mister america's next top novelist

Loan officer by day, douche playing "wonderwall" and writing sad poems by evening. rp only.

[chetang]

CHETAN "CHE" GUPTA

he/him; June 12, 1990. born and raised in Merrock, Maine. suburban penthouse dweller, works at the bank, handling loans. single, no kids, dog dad. (penned by lindsey.) -- BIO, STATS, TIMELINE, CONNECTIONS.

[stellylee]

Hm. You know what, Chetan? I'm going to remember this. The next time that we get together for a birthday or a holiday celebration, I'll remember this exact conversation, and when you're denied dessert or good drinks, it will be what you deserve. Just saying. I know, that's... kind of your superpower. Loving yourself.

[chetang]

Oh, did I get under your skin by pointing out your natural grotesque nature? It's worth it, honestly. I can get my own ice cream. You know, coming from anyone else that would be super sweet and endearing ubt I know because you're saying it, it's mean and evil.

[marciamulbahs]

WHO: Marci and your muse!

WHERE: Historical downtown

WHEN: Dine & Drink @merrock

ఇ "Alright, you got me. Where we headed?" Marci puts her wide-brimmed hat on and her sunglasses before she pauses at the street's corner. She has out the pamphlet where all the town specials are in one pretty paper. She may or may not have made it herself to keep track of the specials. "I got one hour to kill and a hunger that can't be tamed. I'm kinda feelin one of those Paws lattes for sure. But you get to pick the food." Marci tends to take charge of ... literally everything and this is their attempt at not doing that for once!

[chetang]

"Wherever your heart desires," Che answers, peering at her over his aviators. "All I'm asking for is a sweet treat and maybe something that doesn't get grease all over me." Though that seemed somewhat unlikely. Che was not necessarily known for his tidiness when it came to eating or, well, anything.

[stellylee]

That's your first mistake, is not seeing me for who I am, which is a delightful creature capable of really good feelings... every now and then. Although I would not turn down the opportunity to be a number one anything, even for you! Okay, but hating yourself doesn't count, Chetan, I hope that you know that.

[chetang]

Oh, I see you exactly as you are. You know the movie Gremlins? So there's Gizmo, that's me. And then after midnight, when there's the Gremlins? That's you, exactly down to the mannerisms. Unfortunately the one thing you can't get me to do is hate myself, even when I deserve it.

[panwanarats]

ఇ "Man the first thing we'd do is snag the sparklers on sale. Kids gone wild! They couldn't keep me away from hot shit, not even the stove." Pan tosses a handful of the sparklers up and down like one of those collector baseballs. They still hadn't decided what they were gonna do with it or how many they were going to go for. "No pride? Not even a little? You gotta have pride, July can't steal a rainbow from us!" With a grin.

[chetang]

"That...yeah that checks out, just from the little I see." Che was always more of the kid trying to make the sparklers last, to take the photo with the blur remaining or to draw something in the sky. "Hey, I've got pride year round, I just understand that the rainbow can mean other things to other people outside of the best month."

[panwanarats]

WHO: Pan & your muse!

WHERE: carnival!

WHEN: fireworks hour

ఇ "Check that out." A small stand (or maybe it's set up out of the trunk of someone's car) sells sparklers and small fireworks. Pan's intention? Clear. They flick their tongue against their lower lip, already planning on joining in with the fireworks about to be set off. "Best idea I've had tonight, right? They sell 'em in Fourth and leftover Pride colors too. I'd just be doing my part." Part of what? Now they have no plans to actually let it go bad but ... fireworks can be unpredictable. It's why they like them so much. (There are duds and small non-fire hazards being sold too, but those don't interest them.) And super cheap!

[chetang]

"Dunno if they would be leftover pride colors so much as rainbows are just cool," Che said, eyeing up the assortment of fireworks. It was always fun to run around with a sparkler or light a harmless smoke bomb, but he did have his limits. "Have you ever played with fireworks? My mom used to say I'd blow a hand off. She was probably right."

[erin-leahy]

Erin could not help but let out a laugh as the other admitted to wanting to order multiple items on the menu. "Hey, that's not a bad idea either. Get as many things as you want. I'm not going to judge you. I think trying to order just one thing when there are so many options to choose from is never going to be easy. I'm sticking to just one thing for now, because I have to get back to the courthouse soon. I'm not going to lie, though. I might come back when I'm done for the day and pick a few things up for tonight's dinner." She was not going to lie. She very much intended to try everything on this menu. "Don't let my choices deter you, Chetan. My choices are mine to make, and yours are yours. Just get whatever you want."

[chetang]

"Hey, you can take as many things as you want to the courthouse. THey're not going to...come after you for that. Legally," Che teased. He placed his order and stepped aside to wait for his food. "At the end of the day, I can't easily be influenced. It's why I wasn't cool in high school, but also why I'm so well adjusted now." He grinned at her. Well adjusted was relative.

[stellylee]

No, because the most annoying thing about you is that I'm allowed to dunk on you, but if anyone else does it, I'd probably end up fist fighting them, you know? Damn you. I was too into pride, obviously -- are you saying that June is a month of the deadly sin, and now pride in our community? For shame.

[chetang]

Yeah, because then you have nothing else to live for. I'm not assigning any kindness or, heaven forbid, fondness, to your desire to defend me. It's all about protecting your reputation as my number one hater. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I obviously hate gay people, notably, and think we need to focus on the deadly sins instead of feeling empowered and joyful.

[stellylee]

Just because you've never been told that doesn't mean that they haven't said it to me, I'll have you know. You don't have to let that jealousy ruin things for you, Che! Alright, that's fair. Although... is there really a wrath month? Or is that the other eleven months of the year?

