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toocool2btrue · 5 years

Text

They were Roommates 2/2

Unedited. Please ignore the small mistakes and i hope you enjoy it.

"Nadia?"

"Helloo Lance. Longtime no see! How are you this fine afternoon?" she cheerfully greeted.

Lance's brows furrowed in confusion, Sure Nadia was one of Pidge's closest friends but she hardly came over here.

"Katie's in the kitchen." he pointed towards the almost closed door. "What brings you here?" he politely questioned and Nadia winked in reply. "I am here on a very important mission" she declared. "The greatest mission ever inthe history of mankind. I am here to do God's work!"

Lance shook his head in amusement, Pidge had no right to call him overdramatic when her own bestfriend was like a walking theatre. "You!" she pointed at him. "You might be actually very useful for this mission"

Lance immediately perked up, "What is the mission about? Is it something for Katie?" Nadia nodded approvingly, "Katie was right. You are smart"

His eyes widened, "Katie thinks I am smart?" that was news for him.

Nadia nodded, "She says you have a way with humans and this trait of yours will surely come useful because you see my dear friend Katie is a very intelligent woman when it comes to science."

Nadia then sighed exhaustedly, "But she can be so oblivious when it comes to human emotions. She wouldn't able to spot true love if he danced in front of her wearing 'I ♥ K' shirt"

Lance chuckled at the imagery, "Actually I can agree with you on that"

"I am so glad you do because now we have a chance to make things right!" Nadia stated as Lance gave her quizzical look.

"Are you trying to set her on a date?" he questioned, his tone had taken a more sober turn. Nadia could feel that although his expression hadn't really changed, the lightheartedness had disappeared.

She fixed her glasses as she continued, "Well yes. You see I have noticed that James really likes her"

"The guy inside?" he questioned again, pointing towards the kitchen. Yet again his tone was nueteral but there was a certain edge to it.

"Isn't he cute?" she questioned, suspiciously.

Lance muttered something inaudible to himself, she noticed that his eyes were constantly flitting back to the kitchen. Nadia's curiosity levels were rising as her mind played the multiple possibilities.

Katie's roommate had a thing for her? That was a stupid question to ask it seemed pretty obvious that he had. Nadia mentally facepalmed, she wouldn't put past her friend to not notice that. To be fair, he was quite a looker too. They would make a cute couple as well, she grinned evilly.

But first she needed to find out if Katie liked him as well or not. Nadia really wanted to further interrogate Lance but just at the wrong time her phone started ringing.

Usually she would just told the person to call later but considering the said person was her mom, she just sadly excused herself.

Lance only distractedly nodded in acknowledgement as Nadia headed towards Katie's room. The conversation with her mother ended up being longer than she had originally ended. By the time she finished, Katie had already returned to her room.

"Hey!" Nadia grinned widely but Katie was not going to buy the act.

"What are you doing here. Didn't you have a test today?" she questioned suspiciously.

Nadia pouted, Katie should be happy that Nadia was here to fix her weird love life. Ungrateful friends but being the good friend she was, Nadia decided not to take her friend's hostility to the heart. Instead she decided to test her theory.

"Class got cancelled. So I came here to check on Mr Cutie" she informed, Nadia leaned closer as anticipated her friend's reaction.

Katie merely smiled in amusement, "He just left a few minutes ago besides you are going to see him tomorrow in class anyway so what's the rush?"

Theory one- Currently rejected. It was time to test the second theory

"Speaking of cuties, your roommate is pretty cute too. Do you know who he is dating recently?" Nadia smirked.

To Nadia's utter amusement. Katie frowned, a look of irritation sparked in her eyes. "Geez Nads, Last time I checked I wasn't the manager of his love life"

"Still you seem to be extensively aware of it" Nadia grinned, seeing Katie's cheeks puffed up.

"Hard not to notice when he was parading them all around our apartment" Katie replied dryly causing Nadia to almost choke at her own laughter.

"Although.." Katie thoughtfully added, "He hasn't brought anyone for a longtime now"

"Do you think he might be currently interested in someone?" Nadia questioned, evilly.

Katie shook her head in a horrified manner, "God help whichever poor girl he is after now"

____________

"I don't believe this" Allura whispered. "Well it's the truth. I did an experiment and everything" Nadia assured.

"Didn't you go there to check on Katie and James?" Romelle reminded.

"I did" Nadia nodded gravely. "So did you?" Allura questioned raising a suspicious brow.

Nadia laughed nervously, "I got a bit distracted with my new observation."

"Nadia.." The two girls chided.

"Guys you have to believe me-" Nadia defense was cut off by Keith's entrance.

"Hey, what are you guys upto?" he greeted taking his usual seat next to Allura.

Nadia immediately perked up at the sight of new audience, "Keith, you have no idea what I discovered!" she declared proudly. Keith questionably looked at Allura who simply shrugged before turning back to Nadia.

"Lance likes Katie!" she announced, awaiting for another shocked reaction.

"I know that" he casually informed. "So it's actually true?" Allura questioned excitedly, earning a glare from Nadia.

Allura nervously laughed, "Now Nadia honey. You do have a tendency to overstate at times."

Keith smirked, "He rejected Miranda Green for her. Of course it's true"

"What!!" The three girls echoed.

"Please tell me you are not joking" Nadia asked in disbelief. Keith shrugged, "I don't joke"

"Dude I don't think even I could reject Miranda Green. Lance must be really serious" Nadia concluded.

Keith rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms, "He talks about her all the time in class. He better be serious"

"If Katie likes Lance as well. How come they fight so much?" Romelle questioned, confused.

Nadia smirked devilishly, "It must definitely be the tension between them"

"Although.." Allura tapped her chin thoughtfully, "If you think about it. It's been sometime since Katie has mentioned a fight between her and Lance"

Keith smirked, "You guys are finally catching on. This thing has been going on for sometime now" he stated.

"How come you never mentioned it to me before?" Allura asked.

"Well it isn't really my place to tell besides I knew you guys would eventually figure it out. They radiate vibes of an old married couple"

____________________

Lance glared at the half written page, his brain felt numb and with every passing second he was losing his will to live.

"Stupid sea! Stupid fishes! Stupid life!" he muttered angrily, trying his best to keep his brain alive.

"Still here?" a mischievous voice called, he looked up to see Pidge standing at the doorway of the kitchen with her trusty laptop.

Lance groaned, rubbing his eyes "Kill me. I know you always wanted to do that"

Pidge nodded sympathetically, "I would but since I worked really hard this semester. I can't afford to go to jail"

She walked over to him and inspected the screen. A ray of hope lit inside his heart, Pidge was a genius, she could definitely help him.

"Deep sea ecology.." she mumbled to herself. Pidge sighed, giving Lance yet another sympathetic look but this one seemed more genuine.

