let's make this moment a crime (dandrea!)

[ANDREA CONNOR]

i am in love with what we are

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→ N O T W H A T W E S H O U L D B E ←[/color][/font]

Andrea had no idea what she was doing here.

She was actually quite excited for the ball, initially. She had gone shopping with Addie for a dress a couple weeks earlier, and had of course picked out the most texture-ridden dress she could find. It may have been a bit out there, but she loved the smooth texture of the stones on the bodice compared to the light, airy fabric of the rest of the dress. Her mother had done her hair and makeup for the evening, and she seemed pleased with it when she was finished, so Andrea assumed it looked at least decent. Her parents never usually let her go to events outside of school, but both Addie and Sam were going to be there, so they eventually said yes if she took her cane. Which she had conveniently left at home, obviously. However, she could have used it right now. At least she'd be able to get around. She ran her fingers over the hem of her dress, grabbing a small piece and clenching it tightly. She wish she had somewhat of an idea of how the space looked. At Baum, she could pretty much picture the space around her, even if all the details and people's faces were missing. Here, she was completely and totally lost. And it horrified her.

Addie had led her somewhere and said she was going to get them some punch, and that she would be right back. She said that didn't want to take her there because there was a huge crowd hovering around the snack table. Andrea was thankful for that, because Addie knew how she got around crowds. However, she didn't know what to do in this situation. She could hear the music blaring, the sound of long dresses swishing across the floor, and the clinking of glasses, and all she could do was fiddle her thumbs. She just wished she could reach out and feel something. She wasn't used to not being able to use her hands to explore, which made her nervous. She knew it wouldn't be socially acceptable if she just stuck her hands out like Frankenstein and roamed around, people would think she had just walked out of a mental asylum. Or worse, her brother would see how ridiculous she looked without her cane and tell her parents, who would then probably force her to carry it around at all times.

However, There were a lot of people here, so many that Andrea couldn't even decipher the conversations from various people around her. She took a deep breath and clenched her dress even harder. She could do this. She just had to make her way to a corner somewhere, that was all. Addie couldn't have left her that far away from a wall, she was too nice for that. So all she had to do was take a couple steps and she would at least be able to feel something recognizable and relax.

…And after three steps she walked right into someone. Of course. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" Andrea said, looking at the ground in hopes the the person would just walk away and not notice that there was anything unusual with her.

[/color]
tag:[/color] Dan!
words:[/b][/color] 542
notes:[/b][/color] yayyy so excited! also, outfit here
lyrics:[/b][/color] Animal - Ke$ha (I KNOW, SORRY)
credit: NOA[/size][/center]

[DAN KAPLAN]

Is it the apocalypse, or is Daniel Kaplan at a dance? #botheventsareequallyrare

[/i].[/color]

Dan slipped his phone back into his pocket, seeing his mother’s hands signing in the back of his head. You’re always glued to that phone, Daniel. Go out and socialize, sweetie pie.

Now, obviously, that had been a different situation #justalittle. At Louisiana School for the Deaf, Dan hadn’t been, you know, a #freak, or a #specialedkid. And it wasn’t like Dan didn’t have friends at Baum, #obviously. It was just that, well, those friends…#bowchickabowow.

And obviously, there was Jay. But Jay…where in God’s name had that boy gone? Shit, this was why Dan didn’t do these group things. ”It’ll be fine, Dan,” they’d all said. ”We’ll all stay together, Dan.” “It’ll be fun, Dan.” #lolnope. ”Is this the part where I’m supposed to have fun? #howaboutnow #maybenow #arewethereyet”[/i][/color] he tweeted, surveying the crowd that milled before him. Oh, and had he mentioned that the fact that everyone here was wearing masks made this a million times better? And by better, he of course meant #somuchfuckingworse. Because of all the hundreds of faces that swam before his eyes, he had literally no idea which ones were Jay, Mikey, Ozzie, and Jackson.

So, there was that. Sighing, Dan walked over to the drink table and helped himself to a glass of apple juice, sipping it calmly so it at least wouldn’t look like he was doing absolutely nothing #definitionofclass. Maybe everyone here would just think he was one of those calm, brooding figures that sat in the corner, pondering the meaning of life. Yep, that was it. #strongandsilenttype, that was Dan Kaplan. He sipped his apple juice again, scratching his chin and watching the swells of people pulsate before him.