[chetang]

Oh, so you let people speak poorly of me to you? That's mean spirited, Stelly. You're a mean person. Nah, there's at least one month for each of the deadly sins, didn't you know? Or were you too into pride?

[erin-leahy]

"You know what? You're right. I can have both," Erin agreed with a nod, turning back to the menu for a moment. "So, I'm going to have both." She chuckled softly, giving the menu another once over before deciding what she wanted. "I think I'll have the soba noodle salad and a mango boba. It's way too hot out here to have hot food." She turned back to him. "What are you going to get?"

[chetang]

"You can have both, that's the true way to go here," Che said confidently. "And then I will feel less bad about getting two things as well. Hell, maybe I'll get three." He mused for a moment. "I was gonna get a bunch of the little dumplings, but you're making a good point about hot food."

[erin-leahy]

STATUS: OPEN (4/5)

LOCATION: Ojīchan no sushi reshipi, Downtown.

Standing in front of the food truck, Erin stared at the menu before turning over to the person next to her. "You know, I really don't know what I want to order. Any ideas?" She asked, shrugging before she turned back to glance at the menu once again. "Man, I do love a good boba and the weather's perfect for it. But I do want to grab a bite to eat before heading back to the office. I still have a long afternoon ahead of me." Not that she was complaining. Erin loved being able to get out of her office every now and then, especially to get some fresh air now that it was summer. Today was just one of those days, and a comforting meal was exactly what she needed.

[chetang]

"I'm a bit confused at the implication that you can't have both of those things," Che explained, crossing his arms. "I mean, it's a drink and a food and it's lunch time, right? You should have both," he answered plainly. "I know I'm going to get at least two separate food items, for example."

[estherquinn]

"You are hurting my feelings a little bit," she said, holding her hand up to show two fingers just the tiniest little bit apart, before breaking into a laugh. She wasn't too jealous about height differences, but... couldn't say it didn't make her laugh a little. "My daughter, mostly! She got a kick out of seeing what kind of animals I could do when we were on vacation and the room keeper did it for us... mine lacked a little something," skill, mainly, but she didn't want to put herself down.

[chetang]

"The teeniest, tiniest bit, about the same size as you are." He grinned over at her, or rather down at her. "Was she impressed with your folding skills or just kinda over it?" Che asked. He knew how young people can be, having been one for a long while himself. "Clearly it wasn't good, because you're not still doing it professionally."

[stellylee]

Sure, other people's sorrow, that counts, right? I've already gone to therapy, and you know what they said? "You are absolutely perfect, please do not come back here again!" So I guess you don't have to worry about me. I'm supposing that I will be seeing you at Vibrations tonight and probably tomorrow night, so we can nod at each other from across the room?

[chetang]

No therapist would ever say that. About anyone, yes, but least of all about you, loser. I actually did see you, but I walked away because it was the most respectful thing to do on Pride Weekend, to pretend you don't exist, so I don't have to fight you. That's for Wrath month.

[dancerdarcyj]

Darcy smiled and nodded, "Wow, you really thought it all out. I like it though." She smiled as she heard his words and bit her lip, someone complimenting her dancing always made her slightly shy. "Thank you. I loved being up there. Pretty much my whole life, I started dancing when I was 4 and haven't really stopped to be honest."

[chetang]

"Dancing is often something you start that young, huh?" he commented, glad when he was four he wasn't expected to show any grace beyond running. And he wasn't very good at that. "It's got to be so cool to dedicate to something like that. I have about three hobbies I quarter ass at best."

[leokims-deactivated20260715]

who: leo & your muse

where: downtown merrock

when: feat. donut day

white cardboard box set in his hands, leo rolls his lips between his teeth and frowns. looks here, looks there, flush of embarrassment. how these ended up for free in his hands, tries to decipher: they appeared out of nowhere, delivered as if he got them for himself and he hadn't. " ... guess this is a sign to give my brain a break. " refers to: endless notepads, held in place by the outdoor salt-shakers, table otherwise sans food whatsoever. " these ... i dunno, they manifested. " a thief? him? never, not even a number two pencil back in high school.

[chetang]

"First, don't question free donuts. Second, that's sort of the thing about donut day," Che explained, probably a bit too simple of an explanation for confusion. "But if you don't want them, I'll take them off your hand and do double donuts for me." He shrugged.

[estherquinn]

"No, you're very right, I can confirm. As a short person, I would absolutely drown in a trench coat," she said with a laugh. Esther lacked a little bit in the height department, which meant that she wasn't going to be waltzing around wearing short skirts and long jackets, or else she might look like she was playing dress-up. Not really her cup of tea. "You could pull it off, don't sell yourself short," she assured him with a laugh. "Oh, oh, right. Does that mean you're really good at making those little paper cranes, too? I tried to get into towel folding once -- you know, like at those luxury hotels? Didn't work out so well."

[chetang]

"Sorry, I feel like I'm bragging about being tall now," he said, though he didn't feel sorry at all, and his tone as good as confirmed that. Being tall was one of the things that kept people from finding him exceptionally annoying. "Well, I'd nothing myself short, but thank you." Che shook his head, a bit sadly. "No, I'm really bad at the cranes, I can only do very simple folds. Did you do the towels for...family members? Loved ones? At childhood sleepovers?"

[stellylee]

Yes, obviously. I have to think about you and bad things happening to you just for me to find some kind of happiness. I don't know why that would come as any big surprise to you! Sure, sure... I think those things. If that's what you need to tell yourself, Che. I actually did, and I'll have you know that I dropped some tips in for you and everything. Don't ever say I'm not occasionally nice.

[chetang]

That's kind of fucked up. Even I have things that bring me happiness besides your sorrow. You should consider going to therapy about your obsession with me so you can grow and become a better person. I saw those dollar bills that looked like they had been through the wash a few too many times. Next time you you can venmo me.