Hey guys. The person behind this account is being harassed by a YouTube user known as Two AUTTP THDTC. They won't leave them alone. If you could spread this post and give comfort and support to them, would be great and heartfelt.
The funny thing about winning is that nobody ever talks much about what comes after.
Stories always end at the exciting part. The detective catches the crook. The hostages get rescued. The police arrive to clean up the mess. Everybody shakes hands and heads home. Nice, clean, efficient. Real life has a way of lingering after the curtain's supposed to come down. Sometimes the bad guy gets one last shot in before he falls, and then everybody gets to discover whether the hero's as bulletproof as the newspapers make him sound.
Turns out I wasn't.
Brie's hands were shaking.
I could feel it every time she adjusted the bandage pressed against my stomach. The cloth was already soaked through. We both knew it. Neither of us felt much like saying it out loud. The old riverboat drifted silently through the fog while Mouseburg glowed in the distance, all bright windows and waterfront lights. A few of the witnesses we'd rescued sat quietly near the opposite rail, wrapped in blankets and speaking in hushed voices. Somebody had found a flare gun earlier and fired it into the sky, but the fog swallowed the signal almost immediately. Whether anyone had seen it was anybody's guess.
Brie kept pressing against the wound like determination alone might hold me together. There hadn't been any medical supplies on the boat. The witnesses had searched every cabin and storage room they could find before coming back empty-handed. That hadn't stopped her from trying. Nothing ever really stopped Brie once she'd decided somebody mattered.
"Easy, Skittles."
She looked up at me like I'd just announced I planned to wrestle a bear.
"Easy?" she asked. "You got shot."
"Yeah."
"And you're tellin' me easy?"
I managed a weak shrug.
"Seemed worth mentionin'."
That got a sound out of her. It wasn't quite a laugh. More like a laugh that got lost somewhere and turned into a sob halfway through. I counted it anyway. I'd always liked making her laugh.
For a while neither of us spoke. The river rocked gently beneath us while fog rolled lazily across the water. My vision kept blurring around the edges. Every time it happened I'd blink and things would sharpen again, though not as quickly as before. I decided not to mention that part. Brie already had enough to worry about.
I reached over and caught her wrist. The movement felt like lifting a piano.
"Look at me."
She didn't.
"Brie."
The sound that escaped her wasn't even a word. Eventually she looked up, and the second she did I wished I hadn't asked. I'd seen fear before. I'd carried plenty of it myself over the years. What I saw in her eyes wasn't fear for herself. It was fear for me.
"You're gonna be okay," she said quietly.
The poor thing didn't believe a word of it.
I smiled anyway. That only seemed to make things worse.
My eyes drifted toward the distant city lights. Funny thing was, I'd spent years complaining about Mouseburg. The crooks. The traffic. The politicians. The noise. Now all I could think about was how I'd like a little more time in it. One more baseball game. One more drink at John's place. One more terrible cup of diner coffee. One more evening listening to Brie talk excitedly about some story she was working on while I pretended not to be paying attention.
Funny what becomes important when the clock is running out.
"You know what my favorite thing about you is?"
"Please don't do this."
"Do what?"
"Talk like this."
I understood immediately. She thought I was saying goodbye. Truth be told, I wasn't sure what I was doing. I just knew there were things worth saying.
"You came."
Her face crumpled.
"You came," I repeated. "There was one gangster left on this boat when you got here, the most dangerous one, and he had a gun pointed at me. Most people would've run the other direction."
"You already took care of the other nineteen."
"Still."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"I'm trying to save you Jack, but I'm failing."
"You got on this damn boat for me."
Life gets real good at teaching you that people leave. Partners leave. Friends leave. Witnesses disappear. Sooner or later everybody walks away. But she hadn't. She'd found me. She'd climbed aboard that boat. She'd saved my life. Even now she was still here, refusing to let go.
I squeezed her hand.
"We don't talk enough about how brave you are."
"I...," She exhaled deeply. "I'm not brave."
"You shot a mob boss."
"He was about to kill you."
"See? Brave."
That got the faintest smile out of her.
