sociallychallenged: (1 2 0)
Hank Anderson ([personal profile] sociallychallenged) wrote in [community profile] dualislogs2019-07-17 09:47 am

(no subject)

WHO: Hank Anderson | NPCs | Open
WHAT: A hunt for information and a desire for good whiskey. People can also find him at the boardwalk or drinking at the bar.
WHERE: A speakeasy on the boardwalk
WHEN: Towards the end of July
WARNINGS: 🎜🎝 Hank's mouth needs washing out with soap. Suicidal tendencies.

Hank usually tries to tie up his hair while he's at work. He's still not cut it. It's a holdover from years of depression. He didn't fucking feel like cutting his hair so other than some beard maintenance he just let that mane happen, and mentally he's still not found the place to chop it all off. Now he just keeps it in a half-ass high ponytail with half of it hanging out while he's on the job, like a heavyset loose samurai. Now he's just got it down, looking like his usual casually sloppy shaggy dog self in a bold shirt and a well-worn jacket. At least he looks like he belongs in a bar drinking.

The boardwalk is only mildly busy. It's a weeknight, people are off work, the food is cheap but everything isn't lit up like a James Cameron daydream quite yet. Give it a half-hour. There are rows of little restaurants and game booths and a few hole-in-the-wall establishments down little turn off side-streets. The places for grown-ups to go while the kids play.

That's when Hank first finds a bar that he's heard a couple of claims about. Maybe bullshit; a couple of the other bars he's also checked out have been bullshit. But fuck it, another place to get whiskey, right?

Another holdover from three years of depression.

The old detective (former detective, maybe future one) settles himself at a distant side seat on the bar, somewhere where he can see whatever the live stage performance is when it starts while he tends to a neat whiskey.

He draws the attention of a scaled woman next to him as he downs his glass without so much as a flinch and pushes it forward for a refill. No sign of the notorious whiskey face. He's scalded that reaction right out of his throat. He might as well have a fuckin' booze callous the way this nigh on toxic shit doesn't phase him.
uprisenheart: (nick 4)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-07-24 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
Nick laughs at Hank’s answer, but the question wasn’t really a joke. You can tell a lot about people by the way they answer questions like this, and she’s spent a lot of time talking to strangers and figuring out who they really are by using this exact same method.

“Well, that sounds familiar,” she says, and grinds the end of her cigarette out in the ashtray. “I had a long period of not feelin’ like being personable. Didn’t really feel like being a person, actually.” She looks down at her glass on the bar and slowly twists it clockwise.

“My dad died when I was just a kid and my mom ... well, saying she’s a complete pile of shit’s prob’ly too generous. For most of my life, I hated everything and everyone, figured if nobody was gonna give a shit about me, the feeling would be mutual. It was easier to just be a monster because that’s what people came to expect from me.”

She glances back up to Hank, mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Weird as it sounds, gettin’ yanked back and forth between home and Hadriel actually helped. I made some friends there - better friends than the ones I had back home. Some of ‘em were actual monsters - like this one guy, a walking and talking skeleton. Weird shit, right? Like from some kinda comic book, or a movie. I knew a couple guys like that, but they were decent people, and you know what they taught me?” She takes a quick drink and continues without missing a beat: “That even if you are a monster, that doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. You don’t have to be a bad person just ‘cause you’re different.”

Nick laughs again and drains the rest of her drink, then gently sets the glass down on the bar. “So for what it’s worth, Hank, from where I’m sitting, I think you’re doing a pretty damn good job of being personable. And a person.”
uprisenheart: (nick 2)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-07-24 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
“Some people just got punchable faces,” Nick says with a light shrug, then waves down the bartender for a refill of her drink. “I’ve done my share of punching people who’ve pissed me off. Used to get in a lot of fights when I was a kid. Had a real ‘anger management problem,’ according to the teachers and the principal and - well, basically everyone who knew me, which was basically everyone in town. I grew up in a really small town,” she explains, and gestures to Hank’s glass. “You want another?” Since the bartender’s on their way over.

