Cool, Cool, Cool: Title Of Your Roleplay (A Brooklyn 99 Rp)

TJ was content to just sort of chill while Jules figured out what he wanted to wear, but when his partner actually requested that he help him pick an outfit to wear, TJ couldn’t help but grin. “Wait really? You want my help?” He asked in disbelief, already walking over to join Jules in front of all the clothes. “People don’t usually want my help,” he admitted almost sheepishly.

Maybe it had something to do with his carefree personality, or the fact that he was a disaster from start to finish, but typically when people required help in anything, TJ wasn’t the guy they went to.

So this...this was nice.

Deciding that he really ought to prove that he can be used for more than a bad example, TJ cleared his throat and looked towards the clothes. “Alright well since we’re going together, we won’t want to clash, so I would suggest...” TJ paused as he rifled through the clothes, pulling out a dark crimson red tank top that matched his own and handed it to Jules, proceeding to then find an entire outfit that matched TJ’s exactly, down to everything expect the color.

Blue wasn’t really Jules’ color, plus if he wore blue than they’d be too matching and people would probably get a little suspicious, but this way they carried an over all theme with them, didn’t clash, put were able to use their own colors to pull their strengths.

Grabbing a red bandana, TJ handed it to Jules with a smile. “There you go, that’s what I’d suggest,” he told him, smiling over at the other detective.

The briefest of smiles pulled at N’s lips when Cat accepted the offer to go check out this case with him. He didn’t get to go out on cases with the detective very often, and even if it was for work, he would like to get in more time with his coworkers that he didn’t work out in the field a lot with.

With Cat agreeing to go check this out, he got up from his desk and placed the case file neatly atop it, not needing it while they were out. ”The picture taken of the potential suspect doesn’t show much, but from the looks of it we’re looking for a female possibly in her mid twenties to early thirties with a darker complexion and black hair.” That still wasn’t a whole lot to go off of and it didn’t exactly help narrow anything down since a lot of people in Brooklyn easily matched that description, but it was something and that was always better than nothing. Maybe they would be lucky once they got to the park where the stolen picnic baskets were being reported and somebody would have more information on the perpetrator. Perhaps more pictures had been taken or somebody knew something that would give them a lead. There wasn’t much to go off on so anything they could get would be more than welcomed.

”Need anything before we head out?” N asked. He wanted to make sure Cat had everything she might need before they left; he’d hate to have to waste time that could be used for investigating to turn around once they had left to go and grab something that had been forgotten. He would do it, but he would much rather avoid that if he could.

Ives gave a grin as soon as Tortie said that she was ready as well and Norman’s already bad feeling about this got worse.

---

Turns out, Norman’s feeling had been right.

They had just arrived at their destination and as Norman looked up at the building in front of him, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of annoyance. “The Rain...booze,” he started, dragging out the name of the place before he turned sharply on his feet to glare at Ives. “You brought me to a gay bar?” He questioned in exasperation.

Ives grinned in response and started towards the door to the Rainbooze. “Yeah, don’t worry though, I know you don’t do alcohol and checked, they do serve non-alcoholic options,” he explained, pausing once he got to the door, shooting an unsure glance towards Tortie. “Hopefully they won’t have too many problems with you, I planned this before I knew you were coming,” he explained with a small shrug.

Norman frowned and hurried to catch up to Ives. “Why are we here?” He questioned in a hiss.

Ives smiled at him and opened the door to let him and Tortie in.”Mostly because they have a really nice karaoke machine, but also because it’s the only gay bar I could find in Brooklyn that offered non-alcoholic options.”

“That is not what I meant-“ Norman cut himself off as he entered the bar, blinking as he took in his surroundings.

It was a relatively small, dimly lit bar with a couple tables, a stage with a karaoke machine, and a definite rainbow theme to the decorations.

Norman made a face, about to continue his argument with Ives, however when he looked around, his friend had already gone off towards the stage.

Norman let out a sigh and moved towards the bar, sitting down on a stool.

“What can I get for you? We have a couple non-alcoholic options for anyone under 21-“

Norman froze, slowly lifting his head up to fix the bartender with an icy cold glare. “I’m 24,” he let out slowly, and to prove his point, he quickly rifled through his pockets and pulled out his ID, showing it to the bartender, though the anger only lasted so long before he put his ID back and slouched forward on the counter. “That being said...do you have any lemonade?”