"I am sorry but I am terrible in biology. I can't help you" she apologized and Lance's eyes widened with shock. Even Pidge couldn't help him it was definitely the end of the world.

"But your mom is a botanist! You own half a dozen plants! How can you be bad at biology?!" he questioned desperately.

"Well unfortunately my brother and I got the physics part more from our dad. As for the plants, I would consider myself more of a gardener rather than a botanist besides you wouldn't consider every dog owner a zoologist now would you" she explained.

Unfortunately that explanation brought little comfort to the sleep deprived boy. "I am going to flunk this class" he cried out in distress.

Pidge cautiously eyed her roommate, had he finally cracked?

"You aren't going to fail this assignment" she tried to reassure, comfortingly rubbing his shoulders.

"You still have time" she reminded, glancing at the clock. It was 1 in the morning. Unfortunately Lance was wasn't much a night owl, at his best he could probably stay awake till 3 am.

"Not alot of time but you can still do it" she whispered mostly to herself.

Lance lowered his head in defeat, "It's no use I don't have the energy anymore. My brain is numb"

"I can help you with that" she offered heading towards the kitchen cabinets.

"I know you are more of tea person but coffee is your savior today." she informed. Lance nodded gratefully, "So what are you working on in this fine hour?"

"Matt and I are working on a program and I needed to get the coding done for it by yesterday but then I got occupied with that project with James... so here I am!"

"We are very sad people" Lance bitterly concluded as Pidge handed him his coffee. "Drink this and I am sure you will stay awake for atleast another hour" she assured.

"Thanks" he mumbled taking a sip of the hot energizing beverage.

"Wait where are you going?" he questioned, as Pidge headed towards the door with her laptop and her own coffee mug. "Well you are working here so I will work in my room" she explained.

Lance shook his head " I think the kitchen table is big enough for both of us to work at the same time"

A bitter taste entered his mouth but it wasn't the coffee. It was jealousy as he was reminded about yesterday's events, Lance knew he was acting petty but he couldn't help it.

"You were working here with James just fine" He added.

Surprise overtook Pidge as her eyes widened at the sudden mention, it caused another wave of irrational jealousy in his stomach.

"We were working on the same thing so of course we had to sit together" she replied, feeling a spike of irritation.

Lance shrugged, "We can still work here together. There is enough space and I know this is your favorite place to work"

"Come on" he urged, "I don't bite"

Pidge wearily eyed him, "Factually speaking I do know some girls who might say otherwise" Nontheless she took a seat beside him, opening the laptop with a exhausted sigh.

She took a big gulp of coffee, glaring at the screen as Lance had a few minutes ago before started her work. Pidge furiously typed letting out all her exhaustion and frustration on the keyboard.

Lance simply watched, momentarily forgetting about his own assignment. Although she was one of the most straightforward people Lance has had the pleasure of knowing but Pidge was still great in hiding her emotions towards people.

Heck she gave Lance a hard time figuring if she liked him or not.

"P-Katie?" Lance warily called. "Hmmm?" she hummed in response, if she ever felt any surprise of him using her real she certainly didn't show it.

"Do you hate me?" he asked abruptly.

The exhausted look Pidge gave him reminded him of his dear mother, "Yes, I hate you and that's why I made you coffee and comforted you a few minutes ago" she sarcastically stated.

Lance weakly chuckled at the response, feeling a sense of relief.

"But I don't think you really like me that much either" he mumbled. "I can't blame you though I did alot of things that pissed you off"

"I used to do a lot of those things too but none of us has done either of those things for a longtime now" Pidge reminded him, still glaring at her computer screen.

"Still I threw that big party that almost got both us into deep trouble even though you warned me not to do so"

Pidge shrugged, "But we did figure out a solution and didn't get into trouble. It happened months ago and now it doesn't matter"

Lance smiled to himself, "It mattered to me. It was the first time we actually worked together"

"Oh" she whispered looking at him, realising he was right. It was the start of their era of peace after months of bickering and fighting with one another.

"And I really like it. You know us getting along..." he confessed shyly.

The night was a quiet cold one. It felt like the whole city was fast asleep except for the moon and the two souls. The late night provided an atmosphere of drunkness, the sleepy drunkness when our thoughts don't remain guarded by the walls of hesitation.

That gives us the bravery to face what we try to avoid. Lance had realized that he was long lost in those amber eyes. Not many had the courage to explore those golden orbs but here he was lost inthe desert, wandering as a thirsty man in search of water afraid that he wouldn't survive long.

Katie on the other hand was only inthe brink of realization, she had unknowingly ventured deep in the ocean, She was curiously searching for something but still unaware of the deph of the sea. The lack of awareness didn't make her fear the idea of drowning yet.

His words rang in her head, I like it when we get along. She could have retorted with her usual teasing but this was a moment of honesty so she smiled, "I do too"

The grin he gave her in response made his eyes crinkle at the ends, this was the moment she realized that despite of crazy antics at timesshe didn't dislike him. Dislike was far from what she felt, the moments of tolerance had unknowingly turned into fondness but was it the same fondness that she felt for the rest of her friends? Something felt different with Lance.

"So would you like to renew our housing contract for the next semester?" he questioned hopefully.

A few months back the idea of it gave her nightmares but now with the twist time brings Pidge found herself grinning "Sure" she agreed.

Lance's face curled into his signature impish smile, "I can't believe I finally managed to charm you" he teased but there he was again disguising something.

Pidge rolled her eyes at him, "Stop talking and get back to your work or I might start reconsidering my decision"

"Aye Aye ma'am"

__________________________

"Morning!" Lance called out to Pidge as she slowly padded out of her room.

"Morning" Pidge yawned, making a weak effort to fix her bed hair. "Did you get any sleep?" she questioned, inspecting the boy who was fully dressed and ready to go out.

Lance nodded tying his shoes, "Three hours but atleast I got the assignment done. I feel like a free man. Thanks again"

"Anytime" she mumbled still half asleep. "Hey do you want me to drive you to campus?" he asked.

Pidge shook her head, "You are already running late and I don't have class for another hour so I'll just take the bus later"

"I'll see you later" He reached out to ruffle her hair.

"Don't you always" she joked, swatting his hand away. Lance gave her a small smile, "Yeah it's just..." his eyes wandered from her to the clock on the wall. "Shoot! I am late!" he panicked, waving a quick bye before heading out of the door.

"Goofball" she whispered affectionaly closing the door.

_______________________

11:30 am marked the end of her of class. Most of the students had disappeared just as the Professor had left the room but Katie remained seated in her usual spot. She was busy reading the group messages that described the pain of her dear absent friend.

"My cramps are killing me!!"~ Nadia

"Have you tried ginger tea. It helps me"~Allura.

