“Please come sit,” Sunny gestures to the free spot across from him in the booth. His meal was mostly finished but there was an untouched piece of cherry pie in front of him, the perfect scoop of ice cream atop was was threatening to melt. “My waitress brought me a piece of pie and I don’t have the heart to tell her I can’t eat it.” Between being a vegetarian and unable to eat gluten his choices at the diner was pretty limited but he couldn’t deny they had the best cup of coffee around. “I usually take it to go for my kid but she’s at a friend’s house and letting a perfectly good slice of pie go to waste seems like a crime.”
It was morning, and Yona had way more energy than anyone needed to at this hour. She was bouncy even without caffeine in her system, and she had very much had caffeine. “I’m sure calling you a ‘geriatric millennial’ is probably offensive, so I’ll skip the lecture and get to the not-fun part. No cap, it looks like your domain name lapsed, and I don’t have access to your accounts. Not a bad thing, but what we’ve got of your website’s down until we get this figured out.” Yona held out an orange to Sunny. It might have seemed like she pulled it out of nowhere, but her outfit that day just happened to have a really excellent pocket system. Great for early mornings. She didn’t address the orange. “You’re probably wondering why I showed up here in the morning instead of calling like a normal person. Calling someone too early in the morning is hella rude. Well, I think calling at all is weird, but that’s not important. I’m here, I’m queer, and it’s time to get online… This is a good time, right?”
In a bizarre coincidence Yona had appeared at the same time a customer was calling to let Sunny know that the website wad down. Sunny knew enough about technology. He could use his phone and laptop without needing to call on his pre-teen daughter with any simple questions like where did that tab go? why did the screen minimize? When it came to anything beyond that he was useless. It might as well all be a different language to him. His gaze flickers between the orange and Yona, too stunned to question the turn of events. “I learned very early on not to question your method or your madness,” Sunny smirks. “I’m not needed on the Montes farm for another--” he looks at his watch. “five hours. I got nothing but time. Can I get your some coffee from the break room while you work your magic?”
closed starter for @sunnytandon / because i can kissyface.emoji
there was only so much time in a day madeline had with her family; she was up in the morning, pushing danica out the door on her way to the primary school, out the door by 1pm to head to the station and back for a short dinner break again before danica went back to bed. sometimes she felt like she never got to spend nearly enough time with her kid, but she was lucky - crazy lucky, she knew - that her ex-husband was also her co-parent and that they, for the most part, managed it pretty well.
“what if we take a vacation,” she mused, tucking her feet underneath sunny’s leg as the two sat in their living room - danica was off in her room again, and madeline had her night off, the backup weather guy trying too hard on the television playing quietly in the corner. “all this stuff going on, she could probably stand to get away. amelia was her age, you know - in her class. i don’t know how well she’s actually handling all this, even if she says she’s fine.”
Sunny was lounging on the couch, his focus primarily on the pint of coffee ice cream in his hand and not the weather man who was filling in for Madeline on the tv. It seemed like every corner of the town was painted by the Ellis tragedy. The town was so close knit, of course it made sense. Except he couldn’t make a house call or take a trip to the market without somebody giving their own theory or telling their own story about the family.
His heart sank for his daughter, every dad wanted to protect their children from the tragedies of the real world and he felt so hopeless here. He remembered young Amelia running around the backyard with the rest of her classmates at Danica’s last birthday party. It was a surreal feeling. One moment they were all here, the next they weren’t.
Sunny hands Madeline the spoon with a hefty scoop of ice cream on it. He considers her question, he did have a massive amount of vacation time piled up just waited to be used. “Got anywhere in mind? Danica has mentioned New York City a few times. I blame your sister’s instagram for that one,” he chuckles.
religion: his father practiced islam and his mother buddhism but sunny considers himself agnostic. though he still volunteers some of his time at the local mosque.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
face claim: rahul kohli
hair colour: dark brown with patches of grey.
eye colour: dark brown
height: 6 ft 4 in
piercings: n/a
clothing style: this greatly depends on where he is. around the house he’ll wear basketball shorts and a comic book t shirt. While around town it’s usually a t shirt / flannel combo or maybe a knit sweater & jeans. while in the office he’ll wear lots of sweaters and slacks. he finds that far more comfortable than a shirt & tie combo. if he’s working out on a farm he’ll wear something practical like work pants, boots, and flannel.
hobbies: reading, collecting comics, video games, cycling, basketball, running.
habits: overworking
FAVOURITES
weather: clear blue skies
music: dad rock, disco, 70s r&b, 80s rap, definitely listens to 90s boys bands & pop.
movies: cannot stomach anything with a hurt animal since he has to deal with that reality at work. likes documentaries, light hearted comedies, and sci-fi. thought every year he’ll try to watching anything getting oscar buzz because he likes being in the know. has definitely seen LOTR and the original star wars trilogy more times than he can count.
books: he has an impressive comic book collection but also reads lots of contemporary fiction and sci-fi / fantasy.
food: sunny is very careful about what he eats since he is both vegetarian and gluten free. popcorn is his absolute favorite snack, he has a small popper in the break room at the vet office.
FAMILY-
father: balnoor tandon. an esteemed orthopedic surgery who towards the end of his career became more of a public speaker at various medical events. has written a handful of books. was a very hands-off parent while also holding his children to high standards.
mother: greetha narula. much like balnoor she was very esteemed in her field. rather than a surgeon she is a psychiatrist. not overly involved in her children’s lives, but proud of them nonetheless.
brother: hari tandon. sunny’s older brother (38). they were far closer growing up until his brother hit his teen years and became far more rebelious than sunny. is a postal worker in denver, co. they talk about once a week but neither really make the move to visit one another.
ex-wife/co-parent: madeline jordan. sunny’s college sweetheart and though they are divorced they still care about each other greatly. they share a home as they co-parent their daughter.
daughter: danica (12). sunny moved to new hope to be closer to her and help madeline raise her. the first four or so years of her life he was in vetrinary school but he still visited whenever possible. now he lives with her and madeline and spends as much time with her as possible. especially as she gets older and with the town’s latest tragedy he has become a bit over protective of his daughter.
BIOGRAPHY
Sunny was born in St. Paul, Minnesota to a psychiatrist and a surgeon. To say his family life was more clinical than warm would be an understatement. There were high standards set for both Sunny and his older brother. Except while his brother used their parents being very hands off as a vehicle to get into trouble, Sunny became a people pleaser. Sunny strove to bring home the best grades and awards in an attempt to milk any affection he could from his cold parents.
When graduation rolled around Sunny had the pick of anywhere he wanted to go. The world was his oyster and he chose St. Louis University where he began to study biology with the intent to go to medical school. It was a choice that would change his life forever because in his introductory biology program he met a fellow science major— Madeline Jordan and the pair were caught up in young love. They were engaged before they even earned their undergraduate degrees and were divorced before Sunny even got accepted into veterinary school.
Sunny accepted a spot in UC Davis’s vet program and he thought of it as a fresh start. Before his bags could even be packed Madeline called to tell him that she was pregnant. A baby with his ex wife wasn’t in the plan, but he wanted to be a father. He almost deferred his admission but the program was competitive and his spot wouldn’t be guaranteed so he went. During this time he split his time between Davis and wherever Madeline was making sure to be there for as many of the big moments as he could be.
Danica is the light of his life and the last thing he wants is to be a hands off parent like his own were so instead of setting up shop in a big city Sunny moved to New Hope. He’s been here for nearly eight years. Sunny spits his time between working in the office taking care of folks household pets and making his rounds to the farms to take care of any farm animals. It’s not exactly what he imagined when he got his veterinary degree but it works perfectly for him.