And then, before he could blink, he was on the ground, his apple juice cascading across the floor. Dan gritted his teeth, feeling pain coarse through his lower abdominal area as he rose slowly back to his feet, thanking the lord, for the first time that night, that he was wearing this stupid mask. What the hell? he thought to himself, searching the room for a paper towel dispenser or something to clean up the mess of apple juice with. Had someone just…knocked into him? Like, full-on? ”Pretty sure I was just hit by an avalanche #nbd”[/i][/color] he tweeted, wondering who…and then he spotted her.

Her lips were moving, and she was staring at the ground as if there were an intricate pattern engrained in the wood. ”Sorry, was I in your way?” Dan signed instinctively, before realizing that…#well #yeah. He pulled out his phone again, typing into his notepad app. ”Hi…sorry, was I in your way?” [/font]

Well. This was probably going to be the most mega-weird thing this girl had ever experienced in her life. But she’d already seen him, and he was stupid, and it wasn’t like he could just walk away now without seeming like some kind of nervous nerd freak. So he reached over and tapped her on the shoulder, placing his phone in her hand and, #ohjesus, feeling his muscles tense as he relinquished control of the device.
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”Dan talking”[/font]
”Other person talking”[/font]
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WORDZ:

[/b][/color]525
LYRICZ:[/b][/color]Everything About You-One Direction
TAGZ:[/b][/color]Andrea
OUTFIT:[/b][/color] www.polyvore.com/dan_masquerade/set?id=51159503
NOTEZ:[/b][/color]Woooooop
CREDIT:[/b][/color]This template is by Monica. DON’T BE STEALIN’ YA HEAR?[/left]

[ANDREA CONNOR]

i am in love with what we are

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→ N O T W H A T W E S H O U L D B E ←[/color][/font]

Andrea stood in silence for a bit, waiting for the person to say 'It's okay,' or anything to show that they were alright. After a few awkward moments, she just assumed that they had left. It was very peculiar how the person would just leave like that. Usually people say something when they just get bumped into, or at least huff and walk away. And yet, this person seemed to not have noticed at all. She nervously grabbed at the small gold ring on her left hand and slowly spun it around her finger as her mind automatically went to worst possible things that could have happened. They probably hated her, or had somehow figured out that she couldn't see and just didn't want to deal with her. It had happened often enough before that the initial surprise eventually faded into her average expectations.

Oh wait, they were still here. Or, she assumed it was the same person. It could be an entirely different person, she could never be absolutely certain. However, whoever they were had just tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped in surprise as her hands instinctively flew in front of her in shock. She hardly had a second to process what had just happened when the person placed an object in her right hand. "Um…thank you." Something must have fallen out of her purse, and the person was just returning it. That was nice of them. She turned around as she placed the small object in the middle of her left hand and slowly ran the three middle fingers on her right hand over the surface. It was a small rectangular shaped object, with rounded edges. The surface was almost entirely smooth, with a small circular indentation near the bottom. As she traced her index finger around the edge, she realized there was a slight ridge about the perimeter. She recognized the distinctive textures, remembering when her dad showed her his new iPhone when it first came out, just around six months before she lost her sight. Immediately realizing that it was a phone and not something that had fallen out of her purse, she quickly spun back around.

"Oh...this isn't mine." She said, still clutching onto the iPhone. She realized that she probably looked like an idiot, taking a minute and a half just touching a phone. She eased her arm out towards the direction she was tapped, holding the phone in her right hand, just wanting to seem as normal as possible. She hoped they hadn't moved or worse, had already walked away, and left her holding out the phone to thin air. This was the worst part of blindness, in her opinion. Feeling like she was completely cut off from the world in one of the most crucial ways. As much as she tried to be normal and wanted to fit in, there were times like these where no matter how hard she tried, it wasn't going to work.

[/color]
tag:[/color] Dan!
words:[/b][/color] 508
notes:[/b][/color] I need to give props to Theo for staying up until the wee
hours of the morning and helping me think of the most
detailed ways to describe an iPhone and helping think
of ways blind people would react to things.
THANKS THEOKINS!
lyrics:[/color] Animal - Ke$ha (I KNOW, SORRY)
credit: NOA[/size][/center]

[DAN KAPLAN]

Dan raised an eyebrow as the girl held his phone…wait, was she like, caressing it? Man, she was super into his phone, wasn’t she? Uh, why…why wasn’t she looking at it?

Well, this was #awksauce.

But seriously…what actually were her hands doing with his phone? Do you…do you want to keep that? he wanted to type bewilderedly to her, but he didn’t have his phone, and fuck, he didn’t have his phone, fuck, he was probably going to start hyperventilating if he didn’t get it back soon. He could feel the walls of helplessness closing in on him, the walls of muteness, of silence, of inability. He was gritting his teeth, trying to prevent himself from reaching out and snatching the phone back from her. He tried to focus on other parts of her body instead, her face, her glittery mask, her legs, her shoes…and as he stole his first good look at his assailant’s body he realized that #hotdamn. She was…hot.

