Chat Thread Omega

El Chupacabra said:

So I’ve got kind of a serious question about a situation that popped up on my radar today.

I haven’t been going to the smack tea hut all that much lately, but was in there this afternoon and was hipped to the following: a kid who goes there — early 20s — was talking about what a shitty night he just had; another patron mentioned an angry outburst by this kid, where he threw his phone.

We’re friendly, so I asked him what was up, and he mentioned this sort of love triangle drama he had been involved in — he said some girl who hangs there had messed with him and another dude (i don’t know what this means, could be just flirting, could be partly physical, he didn’t elaborate), and now she was talking to a third dude who hangs at the bar. This kid (we’ll call him Brett) is friendly with the new kid (who we’ll call Judge), and pulled the classic, jealous move of warning Judge about this girl and how she was a heartbreaker/drama maker. Judge of course tells the woman, who rails at Brett who now feels betrayed by Judge.

Now Smack tea hut has always been quite the safe space for gun rights bros, and at least two of the bartenders are always packing. Like fully wearing their sidearms on their hips while slinging smack tea. There is one town police officer who is a regular (as a patron, both on and off duty), and other cops are in there semi-regularly.

I know both Brett and Judge own guns (each plural, I’m pretty sure). I also know Brett has been hospitalized/institutionalized for some episode not too long ago. I forget specifics, but I’m pretty sure it was either self harm or a violent tendency of some sort — I forget specifics and may be overstating the severity, but I’m pretty sure it was serious.

Brett seemed fired up about this earlier - not on the verge of anything, but not chill. However, on Facebook just now he shared a supposedly humorous video depicting a man shooting a handgun to take care of household chores like a greasy kitchen range and dirty dishes. Brett commented “seems pretty effective to me.”

So. Is this guy going to shoot the place up? Should I talk to the cop? The owners? The gun situation at the bar has always been super sketchy to me, but I’ve just tried to be cool about it, and I’ve never seen any fired up people in there or felt threatened in any way more than the likelihood of some deadly accident being way more likely.

Thoughts? Am I being paranoid?

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El Chupacabra said:

Smack tea has also been known to act in more, shall we say, stimulating ways.

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RJKarl said:

Tea does have caffeine. They could probably grow higher caffeine content leaves.

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