The City - A Collaborative Writing Project

For completed/abandoned Mish Mash Games.
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Haschel Cedricson
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The City - A Collaborative Writing Project

Post Post #0 (ISO) » Sat Jul 07, 2018 1:50 pm

Post by Haschel Cedricson »

A few decades ago I participated ina project like this on my very first home website. Despite not being a good author or creative person at all, I thought that it might be fun to introduce it here. So hopefully you all enjoy this!

Basically we are going to write an anthology of short stories. Each story will be from the perspective of a different character. Furthermore, the character you write about must be a character from somebody else's story. Eventually we will have a city populated by individual citizens, each of whom intertwines in some way with the others.

Here are some basic rules for writing:

1. Stay inside the city. Do not wander outside of the city or drift the story outside of it, rural areas included.
2. Take at least one character out of the previous stories and implement into your story. Make the story revolve around this character. This seems limiting now, but actually it will challenge you to be more diverse in your writing.
3. Animals are welcome. Write about any imaginary city pets.
4. PM other authors if needed to help you understand what elements might be best to take and what may not.
5. Here's the tricky part. Chronology. The stories must be in synch with each other so the time period will be present time and the season is spring. Also, I want everything to go in order and I want more people to draw from the previous author then the first story written, so I will let you know if you should wait for a little bit and then start writing. Believe me. it will be worth it.
6. Please notify me FIRST before you even start writing. PM me to reserve a character. I know who is writing what, so we won't get the stories entangled and details mixed-up. I can tell you what character has not been written about and where you can take off from.
7. You can choose any character you want as long as they are mentioned in a previous story. These can be named characters, referenced characters, or even generic characters. If you want to write about the unnamed bartender and give him a story that's perfectly fine.
8. The city does not have a name. This could be any city. Your city.

That's pretty much it.

CHARACTERS CLAIMED

Sam has been claimed by Errantparabola
Genevieve has been claimed by Irrelephant11
Mark has been claimed by Inferno390

STORIES SO FAR

Tilt
with Andrew, written by Haschel Cedricson
Extracurricular Activities
with Helen, written by StrangerCoug
Next Game On Me
with Hailee, written by Chickadee
Inbox
with Professor Moser, written by Xalxe
Last edited by Haschel Cedricson on Thu Jul 26, 2018 2:39 pm, edited 14 times in total.
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Post Post #1 (ISO) » Sat Jul 07, 2018 1:51 pm

Post by Haschel Cedricson »

Tilt


The sound of children laughing and playing echoed throughout Riverfront Park. Joggers and cyclists crossed up and down the paths while a man fired up a grill under an oak tree. A Frisbee soared overhead.

Andrew noticed none of it.

Recreation was the furthest thing from his mind as he continued on his way home from class. After three years of making the Dean’s List he was on the verge of failing his first college course ever. Subjects like computer science or physics came as naturally to him as European history didn’t, and struggling to get a passing grade in a class was a new experience for Andrew. It was not an experience he was enjoying.

“Hey! Hey mister!”

A voice snapped Andrew out of his thoughts.

“Can you throw our ball back?”

Andrew looked at the boy. He was eight, maybe nine years old. The boy gestured towards a baseball resting in the grass on the other side of the path.

Andrew bent down and with an underhand lob returned the ball to the kid. “Gee, thanks Mist-”

If there was more, Andrew didn’t pay attention. He had no time for games, nor even things tangentially related to games. He had to work on his group project for Professor Moser’s class soon or everything would be over.

A look of disdain flashed across his face.
A group project. Like we’re a bunch of fifth-graders.
He had hoped he would at least get assigned a competent group and for a while it looked like his wish was granted. Helen had a brilliant mind for history and quickly established herself as the leader. Andrew quickly discovered that Helen wasn’t leadership material, especially not for something as important as this group project had became. She all but refused to allow the group to meet on weekends.

“Come on, Andy,” she would say with a laugh. “We sit through Moser’s boring lectures five days a week. The weekends should be MY time!”