"I have tried everything!!"~Nadia

"There are certain exercise positions that help"~Allura

"Allura,I swear you are going to die as soon as I get the strength to get up!"~Nadia

"I am at the store. I got the painkillers and the chocolates. Coming home soon"~Romelle

"Romelle marry me!!"~Nadia

Katie giggled, Good old Romelle saving the day. Before she could further read the messages to know whether the wedding happened or not, Somebody gently tapped her shoulder.

Katie was surprised to see, pleasantly surprised to see James. "Hey" he greeted and Katie nodded in acknowledgement "Hi"

There was a nervous look in his eyes, "Uh.. Katie can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure?" she answered with uncertainty wondering what could the possible favor be. James cleared his throat, " I was wondering if you could go through with me with the last week lecture."

He nervously scratched the back of his neck, "This is kinda embarrassing but... that lecture totally went over my head and you really explain things so well. When we did the project together it was the first time I had so much fun doing something for Professor Hugo's class"

Katie cursed her pale cheeks as they turned into a bright shade of red but at the same time she felt a jab of sympathy for him. She had her older brother to help with such ordeals or else she might be in such deep waters too.

"Sure, I am free today if you want to come over?" Katie offered to which James nodded gratefully "Thank you!"

__________________

"Hmm..that's weird" she mumbled to herself opening the door to an empty and silent apartment. Lance was usually home at this time, she felt rise of disappointment in her stomach.

"Your roommate isn't home?" James questioned, looking around. Katie shrugged in response, she didn't know whether to find it unusual or normal. She headed to the kitchen where there was a note taped to the fridge.

"Gone to buy groceries" she read, shaking her head. To think he could have used his phone to an advantage and just messaged her that but then again Lance was a man of his own quirks which couldn't be questioned.

"Let's began" she declared opening her notes. James took the seat beside hers and opened his own notebook as well, "Can we please start with the numericals. They kill me a bit everytime I see them"

"Sure" Katie chuckled and they set to work. Tutoring James was hardly a difficult task, he was a fast learner and there were the occasional side conversations and remarks which made the whole thing more interesting. James certainly had a captivating personality but still Katie found herself eyeing the front door waiting for a certain someone to return from his shopping.

"When I got into this university. My mom was so happy she called all our relatives and couldn't stop praising me in front of our neighbors. It was so....embarrassing" he mumbled, the color red dusting on his tanned cheeks.

Katie couldn't help but think how cute he looked. She wasn't aware how many kinds of categories for cute guys existed but James had the mature charm to him unlike Lance who was boyishly cute. The charm of his was the only thing that made him a bit bearable before they learned to get along.

Katie groaned in agreement, "My parents were worse. You would think after my brother they would have calmed down a bit but nooo...When I got accepted they threw a party and all their colleagues and our family kept ask if I was going to follow my parents legacy but I got a decent amount of gifts. So all was forgiven"

James chuckled, leaning closer. "I don't know. I think their reaction was justified. Who wouldn't be proud to have such a genius daughter"

Katie's face turned bright crimson, only now she had noticed how close he had gotten to her. It caused a storm of butterflies in her stomach. She slightly shifted back but in a process to do, she elbowed her textbook which had been dangerously lying at the edge of the table, knocking it down. The book fell between them.

"I'll get it!!" they both called, ducking down to retrieve the book. They both looked at each other slightly startled on now close their faces were. Katie was transfixed by his gaze, not finding the strength to move. Nervousness danced in his blue eyes but they were grayish blue rather than Lance's bright blue ones.

James onthe other hand was done dancing around this topic. He gently cupped her cheek in his hands and closed the distance between them. Despite her surprise, Katie responded, her eyes closing . Her brain had gone haywire, nothing made sense anymore.

Her ears pricked at the sound of the front door closing and that was enough for her to break from her trance. Unfortunately it was proven to be too late because as she opened her eyes and pulled away.

Lance stood at the entrance of the kitchen deathly still, his bright blue eyes which usually sparkled with merriment had a maddeningly dangerous to them. He mouth which was initially opened due to shock twitched into a scowl. He shot a deathly glare towards James but when he turned towards Katie there was hurt evident in his eyes which mercilessly twisted her heart

He slammed the two paperbags containing the groceries onthe table muttering a quick "Excuse me" and then left the kitchen. The 'thud' made by the bags woke Katie from her second shock of the day.

"I am sorry.. but you should go" Katie whispered to the confused James before running after the other boy. "Lance!" she called out to him but he already slammed the door. She impatiently rapped on his door calling his name but no reply. After a minute or so, Katie gave up.

Her legs felt like they were made of jelly. With shaky steps she made her way to the couch, her heart was beating rapidly against her chest but unknown for what occasion. "What the hell is happening?" she whispered clawing her hair in frustration.

The regret was soon followed by anger, she didn't know specifically who the anger was directed to. Firstly it was on herself for letting this situation happen then it was on James for initiating the situation but inthe she found the true culprit.

Lance! How dare he react like that. Her business was none of his concern. She was most definitely not answerable to him and she didn't need to feel guilty for anything! She hadn't done anything wrong. He was no saint himself afterall, if her action was a crime that boy would be serving life in prison without parole.

She bitterly glanced at his closed door, he could live in there for the rest of his life for all she cared. To think they were making progress and she started considering him a close friend and then it all got ruined.

Katie had enough of the day, she slowly walked towards her room and then stubbornly slammed the door shut as well, It brought a little satisfaction to her at such times. Unfortunately the last traces of anger soon disappeared from her body and previous guilt returned. Despite her consolations that it didn't matter what Lance thought, deep in heart she knew it did and the fact he was hurt because of her, made her stomach twist uncomfortably.

Katie tried to view her unconscious actions with a more conscious perspective. Why did she run after him? Was she more concerned with hurting Lance rather than James? The answer was in front of her and as much as she wanted to. She couldn't deny it anymore.

"No no no. This can't be happening" she groaned in her pillow, not him. She couldn't possibly be in love with Lance, is this the price she had to pay for the amazing apartment?

But wait ! Did it mean Lance liked her too?. Katie shook her head in disbelief, it couldn't possibly be true. She was well aware of Lance's type and truthfully speaking she was far from it but his weird behavior would make a lot more sense to her now.

"Uff!" she groaned in frustration, she lay on her bed with her hands crossed against her chest. She needed to talk to Lance and make things clear with him or else her mind wouldn't stop pestering her about it.

Reluctantly she gave up the comfort and security of her bed and padded towards Lance's room. She firmly knocked at his door, her ears straining to hear the sound of approaching footsteps from the otherside.

But there were none, Katie rolled her eyes. She didn't want to play his silly games, "Lance!" she called turning the handle on his door. To her surprise, it opened to a empty room. She stood there puzzled for a second before heading to the kitchen.

