do you remember the 21st night of september

[retrobeats]

WHO: Michael and you!!
WHERE: all over Chroma
WHEN: throughout September!
WHAT: memory share event, plus some more general month-wide prompts
WARNINGS: nothing yet, but i will warn accordingly for anything that comes up!

ONE: BA DE YA DANCING IN SEPTEMBER

[ note: these prompts are OTA and pre-event-11! ]

( a: and when we put on our cloaks and tell warlock jokes we're the coolest kids in the school )

[ who's that sitting at an empty table outside what may have been a cafe or tavern in a past, pre-monochrome life? that would be one Michael Mell, who seems to have covered the entire surface of the table with all his worldly possessions. it's all spread out enough across the table that you can easily see things that look like extremely sketchy, rudimentary maps or floor plans for places with a lot of corridors and dead ends, along with a handful of pages of handwritten notes, weighed down under the corner of an open hardback book.

Michael seems utterly engrossed in whatever it is he's doing, but if you come closer or otherwise grab his attention, he'll look up and give a lazy half-wave, absently clicking the end of his pen. ]

Hey, how's it hanging? So since you're here I got a quick question, do I go with something straightforward for my first boss encounter, or do I throw caution to the wind and go totally wild with it?

( b: arrives a month late to a quest with a slushie )

[ alternatively, on and off throughout this month, you may come across Michael sitting beneath a tree in Flavo. it's not his usual haunt, but it's quiet and out of the way, which is exactly what he's after for this particular endeavour.

approach him, and you will discover that this particular endeavour seems to be… flower crowns, specifically the making of. he's got a whole bunch of flowers arranged in semi-neat piles around him, and he's half-singing, half-humming a few random bars of assorted songs as he works.

wait, wasn't this last month's quest? does he even know? does he even care? maybe you should check that he knows there aren't any quest goodies waiting for him for finishing these. ]


TWO: THNKS FR TH MMRS

[ Michael is a pretty tactile person, but he also has a knack for staying out the way of people he doesn't know well yet (or straight-up doesn't care to know yet), so you may receive a Michael memory one of two ways! for those he's more comfortable with, you'll be hit with a memory as soon as he makes physical contact with you. for acquaintances or those he's not so familiar with? eye contact will be enough! he's also a red which means those memories are going to come with his unfiltered thought commentary, i am so sorry. let me know when tagging in if you would prefer a memory on the happier or sadder end of the scale! ]

( c: one night and one more time )

[ for the first couple days of this whole thing, before it becomes clear what's happening, how it's happening, and that it's definitely gonna be a medium-to-long-duration thing, Michael can be freely encountered out and about around Chroma, where it will be all too easy to get into some kind of situation that will end in forced accidental memory sharing. you're most likely to find him hanging around Ruga, but he can also be encountered in the library or anywhere else your heart desires, including doing either of the things in the non-event prompts above if you wanna have your cake and eat it too! ]

( d: even though they weren't so great )

[ so after swapping a few memories with a few people and realising that this forced oversharing thing is actually impossible to manage because there is no way to predict what kind of contact is gonna set off whoever's memories, Michael decided to heed his more asocial instincts and just hole up at home until everything blew over.

joke's on him, because after a couple days of getting increasingly antsy to the point of it being unbearable, and another day of trying to be stubborn about it anyway, he finally has to call uncle and venture outside once more. (apparently talking to your petrified roomie doesn't count as being around people, who knew?)

so, in the latter days of the memory sharing chaos, Michael can be found trying to find a loophole in this latest magical town-mandated bonding activity. namely, sitting near the border of Ruga and Bluo, on one end of a rickety-looking bench on the main street that winds through both districts. there's a handwritten sign stuck onto the bench next to him that reads:

FREE SILENT CHILL ZONE
beat those old chroma blues!!
(no touching/talking/eye contact/etc necessary)

it may be noted that Michael has both his hood up and his headphones on over his ears in an attempt to enforce that rule. he's also got a notepad open on his lap to keep himself occupied during this attempt at making some kind of interaction-free, oversharing-free "sitting and kind of at least trying to enjoy the company of others and not go nuts" zone. decide to brave the potential for awkwardness and sit, and he might even dare to try and slide a note over to your side of the bench.

on the other hand! any attempts to break the silence to talk to him, even to ask him what the heck he's doing, will be met with one hand shooting out with a fingersnap to form a "hold that thought" gesture, not even bothering to look up from where he's hunched over his notebook. ]

Yeah, no, I'm gonna stop you there. [ look, talking isn't his invasive forced oversharing trigger!! ] You saw my sign, right? I stuck it up for a reason, trust me.