#OhGod, her eyes were gorgeous, this bright blueish-grayish thing peeking out from between the holes in her mask, and Jesus, he just wanted to look at them forever #notcreepy #seriously #okay #maybealittle #but. And her dress was…okay, he wasn’t going to look at her chest right now, that was not a thing Dan did, #right? But man, okay, even with a mask over her face, he just felt this…pull to her #actuallynotinacreepyway #seriouslyguys. She was just really, really…okay, she was saying something.

He only caught the first syllable of what those absolutely gorgeous lips were saying, but the one syllable was enough. Thank you. Dan felt his eyebrow arch slightly, unsure of what exactly she was thanking him for, but since the words had come from the lips of this beautiful goddess, he couldn’t have cared less. He was…#shit. Was he…was he into this girl? He’d literally known of her existence for like, two seconds #awk. Was he drunk? Was it possible to get drunk off of apple juice? #Damnit, and he’d only had like, two sips. He reached into his pocket for his phone to tweet about the entire affair, when it occurred to him that #whatdoyouknow, this frickin’ adorable, smoking girl still had his phone.

He was wondering if he should like, tap her again or something, when her lips moved again. Okay, that time he’d gotten absolutely none of what she’d said. He reached over and took the phone from her, trying to wrap his mind around what exactly had just happened. Had she said “I’m illiterate” Or “Sorry, I have a pathological fear of phones”? #thatshitcray. Well, this was once again #awksauce. But oh God, Dan couldn’t walk away now, not after he’d met this gorgeous angel of a girl and had totally fucked their meeting up. He had to at least say something. Find out her name, even.

Struck with a sudden idea, Dan scrolled quickly through his phone, locating the Audio Reader. He’d never used this thing before because #comeon #really, but he knew it was supposed to like, read things you typed into it out loud. So if she couldn’t read, this would at least do that. He typed his message again and pressed the “audio” button, watching the cursor move over the words. Hopefully his phone was doing some magical phone thing and saying them out loud now, right? Otherwise this would be super #awk. More than it already was #ifthatwasevenpossible.

”Hi…sorry, was I in your way?”

Once his phone had finished talking #hopefully #lol he added another message. ”Yeah, hi, so I’m Dan, and I can’t hear, so would you mind like, typing your answer onto this thing so I can read it? Or actually, there might be a way to talk into it too, if you can’t type for whatever reason. That’s probably on one of the menu things somewhere. If you need that.” He played the message, physically restraining himself from adding hashtags at the end, because the last thing he needed was this audio app thing exploding trying to figure out how to pronounce a number sign. Wow, the whole typed out message probably made him sound a lot more confident than he was. That was good #maybe #sorta.

”Sorry if this is weird. I can just…go, if you want,” he added in a hurried afterthought, before holding out the phone for her to take. Wow. #whateven was his life right now?

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”Dan talking”[/font]
”Other person talking”[/font]
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WORDZ:

[/b][/color]738
LYRICZ:[/b][/color]Everything About You-One Direction
TAGZ:[/b][/color]Andrea
OUTFIT:[/b][/color] www.polyvore.com/dan_masquerade/set?id=51159503
NOTEZ:[/b][/color]SORRY THIS IS REALLY CREEPY AND CLINGY AND OBSESSED, IF YOU’RE WIERDED OUT BY IT LET ME KNOW AND I’LL TONE IT DOWN
CREDIT:[/b][/color]This template is by Monica. DON’T BE STEALIN’ YA HEAR?[/left]

[ANDREA CONNOR]

i am in love with what we are

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→ N O T W H A T W E S H O U L D B E ←[/color][/font]

”Yeah, hi, so I’m Dan, and I can’t hear, so would you mind like, typing your answer onto this thing so I can read it? Or actually, there might be a way to talk into it too, if you can’t type for whatever reason. That’s probably on one of the menu things somewhere. If you need that. Sorry if this is weird. I can just…go, if you want.”

The weird, robotic voice stunned her for a second, as it initially reminded her of the clown mastermind from the Saw movies. However, once she had gotten over that initial shock, she pondered over the sentences until the realization finally hit her.

He couldn't hear. He couldn't hear. "You…can't…" Wait, he couldn't hear that. She just needed to stop talking.

