awesome!

Michael Darling || Eighteen || Working on it

[tidewashed]

Despite how long she’s been in Sacramento, Ariel has never been to the local Ikea. But she has always been curious about it; she’d heard many praises about the furniture and the place itself, whether it be from online or from one of her sisters. She even had the catalogue book from last year, and the more she flipped through the pages, the more excited she was to go. But hey, what better time to go than now? After looking up the address, she made her way down to the lobby, shoving the book into her backpack before coming up to the concierge. There was a person leaning on the edge of the counter, and Ariel quickly moved next to them. “Hi!” she whispered brightly. “Sorry to bother you, but I gotta ask you a question — if I wanted to visit this one store but never actually needed anything from there, do you think it’s still worth the trip?”

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

After spending the week camping, Michael felt like it would be silly to come back and not do anything exciting.  He just wasn’t sure what that exciting thing was going to be yet.  That was why he was here, waiting for the concierge, who would hopefully have some really cool suggestions, whenever they came back.  Before they did, though, he was brought into a conversation.  “Hi!” he responded.  “Of course!”  The answer seemed so obvious to him.  If you wanted to do something, you should do it; it was that simple, as far as he was concerned.  As long as it wasn’t hurting anyone, he saw no reason not to do things just because you wanted to.  “Visiting stores is fun too, plus you could find something that you didn’t know you needed but you actually do, you know?  Or you could just have a good time, which is still worth it.”

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

@kingbrandon

The best part of camping, Michael was discovering, was definitely the smores.  He had had them before, of course, but something about making them on a real campfire after a long day of camping in the actual outdoors just made them taste better.  He had just finished his fourth of the night, so naturally he was working on the marshmallow for his fifth.  He figured the normal rules of healthy eating or whatever didn’t apply here.  On a camping trip, you should be able to eat as many smores as you wanted and be totally fine.  It was definitely science.

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

morethanjust-thespare:

“Oh just nailing this whole camping thing.” She immediately heard a crash sound behind her which she could only assume was her equipment. It was probably fine. “Do you need any help? Because I’m here. I was born for this,” she said energetically. Although she had no experience or skills, she was eager to participate in anything she could.

“Oh, nice! Me too.  I mean, we’ve only just started, but I feel like it’s going good and will keep getting better.  Oh!”  He grinned.  “We should go exploring!  You know, learn all about where we are, become one with nature, maybe even see a family of bears in the distance?  I mean, if you’re ready, of course.”  He meant it partly as a challenge, and partly as an actual question.  If she was in the middle of setting up or doing something else, he didn’t want to distract her from it.

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

@mypetersbvrg

So maybe it had been a bad idea to try to climb a very branch-y tree in a backpack; Michael realized this now.  The only problem was, now that he was here, how did he fix it?  He didn’t even know how the backpack managed to get so twisted, and he was pretty sure any attempts on his part to free it would just knock him out of the tree, and that would definitely not be good.  “Hey, can anyone help me out?  I’m up here.”

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

@ladyxchance

As it turned out, you needed more than one person to use a canoe.  That made sense, but it posed a bit of a problem when he came here alone.  Fortunately, he discovered after a brief search, there was another person here.  “Hi!  So, uh, my name is Michael Darling.  Do you want to ride a canoe with me?  Apparently you need two people, but I only brought myself, so I need another person.  I promise it’ll be fun!”  Just to make sure she knew he wasn’t trying to force her or anything, he added, “But if you don’t want to, I can totally go find someone else.  I just thought I’d ask, you know, in case you did want to canoe.”

[morethanjust-thespare-blog]

Not surprisingly, Anna was ready for the event. She had her best hiking boots on, her bag filled with everything she could need, and she had practically bathed in bug spray. Taking a break from her tent-mates, she walked around the campsite, looking for a familiar (and friendly) face. With extra pep in her step, she walked over to Michael, who was still one of her best (and only) friends in Astra. “Hey dude,” she started. “What are you up to?”

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

Michael didn’t really have much of a plan for how he was going to spend this trip, or this day, even.  His plan was more along the lines of wander around and see what seemed like fun.  It was maybe not the most efficient method, but it had never steered him wrong.  Still, this would definitely be more fun if he had a friend with him, so he was pretty happy to see Anna.  They would be able to find something fun together.  “Hey!”  He grinned.  “Nothing yet.  What about you?”