“At least you tried being married,” she says, and takes a sip of her new drink. “I’ve had exactly one serious relationship, and it lasted a whole six months. Before that, it was just going home with whichever guy wanted to take my drunk ass for the night.” She pauses, then laughs and shakes her head. “Christ, I’m sorry. That was way oversharing. Guess I’m turning into one of my regulars.”

She quickly clears her throat and with an embarrassed smile, moves on to the next subject - her former makeshift home. “Hadriel had a lotta problems. Machines trying to kill everyone, called the Null, but they didn’t look like the androids here. And the assholes running the show called themselves gods, and wanted us around ‘cause they ran on emotion. Delight was OK, ‘til she sold us out to the Null. Rage made us all wanna kill each other for laughs, Fear buried us alive to scare us, Confusion made everyone with special powers go haywire ... that sorta fucked-up shit.” Her eyes narrow at the memories. “Wasn’t exactly a picnic, but I survived.”

Nick pauses again and stares down at her reflection in the surface of her drink. After a moment of reflection, she looks up to Hank again with a question. “So when you said partner before, was that like, a work partner or the other kinda partner? I mean, if that’s too personal, just tell me to shut the fuck up.”
uprisenheart: (nick 4)

cw violent verbal abuse of a child

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-07-28 07:41 am (UTC)(link)
Nick laughs openly, a wide grin stretching across her face. “Y’know, I think you’re the only adult who’s ever agreed with me about that. I always said those teachers and everyone else just didn’t wanna deal with me ‘cause I wasn’t worth the effort. ‘Course, maybe that’s what I expected - Ma used to say some pretty nasty shit to me when she was drunk off her ass.” Nick leans in, wagging a finger and twisting her face in an exaggerated expression of hate, an imitation of her mother. “‘Nichole, you’re not even worth the gunpowder it’d take to blow you to Hell.’ That was one of her favorites.” Nick rolls her eyes and takes up her drink once again, pausing for a sip before resuming conversation.

“So your partner’s an android, huh? How’d they end up bein’ good guys? That’s not usually how the story goes.”
uprisenheart: (nick 1)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-07-29 10:58 am (UTC)(link)
When your life is a nonstop horror show, there comes a point where you either learn to laugh about it, or you never stop screaming. Nick’s opted for the former. She’d guess Hank might be of a similar mind, given the kinds of horrific scenes he describes.

She listens to him quietly and attentively, and by the time he finishes telling her about the androids, a soft smile appears on her face. “Androids in love,” she says, like she almost can’t believe it but wants to. “Maybe there’s still hope for humans, too.”

Nick finishes the last of her drink, slides the empty glass back across the surface of the bar, and swivels the chair to give Hank her full attention. “Well, Hank, it has been wonderful talking with you. I’d love to hear more about those androids in love and your partner sometime, if you’re up for it. I have to go meet some people now, but I tell ya what ... “ She leans in and lowers her voice, conspiratorial. “If you’re not busy tomorrow night, come back around 9 or 9:30. I’m working but I’ll have a break then, and I might have an idea about where to find some of that metal and jazz you’re looking for.”
uprisenheart: (nick 1)

cw: pretty much the same

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-07-29 05:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Nick knows more than she’s letting on about having a lack of hope for the world, especially herself. Maybe she never had a plan to end her life, but she sure as hell didn’t make any effort to prolong her life. She figured she’d be dead by the time she turned twenty-five anyway, so there was no point in abstaining from habits like chainsmoking, severe binge drinking, provoking physical fights, various other risky behaviors. But she changed, physically, and learning that she would basically live forever changed her outlook as well.

“A date, huh? That would actually have to wait until after I’m off work for the night,” she says, grinning widely, and stands up from the stool to begin her exit. “But lucky for you, I don’t have anything planned.” She gives the bartender on duty a friendly wave goodbye, then turns back to Hank for a final farewell.

