#marshall cod

troy marshall, the rook’s resident artist :)

So when I get to it, the story in my IRDR AU series will have these two together in a relationship already. Just cuz I think these two would work together for years before the Pantheon bullshit happens. The thing about good ol' Casey boy is that he is the most unsubtle motherfucker to exist.

Like, I imagine that after Case and Marshall develop feelings for each other, Case goes out on a limb and professes his love in the most cheesey and unsubtle way ever. Nothing nuts, the two of them are in a car alone together one day, Case just turns to Marshall and says, "I have a crush on you, and I'd lay down my fucking life for you". And this throws Marshall off guard because he was planning on confessing in a more eloquent way, but Case beat him to it.

Case is a working man, he ain't got time for theatrics. In other words, he's blunt like a hammer and doesn't like to dance around shit. I also headcanon that Case is a car and gun guy. He loves guns and cars for their mechanical glory, and he'll go on and on to Marshall about what he finds so interesting about them. Marshall is a DnD guy (ironically got into it during the Satanic Panic). So, often what they do is they make their own homebrew dnd campaigns together involving mechanical things (and guns because Case is insane and managed to create a good set of rules surrounding them), and they run that shit as co-dms.

When they met for the first time, Marshall got all iffy about him because Case has a very obvious Tennessee accent (that's southern twang for the non-americans) and is kind of stereotypically Southern. But then he quickly learned that if Case was actually racist, he'd know in the first 5 minutes. It's that blunt, completely honest nature Case has that drew Marshy in. If there was a problem, Case would let him know it, and god, he appreciates that fact. What Case appreciates about Marshall is how truly sincere he is, and how he won't bend for anyone. He's got a shining iron rod for a spine, and Case loves that. They fit together like puzzle pieces as mission partners because it's that loud vs quiet dynamic. Case can demand attention from the enemy because of his tendency to go loud and make the adversaries run in circles while trying to get him, while Troy is quiet and sneaks behind them, mopping up any stragglers. Now, I know that the two of them already being together might seem contradictory to my previous headcanons for Case, but lemme explain. It's not that Case ALWAYS thinks he's a danger to society who doesn't deserve an ounce of affection, it's that he has wax and wane periods for intrusive thoughts (because OCD driven intrusive thoughts are not always constant), so sometimes he can be quite sure about his place on the moral compass, but other times it's like "Man I am such an evil ass person, but I'm trying to work to do good things to offset that". His doubt about himself, is not always pervading his thoughts. However, when the waning period is over, and the moon that is his intrusive thoughts start to wax, that's when it all comes at him and the anxiety starts coming around. Most of his anxiety when it comes to Marshall comes from fears of hurting him or not loving him (like, this relationship of theirs is a phase, and Case will suddenly stop loving him one day, even though he's over the moon for him and is completely sincere about trading his life for Marshall's if it ever came down to it).

Marshall can tell when Case has these OCD flare-ups because he'll often flinch or look away when he has intrusive thoughts about harming him, and on really bad days he'll try to avoid Marshall altogether. He's still there to reassure Case that he isn't a bad person or on the verge of losing control of himself and hurting him. His priority is to calm Case down, and he does help a lot, but he can't really stop Case's compulsions. However, Case would truly be worse off if he didn't have Marshall there with him for support.

Like that one fucking LTG gif.