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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on May 19, 2012 22:19:52 GMT -5
Caitlyn really, really, really did not appreciate dubstep. She tried not to judge other people's tastes in music, even when she thought it was mostly just a bunch of noise and synthesizer recorded and posted all over the Internet, and most of the time she was actually pretty decent about keeping to this. She didn't, for instance, shoot people dirty looks when they went driving by listening to Pitbull at full volume, or whatever that rapper's name was, and most of the time she was actually pretty calm about such things. She wasn't quite so much of a music snob, anyway, not the types who refused to listen to anything modern because it was all terrible or anything like that -- no, she had a pretty decent collection of all kinds of music, notwithstanding anything she played for either of her two instruments. When she was trying to check over her piano students' theory work, though, and trying to actually hear the triads for one of these exercises, Caitlyn got particularly vicious when all she could hear was someone's awful, awful dubstep being played horridly loudly. Not being a vicious person by nature, this wasn't saying much, but at one point it got bad enough that she decided she ought to do something about it, and so she grabbed a sweater and pulled it on, slipped on her shoes, and walked outside.
It was only louder here now outside of her apartment, which did make sense, but for some reason this only annoyed Cait more. She walked down the hall, trying to find the source of the music, when she came to one apartment way down on the other end of the hall. Hm... She was pretty sure this was it. The music was particularly loud here. She walked over to the door and knocked on it without much of a plan. At this point, she really just wanted to get back to doing her work, but it was far too distracting to have all that background noise, and she couldn't even hear the triads she needed on the keyboard anyway over this person's music. No one answered the door, though... It was pretty likely that they just couldn't hear her. She knocked again, this time more loudly, setting her face in what she hoped was a stern expression for when they came to get the door. Almost as soon as she knocked this second time, the music cut off and she was left with silence. Maybe they'd heard her knocking then, and she wouldn't have to actually confront anybody -- but before she could really think of a new plan of action, the door opened and Caitlyn, lacking a proper mind-to-mouth filter, decided to start talking. "Uh, do you mind just turning down that noise -- I mean, dubstep -- I mean... do you mind turning down your music? Well, you've turned it off now, I guess, but just in general? It's kind of distracting and I have work to do that kind of requires... listening."
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on May 20, 2012 12:03:15 GMT -5
All things considered, it had been a relatively quiet day. Now that school was out for the semester, Matt had been working a few extra hours that he could before he and Sandra went home for the break and for Christmas, and he spent the rest of his time just hanging out and doing whatever. Most of that entailed going back to his illustrating, now that he had the time to draw things that weren't for class, and he had kept a list of ideas he had come up with throughout the semester so he could work on it once he had a break. Needless to say, he was never going to get through all of them, but it felt good just to have free time in general. Of course, this was going to change once he had too much time and nothing to fill it with, but for the first week, things weren't bad. And he was averaging more than 6 hours of sleep a night! It was a new record or something!
However, halfway into his night, where he was content with sitting on the couch, absent-mindedly watching TV as he sketched random things in his sketchpad, there came a giant WOOOOM WOOOOOOOOOM noise from out in the hallway, nearly scaring Matt half to death. He cringed when he listened to it, trying to determine what it was -- was the building caving in on itself? A random herd of bulls? No -- just dubstep. Matthew sighed, a little irritated. Granted, he couldn't judge people for their awful taste in music -- he was sure people would laugh if they ever saw his music library, but it was one thing to simply like music and another thing to force it on everyone else within a square mile, and then be rude about it when people told him to turn it down. And Matt would know -- he tried. He let it go for a few minutes, thinking that maybe it was a random internet video that caught them off guard or something, but when it didn't show any signs of stopping after five minutes, Matt irritably turned the TV off -- there was no point in having it on when you couldn't hear anything anyway -- and went to fetch his mp3 player, jamming his earbuds into his ears and turning the music up all the way. It still didn't cancel out all of the dubstep -- Matthew had yet to invest in noise canceling headphones, mostly because of how ridiculously priced they were -- but it brought it down to a waning pulse, and that was something Matthew could deal with.
