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coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe · 3 years ago

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Major Updates to My Weird Idea (that includes my Nightside OCs)

Go check my previous post on this - HERE

This is mainly an update for @schizoauthoress , @the--blackdahlia , @spacelizardtrashboys , @enigmaticandunstable and @piratewithvigor and I personally think @nattinngrst might like this.

I went on a trip to the beach yesterday with my parents and my older brother (who I bored and annoyed with this idea and you'll see some of his influence in this here post)

Anything written in italics is meant to be taken as a joke as you read through this wall of text, sending good vibes as always, hope y'all are doing well.

The show is set in Canadian, Texas (real place: Wikipedia). I'm thinking of this show starting in the mid-to-late 90s (1996/1997).

I've managed to do several things with that weird sitcom idea, so, where to start, how about with the three potential titles:

1 - Neighbourhood Watch

2 - First Call

3 - First Round (Which my brother likes)

Here are some options for bar names, starting with the Cop bar:

1 - The Donut Hole

2 - The Roasted Hog (which my big bro suggested)

3 - The Sherriff's Outpost

And the Biker Bar:

1 - The Handlebar Inn

2 - The Steel Horse Saloon

3 - The Rebel Room

Next on the list of updates: Cast additions, character roles and (Finally after 2 days) Names for Everyone!!

I'll start with the Cop Bar's owner & staff:

Rosalina Asturias 'Rosa' (Played by Billie Martinez) an employee of the local cop bar. Didn't grow up in the town, moved here for work.

Violet Croft (Played by Eli Herne) an employee. Grew up in town, never left, has the hots for one of the guys in the local police.

Sunshine Crawford 'Sunny' (Played by Holly Di Antonio) an employee. Grew up in town, left for college and came back.

Roscoe Power 'Ross' (Played by Jimmy Hart) the loudmouth who owns the bar, grew up in town, used to be a car salesman.

Olesya Pavlovsky 'Olivia' (Played by Penelope Voronin) an employee who grew up in town and has immigrant parents, goes by 'Olivia' because she would rather you don't f*** up her actual name.

Winona Vance (Played by Sam Griffin Silver) an employee who moved here from New York, for unknown reasons, and doesn't really understand the small town, everyone knows everyone lifestyle.

Lavender Whittemore (Played by Victoria Lucifarian) an employee who grew up in England but moved to live in America, settled in Canadian, Texas due to her love of westerns.

Next: The Local Police Squad:

Sergeant Valentine Gautier 'Val' (Played by Bret Hart) recently promoted before the series begins but still on patrol duty, watches over his younger brother.

Corporal Buck Morris 'Buckshot' (Played by Davey Boy Smith) the gun loving corporal of the squad and the only one to have both 'work' and 'home' guns.

Captain Napoleon Cooper 'Crazy Cooper' / 'Captain Crazy' (Played by Jim Neidhart) the police captain, recently reassigned to Canadian, Texas as there were rumours abut him which interfered with his work in his previous location.

Officer Duke Gautier (Played by Owen Hart) the young, recently recruited brother of Sgt Gautier, often put on patrol alone to ensure less arguments, but always checked on by his brother.

Next: The Biker Bar's Staff:

Ozzy Rains (Played by Charles Wright) A biker and member of the staff who grew up just outside of town but loves his fellow staff members like family.

Brock Martel (Played by Henry Godwin) a biker and member of the staff who grew up on a local ranch and loves beer, football and the current Mayor's down-to-Earth style.

Vincent Gore 'Vinnie' (Played by Kane) the owner's son and a known fire loving 'freak' often protected by his surrogate family, the bar staff, Vinnie knows no better than 'ooh, cool looking fire' and must be restrained or have his hands swatted away to stop him burning himself trying to touch campfires.

Raven Knight (Played by Kirby Roussimoff) the only female staff member, but also the girl who does all the tough jobs when needed, has a side business of making and selling artwork, such as portraits to locals, has designed some of the bar staff's tattoos.

Harlow Gore (Played by Paul Bearer) the owner of the bar and a loving father to his son, took Murphy (Undertaker) under his wing when they first met and also treats him, and the rest of staff, like family.

Hunter King (Played by Phineas Godwin) Brock's cousin and a member of staff, taught Raven how to shoot a shotgun and his father owns a local tattoo parlour.

Sequoia Reed (Played by Rikishi) an employee and Frankie's (Yokozuna) cousin, also a surrogate cousin to Raven, having been best friends since childhood. Reed loves his job and his staff family and will defend both at any cost.

Lupe Zapatero (Played by Savio Vega) an employee at the bar and possibly the shortest member of staff, towered over by the tallest staff members but is not any less of a fighter because of his size, a former mechanic who loves nothing more than taking things apart and putting them back together while listening to metal / rock.

Murphy Graves (Played By The Undertaker) Manager of the biker bar and an excellent member of staff, has an outlaw rules vibe, as in he would say to the police "Your jurisdiction ends when you walk in my bar." Very protective of the staff, and the owner.

Frankie Wolf (Played by Yokozuna) the most relaxed and laid-back of the staff, Frankie would prefer to be in the kitchen making potential 'Culinary Masterpieces' as he would call them. Sequoia and Raven's (surrogate) cousin, views his staff mates as family.

Next: The Local Band (Named: Exoskeleton Samurai)/College Students

Quinn Thorn (Played by Jeff Hardy) the bassist to Ros' (Lita) vocals / lead Guitar and older brother Garth's (Matt) Drums, a face paint enthusiast and an English major in college who never seems to find time to study, but always has time to date somehow.

Roz Jerome (Played by Lita) the vocals and lead guitar for the band and an art major who actually studies, dating Garth (Matt) and met Quinn through him. Roz also studies Spanish and French.

Garth Thorn (Played by Matt Hardy) Quinn's older brother and the band's drummer, a major in psychology and a horror movie lover, Roz' boyfriend and almost totally devoted to her, even at the cost of his college work.

Next: The Local Townsfolk of Note:

Mayor Robert Sweet (Played by Jim Duggan) rarely seen, but apparently a good man with good ideas, helps out in volunteer projects and absolutely loves the town. Trying his hardest and people know this, and they love him. (did I meme correctly?)

Rusty Jarvis (Played by Mick Foley) the local hippie who has never left town, somehow managing to know both everything and nothing at the same town. (Very Dude Love with hints of Cactus Jack and Mankind) Does know how to fight when he needs to.

Redd Wayne (Played by 'Sycho' Sid Vicious/Justice) the local baseball/softball star, helps out at the local school/college teaching sports and likes Raven's artwork, he watches her draw when he can, runs the local little league & minor league baseball/softball games.

Earl Black (Played by Steve Austin) the most often seen regular at the biker bar, absolutely loves both the bar and the town, a hardworking guy who has befriended the entire staff (including Harlow and Vinnie) of the biker bar.

Lex Aston (Played by The Rock) a local struggling actor, teaching an acting class to pay the bills and an absolute ladies man, and for that reason he goes to the cop bar, to try and pick up one of the bartenders who works there, often favouring Rosa as she will jokingly flirt back.

Finally (for this section): The Degenerates and Their Benefactors:

Reign Yates (Played by Billy Gunn) Leon's (Road Dogg) best friend, often the getaway driver for the group and a scout for locations, often getting all the info on a place before telling Matty (H.H.H) and Dell (HBK). Often leaves town with Leon to get the heat off them. (and make out in secret)

Zelda Hooper (Played by Chyna) the only female degenerate but possibly the toughest, has a rap sheet as big as her arms, not to be trusted when around the other degenerates as she is usually the actual brains of the operation.

Matty Battle (Played by Hunter Hearst Helmsley) the co-leader of the degenerates, often protected by Zelda or Mark (Kevin Nash). does most of the talking but has the piss taken of him for his looks often by either other degenerates or locals who don't care for the degenerates.

Romeo Colombera (Played by Mike Rotundo/I.R.S) the right hand man of the mysterious benefactor, and often the lawyer for the degenerates as well as a taskmaster for them, telling them what the boss wants done and by what date.

Mark Rake (Played by Kevin Nash/Diesel) the tallest degenerate with a rap sheet as long as his leg, a former bouncer at a now closed nightclub, alongside best friend (and possibly boyfriend) Galo (Scott Hall) and now a bodyguard (when needed) for Matty and Dell (HBK, also boyfriends).

Leon Rose (Played by Road Dogg) best friend of Reign and a scout for the group alongside him. Has found every possible way to piss off other townsfolk and often in the most fights because of it, always on the police's radar for one thing or another and constantly leaving town because of it.

Galo Villalobos (Played by Scott Hall/Razor Ramon) the only (supposedly) Latino degenerate, raised in Canadian, Texas but his parents are from Cuba, Galo is a former nightclub bouncer (alongside Mark) Galo is known (for his ability to give minus fucks) as the most relaxed member of the group.

Dell Pain (Played by Shawn Michaels/HBK) the co-leader alongside Matty, a known flirt with people regardless of gender or sexuality, just to piss them off on some occasions. Dell grew up in town, knowing it like the back of his hand.

Giles Rennell (Played by Ted DiBiase) the mysterious benefactor of the group, bailing them out if needed, he stumbled across the group after seeing a police bulletin and decided to use them to cause enough chaos to guarantee a chance in the next mayoral election.

Zac Noel (Played by X-Pac) the shortest and youngest degenerate, Zac is often treated as the child of the group, being taught how to get away with crimes and trick the police into just letting him go by clerical error and tomfoolery.

Next on my list of updates: Season 1's episode list, episode titles, episode synopses, some spoilers, and the revolving door idea a bit further explained.

Series running order:

Biker bar episode

Cops on Patrol episode

Band/College Students episode

Cop bar episode (yes these are different)

Degenerates episode

(last episode of each season/series only) town meeting/town get-together (E.X: town hall meetings, the town getting together for a sports game or barbeque or restaurant opening)

1x01: Insert Coin to Start: The pilot episode of the series sees the local biker bar of Canadian, Texas installing two, brand new, arcade machines. After leaving for the night, the team finds the bar broken into and both machines missing with no evidence or possible suspects to the robbery. The team finds the machines relatively undamaged in an alleyway nearby. By the end of the episode there's still no suspects. B plot includes an argument between father and son, Harlow and Vincent which ends when Murphy gets involved.

1x02: Hot Pursuit: Newly instated chief of police Chief Cooper [Neidhart] makes changes to the patrol teams before tasking them with looking for any persons involved with (1x01)'s robbery and break-in, leading to a high speed chase later in the episode. B plot includes the squad coming to grips with the new, and much crazier, police chief.

1x03: Making Noise: Local band Exoskeleton Samurai [Team Extreme] are writing new music late at night while Roz [Lita] tries to study for a class the following day but, during a moment of quiet, they hear a break in a couple of doors down and attempt to see who it is. The group get a glimpse of Zac Noel [X-Pac] and Mark Rake [Nash] but not a full glimpse. Now aware of the local degenerates, the band try and forget about it and focus on their own lives until their apartment gets broken into when they're not there.

1x04: Donuts & Beer: The new cop bar opens on the other side of town, serving mainly (both savoury and sweet) bagels and donuts as well as beer (on tap and bottled), the fact it's slightly more risqué gets (both good and bad) attention on the place. Winona Vance [Sam] gets in a fight with Zac Noel [X-Pac] as she's locking up. Winona [Sam] being put in the hospital with a broken arm makes the rest of [Cop Bar]'s staff double down on getting justice for the near break-in.

1x05: Dirty Work: The first episode from the degenerates perspective. The degenerates are just causing general problems for the town without reason because it's fun' but it's quickly losing their interest as the heat on them rises. The end of the episode has Matty Battle [Triple H] receiving a call from 'Mister R' [DiBiase] offering him a deal.

1x06: Blue & Black: A brawl breaks out at [Biker Bar] following whispers that the people who broke in are in the building. The bikers who work at the bar threaten to hurt anyone who works for the rival bar if they try and mess with business while in the biker bar.

1x07: Captain Crazy: A rumour that the current captain was moved location and promoted to smooth over allegations that he may not be fully sane, Officer Duke Gautier [Owen] is determined to find the truth while Sergeant Valentine Gautier [Bret] and Corporal Buck Morris [Davey Boy] are determined to keep the peace and catch the local degenerates.

1x08: Broken Strings: following an argument with an ex girlfriend Quinn Thorn [Jeff] finds his guitar smashed and has to work odd jobs to buy another one (starting a potential series c plot). Garth Thorn [Matt] ends up in a fight with Galo Villalobos [Hall] which ends when Roz Jerome [Lita] smashes a table leg over the back of Galo's [Scott's] head, knocking him out and giving him over to the police.

1x09: Badges & Bottle Tops: Captain Cooper [Neidhart] stops by [cop bar] to talk with owner Roscoe Power [Jimmy Hart]. Meanwhile the Gautier boys [Owen & Bret] interrogate Galo Villalobos [Scott Hall] about what the degenerates are doing and why, getting no information about the mysterious benefactor over than he pays them a lot of money depending on what they do.

1x10: Paid off: The mysterious benefactor 'Mister R' [DiBiase] pays Galo's [Scott's] bail, getting him free for a while but side-lining him too. The benefactor remains hidden in shadow but Matty & Dell [Triple H & HBK] have a meeting with him to discuss money and the next job.

1x11: Written in Ink: the tattooed bikers on the staff encourage regular customer Earl Black [Austin] to get a skull tattoo on his back and even take him with them to the tattoo parlour they frequent, finding it to be burned to the ground with a 'freaks get lost' sign planted in the wreckage. Murphy Graves [Undertaker] dismisses the rumours that the arsonist is the fire fascinated Vincent Gore [Kane] and even gives him an alibi when the cops come looking for answers, putting blame on someone in town who knows about Vinnie's [Kane's] love of fire, which is nearly every person in town.

1x12: Sergeant Heartbreaker: Sergeant Gautier [Bret] is accused of flirting with the staff at [Cop bar] leading to a paid two day leave to get heat off of him while he's ordered to remain at home. Officer Gautier [Owen] and Corporal Morris [Davey Boy] are put on patrol together, leading to a high speed chase of Reign Yates, Leon Rose & Zelda Hooper [Gunn, Road Dogg & Chyna] after witnessing a mugging, assault and graffiti from the trio, the cops eventually lose them down a back road on private Giles Rennell's [DiBiase's] land they would need a warrant for.

1x13: Failing Grade: Quinn's [Jeff's] lack of sleep leads to him getting a fail on an test forcing him to do the semester again. Enraged by this Quinn [Jeff] considers leaving the school but is encouraged to continue following Garth [Matt] ending up in hospital following [1x12]'s assault and mugging on Garth & Roz [Matt & Lita].

1x14: Microphones & Megaphones: [cop bar]'s owner Roscoe Power [Jimmy Hart] installs a stage for local acts in the bar, leading to Violet Croft [Eli] performing later that episode (the closing of the episode into the credits) and the night before the first performance the bar is covered in graffiti, leading to a massive clean up effort from the staff and local volunteers (like Mick Foley & The Rock).