The darkness kept creeping in after that. Not all at once. Slowly. The world felt farther away than it had a few minutes ago. Sounds arrived muffled, as though somebody had thrown a blanket over reality. I could still hear the river. I could still hear Brie breathing. Everything else felt distant.
Then she said it.
"I love you."
The words hit harder than the bullet.
For a second I forgot about the pain. My cold body was warm again. Forgot about the blood. Forgot about the hostages and the fog and everything else. All I could see was her. I remember thinking there were worse ways a mouse could face their end than looking up at the girl you loved.
"I know."
Apparently that was the wrong answer.
She laughed through her tears anyway.
I smiled. It wasn't that I didn't have more to say. It was that I'd known for a long time. Long before either of us had found the courage to say it out loud.
I reached up and brushed a tear from her cheek, or at least tried. My body wasn't listening to me.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"Stay strong for me."
The words seemed to hurt her.
"Jack..."
"Whatever happens next, don't let this stop you. Keep helping people. Keep doing your show. Keep being the kind of mouse who can light up a room without flippin the switch."
She lowered her head and pressed her forehead against mine.
"I don't want anything to happen to you."
"I know..."
The fog continued drifting across the water while Mouseburg glowed in the distance. Somewhere out there, maybe somebody had seen the flare. Maybe help was already on the way. I couldn't know for sure. All I knew was that I was getting tired, and that Brie was still holding onto me like she intended to argue with death itself if it came any closer.
Im well on my way to developing other OCs but these are the first two Mouse PI OCs I've made so far. A shrew and a half shrew, Harriet Brown and Brie MeLange respectively.
Harriet Brown- Age 34
Harriet Brown is a former cheeselegger shrew, current peace officer, and the hard tempered niece of bar owner John Brown. Having spent much of her life surrounded by smuggling, violence, and back alley deals, she learned early that the world rarely rewards kindness. She is determined to track down Steve Bandel, the man responsible for a crime that devastated the shrew community, and make him answer for it. That mission becomes complicated by the uncomfortable truth that Harriet's own past is stained with bloodshed and mistakes she'd rather forget. Whether she's seeking justice, revenge, or redemption is a question even Harriet can't fully answer.
Voiced by Andrea Deck (Amanda Ripley from Alien Isolation)
Brie MeLange- Age 33
Brie spent most of her life sheltered from the harsher realities of Mouseburg, expected to follow a carefully planned future that included a tentative arranged marriage. But wanting to live her own life, she found work as a radio host, where her calm, confident voice made her a local favorite despite the fact that she is painfully nervous off the air. Behind the microphone she sounds fearless; in person she constantly second-guesses herself and worries she's making the wrong decision. Her life changes completely when a chance encounter draws her into the orbit of Mouseburg's most famous detective. Suddenly caught between danger, mystery, and the freedom she's always wanted, Brie must decide if she's capable of being the heroine of her own story.
Voiced by Tamra Meskimen (Fiona Murray from Secret of the Mimic)
Me struggling to try and draw Jack. First pics are of little kid Jack dancing. I figured since his youth was like in the1910- 20s , he probably danced a lot. What else could a kid do back then besides play outside, dance and...i dunno. Read a book?
Second row is a 14 year old Jack going through a phase. Got caught up with a "bad" crowd. But its short lived and he learns something important from the experience.
Everything else is just me being a simp. And struggling to draw kissing. Because of course due to degeneracy, I was creating an OC to ship with him BEFORE I EVEN FINISHED THE GAME. I've beat it now. I loved it. I want Jack to have a waifu, and not the usual crime noir trope of the detective being forever alone. Her name is Brie Skitterly MeLange. Meant to be half shrew. Nicknames being Skittles and Breezie. More on her later maybe. Hopefully
Heya! I recently found your account and I've been loving the art! I've been really drawn to your Pickypiggy design, and was curious if I could incorporate elements of it into my own design in future drawings. (BTW Picky does not nearly get enough love and you're awesome for making so many drawings with her)
I should have posted this picture first. Cheerigo convincing Catnap to go on an adventure with her. I can't even explain how they ended up how they did.