He lost himself in his sketchpad and mp3 player after that, barely even noticing his surroundings as time ticked on. He certainly didn't hear the knocking at the door and only noticed something was up when his sister came out of her bedroom and walked towards the front door -- Matt gave her a confused look, and she only shrugged in reply before pointing to the door. He removed his earbuds then and noticed that the dubstep had stopped -- huh, when did that happen? -- and, hanging the headphones and cord around his neck and putting his sketchpad on the coffee table, he gestured for Sandra to go back to her room, and he could get the door. Pulling it open, he came face to face with a girl, who instantly began to start talking. However, he frowned when he realized that she was accusing him of the awful music -- as if. "Uh...wait, hang on. I'm not the one with dubstep." Matt said, once he could get in a word edgewise, holding up his headphones as pseudo-proof. "Dubstep guy is next door."
[/color] he pointed a finger down the hall, opposite from where she had come from. "I guess he's stopped now, but just so you know, he'll get all snooty about you 'infringing on his rights of musical freedom' or something if you try to tell him to turn it down."[/color] Matt leaned against his doorframe.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote] |
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on May 20, 2012 14:02:26 GMT -5
At the very least, the guy who opened the door didn't look scary or anything. Caitlyn would have folded with ridiculous speed if he'd turned out to be some huge, beefy bodybuilder or something. Did bodybuilders usually listen to dubstep? She wondered if maybe it made them work harder, but this seemed unlikely, though of course she was a little bit biased. Who did listen to it in the first place? She wasn't even sure. Mostly, Cait just knew that she couldn't stand it and that this one neighbour of hers seemed to enjoy it far too often and loudly for her liking. Still, this guy who'd answered the door didn't look like he was obnoxious enough for that, but she probably shouldn't judge books by their covers and all of those cliches. She frowned when he denied being the one playing dubstep, though -- for some reason, she was feeling a little bit bold today, probably because she was sort of annoyed to start. "Well, it turned off right when I knocked on the door," she pointed out a little bit stubbornly, though she didn't know why she felt like challenging him all of a sudden. It didn't really make much sense to. "How do I know you didn't put those on just to make me think it wasn't you?" she asked, eyeing him warily. It didn't take very long for her to realize how completely stupid that sounded, even if it were the case. Maybe Cait should work on this whole thing where she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
She could have been right, though! Maybe he really was just messing with her. Sometimes people did that. Well... he didn't really look the type to mess around with people, but going to the Academy had made her realize that even the nicest of people were sometimes the trickiest. The Waters were prime examples, actually, but she shouldn't mention this randomly to strangers who didn't know about the Academy. However, Caitlyn didn't get much time to think about this one way or the other, because she was quickly proven wrong when, just a moment later, there was another loud whine of some kind of synthesizer, and then a very loud WA WA WA WA WAWAWAWAWA WOOOOOOO, before the dubstep picked back up properly again... and it was definitely not coming from the inside of Matthew's apartment, which she could hear was now mostly silent, apart from the neighbour's music echoing all around the complex. She could feel the warmth on her cheeks. Had she really just accused a completely innocent neighbour of playing terrible music and then lying about it? She was pretty sure she had. That was embarrassing. "Uh..." Her face was probably more than a little pink at this point. "Sorry! Seriously, I'm so sorry," she apologized, having to raise her voice to be heard over the music that was now blaring all over again from next door. She looked up at him -- seriously, he was really tall -- kind of nervously, hoping he wouldn't actually be angry. When she did look at his face properly, though, her eyebrows knitted together a little bit in confusion. "Wait... I know you!"