1x15: Trench Warfare: Romeo Colombera [IRS] the benefactor's [DiBiase's] right hand man and go-to lawyer gives the degenerates an list of jobs, run the police chief out of town by the end of the year, run the bikers out of town, and ensure that 'Mister R' [DiBiase] the benefactor wins the next mayoral election.

1x16: Fuelling Up: after closing up [biker bar] Raven Knight [Kirby] narrowly avoids being burned by her motorbike exploding in a ball of fire. Her boss, Harlow Gore [Bearer] tells her to take the week off, leading to her coming into the bar and sitting at the back of the bar, sketching the regular customers and having a long conversation with local sports star Redd Wayne [Sid].

1x17: Brothers in Arms: Together: the Gautier brothers [Bret & Owen] are put on patrol together leading to the arrest of Zelda, Matty & Dell [Chyna, Triple H & HBK] before the trio are bailed out, the brothers interrogate Dell Pain [HBK] (leading to a very 'basic instinct'-esque scene with Shawn in assless chaps and boxer briefs) who gives them no information on their behaviour and why they are doing the things they've done.

1x18: Night Time Fun: the band attends a college party, unknowingly with Zac Noel [X-Pac] also in attendance, leading to the trio being high and drunk and the Thorn brothers [Matt & Jeff] end up in a fight, almost being thrown out of college entirely for their actions the next morning.

1x19: Head or Hart: Violet Croft [Eli] and (officer) Duke Gautier [Owen] meet properly for the first time on a blind date, leading to them walking through the streets of Canadian, Texas at night. The date is quickly ended after Duke [Owen] spots Leon Rose [Road Dogg] spray painting [cop bar] and gives chase after handing Violet [Eli] his number.

1x20: Grunt Work: The degenerates have a group meeting about how to sabotage the town meeting, leading to Rennell [DiBiase] coming out of the shadows to lead the degenerates in a coordinated attack on the town hall. Leading to the degenerates waiting until the town meeting to begin the next day.

1x21: Town Meeting: Mayor Robert Sweet [Duggan] conducts a town meeting, leading to everyone airing their grievances with the degenerates recent spree of activity. At the end of the meeting, paint bombs hidden above the townsfolk go off all at once, covering everyone in bright, almost neon, green paint.

#Kayleigh's weird idea #any thoughts?

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rvchelking · 4 years ago

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One brain cell squad drabble or, Jestiny Rook is the best wingwoman this world can find. I hope I did your baby justice @adelaidedrubman and I hope you like it ♥

“Have you seen the way he looks at her?”

Ava sighs, keeping her eyes down reading the file sheriff Hudson gave her. It’s a very important task, and junior deputy Ava Reed plans on finishing reading twenty pages by the end of this shift.

Except, she’s constantly distracted by deputy Jestiny Rook, who is sitting right in front of her. Ava considers herself lucky to be sitting this close to Jessie - she sees the redhead not as her friend, but also as a mentor, even though it’s hard to say that deputy Rook is in charge of making sure the junior deputy doesn’t shoot herself accidentally due to the lack of experience in the field.

The job is pretty easy, though. Ava finds it enjoyable to come to the office every morning, only to be met by terrifyingly incredible sheriff Joey Hudson, share a hug with Jestiny and high five to the third deputy, the only male figure among the ladies - Staci Pratt.

“I mean… he looks like that at every woman he meets, and he is kind of an asshole, so it makes sense why nobody wants to date him, but…”

Ava looks up from her file and meets Jessie’s burning eyes. The redhead grins pleased that she managed to distract her friend for a little gossip break.

“I need to…”

“Nah, you’re fine,” Jessie shrugs and leans back on her chair, putting arms behind her head. “Joey won’t make you take the test based on that case. It’s just formalities.”

Ava huffs, not quite believing Jessie. She’s going to finish reading this anyway.

“You seem awfully interested in Staci’s love life,” Ava smirks.

“Yes well,” Jestiny throws her hands in the air, suddenly frustrated. “This idiot gotta make a move before anyone else does! I’m tired of him acting like a dummy around Hudson.”

“She is terrifying.”

“She really isn’t,” Jessie shakes her head. “She’s like the mother hen. One day she showed up at my house bringing homemade lasagna and enchiladas because I mentioned eating ramen every day. Nah, she’s the sweetest person I’ve ever met.”

In fact, Ava agrees. Her first interview with sheriff Hudson went oddly well, considering Reed’s stupor whenever Hudson asked her something, and the young girl just stared at her with wide eyes, a regular deer caught in the headlights. She vaguely remembers the day when she actually passed the test and was introduced to other deputies, including (now retired) sheriff Whitehorse, an awfully arrogant marshall Burke and the other two deputies - Jestiny and Staci - that immediately took Ava under their wings.

Her job was not so bad, after all. It was overwhelming sometimes, but in general, Ava was glad that she was a part of this.

“Anyway,” Jessie yawned and leaned forward. Ava noticed glimmering mischief in her brown eyes. That’s not a good sign. Her thought, however, was interrupted by Staci Pratt himself entering their small office and immediately beaming at the girls.

He greets Ava with a package of freshly baked donuts and she stares at this with wide eyes; then deputy Pratt places a large cup of coffee and croissants on Jestiny’s table and eyes them with a smug expression on his face.

“Okay, what do you want?” Jessie is straightforward, as always and Ava looks at her. Then back to Staci.

“Nothing?” He scoffs, leaning on her table. “Can’t I be nice to my friends who happen to be the best colleagues in the world?”

“Haha, I don’t believe you, but thanks I guess,” Jestiny clicks her tongue but still goes for the coffee, taking a generous sip.

Ava reaches for the donuts and stuffs her mouth with a piece of strawberry flavoured shell, watching her colleagues having a rather interesting argument.

“Pratt, I’ve known you for years. There is no way in hell you brought us food for nothing.”

“You’re paranoid, Rook.”

“Well duh, I am a cop. So spill it, before I take you to the interrogation room and you tell me everything.”

The threat seems to work, and Staci groans, covering his face with his hands. He then sighs and starts pacing.

“I need you to cover for me on Friday. I just… I have some shit I need to finish and I really don’t have anyone else to ask.”

“So you decided to bribe us with food?” Ava giggles, reaching for her third donut.

“No?” Pratt chuckles but then, “I mean… I guess. But it’s like, just this Friday. I promise. No more bribes. So, you agree?”

“Uh, no,” Jessie stares at her computer screen with a smirk, then looks up at Staci. “Sorry buddy, I promised my mother to take her to IKEA. She’s never been there. You know how it is, Stace.”

Staci rolls his eyes and turns to Ava. The junior deputy almost chokes on her food and she clears her throat when she’s done.

“Well, I don’t think I have- ouch!”

Ava reaches for her leg, right to the place where Jestiny kicked her, meeting the redhead’s burning stare. She clears her throat again and continues.

“I was saying, I don’t think I have free time on Friday. My friend asked me to take them to the doctor, and the checkup would probably take a whole day, so… sorry, Staci.”

Pratt nibbles his lower lip, squinting his eyes at the girls but eventually gives up, exhaling sharply. She swears under his breath and steals a star-shaped donut from Ava’s box, shamelessly taking a sip from Jestiny’s coffee cup.

“Whatever,” he says shortly, waving the girls goodbye.

Just when Ava wants to complain about Jestiny’s attitude, the redhead smiles apologetically.

“Sorry, hon. But our casanova needs to get it together and stop running away from his inevitable faith.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Hudson having a night shift on Friday, and Staci Pratt - our beloved - tried to bribe us so he wouldn’t hang out around Joey.”

“Jestiny!” the junior deputy laughs. “You’re a little minx!”

“He will thank me later for this, you’ll see.”

#oc: deputy ava reed #oc: deputy jestiny #my fics #haha i hate myself #i just literally have no motivation to write but i hope this one is okay #x: one brain cell squad

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fandom-necromancer · 4 years ago

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Obscured by Shadows

Now to the last Halloween short! This was prompted by the wonderful @spacalicious and let me tell you you gave me so much I could have written a full on 60k story about it. I didn’t have as much fun writing a story in a long time. That said, this got long, i’ts a bit over 5k and I’m sorry to those who haven’t got something as long, I hope that’s okay. So enjoy this one!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 | AU: Eldritch being?

Nines had always been determined to figure things out for himself. Maybe it was something he valued because he had never been given a real base programming. He knew his model would eventually be used for the military. But Cyberlife hadn’t been able to do more than basic hardware tests on him before the revolution changed the world. He had been informed his prior series had been finished and given a purpose: The RK200 was a caretaker and the RK800 was working for the police. With nothing much to go off of, RK900 had chosen to keep these purposes in mind while finding his own.

He had applied at the police academy immediately after making this decision. He didn’t want to just download a program from someone. He wanted to build his own unique one. And during his time at the academy, he quickly found he liked the challenge of uncovering mysteries. He enjoyed gathering evidence, puzzling together what had happened based on it and uncovering the truth in between sowed lies. It only took him a few years to make it detective and was proud to be accepted at the fifth precinct of the Detroit police department. The Captain had assigned him to Lieutenant Anderson, the officer that had been there the longest, and Connor, the RK800. He was supposed to learn the ropes from them, and Connor was more than glad to show him around.

His predecessor had decided getting to know his co-workers was the best course of action and one after the next pointed out the different persons to him. ‘Okay, as you came in you must have seen the receptionists. The android is a ST300, she calls herself Steph, and the human one is Elisabeth, but everyone calls her Elly. Then we’ve got Officer Collins over there, this is Hank’s desk and mine and there is Officer Willson’s. On the other side we have Officer Person, Officer Chen and Officer Miller. And you already met the Captain. We are a small group, but that’s because SWAT is right there, if you head out this side. Another RK800 is working there, but I’m not on best terms with him. We tend to evade each other. Doesn’t mean you have to though. I can show you around there tomorrow, for now I’ll show you the cells, interrogation room and the meeting room. Then we can-‘ ‘Excuse me?’ Nines felt bad for interrupting, but his eye had fallen on… on what again? ‘Yes? Sorry, I tend to monologue. How can I help you?’ Connor politely smiled at him, while Nines thought about what he had meant to ask about. Connor had showed him all his co-workers and had went on with- right. He looked around again and kept his eyes on the person Connor missed. ‘Who is he?’, he asked, pointing Connor at the man. ‘Hm? Oh. Oh, that’s just Gavin’, the other android waved him off. ‘Detective Reed I believe. He’s an asshole. I met him briefly before the revolution. That was enough to get a clear picture of him. File him under unimportant and go on with it. It’s not really worth knowing the guy, trust me.’ ‘But I introduced myself to everyone personally after the initial briefing’, Nines argued. ‘I believe I must have forgotten him. I at least want to do that.’ Connor shrugged. ‘Fine, knock yourself out. I’ll wait here for you. I doubt you’ll be long.’

Nines made his way over to the man’s desk and read the plague first. Connor had been right: Detective Gavin Reed. ‘Hello! My name is Nines. I’m a RK900 unit and the new Detective. I’m looking forward to work with you!’ He held out his hand and every other person had accepted it and had some niceties left for him. The human in front of him just stared him up and down and grumbled. ‘Phck off.’ Nines recoiled. ‘Excuse me, I just wanted to be nice. I-‘ ‘And I don’t. Mind your own business and piss off!’ Nines knit his brows but remembered Connor’s words. Maybe this one time he could have relied on someone else’s knowledge.

He had returned to Connor that day and the other RK had shown him the rest of the precinct. After that the days seemed to rush past: Nines helped Hank and Connor with their cases and quickly afterwards he had his first very own case. The other two had helped him solve it, but it still was one he had led and found most of the clues to. After work he was driving from one place to the next looking for a small affordable flat, but so far, he stayed in the mostly unused stasis-booths at the precinct or simply continued working. In his breaks he had chatted with his co-workers and learned quite a lot about them. Collins had a sweet tooth, Wilson was almost religiously obsessed with football, Person was spending a large amount of his pay checks on his sister’s hospital fees but according to him she is getting better, Chen loved tea way too much and Miller could talk on for hours about his daughter and wife. Nines was quite content with his life and his choice to join the DPD. He liked the challenge actual cases brought to the table and was in general well-liked. So why was something constantly nagging at his systems, directing his attention to empty spaces on the opposite wall or just letting him stare into the nothing somewhere in the precinct? Maybe something was just wrong with his systems.

No, there wasn’t anything wrong with his systems. Nines had checked as he had entered stasis that night. But that would mean something in the precinct actually let his sensors misfire. And apparently, he was the only one to notice that strange phenomenon. The RK900 still doubted himself as he stepped down from the platform that morning. All his co-workers were competent and attentive people. They should have noticed it if something weird was going on in the bullpen. And there was still the minimal possibility of his diagnostic routines failing him. He would keep this to himself for now and keep his eyes open.

It took him almost a month to lose his patience. The errors and inconsistencies piled up and so far, almost all of them could be chalked up to the one person no one seemed to care about or even notice. Gavin Reed. The strangest thing was that Nines himself didn’t care much about the human. In fact, he only ended up focussing on the man as the number of things he didn’t know about him became suspicious. He had made a point of knowing as much as possible and appropriate about his co-workers. He had learned that helped a lot with work climate and integration. The occasional donut for Collins, a signed picture of a famous footballer for Wilson’s birthday, spending his break with Tina once to check out a local tea shop: That all was something that had made him likeable and made working a pleasant experience. But with how much he knew of them, how little he knew of Gavin was worrying.

Sure, the man was an asshole. But even assholes had personalities. There had to be at least rumours about him. But whenever he had asked someone, he had been given the same answers: ‘Reed? Yeah, he worked here for some time.’ ‘He’s an asshole, it seems to be worse with androids.’ ‘Pfft… Nah, he keeps to himself, don’t know anything about him.’ So he wasn’t alone with not knowing, he just was alone with worrying about that fact.

One quiet day, he decided to do some personal research into that mystery. Every human was known to the world in some way or another. Date of birth. Date of graduation. Date of Employment. Criminal record. Won some small prize in the lottery. An Address. Anything. And that was when things got truly confusing. He looked over at the man and felt how his eyes suddenly darted away to movement that he had thought to see at the edge of his vision. He never managed to look at the human for longer than a few minutes. Something was seriously wrong.

‘Connor? Can I speak with you for a moment? In private?’ Connor looked up from his work, then to the clock. He shrugged. ‘Sure. I can take my break early. What can I help you with?’ They left the precinct through the back entrance to have some privacy and Nines began with a sigh. ‘It’s about Gavin.’ ‘Did he do anything to you? Did he harm you?’ ‘No!’, Nines quickly said. ‘No, he didn’t do anything. But he is weird. I… I did some research and…’ ‘Wait. You “did some research”? What are you talking about?’ Nines held his hands up to calm him. ‘Connor, please listen to me, it will all make sense in a minute. How much do you know about Reed?’ ‘Nothing much, he’s an asshole. Otherwise he keeps to himself. Worked here for a long time.’ ‘How long?’ ‘How should I know?’ ‘How long did Person work here?’ ‘For twelve years, exactly a month from now.’ Nines stared at him triumphantly.

