Motorcity - Changing Landscapes
Title: Changing Landscapes
Fandom: Motorcity
Pairings: Dutch/Tennie
Description: A birthday present for my friend Jasper! Tennie discovers one of her boyfriend's late-night habits.
Rating: G
It wasn’t like Tennie was completely oblivious to the machinations of the city that surrounded the Cablers’ home, but it wasn’t like she’d grown up downtown, either. Motorcity was only marginally less foreign to her than the dreamlike threat of Deluxe above her head; while she knew Deluxe only from the attacks that shut her inside her home, she knew Motorcity only when she could emerge from her nest of wires. Her visits to Motorcity tended to be short and based on necessity - to get some part to keep a house from collapsing or fix a burnt-out defense grid or rectify any other dilemma in the never-ending cascade - and she’d never really been there long enough to warrant learning more than the basics about the people.
That was changing pretty quickly, but lucky for Tennie, she was quick, too. She padded quietly through the hallway of the Burners’ hideout, trying to keep quiet (and trying to ignore the claustrophobia settling in her bones) in case there was anyone sleeping. The Cablers operated on a constant working shift so that they could keep their roost in tip-top shape, so there would be whole neighborhoods asleep at any given moment. Before meeting the Burners, she’d mostly taken midnight shifts and slept through the day. It was very different in Motorcity - everyone went to bed and woke up at roughly the same time; nobody was quiet during the day, and most of them were quiet at night.
The thought boggled Tennie’s mind sometimes, but… she was getting used to it. She’d even begun to switch shifts with Cablers working earlier in the day so that she could get into the swing of Motorcity’s clock.
And it was all for some boy. Some brilliant, night-sleeping boy.
Or, rather, supposedly night-sleeping. Tennie found Dutch’s door and paused for a moment before easing it open, returning to a scene somewhat different than what she left - Dutch was sitting up on the mattress, leaning back against the wall as he watched something on a screen that bathed him with flickering light. She could just barely hear a soft voice, saying something about… evergreen trees?
“Dutch? - Whoa, there! Didn’t mean to startle you,” Tennie said, backpedaling quickly when Dutch nearly jumped out of his skin. “I just… I thought you were asleep, dude…”
Dutch relaxed visibly. “Oh, I - I was… well, I was tryin’ to, at least. Guess I can’t sleep without this, though.” He laughed nervously, his hands twining into each other. He lifted one, as if to close the screen -
But Tennie moved more quickly, crossing the room and plopping down beside Dutch on his bed to see whatever he was watching. “What is it?” She squinted at the projected screen. The image was fuzzy and somewhat blurred - it must have been very old when it was originally digitized - but she could see well enough that it showed a man with a palette, standing by an easel with a canvas covered in confusing, painty shapes.
“It’s…” Dutch paused, bit his lip, and continued. “It’s this old show that used to air a long, long time ago. Like, twentieth century.” Tennie was sure that Dutch could see the way her eyes popped. “Um - it’s, it’s about painting, like, landscapes and stuff… it’s pretty dated, but… I dunno…” He tapped the screen in front of him, unfreezing the video. “It’s nice to watch.”
“…there they are. See? Now, if you have problems making your paint stick over this mountain - ‘cause it’s, there’s a lot of paint back here - add some paint thinner to your dark. I’m doin’ alright, right here…” The man spoke softly as he dabbed his brush on the canvas, settling a dark, jagged triangular shape over the softer, lighter triangles in the background.
“Do you understand what’s going on? Because I have no idea what he’s painting,” Tennie said after a few minutes of watching the video. “I just don’t… I don’t know what this is.”
“Okay, it’s - “ Dutch paused the video on a good frame, where they could see most of the canvas. “Okay, see these white ones in the back? Those are mountains, with snow on ‘em. And the black stuff near the base is a forest. That big, jaggedy-kinda triangle in the front is a pine tree.” Dutch pointed to each piece of the painting as he explained.
Tennie could scarcely believe what she heard. “But… but mountains don’t - did they look like that?” she suddenly asks, turning to Dutch with wide eyes. “Is this…” She looked back to the screen for a moment, and then back to her boyfriend. She didn’t know what to say. “Is that really what…?”
Dutch knew what she was wondering. “Is that really what the world looked like back then?” he finished for her - and then heaved a sigh, looking back to the screen. “…I don’t know for sure. I know not all of it was snow-covered mountains and forests and stuff, but… He’s so sure about what he paints. He knows exactly how everything looks. So maybe, somewhere, it used to look like this, and he remembers how it looked.”
They lapsed into silence for a few more minutes, watching as the man brought the cold winter scene to life. And then, Tennie spoke:
“Maybe it’ll look like this again someday?”
Dutch and Tennie both knew how silly this idea was. They’d both seen the footage - Dutch in school up in Deluxe, and Tennie through her patched together homeschooling - of the ruined world outside of Detroit; the scorched desert to the south and west, the abandoned and flooded cities of the east coast of the former United States, the last forests on the North American continent only green on the horizon of a browned and cracked Canada. They’d never seen it in person, but really, who would want to see the real deal after what they’d been given?
But it’s late at night - the time for dreams to be built - so Dutch looks to Tennie and gives her a tired little smile before slinging an arm over her shoulders and bringing her close. “Maybe,” he whispers, half-paying attention to the painter’s calming drone and half-drifting off into sleep as he nuzzles into his girlfriend’s neck. “Maybe someday.”