“See you tomorrow,” she says, and makes her way toward the door and out into the night.
uprisenheart: (nick 5)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-07-30 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
As promised, Nick is behind the bar when Hank arrives, hair pulled back into two low, choppy pigtails and wearing a black t-shirt with a faded white print, a reference lost on most of this city. She greets Hank with a nod and steps forward when he sits down.

"Welcome back," she says, with a pleased smile. "Are you ready for an adventure, or can I get you a drink first?"
uprisenheart: (nick 1)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-08-01 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
She nods and busies herself with pouring Hank's drink order - same whiskey as last night, she has a good memory for that sort of thing, well practiced over years of tending bars. "Here you go," she says, sliding the glass toward him across the bar, "and no rush - I have plenty of wiggle room on when I take my break."

Some of the best adventures happen in your own backyard, right? The path to this adventure won't mean traveling far, but there is definitely some effort involved in getting there.

"And besides," she adds, with a knowing grin, "slamming back whiskey's a good way to find yourself holding a basket full of bad decisions. Trust me, I know a lot about this very specific scenario."
uprisenheart: (nick 5)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-08-07 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
Nick finishes wiping down the bar with a rag and tosses it in a bucket behind her. “I really think you’re gonna like this place,”she says, grinning widely, then turns to catch her coworker’s attention. “Hey, Zvaldi! I’m taking my break.” The other bartender nods, and Nick slips around to the front of the counter and waves for Hank to follow her down the hallway leading toward the bathrooms, the emergency exit, and a door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY. Instead of continuing toward the exit, Nick turns to the employee door and presses her palm to the lock plate; it clicks softly and turns green, and the door unlocks.

Nick pushes through the door and into another hallway. She walks past two more locked doors and veers sharply to the right, around a corner and down a long, rickety flight of stairs. The lighting is dim, but Nick traverses the terrain with confidence.

At the bottom of the stairs is another door - heavy, old, likely made of some kind of metal. There’s no lock plate to open this door.

“We’re here,” Nick says, turning to Hank to gauge his reaction. “Now, there’s two rules to this place. One, you can’t tell anyone it’s here - kinda like Fight Club. And two, you gotta check in your phone at the door. You cool with that?”
Edited 2019-08-07 10:44 (UTC)
uprisenheart: (nick 1)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-08-12 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
He's met with a wide grin from Nick, equal parts pleased and excited. "I really think you're gonna like this place," she says, carefully shifting Hank's phones and her own to an arm while she knocks three times on the door with her free hand. A small metal plate about eye level slides open to reveal a pair of eyes that inspects Nick and Hank.

"Charlotte sometimes dreams a wall around herself" is what Nick offers the eyes in the door as a passphrase, and it seems to be the correct set of words to gain entry, because there's the metal-on-metal scraping of a bolt being pulled back and then the door creaks open. Nick turns back to Hank and waves for him to follow her inside. On the other side of the door, they're met by a bald man with blue, shimmering skin, sitting in a worn, stuffed chair and a large brown dog that sits up at attention to greet them. Nick hands the man their phones, which he deposits in a small plastic bin on the shelf behind him, and bends to let the dog sniff her outstretched hand. The dog gives her a lick of approval and is given a friendly chin-scratch in return. Nick stands and turns back to the man with the blue skin, left wrist upturned for him to scan with a black-bulb flashlight. If Hank is paying attention to all of this, he'll see a white-ink tattoo revealed by the black light, a small jagged line.

The blue man nods his approval, and Nick hooks a thumb in Hank's direction. "He's with me," she says, and steps toward the piece of heavy stage curtain serving as a door into the main room. She pulls it back and gestures for Hank to enter.

"Welcome to Rick's Lo-Fi Emporium," she says. "I think you should be able to find something you like here."

The room is a cramped space, something of a cross between an antique store and a used books and records shop; the smell of dust and old cigarette smoke hangs in the stale air. Shelves stacked with books and outdated tech line the outer walls, manual typewriters and adding machines and alien contraptions of all shapes and sizes. A beat-up industrial Xerox machine holds a space in the back corner, with a sign reading DISPLAY ONLY - NOT FOR SALE. The main part of the floor is full of tables crammed with crates full of records, CDs, even cassette tapes, and there's a turntable on the cashier's counter playing a record of string quartet songs.

