i was a high school atom bomb

[frostythehitman]

WHO: James and YOU!
WHERE: all over town, and also ~in his dreams~
WHEN: all throughout July!
WHAT: James doesn't remember a damn thing and is trying his best to navigate Recolle without letting on that something is off with him. Also, dreams.
WARNINGS: probably some violence in the dream prompts


1. time to finally fill his nighttime skulking quota
[ Okay, so it's a lie that he doesn't remember anything. He does remember a few things--and they mostly involve sneaking around to kill someone or training others to do the same.

He doesn't have any reason to do any of that now, nor anyone to do it to, but running around like this at least is refreshing--it's familiar. And he doesn't have to pretend to be James Barnes, whoever the hell that kid was. He can just be confused and empty, and try to connect with the few bits of himself he does know.

All of which is just how I'm justifying the fact that James is running around parkouring throughout the city in the dead of night, clad all in black. Even his hair is tied up and hidden under a dark baseball cap. (His arm, of course, is still completely exposed--he has yet to find a single piece of clothing that can cover it except for some neon monstrosity.)

He's just out here to get some fresh air and feel a rush, but to anyone else, it might look rather suspicious to see a mysterious figure skulking around and jumping from building to building. ]

2. he didn't choose the accordion boy band life, the accordion boy band life chose him
[ His father and sister gave him odd looks when he pulled out an accordion from his closet and he didn't want to raise any more suspicion, so...instead he's sitting in the park with it. Sure, he's still an odd sight, but at least here he's just some anonymous person with an accordion, instead of a person who apparently shouldn't be playing one.

He wonders why. Did James Barnes only play accordion in secret? Was he that bad that he was banned from playing it?

He tries playing a few notes. They come out warbled and discordant as his fingers clumsily mash multiple keys simultaneously. It wheezes like a fireplace bellows. Maybe he really was that bad. (Or maybe he was good once, and has just forgotten how to play the accordion along with everything else.)

Either way, it's kind of hard to ignore the sound of someone butchering Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. ]

3. DREAMS
3.a. a glorified hall monitor
[ James is here, but not the way you know him.

Most obviously, his arms have been switched--it's the left that's flesh now, and the right that's robotic. His hair is cut short. But other than that, his clothes and the eyeliner smeared across his eyes like a domino mask look pretty par for the course for James Barnes.

He (and you, now) stand in a long, possibly endless, high school hallway. There are endless rows of lockers and the walls are plastered in school spirit posters that look more like propaganda. James stands a good hundred feet away, posed in the center of the hallway with his arms crossed sternly. ]

Hey, you!

[ He approaches in (what he hopes is) a menacing stride. ]

Where's your hall pass?


3.b. i'd call this a teacher au except it's canon
[ In this one, James is much older--in his late 20s, perhaps. He stands at the head of a classroom of several large men who all look like they could easily be supersoldiers in their own right, if they weren't comically crammed into school desks. The writing on the chalkboard is in Russian, and everyone is speaking it too--but let's say for the sake of convenience that even a dream onlooker can understand it. A huge chunk of the classroom's wall appears to be a mirror, but upon closer inspection, the vague dark shape of a group of men behind it can just barely be made out.

James sharply taps a piece of chalk on the chalkboard and looks out sternly over his students. ]

Someone holds a door open for you as you enter a cafe. What do you do? You have five seconds to answer.

3.c. out of body experience
[ This time, there are two Jameses. One lays in a hospital bed, bandages on his hand and torso and cheek, with a tube snaking out from his chest to one of several machines at his bedside. There's no prosthetic in sight, so his left sleeve is completely empty. He's trying to read through a small pile of magazines sat in his lap, but doesn't appear to be focusing on the words. After a few moments, he grits his teeth as he tears several pages right out of the magazine in jerky motions, crumples up the pages, and chucks them at the wall as hard as he can.

The second James sits in a visitor's chair in the hospital room. He watches the first James in the hospital bed, impassive but curious, almost as if he's studying him. ]

Comments

1.

[blondferret]

[It's late at night and Derek has the night shift... again. He really hates the person who makes his schedule. He's on his dinner break eating a turkey sandwich up on the roof of the hospital. He's reading random posts on Retrospec when he hears a sound behind him. Derek's thumb freezes over his phone. What was that? Turning away from the railing, Derek looks into the darkness.]

Is someone there?

