Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You have a what??”

“Shh! Keep it down, the others might hear.” Gavin hissed.

“Relax, I’m out on patrol and I’m alone. Unfortunately.” Tina sighed into the phone. She sounded exhausted.

Gavin grimaced. “Fowler put you on overtime, huh?”

Tina huffed. “Yup. Until he sorts out everyone’s schedules, what with us being down 9 officers.” She suddenly growled. “Fuck those assholes. As if we didn’t have enough on our plate already!”

He made a sympathetic noise. “That sucks. Sorry Tina.”

Tina took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, sounding like she was trying to calm herself down. “Well, it won’t last, hopefully. Word around the breakroom is that you detectives might be scheduled for patrols too. Or that the captain might request for the other precincts to cover some of our patrol routes.”

“Ugh, really? God, I can’t even remember the last time I was on homicide anymore.” Since the big android event last year, Gavin had been put on a wide assortment of cases, from Red Ice, to assault charges, and even fucking breaking-and-entering. Though to be fair, he hadn’t been dealing much with homicide for a while before that either, what with the Red Ice trade booming and taking center stage in the precinct’s priorities. Until the androids went and took the attention.

“You know what would really help?” Tina said, interrupting Gavin’s train of thought. “If we advertised that androids are welcome to join the force.”

Gavin frowned at that. “Plastics in the precinct?” he said, skeptically.

“Yeah. I don’t really care for them, you know that, but at this point I’m perfectly willing to get buddy-buddy and share my workload with one if it means I’ll get more sleep. It is their fault we’re overloaded anyway, what with them being ‘official citizens of the United States’ now and adding millions to the fucking population and to the number of cases we have to deal with.” There was a brief pause as she shifted the phone to the other ear. “Plus it would be a win for them too, since they’ll have android representation to make sure their people won’t get discriminated against or whatever.”

Gavin contemplated her words for a minute. “Makes sense. You gonna bring it up with Fowler?”

“Mm. I dunno, I’m not really feeling up to demanding from the boss, y’know? Maybe the lieutenant though, his table’s more approachable.” That was true, minus the fact that one would have to be near Connor’s desk to do that. Which, in retrospect, was more of a Gavin Problem than Tina’s so she’d probably be fine.

They were both quiet for a moment, Gavin fiddling with the lock on his front door where he’d been leaning on for quite some time now while Tina presumably drove through the cold streets of Detroit. The streets were getting slippery from the constant rain at this time of the year, and while Gavin knew that Tina was a safe driver, he still worried for his best friend. He was debating whether to finish the call so she could focus on her driving or to keep her company over the phone on her lonely patrol when she suddenly spoke again. “So why don’t you want anyone to know you have a Cyberlife Dream? It’s the dream console right now, no pun intended, and you’d make everyone green with envy when they find out. I thought you liked that.”

“Over my hard work in the precinct, yeah. But this? The last thing I want is people prying into my personal life, asking how I was able to afford it or something.” He huffed, stepping into his apartment.

She gave a short bark of laughter. “What, don’t wanna tell them you’re related to a billionaire? On a related note, do you know if Kamski is looking for a sugar baby perhaps?” She asked, a little too eagerly in his opinion.

“That is literally the last thing I want to announce. I’d get harassed by people trying to kiss up to me, wanting favors. And for that matter, no.”

“‘No’ as in he’s not looking?”

“‘No’ as in I’m not asking him that, that’s phcking weird.”

“Ooh so I have a chance then? Nice.” Tina whooped. “Say, how’d you tell Fowler that anyway? You tell him the truth?”

“Of course I did, I’m not losing my job over some imagined association with that prick Douglas. Told him he could check the security records at Cyberlife Tower, with how often I had to scan my badge as ‘proof of identification’. Didn’t even yell at me for the whole sneaking-off-work thing.”

“He was probably just relieved you weren’t involved and he’d have to be down 1 detective too, plus I’m sure you have enough overtime at this point to more than make up for it.” She paused. “Wait, Cyberlife Tower? As in the giant Tower of Compensation located on its own island by the river? Why’d you have to go all the way there?”

“Does overtime even count for anything these days when everyone has to do it?” Gavin grumbled. “There was a special promo, it came with a free game but I had to pick it up straight from the source.”

