Michael Alton (affect) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-01-31 16:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | #september 2017, mike, mike x vicky, vicky |
Who: Mike & Vicki
What: Fog meetups
Where: Overlook Estates
When: Sunday afternoon, 9/25
Compared to the rest of Point Pleasant the Altons had it pretty easy during the fog. They had backup generators around the house and Overlook Estates tended to be pretty high on the priority list when it came to fixing things around town. Mike was still freaking out about it all, feeling like something really bad was going to happen, like he might have an attack even if his last seizure had been only three weeks ago and it wasn't even near time yet. Something loomed over him though and he hated not being able to go anywhere. When he decided to go see Vicky his mom almost stopped him, just to add insult to injury. It took some coaxing and reminding that he was a friggin adult now and he could find his way next door blindfolded as he'd been hanging out with Vicky for years now and she was very literally right next door. Which wasn't as close as it might be in any other neighborhood but it was still close.
Finally she relented and he texted Vicky that he was coming over before pulling on a jacket and a scarf for good measure then oh so bravely venturing outside in the blind.
Vicki had been in the middle of a movie when the power suddenly went out the night before. A exclamation of 'fuck!' and a quick glance out the window revealed to her that it seemed to be a town wide outage as opposed to building one. Yeah, no, that wasn't gonna fly. Using the flashlight on her cell phone, she immediately collected her electronics, charges, and a set of clothes and hightailed it to her uncle's place in Overlook. Like most of the residents, he had a generator that allowed her the luxury of electricity those at her apartment building didn't have. Hooray!
Sunday morning came and went, Vicki blissfully unaware as she slept. Eventually her body forced her to get out of bed and she was, unfortunately, awake for the day. Grabbing a bag of chips, she settled onto the couch in the living room with her laptop. Her uncle was locked away in his study doing something or other. The familiar tone of a text sounded and she checked it to see Mike announcing his intent to visit. Perfect timing. She texted back an affirmative, then set her laptop to the side and exited the house, waiting just outside her door with arms crossed for her guest.
"Hola," she greeted with a wave when he finally emerged through the mist. "Fine weather we're having."
"Just beautiful," he said in a tone that said it really wasn't and he couldn't shake that cringey feeling that something was behind him in the fog. He didn't turn around to check again because if something was there he wouldn't see it anyway. Instead he joined Vicky on the front step and gestured at the door before slipping inside, not waiting for her to invite him in. He had practically lived there for years so it felt like a second home by now, as did his home for her. Of course that had changed when she moved, something he wasn't too happy about, but she was there often enough that it didn't really matter. "It's like soup," he muttered. "I feel like I could just reach out and grab a handful of fog and just... hold it."
Vicki followed him inside, closing and locking the door behind her. Her uncle had insisted she keep the door locked at all times when she arrived the night before. She couldn't get a clear answer as to the reason for this, but then that wasn't anything new. Her uncle was an enigma and she had learned long ago that it wasn't worth the time and effort to figure him out. It would be a futile attempt.
“Right? It's nuts.” She walked into the living room, knowing he would follow, and plopped back down into her seat on the couch. “You know, I can't decide if that was be cool or worrying if you could hold fog. Probably both. Yeah, definitely both.” Vicki lifted the bag of potato chips toward him. “Chip?”
Mike thought about it as he sat down next to her and accepted some chips. "If you could hold it that'd probably mean it got stuck in your clothes and hair when you walked in it so, mostly gross I guess." He stuffed the chips in his mouth and got more comfortable, looking over at the hallway curiously. "Your uncle's not home?" He didn't really care, the guy didn't bother him. He was just glad Vicky had opted to hang out in Overlook during the fog so he could actually come see her.