[merldadunbroch]

lilo–pelekai:

@themichaeldarling & @merldadunbroch

Lilo was thrilled about the opportunity to go camping. She loved being in the outdoors and she felt at home in it, even though it was nothing like her home in Hawaii. She had been giddy the whole time on the bus and she was sure that she had been annoying to those who had to sit around her. She watched as scenery passed by her as the bus trekked on. She looked down at the phone in her hand, pondering sending off a text to Nani and Stitch to let them know what she was up to. She really wanted to but she also knew that she had to make new friends on this trip. She was still fairly new to Astra and only really knew one person. She sent a quick text only to tell them she would be unavailable and then turned the cell off, shoving it into her backpack.

Once Lilo was off the bus, she grabbed her bag and backpack, slinging them over her shoulder as she got off and looked around for her tentmates. She had yet to meet them so she really didn’t know that much about them. She walked up to a few people who seemed to be pairing off. “Hi, I’m looking for a Michael or Merida?”

The first thing Merida had done when she had gotten off the bus was toss her back pack to the ground and stretch her arms up in the air, luxuriating in the fresh air and the freedom to move her limbs around as much as possible. As much as she loved traveling to new places, Merida hated the actual traveling part. Letting out a happy sigh she pulled her hair back into a pony tail, tucking lose strands behind her ears before bending down to pick up her bag and slinging it back over her shoulder, just in time for someone to mention her name. Turning around she spotted the girl in question and grinned, waving a hand and skipping over to her, “Hi, Merida, me! Nice too meet you. I’m gonna guess….Lilo?”

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

Michael did not have a whole lot of camping experience, but that only made him more excited for this trip.  All these new experiences he was getting – maybe he would see a bear!  From a distance.  Seeing a bear up close would probably not be very good.  That would come later, though.  First he had to find his tentmates and get set up, and then they could go do fun stuff.  

He wasn’t quite sure where to start on the whole ‘finding his tentmates’ thing, since he was pretty sure he had never met either of them, but walking around asking people seemed as good a way as any.  He didn’t have to look long before he heard a voice say his name, followed by another person, Merida, introducing herself.  That must be them, then!  “I’m Michael! Darling,” he added, just in case he had misheard or something, and he wasn’t actually the Michael she had been looking for.  “So I think we’re all tentmates, right?”

[gasstonlegume]

Any normal person would have walked about the compound kindly introducing themselves to people, but not Gaston. He wasn’t like those people: he was better. He knew how to make an impression. To make himself known as quickly as possible, he began passing out fliers which had a variety of things on them. For one, there were a variety of pictures of himself. Obviously. They were his best head shots (though it had been incredibly difficult for him to choose which were the “best” because all of them were great). Second, a few fun facts about himself. Who doesn’t love those about anybody? And thirdly, some basic information as well. It was perfect; a masterpiece for everyone to take in. The easiest place to do this was the compound’s lobby, and following that, he’d planned to make his way to the park, which was incredibly basic and unoriginal, but it was a start.

Finally, someone had entered the front doors, to which Gaston marched his way up to them and handed them a flier confidently. “Here. Take and read, please.” Though he didn’t mean the pleasantry, he knew that practically no one would be interested in what he had to say if he came off too strong. He always knew the perfect balance of how to work things. He was just incredibly smart like that. “I’m getting myself in the heart of the Astra initiative and it’d be just an honor if you’d help me out by spreading my name out there to some other people.” His compliment was fake, but his desire behind it was not; he needed people to help him whether he happened to like that fact or not.

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

Michael had not expected to be presented with paper as he entered the compound, but the man asked him to read it, and he asked politely, so who was Michael to refuse?  “Uh, sure,” he said, skimming over the flier and then looking back at the man.  Gaston, apparently.  “So like, do you want me to just tell people about you, or to pass the flier on to someone else, or what?  Cause like, I’m happy to help you, but I don’t know you that well, so.  Or at all, really.”  That sounded a little rude, maybe.  “I mean, you seem cool, at least based on this,” he added, holding up the flier.

[eric--anderson]

Eric felt like he had explored the compound the most that he could and he really needed to find the ocean and get out on it. He had been missing that part of his life while he was getting settled in but it was time to set sail, or at least let his feet touch the salt water. He had decided to just go and hang out by the pool, hoping it would satiate the feeling of the water that he needed since he wasn’t sure where the nearest beach was. He headed down, putting his stuff down near him and taking his shirt off, setting it to the side. He sat down, letting his legs sit in the pool, and he could feel himself relaxing a little bit. He had been kicking his legs a bit unaware of the person he was splashing water on.

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

Now that it was getting really warm out, Michael thought it was a good time to check out the pool.  He had been planning to go for a while, but he kept forgetting, so here he was, for the first time since arriving at Astra.  It would probably be more fun with other people, he was just thinking, when he was splashed with water.  “Oh, hi!” he said, spotting the person who had probably splashed him.  “Are you having fun?”  This seemed as good a place as any to make a new friend.