“Ooh! What game?”

“Uh . . .” He blushed from embarrassment, thankful she wasn’t here to see and tease him for it. “. . . Animal Crossing.”

She hummed. “Oh yeah, I think I’ve seen that advertised. God, it’s been ages since I last played an Animal Crossing game. You still name your village, right? What did you name yours?”

“. . . Peanut Butter.”

She was silent for a few seconds. Gavin felt a spark of anxiety in his gut, wondering if she’d laugh at his choice. Eventually she replied. “It's cute, I like it. You know, I’m liking this character development.”

“Character development? Whose? Mine?”

“Uh huh. A few years ago you’d have gone for some edgy name. Hell, you wouldn’t even be picking up a game like Animal Crossing, something about your masculinity or whatever edgy bullshit you learned from the academy.”

“Hey, I wasn’t edgy!” He said indignantly. His cat Patty lifted her head from the couch at that, giving him a deadpan look.

“So you’re telling me you weren’t a Reaper main in Overwatch?” she retorted.

Gavin’s protest died in his throat. He could almost see her smirking over the phone. “Thought so.”

“Oh shut up. Don’t you have some patrolling to do?”

“Sure, sure. I’m still relishing my victory so I think I’ll let you off the hook this time. Night, Gavin.”

“Night, Tina. Stay safe,” he said, before ending the call and placing his phone on the coffee table. The rest of his stuff did not get the same gentle treatment as he all but threw his bag in a random corner. He glanced at his phone’s display before it shut off.

It was 10:30. Still too early for bed, by his usual standards. He would work on one of his cases, start making a dent on his neverending paperwork that’s sure to increase by Monday with what happened. God, he was feeling exhausted just thinking about it. Or . . .

His gaze landed on the Cyberlife Dream, lying where he left it last night.

He could always deal with work tomorrow. Might as well check on what happened in his game after last night. It was stressful at the end, yeah, but everything before seeing her had been enjoyable for the most part.

So Gavin picked up the game set and plopped down on his couch. He slipped it on and tapped on the Animal Crossing icon.

This time, instead of darkness, he was greeted by the sight of a wooden ceiling. He didn’t move for a few seconds, blinking as he tried to orient himself.

He was lying on the floor, wooden from the feel of it as he scratched at it gently with his fingers. So were the walls. There was nothing else in the room, no furniture or anything.

Conclusion: this was his house. That or the beginning of some horror movie shit where he gets trapped in an enclosed room and tortured. He doubted that: the door seems pretty openable from here.

Gavin pushed himself up from the floor (which felt weird because he could still feel the backrest of his couch, but nothing a little more immersion wouldn’t fix). He went for the door and opened it, greeted by a cool breeze and the smell of . . . saltwater?

Brow furrowing in confusion , Gavin stepped away from the door, letting it shut behind him. He looked left and right, trying to spot the source but seeing only trees.

He swiped to pull up the map and studied it. The bright blinking green house icon was located near the sea, cliff overlooking the beach to the west. Gavin dismissed the map and started walking towards it.

Making his way through the trees was a peaceful trip. As a city boy he’d never really seen the appeal in camping. Trekking through rough terrain, navigating insect-ridden forests, and spending the night sleeping in an uncomfortable tent did not sound like fun at all.

But it seemed like it would be fun to do here. No weird moss to accidentally eat, no annoying insects that stick to you and try to give you diseases, no weeds to make your legs itch. Was that what Cyberlife was aiming for? Virtual mini-vacations for those with no time or money for actual vacations, or unwilling to deal with the inconveniences and expenses of actual travel? No wonder the game was a hit.

Eventually he broke through the treeline and found himself standing on the cliff. The sea looked beautiful: a black endless mass broken by slivers of white, the waves lit up by the bright stars above. The water was calm near the shore, large waves broken up by the breakwater stretching from one end of the beach.

Gavin walked along the edge of the cliff until he found a path sloping down towards the beach. The sand was soft beneath his feet; he had never been to a beach with such fine sand before. He dug his feet in the sand with every slow step, enjoying their warmth as he headed towards the breakwater.