Comments

c.

[messianic]

[Minato hasn't quite realized... well, just how wide-spread this is. He's at least realized that some memories are being tossed around the town like they're playing a particularly invasive game of hot potato, but...

He can't let it stop his daily life, right...?

(He has yet to realize just how bad this can get, honestly.)

So he probably had some sort of errand to run, or some promise that he would meet up with Michael, so here he's coming with a jar of blue cinnamon to offer? Sure, why not.]

[retrobeats]

[ what a shame that neither of them have twigged how badly they're tempting fate right now. when he sees Minato coming, Michael straightens up from where he's been leaning against a wall tapping out a drumbeat on his thighs, and throws a wave in his direction as he meanders over to meet him halfway. ]

Minato, hey! How's it hanging? [ and clearly more importantly-- ] Is that more of that weird blue cinnamon?

[ he sounds unreasonably delighted by this okay, HE LOVES THAT IT EXISTS... ]

[messianic]

[They should know better than to tempt fate AND YET...

This is why they are dumb teens.

Regardless, Minato just offers the jar, shrugging a bit.]

Yeah, it is. No matter how hard I try... I just can't use it up. Do you want any more?

c

[stripedown]

[ Kisa is another soul who hasn't quite realized that this is going to be a Problem. Which is fine, really. She's just going about her day, bringing back actual flowers with color to take home to Sierra, but that's when she catches a flicker of movement at the corner of her eye.

And she turns. Well. That's apparently enough to make eye contact, isn't it? Come at me, sad memory. ]

cw: bullying, mild violence

[retrobeats]

[ and sure enough, as soon as their eyes meet--


you've got your headphones snapped over your ears and your hood pulled over the top of those as you make your way through the school corridors. you're on your way to your next class, absently tapping out a beat on the sides of your legs as you bob your head to the music in your ears. it's a day for the classics, for sure. if i'm lucky, i'll make it to class right as the song ends, and how neat would that be?

too caught up in your music and your thoughts, you're not paying attention to the other kids around you, which is why you're caught completely off-guard (what the hell??) when someone grabs you by your arms and shoves you forwards against a row of lockers. the motion dislodges your headphones, dragging them down lopsided to hang half around your neck, half still dangling off of one ear. ow.

"don't move," a voice warns you from somewhere approximately the level of your shoulders, and you can't quite bite back a groan of long-suffering disgust. you think, great! of course it's freaking Rich Goranski, who else?, and you also think that it would be great to go a whole week being able to walk to class without this crap happening.

"seriously?" you say, over the sound of a marker pen being uncapped behind you, "doesn't this ever get old for you?"

you don't get it! you seriously don't get it. what the hell does Rich, or anybody else, have to gain from being such a full-time asshole? there's a reason you have a patch on your hoodie that says MEAN PEOPLE SUCK.

"i said don't move, headphones!" you're shoved forwards again, and there's the sound of black marker scratching over durable, hard-wearing fabric as Rich scrawls whatever taunt or insult he's come up with today on your backpack. you can hear the faint sounds of murmuring as other students hurry past, either not noticing or not caring, and that's business as usual but part of you still thinks would it kill any of you to stop? "i'll give you the same warning i gave tall-ass earlier: wash that off, you're dead."

why does he call him that? Jeremy isn't even that tall! is the first thought to flash inanely through your head, along with the thought that awesome, this one's another two-parter, which means it's probably another totally original gay joke. like your best friend doesn't have enough of a "no homo" complex as it is.

Rich gives you one last farewell shove against the lockers before taking off, leaving you to tug your headphones down around your neck the rest of the way and rub at the side of your face. you sigh, before swinging your backpack off, figuring you might as well get a look at what he wrote this time. in extremely untidy block capitals is... well, actually, it's not any discernable word; Rich has scrawled REINDS over the top half of your bag, and all you can think is: what does that even mean??


as the memory fades, Michael stumbles a little, a frown on his face. okay, that was a really strange time to suddenly recall that particular memory, in vivid detail?? ]

[stripedown]

[ What... was that? What was that voice in her head, slightly louder than the people who had been talking? There's a lot of this that goes right over her head, but she knows what bullying is. And she's aware that she doesn't like it.

