semi-closed i guess, i'll be adding prompts as necessary i just needed to dump a few somewhere

[frostythehitman]

WHO: idk, a bunch of people?
WHERE: around town, u know how it go
WHEN: throughout july
WHAT: Bingo catch-all!
WARNINGS: none, probably?

Comments

composing an ode for janet [grell]

[frostythehitman]

[ James is sat at the park poring over a notebook filled with scribbles of tabs and lyrics. He's been also twanging out a few chords now and then on the guitar as he works away, but he doesn't look happy by any means.

In fact, he looks like he's barely restraining the urge to rip out the paper and launch it into the sun. He leans back against the bench for a moment, sighing as he takes a momentary break. ]

Stupid freaking bingo with the dumb ode on it...

[erythristic]

Running into poetic problems?

[she knows the signs of creative frustration when she sees it, and he looks ready to throw it all away entirely. sure the two of them met under unusual circumstances, but outside of the hospital, Grell sees no problem interjecting herself into his dilemma.]

[frostythehitman]

[ Well, this is pretty weird. The doctor from the hospital is here. Which shouldn't be a surprise, but it's the same sort of thing as when you don't really think about what your teachers are doing outside of class time, or if they even really exist in the outside world.

He'd kind of just associated her with that hospital basement and nothing else. It's weird to see her under vastly different circumstances in a vastly different place. ]

Uh, yeah. You could call it that.

I don't know how I'm supposed to write an ode to Janet when I really just wanna punch her in the face.

[erythristic]

Punch her in the face? What did she do to you, aside from be mysterious and unknown?

[here she is, minus a white coat and looking decidedly more relaxed than she ever would in that basement. she is in fact a real person, despite how it might be strange to consider, someone who gets groceries and apparently looks to help frustrated poets.]

[frostythehitman]

[ He looks genuinely perplexed. He can't believe he even has to explain this. ]

What, working for Retrospec isn't enough now?

singing a ballad [aizawa]

[frostythehitman]

[ This is dumb and he feels dumb for doing it. He hates that Retrospec has him wound so tightly around their finger that he's actually doing something so embarrassing, but, well. If it gets him more information or some edge on Jim or Janet or whoever, he'll do it.

And by god, if he's going to sing a ballad at their behest, then he's going to do it wearing the only blue item he owns: the atrocious spandex. It's the only thing he's got that makes him feel like he's actually sticking it to the man somehow.

Which is how James is now walking around in his bright blue booty-shorts-leotard getup, holding his guitar in front of him. No, confused members of the public who are visibly tensing up at the idea of a busker, this is not for you. He's looking for a specific target. Someone alone, who probably won't go blurting about this online or to anyone else or record it.

From the back, this guy looks perfect. ]

Alright, I'm gonna play you a song, and you're gonna listen to it and not read anything into it, and it's not gonna be weird.

[ Sorry, that's all the warning you get. James is now strumming the opening chords to a song. ]

ftr this is already beautiful

[dryeye]

[You know, all Aizawa wanted today was a peaceful morning. Nothing strange until noon at least. He's not working today and he's already gotten a few errands out of the way and for a couple of hours it almost seemed like he was going to succeed in this goal. He had high hopes.

But no, apparently it's just...not meant to be.

He's alone on this corner, yes, and does indeed carry the air of somebody too tired to care about recording something as sudden as being sung to out of the blue, even from behind. When Bucky speaks up he turns, a coffee in hand, expression shifting from tiredly surprised to tiredly dubious as the guitar and the leotard and the blue sink in all at once.

He recognizes this kid, to boot. The strumming has already begun. Aizawa blinks slowly at him.]

Too late, Barnes, it's already weird. [What is this, Barnes. What are you doing, Barnes.]

[frostythehitman]

[ Oh, crap. ]

Mr. Aizawa?

[ He stops strumming. How is he supposed to proceed with this when his algebra teacher is his chosen audience? He screwed this up.

...but people are looking over now, so if he were to leave and try this again with someone else, there'd be an even bigger audience of people watching this. So...technically the least embarrassing course of action is to barrel ahead with this, isn't it. Dammit. ]

Look, I know, I don't want to be doing this either but it's for some stupid dare-bingo game I'm in, okay? Just humor me for for a minute.

[ Or, more precisely, it's two minutes and 32 seconds, because that's how long Time of Your Life is. (That's as close to a ballad as he was willing to actually get, just feel lucky you're getting this much out of him, Retrospec!!!) James takes a deep breath and, before Aizaw even gets a chance to respond, plays it with his eyes looking at a fixed spot behind him, slightly off to the side, so that he doesn't have to look at his teacher's face while he debases himself like this. ]

[dryeye]

[Well, at the very least, Bucky appears to be just as surprised to see Aizawa as Aizawa is to see him--if Bucky was expecting to address somebody else, that makes all of this marginally less bizarre.

