thought, itself, but hardly surprised at it. “That they do, but damn, you can’t blame a guy for hoping for some humanity sometimes. It just never fails to impress anymore.”

[lincolnreed]

ALEXANDRA DEMIR;

The bar was packed for a Friday night, she found herself running all over the place between trying to fill drink orders and bringing out food. Making her latest drink, when she turned she saw a familiar face, but didn’t smile. “Hey,” Not even trying to put on a cheerful act for him as she sat the drink down in front of the man next to him and took the money the customer had left. “It’s whatever.” Rolling her eyes at his words. She’d just spent the night sitting on the bleachers next to Cameron, it truly was a hilarious ending to her awful week. Putting down the rag in her hand and she huffed. “My forgiven isn’t for sale. It certainly wouldn’t be for what the drinks cost here if it was.” Giving him an unamused look. “What do you want Lincoln? I’ll get you whatever, but I’m not in the mood to be offering up forgiveness right now.” Putting her hand on her hip as she waited to see if he’d order anything. 

Lincoln knew he had screwed up. With quite a few people, in fact. It wasn’t exactly wise of anyone to make someone a promise, and then break it. To stand them up, without much of a word. Hell, in fact, that was hardly like him. Then again, he realized when he dealt with his side of the family, he was hardly much like himself at all. “It’s not.” He stated, “That’s fair, I guess I’d be a little worried if it was.” As she asked him what he wanted, he simply eyed her, tight lipped for a second longer then he needed to be before he sat himself down on the stool before him. “Also fair. But I am here to tell you that I am sorry, and you don’t have to forgive me right now, but I definitely didn’t mean to stand you up.” He responded, “No matter how much I hated the idea of dancing, I definitely had no plans to stand you up. Maybe show up drunk.” Definitely show up drunk, he was absolutely no dancer, not by the longest of shots. “Something came up, and I had to take care of it. I know that’s not much of an excuse, and I’m not going to scapegoat myself on one.” If for nothing else, but simply because he absolutely did not want to go into detail about it. Hell, if it was at all possible, he’d forgot all about it. “But I am truly and deeply sorry. And if you’re willing to serve me a drink, I’ll take one. If you’d prefer not to look at me anymore for the time being, I’ll leave.” He assured.

[lincolnreed]

LEO ROJAS;

“The Karens of the world are truly astonishing.”  Leo replied with a shake of his head.  He spent a lot of times at coffee shops, and has seen his fair share of temper tantrums thrown by entitled folks, but seeing someone actually throwing hot coffee at someone was a first.  After checking with the barista to see if she was alright and check to see if she had any burns that warranted an actual doctor, he had made his way back to his seat, still bewildered at what had just happened.  And it seemed by the man’s comments that he wasn’t the only one.  “–If it were me, i’d have thrown it right back at her.  Or called the police, that’s bodily harm right there.  Possibly even worse if the coffee had been any hotter.”

Lincoln was still simply blown away from the scene that played out before him mere minutes ago. Maybe because while he knew all about frustration and the way a bad day could truly affect an individual; there still left no acceptance to what he just witnessed. There was truly nothing that could make that okay. “The Karens of the world need to learn how to sit the fuck down and take a chill pill. That crap is not okay.” He stated the obvious. He truly hated witnessing the abusive of service people, rather it be retail or food service, it was not acceptable. These people were still just that, people, and they were not getting paid to be someone’s punching bag. “Right there with you, personally, I think she handled it better then just about anyone I know. I might’ve added a swing in there, I don’t know. It just wouldn’t have been pretty.” He added, truly not sure how he would’ve reacted, but it absolutely wouldn’t have been good. “I wanna say she should be able to take legal action against that, but truth be told, I’m not quite sure how far that would get for her.” The world truly did suck like that, there was no ands, ors, or buts about that. 

[fearwakes]

- You, uh… you want one? - Uh, no. No, thanks.

[rockbournewolf]

I’ve always been a stubborn son of a bitch. When I start something I have a hell of a time letting go of it. I think that’s the main way i solve things, to tell you the truth. I dont do it by being brilliant. I just hang on like a bulldog until something shakes loose.

Lawrence Block, A Walk Among The Tombstones ( Via RockBourneWolf)

[lincolnreed]

Date: June 18th, 2020

For: @maywoodstarters​

“You know--” He began to the person next to him who had to have just witnessed the same thing he had. “-- I’ve had some pretty rough damn days in my life. I mean, who hasn’t, right? But seriously, how rough does your day have to be for you to feel the need to throw your six dollar coffee at someone because they misspelled you name?” If anything, that was always such a simple mistake. Never one he thought warranted such frustration. Then again, his name was pretty simple, so, what did he know? “I mean, aesthetic is hardly as important as what’s in the damn cup, right?” Of course, he was aware of how untrue that was, at least, in his line of business. But damn this was coffee, expensive coffee at that, fuck aesthetic. 