[Derek drops his phone into his jacket pocket and reaches for his wand.]

Hello?

[frostythehitman]

[ If he could, James would've just kept still and hidden. But he just jumped onto the roof and has too much forward momentum for that. So he just has to deal with it. He somersaults into view until he finally manages to stabilize himself on his feet. He's in full view of this guy now, but at least he can try and hide his face. He keeps his head bowed so that hopefully the cap can hide the view of his face, but there's only so much he can do really. ]

[blondferret]

[Derek watches as a person stumbles into his view. But he can't see his face. Either way, they are clearly not an employee here. Derek takes a step forward.]

Who are you? You don't have clearance to be up here! Show yourself!

[Derek pulls out his wand and mutters a spell.]

Lumos!

[A light appears on at the end of his wand and Derek points it at the intruder.]

3.c.

[standalonehuman]

Togusa's night time seems to be just filled with little reminders of why he should feel guilty that he's in the position that he's in right now. He stands at the door of the hospital room, silent for a moment, as he can only watch a scene that should be private.

It should be strange to see them both, but it feels right that James is here to watch himself, too. So Togusa steps forwards, and speaks up right before he makes it into touching distance.

"James."

The look on his face is conflicted, guilty, but he is able to swallow it down. "..Why are we back here?"

[frostythehitman]

The James sitting in the chair looks over at Togusa for what is probably a little too long. He's searching his face, trying to understand Togusa's expression. This man clearly knows him, clearly knows what this is about...and feels uncomfortable about it somehow. (How close are they supposed to be?)

He turns back to look at the James in the hospital bed, who I'm going to call Bucky now for convenience. Bucky doesn't seem to have noticed the two of them yet.

"I...don't know. I don't know what's happening."

2

[thebeastwithout]

[What is happening
Why are his ears beginning to bleed
Why does he feel like the world is collapsing into dissonant cacophony around him

Following the source of his pain, Gar steps out from some trees and is faced with the sight of James butchering the accordion.

He strongly feels the urge to step backwards but he is far too mesmerized by the sight...
He freezes in place instead.]

[frostythehitman]

[ After a few moments of messing around on the keys, James feels the distinct sense that he's being watched. He looks up and notices...sure enough, there's a green-skinned kid staring at him. He tries not to stare back too hard (green skin? how the hell did that happen?) but finds that waiting for him to do something isn't actually going anywhere. ]

Hi?

[ what....do you want here, kid...... ]

3a

[invocate]

[Li-Na had been fiddling with one of the lockers, trying out different combinations, when someone suddenly calls out to her. She jumps and whirls to face James, a guilty expression on her face. Oh no, was that his locker she'd been messing with?]

I... I don't have one.

[Somehow, Li-Na has a feeling that's a bad thing.]

[frostythehitman]

You know that's against school policy.

[ He squints and takes a closer look at her, realizing she'd been fiddling with a locker. ]

Is that even your locker?

2!!

[1620]

[ a street performer is always on the move . . . with music. a man with sugar skull face paint walks about the streets of recollé with his bass guitar slung over him, his bag behind his back and surprises in his pockets. he improvises to his heart’s song, stopping every so often to stretch his case out and gather some change from those who’d like to watch or request. gracias, gracias . . . and then there’s sound. the sound of something beautiful.

a badly played accordion.

once james finishes the first part of the supposed “twinkle twinkle little star”, gamzee picks up on the second half, “how i wonder what you are”, played with bass strings and finishing with a bicycle horn’s HONK. looking over expectantly, he waits for more communication. ]

this is the worst thing you could've ever done to me. i love it.

[frostythehitman]

[ literally what the fuck is happening. James stares at the clown, caught somewhere between confusion, abject horror, and suspense.

But after a while, he realizes that Gamzee is waiting for further prompting. So he tries his best to continue the song--only he screws it up so bad that the only similarity to the actual tune is the number of notes and their duration. ]

2

[fiddlestick]

[Elliot heard the accordion first. It was badly played, and the tune was so simple- that he couldn't help but wonder if it was a beginner. Accordion wasn't at all his instrument, but he still loves all music enough to decide to investigate. That poor accordion sounded like it was in pain after all.

He was not expecting to see his sorta-former-bandmate to be on the other end of the sound. Holy crap. He knows James can play way better than...this. This sounds like a very rough off day. That, or the band has really gone downhill since he stopped playing with them regularly.

