survivalist.

[austinmerc-blog]

ATHENA PERALTA.

          They hadn’t made any concrete plans, in fact, Athena had contemplated whether or not to even show up at the bar in question; it had been a long week, and an even longer weekend of hauling her son across town to two different hockey games, and then to a birthday party in Sonoma. With Jackson working a double shift at the fire station it was the least she could do with a weekend free of plans. Making her way into the bar, hazel hues immediately began to scan her surroundings for the familiar head of blonde hair belonging to her best friend, figuring that she hadn’t arrived yet and instead taking a seat on an empty stool at the bar. When the man beside her stated his observation, Athena’s attention shifted to the ones in question as her forehead creased into a frown. “Gross,” she said in utter disdain, shaking her head in disapproval. “They both look like they haven’t showered in weeks— I mean, that guy has beer spilled down the front of his shirt, and the other looks like he’s never purchased a hygiene product in his entire life.” Athena turned her gaze to the gentleman beside her, “Do that poor girl a favor and rescue her from those drunk fools.”

          The whole thing honestly wasn’t nice to look at, at all. But it was a good source of entertainment while he waited for his partner to show up.  “They’re definitely past the point of caring about their appearances.”  Both looked like they’d fallen right into a huge tub of beer and had to drink the whole thing to escape; it was that bad.  “I don’t know. I think she just wants them to buy her drinks. It’s what she’s been doing since I started watching the guys.”  He chuckled and took a sip of his beer. Entertaining, nothing but entertaining. 

[austinmerc-blog]

ASTORIA SWANN.

Astoria never really liked bars, preferring to drink in the comfort of her own home, although she was not completely against it.  But she was out here today to celebrate a colleague’s birthday and everyone never says no to a free first round of drinks, so Astoria did not want to be the killjoy and so she tagged along. Astoria was sitting on the bar while some of her friends were at the pool table when the man next to her spoke up. She glanced her way to what he was looking at and smiled. “Worse in what, exactly? Are you talking skill, because if you are the drunk guy seemed to be pretty good before he was all intoxicated.”

          “I mean the state they’re currently both in. Look at them. The one on the right can barely stand straight, or throw that dart safely anymore and the other one is already slurring his words and definitely not getting that she’s not interested in whatever he’s saying.”   Man, college kids these days never fail to amuse him. Although they probably were the same when he attended college, but he’d been too focused on studying rather than partying and excessively drinking.

[austinmerc-blog]

SUSANNAH BURKE.

susannah smiled with soft amusement, nodding at his reply. austin was a good guy, and frankly, one of the FEW detectives she’d truly trusted to be wholly concerned with the state of a child involved in the case he was investigating. sometimes, adults tended to forget that children were children –– that they couldn’t handle adult things the way older people could. and detectives sometimes got impatient working on a deadline to wrap up a case. but austin was very patient with her, with charlie, and that made her feel like she could play her role in this most effectively. and he was correct, that charlie had a bit to go through still from here –– she was working to break down the mental and emotional walls, one by one and with UTTER care. “i was hoping you wouldn’t have any bad news,” susannah grimaced at the ominous warning, following austin out. “any good news you can offer before you lay the worst on me?” 

          “Trust me, I definitely don’t enjoy giving people bad news.”  At least not who he considered to be good people. Bad people always got what they deserved and he quite enjoyed giving them bad news (in their eyes) whenever they were proven to be guilty. His current case was complicated; Charlie was the only survivor of a domestic dispute that ended in a bloody stabbing and with his mother, sadly, passing away. His father was the prominent suspect and currently in a holding cell at the precinct. They didn’t, however, have enough good evidence yet. Which is why they needed Charlie to place his dad at the scene at the time of the stabbing.  “Not really. His father is still refusing to talk, but he’s also refusing his right to a lawyer. Probably because he knows how guilty he’d look. It’s incredibly stupid, but we get to hold him this way.”

[lucifer-chloe]

Jay Halstead being 1000% done. (2/?)

[austinmerc-blog]

ELIZABETH MILLER.