But she says nothing, slightly wide-eyed and breathing hard from the exertion of witnessing a memory, apparently. ]

a

[promissum]

[He's completely missed this whole dungeons and dragons thing at first, so he takes a minute to reconcile human and boss encounter. This human doesn't look like a boss character to him.

But he was just asked about boss characters?]

Is it a final boss? Nobody wants a game where the final boss attacks with a one hit k-o in their first turn!

[retrobeats]

[ Michael grins, pleased to have found someone who not only gets what he's talking about first time, but is also totally willing to jam about it. ]

Not like, the final final boss. But maybe the first final boss? Y'know, if everyone's willing to stick it out for a longer campaign after this first run.

[ he makes a note though, tongue between his teeth in concentration. ] You are so right, though, dude. Those kinds of bosses are the worst, I mean, what's even the point?

[promissum]

It completely breaks the game balance! It's terrible game design. A proper boss should nobly take hits from the heroes before attacking back. [He apparently has a lot of strong feelings about this.] That's the rule of final bosses.

Are you designing a game?

C-c-c-combo! C a la A

[photoshooter]

Oh, man. If you let me in on what you're thinking, is it spoilers?

[Prompto hops on over, though, to sit by him at the table, eager to listen and educate his poor, deprived butt.]

Is there a way to do both? Like, make something with a twist so it'll be fun for you, but not too difficult for us noobs?

[retrobeats]

[ with a grin, as Prompto's sitting himself down: ] It doesn't count as spoilers if I don't tell you what idea I end up going with!

[ even so, he not-so-discreetly-at-all starts gathering all his loose pages into one bigger, neater pile that he can shove well under the safe, concealing weight of his semi-useless dungeon master's guide. sorry bud, he's gotta keep some secrets!! ]

But hey, that's not a bad idea. [ something with a twist...! that could be hella neat, right? ] I mean, I don't wanna have something that gets us too caught up in mechanics anyways. Especially since half my reference stuff is unreadable and all.

[photoshooter]

[Prompto helps by catching himself peering and putting his hands in his lap instead of being a snoopy snoop. SNOOP.]

Right. So what are you thinking? Like a straight-up boss-boss, or some kind of ultimate puzzle challenge? Or a riddle? I guess there are some things that're gonna work better in this, uh, non-screeny format than others.

c!

[awamori]

[Ryuu knows something else is happening, but he can't figure out what's going on. Well, he's trying not to worry about it too much on his daily walk through Ruga. When he sees Michael he raises his hand to greet him when they make eye contact. Looks like he's going to figure out what's happening after all.]

[retrobeats]

[ Michael spots Ryuu's hand lifting out the corner of his eye, the movement grabbing his attention, and raises his own hand to wave back as their eyes meet--

and well, that's all it takes, isn't it?


you're sitting on the edge of your best friend's bed, practically shoulder to shoulder as you both wordlessly mash buttons on the controllers you're holding, working in perfect sync to try and beat the level you're on. on-screen, your pixelated game avatar takes a wild swing at a 16-bit zombie that was trying to take a bite out of Jeremy's avatar. inside your head, you're thinking about Jeremy's dad, and about the tense conversation you just third-wheeled on. you're thinking, this is awkward.

"how's he doing?" you say, leaning over to Jeremy, 'cause as awkward as it is, you've decided you don't wanna just ignore it. that's not right.

on-screen, Jeremy's avatar blows his special attack on a single mook-level zombie, and you think, yikes. total overkill, but stylish! "how's it look?" he says darkly, and you can't see his face because you're focused on the game but you can imagine it, stony and fed up and upset.

you keep your eyes glued to the screen. that's fair, you think. you're not gonna say it out loud, but his dad's been a total mess since his mom walked out on them both. your moms tell you every so often to ask if there's anything they can do, but you don't know what they could do that could fix this. "you heard from her?"