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on May 21, 2012 9:08:12 GMT -5
If Matt had an affronted face, he was pretty sure that now would be the time it would make its way onto his face. He had met some skeptics in his life -- hell, he was just as skeptical as the next person, really -- but really, he had thought his mp3 player would have been the end of the accusations against him, but apparently not. He didn't even have that loud of a stereo in his apartment, mostly because he and Sandra had pretty different tastes in music -- some of it overlapped, but the stuff that Matt really liked, she always side-eyed him for, and the same could be said in reverse. In a sense, it just made things easier when there was no communal music system, or else they'd probably always be fighting over it. Plus, he usually only listened to music in his room as it were, and his laptop's speakers were loud, but not deafening. Not like Mr. Dubstep down the hall. Actually, though, beyond the whole, 'I was certainly not blasting my music so everyone on the floor could hear it' thing, he was far more offended at the idea that he listened to dubstep. Seriously? Listening to dubstep would be on par with his notion of what hell must be like. "Why on earth would I go to all that trouble to try and fool you? People who listen to dubstep are proud they listen to dubstep, that's pretty inconsistent."
No sooner had he finished his sentence when the dubstep from down the hall started again, and Matt would almost laugh out of pure righteousness if it weren't for the fact that one, it was really friggin' loud, and two, it was dubstep. Instead, he nearly frowned, looking past the girl and down the hall, hoping that maybe if he glared at the door long enough, the awful music would stop. Protip: it doesn't always work. Actually, it had yet to work even once, but he would hold out hope, for sure. At the girl's talking -- or yelling, since the music was almost deafening -- he turned his attention back to her, just in time to hear her apologies. He deflated a little -- it couldn't be helped, really. At a closer glance, though, he tilted his head to the side -- she looked really familiar, or maybe it was just the weird angle since he was actually a lot taller than she was. But she did look kind of familiar, like a face he'd seen somewhere before but had no idea where. "Uhhhh...okay? I mean...I wish I could say the same but I don't know who you are. I feel like I've seen you somewhere, though,"
[/color] Matt said thoughtfully, though he hardly expected her to hear him over the noise. He sighed and stepped aside, giving her room and inviting her in. "I can't hear you over that,"[/color] Matt called, pointing down the hall to Mr. Dubstep. It'd be quieter if he could at least just shut the door.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote] |
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on May 21, 2012 18:53:28 GMT -5
Caitlyn wasn't really stupid or tactless or anything like that, at least no more than the average person was, so come to think of it she probably had no real excuse for doing dumb things like accusing people of listening to dubstep and then lying about it. Mostly, she was just irritated and sort of awful at exercising her ability to separate her thoughts from the actual things that came out of her mouth. Once she'd had a few seconds' time to think over his reasoning, though, it really did make sense. She didn't know many people who listened to dubstep, but those who did were pretty proud of the fact... and usually even enjoyed blasting it in the dead of night. Well, it wasn't actually that late yet, but it was late enough to make Cait very disgruntled when she heard loud music. This didn't make it any easier to face him, obviously, but at least the return of the obnoxious music meant that she didn't have to actually answer. She honestly couldn't hear much of what he said after that at all, except that it didn't involve her name or anything familiar, so she was pretty sure he didn't recognize her either. Well... at least she wouldn't have to feel bad about not actually remembering who he was. His stepping aside was, however, a clear invitation into the apartment, so after a moment's hesitation she entered. He didn't seem particularly scary or creepy, not the type of person who would run around stealing girls' panties and stringing them up like Christmas lights or anything ridiculous like that.
