Not down on any map

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…but then he snaps back to life and almost jumps up onto his feet. To Daniel (and to Connor watching from afar) the movement looks out-of-character, way too hectic for the active, but also very composed, detective, like watching an altogether different person.

Now Chris notices the stranger standing next to him. He flashes him an insecure, embarrassed smile. Not just that, Chris also addresses his friend in a much younger, much more insecure and a lot more distant voice than normally. In fact, the detective sounds even wetter behind the ears than he had when Daniel had first met him for the first time as a freshly minted officer.

https://abload.de/img/02.10.22_22-47-46x7dnk.png

“Thank you for pulling me back on my feet, when I lay on the street. I don’t normally drink enough to pass out, don’t know what’s come over me.”

“Uh-huh?”

“Oh... you don’t understand me, huh? But I don’t speak, uh, whatever your language is. - Call me Ishmael!”

“...okay? Ishmael?”

“You probably don’t understand this either, but I want you to know that you’re a real noble savage!”

“That’s... one way to put it, I guess.”

Chris and Daniel are both devoted family fathers, but that isn’t where their similarities end. To put it mildly, in their younger days neither Daniel nor Chris had been known for trying a diplomatic solution first. Daniel really has no grounds for dismissing being called a savage.

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“I mean, you could have robbed me or even killed me, when I was out cold, but instead you helped me. That’s not what one expects from your kind.”

What does that mean? Is Chris referring not to their troubled past, but to Daniel being a werewolf? But why would he speak so disparagingly about them all of a sudden? What’s gotten into the man?

Daniel raises his voice a bit. The question he asks is actually a threat, as to that his tone leaves no doubt:
“Can’t we leave my species out of this!”

“Yes!” Chris exclaims. “Yes, we totally should! It’s just... I never before spoke to a sav... a barba...”

Okay, I’m one more syllable of yours away from a citation for beating up a cop. But you, Chris, are one more syllable away from getting beaten up by a savage barbarian.

“…a non-white person! Heck, I never even SAW someone of color in my whole life!”

Wait, what?

“Do you have any idea how odd that sounds coming from you, Chris?” Daniel sputters, at a loss how to react or what to even think. He just stands there, dumbfounded.

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For a second Chris seems to consider the “savage’s” remark. Turns out that one second is enough, because the detective snaps back. His posture straightens, his eyes clear and hard as he tries not to laugh at seeing Daniel in his face paint, he cannot help it. Afterwards Chris speaks up in his normal voice:

“Ah, I think I get it now! Brace yourself, Daniel, because we got...”

Chris has just started his explanation, when suddenly...