There was a new note on the fridge, "Gone out" it simply read. The action she had found endearing a few hours ago now felt heart breaking. Pain clawed at her heart as Katie realized that the situation was more grave than she had anticipated.

Slowly she walked to room, she softly sighed picking up her phone and preparing herself for the long the conversation ahead. "Hey Nadia." she greeted, "Get the girls I need to tell you guys something"

______________________

Lance tried to blink back his exhaustion, it had been two days in a row since he hadn't had a proper night's rest. Ironically the reason behind his lack of sleep for each night had a stark difference between them.

He took another sip of his coffee which didn't taste half as good as the one Pidge had made that night. Lance slightly winced at the memory he was desperately trying to forget still he managed to recall it a hundred times by now each time felt like fresh stab at his heart.

The campus cafe was filled with students, most of them quietly sipping their coffee and working on their respective assignments or preparing for test but there was also small minority of people who were talking to their friends and enjoying the early morning but Lance's attention was caught by a certain couple who had just entered.

Allura and Keith looked at each other in surprise as Lance McClain came stumbling towards them . He had a troubled look on his face, Lance nervously ruffled his hair. "I..need your help" he whispered, hesitantly.

Keith looked at Lance as he had grown another head while Allura being aware of the situation decided to take matters in her own hand. "Let's take a seat and talk" she suggested, directing the two men to a empty table.

Lance explained the previous day's events "What do I do now? " he questioned, helplessness evident in his voice. Allura symphatetically patted his shoulder but Keith onthe other hand was not feeling that emphatic.

"You should do what you should've done a longtime ago. Tell her how you feel! How long had you intended to play the game house with her?" he questioned coldly.

Allura angrily eyed Keith to which he sighed and took a more gentler tone. "Look, Katie isn't forever going to wait for you to ask her out. It was this guy today but tomorrow there will be another one and eventually someone might catch her eye. So just be honest with her and tell her how you feeling!"

Allura nodded encouragingly, "Keith is right. You need to communicate with her rather than assuming everything on your own."

__________________

"There he is" Nadia pointed out the familiar burnette. Katie nodded, trying her best to keep a calm composure. She took a deep breath mentally rehearsing the speech Allura and Romelle had made for her.

"You can do this. Good luck " Nadia softly assured, the usual eccentricness was missing from her tone. Katie started walking towards the man in question with steady footsteps but the man was walking much further ahead from her.

She mustered up all her energy, "James!" she called out. The young man stopped almost immediately, he turned around to see her walking towards him with great speed. Surprise was weak word to describe what was written on his face, the man positively looked frozen in shock.

"Uh..Hi" she meekly greeted, as the whole speech flew off from her head. "Hey" he nodded in acknowledgement, there seemed to be a unspoken compeitation between them on who could die of embarrassment the fastest.

Katie sighed, rubbing her arms in comfort, "Look James, I am really sorry for giving you the wrong idea. I really like your company but I don't think of you anything more than a friend"

James gave her a small smile, There was hurt evident in his eyes and Katie felt the lump in her throat rise. She hadn't really ever envisioned herself such a heartbreaker.

"It's alright I kinda figured that. Also I am sorry too.." he shrugged trying to act casual, "For assuming things. I hope I didn't cause any big problem between you and Lance." Katie smiled bitterly looking at the ground, "You don't need to worry. We'll figure things out"

"So I'll see you in class then" she reminded awkwardlyand James nodded, "See you". Katie walked away, feeling partly relieved but now only the easy part had been over. She sighed, the hard part was yet to come.

An hour later Katie found herself seated at the back of the bus. Her mind deep in thought as she stared out of the window, how had everything turned upside down in just a day? Just two days back James was just a friend, Lance was just a friend and now here she was trying to mend her relationship with each of them.

Katie shifted in her seat as the familiar rows of buildings appeared. She wasn't even sure if Lance was going to even talk to her, she had no idea how to deal with him when he was angry which was ironic considering that they spend early months only fighting one another.

Katie yawned, trying her best to keep her eyes open. She had spent the entire night tossing and turning, reconsidering her affections a thousand times for she knew her next decision was very going to be an important one. Unfortunately the mental as well as the physical exhaustion was drowning her strength, she couldn't find the power to convince or reason with Lance at the moment.

The bus finally stopped at her usual stop, Katie along with a few others grabbed her bag and stood up to leave but at the last moment decided against it. She slumped back in her seat, observing the dark clouded sky which was a great representation of the storm that was going inside her. She watched the last passenger get off and then as the bus started again, Katie with her last bit of courage messaged Lance that she was going be home by 10 pm.

Surely this gave them enough time to cool down and let them have a rational conversation. Trying to ignore the knots in her stomach, Katie switched of her phone and instead tried to focus on planning her study schedule. Next stop Olkarain Library.

______________

"Concentrate!" she demanded, feeling annoyed by herself but at the moment it seemed like an impossible feat. Her mind couldn't stop thinking about Lance, she hadn't seen him since last night and although she knew he wasn't that reckless to get himself into trouble her idiotic heart couldn't help but worry. That boy better be home by the time she comes.

Katie sighed casually flipping through her textbook, she really needed to get this done but her mind was already drifting of and the library was so peaceful and quiet. Maybe if she closed her eyes for 5 minutes she would feel more refreshed and probably get something done.

Just 5 minutes, She convinced herself resting her head on the desk and closing her eyes. Just 5 minutes and she will most definitely get back to work......

A few hours later

"Katie" a voiced called out to her lightly shaking her shoulder. Katie finally lifted her head, her eyes still partly closed.

"Lance?" she groggily called out. The owner of the hand chuckled, "Unfortunately no. It's me, Ryner."

This was enough to wake her up completely, "Ryner!" she squeaked, her face flushing with embarrassment.

Ryner nodded with a small knowing smile on her face, "I have to close the library. You should pack up and go home now" she whispered softly. Katie looked around to see the library now dark and empty with the exception of Ryner and her.

She nodded and started slowly packing her things. Ryner nodded with satisfaction "It's very late, Lance must be worried about you." she remarked slyly, making Katie almost drop her precious laptop. Her mentor then thankfully walked away sparing Katie from anymore embarrassment.

Katie hoisted her backpack and finally opened her phone which she guessed had been powered off for a few hours by now. The sky was pitch black, the dark clouds had completed hidden the pale moonlight.

"What!" she exclaimed, checking the time. It was 12 am and she had messaged Lance that she would be home by 10. Hesitantly she opened her call log to see 22 missed calls and 56 messages from Lance. "This can't be happening" she muttered, if Lance was mad at her before she surely didn't want to imagine his reaction now.