The apartments were, as expected, all built more or less the same, but it was seemed nice here, and... lived-in, which was something that couldn't be said as much for Caitlyn's. The music was even louder here than it was in her own apartment, but it was at least much calmer than it had been in the hall, and she didn't think she'd have to shout to be heard in here. (Shouting in someone else's apartment just seemed incredibly rude.) She didn't move too far into the apartment, however, though she could have probably found each room with ease based off of her own place, and instead she hovered by the doorway a little bit awkwardly. "Your next-door-neighbour is really obnoxious," she told him just to have something to say. She doubted that he would be offended, considering what he'd said himself about said neighbour just a few seconds ago. Then, however, she found that she was slightly more distracted by the fact that she was standing in what was really just a stranger's apartment. He seemed kind of familiar, but not really familiar enough to be someone she saw often. Maybe that was a little bit ridiculous considering the fact that they were neighbours. She didn't spend nearly enough time at home. "Where do I know you from...?" she asked, though she was wondering aloud to herself more than she was actually asking him. "School...? Wait... You don't attend the Academy, by any chance?" Maybe he did, though if he were in any of her classes right now or something she sort of thought that maybe she should recognize him a little better than she did.
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Jun 5, 2012 11:43:40 GMT -5
It was kind of one of those awkward moments when, the moment the girl had stepped across the threshold and into his home, Matt sort of regretted it. It was one thing to be friendly and outgoing to people, but it was another thing entirely to invite some girl who had just falsely accused you of blasting terrible music in the still of night inside, especially when he had no idea who she was. All she knew about her at this point was that she was one, incredibly short, and two, probably lived down the hall from her, and even then, that was a toss up. If she did, he found it surprising that he had never seen her before, when he's met and seen all the rest of his neighbors. He shut the door when she was inside completely, the noise automatically diminishing down to a small whine, and he sighed in relief. Regrets aside, it was all worth it just to get that awful noise to quiet down and so he didn't have to keep yelling to be heard. He was sure no one wanted their first conversation with someone to be a shouting match, and not for anything except for their surroundings being too loud. "Tell me about it," Matt sighed, padding into his apartment and gesturing for her to at least come inside and not dawdle by the front door. "I've called the landlord three times already, and I know his neighbor on the other side has too. You'd think that would stop him."
[/color] But then again, he was dealing with people who listened to dubstep voluntarily, there was very little proof of any logic (or humility) that went on there. His good host senses were kicking in, though, and he got out a glass from the kitchen cupboard, pulling the fridge open. "Would you like something to drink?"[/color] he asked, inspecting its contents. They hadn't gone grocery shopping in a while since they were going to be heading home for the winter holidays, so any food would just go bad by the time they got back, but there was the ever present milk, orange juice, and some sort of lemonade concoction Sandra had mixed together, so chances were it would be entirely too sweet. He pulled his attention away from the fridge once she mentioned the Academy, however, something sparking in his mind. "Well, I graduated high school there and go to a different college now but yeah, I did go..."[/color] Matt said, trailing off. He was starting to get an image of someone from the Academy, like his memory was finally working, but try as he might he still couldnt' remember who she was. "Did you? You weren't a Water, were you?"[/color] he asked, though he knew that she had to have been some other element, since he definitely would have remembered someone in the same element as he was. All he could hope for right now was that she wasn't some crazy Thunder or Fire -- he had no idea how to kick someone out of his apartment in what could be constituted as a nice way.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote] |
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Jun 5, 2012 15:37:44 GMT -5
Caitlyn liked to pride herself on making good decisions, and for the most part this wasn't some kind of false impression that she was misinformed on. She was a logical person, honestly, for the most part... but there were a number of outstanding circumstances. Walking into a stranger's home, invited or not, was probably one of her worse ideas over time, and she hoped that either one, he wasn't creepy or anything, or two, if he was, she would be able to get out of here quickly and would never have to see him again. Luckily for Caitlyn, nothing jumped out at her as being particularly out of place even as she hesitantly headed further into the apartment. There was a TV there but it was off, and the place was fairly neat. There was too much background noise for her liking, what with this next-door-neighbour, but the walls seemed to provide a good barrier, which was certainly a step up from the hallway. She could hear and speak normally. "Maybe if all of us complain," she said more to herself than to him, but she didn't mind once she realized that he'd heard. "I live just down the hall." She wasn't sure if that had been obvious or not, but she pointed anyway, not that he could really see anything now that they were inside.