As sand gave way to cement, Gavin looked up at the stars. They were huge; perfect, five-pointed white lights outlined by a multicolored glow. He sat down at the middle of the structure, still admiring the stars as he listened to the waves in front crash rhythmically against the rock. His eyelids felt heavy so he closed his eyes, listening to the sea until he couldn’t hear the waves anymore as they lulled him to sleep.

----

A heavy weight slammed into his chest, jolting Gavin awake. He instinctively brought his hands to his chest, and felt soft fur. He tried to blink the remnants of sleep away and looked down, coming face to face with the slightly distorted face of his cat, who did not look happy (did she ever?).

Bringing a hand up to wipe at his eyes, he was deterred by something solid. He was confused for a second until he realized that he fell asleep still wearing the Dream. What time was it? Gavin pulled off the eyepiece and grabbed his phone, turning it on to see that it was 10 in the morning. Shit. No wonder Patty was pissed.

He groaned as he lifted Patty up, carrying her under one arm as he headed for the kitchen to get her food. Did he really sleep for nearly 12 hours? Shit, he hadn't slept that long in years, and not for lack of trying. There was just something about work that kept him from sleeping well; not nightmares, though he did occasionally get them, but the stress and need to stay alert always kept him up long after his shift, leaving him with only a handful of hours to sleep and a face full of eyebags. It got worse this past year, what with the sudden increase in workload and decrease in manpower, so this unexpectedly long slumber was actually nice.

Now if only he had the foresight to actually put a pillow under his head instead of relying on the armrest of the couch, maybe he wouldn't have this annoying crick in his neck, he thought, cursing at Past-Gavin's life decisions. He made sure Patty was settled, and yeah she was ignoring him so she must be, and went back to the couch to slip off the arm and leg bands and tossed them near the headset.

Gavin picked up the headset and inspected it. Surprisingly, despite being on for at least 12 hours, the battery was still going strong. Or maybe not that surprising; one of the first things Elijah introduced with Cyberlife was batteries with extended lifespans, which Gavin personally thought was Cyberlife's greatest achievement as much as Elijah vehemently disagreed.

The game itself seemed to have shut off on its own, after a long period of inactivity. That was fine, not like he did anything productive in-game last night like he planned. He placed the eyepiece back on the couch and stretched. Might as well get started on his paperwork.

And he did; he filled out paperwork for the next 5 hours straight (not counting his multiple water breaks. And bathroom breaks. And maybe he had a snack or two but that didn't count either because he deserved it). By the end of it his eyes were hurting and his back ached from being hunched over his desk for hours. But he was done!

. . . with this half. He eyed his bag wearily, aware of how much was still left. To be fair, it wasn't exactly his fault that he was so behind. It was just that there were so many cases being assigned one after the other that Gavin never had the time to finish up the paperwork for all of them.

Gavin sighed as he looked out the window for the umpteenth time, watching his neighbor having fun playing with her visiting children in the rain while he felt sorry for himself. God, what was he doing with his life? Was there a day when he wasn't working? It's been like this for months, him working overtime everyday and spending his weekends doing the work that he didn't get to finish during the weekday, only to still not finish it with how much there was and leaving it for the next week when the cycle repeats.

He prided himself on being a workaholic, spending his free time working so he could rise up the ranks faster, but this was getting ridiculous. At this point it wasn’t even about trying to get a head start over the competition; now it was trying to survive under the hefty workload brought about by integrating androids into society and effectively increasing the number of prosecutable crimes under their jurisdiction by a staggering amount.

Sometimes he wondered if he should quit, which is a testament to how bad things were going since never before had it crossed his mind in his years in the force. It would mean wasting all the years of effort into becoming a detective, but at least Gavin wouldn’t get a fucking heart attack or suffer a breakdown from all the stress.

He always shook off those thoughts quickly though, because 1) Gavin Reed is not the type of person to shove his responsibilities onto someone else, despite what those snakes whispered about him in the breakroom (just because he didn’t have the patience to teach those smug brats what they should already know from the academy, didn’t mean he was 'making them work like slaves'. Fowler clearly agreed with him, because the captain just snorted as he trashed their formal complaint letter). And 2) forget Fowler chewing him out for resigning, he'd probably wake up to half the precinct at his door ready to murder him and dump his body in a river for leaving them with even more work. He wasn’t sure whether or not Hank would be the one leading the angry mob, as the person his leftover work is likely to be reassigned to (serves him right, for leaving Gavin to pick up his slack these past few years). What he was sure about is that he wants to live long enough post-retirement to actually fucking enjoy it.