[lincolnreed]

Date: June 18th, 2020

Location: Mr. Fix-It-All Auto Shop

For: @zahraammun​

For him, the last week had been one of hell. While everyone else seemed to be out enjoying the founder’s week, he was dealing with his own personal crap. None of it had really been cleared up, but he was finally able to unwind from it, and therefore, he found his first person on his apology tour to be Zahra. He had planned to meet up with her outside the gala, he had told her that he would, and then he never showed. Nor really given her any word since. It had almost been as though he had fallen off the face of the earth. Finding her was easy, he knew where she worked, and her hours, therefore, he found himself outside the garage waiting on her to exit. He had glanced down at his phone, a glimpse of a figure from the corner of his eyes caused him to look up; just in time to see her to emerging from the building. Pushing off his car, he took a few steps forward and turned his body so that he was facing her. “Hey--” He greeted, “I’m sorry for never showing the other night. Some stuff came up, and -- let me make it up to you.” 

[lincolnreed]

Date: June 19th, 2020.

Location: Lucky’s.

For: @alexandrademir​

He wasn’t necessarily disappointed that he missed the dance-a-thon. Mainly because he was hardly much of a dancer to begin with. But he did feel bad for bailing out on Alex last minute. Therefore, he’d find himself looking for her, entering the one place he knew he’d have no problems finding her. It was a rather crowded Friday night, music going, a group here, and a group there littered around the bar. His height coming in as an advantage for him, as he was capable of finding the woman fairly easy over the crowd of people. Making his way in her direction, behind the bar, he offered her a kind smile. “Hey, stranger.” He’d greet, “Sorry for bailing on you. How many drinks do I gotta buy until I’m forgiven?”

[lincolnreed]

ELENA KAPOOR;

At Siren’s Song

She’d lost the crown, Mayor for a Day, then the Dance A Thon all in won week. Usually she could handle losing one of them, but to lose all three had been a major blow to her ego. Especially after she’d worked so hard to plan it for the town. All she had to show for it now was some pictures to put in her resume and a blank spot in her her closet where the tiara was support to go.  “After this past week I need a six month vacation to anywhere tropical.” Elena commented aimlessly and she ran a hand through her dark hair as she stood in line at the coffee shop. Shifting her weight from one heel to another as she leaned back against the wall and turned her attention to the person behind her. “Did you at least have fun during Founder’s Week?” She asked, she hoped that at least someone had a better time than she did.

Lincoln followed behind Elena, his eyes firmly upon the menu that hung on the wall. His features worn, his thoughts haywire, but the male still kept a composure that was rather calm. The idea of the strongest damn drink they had in house sounding right up his alley. When Elena first spoke, he hadn’t immediately answered, nor looked at her. Eyes still scanning the menu, but hardly taking much of any of it in. Instead, he had heard her question, and found himself analyzing over just how he wanted to answer it. He tore his eyes away and allowed them to fall upon her, a soft smile dancing upon his features just then. “Uh- I actually ended missing most of it.” He admitted, “Some stuff came up that I had to take care of, but I heard it was a great time over all.” It usually was, wasn’t it? “As long as you bring me back a souvenir, I have no disagreements. You deserve it.”

[lincolnreed]

CAM DEMIR;

Location: Downtown, Maywood When: Late morning Who: Available for everyone (preferable 4 max. otherwise I’m gonna go insane for now.) @maywoodstarters​

Cam had visited the paper earlier that day with the photos that she had made from the event. She had scanned through many photos and picked out the best of them. She pulled her bag on her shoulder a bit better before crossing the street. As she had crossed the street, she saw something falling on the floor. She quickened her pace so she could pick it up and handed it over to the owner. “I’m sorry to bother you, but you dropped something. Here you go!”

Lincoln’s had been lost in his own thoughts. The last week probably the longest he had had in a long time. Unable to really pull himself back to present time, even more lack of sleep then usual, he hadn’t realized that his wallet missed the back pocket he had attempted to shove it into. He’d proceed to rub his temples as he continued to walk, only stopping when the voice that called out behind him registered; one that he was more then familiar with. Turning, his eyes fell to the item in her hand, “Shit.” He mumbled, before reaching for it, “Well, I guess it’s a good thing you were around today, Demir.” Lincoln would proceed to play off, “Replacing all of this shit is a real pain in the ass. So, as always, you’re appreciated.”

[sethkate]

Casey Deidrick and Nanuk photographed by Lane Dorsey (2019)