John Mitchell (being_mitchell) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-09 00:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, john mitchell, zuko |
Who: Mitchell + Zuko
What: Meeting
When: Before July 27th
Where: Coffee shop
Rating: Family Friendly
Status: Complete
Ever since the incident with Annie flickering, Mitchell had been dwelling on the fact that if Annie could momentarily become a ghost then there was every chance that he was going to wind up becoming a full fledged vampire. While vampires might not have been exactly the same in his dream world as in others and he’d still be able to go about most of his usual everyday activities, but becoming a vampire was not going to make his comeback any easier. For one, he wouldn’t show up on video or in pictures, which was going to make things a lot more difficult and then there was the whole drinking blood thing. He knew that vampires in his dream world could abstain from blood, but he wasn’t dumb enough to think that he’d have that type of restraint right off the bat. He had no idea what he was going to do then. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Annie or any of his other friends.
Constantly thinking about the whole vampire thing as well as what would happen if Annie’s flicker’s continued to happen, the more his writer’s block came back. He already had quite a few songs written, including the one he was working on with Draco, but not being able to write was frustrating. And then there was the fact that all of this was causing him to drink more coffee and despite the fact that he had a rather nice coffee maker at home, he was going to the coffee shop not too far from his house quite often, which was where he was now.
Zuko just loved coffee. A lot. He had a penchant for the overly sweet types, and often found time to go indulge. He worked his way down the specials menu systematically, and then started over again when he’d finished it, occasionally pausing for a seasonal favorite if he found one.
Today it was all about caramel macchiato with a top of cinnamon. He liked it.
Meaning to go find a seat and read a bit, he spotted a man who looked very familiar, although he could not completely place why. “Do I know you?”
In the profession that Mitchell was in he heard that question quite often, but it was usually from girls; that isn’t to say that he never had guys approach him, but the majority of his fanbase was women. However, ever since joining Valarnet, sometimes when he was approached it was because someone recognized him from there, but he could never be sure. So when the asian guy stopped and spoke to him, Mitchell smiled in return, “That depends. Are you thinking you know me from music or the internet?” Depending on the answer he’d be able to narrow it down. Mitchell was generally a very personable person and would talk to just about anyone who approached him unless they seemed a little off and this guy seemed completely harmless, so he didn’t mind stopping to talk to him for a little while. After all, it would help to distract him from his thoughts of ghosts and vampires.
Zuko just frowned at that question, as if he were wholly unsure of what the answer might actually be. He tilted his head, squinted his eyes (although, okay, with that scar one was already squinted kind of permanently). “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe both.”
Seeing the other man frown, Mitchell decided to make it a little easier to try and figure out where he might know him, “You wouldn’t happen to be a member of Valarnet, would you?” That would definitely help to narrow it down. And if he wasn’t on Valarnet then that meant the other man had probably just seen his picture on the internet.
“I am, actually.” Sometimes Zuko just assumed that everyone was. Then again, he cared little for the Valarnet, and read it almost less than he posted on it.
He invited himself to sit down across from the other man, since standing awkwardly was worse than being presumptuous as far as he was concerned. “Zuko,” he introduced himself.
“Draco’s Zuko?” Zuko wasn’t exactly a common name; at least not one that Mitchell had heard outside of hanging out with Draco, so he was fairly certain that he was right. “I’m Mitchell.” While he had been over to Draco’s once, it had been while Zuko had been possessed, so he hadn’t actually been there. He’d been looking forward to actually meeting Draco’s husband though.
Zuko gave a little smile over that. Maybe this was why the guy looked familiar -- he hung out with Draco. “I guess you could say I’m his, yes. I did marry him, so that probably counts for something.”
He sipped his coffee and considered thoughtfully. “Mitchell. You two write music together, then?” Draco had a lot of musician friends.
Mitchell nodded, “We’re working on a song for my comeback album, yeah.” Now that they knew why the other seemed familiar, it was much less awkward, “Draco talks about you quite a lot, you know.” He smirked over the rim of his cup as he took a sip of his own coffee.
