#redmon.

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@gordiacea said: "we had a fight."

how sad, how lovely.

"i'm sorry." the delivery sticks, comes out a little stiff on his teeth—rehearsed, but not less genuine. redmon ducks harold's eyes, nervous as a schoolboy.

abruptly, "i don't have people over often. anymore, anyway. uh, coffee? beer? i'm rusty."

they have an audience. a peanut gallery, more like. gino jeers, lesur hisses an admonishment, frenchly. redmon laughs. too loud, as if to cover up the noise. he forgets, being not overly chummy with his guest, only he knows they are there.

the end result is him laughing at thin air.

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@bluedprints

redmon tries a smile for trevor, though it comes out sheepish, more of a cringe, like when he thinks too many pictures have already been taken but is too polite to say it.

"so, uh. you've met—dutch."

the character in question, flesh and blood as the two of them, lights up a cigarette in that loud match strike way noir detectives always do. he waves by way of single upward nod.

"i suppose the others will follow soon enough. i—know it's a lot to take in." understatement.

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@eulogier as jude said: tell me what’s happened. i won’t judge you.

good eggs.

he pinches the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger, rubbing inward towards his eyes. " you won't judge me, alright, yes, i'll give you that, and thank you, really, i can't thank you enough, but will you believe me? " that's the most pressing issue at hand.

behind him, unaware to jude, the characters are squabbling over who they think redmon's newest friend – oh, the very word being associated with their author inspires such feeling within them! – will see first.

redmon makes a pained face. they're very loud.

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redmon bookshelf !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

take a look inside my muse's...

his bookshelf, 1978

assorted major works of charles dickens, hg wells, arthur miller, george orwell, ray bradbury, leo tolstoy, fyodor dostoevsky, victor hugo, tennessee williams, shirley jackson, jane austen, zane grey, toni morrison, louis l'amour, edgar allen poe, ian fleming, dashiell hammett, ernest hemingway, kurt vonnegut, james baldwin, william shakespeare (complete), edgar allen poe, virginia woolf, john le carré, jrr tolkien, and arthur conan doyle

encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses / brave new world / frankenstein / dracula / the portrait of dorian grey / the scarlet pimpernel / moby dick / don quixote / only the dead know brooklyn / magazines (planet stories, black mask, weird tales, love story magazine, blue book, national geographic, etc) / beowolf / strange tales from chinese studio / the red badge of courage / cyrano de bergerac / tartuffe / various poetry collections / american indian stories, legends, and other writings / the chosen / the odyssey and the iliad / the left hand of darkness / the godfather / childhood copies of tom sawyer, huckleberry finn, and the wonderful wizard of oz / all the president's men / everyman decline & fall of the roman empire, complete set / grand hotel / the beauty of everyday things / endurance: shackleton's incredible voyage / the canterbury tales / the three musketeers / my inventions and other writings / london journal 1762-1763 / the great railway bazaar / writings on irish folklore, legend, and myth / the voyage of the beagle / bread givers / roots

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his trash can & the back of his closet. redmon hunter.

take a look inside my muse's...

trash can

so many drafts, some on typewriter paper, some on notebook paper / leftovers he never ate / disposable tableware so he doesn't have to wash dishes

the back of his closet

christmas of '78 gifts he never got to give sylvia / change collected in an old shoebox, "for rainy days" written on the side in his cursive

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redmons characters:

dutch van dyke. depression and post-war era detective w/ gino rotelli. mobster.

valerie lesur. cold war era spy, undercover as world-class chef.

sheriff hank barlow w/ deputy adam james. old west.

pomeroy smith, esquire. 70s courtroom drama. hardback egotism.

millicent "millie" monroe. 90s macgyver type working as a mechanic.

jet west, aerial ace. world war two fighter pilot. one book wonder.

bertrand ripley. middle victorian era submarine captain. final trilogy.

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@rassvetiye said: “ is that a fact, or just some more of your fancy guesswork? “

columbo.

lesur was thrilled. his face had splintered into a grin, wholly unlike him. he wondered if anatoliy's presence—for the first time in a decade!—meant red found inspiration in a callback to lunch served in leningrad. they all overheard him talking to himself in the kitchen. perhaps he would finally stop stalling underneath the lamppost and walk inside, unexpectedly reuniting with an old friend.

what's a writer to do when his creations are so intelligent, more intelligent than him, and they occupy his apartment as living, breathing people? their disappointment when the side characters rotate in and out with no story progress in sight feels worse than anything in the world. he still feels guilty about gino's nieces.

"anatoliy," he moans, tired parent scolding a dogged child. "stop. i can write you right back out."

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also 🤝 redmon!

send 🤝 for an original character npc.

sylvia hunter, née brooks. redmon's wife. fifty-one (1927-1978). met her husband on a greyhound bus on her way to her folks back in delaware for thanksgiving. they had a little courthouse wedding two years later in 1948. they live in queens over a sports bar in a not-too-shabby apartment. life is swell—even when it gets a little cramped whenever redmon is writing a new book and all the characters treat it as a motel before their stories are sent off to be published. she can see them, too. (when you get over the shock when they start appearing to you as well, ask her how the fledging dutch surprised the both of them on their 18th anniversary trip to the poconos.)

in 1978, slyvia dies, and redmon spirals into a deep depression. he doesn't publish a book for ten years.