Fandom: Motorcity
Pairings: Dutch/Tennie
Description: A birthday present for my friend Jasper! Tennie discovers one of her boyfriend's late-night habits.
Rating: G
It wasn’t like Tennie was completely oblivious to the machinations of the city that surrounded the Cablers’ home, but it wasn’t like she’d grown up downtown, either. Motorcity was only marginally less foreign to her than the dreamlike threat of Deluxe above her head; while she knew Deluxe only from the attacks that shut her inside her home, she knew Motorcity only when she could emerge from her nest of wires. Her visits to Motorcity tended to be short and based on necessity - to get some part to keep a house from collapsing or fix a burnt-out defense grid or rectify any other dilemma in the never-ending cascade - and she’d never really been there long enough to warrant learning more than the basics about the people.
That was changing pretty quickly, but lucky for Tennie, she was quick, too. She padded quietly through the hallway of the Burners’ hideout, trying to keep quiet (and trying to ignore the claustrophobia settling in her bones) in case there was anyone sleeping. The Cablers operated on a constant working shift so that they could keep their roost in tip-top shape, so there would be whole neighborhoods asleep at any given moment. Before meeting the Burners, she’d mostly taken midnight shifts and slept through the day. It was very different in Motorcity - everyone went to bed and woke up at roughly the same time; nobody was quiet during the day, and most of them were quiet at night.
The thought boggled Tennie’s mind sometimes, but… she was getting used to it. She’d even begun to switch shifts with Cablers working earlier in the day so that she could get into the swing of Motorcity’s clock.
And it was all for some boy. Some brilliant, night-sleeping boy.
Or, rather, supposedly night-sleeping. Tennie found Dutch’s door and paused for a moment before easing it open, returning to a scene somewhat different than what she left - Dutch was sitting up on the mattress, leaning back against the wall as he watched something on a screen that bathed him with flickering light. She could just barely hear a soft voice, saying something about… evergreen trees?
“Dutch? - Whoa, there! Didn’t mean to startle you,” Tennie said, backpedaling quickly when Dutch nearly jumped out of his skin. “I just… I thought you were asleep, dude…”
Dutch relaxed visibly. “Oh, I - I was… well, I was tryin’ to, at least. Guess I can’t sleep without this, though.” He laughed nervously, his hands twining into each other. He lifted one, as if to close the screen -
But Tennie moved more quickly, crossing the room and plopping down beside Dutch on his bed to see whatever he was watching. “What is it?” She squinted at the projected screen. The image was fuzzy and somewhat blurred - it must have been very old when it was originally digitized - but she could see well enough that it showed a man with a palette, standing by an easel with a canvas covered in confusing, painty shapes.
“It’s…” Dutch paused, bit his lip, and continued. “It’s this old show that used to air a long, long time ago. Like, twentieth century.” Tennie was sure that Dutch could see the way her eyes popped. “Um - it’s, it’s about painting, like, landscapes and stuff… it’s pretty dated, but… I dunno…” He tapped the screen in front of him, unfreezing the video. “It’s nice to watch.”
“…there they are. See? Now, if you have problems making your paint stick over this mountain - ‘cause it’s, there’s a lot of paint back here - add some paint thinner to your dark. I’m doin’ alright, right here…” The man spoke softly as he dabbed his brush on the canvas, settling a dark, jagged triangular shape over the softer, lighter triangles in the background.
“Do you understand what’s going on? Because I have no idea what he’s painting,” Tennie said after a few minutes of watching the video. “I just don’t… I don’t know what this is.”
“Okay, it’s - “ Dutch paused the video on a good frame, where they could see most of the canvas. “Okay, see these white ones in the back? Those are mountains, with snow on ‘em. And the black stuff near the base is a forest. That big, jaggedy-kinda triangle in the front is a pine tree.” Dutch pointed to each piece of the painting as he explained.
Tennie could scarcely believe what she heard. “But… but mountains don’t - did they look like that?” she suddenly asks, turning to Dutch with wide eyes. “Is this…” She looked back to the screen for a moment, and then back to her boyfriend. She didn’t know what to say. “Is that really what…?”
Dutch knew what she was wondering. “Is that really what the world looked like back then?” he finished for her - and then heaved a sigh, looking back to the screen. “…I don’t know for sure. I know not all of it was snow-covered mountains and forests and stuff, but… He’s so sure about what he paints. He knows exactly how everything looks. So maybe, somewhere, it used to look like this, and he remembers how it looked.”
They lapsed into silence for a few more minutes, watching as the man brought the cold winter scene to life. And then, Tennie spoke:
“Maybe it’ll look like this again someday?”
Dutch and Tennie both knew how silly this idea was. They’d both seen the footage - Dutch in school up in Deluxe, and Tennie through her patched together homeschooling - of the ruined world outside of Detroit; the scorched desert to the south and west, the abandoned and flooded cities of the east coast of the former United States, the last forests on the North American continent only green on the horizon of a browned and cracked Canada. They’d never seen it in person, but really, who would want to see the real deal after what they’d been given?
But it’s late at night - the time for dreams to be built - so Dutch looks to Tennie and gives her a tired little smile before slinging an arm over her shoulders and bringing her close. “Maybe,” he whispers, half-paying attention to the painter’s calming drone and half-drifting off into sleep as he nuzzles into his girlfriend’s neck. “Maybe someday.”