‘Hey, I haven’t looked into his file, okay? Never even talked to him. That doesn’t mean anything.’ ‘Well, I looked into it’, Nines picked up where Connor left off. ‘He doesn’t even work here. Officially. There is no file in the systems for his person, his name is only listed as being employed by the city. There is a birth year at least, but no school. No educational record, no graduation paper. Nothing. There is an address, but the place had been towed down ages ago.’ ‘Maybe he forgot to update it. Or Fowler knows and hadn’t updated his new address yet.’ ‘And the missing documents?’, Nines tried to convince him. ‘What about those?’ ‘Humans can be sloppy sometimes. Especially with bureaucracy.’ ‘May I remind you the entire HR department is run by androids by now?’, Nines threw his final punch. ‘It’s quite funny when you think about it.’ Connor held his head as if he had forgotten he couldn’t get headaches. ‘Nines, you are paranoid. The guy really isn’t that important.’

But Nines didn’t let himself be shut down. ‘There is more actually. Chris complained about the coffee being empty, right? That was yesterday, a Thursday. Correct?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘And I personally restocked Monday the week before! Tina drinks tea, Chris can’t drink too much or his stomach acts up. With the regular caffeine intake of the rest of them, it shouldn’t be depleted yet.’ ‘So?’ ‘Someone drinks an unhealthy amount of coffee, I would even dare say it would kill a human or at least leave them with serious health issues. And only Gavin is left if you keep an eye out.’ Connor sighed: ‘Or someone dropped the package, spilled half of it and cleaned up the mess into the bin.’ ‘Okay, then how do you explain this: Reed is always here when someone arrives. No matter how early I rise from stasis, he is already there. As if he never left. And then sometimes he spends entire days away and no one bothers!’ ‘Vacations and overtime are a thing.’ Nines shook his head. ‘There is no car standing in the parking lot that belongs to him, I looked after everyone was gone. Yet, there is a key to a car on his desk.’ ‘Maybe he parks somewhere else, because he likes to go on a walk after a long day of sitting around.’ ‘Connor!’ ‘No, Nines, you are paranoid. That’s all. You should slow down maybe. Or take some days off. The man is just your regular asshole who is decent enough to be professional and do his job. And that’s all.’

Nines was desperate. He had thought that at least if pointed to it, the other RK would notice. ‘Then what about the fact that I have never seen him eat something once? And he keeps framed pictures of his cats, but he has no cat hairs on himself!’ ‘Nines, please, you need to calm down. If I didn’t know it any better, I’d say you are stalking him. Please stop. Believe me when I say Reed is as unimportant as someone could be. You are certain of the way things seem to be and now you search for evidence to prove your point. But we are detectives. We find evidence and conclude.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I worry for you. Please, take a break from work. How is your house-hunting?’ ‘Haven’t found a flat yet.’ ‘Do you want to live with Hank and me? We could make room for you for a few days. You need to get out of here.’ Nines deflated as he saw he couldn’t win. ‘That’s nice of you, Connor. But I guess I’ll just think about what you said and try to get back to work.’

In truth Nines didn’t think about anything Connor had told him. If anything, his words had only made it clearer to him that something is wrong. He had to take matters into his own hands.

Gavin startled as a coffee cup was put on his desk with an audible thump. He looked up. ‘Hello, I’m Nines. I already introduced myself but we never really talked.’ Gavin stared at the nosey android and frowned. ‘And I already told you to phck off. Nothing has changed since then.’ ‘No need to be so aggressive, Detective. I always see you working. I believe I never actually saw you taking a break.’ ‘Well, I like work and I’d like to get back to it, tin-can.’ ‘Tin-can? Oh, that’s a new one’, the android answered and smiled at him. Goddamnit. ‘Listen, I don’t know what you are on about, but I don’t want to talk. I’ll say it one last time: Phck off!’ This… Nines… pouted at him. ‘Come on, I got you a coffee, the least you could do is answer me one question!’ Gavin sighed and leaned back. ‘Fine. One question. And then you’ll go!’ He hoped his form didn’t show how nervous he was.

‘What do you like?’ Compared to everything he had expected that was quite harmless and caught him off-guard. ‘What?’ The android continued to grin at him. ‘What do you like? Food, hobbies, doesn’t matter.’ ‘Oh, okay, err… I like cats. And… Coffee.’ ‘Are those yours?’, the android asked pointing at the framed pictures. ‘Hey, you said one question, then you’d be leaving me alone!’ The android lifted his hands. ‘Alright, fine. I’m leaving. Was nice talking to you!’

Gavin couldn’t help looking after the machine that was leaving now. Damn nosy androids would be his downfall someday. He turned back to his work, the smell of coffee distracting him. He glanced over to it and finally succumbed to taking and drinking it. He wasn’t ashamed by the fact that he was addicted to it ever since he first tried it in the 15th century. It was one of the pleasant experiences of his existence. He had lived on this world for eons now, maybe he had been around right from the start. But you could only spend so many billion years until you got bored and wanted to try something new. He had lived among humans ever since a massive migration to a continent a large part of the world never even knew about. It was easy to fit in when no one asked where you came from and everyone was eager to start a new life. And Gavin fit in nicely. He sowed enough information to saturate most and those who wanted more he used his powers on to become totally ordinary. So ordinary that most didn’t even notice him. He was living a peaceful life, working on farms, later with railroads and the industry. He liked the concept of lifetimes to justify changing from one job to another and discovering new interesting ways to fake being human. This lifetime he had decided to spend just relaxing. He played the average human that made it Detective and since then worked away solving mysteries and cuddling with cats when coming home.

He couldn’t have known this would be the time humanity decided to change once again. They decided to design machines, androids. They looked human but were designed to obey. Why exactly was it that humanity wished for some kind of slavery every few hundred years? He didn’t care for it too much as they were just machines. Sure, his powers didn’t work on them like they did with humans, but as he was seen as one of them, he could just order the androids to go away and leave him alone. And then deviancy happened. Humans had tried perfecting them so much, they accidentally created life. Gavin knowing humans had decided to wait it out. Too easy he could fake his death and return to his normal existence. But he had been living within them in peace successfully so far. He really didn’t want to change that. So, he waited. Waited until the revolution happened. And too his distress, the androids won.

Ever since he had tried to move on the streets as little as necessary. He spent almost all of his days in the precinct where he was safe from them minus Connor. And the bot he could easily get rid of by changing his attitude to grumpy and abrasive. He thought it might work out. But this new android was a pain in the ass. Nosey as hell and apparently determined to get to know him. Well, someday his luck had to run out and it seemed the time had come.

He spent his remaining day at his terminal, until he felt eyes on him again. He tried to subtly look up and met the damned android’s cheeky grin as he entered the stasis booth. The machine even gave him a little wave. Gavin felt his powers bristling underneath his skin, warning him he had been spotted, but with grit teeth he forced them down. Phck, he needed to relax. He switched off his terminal and headed outside. He hurried through the streets until he finally found an empty back alley without CCTV. It really had been easier in the olden times. Quietly he let go of the charade and got rid of his fake skin. Finally, he could stretch and brush against corners, making natural shadows more refined and let them stretch to take him. Oh, he had missed that feeling. Excitement bubbled inside him as he scaled the city, slithering from one shadow to the next through the narrow spaces in brickwork and underground where there was no connecting darkness to act as a convenient passageway. More than once androids looked towards him, but he just hurried away before they could investigate. Damn machines.

He finally made it home, faster than any car or train could and let himself inside through the letter box. Only then he reformed his human appearance and got to his knees, greeting his cats with maybe one or two arms too many. Not that they would care, they just wanted their pets. Gavin sighed, the fluffy fur under his hands just the perfect way to destress from a long day. He fed them and switched on his stereo to blast music as loud as the cats would allow. He had more than enough time to settle everything with the nosey android. He would be fine.

‘You forgot your keys yesterday!’, he was greeted as he walked into the bullpen. He could only frown at the android standing beside his desk, dangling them from one finger. Gavin saw red and pulled them from the man, maybe having moved a little too fast for a human. ‘Give them back!’ He looked down on them and carefully put them down in their usual spot. ‘How did you come home then? You couldn’t drive with your car.’ ‘I don’t have one, phck off!’, Gavin shouted. ‘Then why do you have keys?’

Phck. He felt his powers acting up, but it only managed to avert the human gazes from the disturbance. The android didn’t bulge. Shit. A human explanation, quick. Oh, right, parents were a thing! ‘They are my dad’s, he… He died in a car crash. They are the only thing I’ve got left of him.’ It technically wasn’t even a lie. Nowadays he often faked his death so he could inherit his own belongings and one of them had indeed been a car crash. ‘Oh. I’m sorry.’ The android really looked like he meant it. ‘I didn’t mean to pry.’ ‘Well then go and-‘ ‘Can I make it up to you?’ Oh phck no… ‘There is a cat café that just recently opened up. I thought-‘ ‘What is a cat café?’, Gavin asked, momentarily forgetting he wanted the android gone. ‘Oh, it’s a regular café, but cats are roaming around. I thought you’d like it.’ ‘I… That does sound interesting.’ ‘It’s a deal then! I’m looking forward to it!’ ‘No, I-‘ But the android had already left. Gavin let his shoulders fall. It wouldn’t hurt playing human for a break, right? He had done so before. Sure, it broke his rule of never mingling too close with humanity, but it couldn’t really go wrong, right?’

It was awkward at first. They had entered and sat down on two comfy chairs and didn’t manage to speak a word until the waiter came. They ordered their drinks and it returned to the uncomfortable silence. Until one of the cats decided to jump onto Gavin’s lap. The android had laughed at his surprised face and Gavin had begun to pet her. ‘You are good with cats’, he commented. ‘Yeah, I love them’, Gavin answered. ‘Just… calms you down I guess.’ ‘I never got to pet one.’ ‘Really?’ Gavin could understand that human lives were short and that not everyone had the pleasure of strolling along the streets of early civilisations and pet every fluffy beast in existence, but it did surprise him. ‘You really have to!’

The android looked around and tried to get the attention of one of the cats wandering about. The look of pure wonder on the android’s face as the cat headbutted his hand for the first time touched something in Gavin and he chuckled. The android looked back up while still petting the cat and smiled back. Only as the cat decided they had enough did the android return to the table. ‘I really wonder why everyone was so sure about you being an asshole’, Nines began talking. ‘I mean, I don’t really know you yet, but you are nice company.’ ‘I tend to keep to myself’, Gavin muttered, looking down on the cat that still hadn’t moved and curled herself up on his legs. ‘Made some bad experiences I guess.’ ‘I think we should do this more often’, the android said. As much as Gavin wanted to, he couldn’t bring himself to truly disagree.

They met a few times afterwards. They often spent their breaks together in the café and with time Gavin thought that maybe he didn’t have to isolate himself all the time. But he always shut these thoughts down and thought of the android as an exception. One evening Nines had insisted to come over and see Gavin’s cats, what had brought Gavin into the zugzwang to explain some of the by now ancient things he had collected over the years. ‘I’m interested in history’, he bluffed. ‘Archaeology is a pet peeve of mine. So I tend to collect.’ Surprisingly, the android had bought it and instead admired his “collection”. It had ended in multiple visits to museums and exhibitions. Not that Gavin really minded. It was a fun distraction and his lie about being a history enthusiast wasn’t that far fetched when he could tell a few first-hand stories from when he had been there himself.

It was about a month later that they had come back from one of these exhibition trips and the android had dropped him off at his apartment. The android had hugged him goodbye, something he would never get tired of, and was about to go. ‘Are you going back to the precinct?’, he blurted out out of nowhere. ‘Yes’, Nines had answered. ‘Detroit’s housing market is awful. Haven’t got a flat yet.’ ‘Do you want to… I mean you could stay here if you want to.’ The android had stared at him wide eyed and Gavin started to regret his impromptu decision until Nines threw him a smile and nodded politely. That evening Gavin ended up on the couch next to Nines watching TV until the android appeared to have entered stasis. In the silence that followed, he began to think about his life choices. What was he doing? He was an eldritch shadow being from the dawn of time. Nines was an android he had no power over. And something was clearly growing between them. It was evident in the way Nines had snuggled up next to him, the cats all over them. This couldn’t work. What if Nines found out? What if he would rat him out to anyone? Humans he could fool, but androids would be able to follow him to the end of the world. He had made a huge mistake.

And still: listening to the hum of the android’s thirium pump he couldn’t find to regret it. Quite the opposite was the case.

The next morning was filled with more excuses. Why didn’t he have a kitchen? Why didn’t he have any food at home? Gavin had mumbled something about always getting something at the food trucks and stressed they would be late. Apparently, Nines took that information with only a sigh, too. One Catastrophe evaded.

Off to face the next one: As they entered the precinct together, Gavin froze as he found his desk occupied. By Connor. And the other android was staring at them with determination. ‘You two. Interrogation room. Now.’ Gavin was about to protest, so did Nines, but the other RK stopped them: ‘I said now!’ So, they trotted over, and Gavin knew he had phcked up. He had set up these rules for a reason. How could he think he could start a relationship with an android would somehow work out?

‘Nines, I believe you now.’ Nines frowned in return as they entered and exchanged a look with Gavin. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘What you told me about him. It’s true! It’s like he isn’t even existing! And everything you told me was true! There are so many discrepancies with him that something has to be wrong.’ Gavin felt panic creeping in. What? What had these two androids talked about? What had he missed? ‘No, Connor, you were right’, Nines disagreed. ‘There is a logical explanation for everything. I was just paranoid, as you said. I just knew nothing about him because I never even spoke with him.’ ‘Oh and now suddenly everything is perfect? What are these explanations then?’ Nines sighed. ‘What do you want to hear from me?’ ‘The keys?’ ‘Memorabilia of his deceased father.’ ‘The cat hairs?’ ‘Either I must have missed something or he had just washed his clothes. Scan Gavin now and you’ll see a bunch of cat hairs.’ ‘What the hell are you two talking about?’, Gavin asked. ‘You are hiding something!’, Connor growled his way. ‘And I won’t rest until I know what it is!’ Gavin took an instinctive step back. Oh no… ‘Connor’, Nines directed the other RK’s attention back to him. ‘I spent the last months with him. He really isn’t as bad as you think and he clearly isn’t hiding anything.’ ‘Oh, is that so? Have you seen his home then?’

Nines puffed out his chest. ‘I have, actually. In great detail.’ He challenged Connor by staring him in the eyes. ‘Wait what?’ That had caught Connor off-guard at least. ‘You two… You aren’t… No.’ ‘Yes’, Nines grinned. ‘And you should trust the android with the more advanced analysis tools that he is as normal as a human can be.’ Connor was left just standing there, staring. ‘I… I’m not convinced, just so you know. But I trust you. Just know that I’ll be keeping an eye on you!’ ‘That’s only fair’, Nines commented, but Connor was already storming out of the room.