Apparently Thursday afternoon was also Helen’s time because she’d skipped the study session at Ackerman Library yet again, and Andrew was not happy about it.

“Of course she doesn’t care. She’ll pass the class no matter how bad we do. It’s not her problem if she drags the rest of us down with her,” he thought to himself.

Exiting the park, Andrew walked the last few blocks to his apartment building. It wasn’t particularly nice, but it was his first home away from his parents so he liked it. The rent wasn’t bad, either, as long as there were roommates to help share the load. He fervently hoped his roommates were out so he could actually get some work done. Turning the key to the apartment, he opened the door and walked in.

A huge bear of a man looked up from the couch. “Woah, Andy, we weren’t expecting you back so soon! Strike out again with that Helen chick?”

Dammit.


“Fuck off, Brandon,” Andrew replied. “It wasn’t a date, it was a study session.”

Brandon sat up straight. “Oh, I bet it was. You wish you were studying anatomy, don’t you, Andy?” Brandon punctuated his remark with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Andrew’s hand reached for the nearest item on the table. Seconds later Brandon’s keys went flying through the air, hitting Brandon square in the side of the head.

“Geez, fine, I don’t care about your ‘date’ anyway. Got more important things to do tonight. Steven and I are having some friends over later. Things might get loud. Hope you don’t mind, Andy.”

Dammit.


“Uh, no. Whatever. I’ll just do my studying beforehand. When are they getting here?

Brandon checked his phone. “Thirty minutes or so.”

Dammit.


“Oh, if you’re hungry we have some of that chicken crap Steven cooked last night in the fridge. I know it’s my turn to cook but I don’t feel like it.”

Without a word, Andrew turned back to the front door and grabbed his jacket.

“Woah, where are you going? You’re going to miss the party,” said Brandon.

Andrew paused. “I don’t know. Out. Somewhere.”

He drew a breath. “I need to be somewhere that isn’t here.”

With that, he left Brandon in the apartment and descended to the street below.

***

“You know what? I think I’ll have one more,” said Andrew.

“I don’t think I can do that, sir,” the bartender replied. “Why don’t you slow it down a bit?”

Andrew laughed. “Ha. Slow down. Good one. Believe me, I wish I could slow everything down.”

The bartender grabbed the four empty pint glasses from in front of Andrew and moved them behind the bar. “If you need a ride home just let me know and I’ll call a cab or an Uber.” With that, the bartender moved on to the next patron.

This was stupid. Andrew knew it. There were literally thousands of places in the city that would be better for him right now. But as he looked around the dimly-lit bar he found it hard to care. He was going to fail. He had always been going to fail. What was the point of pretending otherwise?

A woman across the room caught his eye. She giggled as she rummaged through her purse and pulled out a handful of coins. Handing her purse to her friend across the table, she got up out of the booth. She looked happy. Content.

Free.

She glided to the back of the room where the bar had a few arcade games. Next to an old beat-up Ms. Pacman machine was a pinball table. The woman dropped two quarters in.

Andrew checked his phone. 8:47 PM. It wasn’t too late for him. There was still time to do work. There was still time to sober up. All his life he had prided himself on performing under pressure. Giving up wasn’t right. It wasn’t him.

So why did he find himself walking away from the front door and towards the pinball machine?

Andrew put two quarters on the edge of the pinball table. “Can I have next?” he asked.

The woman brushed her auburn hair out of her face and gave a wry grin. “Sure. But I’m very good at this table. You may be waiting a while.”

The table rumbled as a plastic castle shook. “MULTIBALL!” flashed across the display as the woman renewed her focus on the game.

Andrew looked at the pinball machine. The title “Medieval Madness” loomed over him. Suddenly everything felt right.

