#baristar au

[sinshiney]

G: .....I’ve never heard that expression before. H: Maybe it’s a generational thing? My aunts say it all the time.

(description under the cut)

[A four panel comic that takes place in a coffee shop. Harrow is a customer and Gideon and Camilla are baristas. Panel 1: Gideon hands Harrow a paper coffee cup and says, “Black coffee for Ha-- hey! Your earrings are really cute!”

Panel 2: Harrow has numerous piercings in her ears, left eyebrow, and lower lip. But the large, dangling skeletons that hang from her lobes are the most notable. She is flustered and says, “Oh! Well, you know what they say...” Gideon smiles politely.

Panel 3: The background is dark and Harrow’s face is half hidden in dramatic shadow. She says, “THERE IS A SKELETON IN EVERYONE, JUST WAITING TO COME OUT.”

Panel 4: Harrow walks away from the service counter, looking forlornly at the cup in her hands as she wonders, “Why did I buy this?” Gideon leans on the counter, watching her go, and Camilla leans on Gideon. Camilla asks, “Did that goth kid just threaten you?” Gideon smiles and says, “Yep!”]

[mayasaura]

Realistically speaking, I don't think black coffee would kill Harrow. She drinks wine more than once, and I think it's even specified once that it's red; the more tannin rich and strongly flavored of the wines. Evidence suggests that, while she would in no way enjoy it, she could theoretically survive a cup of black coffee.

Therefore the question becomes: Would she? What would she do if she had to choose between keeping her tastebuds or impressing a hot barista? Could lean taut muscle dewy with sweat and steam compel her to do what God could not—finish a hot beverage?

[toweringclam]

I was surprised to find out which river bubble AU had the most fanfics on AO3

[mayasaura]

how is it possible that gideon's ghost was in the au coffee shop? also do you think she knew she was in that bubble? I would like if this to be faced up again in atn 🤷‍♀️

Oh yeah, it's not possible for her to have been there. She doesn't remember it because that wasn't really Gideon.

If Harrow needed a cast member for her bubble whose soul wasn't available to call, she could create a sort of a simulacrum of the person to stand in. A dream-person.

That's how Coronabeth, Judith, and the Sixth were able to be present in her dream bubble of Canaan House, and how she was able to conjure up an Aiglamene for the Royalty AU and a Crux for the Nova AU, despite Crux and Aiglamene still being alive.

I would guess that the better Harrow knew a person, the better a copy of them she could dream up. So Judith, whom she only knew in passing and never gave a second thought, was not nearly convincing enough to fool the people who really knew her. Meanwhile Crux, the man who raised her, was so convincing that a lot of us thought he had died and was really there. As well as Harrow knows Gideon, she could conjure up a hell of a convincing copy of her. At least in the short-term.

So tl:dr: Gideon the flirtatious hot barista was Harrow's dream girl.

[mayasaura]

It's probably not the intended reading, but I think the funniest possible explanation for Abigail having interrupted Harrow's coffee shop AU so much more abruptly than the others was bc she saw their hands touch and could tell that the butterflies were taking off in Harrow's stomach and she desperately wanted to avoid having to navigate being a psychopomp in the kind of dream that teenage girls in love sometimes have and absolutely do not want a greek chorus for