#im calling this chapter 1 because the first one was labelled as the prologue. youre gonna have to make your peace with that

[syrupyyyart]

A whole new chapter of Motley is up! Go read it right now!!!!!!!!!

[underoossss]

Dancing Under the Rain - H.O

PROLOGUE

pairing: detective!Harrison x female reader

warnings: might be angsty at times, mentions of death, murder investigations

AN: this story wouldn't let me sleep until I started writing down all my ideas (although in no specific order at first). There will be a time skips sometimes, but I’ll label them so its not confusing. I hope you guys like it, I’m always very self conscious about everything I write (even schoolwork) so I feel like im sharing a bit of myself with you here. Let me know if you enjoyed it. Thank you to Marcia who made this moldboard for me a while ago!💖

--- 

Over the years you have learned the pros and cons of living in a small town.

The pros:

You can escape from your previous life, from anything that hurt you and start over. No one knows who you are or the past that seems to sometimes follow you like a shadow sometimes. It’s a fresh start and 4 years ago, that was exactly what you needed.

That’s how you ended up in Dewitt, three hours away from Cambridge where everywhere you went people look at you with pity in their eyes. It’s as if losing your brother hadn’t been enough, no, people had to remind you with every look and every how are you? What were you even supposed to say? Devastated would only make people worried and okay made them believe you’re lying to them. Either way you felt like shit, there wasn’t a place you could go that didn’t remind you of him so you did what anyone else would do. Pack up your things and move to a remote town close to the sea where no one knew you.

The cons:

People talk. A lot.

Not that people aren’t nice, they are, well most of them. However, that doesn’t make them any less nosy or gets rid the river of gossip that inevitably flows when something different from the routine happens. You expected it going in, if word got around in Cambridge then it would certainly get around in Dewitt. Therefore you kept quiet about any personal details or stories, to them you were the psychology professor that owns the bookshop/café in Harold street. You drive up to Cambridge twice a week to lecture your students and Skype any of them who need office hours. During the summers you give online classes and put pastel blue tables outside your store for people to read or talk. To everyone there you were the nice young lady who makes some really nice coffee, who is always smiling and who tutors whoever needs help in science or English lit. Gossip is a plague though, one that no one can escape so that’s how find out a detective has moved into town. Richard Mensen has gone missing and it’s been a week since his family, or anyone else saw him. The local authorities haven’t gotten anywhere so they sent someone else to help.

You walk to the entrance of the bookstore and glance at the police station as a man steps out of a car and walks inside. Harrison Osterfield, the detective from London who you can tell already walks with a massive weight on his shoulders.

-----

Everyone is looking, there are cameras and reporters and Harrison just wants to go home. Eight and a half months after arriving to Dewitt, the case was finally solved. Richard Mensen was dead, that they discovered three weeks after arriving. The next eight months that followed were about finding out who did it, why they’d done it and convicting them for ruining a family’s life. They were also full of judgement, Harrison should be used to it by now, but he’s not. His palms sweat and his heart beats too fast under the attention of everyone in the town, every look of disappointment they had sent his way for taking so long.

You do it, Harrison wanted to say, go and solve it if it’s that easy. He puts on a neutral face, his mask, and tries not to give away how terrified he is of fucking up someone else’s life because of his shortcomings. He hasn’t so far, but he lived in fear of it happening. It’s brought him sleepless nights trying to figure cases out, cost him relationships and his confidence. He is sure of one thing though, they got the right guy convicted and now he can go to his little house in the outskirts of town and sleep for ten days.

“The case has been closed, the killer was sentenced to life in prison around thirty minutes ago. We kindly request the press to let the affected family rest and finally deal with their grief at this time. The people of Dewitt can be in peace now, we consider this case to be an anomaly in the otherwise safe community they live in. That’s all I have to say.”

Harrison steps aside and leaves the reporters standing outside of the station as he takes off his tie and shoves it in the pocket of his navy blue suit. The cool spring breeze pushes his hair back as he walks along the sidewalk by the many stores in Harold street. He takes a deep breath, feeling the tension leave his shoulders and smelling freshly ground coffee. Your bookshop is right ahead, the red flowers by the window blooming beautifully under the spring sun and contrasting with the pale yellow of the storefront. Harrison checks his watch, 2:30pm, it’s a bit too late for a coffee but he didn’t drink his usual one this morning and he’d be dammed if he doesn’t take this excuse to see you.

You’re sitting on a table by a bookshelf when he steps into the shop, there’s some papers in front of you, a cup of tea far away from them and what looks like a blueberry muffin by your right hand. You’re focused on what’s in front of you while you take a piece of the muffin with a fork and bring it to your mouth. Setting down the fork, you chew on the pastry as you grab a pen and scribble something on one of the papers. It’s only when someone clears their throat behind him that he realizes he’s been leaning on the doorway and staring at you for more than a couple of minutes.

His ears feel like they’re burning when he steps into the shop to let the other person in. He mumbles a quick sorry and walks towards the register where the drink menu was displayed.

“Detective Osterfield.” You smile, standing up when you notice him come into the bookshop. “How was court?”

“Please, Y/N, call me Harrison.” He feels himself smile as he shakes his head. “Court went well, he got a sentence and the case is close.”

“That’s good. I bet you’re looking forward to rest for a while.” You walk around the register and move to the expresso machine. “Your usual?”