“Not a problem,” Andrew answered. “I have nowhere else to be.”
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Post Post #2 (ISO) » Sun Jul 08, 2018 3:51 pm

Post by StrangerCoug »

Extracurricular Activities


It was Prof. Moser’s European history class at the college. He was about to explain the midterm project for the class. A laundry list of topics about the Middle Ages were projected onto the lecture hall’s screen, and each group of four, which he had already determined at random, had to select one and give a 10-minute presentation on it. The project was due three weeks from now. Other than that, it was fairly standard college writing fare: cite your sources, use proper spelling and grammar, that kind of drivel.

Prof. Moser started naming who was assigned to each group in a dry voice. “Group 1: Genevieve, Mark, Jared, and Ashley. Group 2: Helen, Millie, Sam, and Andrew.”

Helen was not sure how to react to her assigned group members being who they were. On the one hand, she was quite happy to get Millie, her best friend forever. Any time Helen wanted a girls’ night out, she brought Millie along.

Sam was an OK guy, Helen thought. An intelligent guy who was always good for homework help, if at the price of dating potential. Helen saw Sam as nerdy, and nerds weren’t Helen’s thing. He could also be a little less uptight. Overall, though, Helen liked Sam.

Helen’s mood was dampened, however, by also being grouped with her ex. Andrew was something of a flirt, but not a classy one, Helen thought. He was more of a creep when he was drunk, propositioning what seemed like every girl for sex. He was an embarrassment, and she was glad to be rid of him, especially after he barfed in her car and she had to clean up after him. Rid of him, that is, until now.

“Group 3,” Prof. Moser continued, but after that Helen wasn’t paying attention until he was done giving out the groups, eight in all.

“Get into your groups and discuss which topic you’d like to present. I will call each group toward the end of class and ask which topic you have chosen.”

As Helen united herself with her friend, her enemy, and her helper, she looked through the topics to be chosen about. Two stood out to her, and she was torn between them. She asked her groupmates about which one they’d rather write about.

“I’m thinking either St. George’s Night Uprising or Wat Tyler’s Rebellion,” Helen said. “What do the rest of you think?”

“I’d rather do St. George’s Night Uprising,” Millie replied. “That or one of the Crusades.”

“I don’t want to present about the Crusades,” Sam complained. “One of the other two is fine by me.”

“I’m fine with whatever,” Andrew said apathetically. He had to write about something, after all.

“I think we’re semi-agreed on St. George’s Night Uprising?” Helen asked.

“Pretty much,” Sam replied.

The other two just nodded.

A few minutes later, Prof. Moser spoke up. “OK, class. Would anybody like to pick a topic first?”

Helen rose her hand almost immediately.

“Yes, Helen?” Prof. Moser acknowledged.

“We’d like to do St. George’s Night Uprising.”

“St. George’s Night Uprising for group 2,” Prof. Moser said, updating it on his slide. “Anybody else? …Dave?”

“Wat Tyler’s Rebellion,” Dave responded.

“Group 5, Wat Tyler’s Rebellion.”

Dave was Helen’s crush for the past couple of weeks, and his group had gotten the other topic Helen was thinking about. This would be fun, Helen thought. Besides that, however, group 2 wasn’t paying attention to Prof. Moser anymore.

“So,” Helen said, “when should we meet for studying?”

“The weekends sometime?” Andrew suggested.

Helen shot him down with a laugh before he could even offer a location. “Come on, Andy. We sit through Moser’s boring lectures five days a week. The weekends should be MY time!”

“Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:00?” Millie offered instead. “Ackerman Library?”

“Good by me,” Sam agreed.

Andrew offered only an apathetic “Whatever.”

“So it is,” Helen said. “Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:00 at Ackerman Library.”

At that point Prof. Moser dismissed the class for the day. Sam had a class immediately after, but Millie was free for the next hour and a half.

“Hey, Millie, where do you want to get lunch?” Helen asked as they were on their way to her car.

“I feel the most like taquitos right now,” Millie said. “José’s Mexican Restaurant?”

“Sure!”

