Michael Mell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
retrobeats) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
awashlogs2018-09-23 12:59 am
retrobeats) wrote in awashlogs2018-09-23 12:59 am
Entry tags:
do you remember the 21st night of september
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.
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:
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.
c!
no subject
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? ]
no subject
Michael? [Ryuu made sure to keep his eyes down or he might end up in another memory.] ...Are you okay?
no subject
[ beat. wait. why is Ryuu looking at the ground? ... oh. oh. oh no. ]
Is the town doing something weird again? [ if it is, then - god, he does not want to talk about this, but. it could have been worse, right. ] I mean - did you just see that too?
no subject
I did. Um... [Would it even be right to apologize? It's not something that Ryuu wanted to happen. He gives a sheepish smile in return.] I saw it. Is your friend here with us?
no subject
You mean Jeremy? [ Michael shakes his head, looking slightly crestfallen. ] No, he's not. It's weird - I mean, I think this is the longest we've gone without seeing each other in years.
[ which would make him kinda bummed out even under normal circumstances, but with how things stood when Michael got dragged here... yeah, it actually stings a little. ]