                    A lazy finger swirled around the rim of the now empty beer bottle. It was almost dangerous for her to be drinking in such open room, probably would end up bumping into someone she knew who would then retrieve her ninety day chip from the last time she actually went to a meeting. Her eyes were almost fixated on her hypnotic way her finger was moving, but a voice from her side caught her attention, especially when she realized the man was speaking to her. Turning around to what he was mentioning, her lips pursed to the side for a moment. “The worse is probably the girl who is now starting to make her way over to the attention seeker—” she turned to face the man, a light shrug moving her shoulders. “Just don’t tell me you’re trying to get yourself entertained by that.”

          "Hey, don’t blame me for looking for entertainment when I’ve been waiting for my friend to arrive for.. fifteen minutes,”  He responded to Liz, tapping against the wood of the bar’s counter with a lazy smile on his lips. His day had been rather tough so he would use anything to distract himself for a little while.  “But now that you’re here..”  He trailed off, hoping she would stick around to keep him company. His friend would definitely not be arriving any time soon, if at all. While he didn’t know Elizabeth well  — only through some encounters at Queen parties or because she’d been his neighbour for quite a while now  — he wouldn’t mind spending an evening with her at a bar. 

[austinmerc-blog]

ABEL THOMAS.

“Why pick the lesser of two evils when you can just say both?” He was doing better about drinking, but after a long a few weeks, he needed a little booze to take the edge off or whatever that meant. “Bet it’d be pretty easy to hustle them out of their leftover beer money,” he smirked, tone light as he reached for his beer. “Y’know, assuming there’s anything left.”

          “Considering how drunk they already are, I wouldn’t want to step in between those guys and their dartboard.”  Austin chuckled, turning his now empty beer on the counter, waiting for the bartender to come back over to where he was sitting,  “But if you have any other ideas, I’m all ears. I wouldn’t mind some mild hustling.”

[austinmerc-blog]

MONIKA HALSTON.

THE BAR WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN MONIKA’S FIRST CHOICE but she had made the courteous ( and, in hindsight, foolish ) decision to allow her blind date to choose the place of their meeting, confirming without so much as giving the unfamiliar name a Google search. And so she had been at the mercy of a colleague’s best friend from college, whose taste differed greatly from hers, or so it seemed as the young bartender slid a pale ale across the countertop to Monika. Might as well indulge in the drink of choice through her college years if she was going to be surrounded by drunk children. Truthfully, she hadn’t been in the mood for this; if anything, Jensen owed her and not the other way around, but he’d been overly persistent, suggesting to set her up with one of his single friends. She’d finally relented, if only to be able to make his badgering stop ⏤ I went, it didn’t work out, oh well! ⏤ and to give herself a reason to leave her apartment instead of stewing in her own emotional angst.

It wasn’t until the man seated nearby spoke that Monika realized she’d been daydreaming. Hazarding a glance over at the pair he was alluding to, she gave her head a playful shake before taking a sip of her beer. “If he’s not careful he’s going to poke someone’s eye out, though I guess that might save the girl from having to endure his friend.” Her fingertips busied the corner of the brewery-branded coaster upon which her draft sat as she regarded the stranger, hesitating before asking: “Is it usually like this? The bar, I mean. It’s my first time here ⏤ I didn’t pick the place ⏤ and I guess I’m trying to be optimistic about my date’s choice.”

          While the frat boys had occupied most of his attention, Austin’s eyes were constantly wandering over the several other different people at the bar as well. One could definitely say that this was a habit Austin picked up on during his time overseas in order to keep an eye on his surroundings at all times. The arrival of the blonde next to him didn’t go unnoticed as well ⏤ she looked out of place, which wasn’t really surprising considering most people looked out of place at a college bar, but she also looked like she really didn’t want to be here. The next he noticed was that she’d been waiting for her date, he assumed, quite a while and, for some reason, he looked like he belonged here. Not at this bar in particular, but any bar really. Honestly, it was hard not to pay them any attention, so he had mainly focused on the pair of frat boys who’d done a great job at entertaining him thus far. 