"no," mutters Jeremy, sharp and sullen. "and who cares? it's like, mom moved on, why can't he?"

that's NOT fair. "hey--"

"what?" he snaps, his voice rising and cracking. "i don't want that to be my future!" you don't know what to say to that. more and more lately, you think that you never know the right thing to say when he gets like this. luckily you don't have to try this time, 'cause he's already talking again, hitting pause on your game so that you have no choice but to give him your full attention. "hey - Rich said his hook-up's at Payless, right? what if we go there ourselves?" what, you think, and it must show, because the next moment he hastily adds: "just to see if his story checks out!"

just to see if his story checks out. right. you don't like this. you really don't like this. but Jeremy's got that look on his face.

you say, "and if it does? will you be too cool for--" me? you think, because it's a fact of life that cool people don't have time for people like you. and you almost blurt it out, too, only barely stopping yourself in time. shit, i can't say that! walk it back, Michael! "… video games?" you say instead, after a pause that's too long to be natural, and it's times like this that you kinda hate how obvious you are.

you hit play on the game again to try and cover it up.

Jeremy sees right through you, because of course he does. "what, no way, man! hey--!" and with that, he leans over and hits the pause button on your controller with a firm hand. "look, you know that you're my favourite person. but-- that doesn't mean i can't still dream, right?"

holy CRAP, Jeremy.

you stare at him, and you're thinking about how he really just said that, and how he's your best friend, and how you really just want him to be okay. … and you're also thinking, there's literally no WAY i can let him get away with that. "is it really true…" and you lean over, with a practiced shit-eating grin, to get right up in his face and say with a voice brimming with friendly mockery: "that i'm your faaaaaavowite perwson?"

Jeremy rolls his eyes and flips you off, and you laugh. "yeah, asshole," he says dryly, giving you a friendly shove. some laughter escapes into his next words, and you think, good. "but seriously, we're never not gonna be a team. look-- high school is shit, and you've gotta help me conquer it! that's what we do, right?"

weird choice of words, you think. but - he's your player two. if he really wants to do this, if this is what it takes, you've gotta have his back. "yeah, yeah," you say, turning back to the screen in front of you. "we make it a two-player game."


as he comes out of the memory, Michael blinks, a frown flooding his face as his hand falls back to his side. that memory leaves a bitter taste in his mouth now. and it's not like he hasn't caught himself thinking about it before, since he arrived in Chroma, but-- never like this, never so vivid like he's living it all over again. what the hell? ]

[awamori]

[Ryuu felt the awkwardness of the conversation. Was that a little bit of anger too? Along with the worry Michael has over his friend. Did they argue? What happened that has Michael so worried about him? When he leaves the memory he looks over at Michael to see the frown on his face. They must have fought before he left or he wouldn't be looking so upset.]

Michael? [Ryuu made sure to keep his eyes down or he might end up in another memory.] ...Are you okay?

d

[withwisdom]

[ this spell has been very taxing and tiring, but even so she has the strength to keep powering through just based on the sheer stubbornness in her. however she does come across michael and his... sign... hm. it's rude to engage with him when the sign makes clear he doesn't want to, so she won't. on the other hand she could also use a silent zone to relax at.

so yes, zelda is going to brave the awkwardness and take a seat on the other side of the bench, crossing her legs and leaning back. naturally her eyes are trained on the immediate area in front of the bench and not at all on michael. ]

[retrobeats]

[ after a couple of minutes, he chances a quick, nano-second glance over to see who's decided to join the chill bench(tm). another couple minutes later, after some scribbling, Zelda will find a note and pen pushed towards her side:

you have entered THE CHILL ZONE pls enjoy yr stay
(and the crowd goes wild!!)
this memory thing sucks like if you agree

sure enough, although Zelda has no way of knowing this, inside a wonky rectangle Michael's drawn a rudimentary approximation of a thumbs-up with 'LIKE' in block caps next to it. he's also provided a helpful ticky box for true ease of 2010s internet simulation. does he know that this reference will probably go over Zelda's head? yes. has this stopped him? absolutely not!

underneath though, he's also scribbled: seriously tho how are you doing? ]

[withwisdom]

[ zelda peers down when she hears the slide of paper against the wood, and takes the note to read. it gets a small smile out of her and she takes the pen to write for a couple minutes.

when finished the paper is folded again and pushed across the bench. her handwriting is as neat and curvy while still being printed. ]

