protect & serve.

how can one person be expected to pull 'em all back out?  𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓.

[travishackett]

    a quick apology for being so inactive recently; i’ve been swept up in the process of moving and it’s taken up the majority of my time and energy.  that being said, if anyone has any requests, feel free to send ‘em in and i’ll get to ‘em when i can.  in the meantime, you can find me at my main blog.  hope y’all have been well! 

[lacteaway]

It's suffering o'clock

[sgt-dignam]

my family…we didn’t mean to hurt anybody. we’re just trying to survive like everybody else.

[travishackett]

y’all ever think about how bitterly travis talks about how hard it is to sedate a werewolf?  my man’s absolutely been sliced to ribbons by his infected family members.  so many scars. 

[deadlilmoon]

he has scars all over the body

[becomeunsolved]

-_- -> o.o

[travishackett]

-  So... how is your family involved?  -  My family... is down at the bottom of a well.  -  ... What? 

[travishackett]

PLAY THE PIANO? 

What were you expecting, Moonlight Sonata? 

[travishackett]

     one man can’t run a precinct, no matter how small the town.  as laura, we find the building virtually barebones, with no signs of life aside from discarded trash, scattered papers and empty liquor bottles.  there’s one lowly birthday card tacked to the corkboard, one singular date circled on the calendar. 

     travis had probably tried to warn them, even commanded them not to pursue the leads about missing people or strange noises in the woods.  and every time, he found himself at some poor woman's front door with the news of her transition from beloved wife to grieving widow. 

     pretty soon, there was no one left, and a building once teeming with small-town charm became a graveyard, a crypt to house its only remaining living resident.  he probably spends most of his time there now, even set up a sad little cot to sleep on in his office. 

    the building’s left in desolation, each upended chair and empty room a reminder of what he’d failed to protect.  not a single soul to ease his workload, not one person to share his birthday beers with.  the desks and lower floor are kept clean, a remembrance of sorts to those who died, while the upstairs and his office are left to ruin.  his own comfort has never been a priority, after all. 

    even after leaving his family’s house, he learned that running away from what haunts you never does a lick of good.  it always catches up with you. 

[freuleinanna]

56, huh?

Where did the time go?

You're a good boy, Travis.

Happy birthday!

Love, Mom

look, it's all fun and games, but then this fucking card. jesus christ in heaven with a stripper on his lap, it breaks me every time.

travis hackett is a grown-ass 56-year-old man. he's an officer of the police, a respected member of society. a werewolf hunter, to top that. but he keeps a recent birthday card from his mom pinned to a board. at this age, most mothers don't send a card, and if they do, most sons don't keep them. he did. it's not even the fact itself, it's the how he kept it.

he puts it in a room upstairs, where nobody usually goes, but he also keeps it on display there. he hides it away from others, but to him, it's an object of pride.

he keeps it open, so they words are easily seen.

and like... it's not even a good card. dull-colored, showing lack of interest or emotion of the person who chose it. kinda generic with its forced joke and the oh how the time flies message. this takes two whole lines out of five total. the last two are the driest congrats ever and the standard sign-off.

but the third line. You're a good boy, like a pat on the head. He's not the best anything or the most anything. He's not a dear son. He's just. A good. Boy. AND HE FUCKING KEEPS IT LIKE A TROPHY.

but then this happens.

A good boy protects his family. You ain't no good boy.

and on that note, travis hackett starts to unravel. within the next seconds, he:

admits his failure at once (I wish I could take it back, but I can't) the moment his ma raises a voice

when it doesn't work, he does his best to calm the storm down, because I bet he knows exactly how this conflict escalates and he's been through it many times (he asks his mother to calm down, he says please to show he's being rational and not angry. him being angry makes her angry and the whole thing spirals out of control)

doesn't try to defend himself when his mother calls him a piece of shit and a trash and a motherfucker

calls out to her when nothing works

uses protective body language

you know who else does it? kids in abusive households, who had to find secret tracks around someone's temper and be on their best behavior, trying their hardest to prove their worth and failing. thinking: I'm not good enough. thinking: they wouldn't be angry with me if I were good.

so yeah, the fact that this royally fucked-up man clings to a birthday card with words of praise from the woman who got him that royally fucked-up in the first place? that. that's what breaks me.

[travishackett]

    can we talk about how, if laura manages to convince travis to hand over the keys without shooting him, he immediately recoils when max raises a hand to him, despite there being metal bars separating them?  really makes you think about why that’s a conditioned response. 

[travishackett]

   honestly, the saddest thing is the implication that it’s only at travis’ insistence  (see: jedediah’s line about “no more protecting anyone, travis”) and possible threat of legal action that the hacketts even bother trying to keep others safe during each full moon. 

    they’re normally so eager and willing to abuse his position as sheriff to strong-arm locals and outsiders alike -- even chris, to an extent, with his email about contacting the podcast -- but when it comes to keeping people from harm, the only one actively trying (aside from chris locking himself up) is travis. 

    he’s spent the better part of six years influencing the locals and lying through his teeth, all for the sake of his town and its visitors.  he’s had to forsake his own moral code and do some thoroughly dubious things for his family, wedged firmly beneath their proverbial thumb, in order to make them comply / cooperate and try to protect the people that wander into those woods.  the most depressing part is, they only treat him well when he’s complacent and doing as they demand. 

   his entire existence has boiled down to how useful he is to someone, and while the idea of being able to help people is one of the most important things to him, it's become yet another thing his family's tainted by expecting his help in illegal ways. 

   he’s caught in a constant struggle between his loyalty to an abusive, manipulative family and his desire to keep others safe.  and he’s just weak enough, just subservient enough, that the former usually wins in the end. 

[travishackett]

    Ring-a-ding-ding! 

[travishackett]

Hello!

Could I request a gifset of a scene with Travis and Chris arguing at the police station, please?

absolutely, my friend. it's right here. ironically, i had just finished exploring the station in my current playthrough, so it was a very convenient request, lol.

[travishackett]

        Maybe if you’d done your job, they wouldn’t have been at the camp that night.  You ever think of that?     If I’d have done my job, you’d all be in prison.  You ever think of that?     That was all Bobby and Caleb and you know it.     Remember those hikers?  And that- that- that fuckin’ journalist.     Dammit, Travis.  What are we gonna do now?     Whatever happened to “we’re all in this together”? 

for @scaredclowncat 

[sgt-dignam]

ma. don’t ‘ma’ me. would you sit down please? don’t you tell me what to do, and don’t you go around like you better than everybody else, cause you ain’t! would you please sit down? don’t you tell me what to do, you piece of shit!

[lastlane]

It's always "the cop didn't expect that" when Laura is polite to Travis. Partially because, yeah he's kidnapped them, but also because he's used to everyone in his life calling him a piece of shit.

The most unexpected thing you can do to Travis is be kind.