There are exactly three other customers milling around the store, selecting wares to purchase. At a small table near the Xerox machine, a young red-headed woman and a greying, bespectacled man sit, intently discussing in hushed tones and writing out notes on the scattered piles of papers in front of them.
uprisenheart: (nick 2)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-08-16 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
Nick flips idly through the crate of records marked NEW ARRIVALS, laughs quietly and shakes her head to Hank’s question. “Nah, all this stuff’s about as far off the grid as you can get in a place like this. It’s not illegal to have old tech, it’s just - what did Rick call it, a specialty market? And there’s some pretty fierce competition, so that’s why all the secrecy. Rick’s had to move a couple times in the past few years - burglaries, vandalism, I think his original place got burned down.”

With a wide grin stretched across her face, she turns her attention from the records back to Hank, slipping her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “Cannibal Corpse? Now there’s a band I haven’t thought about in a while. Had a roommate back in Chicago who loved Cannibal Corpse - specifically, she loved playing them loud enough to shake the windows when I was tryin’ to sleep. I worked nights, and she couldn’t wrap her bleach-soaked head around the fact that working nights meant I needed to sleep during the day.”

Nick’s nostalgia is cut short by the - now frowning - redheaded woman at the table hissing her name to call her attention. Nick looks to her, and she impatiently waves for Nick to approach the table.

“Looks like I’m being summoned,” she remarks to Hank. “Back in a sec.”
uprisenheart: (nick 3)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-08-17 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
Hank's pretty much preaching to the choir when talking about technology. Before her voyage through the multiverse began, Nick drove an '83 Chevy truck, never owned a computer, didn't have a Facebook page, and still used a flip phone - in 2009. She grew up on the better side of poor in a tiny Midwestern town and counted a Walkman and what she was able to save of her father's cassette tape collection as her most prized childhood possessions. She still hand-wrote notes and lyrics for the songs she constructed in a paper journal that was lost in the transition to this city, and she is too well-versed in dystopian genre media to ever trust a self-sufficient machine.

When she arrives at the table and sits in the empty seat, her entire demeanor changes. She's tense and angry, her body language no longer reading as open, and though her voice is quiet, her tone is sharp enough to draw blood. The man at the table says nothing, but he occasionally shakes his head in disapproval, mirrored in his frowning expression. The redheaded woman argues quietly but vehemently with Nick, and if Hank has a mind to listen in on their conversation, he'll be able to hear that she speaks with a slight French accent.

"We agreed," she says, forcefully jabbing her finger into the table, "that we would wait - it is too soon."

"No," Nick counters, "you agreed - I didn't. Look, I think we can trust him, and it wouldn't kill you to trust me for a change, either."

"In fact, it could kill me - if I trust you, and you are wrong."
uprisenheart: (nick 5)

[personal profile] uprisenheart 2019-08-18 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
"Look, Paranoid Patty, you asked me to join your little tea party here, not the other way around." Nick leans back in her chair and shrugs. "You said this was a team, and if you're not gonna trust me, there's no point to me even being here." The other woman scowls deeply, but offers no answer, because even though Nick is right, her pride won't allow her to admit to it. She shakes her head and begins to collect the papers spread out on the table in front of them, folding the larger ones along well-worn creases into neat piles.

"I am not going to have this discussion here," she finally hisses, sliding a scuffed black briefcase out from under her chair and opening it to place the items from the table inside. "We can talk about this later."

Nick scoffs loudly. "Yeah. Sure we will. We done here?"

"We're done. For now."

"Great. See you." Nick slides her chair back and stands up, then pushes the chair back in toward the table where it belongs, because she's worked as a bartender for way too long. She's irritated, but shakes it off and reaches for a friendly smile again as she makes her way back to wherever Hank is.

"Hey. Sorry 'bout that. You find anything good?"

(no subject)

[personal profile] uprisenheart - 2019-08-28 02:32 (UTC) - Expand