For a while no one moved. ‘Should we go back to the-‘, Gavin started, but was interrupted: ‘No.’ Nines pushed himself off the table and leaned against it. ‘The cams are deactivated, and the observation room is empty. No one else can hear us. I’m sorry. I should have told you earlier.’ ‘What should you have told me earlier?’, Gavin asked carefully. ‘I had suspicions about you. That’s why I initially wanted to get to know you better. I pretended everything was alright so you could tell me once you were ready. But I guess now is a good a time as ever: What are you, Gavin? Who are you? The things you own are legitimately old. A collection like this would be priceless, you could sell it for millions. Most of it belongs in a museum. And you don’t even really exist on paper. I couldn’t find your name in any hospital archives from the day you were supposed to be born and you never went to a school. Please, I need to know.’

Gavin sighed deeply and sat down. Should he tell him? Well, he had to. But what then? He guessed a prison to hold him would have yet to be built. And he could always move to another city after faking yet another death. But he didn’t want to lose this. This lifetime was meant to be relaxing and hell, with Nines he had been the most relaxed he had been for centuries. Well, he had to hope for the best. ‘No one can see us?’ ‘No one.’ ‘And no one can hear us?’ ‘Everything said here will remain between us.’ ‘You have to promise not to tell anyone.’ ‘I will as long as my duty as a police officer doesn’t call for it.’

Gavin took a deep breath. So far so good. But promises could be empty and who knew what the duty of a police officer entailed these days. But he knew he was only buying time. And so he began: ‘I am a being that has been around since the dawn of time. I am made of shadows, some worshipped me as the shadows themselves. I don’t even know if that’s true. I’ve been around for a while until I finally decided to try living as a human for a while. And it worked! I was a peaceful part of society since… Well, I took a few breaks but more or less since the 600s? It is hard pretending to be a human if you are immortal, so I travelled a lot and faked papers as much as I could. I don’t eat, I don’t sleep, I like coffee and cats. The keys are from my first ever car, but I hate driving, so I got rid of it by crashing it one day.’ Nines stared at him dumbfounded. ‘I think I need proof, I can’t believe this.’ Gavin sighed and looked at the table. ‘Please, don’t freak out’, he warned, before transforming into his true form. Suddenly half the room was swallowed by darkness and Gavin showed off a bit by extending a few tendrils of shadow towards Nines. The android looked shocked at first, then bewildered and then fascinated. Nines even stepped closer. ‘You won’t hurt me, right?’ ‘I never hurt anyone’, Gavin answered, his voice coming somewhere from his centre that was still hovering over the chair. Nines extended an arm and tried to touch Gavin, who chuckled. His only feature was to consume light, he literally was the personification of the absence of light. What a dork, trying to touch that. For some reason that seemed to disappoint the android and Gavin made an effort reforming his body partially while still keeping his real self exposed.

‘And?’, Gavin asked. ‘What does this mean now?’ Nines was still staring at him. ‘You are beautiful.’ Gavin laughed, but took the android’s hand lovingly. ‘If you say so.’ ‘How did you keep this a secret for so long? Is that why you aren’t noticeable by most? I have so many questions, I-‘ ‘I would say, I explain everything to you at my home where we are safe’, Gavin offered. ‘I want to know what it means first. For us. Does it change anything?’

Nines smiled and came closer. ‘Only that I don’t have to worry about your human lifespan’, he smirked. ‘And that we can spend an eternity forever.’ Gavin sighed in relief and relaxed completely. ‘You don’t know how much that means to me.’ ‘I think I get the gist of it’, Nines shrugged and dove in for a kiss that left Gavin completely unprepared. But he had always been quick to adapt.

It took them a while to get out of that interrogation room, but thanks to Gavin’s powers no one but Connor noticed. Nines just threw him a cocky smile while making a point of sitting down on the free table opposite of Gavin’s.

Maybe Gavin Reed was a man made of shadows. It didn’t change the fact that Nines was completely engulfed in his gloom.

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #eldritch being!Gavin Reed #Gavin Reed is a shadow person #Holy shit I had fun with this #I had so much more I could have written but it is already far too long for this blog #wonderful idea #I'm a fan #sorry for taking this long #Also holy shit that last sentence of yours was so damn poetic I had to steal it!

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sonjaohno · 3 years ago

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Democracy in America

Hello dear friends and family,

October is off to a crisp start and I've been busy squirreling away at the library. It's already been one month since I arrived, which makes it high time for some reflection. I've been working hard to come up with clever answers to the question of "what my impressions are" mainly because (and a list of so-called impressions follows):

I thought Finns were insecure, with their country branding workshops and whatnot, perennially worried about what other people (read: the Swedes) think of us, but I can tell you, Americans are worse. In all the years I've lived in Berlin, not once has a German person (nor a Berliner—these are two completely distinct groups of people) asked me to tell them what I "think" about their country, or what my "impressions" are. Maybe they know better than to ask. Maybe they really don't care. Americans, on the other hand (including New Yorkers, though a similar non-equivalence exists here), cannot get enough of foreigners' interpretations of their country. I think it's because they genuinely don't know what to think about their country themselves and are waiting for somebody to tell them what the hell is going on here. So, what are my impressions so far?

America is home to some really great things. So far, my top three list is i) cinnamon-flavored chewing gum ii) hazelnut-flavored filter coffee (a mystery but a delightful one) iii) pecan-pumpkin-spice-flavored filter coffee (again, I don't know who came up with this or what they do to make coffee taste like a Hallmark card but I fuckin love it) iv) ditto, snickerdoodles (both the word and the pastry). Oops, that's four.

There is, however, clearly something wrong with a country that has to keep toothpaste under lock and key at the drugstore. I mean, toothpaste is expensive here—$5.99 for a tube, are you kidding me?—but it's still not exactly a luxury item. I literally have to ring a bell at Duane Reed to get an employee to open the toothpaste safe for a tube of Colgate. I wondered about this out loud to a New Yorker, who told me it's because the Duane Reed I went to is located at a "minor transportation hub," in the corner of W 110th and Broadway, which presumably means that this ludicrously wealthy Upper West Side drugstore frequented mostly by Columbia students and faculty is some kind of a crime hotspot. I should probably start carrying a gun.

Americans are loud. I feel like shushing people all the time, which makes me feel like a bad person. If anyone asked me to, I'd be more than happy to provide instructions for adjusting the volume of one's speech to different situations. It'd go something like follows: i) When outdoors, use what you would consider an "indoors voice." ii) When indoors, use what you would consider a "library voice." iii) When in the library, shut the fuck up. Pretty simple, huh?

The American economy would collapse if people stopped living on takeaway meals and coffees. I have never seen people so comfortable dishing out $20-50 per day for food they don't like and coffee they don't need. I mean, I'm not even able to get out of bed without several cups of coffee in the morning but I'd find it really hard to justify a $10 daily budget for iced-mocha-swirly lattes and another $10 for dumplings, when you can just pack a sandwich. The number of students able to afford this kind of lifestyle is just astounding. (This is Columbia, I am aware that the people without trust funds constitute a minority.) I feel positively frugal with my leftover lunches and thermos bottle of coffee (this week it's Donut Shop Roast, which disappointingly does not taste like donuts).

Americans like to think of themselves as libertarians and are famously opposed to state-imposed regulation—but I've never felt as regulated and rule-bound as I have here. It's just that the rules aren't handed down by government officials but by the various enterprises, including private businesses and universities (the latter is included in the former but deserves a honorary mention of its own), who would rather impose elaborate codes of conduct than leave people to their common senses and be sued when something inevitably happens. As one particularly pointless example, I have to complete an online covid-symptom checklist every morning before I'm allowed to enter campus—a "Daily Attestation," it's called—where I solemnly swear that I did not have a cough or a sore throat that morning, either. The only conceivable purpose of this useless exercise is to ensure that if somebody does show up on campus sneezing and wheezing their viral particles around, Columbia can't sued for not having done everything in its power to prevent the virus from spreading. Airing out rooms, though, is strictly out of the question—presumably because it's against some other rule designed to stop students from committing suicide by jumping out a third-floor window. As a person who is physiologically unable to follow pointless rules, I find this kind of self-serving, counter-logical box ticking absolutely infuriating.

It's not all bad, though. Yesterday I went to a Japanese jazz speakeasy around Midtown. We had to stand in line for about an hour, between a group of 17-year-old musical theater majors and 27-year-old jazz enthusiasts. The former were bursting out in spontaneous, perfectly synchronized song every few minutes, the latter were debating scales or keys or some such—I'm telling you, it was like walking into a badly-written scene of Glee. It was worth it though. At one point, during a several-minute-long drum solo, I experienced what can only be described as a moment of pure transcendence. People were all around me were yelling over the music and gesticulating wildly and, for a few seconds, time compressed to something graspable; a thing crackling with energy. An oceanic feeling is, in the words of turn-of-the-century mystic Romain Rolland, “a spontaneous … feeling of the ‘eternal’ (which can very well not be eternal, but simply without perceptible limits, and like oceanic, as it were).” If eternity can be found in a midtown basement, Manhattan can’t be all bad. (Below a video clip I took discreetly when entering.)

P.s. A friend of mine said that I should write an Alexis de Tocqueville -type report about my time in America, which explains the title of this post. For the literary agents and non-fiction editors reading this blog (jk, apparently it's my mum and three of her friends who read these entries—hi!!!), you can email me at sonjaohno at gmail dot com for a book deal.

#manhattan #midtown #sonja travels #nyc #america #alexis de tocqueville #oceanic feeling #romain rolland

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sunnybeas · 4 years ago

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saints in chains

Chapter One of Saints In Chains- wait out the plastic weather

summary: Gavin meets Connor's little brother and finds out love at first sight is real

cross posted on ao3

The first time Gavin Reed sees the RK900 he doesn’t have time to really look at him. It is an active crime scene that’s taking up the entire street and Gavin holes himself behind the barricade with Chen at his side. Teeth grit and hand sweating as he gripped his handgun, he only sees a white blur stride by and hoist itself over the barricade.

A curse is halfway out of his mouth because of course a civilian would get cocky and bolt but no- the damn thing rips the door off the hinges of a car and surges forward. And Gavin is sitting there, mouth open, in full view of the shooter. He drops down beside Chen again, who is equally as fucking gob smacked.

“Did you fucking see that?” Gavin demanded.

“Of course, I did! Did Fowler hire a fucking Terminator? What was that?” she asked back, rolling to her knees to peek over the car again.

Gavin scooted in next to her, eyes squinted. He felt like an idiot, gawking at the figure in white sprinting forward, car door acting as a shield and taking all the spray. It takes a leap and absolutely bodies the shooter, tossing the car door aside like a dinner plate. Its hand crunches the AK in its hand, and it misfires in the shooter’s hand. The fucker screams as the figure lifts him and slams him onto the concrete, knee on his back, hands pinned there securely.

“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit- “Gavin chanted, because the figure looks up and he’s half fucking sure he recognizes Connor’s smug little face. It’s different, though, and Gavin can’t quite pinpoint how because of the distance.

“Well done, see, I knew he’d do well.”

And that- that’s Connor’s peppy voice from behind him. Frowning, Gavin spins on his heel.

“What the fuck is happening here?” He asked, sharply.

Connor and Anderson were dressed all up in their vests. Gavin snorted at the sight of Connor in his. He had seen the android take more bullets than he could count. Had almost put one in him more than a few times.

The LED in Connor’s temple spins yellow briefly. “He has minor abrasions. Otherwise a near perfect introduction.” He smiled, too fucking bright and cheerful for Gavin, who was getting sick just looking at him.

“Con, dear, sweetheart, love, please make sense. What was that?” Chen finally cut in.

“My brother.” Connor replied simply, punctuating it with that dopey smile of his. His big ole doe eyes lifted past them and he rocked on his heels before starting forward.

Gavin turned to follow when he caught sight of their blur. And holy fuck. Holy shit, Gavin didn’t think they built androids like that. Connor’s ‘brother’ was a massive specimen, towering over the shooter, eyeing the suspect wearily with eyes so pale they may as well have been white.

It takes Gavin about five seconds to deduce that this thing, this android, was basically Connor on steroids. If that were something they could do, anyway. He was taller, a good foot or so, and he was fucking jacked, his arms thicker, shoulders broader. He looked scary as shit, his jaw sharper, wider, his eyes set in deeper and looking down at them all with those dead looking eyes.

He was hot. Like really, insanely, one of the hottest things Gavin had ever seen. And he hadn’t even looked his way yet. But he couldn’t tear his eyes away from him. It. Whatever.

“Holy shit, just take a picture for your spank bank, creep.” Tina scoffed, elbowing him sharply.

“Chen, shut the fuck up.” Gavin hissed, his neck and ears burning at being caught checking out a fucking android. One with Connor’s face too.

The statement seemed to gain the android’s attention, though, because he looked up from Connor and stared directly at Gavin. Gavin couldn’t get a read on him, couldn’t eek the slightest bit of emotion from the thing’s blank ass face. His pale eyes flickered briefly over Gavin, almost sizing him up. Head tilted, eyes half lidded, the android regarded him for more than a few seconds. It was deliberate. Was it trying to intimidate him?

“RK?” Connor’s voice broke through and the android looked away from Gavin, finally, to return his attention to Connor.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Gavin cursed, turning on his heel to Chen. “Come on, we don’t need to be here anymore. Thing one n’ two got it.”

They started back to Chen’s patrol car. She widened her stride to keep up with how fast Gavin was walking.

Chen tossed her head back to laugh. “Look at you, lil’ Gavin Reed running scared from some sexy robot. Gav, did you see his pecs? Or his arms? Why did they give an android an ass that- “?

Gavin groaned. “I fucking saw! Cyberlife’s a bunch of fucking perverts. Holy shit, Tina.” He scrubbed his face with his hand.

Tina clambered into the driver’s seat, grinning. “He better be at the station.”

And fuck- Gavin hadn’t even considered that.

As luck would have it, God fucking hated Gavin Reed. He had just settled into his desk when Connor came striding in, Anderson at his side and leading their perp and the fucking Iron Giant trailing behind. Immediately Gavin looked towards Chen, who was practically vibrating in her seat. She shot him a grin and a wink before standing up from her seat.

Anderson spoke lowly to Connor before nodding and taking the perp to the back. Which left Connor standing there with his grumpy looking twin. Chen chose this moment to strike.

“Hey, Connor, who’s this?” She asked.

Connor beamed, clearly tickled fucking pink that someone was taking an interest in his little pet project. He lifted a hand and gestured to the android beside him. “This is RK, my little brother. He moved here and Fowler offered him a position. Today was his trial. I’m fairly sure he exceeded Fowler’s expectations.” Connor reported, absolutely glowing with pride.

Gavin snorted at his desk. Little? Little wasn’t a word to describe that ‘droid.

“I’m Tina Chen, nice to meet you.” Chen offered her hand, smiling politely in that way of hers. Tina brought out the good in everyone.

The android hesitated, studying her hand before taking it and shaking it carefully. “Nice to meet you, Officer Chen.” And oh- his voice was Connor’s but pitched lower.

It sounded surprisingly good. Fuck. Gavin hated him. Hated his pretty, stupid face.

“Gav, come say hi to the new guy!” Chen called, turning to face him with a wide, smug smile on her face.