But still mustering up her courage, she pressed the call option. "Hi.." She whispered helplessly.

"Katerina Paige Holt, where the hell are you!" Lance replied his voice brimming with anger and worry. She was mildly impressed that he remembered her full name considering he always prefered to call her with that awful nickname but that was something to celebrate another time.

"I'm sorry" she mumbled, there was a pause on the other line. Lance sighed and continued in a more softer tone, "Katie where are you? Do you have any idea how worried I am. It's midnight and you aren't home yet and you aren't picking up your phone. I even called your friends and they said you weren't with them. Is everything alright?"

Katie tried to swallow back the lump which had reappeared in her throat. "I am fine. I am at the Olkarain library that is near your favourite ice-cream shop". There was silence on the other line and Katie held her breath. "Stay there. I am coming to get you" he commanded, ending the call.

As Katie ended her call, a drop of water landed on the top of her head. "Quiznak!" she cursed, as she realized it had started to rain. It was the only thing left to complete this awful day. She moved nearer to the library's entrance whose design provided enough shelter from the rain.

She leaned against the door, going further down her call log praying she hadn't missed any of her mother's calls. "Hunk?" she whispered in surprise, he had called three times in a row around 9 pm. That was weird considering she and Hunk usually talked during the weekends but it must be something important. Doing a quick calculation of time difference in her head, she called her bestfriend.

"Hi Katie, where were you?" Hunk questioned. "I fell asleep while studying" she explained and Hunk chuckled in amusement.

The two friends a minute to catch up on everything before Hunk stated his reason of call, "Mom and Dad were wondering if you two would like to renew your contract. They are really hoping you do. They say they can finally sleep in peace knowing the apartment is safe and not being trashed."

Katie felt rush of gratitude for Hunk's parents trusting them so much even though they had been once very close to breaking that trust. "I would really like to renew it but I am not sure Lance wants to live with me again" she replied, her heart felt it was being squeezed mercilessly.

"Ok someone tell me what is going on between the two of you!" Hunk declared frustrated.

"I talked to Lance a few hours ago and he said the samething as you. I don't get you two, One minute you despise each other and inthe other you are best buds. Just yesterday afternoon Lance was asking me the recipe for the Peanut butter cookies to make for you and now you guys can't live with eachother?!"

Katie's eyes widened and suddenly her started beating rapidly, "Lance was asking what?"

Hunk sighed onthe other end, "He said something about you helping him with some project and that's why he wanted to surprise you with peanut butter cookies"

"He did?" she asked, her voice cracking, as unconscious tears started trailing down her face. "Katie are you alright?" Hunk's questioned startled. Before she could reply, another voice called out to her.

"Pidge! Stay there I am coming!" Lance shouted, getting out his car which he fondly named Blue although it was bright red. He pulled out ridiculously bright yellow umbrella as well and starting walking towards her not caring of the puddles that made his favorite shoes dirty.

Katie watched with a horrified realization, her heart threatened to come out of her chest and all she could think at that time was. This was no ordinary crush, it was something scarily deep. She was in love with Lance McClain.

But the idea didn't seem as terrifying as she once thought. After all the guy was Lance, the funniest person she knew but will never admit, A guy with a heart of gold and oh those blue eyes, she could stare into them forever.

As he finally reached her, Katie couldn't hold on any longer. She was done acting strong, one look of Lance standing there with that stupid bright yellow umbrella was all it took for her to engulf him in a desperate embrace.Despite his initial surprise Lance gladly returned the gesture securely wrapping his free hand around her waist.

"Hey there Pigeon, you really scared me" he softly whispered in her ear sending shivers down her spine.

"Ok I'll just hang up myself. You two continue" Hunk shouted, from the phone scaring the life out of Lance and causing him to drop the umbrella. Despite the moment Katie couldn't help but giggle pulling away from Lance. "Sorry Hunk. I'll talk to you later" she apologized sheepishly.

"You two better give me a decent explanation later or else I am gonna come back and bring Shay's cousins to kick your asses!" he threatened.

"Will do" they chorused ending the call. Lance watched love stricken as Katie clutched her stomach trying to control her laughter. "Hey there" he whispered, clasping her pale hands in his tanned ones and pulled her closer to him.

"I want to apologize for acting up like that" he mumbled and Katie nodded forgivingly.

"Also there is something important you need to know" he murmured, gently touching her cheek. Instinctively she moved closer to him as well.

"Katie, I am in love with you" he whispered feeling terrified by own his words. This was the first time he made such a strong and although she didn't immediately reply, there was something in her eyes that told him that she felt the same.

"I love you so much" he continued kissing her forehead. "You won't believe me if I told you" he softly chuckled, kissing both of her cheeks.

Katie giggled as Lance kissed the top of her nose. Lance nervously glanced at her lips and Katie smiled to herself knowing this was her move to make.

She smiled teasingly at him before finally confessing, "I love you too" she uttered shyly and then standing at the tip of her toes she finally closed the distance between them.

A Few Weeks Later

"Katie, I love your dutch braids" Allura praised. "How are they so perfect. I always end up messing mine" Allura asked.

Katie proudly held up one of them, "Lance braided them. He spent half an hour on YouTube figuring out how to do them perfectly. I tried to stop him but he was stubbornly convinced that they would suit me"

Nadia elbowed Romelle mischeviously, "Look at her. She is so smitten by him to think once they were just roommates."

The End

Hi Guys! I know this was very long post but if you made it till the end. I just wanna say I love you guys! Thanks for reading this story.

I want to specially thank @suemaryrakocy, @as2015 @nessajjewell @kathybuglove @elby-the-megnet @jewelcuzimpreciousdamit @jood-89 for their amazing and supporting comments which gave me the motivation to complete the story. Thank you so much guys. Also thank you to @rueitae For her amazing tags. They make my day. I am terribly sorry if I missed anyone, it's 2 am here and i am barely awake.

I hope you enjoy the story. Please Reblog if you liked it and please do tell me what was your favorite moment.

#plance #pidgance #roommates au #jealous lance #oblivious pidge #kallura #Keith #allura #voltron #watering the plance #garden #hunk #nadia rizavi #James Griffin #plangst #fluff #happy ending

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allakinwande · 6 years

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Pat A. Robinson

CHASING DEMOCRACY:

The attack on the American voter.

BY: JB Hanna

_______________________________________________

"Now many of our Christians have what I call the 'goo-goo syndrome.' Good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

-Paul Weyrich 1968

TARRANT COUNTY TX.

In 1827, Edward E. Tarrant had established himself as a wealthy man, probably the wealthiest in all of Red River County. A veteran of the war of 1812, now a sheriff, he left his mark in Tarrant County Texas, the namesake of the former officer of the “fourth brigade.”