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

morethanjust-thespare:

Anna softened a bit as she listened to him. It seemed like he was telling the truth. “Oh um, okay,” she said. “Well I’ll just get ready then,” she finished as she closed the door on him. A moment later she opened it up again. “Sorry about that, you can actually come in.” Once he was inside, she stood there awkwardly for a bit, suddenly feeling weird getting dressed. “Oh, right,” she said as she darted over to her dress. She looked down at it before realizing it was kind of uncomfortable to have Michael there.

“Heeey, umm, so could you actually just wait outside, ‘kay thanks,” she said as she ushered him out the door and slammed it in his face once again. Anna spent about ten minutes trying her best to get ready quickly. She pulled her hair back to look as neat as possible, and put on some makeup before slipping into her gown, muttering to herself and crashing into things during the whole process.

She finally opened the door again and flashed a happy, but awkward smile as she said “ta-da! How do I look? Wait, no, actually don’t answer that in case I don’t wanna know the answer.”

Once all of the back and forth was done, Michael stood in the hallway, idly playing with the sleeve on his jacket.  She definitely seemed like she believed him now, which was good, so now all he needed was for her to finish getting ready.  After about ten minutes of awkward fidgeting in the hallway, the door opened again.

Michael smiled when he saw her.  He started to answer her question, but then she interrupted.  “No, no, you look awesome!  Seriously.  I like your dress -- it’s really cool.”  His eyes went to the corsage.  “Oh!  I can put that on for you, if you want?”

[huntxmcn-blog]

hugo really wasn’t typically that clumsy, actually they were rather surefooted. of course today they had to prove themselves wrong. while picking up a rather large container of green paint, their footing faltered in the art room, thus covering themselves head to toe in the color. with this came them falling back into some purple they already had out. front to back they were splattered with purple and green. they sighed deeply as they cleaned up what they could, still covered themselves in the goo. what only made it worse was the walk back to their room to try and clean up, which of course they ended up going the same direction as someone else. “i swear it’s not a performance piece.” he joked, gesturing down to himself.

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

Michael had seen some pretty silly outfits in his day; heck, he had worn some pretty silly outfits in his day.  They were fun, and life should be fun, right?  So he wasn’t judging when he was looking at this green and purple person in the hallway.  He was just interested.  Plus, they were going in the same direction.  He was about to say something to them, make conversation, when they spoke first.  “What’s it for, then?” he asked.  “Or is it not for anything?”  Full-body paint wasn’t the same as a costume, generally, he supposed; this could have just happened by accident.  It still looked cool, though.

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

pvnzels:

“Isn’t it?!” lately, it seemed, she thrived on the energy of others, and by now she was practically bouncing with excitement as her own interest in the scene seemed to be shared tenfold by this stranger “Oh, yeah I dance!” she was quick to confess “Not any good at it, but it’s so fun. I’m Rachel, by the way. You wanna be my new friend?”

“Oh, come on!  There’s no such thing as bad dancing, as long as you’re having fun!”  There were probably some who disagreed with that statement -- and in fact, he knew there were, because he had heard once or twice that he himself was ‘not a very good dancer’ -- but those people were just a bit too serious for their own good.  He grinned.  “Yeah, I would love to be your friend!  I’m Michael.”  

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

morethanjust-thespare:

Anna tilted her head, trying to figure out what exactly was happening. It wasn’t until a solid five seconds after he mentioned the ‘do-over dance’ that she snapped back into reality, and processed what was happening. She looked down at the corsage, and took it gently, blushing a bit. But then she remembered something; This doesn’t happen to her. She had been hoping for something like this her entire life, but now it was actually… happening? Something had to be up.

Her face changed to suspicion as she looked around. She peered down the hall to see if someone was watching this, before going back and looking at Michael. “Did someone put you up to this? Is this a trick? I promise I won’t be mad. I mean, I’ll be mad but, not that much. I won’t go hit whoever told you do this with a baseball bat or anything. Maybe I will… No, I won’t.”

When she started looking suspicious, Michael was confused.  What did she think was happening?  Did she really think this was a joke?  That would be so mean; why would anyone do something like that?  He put his hands up, trying to look innocent (he actually was innocent, why did he feel like he was failing at it?), and shook his head.  “No, no, I promise, this isn’t a trick or anything.”