She didn't know what to do, as she had never been in a situation like this. She all of a sudden became hyperaware of what she was doing. She was always aware of how people viewed her, but she was particularly stressed because she knew from experience that when one sense was lost, another one was strengthened. With her, it was her sense of touch. What if with Dan it was his sense of sight? What if he thought it was strange how her hands were always fidgeting, or how her eyes never once met his? If that was true, he probably could sense that she was different already. She almost wanted to walk away, as it was probably the easiest way to get out of the situation. Then she remembered a quote she had discovered earlier in the night:

"You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.
Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.
You can only grow if you're willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new."

She needed to get out of her comfort zone. She took a deep breath and took the phone, tracing the edges until she found the big button in the center, and pressed down. "Um…hi Dan. I'm Andrea, and I…can't see." She hadn't actually said that aloud in a while. She didn't like to admit it to herself, she spent so much energy trying to fit into regular society that saying her weakness out loud felt like she was giving up. It seemed almost a bit too fitting that this was a masquerade ball, because although she was literally wearing a mask, her biggest facade had already fallen.

[/color]
tag:[/color] Dan!
words:[/b][/color] 429
notes:[/b][/color] The problem with writing a few sentences every once in a
while for a few months is that the post generally ends up sucking.
Sorry for the insane delay!
lyrics:[/color] Animal - Ke$ha (I KNOW, SORRY)
credit: NOA[/size][/center]

[DAN KAPLAN]

Dan stood nervously, watching the beautiful goddess fidget with his phone. #Hotdamn, was she sexy when she fidgeted. Her fingers did this little like, tap thing, on the screen of his iPhone case and oh God, those beautiful fingers were getting their beautiful germs on his stupid, plain little iPhone case. He wished he had a more exciting iPhone case. Maybe that could’ve been like, a spark of conversation or something.

Conversation. #funnyjoke. Like conversation was ever going to happen with this girl. She probably thought he was the creepiest, ugliest guy alive. Oh, and her lips were moving again. #perfecto. She was probably trying to tell him that he needed to get the hell out of her way #creep before she like, called the NYPD, or pulled out her pepper spray or pedophile whistle or whatever. How could someone as stunning and perfect as her even be interested in looking at someone as awkward and dumb as him? He should probably just like, leave now and save her the awkwardness of having to reject him. #socialbutterfly.

He saw her pass his phone back to him, though he hadn’t seen her type anything. He glanced at it curiously, wondering if she’d like, tried to hack it or something.

"Um…hi Dan. I'm Andrea, and I…can't see."

#Oh.

#Uh.

#Huh.

Well, this was something new.

Actually, the more he looked at it, the more that kind of made sense. Like, now that he was suddenly taking a close look at her face as opposed to…well, #nevermind, he could totally see that her eyes weren’t moving. Like, they were still gorgeous, but they had this weird like, distant look to them, like they weren’t really…focusing on anything. It was kind of unnerving, and he resisted some weird instinct that kept shooting through him to flinch away.

Well. This was going to be an interesting conversation.

Wow, she…Andrea, was so freakin’ pretty.

About like, seven million different responses flickered through his head, but as he ran his thumbs back and forth across his phone’s keypad, not a single one of them seemed right. Should he like, apologize? But no, he had to avoid sympathy. If there was one thing that Dan himself hated, more than anything, it was sympathy. But should he just like, ignore it? Change the subject? Or thank her and be on his merry way? He wanted to diffuse this tension somehow, if there was any tension, or whatever, but he didn’t want to like…#oh #fuckit. After a few minutes’ pondering, he finally just typed the response that seemed the least trite and contrived, the most genuine, the most…well, real, really. He pressed the audio button thing again, and handed it back to her.

"How long?"

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”Dan talking”[/font]
”Other person talking”[/font]
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WORDZ:

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LYRICZ:[/b][/color]Everything About You-One Direction
TAGZ:[/b][/color]Andrea
OUTFIT:[/b][/color] www.polyvore.com/dan_masquerade/set?id=51159503
NOTEZ:[/b][/color]I luv theemmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
CREDIT:[/b][/color]This template is by Monica. DON’T BE STEALIN’ YA HEAR?[/left]

[ANDREA CONNOR]

i am in love with what we are

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→ N O T W H A T W E S H O U L D B E ←[/color][/font]

"How long?"