“Dude, yeah, didn't even think about that.” She stuck out her tongue in disgust. “I couldn't even imagine. A bunch of cotton ball like stuff sticking to you. Ew.” Vicki shoved a couple chips into her mouth, eyes following his gaze down the hallway. “He's here. Locked up in his study doing something or other. You know how he is.” There had been many a time Mike would come over and he'd never see her uncle or, if he did, he'd say a greeting and then wander off. He wasn't always so aloof, especially when Mike was over, but he hid away enough that it wasn't anything to question. “He seems to be a bit antsy though. No idea why. Maybe the fog has him on edge?” Which she didn’t understand, but it was the only explanation she could think of.
"That fog has everyone on edge," Mike sighed and it was true even for him. Sunday had been weird and it wasn't that he wasn't used to anxiety like that, he just wasn't used to it when it wasn't that time of the month, so to speak. There was always a week or two where he was feeling like shit, knowing he was about to have an attack at any minute, dreading it and yet waiting for it to be over with, but right now that was weeks away and he was usually pretty chipper at this point in the cycle of his illness. "Me though? Mostly I'm just bored by now, I want to go out and do stuff." It wasn't entirely true, he still had some vague bad feelings going on though it was nowhere near as intense as it had been the day before. "Cabin fever alert."
Vicki couldn't say the fog had her on edge, but she could understand why it might cause others to be. Well, somewhat. Driving in the stuff was probably a bitch and there was the whole possibility of cabin fever, something she was beginning to feel. Mike being around would help stave off the feeling for a time, but if the fog kept up like it was they'd go nutty anyway. At least they'd go nuts together. “Same. Netflix can only entertain for so long before I need to get out and do something.” Vicki was very much not a homebody. She shoved a couple more chips into her mouth. “So what you wanna do? Practice some songs? Riff on idiotic movies? Say screw it and go out into the fog anyway?”
Mike had his homebody moments but right now he was itching to get outside, go skateboarding, climbing, anything that he couldn't really do with the fog around. He rolled his eyes at the idea of going out in the fog anyway. "Ha ha," he said without much humor. "I'm not going back out there. Let's see if we can create something or practice some new songs. I feel like doing something with my hands, you know?" There was a distinct possibility that going out in the fog wouldn't seem like such a bad idea an hour or two from now when he was really going stir crazy but he still remembered that heavy feeling of anxiety from the day before and it wasn't tempting at all to have that flare up again.
“Aw no fog adventures?” she asked, pouting cutely. There was no true disappointment in her words or actions. Truth was, Vicki wasn't particularly fond of the idea of going out into the fog either, but she couldn't help listing it as an option so she could see Mike's reaction. She arched a brow.. “Do something with your hands, huh?” Her lips formed into a playful smirk. “I can think of a few things that could put those hands to use...” She chuckled, then pushed herself up from the couch, stretching her arms high into the air. “So, then, to my room?” That was where her guitars were, after all.
He could think of a few things to do with his hands that had nothing to do with playing music and far more to do with playing her but it always felt weird to do that when her uncle was home. That hadn't stopped him in the past but he never really went to her room with any intentions unless they were alone in the house. "Let's go make some music," he said with a touch of innuendo himself. Her little stretch gave him a good moment to look her up and down to the point where he wondered if she did that on purpose. Not that he minded, she could stretch and twirl and bend over around him all she wanted, he never got tired of it.
Vicki most definitely did it on purpose. She didn't need to stretch her arms so high or arch her back to elongate her body and accentuate her chest. A simple stretch of her arms outward would have sufficed, but what was the fun in that? She liked and thrived on grabbing attention, especially Mike's; he was special. She wanted his eyes on her the most. “Some sweet, sweet music.” She gave a quick motion with her fingers to indicate he should follow and went to ascend the stairs to her room.
Her room was a decent size with hardwood floors and crown molding lining the ceiling. The architectural details were elegant, a sharp contrast to the less refined décor that occupied it. Posters of various bands plastered the walls with the occasional flyer for one of her own band's performance dates hung in between them. The wall decoration was well organized, but the rest of the room left a lot to be desired. It's wasn't messy, not really, but it wasn't all that organized. Piles of paper and notebooks littered the tops of furniture, all with various lyrics and notes that randomly popped into her head while practicing.
