aumemecomm | Coffee Shop AU

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Coffee Shop AU

COFFEE SHOP

An absolute staple. No matter what side of the counter you're on, the coffee shop is the absolute center of your life. Whether you're a barista, or just camped out in the corner with the good outlet while you write your novel. Perhaps you just really want to tell the cute person behind the counter that you've loved them since they gave you that coffee six months ago. Or you're overwhelmed with orders and nothing is going right. For good or bad, everyone needs their caffiene.

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[ It's like every Les Mis modern AU ever! Grantaire has tattoos! He may or may not be a student, if he is he never goes to lectures! He wears a green beanie! He drinks only black coffee! He's wearing a nametag that just has "R" written on it!

He's terrible at making coffee, please don't actually let him make you anything he's only covering for a few weeks. But definitely ask him why he has skulls all down one arm and latin poetry and flowers down the other. Also ask if he's ever brushed his hair or if he deliberately makes it like that.
But don't ask why he smells like wine, that's too much. ]

[The most pressing question is why someone who should smell like (a) nothing in particular or (b) coffee smells like wine, though.

Just kidding. The most pressing question is actually why the means of production have been so firmly cemented out of the hands of the people to the extent that the underlying goodness of revolutionary politics has been able to be sullied and marginalized into the caste of 'unpatriotic' when really, a person who loves their country should essentially be constantly willing to die for the advancement of their fellow man into something like stable parity with those seeking his oppression.

But the right now question is:] S--even cups, please.

[There were probably fancy drinks demanded. However, electing Enjolras to acquire caffeine for them means everyone gets a small black coffee and likes it (or, more likely, winds up going back to order their own).]

[ but in defense of capitalism, have you considered the need of the ordinary man to be able to order anything on the mcdonald's menu at literally any time in a twenty-four hour period, on any day in a three hundred and sixty five day calendar???

that's the rights of man right there ]

[ Grantaire has been trained in how to make coffee. That is something someone showed him how to do. He is technically qualified to exchange that coffee for money. This very fact reinforces his belief that everything is hopeless and the heat death of the universe cannot come fast enough.

And yet he takes pity on his fellow man. ]

You're sure? The coffee I make is pretty shit. I wouldn't recommend seven cups of it.

[ Like, this is a stunningly handsome fellow man right here. He doesn't deserve even one cup of Grantaire-made coffee. ]

[Honestly it's not even capitalism; it's oligopolies that will ultimately destroy the world.

But that can all be fought about once everyone arrives and takes over a corner of this too small space with too loud voices to match their too big ideas. That will probably also involve frank and aggressive discussions about how the cups of coffee even made it to their table, whether or not it's particularly good. If, apparently, it even gets there.]

Of course. [He's chronically sure of just about everything, really.] There are seven people coming.

Are they people you like? People you want to talk to again after they accept the appallingly mediocre coffee I'm about to thrust upon you?

[ Except he's already reaching for the marker to write the names on the cups. It's almost like he's full of shit and says whatever he wants.

He taps the pen against the counter.] So is this the meeting of the seven dwarves or the seven samurai? I'd go with the latter, but if you all identify as dwarves I guess I can't stop you.

[This is infinitely more questions than seems necessary for this transaction. Then again, even Combeferre isn't here yet--so there aren't exactly more productive conversations to have.]

It has nothing to do with the number seven.

[And everything to do with the pamphlets which are absolutely going to start coming out (along, for social reasons, with his wallet).]

[ It figures that Grantaire is the only one up for a little verbal sparring. He readjusts his mental ranking of Tall, Blonde, and Direct to a 9 out of 10. ]

No dwarves, got it. [ He is absolutely going to write down their names as dwarves. Or the seven deadly sins. Virtues, maybe? ]

So-- do you all drink straight black coffee? [ His pen is at the ready to take the orders. ]

[They don't, of course. It's useless information to carry around in the back of his mind, but Enjolras is infinitely aware that there's a gradation in the coffee his friends whip through any given day.

Jehan drowns his coffee continuously until it's slightly brownish milk. Joly adds cinnamon and frets when there isn't any to add. Feuilly never asks, but prefers a double shot to make whatever's mediocre a little stronger and more familiar. Lesgle adds sugar (always just a little too much) and never risks milk. Bahorel argues about the difference between creamer and milk but always uses whichever his hand touches first. Courfeyrac changes his order nearly every time they sit down, as if the taste of the air around them altered his taste in the coffee. Combeferre will drink whatever Enjolras puts in front of him without seeming to notice at all.