On September 29, 1843, Tarrant along with Texas state attorney general George Whitfield would draft The “Bird’s Fort Treaty.” Which surreptitiously states in Article XXIV, that; “The government of Texas has the right of working all mines that have been discovered or will be discovered on the territory of the Indians.”

Just as surreptitiously as the terms of Crystal Mason’s signed affidavit that stated she was not eligible to vote as a convicted felon, some hundred and seventy five years later in that same Tarrant County. Mason was on community service on November 8, 2016 for a her 2012 conviction on tax fraud. Only voting after the urging of her mother, Ms. Mason was sentenced to five years in prison on voter fraud charges, for a provisional ballet vote that was never counted.

Crystal Mason’s unfortunate miscarriage of justice is the oddity, not the model. The model being the strategy adopted by many incumbents on the right, while the left has historically supported voter registration initiatives, conservatives (since the voting rights act of 2013) have practiced down presser tactics with almost surgical precision. From good ol fashioned jerrymandring to voter caging and voter roll purges.

Stories like that of Crystal Mason, no matter how rare, are aggressively publicized and spun in efforts to paint a fanciful portrait of voter fraud gone wild. These trumped up horrors however, have never been substantiated.

Max Faulkner/Fort Worth Star-Telegram via Getty Images.

During the presidential campaign of 2016,

Vice President nominee, Mike Pence came under scrutiny from voter rights advocates when Indiana State police raided the voter registration office of Patriot Majority USA, in October of 2016. Indiana progressives called conspiracy on the would be VIce president.

The nonprofit Patriot Majority, had registered over 45,000 voters, mostly African American. Just one week from the voter registration deadline and 5,000 voters short of their 50,000 target at the time of the raid. Founded in 2005, PM was accused of registering voters twice, in addition to applications that had missing or unverified zip codes and addresses. This is often a problem with grassroots voter registration initiatives staffed by everyday citizens, the lack of experience, training, and in many cases, after work hours by constituents looking to supplement their income, have always bore such inconsistencies. Though well meaning, these efforts give way to questionable voter registration applications, that ones opponent will rightfully pounce.

When you open Patriot Majority’s web sight, the home page is striking. Waves of red and white stripes, the famous Washington crossing the Delaware painting emblazoned on the header. With the current political climate, rife with its suede patriotism and the far lefts deepening dive into a socialist creed, one might expect Patriot Majorities home page to spawn links to diatribes of pro gun advocacy and states rights. But PM claims to be a bipartisan movement. While it seems that the issue is the shotty work of some canvassers, Common Cause Indiana and the NAACP have filed a federal lawsuit against Marion County of Indian after the raid on charges of voter suppression by closing early voting in a sector with over 700,000 registered voters. Former Indiana governor mike Pence, now ironically, head of the Elections Integrity Commission, boasts “What is historic here is that our president-elect won 30 to 50 states. He won more counties than any candidate on our side.

The Georgia State showdown

Georgia’s Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams finds herself in a historical yet tight race in Georgia’s gubernatorial midterms. The Gulfport native faces off against opponent Brian kemp, the self proclaimed “politically incorrect conservative.” The cautionary view in mid August was that Kemp could have a strong surge in the last two months leading to the peach state showdown, much like Nathan Deal in 2014. But as of reporting, the race is still in a dead heat. Kemp has been mocked for his ads that some on the left liken to a Dave Chapelle or SNL skit. But while democrats laugh, Brian Kemp is practicing more “politics as usual” than his campaign readaric may assert. Kemp’s influence on voter registration as Secretary of State should be no laughing matter to democrats.

The heat was on as the summer closed out in Randolph County Georgia, a sort of patient zero for the National attention to suspected voter suppression. The Georgia county quickly beat back a move to close seven of nine polling places in the historically black canton. But the victory, while sweet, is little to stop the suppression of voters in the rest of the state. Like Tarrant in Texas, Randolph county is named after another slave owning statesman, Ol’ John Randolph of Roanoke. A career politician who also served as prosecutor of the associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Samuel Chase on charges of impeachment. Chase would later be acquitted by the senate. Roanoke famously stated,

“The most delicious of all privileges, spending other people’s money.” Might be proud of his states insidious politico operandi.

Several groups, including the Georgia Democratic Party, Common Cause and the NAACP, have called on Kemp to step down from his position as secretary of state while he runs for Governor.

Greg Palast, the New York based investigative journalist and author of the compelling

The best democracy money can buy, has been hunting down Kemp and also, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach for the past several months. Armed with a Federal subpoena accusing Kobach of purging hundreds of thousands of Kansans from the voting rolls. Like his counterpart in Georgia, as Secretary of State, Kobach has oversight of the states voter rolls and similar to Brian Kemp of Georgia, Kobach has also successfully closed polling stations in low income counties as well.

As Carol Anderson of the New York Times put it, “Brian Kemp is a master of voter suppression.” For example, Kemp made a statement in 2014 regarding another lawsuit his office faced regarding over 40 thousand names of voters disappearing from the Georgia voting rolls. The Secretary of State emphasized that “The lawsuit filed by 3rd sector development, is frivolous and totally without merit. The claim that there are over forty thousand unprocessed voter registration applications, are false.” Kemp went on to contravene with the 6,525 voter applications his office found had issues of no longer being with us, had no valid date of birth, where convicted felons or provided no county or address. ( some states report day of birth instead of DOB, which substantially increases the chance of two records being reported for the same person.)

Kemp also provided a Potboiler about an application filled out by, Johnny B Cool, who’s city was listed as, Yo’ Town. While this smacks of incompetence of the registrating body or the voting applicant themselves, it seems a stretch to think that a political scenic, who would name themselves Johnny B Cool who Haile’s from Yo town would be a tactical move that any well minded voter fraud conspirator would employ. But the great voter fraud conspiracy rolls on. Kemp, by the way,

Was found to be guilty of voter suppression in 2014.

GETTY IMAGES

LOCKED AND LOADED

Prior to Shelby v Holder, (2013) Texas, along with the several other Jim Crow states had coordinated a preemptive lockout of minority, elderly and millennial prospective votes in anticipation of provisions 4 & 5 of the voting rights act being overturned. The first domino to fall was that unsuspecting, overlooked little Diddy called Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, or the MUD case. The stories of out of town voters using the address of a local motel to vote illegally, harassment of MUD’s minority community and a strange cloud of mystery preceding the Shelby v. Holder decision, stains the “Municipal Utility District,” just north of Austin.

That was 2009, and four years later, Shelby county found it unconstitutional for the federal government to suppress their ability to molest the Hispanics, black, elderly and young voting populous. The Supreme Court would concede that, “voting discrimination still exists; no one doubts that.” But the 5-4 decision of the highest court in the land would contradict their own logic by wiping away the voting rights act protection of historically disenfranchised constituents, specifically articles 4 and 5.