The Bartender raised his brow at him but didn’t say anything and instead went to go get the drink Norman had requested.

One thing that he knew for sure was that he did not belong here whatsoever, but that was also a good thing. It meant that nobody would even think to imagine him sitting alone in a gar bar called Rainbooze all by his lonesome drinking orange juice.

Which, side note, apparently it was very weird to order just plain orange juice at a bar and not request some kind of alcoholic beverage to go with it. Or maybe the bartender he had gotten his drink from just had strong opinions on orange juice and none of them were positive.

Though, if he was being absolutely honest, orange juice wasn’t his favorite either. It wasn’t downright terrible, but it wasn’t his first choice of fruit juice, or second, or third, or fourth, or even fifth, but listen, he had panicked when the bartender asked what he had wanted to drink and apparently his default drink to go to while panicking was orange juice. It made no sense to him, but he didn’t plan on wasting it. He had spent money on it and he didn’t have enough of that to just buy something, whether or not he actually liked the product, and not get his money’s worth out of it. So now between being in a gay club and forcing himself to drink all the orange juice he...really wasn’t having that great of a time.

Just as he was about to force himself to take a drink of the orange juice, he noticed a trio of people walk in. Two of them seemed pretty thrilled to be there while the last one, the shortest of the group, didn’t seem all that happy. Time could relate to that, but he had also had a choice on whether or not he wanted to come to the club. Didn’t mean he necessarily had wanted to come though. Maybe coming here was still all his fault though. There were plenty of other places that somebody wouldn’t think to find him at, he didn’t have to come to a bar.

No matter what though, he was there now, and he was going to stay long enough to finish his orange juice if anything. So, hunkering down in his seat at one of the furthest tables in a corner, he did his best to keep a low profile, not wanting to grab the attention of anybody else, especially as the bar started to attract more customers for the night.

Time hadn’t expected anybody to come up to him. He was sitting alone way in the back, which to him he assumed that meant he wanted to remain as low profile as he possibly could. Most people would probably just think he had come to drink his sorrows away after some bad break up and wanted to be left alone. Truth of the matter was he didn’t mind if somebody did come up and talk to him, he just hoped that whoever might do that understood he wasn’t here to get drunk and then end up taking somebody home or somebody taking him back to their place. He wasn’t at the bar for any of that.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the shortest person from the trio that had walked in earlier heading his way. Time felt himself stiffen, automatically worried that this guy was either going to bully him away from his seat or try to drunkenly flirt with him. Though Time didn’t think there was anyway the guy had been here long enough to get drunk unless he had been drinking before heading to the bar. Which, even with just a quick glance toward the guy Time could tell he wasn’t drunk. He didn’t have that much experience with drunk people but he knew enough to realize the guy approaching him was sober.

Time looked up from his orange juice when the guy asked if he could take a seat at the table and explained he wouldn’t be a bother. ”I don’t mind, there’s plenty of room.” Of course the other guy had already figured that out or else he wouldn’t have asked if he could have taken a seat there.

Even though he wasn’t in the way he instinctively hunkered down a bit in his seat in an attempt to take up less room. He took the orange juice back into his hand in an attempt to not be as awkward as he felt, but he was probably just making this whole thing even more awkward than it already was.

Honestly Time had no idea what he had expected when he had walked into the bar. He had never been to one even though there had been that one time his older sister had tried dragging him off to one after telling him it would be good for him to get drunk and then get into a bar fight. Something about how it would get him to loosen up a bit or something along those lines. It was safe to assume he had somehow been able to get out of that and he had never ended up going to a bar.

So this was his first time in one. It had taken him twenty-four years to enter one, which even after finally going into one he had quickly decided bars weren’t for him. He just...didn’t like it. The idea behind them didn’t appeal to him. Time didn’t have anything against bars, he just didn’t ever see him going to another one or even returning to this one unless he just absolutely had to.

Time very well could have continued thinking about all that for even longer if not for the voice of the other man cutting through his reverie. ”Not really,” TIme answered with a shake of his head. That did make him curious about the lemonade, though, and he was feeling a bit dumb that he hadn’t asked for that instead of orange juice. Lemonade was a much better drink choice than orange juice, but there was nothing he could do about it now. ”But I’m sure it has to be better than this.” He gestured toward the orange juice in his hand. Surely their lemonade would be better, but then again, Time had very low opinions on orange juice to begin with so he was sure the lemonade had to be better considering it was a drink he actually enjoyed.