She followed him into the kitchen, deciding that she would let him lead the way. Her first impression had been right. The apartments really were all carbon copies of one another. "Oh, no, that's okay," she declined, but she smiled, "thanks anyway though!" It seemed like poor manners somehow to accept something from someone when she didn't even know his name, even when he had offered... and even when he was a suspiciously familiar-seeming neighbour. She listened to his short explanation, still trying to figure out if she had ever seen him before, but she couldn't remember. It seemed like a very vague memory. "You did?" She gathered from his next question that he was a Water. He really did look familiar, and for some reason the Water thing clicked in her mind too, though maybe she was wrong and he had just been asking as an offhand kind of thing. It was possible. She hoped he wasn't a Fire or Thunder. Even if he no longer attended the Academy, she'd met few tolerable elementals of the other side of hte alliance. "No no, Earth," she answered. "When did you graduate?" Had they been in the same high school years? He didn't look too far off from her own age... "Oh. I'm, uh, Caitlyn Sommerlot." That was probably a good start.
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Jun 6, 2012 16:44:35 GMT -5
Matt merely shrugged when she declined his offer for a drink and merely got out the orange juice for himself, pouring a glass. He shook it a little when he was done, trying to gauge just how much was left -- by the hollow sound, probably not much. He quickly put it back into the fridge and added it to the grocery list he and Sandra kept on the fridge. Once that was done with, he turned hsi attention back to the girl and studied her somewhat carefully -- just where in the hell did he know her from? It had to be from the Academy, but other than that clue, it was all a bit hopeless. "I graduated a year ago? I'm a Water...when did you graduate?" Matt asked, though once she introduced herself, he began to roll the name around in his mind. Something about it seemed awfully familiar -- like he actually did know her, but all his mind could come up with were just random blurs of motion here and there, hair flicks and hastily called greetings and "I've got to go!"'s. Was that her, though? His memory wasn't the most reliable thing, after all...
Either way, he supposed he should introduce himself, seeing as she did so first. "Well, either way, nice to meet you, Caitlyn. I'm Matthew Chang."
[/color] He debated on whether he should hold his hand out or not, because isn't it kind of customary to shake hands when meeting someone for the first time? But then again, if they had met before, or knew each other from the past somehow, wouldn't shaking hands just be kind of awkward? What do people who've seen each other before but sort of kind of not really rekindled do when they see each other again? Probably not stand around looking awkward while awkwardly in thought. He might as well just go for it, then. "So, if you did go to the Academy, I might know you? Sort of? I know we're in the same alliance, but all I'm getting is someone who was always busy with something."[/color] Matt supplied, drinking some of his orange juice. [/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote] |
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Jun 6, 2012 21:35:20 GMT -5
Caitlyn blinked a few times. "Hey, me too!" She was kind of excited for some reason -- what a novelty it was to just... randomly run into someone like that. She was a little bit confused that they'd never actually met, but then again, he did seem familiar enough, so maybe they had been introduced at some point. She tried to remember names and faces, and thought she had a pretty good grasp on them, but... this couldn't always be the case. "Hey, so we were in the same grade for a while... I figure! Unless you failed or skipped ahead or anything," she said, giving him a thoughtful look and not really considering what she was saying. Hopefully he wouldn't be offended or anything... She had said skipped ahead too, though, and she couldn't imagine why he'd consider that a bad thing. But then again she didn't really know him very well... or at all. She smiled when he introduced himself. "It's nice to meet you too, Matthew." Matthew Chang. Matthew Chang. The name sounded familiar, but again, only vaguely. A Water named Matthew? She struggled to come up with some kind of helpful memory.