Gavin decided he hated her too. No more coffee runs or donuts for her. She was dead to him.

“I’m good.” He said, instead.

Connor frowned. The big guy didn’t do anything, just stared. Shit.

“RK and Hank are going to be interrogating the shooter. I’ll be reviewing the footage if anyone has any need for me.” Connor informed Tina.

“Gavin and I can help with that!” Tina blurted out.

Connor blinked, clearly surprised. “You want to help me?” His eyes flickered uncertainly to Gavin, who was making a face, his middle finger up and pointed to Connor.

“I want to see that asshole getting his up close and personal.” Tina said. “Reed won’t admit it, but he does too.”

Gavin again held his middle finger up, though neither Connor or Tina were looking his way. He, instead, caught the attention of RK. And Gavin swore, he fucking swore, he saw the flicker of a smile on his face.

“Okay, that’s fine then.” Connor was still uncertain, but Tina was insistent.

He wasn’t sure why until they were seated all together, huddled up in front of the screen.

Seeing it from afar had been one thing but holy shit, seeing RK900 in action up close was a whole different experience.

“Holy shit.” Gavin rasped out, watching as he ripped the car door with his bar hands from the hinges. He sat tall in his seat.

RK hadn’t stopped, hadn’t faltered once as the shooter had let loose a barrage. He had just driven forward, expression drawn, brow furrowed. And then he had crushed the barrel of the gun like it were made of cheap plastic, ignoring the blast of the misfire and splatter of thirium on his open palm. He lifted the perp up by the coat.

“God, I wish that were me.” Gavin murmured, sinking into his seat. His eyes tracked how fluidly RK moved.

Tina choked out a laugh from beside him. “You’re a fucking mess.”

Connor frowned, so severely that his stupid forehead dented in from the faux wrinkles.

“Please don’t objectify RK in front of me.” He requested, weakly.

“Connor, where the fuck have you been hiding my teenage wet dream from?” Gavin demanded, emboldened by RK’s absence.

Connor’s head bowed and he rubbed at his temples needlessly.

“Gavin, that’s his baby brother!” Tina chided, smacking at his arm, though she wore a broad grin on her lips. She loved Gavin when he was in a mood like this.

“Baby brother my fucking ass, look at him- “

“You wish he were fucking- “

“I am literally begging you to stop.” Connor interjected.

“Listen, I’m trying to do some begging myself here, Connor, so help me out here.” Gavin continued.

Connor let out a pained groan and dropped his head completely into his palms in the same moment Tina let out a cackling laugh, her head tossed back.

“You’re intolerable.” Connor accused, shaking his head as he stood up. “I brought this for research purposes, and you’ve ruined it.”

“Wish your brother would ruin me.” Gavin mumbled.

Connor paused, his LED blipping red before he promptly turned on his heel and strode quickly out of the room. In his absence, the two dissolved into laughter.

“I think you broke him this time. Anderson is gonna be on your ass for traumatizing his boyfriend.” Tina snorted, wiping tears from her eyes.

Gavin reached forward and rolled the vid back, taking extra care to watch how RK had lifted the man with absolutely no effort. Oh. This might become a problem.

“If you’re done, Fowler wants to speak to you.” Connor poked his head around through the door again, frowning sourly at the screen and where it had paused.

Gavin sighed and forced himself to his feet. He tossed the remote Chen’s way.

“It’s not going to be as much fun without you.” She complained.

“Just enjoy the eye candy, Chen.” Gavin shrugged, following Connor down the hall.

Just looking at Connor, the differences between he and his younger counterpart were drastic. Their faces were eerily similar but RK’s had a sharpness where Connor’s was soft. Connor was clearly meant to assimilate where RK looked the complete opposite. Like he was meant to be identified as an android. What had he been made for that he was built that mean looking?

Hands shoved into his pockets; Gavin turned to the door of Fowler’s office. Knocking twice, he stepped in. Directly into the personal space of RK, who did not budge even as Gavin knocked his shoulder clumsily into his mid arm. And Christ on a fucking cracker, Gavin’s head barely measured to his shoulder. He swallowed hard.

“Reed, you meet RK yet?” Fowler asked, shifting in his seat just slightly to face him.

“Uh, sort of.” He took a long step back, hands curling to fists in his jacket pocket.

“Well, better get the introductions out now. He’s your new partner.” He paused, eyes squinting up at Gavin, waiting for the explosion.

RK looked down, extended his hand which was going to swallow Gavin’s in it. Even his hands were built big. Vaguely, Gavin wondered how they would feel-

“It’s nice to formally meet you. I’m RK.”

Gavin had been right before. This was going to be a big fucking problem.

#reed900 #rk900 #gavin900 #gavin reed #detroit become human #dbh #dbh connor

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steamy-linguine · 5 years ago

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You’re with who?! (DBH Characters x Reader Imagines)

A/N: *waves* hey y’all. It’s me. Ya boi. Well put together all of these into one big post so sorry? Goes Connor, Hank, and then Gavin. I hope you enjoy it cause I’m tired from writing it lmao. As always thank you for reading and I hope you dirty donuts enjoy :* P.S. that was a kiss lol. (gifs below aren’t mine)

Warnings: Mature content. Cursing. Sexual themes.

CONNOR:

You stood on the porch of Hank’s home, your eyes still cautiously looking around expecting Hank to pop out from the bushes saying ‘Aha! Caught your ass!’ but you had to shake it off. You knew on friday nights, well any night, Hank was at the bar so he wouldn’t be back for awhile.

Your hand reached out, finger aimed and ready to hit the doorbell but before you could even press the button, the door swung open.

“(Y/N)!” Connor greeted you.

“Connor.” You smiled at him, looking him up and down. He wasn’t wearing his usual attire. His jacket with his button up shirt and tie now gone and he wore just a simple white t-shirt and gray sweats to match. It had been awhile since the two of you had some alone time with the both of you sneaking around your mutual friend to keep your relationship as private as possible.

Oh lord don’t jump him like last time (Y/N), You thought to yourself.

He noticed your staring and looked down at himself, “Oh, I had saw somewhere that usually for movie date nights, people wear comfortable clothing. Which film did you bring?”

“I-I brought Halloween.” You told him as your arm extended out handing him the plastic DVD case.

His led flickered from blue to yellow as he stared at the case.

He nodded, “A horror movie based upon a masked murderer.”

“Yeah you love those.”

He nodded, a big goofy grin on his face as he stepped aside to let you inside. Once in, he removed your jacket from your shoulders and you stuttered out a small ‘thank you’ to him.

You both made your way over to the small living room with you plopping down onto the couch first and he made his way to the DVD player.

You noticed how there was already snacks on the table for you. The giant bowl of fresh popcorn, the candy, and of course your favorite drink and you smiled.

He was so damn sweet.

“Are you ready to watch the movie?” He asked, making his way over to your side.

You nodded, “Yes!”

Boy, were you ‘ready’ to watch the movie.

As soon as the android had hit the play button and the title screen appeared, you jumped him. You had leaned into him and crashed your lips onto his and of course he wasn’t going to just turn you away. You made his system go completely mad whenever you were around.

The movie still playing in the background as you were now straddling his lap, your shirt gone but your bra still hugging your chest and his hands were already working on the button of your jeans, his lips moving from yours to your neck now.

“Oh Connor...” You moaned his name.

Suddenly, the front door opened and you quickly threw yourself off of him and the both of your eyes went straight to the older man standing before the both of you.

Hank’s mouth was wide open as he stared at you both.

“What the fuck.” Were the only words that were able to leave Hank’s mouth.

“Ah shit...” You cursed under your breath and you looked down at yourself just remembering how close to naked you were in front of him.

Connor grabbed your shirt from the floor and handing it to you and you took it slowly. Your cheeks were flushed with pink as your android boyfriends a light blue and Hank was still scratching his head.

“Hank...” You and Connor said in unison.

TELL HANK THE TRUTH?

The suggestion came into Connor’s view but before he could even open his mouth to speak, Hank’s voice filled the empty awkward air.

“You guys are together?” Hank asked.

“No-“ You began but Connor cut you off completely.

“Yes!”

LIE TO HANK?

Connor stared at you and then you both looked back to Hank.

“No-“ Connor began but you cut him off this time.

“Yes.”

Hank rubbed his temples while letting out a long sigh, “I’m too drunk for this shit.”

He left you both to sit on the couch and watch him disappear down the hallway followed by the door closing.

——————————

HANK:

Hank had been watching you all day. You were such a tease always bending over in your tight black pencil skirt and it was driving him up the damn wall.

You both had been sneaking around with each other for about a month. Hank being the one to wait to tell anybody because of the age difference and it didn’t seem to bother you at all.

Besides, you and Hank found it kind of hot to be so sneaky.

It was now late in the precinct and you sat at your desk with your hair now out of the ponytail you had earlier, letting your hair fall messily around your face but it added to your outfit.

Hank was trying to finish the last of the reports but god you were such a distraction like this. Completely enveloped in your work with the frustrated stare, it was sexy to him.

“You keep staring at me and you won’t get anything done.” You told him without even making eye contact.

He smirked, “Well look at you. You’re gonna give me a heart attack looking like that.”

You averted your eyes over to him and now you wore a smirk on your face.

“Come find out what’s under and I’m sure it’ll stop your heart.” You replied while adding a wink at the end of your sentence.

Hank was completely blown back by your comment. He looked around to make sure that you both were alone, which to his luck you guys were and he made his way over to your desk and you got up to stand in front of him.

His hands found your waist and his face inched closer to yours, “You wanna do this here?”

You shrugged, “I’ve always wanted to do it on a desk.”

Without saying another word, his hands gripped your sides as he lifted you up onto your desk. Your legs wrapped around his side as your hands pulled onto his floral shirt collar, the both of you desperate to start a hot make-out session.

“Lieutenant. Detective.” Connor’s voice interrupted making Hank move away from you and you hopped off your desk.

“Connor!” Hank said surprised, the red beginning to build up on his face from embarrassment.

Connor looked between the two of you with an emotionless expression.

Hank opened his mouth again, “Connor, we were just uh-“

“Don’t worry Lieutenant. I already knew of you and (y/n)’s secret affair.” Connor said.

Your eyebrow quirked up at this, “You do?”

Connor nodded, “Yes I heard the two of you from Hank’s living room once engaging in sexual-“

You let out a loud nervous laughter, “Uh Connor.”

“Yes Detective?”

“Don’t tell anyone about this.”

—————————

GAVIN:

“Fuck you Reed.” You spat at him as you stormed off to move away from him and the lingering gaze of everyone watching the both of you.

“Good fucking riddance.” He added, making you turn head to him one last time to give him your middle finger and then disappeared to the elevators.

“Yeesh. What did you do now?” Hank asked him.

Gavin turned to look at him, “What does it matter?”

The Lieutenant shrugged, “I’ve just never seen (Y/N) so pissed off before.”

“Yeah well (y/n) will be fine.” Gavin replied.

Nines watched the interaction between you two and even continued to listen into the conversation between his partner and the Lieutenant and only had one word for the entire interaction: Bullshit.

Of course he wouldn’t say it so easily like that but something told him (his diagnostics of course) that the two of you were up to something.

He had his suspicions whenever he would find Gavin’s gaze on you to linger whenever you weren’t looking and vice versa.

Or the way Gavin’s body language would completely change around you and Nines could tell he’d try to mask the sudden change with his jerk persona but he couldn’t fool the android (of course).

“I’ll be back Nines. I-I’ve gotta go handle something.” Gavin stammered out to Nines who obviously wasn’t having it.

“You’re going to avoid your work again Detective?” The annoyance clear in Nine’s voice.

“It can wait Nines!” Gavin replied back obviously just as annoyed as he grabbed his keys from his desk and hurried off into the same direction you disappeared to.

DETECTIVE REED IS LYING?

Nines narrowed his eyes at the incoming suggestion in his view.

It was always so odd that whenever you would leave, Gavin sure enough would follow behind and the same way around.

“Is there something wrong Nines?” Connor asked him.

Why were you two so weird acting? The long gazes, the arguing, the disappearing-Oh.

Nines knew exactly what was going on.

DETECTIVE REED AND DETECTIVE (Y/N) ARE TOGETHER?

“Nines?” Connor asked him again.

“Everything is fine. I will be right back.” Nines finally replied to his android doppelgänger while getting up to follow the same direction you both went.

***

“You think...they...believed it?” You asked Gavin in between kisses.

He did hear you and wanted to reply but his only thoughts were to hurry up and get you out of your clothes so he could fuck you in the back seat on his car.

“Gavin we can’t-Oh!” Your sentence was cut off by his hands suddenly up your shirt and you moaned at the contact of his hands groping your breasts.

“God dammit Reed...” You cursed.

He moved his mouth from yours and began a trail from your chin to your neck before he stopped. You could feel his hot breath against your skin and it sent shivers throughout you.

“Stop acting like you don’t want this (Y/N).” Gavin said.

You moaned again trying to think of something to say but it was hard to when you had Gavin all over you like this.

Your hands found its way to his hair, lightly tugging on it making him bring his lips onto your neck to leave a fresh hickey.

“Gavin, please just fuck-“

The tapping on his car window stopped your sentence and Gavin, his hands still being in your shirt, jolted away from you making you follow in the same direction as him.

“Gavin. Your hands.” You said as you both readjusted yourself, him moving his hands and Nines watched through the window, an eye roll oncoming from him.

Nine’s pointed at Gavin and motioned his finger to point downward.

“Gavin I think he wants you to roll the window...” Your said in a hushed tone.

Gavin groaned as he reached over and began lowering it, “God damn it tin can! What do you want?!”

Nines huffed, “If you two are finished I would like to continue our work.”

Gavin rolled his eyes again, “God Nines couldn’t you have just fucking waited?!”

“Fine Detective. I’ll give you about five more minutes. I estimated that should be the appropriate time you need, yes?” Nines had a smirk on his face, clearly amused and you covered your mouth trying to stifle the giggle.

“I’m gonna fucking dissemble you myself.” Gavin fired at him.

#detroit become human #Connor x reader #connor rk800 x reader #rk800 imagine #Hank anderson x reader #Gavin reed x reader #hank anderson imagine #gavin reed imagine #rk900 x reader #Rk800 one shot #Hank anderson one shot #Gavin reed one shot #rk800 x reader

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razorsadness · 4 years ago

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The trip to Door County was good, needed. Just the drive itself made me feel better. I’m a routewitch, you know, and if I’m away from the road too long, my powers dull. Patrick and I got to go out together a couple times. Our first pandemic date night (our first real date night since well before the pandemic, if I’m being honest) was spent having a couple drinks at an outdoor table of a bar/restaurant. Our other outing was just a visit to a bookstore, but that did me good, too–it’s the first time I’ve been in a bookstore since pre-pandemic, and I bought a John Berger book I’ve been looking for for a long time + a biography of Lou Reed. And I was also able to stop into another shop to pick up a couple bars of my favorite handmade soap. I got tobacco & bay leaf (which I’ve used before, and love) and saffron & cedar (which I’ve tried since we’ve returned home, and it’s fantastic, just a perfect spicy autumnal scent). We also had several outings with the kiddos and my parents, outdoor ones. We wandered in the woods, visited an old cemetery, went to the beach. Also took a lot of night-walks near my parents’ condo. Tuesday night, I saw Jupiter and Saturn, and faintly, faintly, the Milky Way itself. My parents had their moments of arguing or freaking out over nothing, but it was less awful than it sometimes is. So overall, the trip was good.