His eyes widened just slightly at her comment about the baseball bat, though he tried not to let his alarm show.  He supposed her anger would be justified, but he still felt himself fearing for this imaginary jerk, because that would definitely hurt a lot.  “No one put me up to this, okay?  You just seemed really upset when we talked before, so I wanted to help, because it was really unfair that you had such a bad time and I wanted to give you a better time.  If that’s okay with you, I mean?  It’ll only be the two of us, though.  Sorry about that.  I didn’t think I would be able to get a whole, official dance set up in a week.”  He smiled awkwardly, in apology.  “But we can still make it fun!”

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

notordinarv:

The brunet had no problem keeping up with the other’s words. “ this place is huge – i’m guessing there’s a ton of things to do ? ” deep down within him, something let out an appreciative ‘thank you’, regarding the otherwise ‘smooth’ transition. if circumstances had been different, he would’ve continued to apologize. however, something also told him that they were past that – that’s what people often did, right ? keep moving forward ? perhaps going back to that wouldn’t be the wisest choice, that is, if he wanted things not to turn awkward after all. “ it’s a horror story. there’s a writer who has just recently returned to his hometown in maine – as soon as he gets there, he finds out that the town residents are turning into vampires. eerie, right ? ”

Michael nodded.  “Oh, yeah, there’s a lot.  It’s nice, because it makes it really hard to be bored.”  Not that that was much of a struggle for Michael, who was a master at keeping himself entertained.  There was a lot that he enjoyed doing, okay?  “Ooh, that is cool!  Does he know why they’re all turning into vampires?  I mean, I’m guessing that’s what happens next, right?  Oh, man, that would be so weird.”

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

morethanjust-thespare:

It had been almost a week since the gala and Anna was still not recovered. After all, how do you recover from the realization that you’re unlovable and moving was a complete waste? She had spent most of the day in her room, leaving it only to get food. As she layed on her bed, she heard a knock on the door, which she reluctantly answered. She just assumed her roommate had forgotten his key or something, so seeing Michael was a surprise. What was even more surprising was what he said, and the fact that he was wearing a suit.

The dance? Was there another event she hadn’t heard about? If there was, she definitely didn’t want to go to it. “Um, you’re what, for the who-now?” she asked, leaning against the door, confused. 

Right.  He should probably explain.  While he had spent the week preparing for this, she had been here (and other places, probably, but that wasn’t the point), not expecting this to happen.  “Right, okay, so I was thinking about what you said, about how bad the dance was for you.”  Was that insensitive?  Maybe he shouldn’t have said that; she knew what had happened, and probably didn’t want the reminder.  “--Um, anyway, so I wanted to make it better.  So I’m giving you a do-over dance!”

It occurred to him, now that he was standing here in a suit, in front of her in not-gala-type-clothing, that maybe he should have given her a little warning.  Sure, surprises were fun (really fun!), but what if she wasn’t in the mood for this now?  Next time he did a do-over dance, he would definitely call ahead to give her some time to prepare, or at least to say “maybe some other time.”  Oh, well, he was here now.  “Um, I mean, if you want to.”  He held out the corsage for her with a grin.  “Oh, also, this is for you.”

[pvnzels-blog]

“Do you see that?” it was likely that this was not as much of a spectacle to the person she’d just leaned over to tap, but was far too exciting for Rachel to allow to go unrecognized. “He’s been dancing for like five minutes now.” she whispered excitedly, pointing across the street at the blur of neon clothes and strange moves. To add to her wonderment, there was no music to be heard “That looks so fun. Can you dance?”

[in which eli imagines something like this]

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

“Oh my gosh, that’s awesome!”  Personally, Michael was a big fan of dancing, and this particular dancer’s moves spoke to him.  The enthusiasm was infectious, and that was coming from Michael.  He could watch this for an hour.  “Yeah, I love it!  What about you?  Do you dance?”

[themichaeldarling-blog1]

@morethanjust-thespare

Michael had a plan.  He felt bad that Anna had had such a terrible time at the gala, and he wanted to make her feel better.  He didn’t know her all that well, but she seemed really upset about it, like really upset, so.  Plus, he had a really good idea, and he was excited to see her reaction.  She would definitely like it, right?  The idea popped into his head towards the end of their conversation, so as soon as they separated, he headed to the store to get the supplies he would need.

That Friday, he put on his suit from the gala and knocked on Anna’s door.  “Hello!” he said brightly when she answered, grinning as he held out the corsage he made for her.  Daisy had said it was more of a prom thing, and he believed her, but he also thought Anna might appreciate it, or at least the effort, and besides, she didn’t have to wear it if she didn’t want to.  “I’m here to pick you up for the dance.”