“No, umm, if I drink coffee right now I won’t sleep and I really need a nap.” He scratches the back of his neck. Why is he always so nervous, he’s seen crime scenes and blood but he can’t talk to you without feeling like a teenager. “But maybe one of those chocolate cookies you’ve got there.”

“Oh! I’m sorry if I’m keeping you then, let me get that cookie for you.” You push your hair behind your ear as you grab a small paper bag and use a napkin to pick a cookie from the jar. “Here you go.”

Harrison can’t help but return the smile you give him and moves to take his wallet from his jacket. “No, you’re fine don’t worry. How much to I owe you?”

“Oh, forget about that.” You chuckle, smoothing the white blouse you are wearing. “Take it as a thank you for making our town safer.”

Harrison’s ears burn once more, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it.” You shrug, suddenly looking shy. “Are you, umm, staying in Dewitt? With the case being closed and all?”

Harrison hadn’t even thought about leaving, this town had become part of his routine and he dared say he’s grown fond of it. Not to mention he’d grown fond you. “Yeah, I’m staying.”

“Good, great that’s nice.” You smile. “Would you like to take a walk down to the beach someday? It’s okay if you say no, don’t feel like you have to say yes because of the cookie, it’s not a bribe or anything I just-“

“Y/N.” Harrison stops your rambling stepping towards you. His heart is beating a mile a minute, you just asked him out. The broody shitty detective that takes eight months to figure out a case. He’s the luckiest shitty detective there is. “I’d love that.” He says, taking your hand.

“Really?” You smile, his eyes meet yours and he’s surprised to see his own. Eyes that smile but not all the way, eyes that are hiding something painful that’s locked away in your heart.

“Yeah.” He smiles back, squeezing your hand with his before stepping back. “We can go whenever you want, just let me know.”

Let me get to know you, he thinks. And when you nod your head and smile at him again he is almost certain that you will. It could take time, but he’s willing to wait until the moment you decide you will.

----

Let me know your thoughts! ✨

chapter 1 - chapter 2 

[gods-at-gunpoint]

howdy everyone! first monthly update for drgag, but first, thank you all so much for the support thusfar! im crying guys

lets get into it ! 

november’s been a bit of a hectic month due to the end of my schools semester rounding the corner along with the general chaotic energy of this time of the year, but without further ado!

main takeaways from this month of work has been

-loads of sprites! except. i realized pretty late in the process that i was making them in a very inefficient way and taking like. way longer on each one than i needed to because of this . like 

for anyone making fangans as well its really a learning process and mass producing sprites and shit is a PROCESS. but i feel like the easiest way ive found to make different poses nd shit quicker is to like. LABEL my folders . when i make eyes that i know are gonna change i go in and make a folder where ill put all that. and then when it comes to bodies which i didnt think too hard about at first, especially when it comes to arms... like the best thing i think thats streamlined has been to just draw the whole ass torso and render it and THEN add arms to that, rather than drawing the arms and coloring the arms on the same damn layer as everything else... whereas you have to select the arms and then make a new layer and go BACK and recolor the torso bc u fucked up like... yeah.... 

ive mostly worked on kimiko and itsuki so far because i just love conveying their personalities a lot through their sprites, gonna post a few of my favs-

crackheads. i also made emi sprites but my clip studio file got corrupted? i have to fix that shit msldfkjdf add this to my to do list siri please smflksdf ...ok moving on

-splash art coming along slowly but steadily... will get there eventually its kinda just farther down on my list of priorities rn lol heres a kimiko wip tho

-writing!!! i revised . i HARDCORE revised how i decided to open the game like. shit. fuck. i just had a thought while i was watching nichijou one day and shit i just. damn. i dont wanna say anything bc im like so fucking excited about it but basically it calls for about 30 more scene cgs that i had not prior planned so ive been. grinding so much to try and get those illustrated mkanhuyfysoif but yeah!! i rewrote the whole ass introduction to the prologue god bless . the prologues all done written now but ofc im probs gonna go over it like 60 more times lmao

in other parts of writing i finished about half of the first and third trials, and most of chapter 1′s writing overall... we rlly out here gettin that bread bruh

with writing i guess the biggest thing is like. i have a fuckton of gaps where i just need to put like. the In Between shit mlksdfjiusdf lmao but yeahg. we out here

-programming shit!!! god i . worked on implementing UI into unity and holy shit it was all on fire my pain is immeasurable im not a fucking compsci major fmlkjasuhf98asdofp my compsci major friend was looking over my shoulder the whole time and shaking his head njhysuadgf8sduoifjkdsf but like. basically i figured how to put some basic text box shit up in unity but ive mostly just been grinding away at practicing related C# shit in order to get my life together. also ive been throwing around a lot of UI ideas like 

i dont fucking know. i think im gonna have the whole student handbook on the side of it with shortcuts? at least the transcript, save, load, etc commands on the right side of it... also im thinking of making it much more minimalist than how the DR dialogue boxes are usually bc usually theyre like. largely flashy but yknow i . i dont know i just really like how minimalistic UI looks but i may or may not change my mind on this. god skdfjlsdkf

-here have whatever the fuck this is 

god okay this got lengthy real quick so imma scuttl away now until next time... thanks yall again for your support!!!! i have some breaks from school soon so hopefully i can like. get a lot more stuff done especially w my sprite epiphanies lmao mlsfkjsdf

goodnight!! 

-annie 

art up there without text:

d8 night )