Things have been okay since we got back. I’ve been cooking and baking some delicious autumnal foods (yesterday I made apple cider donuts, and for dinner I made beef stew with stout & herbed dumplings on top), the kids haven’t been too crazy, things are still great between me and P. It’s weird to be so overwhelmingly in love with him again, when for a long time our relationship was barely hanging out. Weird but wonderful.

But last night my anxiety returned. I found out that a couple restaurants we got takeout from in Door Co. (including the one we drank at) have since been shut down due to an employee testing positive for CoViD, so of course now I’m thinking all my allergy symptoms are CoViD symptoms. I think it’s pretty unlikely we were actually exposed, because a. there have been no known cases of it being transmitted via food or food packaging, and b. I read yesterday that you have to have close, mask-less contact for 10+ minutes with someone who’s CoViD-positive before being at any real risk of contracting it–and we only took our masks off at our own (outdoor) table, which was far away from all the other tables and far away from the employees. (Plus they were all wearing masks, too.) But still, hearing that, then hearing about RBG dying, and everything that could mean... I woke up in the middle of the night having a terrible panic attack and never really fell back asleep, and I’ve been on-and-off anxious all day. I’m drinking a hot toddy (apple cider, honey, lemon, bourbon + cinnamon stick) right now, which is helping a little.

And of course, it feeling like autumn, the nostalgia is thick upon me. I’m thinking especially about 2015. Five years ago this month, I found out I was to be the 2016/17 poet laureate of my town. And I’ve realized–not only did that tenure get me to take myself seriously as a poet, it also indirectly lead to me doing a lot more visual art and realizing hey, I’m an artist, too. I still sometimes can’t believe I had that experience. I’m still so grateful.

#railheadtowns #dear livejournal #travel #door county #good things #covid19 #anxiety #autumn #nostalgia

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bloodyfangedtiger · 5 years ago

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The new prototype

It started with a phone call from the Eden club, a good friend of Fowler's had called asking if he could spare a detective for them to use at their establishment.

"We got this new android in but none of our staff are willing to test it out, they all say it's too intimidating and scary. Think one of your big strong detectives can test it out?"

It didn't take long for Fowler to agree and suggest someone. "Reed has been causing trouble lately, I'm sure this assignment will straighten him out. He's been bothering Connor a lot and gotten into several altercations with the RK800. I'll have sent him over soon."

+-+-+- 8DDDDDDD

That's how Gavin found himself sitting on a plush bed with a blindfold on in a private sound proof room. He had his jacket taken at the door and was strip searched upon arrival before being blindfolded, carried then dumped on the bed and promptly abandoned.

"Just what the fuck is this assignment?"

He can hear the door opening then sliding shut, he holds his breath as a oppressing aura suddenly fills the room. It's suffocating, heavy and it feels like he's in a room with a killer.

He waits for something, a voice, a sound of breath or something.

Nothing.

There's no sound coming from the other party. Is there even someone there?

Gavin opened his mouth to ask if someone is there but found himself slamming his mouth shut when he felt hands on his chest. Fingers traveling up and down his sides, causing goosebumps to blossom across his flesh and his breath to catch in his throat. Two sharp, bony fingers pinch his nipples causing Gavin to arch his back and let out a wanton moan as he begins to tent in his pants.

He wants to ask what is going on, who is touching him but a harsh pinch to his nipples turned all of his words into a sharp moan.

Gavin moves his arms down his body to the hem of his shirt, hooking his fingers in and pulled his shirt up. Big mistake, the moment the flesh of his stomach and chest is exposed a pair of cold lips press against his skin in a chilling kiss.

Gavin bites his lip and continues to remove his shirt, patting at the hands that are squeezing his nipples to get them to move. After the hands left, he removes his shirt completely. The hands return to his chest, continuing to abuse his nipples which make him harder and harder in his pants.

The cold lips return to kissing his stomach then start trailing down. Lower and lower till he reaches his waist line. Kissing the sensitive skin before pulling down his zipper and ripping off his jeans.

Gavin started shaking, he's hard as a steel rod, blindfolded, partially naked with two unknown people in a room at an exclusive sex club and not many people know where he is. Not since Fowler said this was a secret assignment and has to be kept on the hush hush.

Then it hit him, what if they actually wanted him gone? Gone and dead, make up some story about how he left the force and moved out of town. The truth would be that he was killed by two androids at a sex club and no one would find a body. As the thought started to hit him, he began to go soft and all that pleasure went out the window.

The android between Gavin's legs looked up at the human, sensing the change in his behavior. It lifts Gavin's legs and licks a long trail up the human's inner right thigh.

Blood pressure high

Heartbeat erratic

Diagnosis fear/ depression, anxiety

It's LED spun red as it read the results and transmitted it to its twin.

The one behind Gavin suddenly fell backwards onto the bed, pulling the human with him while its twin brought its head down to the human's groin and licked his way inner thigh.

Gavin startled and finally found his voice "Hey! What the fuck are you doing!?" He demanded angrily while he was being repositioned. He can't tell what's going on exactly but he knows that he is on someone's chest. A very large, flat chest and that there is a mouth on his underwear.

He is also aware that another mouth is kissing down his back, down his tail bone to his ass. Gavin hisses as he feels cold air hit his now bare ass and his erect member. He feels himself being lifted up gently by the hips and placed back down. Cold, smooth lips now mouthing at his hole with a tongue occasionally flicking out to tease the tight muscle.

Gavin tried to move away "Hold on! I'm not into this kind of shit!" He claims before his member is engulfed in a tight wet heat, swallowing him balls deep. Gavin places his hand on the face to try and push it off. "C'mon, you don't need to do this." He says, trying to pull away from his unknown partner.

A bite to one of his ass cheeks makes him yelp and finally take off the blind fold. "Oh shit."

An android, a male android that looks slightly like Connor is swallowing his cock happily with its eyes closed and its LED pink. "What-what the fuck? Hey! Let go dammit!" He tries to open the plastic's mouth.

"Dammit, I said you don't have to do that! Shit just pop it out of your mouth already-!" The android opened its dark silver blue eyes and started to constrict its throat around Gavin, squeezing him tightly before reaching up and tweaking the human's nipples.

Gavin gasped and bucked his hips, the shock nearly making him cum. "F-fuck!"

A tongue darting inside his hole made him aware of his other partner, causing him to reflexively bring his hips up then back down. The twin sucking on his dick finally let go, it took one hand and wiped away the precum from its lips. "Oral stimulation on his penis isn't enough to make him climax." It said before wrapping a hand around Gavin's still stiff erection. "Guess a hand job will have to do."

Gavin shook his head and tried to bat the mech's hand away. "Look, if you want to fuck me then fuck me. You don't got to do all this extra shit." He looked away as he spoke. "You can rip me open and just fucking use me, not like anyone will care. They'll probably have you kill me afterwards." He said softly, his voice barely coming out in a breath.

The twins immediately changed positions, one cradling Gavin in their arms while lying on the bed. Laying on their side with an arm around the human. The android cradling Gavin reached over to the night stand close by and grabbed a red sports bottle resting by some white bottles and other red bottles. It sprayed some of the clear fluid into its mouth before swishing it around and spitting it into the trash can nearby.

After having effectively cleaned out their mouth, they turned to Gavin and took his chin before slowly pulling him closer and pressing their lips together in a kiss. It was soft and gentle, the artificial lips molded against his own.

Gavin's never been kissed in bed before, none of his partners wanted to and none of them even tried. None of them rimmed him, gave him a blow job or even handled him this gently.

If he wanted to fuck, he'd have to prepare his own ass and 9/10 he was tied up with his face shoved into the bed. It was always rough, too rough and sometimes he tore when they went at it and often times he was the last to cum and had to jack himself off after his partner leaves.

So it's not a surprise that Gavin has started crying into the kiss, having never been treated like this before in his entire life. The android pets his hair as they kiss, worming its tongue past Gavin's teeth letting it explore his oral cavity. When it finally pulled away, leaving a thin line of saliva connecting the two, it started to kiss down Gavin's neck. Leaving hickeys as it went on his jaw line, his throat, adam's apple and collar bone.

Its twin watched him with interest and started to kiss Gavin as well, starting at his ankles and working his way up both legs to his waist and stomach.

Gavin whimpered, knowing he would never be treated like this on the outside. He is the half blood bastard son after all, just as smart as Kamski but not as recognized. The butt end pf everyone's jokes at the precinct and the most hated detective. Now here he is, being body worshipped by two plastics that are only programmed to be gentle as a lover but in actuality they don't really give a shit about Gavin.

His anxieties started to rise along with his insecurities, all the dark thoughts lurking in his brain he tried to drown by alcohol and taking his anger out on others.

'You don't deserve love'

'You didn't do anything on your own, your brother helped you with his infinite piles of money. How else could you have become a cop?'

'You're disgusting'

'I feel bad for these mechs.'

'Just resign already! They won't give a shit anyway!'

Then he started to hear Her words, his stepmother's.

'Why the hell are you even alive?!'

Gavin bolts up between the two of the androids, his heart rate through the roof as he started to shake. He bolted from the bed and started getting dressed as fast as he could, his dark thoughts yelling in his head. Mostly his step mother.

The twins tried to stop him but Gavin was already flying out the door, out of the private room and straight out of Eden Club. He didn't stop till he got to his car. He grabbed onto the steering wheel and tried to calm his breathing before digging into the glove box for his medication.

He hadn't taken them for years but always got a refill each month since he was ten.

Popping the pills in his mouth and swigging down the fresh can of cola he brought from home, he steadily started to calm down.

It didn't stop the tears though, they kept running down his face as the events that just occurred started playing through his mind. He was loved, all his life nobody wanted anything to do with him but in that club he was treated like he mattered like he wasn't just a hole and it was terrifying.

After years of being touch starved and receiving affection for the first time, he couldn't handle it. It was an odd and foreign concept to him.

***

The next day Reed walked in like a limp puppet. He hadn't slept at all last night and it was very obvious by the look on his face. Dark circles seemed to have done donuts around his eyes his face was pale. He smelled freshly showered so there wasn't cause for alarm.

He plopped down at his desk tgen logged into his terminal. In his inbox he found an email from Eden Club asking him to write a review on their new prototypes.

There were two, one with dark silver blue eyes and the other with dark blue abyss like eyes. The silver blued one is RK850 and the other one is RK900.

Gavin gulped a little then wrote an honest review of the Twins. Even took a survey about their behavior and hospitality, leaving them a glowing review.

After submitting it, Gavin kind of just slumped into his seat and brought up an age old word document he had been working on forever. His resignation.

"Hey, Gavin!"

"Mr. Reed!"

Two voices called his name from the front. It was the Twins.

#rk900 x gavin #RK850 #bodyworship #may continue on wattpadd

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thelillykane · 6 years ago

Note

all the numbers with a “4” in it.

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you? umm i don’t remember! i know i had really high reading levels & comprehensions skill and i didn’t get in trouble a lot or anything. i was really enthusiastic i think

14. favorite non-chocolate candy? mike n ikes is my go to answer but they make my mouth hella dry when i’m eating them. i also love those sour straw things but i don’t remember the name. or red vines!!

24. favorite crystal? crystal reed

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head? SO MANY but it happens at random the most often is that stanley steamer one or i often times deadpan “time to make the donuts” which is from an old dunkin donuts commercial and nobody ever knows what the fuck i’m talking about

44. favorite scent for soap? not bad smelling! i don’t know! umm i used to go for oatmeal and shea butter but now i mix it up. the kitchen soap i bought is apple scented.

54. what did you learn from your first job? my first job was super chill i worked at a writing center but our client volume wasn’t very high so we got paid to just kinda exist in the building and every now and then someone would come. sooo i’m not sure it was a fun experience and actually aligned with shit i care about but it just wasn’t a service that people utilized

64. favorite website from your childhood? my sister and i were obsessed with that millsbury website except it was always disappointing bc you couldn’t really…do anything with your character and capitalism was very much alive in the game and our characters had no money

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen? maybe like a persistent seven or so but i only take it when i have a headache not for any other type of pain

84. podcasts or talk radio? i usually like to watch people as they talk to i can observe their body language and movements or like, i can be the one who decides just to listen if….that’s what talk radio means. i’m not a podcast person.

94. favorite season? WHEN IT’S SNOWING but i live in the desert so we’re a one season fits all even against your will type over here.

#jennie interacts with people #kidmannicole #thank you!!

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artcanary · 7 years ago

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1-50

oh my god dude

im gonna put this under a cut bc this is a lot. this is a ride, have fun i guess

1. Your first OC ever?god. its got to be Super Kitty. when i was like … an incredibly small child I used to draw comic strips about this feline caped crusader, who was friends with everyone in the city, and the comics always involved him stopping an evil banana man from stealing money from the local bank. He was paid with donuts for his service to the city. i still remember how to draw him.

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs?i’d get arrested if I didn’t answer this with Bronze, probably… but really, they’re very important to me

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?man, i cant remember! i really dont think i have… P:

4. A character you rarely talk about?there’s loads of characters ive never even posted a single picture of on tumblr, i wouldnt even know where to start asdf

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? bronze is the easy answer, but… i guess that could also go to Servant or Westrin. Servant has a comic project in the works that basically stars him, sort of a series of one-shots about the things he’s experienced, i feel like that would be a good thing to take off and run with. Westrin’s just fun as hell, i love the guy.

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?real talk now… there’s at least five different characters that i refer to as a whole as “bronze-tangential”, who started out as, “what would bronze be like if they were in this world?” and then becoming their own thing within said world because i just get stupid attached

its an epidemic

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?nearly all of them, actually. that’s the main reason i make characters, after all! too many to really go into specifics here, again P:

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here!not often, but i think Bronze and Westrin are the most common ones. unless playing a character in dnd, or running an npc in dnd counts… then a whole lot more hahaha

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?it depends on the circumstances. i don’t really like the idea, though.

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? Westrin’s old getup is a pain to draw, and there was one other design i did that I cant find anywhere… whichever way, i dont often tend to draw super complicated things often

a couple fakemon ive designed though… heheh those can get pretty finicky

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? hmmmmmmmm my immediate thought was Eric Silverdale from a comic i was working on a few years ago. hes a darling, i want him to be my friend irl

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lothow could you do this to me i love each and every one of all my friends ocs GOD the first one who comes to mind is @d20-official‘s Smith, whos Bronze’s friend… everyone in that DND party actually

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? Rated on a scale from “harmless” to “honestly somewhat frightening”: -Baromet (charming and quite friendly but definitely a kleptomaniac),-Westrin (demigod of bards and travelers), -XEN09 (a nonsense hacker), -Conny (needlessly contrarian and dumb as HELL), -Enza Colie (long fucking story but hes a good-for-nothing), -Hemlocke (mad scientist, chaotic evil), -Iris (AI and hacker, VERY bad), -The Terminus (glitch-in-the-matrix demon, chaotic evil), -and Sydd (the Queen of the Faeries, hopefully the danger there needs no explaining :’D)

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory Mmm… there’s a few of them, most obviously Lent (whose background I did a short comic about). Basically his entire town got eaten by ghosts and turned into zombies, he only barely survived with a sliver of his soul left.