          He wasn’t able to help himself when the girls date excused himself to go to the bathroom and made a joke about the two guys. Thankfully she didn’t choose to ignore him and answered him; which made him laugh a bit.  “And what a save that would be.”  He mused, a smile on his lips now as he turned to face the woman who was now asking him a question.  “I don’t spend much of my time here either, usually. But judging from the times I’ve been here, yes. It’s a hotspot for college kids: cheap beer, cheap food  ⏤ although not very good, so I wouldn’t actually order anything to eat here and well, drunk college girls. So considering everything, I could definitely use some of your optimism.”

[austinmerc-blog]

SERENA CHANDLER.

“Both are pretty pathetic if you ask me,” Serena said, putting down her half finished drink on the counter and turning to look at the two guys. They’d been at it for awhile now and, while it was entertaining at first, it had gotten old rather quickly. “I’m bored with them, but not bored enough to stop whatever’s happening. Also I’m expecting one of them to throw one of those darts on someone and that will make all of this situation worth it. Well, as long as I’m not the one who gets stabbed by the dart.”

          “I’ve never seen someone actually getting stabbed by a dart.”  Austin mused, the corners of his mouth turning up as he took another sip of his beer. Now for someone who’d seen a lot of people getting stabbed or stabbed people in general, that would be something he’d probably find amusing to watch  — if no one would be seriously harmed.  “Do you want another one of those?”  Her glass was almost empty after all. 

[austinmerc-blog]

JESSE CRIMSON.

Jesse didn’t find a lot of people wandering the docks, unless they had a boat or some other specific purpose. The pier was packed with people, but very few ventured off onto the actual boat docks. So once the man seemed to be aware of his proximity to the edge, Jesse took a step back out of his space. “No worries” he commented, taken back slightly by the mans follow up question. Guess it wasn’t that hard to pin really, what else would Jesse be doing on the docks covered in grease. “Yeah actually. I fix and maintain the boats around here.”

          When the guy stepped back, Austin followed suit and stepped onto the safety of the pavement. He’d been really stupid to step so close to edge considering no one knew he was here.  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound nosey.”  He apologized quickly, noticing how the demeanour of his opposite changed at his question. With a slight lift of his shirt, Austin made his badge visible, smiling apologetic,  “Detective Mercer, I’m with the SFPD.  —  I was following a lead to the Pier, some missing persons have been last seen around this spot. Would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions?”

[austinmerc-blog]

SASHA RUVELLE.

“Well, if you think about it, those three actually do get the recognition they deserve. Those are some amazing bands but everyone knows them. What about artists people don’t know simply because it’s hard for artists nowadays to actually have their big break?” Perhaps she was partly speaking about herself, knowing how hard it was for herself to land a role that catapulted her into a different category of actresses.

          Austin didn’t really know anything about music or the industry as a whole. He liked listening to songs he liked when they were on the radio and he skipped the station to another one if he didn’t like the song. He even used to Shazam from time to time if he really liked a song. But did he pay attention to who the artist was? Honestly, not really.  “I’m not really someone who’s digging deep on artists or whatever, but I do like the Arctic Monkeys. Now, I don’t know how the popular people like them or if they do at all, but they’re good.”

[austinmerc-blog]

MILA ALVAREZ.

          “You had a choice in making up for it. If you didn’t, then surely that’s on you? — But either way, give me something here, Mercer.” The young woman questioned, knowing how hard he generally worked, making him unable to enjoy himself at the best of times. She genuinely believed he deserved better, and if he hadn’t quite had the chance to celebrate bringing in the New Year, then surely that was going to have to change with their plans this evening? Mila wasn’t about to let the cop forget he should enjoy himself too. Wasn’t that why he kept her around? To balance him out in a sense? Well, whatever it was, she was also pretty grateful for that too. “Oh, don’t be so cheesey, Austin.” A smirk crossed her lips at his choice of wording, eyes locked onto his deep blue hues that she had looked into many times before. For years prior to this evening. “Right, well, let me grab my jacket and let’s just get out of here.” She muttered, before wandering off momentarily to let her colleague know she was clocking out early due to time she was owed, also grabbing her coat from behind the bar before chucking it on and heading back over to Austin; this time on the other side of the bar as her hand grabbed his, impatient to say the least. “Let’s go.”

