Feb. 18th, 2019 08:47 pm
Hankcon Beauty and the Beast AU
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detroitbecomehumanI wrote this a while ago and realized I never posted it here. A short hankcon AU
Words: 750
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: alcohol, drunk driving
-
In the future, Detroit has been completely hollowed out as life there grew further towards the suburbs. No one lives in the city center anymore, buildings standing vacant, pieces of decades past left untouched for years.
It’s night and Hank’s too drunk to drive but he’s driving anyway, the opposite direction of where he needs to be going, to these dark, old parts of the city. He passes the last functioning streetlight into a half darkness, the moon illuminating the ice on the road that his headlights can’t reach. He swerves off the road, smashing into a tree growing through a gap in the concrete, stumbles out into the rain, and falls to his knees, too sick of himself to stand.
He thinks he’ll just lay there, let the rain freeze over him in the dark . . . except he sees a light at the end of the road. He pulls himself up and stumbles towards it, curious why there would be a light so deep in the city. He finds a window glowing from the front of an old factory building, white paint peeling off of brick, except the longer he looks at it, the more the building seems wrong, nicer than a factory, closer to a large townhouse maybe.
But without thinking any more about it, he stumbles inside, towards the light, towards warmth and shelter from the freezing rain.
When he opens the door, he’s shocked first by the blast of warm air, then by his opulent surrounds: lush rugs over hardwood floors, polished antique furniture, a crystal chandelier above his head . . . and the animated barking washing machine pounding toward him with impending velocity.
Just as he is about to be crushed he hears a call of “Sumo! No!”
He turns to see a man, a young man, standing near the top of the stairs, an eerie blue glow emanating from the gaps between his fingers, the lines of his neck, the side of his temple. . .
-
100ish years ago, Connor had inherited one of the top motor companies in the city from his father. He didn’t want it, or the mansion in the center of the city, or the people who worked there. His younger brother, Richard, would have been a better choice. He felt trapped in an industry that was already beginning to struggle, but he was afraid to leave it, to live without the money . . . so he stayed. And he grew bitter, unfeeling, immune to cutting wages, laying off workers to keep the company afloat.
Until one day when he was walking through their largest factory, a worker who had moved to the city searching for a better life cursed him and his family to become like the machines that they produced. So Connor became a machine and lost the little feeling and compassion that he had left. Unfeeling and not aging, he continued to run the company until it died; then he merely continued living his half-life, surrounded by his staff and brother turned animated inanimate objects (Sumo is a washing machine, Richard is an actual toaster, Gavin is a toilet . . . or a coffeepot - I can’t decide) chained to the past, unable to grow, to move on, until Hank stumbles into his mansion, cold, drunk, dirty.
At first, Connor looks at him and only sees the dirt, but Hank is buried beneath so much feeling, raw, untempered, something Connor has wanted for so long that he lets him stay.
Fun times ensue in which everyone learns to love Hank, and Hank learns to enjoy his life in part again and also gets to wear the yellow velvet tailored coat, ruffle-collared shirt, and buckle shoes of his dreams.
When Hank is finally well enough to leave, Connor asks to stay with him and the curse is broken. Everyone turns back into a human again (and Sumo a dog of course) . . . except for Connor. He remains a machine and realizes that he’ll never be free of the of the curse.
But Hank pulls him into a hug and tells him that he loves Connor anyway.
The mansion staff + Richard find new jobs and lives. Hank, Connor, and Sumo move back into Hank’s house. Connor turns the mansion into a shelter/library/community center for the people of Detroit. Over the years, he’s able to use his old company’s resources to work with the people to revitalize the center of the city.
The End.
Words: 750
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: alcohol, drunk driving
-
In the future, Detroit has been completely hollowed out as life there grew further towards the suburbs. No one lives in the city center anymore, buildings standing vacant, pieces of decades past left untouched for years.
It’s night and Hank’s too drunk to drive but he’s driving anyway, the opposite direction of where he needs to be going, to these dark, old parts of the city. He passes the last functioning streetlight into a half darkness, the moon illuminating the ice on the road that his headlights can’t reach. He swerves off the road, smashing into a tree growing through a gap in the concrete, stumbles out into the rain, and falls to his knees, too sick of himself to stand.
He thinks he’ll just lay there, let the rain freeze over him in the dark . . . except he sees a light at the end of the road. He pulls himself up and stumbles towards it, curious why there would be a light so deep in the city. He finds a window glowing from the front of an old factory building, white paint peeling off of brick, except the longer he looks at it, the more the building seems wrong, nicer than a factory, closer to a large townhouse maybe.
But without thinking any more about it, he stumbles inside, towards the light, towards warmth and shelter from the freezing rain.
When he opens the door, he’s shocked first by the blast of warm air, then by his opulent surrounds: lush rugs over hardwood floors, polished antique furniture, a crystal chandelier above his head . . . and the animated barking washing machine pounding toward him with impending velocity.
Just as he is about to be crushed he hears a call of “Sumo! No!”
He turns to see a man, a young man, standing near the top of the stairs, an eerie blue glow emanating from the gaps between his fingers, the lines of his neck, the side of his temple. . .
-
100ish years ago, Connor had inherited one of the top motor companies in the city from his father. He didn’t want it, or the mansion in the center of the city, or the people who worked there. His younger brother, Richard, would have been a better choice. He felt trapped in an industry that was already beginning to struggle, but he was afraid to leave it, to live without the money . . . so he stayed. And he grew bitter, unfeeling, immune to cutting wages, laying off workers to keep the company afloat.
Until one day when he was walking through their largest factory, a worker who had moved to the city searching for a better life cursed him and his family to become like the machines that they produced. So Connor became a machine and lost the little feeling and compassion that he had left. Unfeeling and not aging, he continued to run the company until it died; then he merely continued living his half-life, surrounded by his staff and brother turned animated inanimate objects (Sumo is a washing machine, Richard is an actual toaster, Gavin is a toilet . . . or a coffeepot - I can’t decide) chained to the past, unable to grow, to move on, until Hank stumbles into his mansion, cold, drunk, dirty.
At first, Connor looks at him and only sees the dirt, but Hank is buried beneath so much feeling, raw, untempered, something Connor has wanted for so long that he lets him stay.
Fun times ensue in which everyone learns to love Hank, and Hank learns to enjoy his life in part again and also gets to wear the yellow velvet tailored coat, ruffle-collared shirt, and buckle shoes of his dreams.
When Hank is finally well enough to leave, Connor asks to stay with him and the curse is broken. Everyone turns back into a human again (and Sumo a dog of course) . . . except for Connor. He remains a machine and realizes that he’ll never be free of the of the curse.
But Hank pulls him into a hug and tells him that he loves Connor anyway.
The mansion staff + Richard find new jobs and lives. Hank, Connor, and Sumo move back into Hank’s house. Connor turns the mansion into a shelter/library/community center for the people of Detroit. Over the years, he’s able to use his old company’s resources to work with the people to revitalize the center of the city.
The End.