Which leads him back to his current predicament. He could keep going, finish all the paperwork today, and essentially marking this weekend as another 'working weekend', only to do the same thing again for the succeeding weeks until the end of time, or until his brain turns into mush and he becomes a wheelchair-bound vegetable, effectively circling back to that one year in elementary school when everyone called him Asparagus Gavin for reasons he can’t even remember anymore.

. . . okay that’s it, he’s playing Animal Crossing. Lest he start going down the path of Gen-Z nihilism again and start craving the sweet sweet release of death. Gavin pushed away his finished papers and occupied his couch. He’ll just play a while to unwind, and then he’ll get back to work. Maybe.

He put on the Cyberlife Dream and booted up the game. He found himself in his house again, bare walls greeting his eyes as he got up and turned around. He should go get some wallpaper soon, and some furniture to make this place look less like a quaint abandoned shack. But first he was heading to Town Hall, where Isabelle should be (hopefully alone).

The moment his hand touched the doorknob, everything went black. Lines of blue code flew by in front of Gavin's eyes. Before he could even blink, or react in any way, the wall of blue text disappeared, and Gavin found himself right outside his house, soft grass beneath his bare feet serving as proof that he just teleported through his door. The fuck just happened? He glanced around warily, to see if anything else was going to pop up. When nothing did, he relaxed, and proceeded to take a step forward-

THUMP

-only to stumble backwards against his door as something slammed against the ground. From below the ground. Gavin stared as the ground in front of him protruded more with every hit. With a final thump, the small hill burst in a shower of rubble, leaving a hole in the ground right outside his house surrounded by debris.

A yellow hardhat popped out from the hole first, quickly followed by the rest of the body. Right in front of Gavin was a mole wearing a hardhat and overalls, dusting himself off. He saw a flash of ice blue eyes before the mole squinted at him, looking very miffed.

“So,” the mole said, a dialog box popping up as he did and- oh. Oh no. Oh shit. Gavin stared in horror at the name as he suddenly had a flashback of the time he ran crying to Elijah’s house as a kid, scared as their Animal Crossing game broke the fourth wall and threatened to delete itself. “Care to explain yourself?” Resetti continued, looking very unimpressed as he brandished his really sharp pickaxe.

“Uh . . .” He should probably be honest, maybe Resetti would go easy on him if he did. “I tried to play last night, I swear, I just fell asleep. It was a long day at work, you know,” Gavin said, shrugging helplessly.

“I don’t actually know. But . . .” Resetti looked off into the distance, deliberating as Gavin waited on edge for the verdict. “. . . I suppose I’ll let you off easy this time, since this is the first time you’ve done this. Humans need a lot of rest apparently, and nothing of importance had happened yet anyway.”

Gavin frowned at his weird choice of words, but decided to let it go. “. . . so I’m free to go? You’re not going to threaten to delete my game for not saving?”

“Why would I do that? That’s bad business practice. But consider this a warning,” the mole said, glaring harder at him before jumping back into the hole.

Huh. That’s it? That wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. Or maybe because this was just his first offence? Ugh, so much for ‘extended battery life’ saving him.

Plus he now had a hole in front of his house. Gavin stared at it for a while, wondering when it would disappear. Should he push the rubble back in or would that just piss Resetti off? He decided to just leave it alone and went to Town Hall.

This time when he pushed open the big door, he was met with the sight of a perfectly normal office. Thank goodness. Isabelle lifted her head up from her work, face lighting up when she saw him. “You’re here! I was wondering when you’d show.”

“Sorry, I got held up, getting reprimanded and shit.” Gavin replied, shrugging as she approached.

“I’m sure you did your best at work, your boss just doesn’t see it,” she said, patting his arm comfortingly.

“Uh, I didn’t mean at . . . nevermind, it’s not important.” And really it wasn’t, it was a 30 second interaction at most with Resetti. Isabelle probably knew what happened anyway, with her omniscience and all.