...Only marginally, though, since apparently Bucky's going to continue on with this anyway. Aizawa shifts to face him fully, entirely nonplussed and not entirely sure what to do about it--but Bucky gives him no time to figure anything out, anyhow, because he's started strumming again and...now he's singing. Okay. This is just a thing that's happening now, apparently.

It's probably the longest two minutes and 32 seconds either of them have ever experienced in their lives. People circle around them in a wide berth. There's a lot of staring. Aizawa slowly tucks a hand in a pocket, settles his weight back on his heels, and lets the strained ballad wash over him with tired resignation, occasionally taking a long swallow from his coffee cup.

Plenty of strange things have happened to him in the last week or so, but honestly? This tops the list right now. Congratulations, Bucky. There's a couple of supremely awkward seconds of silence after Bucky finally finishes. Aizawa raises an eyebrow.]

...Wasn't too bad, I guess. But please tell me you aren't going to sing another one.

[frostythehitman]

[ Planets have rotated, suns have supernova'd, and stars have been born and died out in the eternal time it takes for James to get through that whole song. The universe, terrifyingly, continued to expand.

Once it's done, James does everything in his power to look casual about it, like he's not even bothered by this. It doesn't quite work. But once he hears what Aizawa says, he immediately throws both hands up in a peaceful surrender gesture, the guitar instead hanging solely by the strap around his shoulder. ]

God, no. The dumb game only said I had to sing a ballad. You couldn't pay me to sing any more of that. Trust me, I hated that as much as you did.

pretending to be a frog [yoon-sung]

[frostythehitman]

[ "Pretend to be a frog for a day." Sure. Why not. This might as well be his life.

He's doing it, but not happily. And he's trying to not go anywhere too public with this, so he's mostly loitering around some parking lots in hopes no one notices him. Pretending to be a frog doesn't mean he has to interact with anyone while he's doing it.

Maybe it'll be just enough for him to wear this goofy paper hat (that he's pretty sure used to be green at one point but is just gray now) and occasionally say the word "ribbit." ]

Ribbit.

[ There, requisite frogginess accomplished. Now he can go back to looking at his phone. (God, he hopes it won't run out of battery.) ]

[vendettastool]

[ There was a weird kid in the parking lot saying "ribbit". Yoon-sung stood at the window watching the kid as he did a couple half-hearted hops and then took out his phone and messed around with it. A couple of his employees were standing with him, the one muttering something about weird kids these days while finishing her coffee. To Yoon-sung, there was something vaguely familiar about the kid so after he finished his own coffee, he shooed his workers back to work and went to see what the kid thought he was doing.

Maybe it was a school dare or something. Whatever the case, it was far more interesting then re-reviewing the financial reports.

Of course, when he got to the street, he was able to see that the weird hat the kid had on his head was actually a frog. Between that and the "ribbit" and the hopping, Yoon-sung knew that the kid was trying to something vaguely frog-like. Question was why did he feel the need to do it in his parking lot near his car? Especially when it was after a weird hallucinomemory about getting turned into a frog? Was this a Jim joke? Time to find out. ]

Hey!

[frostythehitman]

[ Ah, crap, he got noticed. Not terribly surprising, considering his getup and the loitering, but still disappointing. (Although if anyone mentions hopping at any point, he will violently deny it. Not even he would stoop so low as to hop around for this!) James pockets his phone and, as Yoon-sung approaches, looks more suspicious and wary. ]

Hey.

[ He squints a little at him. He looks...familiar. ]

Don't I know you from somewhere? Retrospec?

[ He hopes so, honestly. This is a lot easier to explain to a fellow Retrospeccer. ]

[vendettastool]

[ Technically, Yoon-sung wouldn't care too much who did what in the parking lot, even if it was near his ridiculously expensive car. But it was this or studying the charts and listening to people drone on about said charts and then having to redo the charts for more droning sounds about them. And he might be the working Exec of this place, but there was only so much droning charts stuff that a man can sit through in a day and he had reached the end of his sitting.

Since now he was free and away from the prospect of charts or meetings or whatever, Yoon-sung was also starting to get the feeling that he knew the kid. 'Kid' should also be a wrong label; the guy was probably more of a teen which isn't that much younger then him. And now that he mentioned it, Yoon-sung was able to put facts together.

Sort of. ]

Like... Jim's pet project, right?