“Does he.” Zuko didn’t so much smirk as look oddly complacent about that fact. He wasn’t surprised over it, really. If he had been, he probably would have been a terribly unobservant sort of significant other. Draco loved him, that was all.
“Do you mean to call it a comeback album?” Zuko had a ridiculous amount of business sense, and seemed oddly offended by the very term.
“He does.” Mitchell nodded, as he set his cup down. He thought about the question for a moment before nodding again, “Well, that’s what it is, I suppose. With the exception of the shows I did recently at the coffee shop I’ve been out of the public eye for almost a year. And this is my first album without my ex-manager and since I got out of rehab. Why, what would you call it?” He was curious as to what someone else would call it.
Zuko considered that information -- not in a way where he looked like he was judging, persay, but more like real determined thoughtfulness. “Just a new LP,” he said after a moment. “You’re selling yourself as much as you are your music. To say comeback implies too much fade out, doesn’t it? Even if there was, you don’t want to focus on the fact that you disappeared, so much as the fact that you’re still around.”
Mitchell nodded, hearing what Zuko was saying, “That’s good advice. Doing this mostly on my own hasn’t been the easiest, but at least this way I have creative control. I was never actually involved in the making of my other two albums. Herrick wanted to be in control of everything.” Not for the first time was Mitchell glad that he was out of that situation.
Of course it was good advice. Why would Zuko give bad advice? “That’s a little strange,” he admitted. Although he supposed that some people were just control freaks, he couldn’t really understand why Mitchell had just allowed it.
“How far along are you with your new album?”
It wasn’t as if Mitchell hadn’t wanted to be involved, but more that fact that he’d been young and new to the industry and Herrick had only wanted to use him in order to make money. He had never really cared about Mitchell’s well being, which was obvious, considering he had been the one to get Mitchell involved with drugs. “My ex-manager wasn’t exactly a stand up guy,” He took a sip of his coffee, “I’ve got quite a few songs, including the one I’m working on with Draco. I haven’t actually recorded anything yet though.”
Zuko didn’t ask for clarification, if only because he didn’t really know Mitchell, and his curiosity only went so far. His empathy rarely went anywhere, if he had to be honest. He nodded. “You’ll get there, I’m sure.”
Mitchell nodded, “I just hope it doesn’t take too long.” He frowned slightly, thinking about his dreams and the possibility that he might wind up becoming a full fledged vampire soon, which would throw a definite wrench in the works. If he didn’t have a reflection or show up on film it was going to be very difficult to do promos of any kind.
Zuko probably could have found a way to sell that. He really was quite good. Then again, he didn’t know the issue. “You shouldn’t rush it, though.”
“In this case, rushing it might not be a bad thing.” Mitchell wondered if Draco had told Zuko anything about him or if he’d seen his posts on Valarnet where he’d mentioned being a vampire. “In case you didn’t know, there’s the very real possibility that I could turn into a vampire at any moment.” He was exaggerating slightly of course, because it wouldn’t happen at just any moment, but it got the point across.
“Huh,” said Zuko, who had not known that. Really, he never read the Valarnet. It was only recently that Zuko was bothering to learn to be more than vaguely polite with people, and he still couldn’t find the room to care about strangers complaining about strange (and ultimately useless) things on the internet.
But really, it was a testament to the world that they were living in that he was not shocked by an admission like that. “I can create and control fire,” he offered with a vague gesture. “I’m sure you could make it work for you even if that was the case.”
“Really? That’s pretty cool.” Mitchell hadn’t met anyone with actual powers aside from Draco and Alyssa. At least, he didn’t think anyone else he knew had any powers. If they did then he either wasn’t paying attention or they were keeping it a secret. “That must come in handy when the pilot on the stove is out.” He smirked and finished off his drink.
“Something like that,” Zuko agreed. “They also put me on grill duty a lot. Honestly it’s a hassle.” He paused, and then shrugged. “Anyway. I should be off.”
Mitchell laughed and nodded, “I should get going too. It was nice to finally meet you, Zuko.” Getting to his feet, Mitchell finished off his drink then glanced back at Zuko, “Tell Draco I said hi.” With that, they parted ways, but would more than likely see each other again soon.