Still, she looked at him curiously. “Oh, well alright then. Let’s start with your tour!”

Isabelle led him outside, turning back towards him as the door closed. “So! You’ve been exploring since yesterday, so I’m sure you know some controls by now. What do you know?”

“The map and inventory,” Gavin said, swiping up with one finger and then with two to show her. She gave him a big smile. “Good! Plus you can swipe down to see the time, or if you want, you could swipe at your non-dominant hand for a watch.”

Gavin tried doing so, and blinked as a watch appeared on his wrist. Huh, neat.

“We have lots of fruit trees here as you can see. Our native fruit is the orange, but if you get your hands on a foreign fruit, not only would it grow with no problem but it would also sell for more Bells.” Gavin nodded along, so far nothing different. “Now, try shaking that tree to get some oranges!”

He stepped up to the tree she pointed out, looking at the broad trunk. Okay, this part doesn’t seem to be as easy as just pressing ‘A’. Nevertheless Gavin put his hands around it and shook the tree. He had to shake his arms hard in real life, but it was easier than shaking a real tree of that size. Still, collecting fruit is going to be quite the workout if he had to do this often. 3 oranges fell to the ground, bouncing off without any signs of bruises. Now that he saw them up close, Gavin realized that they were actually huge, as big as Patty.

Isabelle picked one up with seemingly no effort and presented it to him. “Here! You can sell it, or you can eat it. It won’t actually fill you up, but it tastes delicious.”

He took the fruit from her and inspected it. It was as light as she made it seem, and smelled like a real orange. He turned it over and over, looking for the notch where he can start peeling, only for Isabelle to say, “you can eat it as is.”

Gavin paused. “Like, with the skin and all?”

“Yup!”

. . . okay. Weird flex, but okay. He still stared at the orange skeptically, wondering who at Cyberlife was so lazy that they couldn’t be bothered to peel an orange and applied it to a game. Eventually he bit into it, surprised as the sweet and sour taste of orange filled his mouth. Damn, she wasn’t kidding about it being delicious.

Still, he might look for a knife before he ate another one, he thought as he chewed awkwardly on the peel. Delicious, but it just didn’t feel right. After swallowing it, he turned to Isabelle and asked, “So how much is this if I sell it?”

“Well, if you sell it at Reese’s Re-Tail, where you’ll get the best deals, it costs 750 Bells.”

. . . had it always been that expensive? Gavin tried to recall how much a fruit was on the DS version but gave up. Guess even video game currency is susceptible to inflation. Who knew?

After that, Isabelle showed him around the Shopping District. Tom Nook the tanuki had apparently retired, no longer manning a store but instead living it up on some island with all his earnings from millions of players over the years. Instead, his two nephews Timmy and Tommy had separate stores, one for general goods and one for furniture and house expansion. Then there was the retail store run by Reese, a pink alpaca missing her husband who had gone off exploring and never came back. Hopefully Gavin wouldn’t one day run into a dead alpaca as he went through the game and have a sidequest where he’d have to explain to Reese that her husband was dead. He did that enough times in real life and it was not fun.

. . . and that was it. Gavin blinked in surprise as Isabelle announced the end of the tour. “Really?”

“Yes! There’s not much to show you yet, everyone will start coming in to visit or stay in the town as it develops. Plus survey says that players prefer discovering how things work on their own. Oh! I almost forgot,” Isabelle rummaged through her pocket and came up with a basket much too big to have fit there. “Here! My welcoming gift. Welcome to Peanut Butter! I hope you’ll like it here,” she said, giving him a big grin as she wiggled in happiness and flowers appeared above her head, twinkling like stars would with added sound effects.

Gavin looked at the basket, which turned into a giant leaf as he took it, and looked up at her happy face. He thought about exploring this town, watching it slowly grow under his care and the feeling of accomplishment that would follow. He thought about how once he had started the game today, the tight feeling of stress in his chest had disappeared, and how he felt lighter than he had in months.

He clutched the basket to his chest and smiled back. “I think I will.”

----

("Wait, does this apply to coconuts too?"

"Of course!"

". . . how??")