She moved to her small collection of guitars – three electric and one acoustic – and smiled back at Mike. “Pick your poison.”
Mike shrugged off his jacket and grabbed one of the electric guitars, somewhat predictably the same one as he usually took. That one usually got picked if he hadn't brought one of his own, there was something to be said about routines. He liked her room, it was elegant chaos and it said a lot about her creative mind. He didn't always get to look at all those papers of course, but she was less likely to snap at him if he read them now than she had been a few years ago. It had been funny at the time, of course, snagging some piece of paper and trying to read it while she tried to get it away from him. She'd been more sensitive back then and he'd been more of a prick, he supposed but it hadn't been like he was trying to read her diary or anything.
"You been working on anything?" he asked as he slipped the guitar strap over his head. "We need to get the band back together."
“When am I not working on something?” She replied with a smirk, picking up her favored guitar and plucking the strings testingly. “Got some random notes floating around in my head. Nothing concrete and definitely nothing that could make a song.” Vicki settled onto her bed, resting her guitar onto her crossed legs as she strummed the strings idly. “And hell yeah we gotta get the band back together. Seriously, you being gone this summer suuuucked. So many missed opportunities, man.” She stuck her tongue out at him playfully.
“You do anything fun and interesting while away or was it as boring as my summer.” Truthfully, her summer wasn’t all that boring, but it just didn’t seem as fun when he wasn’t around.
Mike snorted softly. "Nothing super interesting, nothing I haven't told you already. It was nice to get away though." Even if it had been an exercise in remembering that 'where you go, there you are' and it wasn't possible for him to outrun his problems.
"Play me some of those random notes," he said and strummed the guitar he was holding as if for effect. "We might just make a song out of it, you never know." It was always easier to cover other people's songs and he had no grand illusions about becoming a superstar but creating music was fun, especially with a close friend. "I mean, have you heard some of shit they're playing on the radio?"
“Ugh don’t even get me started!” She exclaimed with a roll of her eyes. Vicki had a lot of thoughts surrounding the music that was plaguing the airways. Some were fun, some even good, but others…? She had to wonder why they had contracts and their group likely never would. Not that she had big dreams to make it in the music industry, but still.
She strummed her guitar, then picked at some of the strings as she tried to remember the notes off the top of her head. She had written them down, but so honestly didn’t want to have to look for her notebook. Finally, after about a minute of thought, Vicki started playing a short tune. Nothing particularly breath-taking on its own but with a little added flair it could be something.
“Yeah, and that’s about it. Of that one at least. Have to dig for any of the others.”
Mike replayed it with an added chord here and there as making music meant experimenting and having fun with it. He nodded at Vicky, then shrugged and laughed. "We'll figure this out," he said and switched to one of his favorite simple tunes from a start of a song he liked. "So check this out, we've only been back a couple of weeks and mom wants to go away again and for me to go with her," he muttered. "She's been acting so weird since we got home, like she really doesn't want to be here. Guess the fog really spooked her."
“Seriously?” Vicky frowned. This news was not welcome, not one bit. “You just got back. Jesus.” She didn’t dislike Mike’s mom, not really, but she found her tendency to drag Mike away annoying. It threw off her groove and, even worse, left her without a friend to hang around with which was a sin. Why didn’t people like about her needs? Rude. “Tell her no. You can stay with me if you gotta.” She leaned into him, head on his shoulder and looking up at him with a pout. “You were gone all summer. You can’t leave now. I’d be sad.”
"I already told her no," Mike said with a little laugh. "I mean Europe was awesome and all but traveling with your mom? Not a lot of partying going on." Sure he'd gone off on his own sometimes but Rebecca was nothing if not fretful and overbearing even to this day. "Even dad was just like, dude, chill and besides. We've got music to make!"