She was honestly pretty relieved that it turned out he was a Water, however. It might have been pretty awkward if he was a Fire or Thunder (though it didn't seem that either of those would fit his personality at all)... and really, if he were an Earth, she'd just be very concerned with herself for not having known him better. She'd known most if not all her Earth classmates well enough to be able to recognize them today, she was pretty sure. Between the regular old classes and then their special Earth elemental classes, it would be difficult to go through her high school career without having known all of them. But then she just laughed a tiny bit at his words. "Yeah, I think that was probably me." It might have been a little embarrassing to be remembered for that, of all things, but Caitlyn was sort of accustomed to it... Now she felt like she should know something about him too, and she searched around in her brain. She was close to giving up when it kind of hit her in the face. "Oh!" She looked at him again as if this were the very first time she'd seen him, as if she weren't standing in his kitchen right at that moment. "Matthew Chang! With the comics and the art and that really cute pink cardigan!" She hoped she was right... Otherwise this would be even more awkward.
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Jun 7, 2012 14:16:38 GMT -5
At this point, Matthew wasn't sure whether he should laugh or just shake his head. So they had gone to the Academy together, and he was right on his instincts that she was the girl most of his friends knew, but he could never really get any conversation started on account of her always running around everywhere. At least she wasn't a Water -- that would have just been pretty embarrassing, if she was in his own element and they didn't know each other at all. And the same year, no less! He couldn't help but laugh when she mentioned his cardigan, though -- for all the flak that the thing got, it was still his most favorite piece of clothing, because nothing said you were awesome like a pink leopard print cardigan, with fur around the collar. Seriously. Nothing. Speaking of, it had been a while since he wore it...he figured it wasn't effective winter wear, though, so he'd have to break it out once spring began to descend on them. "Yeah, that's me...with the comics and the art and the pink cardigan." He also couldn't even lie -- he was really pleased that someone called his cardigan 'really cute'. Most of the time, he got 'atrocious' and 'hideous', so it was a very welcome change of pace.
Now that they actually knew each other, though, things were rather easy to grasp and normal conversation could be had. Sort of. Okay, truthfully, he still felt a little awkward, but that was mostly because now, how do you go from not knowing who the hell each other were to making conversation as if you were friends, but really not and never have been? And, well, he didn't want her to feel unwelcome because he did invite her in, after all, even though she had rejected the offer for a drink and really, didn't that mean there was no obligation for her to stay? She probably wanted to get out of there. Ugh. Matt had no idea what to do, so he just said the first thing that came to mind. "I had no idea you lived down the hall, honestly. When did you move in?"
[/color] He assumed that she probably moved in after he had already been there, but then again, if she hadn't changed since high school, then it was also very likely that they just kept missing each other. Matt also didn't really concern himself with many things that went on outside of his apartment's four walls, unless they were forced within, as with the case if Dubstep Guy next door. "I feel kind of bad that I hadn't noticed you before...we could have been making stands against Dubstep Guy together!"[/color] Matt said, for it was always better to present a united front than a solitary figure in times of battle, and the battle against Dubstep Guy was, he had a feeling, far from over.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote] |
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Jun 12, 2012 21:15:39 GMT -5
The cardigan, if she remembered it correctly, had been kind of adorable -- maybe not that kind of thing she would have worn, at least not often, but she'd always kind of admired from afar when she'd spotted it around. She'd have thought that she would have pointed it out or paid him some kind of compliment or something, but Caitlyn was never predictable. "I knew that I knew you from somewhere!" she said with an air of triumph, like this had been one of priorities, to figure out who he was. It wasn't like she was doing much else in his apartment, however, so it kind of had been to some minor degree. Now she knew...or at least she knew one of his particularly distinguishing articles of clothing, and she knew that he lived down the hall from her apparently. That was more than she had known a few minutes ago, which, now that she thought about it, was a little embarrassing. He seemed like a nice guy and a potentially great ally to have in times of hardship against Dubstep Guy.