It always takes half a beat to sort through the oddity of having all that information where something useful might be.]

They can handle it. [Unless it's going to derail starting the meeting in a flurry of reordering.] You've got cream out somewhere?

Yeah, it's over with the spoons and sugar. [ He points it out at the other end of the counter, but... there's something he can't just ignore. ]

You're sure they all want just black? No one wants a tea or a mocha? In a group of seven the odds of having no one who wants ungodly amounts of froth in their drink is basically zero.

[ He might make shit coffee, but surely it's important to get the order right. ]

[This was so close to being a normal, well-socialized interaction. The record will reflect that he made it very far into ordering coffee before things went sideways.]

There are fewer greater wastes of day-to-day resources.

[It's fine, really. There are an almost infinite number of coffee shops to be had. They can't be kicked out of literally all of them (probably).]

And no genuine reason to go beyond the sunk cost of what you've already brewed to wind up exchanging more capital that could have gone to a higher use for you to waste more of your time fussing with-- [a sweeping gesture behind the counter will have to serve, because he's fairly certain "coffee tools" isn't the right word for the machinery back there] --while everyone else waits around doing nothing but draining a little more electricity and wakeful hours of the day.

[ His pen pauses halfway through writing black, black, black, blackety, black-- ]

Isn't all modern life spent exchanging capital on distractions that drain electricity and wakeful hours of the day, really?

[ Might as well drink something you enjoy while passing the time.

Also, who talks about exchanging capital that could have gone to higher uses?? No one?? ]

[The seven people about to show up sure talk about it. But that's a fun surprise for slightly later.

The fun surprise for now is how incredibly quickly Enjolras's attention can snap into full focus on another human being.]

Of course it isn't. [Starting soft isn't easy. It's even harder when there's no one else here with an elbow in his ribs or a hand at his shoulder. Still, a body has to try.] Redistribution isn't a distraction.

[ It's unnerving and incredible all at once. Grantaire doesn't usually have a hard time getting a read on people, but he's almost wondering if this guy is deliberately messing with him.]

Everything is a distraction from the inherent meaninglessness of life and the inevitable failure and ruin of all that humanity has achieved. [ Perhaps one shouldn't grin while spouting nihilism, but there's no helping himself.

Also perhaps he shouldn't bait potential customers to see if he can get a reaction when he should be making seven cups of mediocre black coffee. He'll start in a minute. ]

That's not remotely true.

[Not everyone wants to talk. There were even times when the people who had gravitated into this particular orbit got tired of talking and seeking and striving.

So why pass up the opportunity to engage?] The ultimate failure of an achievement is a matter of creative destruction. That doesn't make the initial course of progress meaningless.

[ He can't help the laugh at how assured this guy is. Where had he in Grantaire's philosophy 101 class? That would have been a delight to watch. ]

Are you assuming that progress is meaningful in and of itself? That a little forward momentum followed by failure is better than conservative stagnation?

[ He's trying to have a serious tone, but he really can't. ]

[It's fine. The laughter of cynics has only ever made Enjolras stronger.]

If it's making active, positive change in the world, yes. If people are comparatively better than they were yesterday, yes. The existence of a destructive cycle doesn't mean that forward motion isn't possible.

[Necessary. Happening, even.]

[ Is this man arguing for the sake of arguing? Does he actually believe this? Grantaire must know. ]

Does the non-existence of forward motion mean that forward motion isn't possible?

[ coffee what coffee ]

You can't pretend there hasn't been forward movement.

[And Enjolras can't pretend that coffee is more important than this.]

It isn't much, and it certainly isn't enough, but it isn't nothing.

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Coffee Shop AU

Grantaire / Les Mis

listen

i refuse to listen

bro how will you indoctrinate republicans

not by listening to them that's for sure

why is grantaire

because why not????

has he even considered the other options

he tried not being grantaire for a while but this is easier

footage not found??

no one can ever know he was anything other than an anthropomorphised bean bag chair

...thx I will never stop laughing at that metaphor

80s... 1830s... basically the same right

just say no to experimenting with philosophy, steve

not even once. you start with a little rousseau and before you know it you're dying on a barricade.

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