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?yes, i often discuss storylines and such with friends

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? Probably Bronze’s dad! I don’t talk about him much, but his name’s Devon Reed, and he was a biotech developer specialising in android design.

I often describe him as being something of a reverse Arthur Weasley - a very fatherly scientist fascinated to the moon and back with the concept of magic.

17. Any OC OTPs? having trouble thinking of a lot of them right now, but there’s Eric + Lent & Naiadine + Tailias from Emerald Sigil, Avken + Baromet from my space campaign world, Sydd + Wyvv from my unnamed campaign world, and I’ve been considering Westrin + Servant as an interesting dynamic in Servant’s story

18. Any OC crackships? My character Bismuth and @autistictimeknight‘s oc Eros. Theyre so fucking in love, I love it. Its been awhile but I do still think about them sometimes.

As I recall, Eros is an empath, she can read other people’s emotions. But Bismuth is a robot, and Eros can’t read her. Because of this Eros can let go of her fear of unintentionally manipulating the emotions of her date, which would hold her back from most other relationships.

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)Hey, meet Bronze! I definitely do not talk about them every five minutes, why would you say that.

Bronze was with me through two of the hardest years of my life so far, and being a DND character they grew with me, both as a fighter and as a person. They were non-binary before I started using those pronouns, they were the first character or person or anything who I fought someone about using the right pronouns for, they make a great icebreaker for if I want to see how someone reacts to non-binary pronouns …

One funny anecdote about Bronze is that when I first made them, their “gimmick” was that they would sometimes glitch out and mess up their speech, mostly because I wanted an excuse not to engage in the roleplaying (which I was very bad at). The interesting thing is that as I got better at interacting with the group, we both grew out of needing it very quickly.

I’m very proud of Bronze.

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?Westrin is a bard! His singing voice sounds like Bill Wurtz and these are his theme songs.

21. Your most artistic OCProbably Westrin again, he writes a lot of songs… and Hallux is a game designer?

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? I honestly dont know… no-one talks to me about them, haha!

people use all manner of pronouns for bronze, though.

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?I’m gonna go with Enza for this one. Enza Colie was originally written entirely because I wanted an antagonist for a short starring his sister, Jane Colie. But the more I fleshed out his reasonings for acting how he did and explored his character, the more I realised he’d make an even more interesting character if allowed to have a redemption arc, too.

I just want to state for the record that I was very reluctant to the idea, and he basically dragged his way out of the villain pit entirely of his own accord. I am dubiously proud of him, and also a bit scared.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?Probably either Eric (Big Man, Best Friend), Crocus (Mother figure), Reed (Father Figure), Westrin (hed just make a good friend u kno??), or Bismuth (she makes good conversation!)

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)probably the homestuck fan-troll Hallux, but that’s mostly because they were based on a troll-sona I made awhile ago. They’re a hope/prospit game designer who is small and full of rage and love

oh, and there’s dave! dave’s a superhero speedster, existing in a modern-day superhero version of seattle. theyre idiot, just like me,

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? this is an interesting one… i don’t think ive ever had something Bad in a design ive done called to my attention by someone, but I did create my character Servant at around the same time I was first really expanding the diversity of my casts. (since i don’t talk about him often, a little context: he’s a magic spirit creature bound to human form to serve the royal family of the land and follow their orders.)

somehow, younger-and-more-stupid me managed to have the revelation that making this “eternal slave” character literally anything other than a white man, especially as a white author, would be Pretty Not Good. im … thats really, really not something i should pat myself on the back for, but i do consider it one of the biggest bullets dodged in my artistic career so far that i realised that not all representation is good representation so quickly, before i could make that incredibly, incurably stupid mistake.

after that, trying to make sure my characters and their presentations don’t harm anyone pretty much has become a paranoia. i don’t seem to have stepped on any toes yet, but when it inevitably happens, please let me know - i didnt know, and i want to fix it!

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? None that I can think of, actually! I don’t really do that often.

28. Your most dangerous OC? god damn it i have no idea!!! is it the terminus? glitch in the matrix god of chaos motherfucker?is it sarle? terrifying calculating scientist with the power of the soul at her fingertips ??? is it ares??? is it athena????? is it petra?????? the gatekeeper????

… actually, the gatekeeper might be it, if “dangerous” just refers to “the amount of raw power it can wield”. the Gatekeeper is a titanic entity that exists in interdimensional multiverse space, and its implied to have the ability to create and destroy entire universe bubbles at will. for what cosmic purpose, no-one knows.

at a more personal scale, though, literally all of the aforementioned characters are pretty bad to run into too.

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?god. Mina or Tawn. Tawn is the Indiana Jonesy type and probably dumb enough, but also competent enough not to get into too much trouble there. Mina would probably drag her friends along.

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? XEN09. No-one knows, because no-one knows xir personal identity. Xe absolutely does, though. It’s less of a secret if you know xir in person, but good luck finding out about it otherwise.

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)dave just reblogs memes all the time tbh. they like to keep tabs on the ridiculous superhero news going on, and they show human jokes and cat videos to their alien gf. they dont really post or add to posts, but they talk in tags a lot.

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? i want to say tawn because i literally just realised ive been imagining their voice as sounding like luigi this entire fucking time and i never realised until this exact instant

33. Your shyest OC?probably baromet. they prefer to keep to themself in their hideout, with their collection of shiny things. they don’t really enjoy trying to communicate much, mostly because they expect to get yelled at.

34. Do you have any twin characters?Yes! At least two sets;

- Crocus and Sarle. (x) (x) They don’t exactly have a very well-developed relationship, but they are both quite important to the plot of my campaign world, and they are both very interesting. Crocus is a motherly figure who just exudes friendliness, while Sarle is .. very much not that, a researcher studying very gruesome things and pushing the boundaries of reality.

- Jane and Enza Colie. I haven’t talked a whole lot about either of them here, but I’d rather leave their story to do the talking whenever I get around to it. Essentially, the both of them were intended to do the dirty work for their crime boss family, but Jane ditched to study medicine. Most of the conflict between the two of them comes out of Enza not understanding why she made the choice she did, and coming to understand how he’s been manipulated.

35. Any sibling characters? I can’t really think of any off the top of my head, I should … I should really work on that.

I can talk about Westrin, though. Westrin (a demigod of many things, but namely bards, travel, travelers, and people who are lost) often becomes close friends with mortals, sometimes practically adopting them. These people who consider him family, and people who have received his blessing, are able to use his surname, Brilanta, as their own if they choose. So I guess all of the Brilantas are siblings, at least in spirit.

Oh, and XEN09 has like, seven siblings. Xe is the second-oldest, and least remarkable.

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? I already talked about Eros and Bismuth up there a ways in question 18, but I’ll talk about another relationship here. @autistictimeknight‘s character, Nova the Alchemist, is mentor and adopted parental figure to my character Munna. Munna … Munna isn’t a very good apprentice. She tries very hard.

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human That’s most of them, I’m not quite sure what to say here. Bronze is an android? Bronze again? Westrin? All the aliens ??

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? man. uh. westrin or jean. or perhaps valencia.

39. Introduce any character you want ??? uhhhHHHhhHHH Lord Brillium is the reigning deity of the Cloud Kingdoms in the other campaign setting I’m working on. They represent light and the quest for knowledge, and spend most of their days in the Cathedral Observatory watching the stars.

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!one time bronze flew a hover-bike through the stained glass window in a cathedral blaring all star by smash mouth on their iguana

also one time bronze rickrolled a rakshasa demon and then pulled updog on it like, two minutes later

another time bronze scared off an entire army by pretending to be an automated security system

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)ive got a whole little folder on here from all you blessed people !!!! right now ive got a drawing quinn did of one o fmy characters as my lockscreen

but i think the one i’ll really never ever get over is this piece of Jane, by @rabendraws / @owoltron:

(i bet you thought i forgot about this, dude. dude. think again.)

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? this is kind of a weird question, m, I feel like Bismuth would find learning about the mythos utterly fascinating, as would Tawn.

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confesshaha. uh. i might.

aside from the entire “bronze-tangential characters” thing i mentioned awhile back, I tend to really like designing characters with hair color lighter than their skin color. it just looks so cool man. i love drawing freckles but dont put them on enough characters. i like really curly hair, but also really long and flowy hair. i like drawing triangular body types, and pointy/prominent noses.

44. Something you like about your OCs in generaluhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is a really vague question. m. m.

45. A character you no longer use?there’s old versions of characters, but a lot of my older ones have been somehow repurposed. I guess there’s Turien, my first-ever DND character, who’s just kind of sitting dead now. Haven’t really done anything with him other than a pretty recent tangential character.

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?Not that I can think of.

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child? Im certain it’s happened, but I can’t remember any specific instances.

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pureSpring. spring knows nothing of th dangers of the world who is letting them into fights someon eneeds to stop this

(spring roll, hehe.)

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memesim not sure what this question is asking since many of my ocs actively enjoy memes including but not limited to westrin, dave, bronze, xen09, iris, and doctor archersen

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you wanti think. i think im going to pass on this one. i gave you the good old oc talk. your damn turn, yall:

if you have any questions about any of these guys feel free to shoot one at me!

thats all from me im tired and its one am. techskylander you absolute madman

#yetanotherOCmeme #WHY #personal

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coffeeandcalligraphy · 7 years ago

Text

Reeve’s birthday + mini character profile!

Hey People of Earth!

So it’s become a bit of a trend to use my characters’ birthdays as an excuse to post mini character profiles for them, ha, so here we are again with another one! I’ve written this in advance (on the 12th) because I’ll be at a Current Joys concert for most of the 13th (her actual birthday). Hope you enjoy getting to know the MC of the FOSTERED books. (who I strangely don’t talk about nearly enough lol)

This is her:

This is also her (both by @sarahkelsiwrites):

This is Reeve’s aesthetic that I just whipped up lol:

Name: Reeve Aldaine

Age: 15-19 over the courses of books 1-6

Nicknames and from who: I think she was only ever called Evie by her older sister who isn’t in the books for very long.

Favourite restaurant: East Side Mario’s according to @sarahkelsiwrites (or Five Guys) lol

Favourite candy: Sour skittles or wine gums (according to @sarahkelsiwrites)

Favourite type of cake: Vanilla

Favourite hobby: Being salty for no apparent reason, being that toxic (TM) friend who lowkey knows it but if u bring it up is like whut no how am I toxic

Favourite colour: Purple

MBTI type: ISFP

Favourite cereal: Mini wheats

Favourite breakfast food in general: Crepes

If she had a job in real life, what would it be: Anything in retail (Sarah says at a perfume counter) because she’s rather adaptable and not picky though I think she’d really enjoy being a barista, lol.

Favourite thing to do: Reeve loves salting about other people. She isn’t an outwardly bitchy person, per se, but she likes toying with potential scenarios of what people could be thinking of her and why. She isn’t a particularly creative person, so she doesn't have any sort of concrete hobby, for example, but if there’s salt involved, she’s down.

Does she like The Strokes or does she not like The Strokes: Yaaaaassss join the clubbbb (her fave song would probably be You Only Live Once).

Her actual aesthetic: Looking out a gloomy window while it’s raining, chipped black nail polish, the smell of rain on pine trees, the subsequent smell of the sap, maple syrup in clear, labelless bottles (so weirdly specific but truu), sprigs of dried lavender

If she was a gum flavour: Juicy fruit cuz she got all dat riiiipe juicy teaaaaa

Would she write books: No, ha. Although her voice itself is hella poetic.

If she were a donut flavour: Sprinkles 4 dayz

If she were a beverage: Coca Cola in those vintage coke glasses or a glass of wine

If she had a favourite band: Daughter, but she’s also definitely into rock further along the alternative spectrum (and Whitney. Whitney for dayz).

Songs that remind me of her:

(I would say all of Daughter but to specify)

- The End by Daughter

specifically these lyrics

They say there's something in my house That I should just get out, get out I don't want to be escaping No, I'm too busy moping around I'm too busy moping around I'm too busy moping around I'm too busy moping around I'm too busy moping around

- Smother by Daughter

I should go now quietly For my bones have found a place to lie down and sleep Where all my layers can become reeds All my limbs can become trees All my children can become me What a mess I leave To follow

- Shallows by Daughter

Let it all rain down From the blood stained clouds. Come out, come out, to the sea my love... And just Drown with me

- New Ways by Daughter

Washed out brain I have a dirty mind Oh, I need, I need new ways To waste my time I need new ways

- Numbers by Daughter

Chemically enlaced faces Black out nights and tight spaces We'll feel distant embraces Scratching hands 'round my waist, yeah I'll wash my mouth but still taste you

- Made of Stone by Daughter

What if I'm made of stone? Feeling is not a system Nervous I'm caught in a hold Hoping I'm over thinking I should be feeling more Draped over your bones Paint colours up the walls To spread our inspirations You are the likely cause Of what will be my demise

- A Hole in the Earth by Daughter

It's like an old ruin Your father's a liar while my father's lying down In a hole in the earth there And I'm scared I'll forget him I'm still haunted by those open wounds I won't express them truly to you

Likes:

- Sitting in front of fireplaces + the sound of crackling wood

- The smell of smoke

- Rain

- Skipping rocks (she’s also v/ good at this)

- Melancholically reminiscing about her childhood

- Anything purple

- Swing-style rock

- @sarahkelsiwrites says Corn Pops

Some other stuff:

Reeve out of all my characters, has probably had the most major character flip in terms of her arc. I’ve described her before on here as poetically existential, and I think that’s personally an excellent way to describe her. In the initial stages of the series, she was quite pessimistic, but there was very much still a tangible spring in her. She’s never been particularly warm, but as the series progresses, namely from book four onward, this becomes much clearer. Her morals (especially in book six) also take a turn in what I’d basically describe as moral decline. She’s had a bit of ‘anti-character-development’, by which I mean she’s sort of progressed backwards (and most likely will continue to). Because of this, she reads incredibly ambiguously, and in a lot of ways, like the antagonist of the story, due to her extreme perceptions of people in both her judgements, and interactions with them. (Thus she’d probably rub the reader as unlikable.) She’s a very direct person, who doesn’t quite understand her moral faults, but simultaneously exploits them. So for example, she might know she’s being judgemental, but not quite understand why (or why that’s not a good thing) and continue to impose that on others.