But back in Tarrant Texas, and many other counties in the Lone star state, there’s been a battle raging to oppress voter turnout since voting became public freewill. Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke are in the mezzo of a 12 round barn burner as the country tumbles towards it’s midterms like a radioactive meteor with no direction. Could it be, the land of steers could finally be done with Ted Cruz? Or is Beto’s hype just that? Progressive turnout or conservative suffragist subterfuge may answer these questions.

And yet, one of the few cases of actual voter fraud, ironically in that same state of Texas, is more doleful than relevant. Crystal Mason began her five year sentence for voter fraud in September. After being walked through the provisional ballet process by a state appointed election official, she still stands condemned by adjudication. Alison Grinter, of Mason’s legal team explained, “the federal government has stepped over the state and found Crystal guilty of violating the law.”

In august an 11 year old child hacked a Florida electronic ballet in this years DEFCON 26,

The annual hacking convention held this year in sandy Las Vegas. Emmett Brewer and 30 other kids ranging in age from 8 - 16 years old where all able to hack Florida’s faulty system. The national association of Secretaries of State responded to DEFCON with one of many proclamations in their

(Long comment regarding a proposed Exemption under 17 U.S. code 1201)

The senate stated to ES&S, the countries largest supplier of voting machines;

“Currently there are significant barriers that prevent states from working with independent, qualified, good faith researchers to conduct cyber security on election systems.”

Now it seams, after the midterms, ES&S May have to deal with not just the Senate but the people.

But the talk is done. Bluster deflated. Red and Blue candidates enter November 6th like combatants on the world stage. Like heavyweight champions with the future of democracy on the line. I’ll be watching the fight on November 6th just like Crystal Mason.

Hoping the country does right by its future.

#voter suppression #afrofuturism #stacey abrams #brian kemp #georgina #missouri #blackvotesmatter #gun control #democracy #donald trump #black woman #africa #african woman #black man #black journalists #black writers #me #my writting #my writing