          It probably was on him. However, he did spend his new years eve with people he genuinely liked and trusted — aka his team at work. He didn’t necessarily need to have any sort of different fun that night to enjoy himself. The only thing that made him sulk a little that night was the fact that he’d rather have been on that yacht with his friends, celebrating and drinking into the New Year.  “Honestly, I didn’t do much. We went for a couple of beers before midnight, because technically we weren’t on the clock anymore, and then went back to the precinct before going home at around three in the morning.”  He finished his sentence with a small shrug because he really didn’t think it was that bad. It wasn’t. It could have definitely been better in a way, but at least it didn’t suck. He barely registered her words as she said she would just go and grab her jacket since he’d only just arrived and there was no way the hour was up already. Before he could say anything, Mila was already back and by his side, tugging on his hand. She didn’t need to say to go twice before he got up, quickly grabbing his wallet to leave the money he owed for his drink on the counter; plus a tip for basically stealing Mila away and making her co-worker do all the work alone for what was left of the hour the girl on his hand had been speaking about earlier,  “Where to, Alvarez?”

[timbradford]

(✿ ♥‿♥)

[austinmerc-blog]

[austinmerc-blog]

VALERIA ACOSTA.

“Both bad in their own ways,” Valeria observed, leaning slightly to get a better glimpse. “Thing One just looks pathetic and desperate because the blonde is not interested, and Thing Two might hit someone or break a glass with the way he’s throwing,” she explained, making a face. “I almost want to step in and show them how to actually play, but I might make a fool of myself.”

          "I think you should give yourself more credit. I don’t doubt that you could show them how it’s done.”  Austin shrugged, facing Valeria now. With how the guys were playing, there was no doubt in his mind that Valeria could whip their asses easily,  “You know, they weren’t any better when they started playing; and they were sober, by the way.”

[austinmerc-blog]

TRAVIS CAMPBELL-SALVATI.

Travis kept looking at his beer bottle and trying to remember the band who was playing the song in the background to distract himself, he hasn’t paid attention to the dart competition until the brown-haired mention them. After taking a moment to see what he was referring to, he couldn’t help but laughed “If only the drunk guy would hit the gigolo… that would make my night”

          Honestly, the idea wasn’t so far fetched. The gigolo’s friend was growing more and more frustrated at his friends' inability to give him his full attention.  "Maybe you’re in luck.”  Austin grinned as he replied to the blonde, pointing to the darts playing guy,  “He’s getting really upset.”

[austinmerc-blog]

VICTORIA QUEEN.

Victoria Queen was seldom late - she was never late. Yet, as she arrived perfectly on time to see her eldest brother already sat at the bar, nursing his first drink, she found herself anxiously checking her watch. Had she really stayed so late at work? It was only an extra half hour, she thought she could spare it. And, as her watch revealed, it wasn’t she who was late, but he who was early. This was a seldom occurence as well, but she didn’t let this dwell in her mind any longer - it hardly mattered. “I feel worse for the first guy,” she answered as she slid into the seat beside him. “She doesn’t even know he exists! It’s sad really; someone should tell him to stop trying so hard.”

          "I don’t think he would listen to anyone’s advice right now,”  Austin replied, looking at his sister as she settled into her seat next to him. The distress was clearly visible on her face and he knew right then, that she thought she’d been late. Ah, Tori was predictable in that sense.  “I wouldn’t feel bad for him. He’s been chugging beers like there’s no tomorrow and has been hitting on three other girls without any success.”

[austinmerc-blog]

JACOB WOZNIAK.

Usually Jake avoided bars on Friday nights, the risk of encountering a drunk student was too high and in the last couple of months, he had discovered a new love for drinking alone. Looking over his shoulder he was able to recognize one of the frat boys the guy next to him was talking about. “The one on the right has it worse. He’s been hitting on her for a semester now but he doesn’t know that she’s not interested in him or really any other guy,” he said casually, turning and nodding at the bartender. He was a regular client, so regular that even the bartender already knew his usual order.

          Now, this whole thing got even more entertaining. Someone with insight? Golden.  “Okay but, I don’t know either of them and I can clearly see that she’s not interested at all. How can he not notice?”  He was sure it had nothing to do with the fact that he was trained to read body language. Her whole appearance and demeanour made it clear that she wasn’t even properly listening to what he was saying.