TJ just sort of waited around until Jules was done, which meant he spent that time playing Kwazy Cupcakes on his phone until Jules had come back.

Pocketing his phone, TJ looked over at Jules and smiled. ”You’re looking sharp, red is definitely your color,” he told him with a pair of finger guns, pausing to look at his own outfit. ”I’ve always thought my color was blue-“ TJ paused as soon as the words left his mouth, eyes going wide as a sort of realization came over him and he let out a gasp, looking back up at Jules. ”Jules,” he started, blue eyes still wide. “We’re like one of those friends in a show that everyone ships because of their opposing color themes and personalities! But like, the gross part of the fandom that takes the ship way too far and makes the creators, the other fans, and all other fandoms hate them; you’re the moody and reckless red guy and I’m the comic relief blue guy that’s secretly emotionally distant,” he explained, gesturing back and forth from him to Jules, a large grin on his face.

Finally done explaining, TJ stepped back and placed his hands on his hips, nodding in approval. “Yep, I can see it,” he decided and then without really waiting, he started back out, down the hallway and into the bullpen, ready to go take their fandom-ruining color palette loose on the street racing crowd. ”Come on, lets go!” he called back to Jules.

That was actually a good idea. Or, well, it wasn’t a good idea to buy a drink that was more than likely going to be gross, but it was a good idea to satisfy any curiosity, especially since this was a bar and they were strangers and asking to take a sip from each other’s cups was probably not a good idea, so the only other option was to just buy a drink for yourself and try it out.

Which, Time was now considering buying his own lemonade just to try it out. He might do that later depending on how he felt.

His attention was turned back to the other man when he spoke up, giving his name.

Oh right. Names. Those were a thing.

Time nodded in acknowledgement all the while looking down, fidgeting a bit in his seat. He knew the proper response was to give his name in return, that’s how introductions worked, but was it even in his best interest to give his name out to this stranger? There was no way this guy - Norman was his name - would even know who he was or his family, or at least Time didn’t think so. Though if Norman did know him he probably would have already recognized him. Afterall, it wasn’t like Time faded into a crowd all that easily. He kinda stood out, which was something he wasn’t fond of, but it did make it a bit easier to realize when somebody was friend or foe right away. And so far this Norman character seemed like he could be a friend.

Getting over his inward panic, Time looked back up to Norman and offered a slight smile. ”I’m Time.” It was probably safe to give out his first name. Anything beyond that though and he might have to fish for a lie; he didn’t want to lie, but at this point in his life it was probably in his best interest to do so.

He had expected that reaction. With a name like his it was a pretty common occurrence; after all, he did have a pretty strange name. He was pretty sure he was the only person in the world named Time. Well, there could be people out there named Thyme, but that was different. That was in the same boat as naming your kid something like Sage or Rosemary or Lavender.

Time was about to correct Norman just as the other man seemed to realize his mistake. He wasn’t bothered by it, it happened too often for him to be. It had been easy to get flustered over that back when he had been a kid. Trying to correct somebody and tell them that his name was Time and that he wasn’t asking for the time had been hard, but he was just used to it now and correcting people about his name was about as assertive as he got, but it was something. And he found that it wasn’t as embarrassing of a conversation as he had once found it to be.

There wasn’t any way he could have stopped the laugh that slipped from his lips when Norman asked if his parents had been hippies. That, of course, led him to think about his parents being hippies and...well, it wasn’t exactly working out that well. He could see his dad being a hippie more than his mom, but even then he couldn’t just sit there and imagine an entire scene in great detail of that. ”No, they’re pretty far from being hippies, but you could say they were...very creative when naming their kids.” Honestly he didn’t have the weirdest name out of the bunch. His was only second weirdest in his opinion; it was like with each child his parents slowly got better at naming, and while his younger sister still had a pretty unique name, at least it still sounded like it worked as an actual name. He supposed Time worked as an actual name if given some thought. He just needed to be grateful that while he had a unique name, it wasn’t as bad as it could be.