[ My head is aching all the time and I've bruised one of my knees.
Otherwise fine. It'll be over eventually.
How are you? The CHILL ZONE is a smart tactic. ]

[ and yes, she has checked the LIKE box. though she doesn't get why the agreement box would be a 'like' and not just 'yes'. well, it's michael's chill zone -- CHILL ZONE, sorry -- so she won't protest. ]

b

[asano_san]

[Even with all the walking around he did back home, Keigo's not sure that going to school and to the store and places with friends in any way equals the amount of walking he does when he really has nothing else to do in Chroma. Today, at least, he finds something of interest - a person he knows and a confusing hobby.

If he wants to make piles of flower crowns just because, that's his business, but this looks like a quest-level pile of flower crowns. Michael helped him out when he needed moral support in the face of weird portals. He should help him out if he's making these crowns for nothing.]

You do realize we got new quests, right?

[retrobeats]

[ Michael waits until he's finished attaching his current flower before he looks up and answers. which, hopefully Keigo doesn't mind that pause too much. he was in the zone, okay. ]

Oh, hey! Yeah, I saw 'em. That second one's kinda shady, right?

[ he says, with no further explanation as to if he caught Keigo's drift or as to why he's apparently still doing last month's quest, Michael, pls... ]

a ;

[underwraps]

[So Aizawa isn't 100% a nerd (more like 80%) but he understands video game mechanics and it looks obvious enough that this guy's trying to create and organize something similar.

Either that or he's writing a very elaborate book.]

It depends. [Aizawa answers after giving it some thought.] A straightforward first boss will at least ensure that your players can apply any base knowledge that they learned beforehand in a systematic manner, and that can be valuable for those who aren't so for familiar with the mechanics. However, something potentially weaker but more unconventional will force them to think outside the box and improvise, which will help them prepare for a broader variety of threats.

[retrobeats]

[ there's the smallest of beats following that speech as Michael stares at him like he's presented him with the Holy Grail or something. and then he's grinning because yes!! someone who treats this with the seriousness it deserves!! ]

Oh man, those are both good points! [ which... doesn't help him solve his dilemma yet exactly, but!! ] Okay, so we're kinda a mixed group, but a good half of us are either total newbies or just not that experienced. Buuuut the reference books we got here are also kinda incomplete so I don't wanna stress too hard over mechanics outside of the basic stuff anyways. So improvising is probably more of what we're gonna be doing in the long run--?

[ ... yea sorry Aizawa, he's kinda just thinking out loud in your general direction now, feel free to stop him at any point ]

[underwraps]

[Oh god it's another Midoriya.

Aizawa wonders absentmindedly, in the middle of this kid's rambling, if he's friends with his student, but otherwise he does manage to listen and pick up most of what Michael's trying to decide between. If anything, this isn't so different from how he approaches his teaching, where one has to find a good balance between adhering to the core principles and learning to be resourceful during slimmer times.]

How's the team dynamic? If your more experienced players can assist those who aren't then that might keep everyone on the same page when it comes to basic mechanics.

C.

[inheritance]

[With as much time Izuku spends in the library, the two of them were bound to run into each other here eventually. And while Izuku is wary about the memories that have been cropping up here and there, throughout the day, he hasn't exactly pinpointed what the cause of them could be yet.

So when he sees Michael there, he shifts the books in his arms enough to wave at him, instead of avoiding this run in out of fear of seeing something he shouldn't.]

Mell-kun! [Izuku's voice is lowered just enough to be courteous to anyone reading in the area, but it's no less cheerful than it usually is.] Mind if I join you?

Re: C.

[retrobeats]

[ Michael is another one who has had enough run-ins with memories to know that the town is pulling something weird again, but not enough to have come up with what an exact cause could be. which is part of why he's in the library right now; libraries being what they are it gives him space to think about it without accidentally setting the whole thing off again.

that, and he's kinda enjoying getting through some of the fairytales in this place. a lot of them are pretty gnarly when you aren't frantically tearing them apart for kidnapping clues.

his head bobs up from his book at the sound of Izuku's voice. ] Oh - hey! [ he only remembers they're in a library about half-way through that second syllable, resulting in a very dramatic diminuendo effect. ] Sure, feel free. Book club is now in session.