"Almost a year now." A year. It seemed strange how a year could go by so quickly. She still remembered the first morning after the accident, when she looked in the direction of her mother's voice, and seeing nothing there. There was a sudden anguish, a lack, something like a void which filled her with utter despair. She remembered sitting in her hospital bed during the next few weeks trying to force herself to accept the fact that she had completely lost the sight of her eyes, and she would never see the light of the world any more. Moving home was a challenge, as it was then when she realized that it wasn't just her eyes that were gone, her hands had forgotten how to obey as well. She remembered the initial fumbling around and feeling like her hands had been uprooted, cut off from her, and being overwhelmingly afraid. She remembered the moment she let her hands take control, and they slowly learned to move as they explored things separately, changed levels and, independently of each other, made themselves heavy or light. She remembered being told that in order to function in society, she had to forget about her sight, forget that she was blind. But she couldn't forget. How could she, when the hallucinations plagued her dreams, tormenting her with images of everything she had lost?

Reliving those memories was just a further reminder that she had nothing to guide her in this crowded room, not even a wall to to feel her way out. The thought of it almost made her dizzy. No, it was really making her dizzy. And all of a sudden she felt herself slowly tipping, and she reached out for something to grab but there was nothing there.

She could feel the ground nearing closer when she felt a hand grab her own. And that was when she saw it.

Yellow.

Her breath caught in her throat. She couldn't move, she couldn't speak, all she could do was stand with her hand in his, staring at the bright yellow light. And then, as soon as it came, it was gone. She grasped his hand as tight as she could, trying to mentally will the light to come back. But she knew it was no use. The hallucinations had a mind of their own, and it was in these moments when she knew she was still under the control of the remnants of her sight. And right now, those remnants were guiding her to this boy. A boy that could possibly understand her in a way others never could. She didn't know anything about him, but she knew she couldn't spend the rest of her life not knowing.

"Can we get out of here?" She asked tentatively, still retaining her firm grip on his hand.

[/color]
tag:[/color] Dan!
words:[/b][/color] 468
notes:[/b][/color] D'ANDREA FEELZZZ
lyrics:[/color] Animal - Ke$ha (I KNOW, SORRY)
credit: NOA[/size][/center]

[DAN KAPLAN]

He took the phone back from her, feeling way more eager than he definitely should have been to hear her response to the question. #Whoops. But he still wanted to know.

Almost a year now

#Oh.

#Well. That was…different.

Oh God, so she’d had her sight for like, fourteen or fifteen years, or however many years old she was minus one? That sounded…Dan tried to imagine what it would be like to lose his eyesight like, now. And just like, never have it again. #Wow. That sounded incredibly awful. At least Dan didn’t know any other way.

But then again, maybe if he could hear, it wouldn’t be so bad. He didn’t really know how much hearing could make up for a lack of eyesight, after all. Could hearing help you get around to places like eyesight could? He’d always assumed that it could, but not as well, because when there were blind people in movies they could always still walk around, but just had to do this weird thing with a cane. Maybe it could help you identify obstacles and stuff that were at eye level, but not down on the ground? That would explain the cane thing.

#Anyways. This train of thought was completely irrelevant to anything right now. Still, he thought a bit about how to respond. He didn’t want to just like, brush off the comment like it was nothing. But there was no way in hell he was doing the whole #sympathy thing either. He’d always hated sympathy. His friends from his old school had always hated sympathy. People like…them didn’t want sympathy. They just wanted to be normal. #Whateverthatmeans.

Sixteen years.

[/font]He passed her back the phone, smiling almost sardonically. He’d just play it mater-of-factly.

Wait, what was she doing? She was leaning forward in this weird way…oh, oh shit, was she fainting? Crap, had he said something? Trying not to panic, he darted forward and grasped her hand, pulling her back to her feet. He could feel his other hand beginning to sign instinctively, but that was obviously not going to be super effective here, #damnitdan #idiot. Oh my God, are you okay?[/font] he typed hurriedly, thrusting the phone back at her probably a bit too hard.

"Can we get out of here?"[/color][/font]

#Ohthankgod. So he wasn’t the only one who was just about ready to ditch this dump. Yeah, sure. Hey, some friends and I are having an afterparty thing back at my dorm. #yolo. You wanna maybe come?[/font] He could feel his heart pounding with anticipation as he handed the phone back to her, then began to lead her from the room without another word.





”Dan talking”[/font]
”Other person talking”[/font]
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WORDZ:

[/b][/color]487
LYRICZ:[/b][/color]Everything About You-One Direction
TAGZ:[/b][/color]Andrea
OUTFIT:[/b][/color] www.polyvore.com/dan_masquerade/set?id=51159503
NOTEZ:[/b][/color]FEELINGS I HAVE THEM
CREDIT:[/b][/color]This template is by Monica. DON’T BE STEALIN’ YA HEAR?[/left]