After debate, he decides to approach]

Er...h-hey James. Trying a new....style...?

[How else do you describe this???]

[frostythehitman]

[ He looks up, surprised to be caught out like this even though he's....in a public open space. ]

Sure. Just...feeling a little rusty, you could say.

wildcards...

[parodeity]

[ so. because this is a dream and logic ? need not apply, they're on a ~spaceship colony~ because...dave watched too many sci fi flicks before bed, probably. and he recognizes james! of course he recognizes james, because james is his little brother because that...makes sense also?

sure why not!!

anyway. ]

I heard there's some sort of ship comin' in to dock today.

[ do i know what i'm doing? no ]

[frostythehitman]

[ Unfortunately, dream logic does not help in making sense of people he already doesn't know in real life. He knows, in dreamland, that this is his brother, but he doesn't know the first damn thing about him. Which should strike him as weird, but that's where the dream logic comes in to help him not think about that. ]

Oh yeah? What kind?

2

[yakan]

Oh, I should have brought my shamisen, we could have played a duet.

[ He's just out for a walk to spend some of his free time. He has so much free time right now beyond work. And when he overhears someone playing music so terribly, he just has to take a peek. ]

[frostythehitman]

You really think this is something duet-worthy?

[ James is fully aware of how atrocious he sounds right now. ]

i

[wordcarvings]

[ Koutarou is out at night because he doesn't know what to do with his time during school holidays. There's painting but he can't stay holed up all the time, and he didn't notice the time when he first stepped out. He might find a grocery store that's still open, maybe some are open at this hour.

He's got a lot of training, thanks to his dojo schooling and he's got weird stuff going on with his retrospec given memories and it all helps in spotting shadows. ]

Hello~? What are you doing?

[frostythehitman]

[ Oh crap, he's been spotted.

James does not respond. He'd rather keep to himself right now, not talk to some stranger. Maybe if he backs further into the shadows quietly and slowly enough, this guy will think there was nothing there at all in the first place. ]

2 OBVIOUSLY

[youraffection]

[ It doesn't matter if he's good or not--it's a gimmick that works and that's all that matters. Though Yosuke really isn't used to seeing James actually...out in the open with an accordion.

Huh.

So he does what any friend/bandmate should do--walks up behind him and slaps him on the shoulders. ]

Decided you should actually learn how to play, huh?

[frostythehitman]

[ JESUS CHRIST. He reacts before he thinks--as soon as he feels the slap on his shoulders, he drops the accordion entirely in a discordant clang, grabs one of Yosuke's wrists, and turns his body so he can twist his arm around.

After a second though, he realizes this is just some harmless kid, and he lets go. He takes a second to compose himself and pick up the accordion, then speaks as if nothing had just happened at all. ]

Might as well, right? It was just sitting there in my room collecting dust.

1

[matchbreaker]

[ Okay let's feel them out!!

But no yeah she does notice. Or rather, she doesn't necessarily notice personally, but one of her many bats does notice. And one bat following a boy might not stand out, but as three or four start to skulk behind the skulker, it might start to feel a bit more imposing. ]

[frostythehitman]

[ A bat following him is pretty weird--bats aren't usually in cities, right? But he pays it no mind. It's not bothering him, so he's got no reason to do anything to it.

But it seems like a moment later, he turns around and finds himself surrounded by multiple bats. They're still not actively bothering him, but this is getting pretty weird now. Something is definitely up with these bats and he has no idea what--and he doesn't like that uncertainty.

On the rooftop of a random apartment building, he starts swatting at the bats with both arms, hoping to scare them off and let him brood on his own. He's not Batman, after all. ]

3

[memoryshifter]

The man James approaches looks maybe a couple years too old to be in high school, and yet here he is, turning around real slow so that the younger man can get a good look at him and maybe rethink his current course of action.

Trying to menace Avery is maybe not a good idea.

"I do not have one," he answers, quiet and polite, hands out to his sides. He's wearing a very nicely cut pair of trousers and a grey dress shirt.

Something is very much out of place about this man being in the school, and even he knows it. He looks vaguely uncomfortable for a moment when he sees the school spirit posters, then he goes back to projecting an air of what are you going to do about it?

[frostythehitman]

James doesn't appear to be phased by the man's attitude, or his age. This school has plenty of college-aged students. Someone in their late 20s is definitely unusual, but not impossible.

"Then what, exactly, do you think you're doing in the hallway?"