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topicprinter · 5 years

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Mad because your users keep clicking on that submit button three times a second? Or because they're calling in bugs while they're not using your product correctly?You are responsible for your product and how it's used, not the users. One of the best things about being a developer is that you can create. In order to bring your ideas to life, you ramble on some keys and watch how they turn into screens, functionality, business rules, and hopefully; pure value.In my 16+ years as a developer, I've listened to a lot of developers, makers, and entrepreneurs that complained that their app was being misused, how the user doesn't get it, or how users are causing all kinds of bugs. But to be honest, we as makers need to take responsibility for what we make.This article will show you 5 ways to take control of the product creation process so you don't have to blame the users for doing things wrong. It's time to stop pointing fingers, and take responsibility.TL;DRWith creation comes responsibility. Take responsibility and don't blame your users for crashing your solution or showing you its bugs.A Magical AnalogyImagine there is this magical place, a magical forest if you will. It is packed with beautiful things like rainbows, unicorns, and stuff. But as with any place, unpleasant things lurk there as well. Poison plants that can make you sick for days, and little flesh-eating beings that smell fear and can throw themselves at you.You are called The Wise One by people near the forest since they know you created the magical forest many centuries ago, and know everything about the magical forest and the creatures and plants that reside there.People come to you for when they need something to help their sick kid to get well and know that you can get the medicine from the magical forest. When someone went to the forest and got attacked by a vile creature you are the first one that will be notified by the small unichipmunks that live in the trees about such an event.Now replace "magical forest" with your application and magical things with useful features.Can you guess what the evil things are?Yup, it's those bugs that crawled in your product. And inconsistencies in your interface. And those assumptions about users, their needs and behavior that you neglected while building your product...You are Responsible; Act AccordinglyYes Ma'am / Sir, YOU, the creator, are fully responsible. When you create something and people have accepted your creation in their lives, you become responsible for what you've created.This counts even more so for applications that you are charging hard-earned money for.When people purchase something from you, its because they expect value from it (or they just wanna donate to you, mostly value is the reason). They also expect that you, the creator, provide value to them by giving support.One of the most frequent sounds that you'll hear from people who built a product is that support becomes a huge part of their time spending after they launched a product that starts getting traction.Some of the most common reasons why people need support (based on personal experience on implemented solutions):Users don't understand the functionality and/or interfaceThe app contains bugs that prevent users from using it properlyThe app doesn't take into account actual user behavior (IX) and throws off users that are using your appWhen you've put a lot of work into a product, you hopefully are proud of what you've created. And it sucks when people are negative about it.Even worse, if you know that your product works but your user refuses to operate it as designed and wants to do things differently, that can be a frustrating moment. But it DOES mean that your product is off somehow.So don't take grudge out on your users. They are the valuable input source that resonates with whatever product you've built. And their input and feedback is the pure gold in product development countryHow To Take Control?Let's find out about five ways that will help you to get in control of how your app is anticipated and used by your (future) users.1. Talk With People 🗣The uttermost efficiënt way to get in control of your users and minimize the delta between assumptions, expectations, and reality is...Talk. With. Your. Potential. Users.Not to. But with them. Converse. Engage and discuss. It's that simple. It isn't easy, but it IS simple. You need to get out and gain insights from talking to users.First off, talk about people's struggles and daily issues. Check if their pain points are related to the solution that you have in mind. And find out how they are coping with those issues now and here, where your solution isn't around (yet). The sooner you get feedback without biassing your users, the cheaper it will be to change things and finetune your solution's angle2. Verify Your Idea 🐒After you've been interviewing and researching the problem, you probably have a heads-over idea of how the solution is going to operate.After you've been interviewing and researching the problem, you probably have a heads-over idea of how the solution is going to operate. In order to take responsibility, you need to find out if your solution is the right solution for your users.At this time, where you've probably put together your idea - whether it be as wireframes, sketches on paper or an interactive Mockup - you can take your solution for a test drive. No code involved yet, so testing this and noting what people think is missing, weird or not clear is useful as heck for your solution. This will help you to understand if your solution fits the need of your (potential) users.If you can somehow record, register or at least note what was tested and how it was done, you are letting users perform monkey testing for you. By writing down how things are reproducible, you can fix these issues by creating a new version with updates or added (or removed) functionality.Key to make this a success is to instruct people that are going to test your product that they need to keep in mind what they did and give them a construct on how to register their findings.Not surprisingly, automated (AI) monkeys are emerging as online services as well. See Monkeytest.it if you'd like to run a free monkey test.3. Cover Common Usability Issues ✅Once you've established a nice functional prototype (you're not done, but using the 80/20 rule, you've got a stable version) you are probably going to start creating your MVP or a prototype of your application.When you do so, the last thing to take into account is the most common user interactions that lead to issues and problems. This comes down to implementing best practice stuff like: - input checks - self-explanatory screen setups - guidance user-interface elements - consistency between labels, buttons, etc.I won't be listing the best practices here as the internet is bloated with useful content regarding them. Just Google for "common usability issues" and you'll get a nice list.Just stop getting mad at users because they're clicking that button two (or ten) times in a few nanoseconds. It's human nature to do things like that. Stop freaking out about it!4. Test Your Solution 🕵🏻‍♂️Test Driven Development (TDD in short) and Business Driven Development (BDD) are techniques that have increasingly become popular in the last decade.By defining tests that orchestrate how your app should work (TDD), or by even writing down business rules and defining the tests beneath them that enable those rules (BDD), you can make sure that your app's code functions properly.When you're working on fixing bugs, building in some of the user's feature requests that you decided to be of value for your product, you can be in control by writing tests that will focus on those things.ie: Someone reports an issue and the origin seems to lie in the fact that the user is able to get past a validation that is necessary for your app to function correctly.You fix this by: - writing the appropriate test(s) - changing the code to make all tests go green and fix the issue - you deploy to productionTest Strategy In its simplest form, defining a valuable test strategy isn't really that hard. But you need to do it the right way, else it is just a farce that implies you're improving quality while it doesn't cut it.I've been a systems test coordinator for a Dutch bank besides being a developer in their IT department. There, I learned the ropes on setting up test strategies, and there are two things that define 90% of it:the highest risk areas need the most/best testing effortthe aspects of the subject under test that matter most help defining how testing is setupRisk AnalysesThis is all based on the following formula:Risk = Likelihood x Impactie: Twitter-based sign-in functionality on your login page might not be used all that often. So the estimation for the likelihood could be low or medium. But if it doesn't work chances are that people are leaving your app and start ranting on Twitter about it. Thus this would make the impact have a value high.Take a look at a common risk matrix:According to our estimation, the Twitter sign-in functionality would be placed in the top center area of the matrix, making it a high priority.If you do this for all the aspects like functional parts, business rules, etc. you get a nice overview of where your priorities should be at.Quality AttributesThere are lists of quality attributes available online (like this one on Wikipedia) that can help you decide what aspects are most important for your product.ie: Your online blogging platform might be valuing security, maintainability, localizability, and durability as the most important aspects. If so, you can work on setting up tests that make sure that those aspects are working correctly. Think of security testing sets, unit tests for everything that's medium priority or above on the risk matrix to support maintainability. Or tests like load tests to test if your solution is durable when 10000 users will use it in a single hour.Discussing testing on its own goes beyond the scope of this article, but you can find out more about these things by Googling. With the two concepts of risk analyses and quality attributes you at least know about some basic concepts that can help you take control of both your app's functioning and quality.5. Make Giving Feedback Easy 🤗In order to prevent people from raving around the internet about how awful your app is, you need to be open for feedback.You need to open up both in a personal and a technical sense.Personally Accepting FeedbackAccept that people will always have remarks, misunderstandings, issues, and bugs. And thank them for wanting to ventilate those to you.Ignore the input that is vile and disturbing or downright a-social and focus on real user feedback and constructive responses.If you have a mindset that appreciates feedback people can truly open up you will be amazed at what you can learn from it.![Embrace user feedback and go with its flow](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/938dyb9j4qyrsl9duhrt.gif)Technically Making Feedback easyWhere it used to be all email-based feedback, the internet nowadays provides some awesome technical ways for lowering the barrier between product makers and product users.Chat functionality The quickest technical way to open up for users is to integrate chat functionality like Tawk.to, PureChat, etc. They provide widgets that you can add to your site and that lets users leave a message or interact with you when you are online. Realtime chatting can be a true win-win situation if you can afford to take some time for short interaction cycles with the users of your product.If you want a more formal way of interacting you could use service desk enabling solutions that let people send in issues on their own.Service desk tools Bigger businesses might use service desk tooling and issue tracking software to register issues and bugs. Think Jira, Zoho Desk, just to name a few. Or get an open-source variant for free like Bugzilla.Feature request & voting By letting your users register feature requests and lobbying for them amongst your users, you can have a community-orchestrated feedback mechanism that can show you what features are considered most important. By enabling services like Microsoft's Uservoice or a free (custom hostable) open-source variant Fider, you can let your users add feature requests on which other people can vote and respond. I've seen some amazing feedback from users to parties like Microsoft. It also prevents that you have to answer the same requests over and over again, thus lowering the effort needed from your side.There you have it. Three technical ways of opening up to your users and embracing their feedback.Please note that simpler solutions like chatting might be interesting from the get-go, whereas more formal interaction like bug reporting and feature requests are probably more suitable when your user base is going past the tens of users range.Embrace your user's feedback. It will make you smarter, more humble, and help you to aim for the right problem at the right angleTo ConcludeIn this article, I've shown you several ways and moments of the product development cycle where you can take control of any abuse, misusage, misunderstanding or plain pestering that you might experience from what appears a user taking down your beautiful product.The five ways to take responsibility for your product as mentioned in this article are:By talking with (potential) users early on, you can check if your idea will form a proper solution to a problem / a need to a wantBy monkey testing your sketches, wireframes or mockup you can find out about the biggest roadblocks and learn from the people that are checking out your solution early onA lot of common problems have been thoroughly documented online. Check out about the most common user interaction issues and make sure you have your answer to those implemented in your solution. This is a quick win that will save you a lot of worries when you consider them while building your prototype or MVP versionWhen you have a usable version available, enabling interaction and providing guided means for users to send feedback to you is golden. This will often prevent them from ranting online and will give you a heads-up about issues. By using feature request solutions you can even let your users give you insights on their wants and needsUsing a testing strategy, you will be able to see where you need to put in your efforts regarding quality assurance and testing user scenarios. Basing it on risk analyses and the most important quality aspects of your solutionThere you have it.There's no point in pointing your finger 👉🏻 towards your users when something breaks just because they aren't using it as you intended it to be operated.As a maker, *YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE * for the success of your product and the value that it provides. Users will always manage to break stuff or use it in ways you could never have imagined before.So take control, and take advantage of the tips and pointers so you can embrace the user and what they got to offer.Building value for the user is best done when coöperating with your users.Take care and keep building #valuefirst solutions.![The end of the article Don't Blame It On Your Users](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/v43nd6fke1td909vqaec.gif)This article was originally posted on Shipharder.comDisclaimer: I am not affiliated with the products mentioned in this article in any way.Edwin Klesman is a 16+ year developer who loves building web/mobile apps and helping others in doing so. Check out [EEKAY ONLINE](www.eekayonline.com) to see what I'm about

#/r/startups #reddit

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