Okay he wasn’t angry, that was a plus, typically Norman’s mouth had a way of running off and getting into trouble before he could stop it, so this was...this was nice.

Waiting to answer, Norman grabbed the orange juice that the waiter had brought over to him and muttered out a quiet thank you. He then looked over at Time, brow raised. “Creative? Don’t tell me you’re the one with a normal name out of the family,” he joked lightly before he turned his attention back to the orange juice and studied it for a minute.

It looked orange.

Which was good, considering it was orange juice, though Norman was still a little hesitant to try it, at least if it was anything like the lemonade. Maybe bars just couldn’t do non alcoholic drinks that well. They should’ve gone to a smoothie place or something, that wouldn’t had better options.

Well, bottoms up.

Giving a casual shrug, Norman lifted the glass to his lips and top a sip of the orange juice.

It...it wasn’t great.

Not as bad as the lemonade had been, but it was still pretty watered down and tasted a bit old.

Not great and definitely not something Norman would get again, but at least it wasn’t as bad as the lemonade.

There had been a few times when Time had sat down and thought about his family and their names. When it came down to it they all had some pretty unique names and Time was one of the names that was a bit less “normal”, or as normal as a name could get in his family. And even then it wasn’t uncommon for him to have people ask for his name again or give him the time before registering that was his name. He could only imagine how things would have been if he had been put into public school or something like that - he already had a hard time with restaurants and whatnot that needed his name for his order.

All that aside, Time focused back in on Norman when his orange juice was brought out to him. From what he could see it didn’t look any more appealing than what he had ordered.

”I’d say my name is the second most normal in the family,” he replied with a faint laugh. This conversation wasn’t all that bad, and if anything Time was enjoying himself.

And here he thought he’d never enjoy himself in a gay bar.

Norman let out a snorted out laugh when Time said he had the second most normal name out of the family. Placing the orange juice down - so he didn’t accidentally end up choking on it or something - he raised his brow. ”You’re joking,” he claimed in a dry voice, though something told him that Time was being serious. ”What’s everyone else named? Egg? Milk? Cowboy?” Norman questioned, listing off the weirdest names he could think of on the top of his head.

Honestly he wouldn’t be surprise if some weirdos out there actually named their kids things like “Egg” or “Cowboy” after all, it was a weird place over there.

Just then, Ives rushed over, face flushed from all the alcohol he had already consumed. “Nori, Nori, guessssss whattttt,” Ives said in a sing song voice and Norman gently pushed Ives off him as his friend tried to envelope him in a hug.

“What?” Norman asked tartly, already suspicious.

Ives grinned in response. “I found you someone! His name is...is...huh, I can’t seem to remember, hold on, I’ll get him,” he said and quickly disappeared and Norman quickly sunk in his seat, ears burning red.

Of course Ives would do something like this.

Soon enough Ives came back with a man Norman had never met before. “Nori meet...uh, what was your name again?” He asked, looking over to the man he had brought over, not having noticed Time yet.

As the man introduced himself, Norman looked him over. He was tall, fairly muscular, with black hair and amber eyes. Well...Norman had to admit, Ives always had a knack for finding Norman’s type. Norman wasn’t above admitting that Samhian was attractive, but that still didn’t mean that Norman wanted anything to do with him. He didn’t come here to get a date, in fact he didn’t even know he was coming here at all.

“Charmed,” Norman said dryly and took a sip out of his glass. “I’m Norman, but I’m assuming you already knew that,” he introduced himself, sending Ives a pointed look.

Ives didn’t seem to notice and instead beamed back at him.

Norman shook his head. “How did you meet Ives anyways?” He asked, looking back up at Samhian.

However Ives answered for him. “Oh, we were at the bar and he was all like ‘hey’ and I was all like ‘sorry dude, I’m taken but I have a friend that I think you might like’ and then I brought him here, to meet you,” he explained and grinned, pausing only for a moment once he noticed Time. “And apparently your friend, hi friend of Nori...who are you exactly?” Ives asked, brow raised.

“His name is Time, the orange juice and lemonade here are terrible, are we all done with formalities now?” Norman asked, interrupting the conversation as he looked from Ives to Time to Samhian...who he decided it was best if he didn’t look at too much, he didn’t want to cave and admit that Ives had definitely found an attractive man. So it was just best not to look at the attractive man.