"About a year ago, actually," she answered, surprising herself. She hadn't thought that it had been quite so long, but it was kind of amazing that it was December already. "Just around New Year's... When did you move in?" She really didn't spend that much time around here, honestly, but she'd thought that she had still seen most of her neighbours around. Maybe she just didn't pay enough attention. "Planning protests against him! Passing around petitions!" She probably wasn't crazy, mean, or bored enough to actually protest outside of anyone's apartment, though. "Ever since he moved in this summer that's been pretty standard," she said, waving a hand vaguely in the direction of Dubstep Guy's apartment (easily located due to the fact that the whole wall on that side was probably shaking with the noise). Cait smiled a little sheepishly at what he said, though. "Seriously, it's okay! I'm the one who should feel bad, I thought I knew everyone around here... I don't really hang around much, though," she said as some mild explanation, deciding not to delve into the details unless he asked.
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Jun 14, 2012 12:40:33 GMT -5
To his surprise, she had apparently moved into the building far longer than he dad, and couldn't help but feel a little mystified at how they could have possibly gone so long without even speaking to each other, let alone seeing. It was simple to dismiss the fact that they hadn't spoken at all -- Matthew was usually bustling around with his schedule being crazy, and so anything that required more than a hi, how are you? just couldn't really happen. It was one thing to be outgoing, but another entirely to maintain those good relationships, and since the start of college, Matt had been dreadfully short on free time. He didn't regret it at all, but it still boggled his mind that he could be living alongside a girl he had gone to high school with for half a year already and not even realize they existed down the hall. What the hell, self? Seriously. Though, now that he really thought about it, if she really was the same person he saw running around back at the Academy, then he could at least relate, now, to the neverending struggle of a busy and packed as all hell schedule.
"I moved in around August, right before the start of the school year," Matthew replied, finishing his drink and then putting the glass in the sink to do later. He was just glad that the girl didn't end up being some sort of accusatory, paranoid freak, like he had assumed when she had first accused him of being Dubstep Guy. He was still confused why he even invited her inside the apartment, actually, but figured that if any fighting words started getting thrown around, he could at least...maybe...hopefully count on Sandra's help. Who was still in her room, blissfully unaware of their guest, and he could already hear her smug voice when -- if -- she walked out and saw him alone with a girl. It wasn't even like that. "My sister moved in a few months later, though. She still goes to the Academy, but she's graduating this year."
[/color] Matthew gestured back towards Sandra's room, where the door was closed, presumably -- he couldn't really see with his back turned to it. Frankly speaking, he could see the appeal in wanting a partner in crime against Dubstep Guy -- that guy should be a criminal. In Matthewland, he would have been fined all over the place already just by offending people's delicate eardrums. "Do you still run around everywhere all the time?"[/color] Matthew asked casually, leaning against the counter closest to him. It would certainly explain why he hadn't seen much of the girl since he moved in.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote] |
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Jun 24, 2012 23:35:21 GMT -5
The start of the school year had been January for Caitlyn, but if Matthew was now attending an outside college, then this seemed to make sense, actually. "It just seems weird not to start in January now," she said, frowning a little bit. It was all she had known since starting at the Academy, after all. "What did you do in your months off, anyway?" She assumed, at least, that he hadn't been up to anything else, schooling-wise, since both of them had graduated last year. Then again, it was always possible. For Caitlyn, it also just seemed bizarre to have more than a month off of school at a time, anyway. She looked over in the direction he indicated once he pointed at some door, not that she could really tell which door he meant considering there were several there. It wasn't really pertinent information anyways, of course, because Caitlyn had no intentions of sneaking into someone else's bedroom anyway. That would just be weird of her. "Oh, is she a Water too?" Cait might know her if that were the case, but for some reason it would probably just be sort of sad if she knew Matthew's little sister and not he himself, when they'd even been in the same grade. She tried to think of any other Changs she knew but came up with nothing.