She’s a very turbulent, negative person, mostly towards the latter half of the series. Whilst she’s always had these issues (such as jealousy and pettiness), they’ve almost been under the surface kind of issues. It’s kind of funny to think of it now, but @sarahkelsiwrites, and @imdisappointed (and myself) have always pointed out Reeve’s unlikable characteristics from the beginning. I always thought this was because I was doing something wrong, and only realized when writing book six, that these characteristics are actually a part of her character, making her incredibly morally grey (and sometimes, morally wrong). Because of this, the narration (since it is first person) often reads morally grey as well. She’ll often state something she doesn’t believe in as if she does believe it, which oftentimes feeds into her constant inner conflict.

She’s a very critical person, to the point of being overtly so, and thus, will overstep her boundaries in judging you if she feels you’ve either wronged her, or wronged someone she cares about. Though, she doesn’t vocalize these opinions, they almost reach the point of vulgarity through the narrative as they’re rehashed for the reader.

She also harbours a lot of self-deprecation, and blames herself a lottttt for many a things, namely the various complications within her family, even if she couldn’t necessarily fix these things. She’s a fixer by heart, and not being able to patch up holes continuously bothers her. I’d describe her as self-loathing. I wouldn’t say she hates herself, I just think she hates the pawn of herself (sort of the persona she puts on), and hates what that person let her become.

Ha, all of this was uber negative, but that isn’t all there is to her! She’s also an intensely emotional person (which can lead to baaare melodramaaaaa), so this really allows her to connect with other people on a really deep level. She doesn’t trust easily, due to her various traumas, but if she does trust you, you’ll feel it. She cares intensely about people (which can sometimes be a bad thing), but will try her hardest to be a supportive friend. So she does have a lot of stuff bogging her down a lot of the times, but will remain by your side (and hopefully not make the situation about her oops).

I mentioned this before, but she’s also a very distant narrator. It’s sometimes hard to achieve this especially in the scenes I need her to be even more distant in (hence so many clarity issues haaaaha), so I’ve toyed around a bit with form in her POV. Some bits of these books are in verse, some in second person, and some in third. She is a first-person narrator, but I do enjoy experimenting a bit (especially in dissociative scenes). She’ll also insert herself into other characters’ situations (almost like pseudo dissociation lol) a lot, and go through possible events they may have gone through.

I think her development is the main reason these books went from YA to vaguely adult maybe, because she’s definitely gone down a viciously explicit emotional path (which I didn’t actually plan for, but am happy about). So yeah. Lots of things go on in her head, and I think she really does need a lot of time to dispel all of it, but she’s getting there.

So that’s it for now! I haven’t really done an extensive profile for Reeve, even though I talk about her a lot, so hopefully this helps in getting to know her a bit better!

Thanks for reading!

--Rachel

#writing #writerblr #amwriting #writingupdates

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pitchlag · 7 years ago

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s15x13

and some general s15 critical thinking

Took a while to gather up all my thoughts and apparently that’s for a reason because this quickly became longer than expected

As a ot of folks have already pointed out the fight scenes were shall we say, off. And I definitely agree with that.

Obviously it’s really hard to fight with the choreography Monty had and the further away we get from that the more I miss it. (Rest in peace good sir) His style in S8-10 style was exaggerated and fast but still had a lot of weight to it and the environments and assets were used in cool ways. S12-13 on the other hand was a lot more grounded, heavier and slower, but hits still had a good amount of impact and the combatants used their invironment like so ‘twas still cool.

S15? Individual Maya animation shots have been pretty nice and blend in better than during the Chorus arc but for a first fully animated fight sequence this was preeetty baaddd. Very exaggerated, but too slow and way too floaty. Doesn’t know what it wants to be.

While the choreography going faster or slower depending on the music was an amusing gag (The Harry Potter bit was so jarring but also hilarious where did that idea even come from jfc) it is hardly enough to mask how sub-par the fighting was compared to what we’ve had before. There were a couple of good shots but for the most part it was pretty :I and unimpressive.

For example Carolina climing on the warthog mid-air needed to be a lot snappier. While throwing Lorenzo was funny, that one was too fast and too Team Rocket-y. Throwing back Cronut’s missile was funny, but made no sense. Dropping a crane kick like a second after being on solid ground made no sense. Then there’s the obvious fact that neither Carolina nor Tex fought the way they usually do and that there was basically zero impact on contact. The fighting styles and the stuff made no sense I guess can be written off as Temple being an exaggerating and/or flat out unreliable narrator but that doesn’t really help the animation issues I’m afraid.

Another thing that I’m also somewhat concerned about is Jax. While I did and I guess still do like his genre-savviness, I really don’t want spouting one-liners to be all he is there for. Boy needs to actually do something with his foresight or his thing goes really stale really fast.

Reading the summary for this ep I was mildly concerned Carolina was going to Desert Gulch with York because while I do love the guy, having him be the only referenced dead freelancer would be sucky. So that issue was averted.. with Tex.

Soooo first of all it’s painfully obvious (and understandable) they didn’t get Kathleen for this which I guess isss.... fine and again, understandable (RT were very lucky Tex’s voice mod was established very early in the series eh?) (Also on that note it also seems like John Marshall Reed wasn’t available either? Shame, but the replacement didn’t do a bad job per se)

Second of all is my bigger grievance with this, which is that if Temple’s story is brought up to Carolina and somehow it was pretty accurate (Carolina was pissed dring PFL, we know, but I’m not gonna take Temple’s narration at face value), this would make it the third time, in succession, throughout three major storyarcs, that Carolina has to deal with her negative emotions towards her own past actions and Tex. Settling her inferiority complex has already been a part of her arc she and something she and Epsilon talked about several times and she already attemped reconciliation with Sharkface in S13 (Sharkface wasn’t up for it and I’m pretty sure Temple ain’t either). Of course letting go isn’t easy (goes in the family that one) but is really recycling it.

I do love how the season recognizes how far Tucker has come over the course of the series. However, that just makes him being dumbed down for the sake of some jokes and especially falling for Temple’s deceit right after Felix happened even worse. Boy better wake up and smell the dirt soon. Maybe if VIC is still on the computer and Tucker notes Dylan hasn’t come back yet?

When it comes to romantical Carwash I’m just gonna reiterate my opinion on it (No shiphate here, just me being critical of the canon writing):

Personally as an ace I’d just love if every now and then a character’s happy ending wasn’t tied to starting/being in a relationship with someone. This goes double in this case because

a) the two have been on-screen together for 5-6** seasons now without previous romatical implications aside from like one joke-y line by Caboose or Donut can’t remember

b) Carolina being tied to a guy at every point of her story suuuucks

c) Fans can write it better so it doesn’t come out of nowhere and Wash isn’t just a replacement for York

Nevertheless I think I’m going forward cautiously optimistic because there’s still a good amount of time for things to happen.... and more than a lot of things haven’t gone as expected sooo there’s hope yet maybe

Also "But the thing that I love about chess is that sometimes, Pawns kill Kings“ while a bit corny, still a good line to end the ep on and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to think about using that in the future

*For the uniniated Tex’s VA and RT are on reeeeaally bad terms right now, someone other than me should be better at giving a summary of the situation

**depends on whether or not you count s11 but that’s a nitpick

#red vs blue #rvb15 #rvb15 spoilers

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mistakesandmixtapespodcast-blog · 6 years ago

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Episode 1 & 2 - Show Notes

So here’s how Mistakes & Mixtapes works: Each month you get two mixtapes an our podcast is like the extended liner notes! Links below for both Orono’s and Adrienne’s mixtapes (Spotify playlists), and some extra notes on some of the songs we don’t get to in the first two episodes!

Orono’s Mixtape for December:

Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1 - Kanye West - Epic drive across Vancouver

We’re so Lost - Princess Chelsea

Springtime - Jeffrey Lewis - Walking around Kitsilano, listened to this song. It was getting dark, I was out to get some groceries… vibey as hell song, you’ll get it when you listen to it

Ghost Town - Kanye West Ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR

Femme Fatale - The Velvet Underground

You’re so Cool - Jonathan Bree - S-A-R-C-A-S-M (but also a poignant truthfulness to the whole song)

I Can’t Stop Your Memory - Of Montreal - Very emo, very relatable, ;-(

Say It Ain’t So - Weezer

Ottoman - Vampire Weekend - When I was going through my Vampire Weekend (tumblr indie child) phase, I watched this music video for Kid Cudi’s remix of this track, where he just raps over the instrumental of this song. It’s a really lowkey video, he’s just rolling a blunt and rapping to the camera. Put in this song cos my whole week reminded me of this song, also Kanye-Cudi

All Mine - Kanye West

Who Loves The Sun - The Velvet Underground - Didn’t mention this in the podcast but alongside Ye I listened to Loaded a whole lot. Great record, great song. I specifically remember daydreaming about listening to this song in the car on a sunny, cozy afternoon, but pretty sure we were just going to the supermarket on a gloomy day lol

Man On The Moon - R.E.M. - I love the movie with the same title as this song, starring Jim Carrey. It’s about Andy Kaufman, who’s an absolute legend. Also watched the Netflix documentary about the movie, “Jim and Andy,” which is really fascinating as well. I watched the two while we were on tour and I loved them so much I ended up rewatching them a few times… made my mom watch them with me as soon as I got back home

Wii Tennis - Splash Daddy - A very catchy, very lols song that YouTube recommended me

No Mistakes - Kanye West

Time - Pink Floyd

Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

Heroin - The Velvet Underground

Cortez the Killer - Neil Young, Crazy Horse - I found out about this song because of one of my favorite bands, Slint--on the deluxe version of Spiderland there’s a cover of Cortez the Killer that they did at some Battle of the Bands type event when they were teenagers, it’s so sick. The lyrics are trippy and spooky as fuck

Hound Dog - Big Mama Thornton - Somehow went down an Elvis Presley wormhole. This is the (apparent) original of his hit song Hound Dog

Mo Bamba - Sheck Wes - How the fuck did I not know about this song. One of the biggest songs of 2018 with over 250 million listens on Spotify, didn’t recognize it at all. Thanks YouTube recommendations, I was hooked instantly

Here - Pavement - I’ve been trying to read Infinite Jest for a very long time now (lol), I have 2 copies of it now (one in London, one in Japan) so that I won’t have to carry this hefty ass book around. Anyway I think I tried to read it again on this day, and I was reminded of the movie about DFW, The End of the Tour, starring Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg… when the credits roll they play this sweet cover of Here, so yeah

Happy Just Bumming Around - Voom - The title says it all

Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus - I just had this song stuck in my head for some reason, guess I relates to some of the lyrics for the first time??? lmao

Two Broken Hearts - Rivers Cuomo

She Fucks Me - Ween

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana - Another YouTube one, came across a video titled "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana Re-Mixed in a Major Key.” It’s sick, sounds like Weezer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVehv_LDWaE

Satellite - Guster - One of my favorite YouTubers Drew Monson did a cute cover of this song so shout out to Drewwwwww

Mistletoe Fixing You - GibiASMR

Angie Baby - Helen Reddy - Stumbled upon this song on Tumblr. It was a #1 in December of 1974, sung by Australian Singer Helen Reddy but I remember reading that it was originally written for Cher to sing. The lyrics are super cryptic and fun

Holiday - Weezer - I am on holiday.

Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond - ‘Tis a sports game classic. Was talking to a friend about drunken, glorious singalongs to this sweet tune

Adrienne’s Mixtape for December:

No Mistakes - Kanye West - Couldn’t remember what the song was that we listened to when Kuba drove us home from the Mint party, but knew it was Kanye so...NO MISTAKES.

Mint - Dumb - Dumb played at the Mint Records’ Ridiculously Early Xmas Party

Eyes Without A Face - Billy Idol - Urban Outfitters & the Space Jam Soundtrack, Cindy Crawford workout videotape) // Music Video that made his eyes fucked for three days.

Chinatown - Luna - the scene from the bus with the guy in Chinatown

Steely - Marnie Stern - “I always hear that song at the right time”

Beautiful Blue Sky - Ought - Orono brought sunshine to Vancouver

Seer - Woolworm - Vancouver’s sweethearts

This is America - Childish Gambino - we almost went to the show

Means That Much - H. Hawkline - Cate Le Bon affiliate, she’s my fave.

Say It Ain’t So - Weezer - It was a donut shop miracle

Thinning - Snail Mail - listened to this song a lot in 2018, including this particular day

Cold Blooded Old Times - Smog - Garbage Dreams covered this at Kat Gardiner’s “Little Wonder” book launch, and she told me that this song was originally part of the book but that part got edited out! I love little coincidences like that.

1880 Or So - Television - Just a real catchy guitar riff that I keep getting stuck in my head!

Girl You Want - Devo - Songwriting inspo song

Only You - Yazoo - We had a band practice and it turned into a sweet night of DJ “Cheffica” (Jessica Delisle from fellow podcast Retail Nightmares) cranking out hits and trivia, including this one.

Greyhound - Calpurnia - Garbage Dreams opened for Calpurnia the night before Finn Wolfhard’s 16th birthday. I like this song cause it talks about taking the Greyhound to Seattle, which is a very Vancouver thing to do.

Melty - Milk - MUSIC VIDEO! Milk played the Calpurnia show. *At the time of the podcast, there was no Milk on Spotify but now there is so I did a switcheroo! The song I played a million violins on is here.

Baba O’Riley - The Who - Covering the Who is the best thing I’ve ever done

Wrong Song - Nashville Soundtrack - I watched so much Nashville in a very short span of time. I did not become a better songwriter as I’d hoped.

Tame - Pixies - Supermoon covered this song on tour in August and I love the drum fill at the end, and that drum fill keeps haunting me in songs this month!

Nevermine - Forth Wanderers - Band writes songs like pen pals, made me think of us trying to make this podcast! And how we’ll have to write our theme song!

Permanent - Carla Sagan - Montreal band who are very cool. I was reminded of them because I re-watched this film the Voyagers, which is about Carl Sagan, and the ULTIMATE MIXTAPE // also this.

Destroyer - Lala Lala - listened to this song a lot in 2018 and on this particular day.

Postpartum Party of One - Dim Wit - Family xmas card from Dim Wit’s singer & guitar player Jeff - very sweet that he sent it to me, and also they are a very cool band! They wear wigs and lab coats and one time the drummer played the drums with his feet while he did a handstand and maintained it for like, a while.

Flickering Lights (Will Likely Fail You) - The Luyas - Big windstorm in Vancouver!

Twin Falls - Built to Spill - Christmas, etc.

Some Time Alone, Alone - Melody’s Echo Chamber - (Alone, Alone in a cabin)

Deep Red Bells - Neko Case - Saw Neko play live for the first time this year. She played this song from the album Blacklisted, which was one of my faves probably when I was 19!

Local Sports Drama - The Lentils - (Canucks RIOTS - a lil local sports drama every decade or so in Vancouver. This was mentioned in the bonus sports section of the podcast that did not make the cut.)

Satellite of Love - Lou Reed - My friend’s cabin has a pretty big record collection and every time I go there we have listened to Lou Reed’s “Transformer” in its entirety and it’s great.

Ploughing Out Part 1 - Cate Le Bon - “On the last day of the year, I’m just happy to be here”

#mistakesnmixtapes #mistakes #mixtapes #podcast #shownotes #spotify #playlist #music #indierock #sports #pals #vancouver

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