OK. i need to streamline my creative thinking, and these two (along with many other ideas...) are clogging up my brain veins! so, i'd like to write a little post about them to get my thoughts about their relationship out of the way for now
Detective Triangle's biggest fans know a lot about Brewster Bankroft already, but what about his enigmatic partner Rashied Garner? he seems to be rather important, yet so much of his life is still shrouded in mystery... well, he'd prefer for it to stay that way
Rashied Garner is one of the best detectives in his state, or at least was deemed as such for a long while, which warranted his hiring by the CIA to work on their top secret mission of [REDACTED]'s retrieval: the fate of the UR of A, if not the world, rested on the results of his investigation.
and Garner would have probably completed it in a timely manner, had he not been involved in a devastating airplane crash. He was left a sole survivor in the accident that took lives of scientists who'd worked on [REDACTED], his colleagues, and his son...
Garner was always aloof, slightly uncooperative and harsh, and kept everyone (except for his family) at a distance, but the tragedy left him in an even worse state: scarred, suffering from amnesia, and in turn seeking total isolation from everyone. what good is a "friend" or a "caring colleague" now? they won't help him remember anything about this case, if a team of the best scientists isn't able to do so!! and what good is a "life" anyway to a "dead" man? he's got almost no memory left of his previous one!! it seems that this investigation is his life, then!!!
and being unbearable to anyone who talked to him did "pay off" - for years rarely anybody would dare to get in his way or waste his time with "useless" conversations... and then, Brewster Bankroft shows up!
their paths cross, when Bankroft begins to pursue the same suspect that Garner tracked for months. Garner knows that this highly dangerous man is a part of [REDACTED 2] (another top secret project, created to aid the investigation for [REDACTED]'s retrieval), but does whoever this detective Bankroft know?..
Garner is suspicious of Bankroft in the beginning, believing him to be a British secret agent, but Bankroft's cheeky and kind demeanor confuses him... makes him question his ability to read people... he has to learn more about this man, clearly! there is no other reason for the excitement that he hasn't felt in a long while. and his increased heart rate in Bankroft's presence is just an adrenaline rush that anyone would have from trailing a foreign spy. obviously.
anyway, they fall for one another.
Garner is deeply conflicted. on the one hand, he feels a powerful attraction to Bankroft, on the other hand, he won't accept himself to be "one of the gays" + importantly, he worries that Bankroft might get into trouble, if he gets too close to him, and consequently to his case about [REDACTED]... and Bankroft can do that. he is a capable private eye. what if he does find out? what if something horrible happens to him as a result? Garner won't forgive himself...
but Bankroft isn't aware of that! what he sees is a rather unpleasant man, who keeps rejecting him, yet keeps coming back for reasons only known to him. anyone else in his shoes would have given up on Garner after a few meetings... Bankroft isn't misguided: Garner is by no means a Prince Charming, but that delights him. a "simple" loving relationship gets a bit stale with time, innit? an unrelenting game of cat and mouse leaves both partners with scratches, cuts and bite marks - and that's the whole point! it's fun! it's thrilling! it's exhillirating! and not for everyone, of course.
even though they leave on the opposite sides of the country, their relationship isn't brittle: they often talk on the phone, and Garner visits Bankroft in person multiple times a month. not all of their meetings end on a good note, but all of them follow a pattern i've sketched out below:
so... hopefully, you get their dynamic better now!
i am planning on drawing more short stories with them + a story of how first met, but writing my general ideas out in text will serve as a snack break for everyone who tried to follow my bread crumbs for the comic since 2022.