[frostythehitman]

What, you mean the app? [ He snorts. ] Yeah, it might as well be his pet project.

[ Now that he's confirmed that this person really is another Retrospeccer, he can at least now fully explain what this is supposed to be. ]

You know those bingo cards they've been sending everyone? One of my squares is to pretend to be a frog for a day. I was trying to do it somewhere where no one would see me.

slap party [mohammed]

[frostythehitman]

[ James shows up to Mohammed's house at about 2:30 that Thursday, knocking on the front door. He has no idea if his roommate would open the door if he used the doorbell, so he just...avoids it and knocks instead.

He's trying to look casual, but he's not the type to really 'do' casual, so mostly he just looks like a surly loitering teenager in front of some random house. Please help him. ]

[prometheanflame]

[James can hear growling, then Mohammed's voice responding to it. After a few seconds to make sure Iggy stands back, Mohammed opens the door. He's still dressed in his work clothes: blue ascot, loose beige shirt, orange-tinted jeans. There's not sense in changing into something casual when he's already put in good work into how he looks this morning.]

Come in. Don't bother the dog and he won't bother you.

[A Boston Terrier sits behind one of the couches chewing on an old wallet. Last month, Mohammed fell into the river (it's a bizarre story) and while his clothes were salvageable (apart from the scarf that was ripped), he could not find any use for the wallet after it was soaked dirtied, then soaked again. It became Iggy's new favorite toy.

Thanks, Mafuyu.]

Do you want something to drink?

[frostythehitman]

[ Welp. Now that Mohammed's pointed him out, the first thing James lays eyes on as he steps inside is the dog. He stops and watches him for a few moments, and wants to pet him, but no. No, he's here for a purpose. He's here to slap and get slapped, and petting Mohammed's dog anywhere in between that quest would just be weird.

As would the offer to drink something.

There's really no way to not make this awkward. ]

Uh, no, I'm good.

[prometheanflame]

[James has decided to live and not tough the dog. He has also decided to forgo the typical ritual of inviting someone over to your house and refuse a drink. Well, Mohammed thinks, he'll be here for a few minutes, they'll slap each other, and they'll leave.]

Alright.

[Mohammed stands in the living room, arms crossed, glancing at everything in the room besides James. There is no way not to make this awkward. There's not even proper slapping etiquette to follow.]

...Do you want to go first?

[frostythehitman]

Really? Uh, okay. Sure.

[ He half expected this to be a coin toss, honestly, rather than a concession. He raises his arm up, palm flat and stiff for a slap, and envisions the exact path he'll swing his arm through to make contact with Mohammed's cheek. Because it would be embarrassing for him to miss.

But then he pauses. ]

Okay. You...Are you ready?

[ He's not normally the type to stop and ask, but. Mohammed's a nice guy and he doesn't want to legitimately hurt him. He should have the luxury of bracing himself. ]

not technically for bingo but this is my log so i can do what i want [kasen]

[frostythehitman]

[ For the first time, James shows up without his guitar to the studio. He feels almost naked being here without it, but he's got more pressing matters to attend to (and also he hasn't finished writing those other few songs he has yet to get the hang of, so there's no point in practicing for now anyway.)

So he just leans against the wall in the reception area and waits. ]

[liberal_arts]

Hello, James. -Kasen called out to him as he entered the building, largely empty today save for the maintenance tech. Which was really the ideal situation, given what he was about to do. He really didn't enjoy playing games like this, even if he had a talent for them, but how else would he have gotten James here? The young man wasn't exactly known for being cooperative...

As Kasen approached, he let out a sigh and gave a small, apologetic bow. It was probably then James would notice there was something odd being held in Kasen's hand. Long, speckled looking, was that a rayskin finish?

Wait, was that a *katana*?-

Please forgive me in advance for this. I intentionally riled you up and strung you along for a bit to get you somewhere private, and you would not have done so had you known what I actually intended to do. Just know that I bare you know ill feelings at all, but I do have my own goals to pursue.

-And when he straightened out, he gave a somewhat sheepish smile before rearing back with his free hand and aiming a slap right for James' cheek.-

[frostythehitman]

[ Before James can even question what the item in Kasen's hand is, he's slapped right across the cheek. ]

Hey, what the hell, man! You brought me out here just to smack me?

[ He cradles the stinging cheek in one hand as he shouts. ]

[liberal_arts]

I assure you there's no ill-will behind it. It's more of an experiment, really. -That explained literally nothing.-

[frostythehitman]

Oh come on! I got one of those bingo cards too, you know, I know slapping someone's on there!