His words made her laugh if only because they were... well, too accurate, truth be told. She really had been running all over the Academy back in high school when Matthew would have been there as well, and there was no real exception at this point... If anything, it was likely that she was even busier, now that she lived on her own and had that entire business of a job (piano students whose schedules she couldn't just push around whenever she felt like it). "I wouldn't say everywhere...but okay, yes," she admitted, smiling in an almost sheepish way. "What about you, what are you up to these days?" She hadn't really known what he'd been up to back then either, of course.
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Jun 25, 2012 12:40:24 GMT -5
Matthew laughed a little, mostly in remembrance of how utterly astonished he was when he first got notice that school started late in the summer and not the winter, like he had been so used to during his high school years. To say he was unprepared for that was a bit of an understatement, honestly. "It was really weird, but I mean...no other choice than to look forward to it, you know?" Matt said, shrugging a little. "Ah, I stayed home and got a part-time job. I knew I wanted to move back to Maple Hollow instead of being stuck at the campus, and having that bit of extra spending money in case things got real helped a whole lot, especially since I was living on my own for a little bit,"
[/color] Matthew said, recalling his rather boring job of supermarket cashier. He wasn't sure why he was telling Caitlyn his entire life story, but there was little else to do, his concentration on his sketchbook long since shot. "And yeah, she's a Water, too. Her name's Sandra? She's about a year and some months younger than I am,"[/color] Matthew told her, figuring that there was a high chance that Caitlyn had no idea who he was talking about. She didn't even remember him and they were in the same year. He probably would be offended if he hadn't realized that she was just busy all the time, it seemed. And still probably was, honestly. Even Matt had gotten increasingly busy once college started, so he could only imagine what her life must be like now, having to live on her own and juggle work and school at the same time, like he had to do now. "I imagine I do much of the same, except you'd have to throw in a job in there somewhere. I spend a lot of my time at school, though. I can't turn down having an actual studio to work in,"[/color] Matt said, though it felt like he was thinking out loud for some of that. It really was something else to be able to have floor after floor of studio space and drafting tables and easels and paints and pretty much everything else an artist would ever dream of needing, conveniently in one spot. More or less. They could be scattered throughout the building, but at least it was all the same building. "Oh,"[/color] Matt added as an afterthought, laughing a little. "I guess I sleep too, sometimes. When I can find the time to."[/color] It was a pretty lame joke, to be sure, but it sure as hell felt like he could sleep once every few days or something crazy like that. He had way too many days where it was "get home late, wake up super early," and eventually, they all started to blur together.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote] |
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Jun 26, 2012 18:01:46 GMT -5
There were times when Caitlyn regretted her decision to attend the Academy. She knew that she could have probably gone to better universities elsewhere, maybe even stayed at home, which was something she knew not many teenagers wanted to do, but it was slightly different. After high school, she'd already spent four years away from home. It might have been nice to move back permanently... or perhaps even go to see some other part of Canada. She would have missed the Academy too much, though, and there was so much she had to do in Maple Hollow. If nothing else, she wouldn't be having a conversation with a neighbour she'd just officially met in his kitchen. Caitlyn nodded in sympathy with what he said. Hell, she was still here on her own. "Is the commute too bad for... wherever you go?" she asked. Hers wasn't too awful to get from home to the Academy, but she didn't know what Matthew was doing now. "Oh... Hm, no, I probably don't know her." Then again, she hadn't even remembered Matthew. Caitlyn had at least vaguely remembered him on sight.
"Studio...? Oh, are you studying art now?" she asked, sounding eager. It was nice to see people doing things they enjoyed, she supposed, and Matthew probably not only enjoyed what he did, but was good at it too. That would make sense, considering that it was one of the things she remembered best about him from high school. But she laughed at his joke about sleeping. "Sleep? Never heard of it," she said, putting on a blank face and blinking a few times as if actually lost. Caitlyn did know what sleeping was, of course. It was that thing that she should probably do more often but rarely got the chance to. Even after getting home from running around all day, there was homework and, er, making sure she at least ate once or twice a day. "Seriously though... Life of a college student or something, I guess."
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