Once they were in the car, Helen started it up. If you wanted to beat the crowd to José’s Mexican Restaurant at lunchtime, then you didn’t take the highway—you stayed on the side streets. Those were never the bottlenecks the highway was, though sometimes you had to wait a bit at traffic lights. Helen knew that secret.

As Helen pulled into the restaurant, she got a call. It was Dave! What a pleasant surprise!

***

Helen had arrived at Dave’s studio apartment. It was Thursday, 4:07 PM. Both had had their last classes of the day. She had gone to the study session on Tuesday, but really to assign parts—it was a research project, after all, and everybody had everybody else’s number. What’s a missed study session if she can still get the same work done another time? It wasn’t urgent.

“So what do you think of my apartment?” Dave asked.

“It’s small,” Helen replied, “but I like it. Beats Andy’s trashed, noisy apartment any day of the week.”

Dave chuckled. “Not above dissing your ex, are you, Helen?” he asked cheekily.

“That drunk? Of course I’m not!” jeered Helen.

“So, what do you want to do?” asked Dave. “I have a bunch of movies, a PlayStation… Not many people come here for cards, but that, too…”

“I’d like to get to know you better,” Helen answered with a wink. She sat next to Dave, happily letting herself into his personal space as if it didn’t exist, and she put her hand on his shoulder.

Dave blushed, not sure how to react to what he saw as sexual attention from her. He was open and looking, and he thought Helen was pretty, but a girl taking this much interest in him was a new experience to him.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… OK, what do you mean ‘get to know me better?’ Do you want to…”

Dave was interrupted by the sound of Helen’s phone receiving a text. It was Andrew, clearly angry.

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?” the text from Andrew read. “YOU’RE TEN MINUTES LATE!”

“Let’s not answer him,” Helen told Dave. “I’ve got a better idea of what to do with our time.”
STRANGERCOUG: Stranger Than You!

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Post Post #3 (ISO) » Tue Jul 10, 2018 10:36 am

Post by Chickadee »

Next Game on Me ~


Hailee looked up from the pinball machine. She hadn’t noticed Andrew until he said something. She was happy for the attention though, and it made her smile. She hadn’t planned on meeting anyone tonight.

“Can I have next?” he asked.

Hailee looked up to meet Andrew’s eyes, he was a bit taller than her, but that wasn’t a rare occurrence. Most people were. “Sure. But I’m very good at this table. You may be waiting a while.” she grinned. She shifted her focus back to the table, but couldn’t shake the grin on her face. He bracelets rattled loosely on her wrist as she hit the buttons in perfect time.

“My name is Andrew by the way” he tried to sound smooth.

“Hailee”

“Most people wouldn’t notice, but the front left leg of the machine is a bit shorter, so the table tilts,” she said without looking up, tracing the path of the ball with her eyes.

“You must play this a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before though.” Andrew said, leaning against the wall next to the machine.

“I’m in here quite a bit. My friend and I,” she motioned to the woman at the table a few feet away with a sketchbook, “are waitresses next door. We like to come here after our shift sometimes.”

“I feel like I would have noticed you.”

That comment knocked her focus, and the ball slipped through the gates. Lights flared and the machine let out a familiar
whomp whomp whomp
of beeps. She let out a joking sigh and stepped aside, gesturing for Andrew to step up. She could tell he’d had a few to drink, and thought he might not last long anyway.

“I’ll be right back” she said brushing her hair behind her ear and smiling as she turned and headed back to her friend.
____

“Cute or nah?” Hailee asked nodding toward Andrew.

Sam snapped her sketchbook shut. She’d been drawing Hailee and Andrew. She pushed her glasses up on her nose and looked back over to Andrew. “Yea”

Hailee smiled and headed back to the pinball machine.
____

As Hailee walked up, the machine once again let out the familiar
whomp whomp whomp
of failure.

“Wow that didn’t take long at all” she joked. She leaned against the machine, with her elbow up on the table and her fingers laced in front of her. “Do you want to get out of here?”

A smirk spread across Andrews lips. “You read my mind.”

Hailee collected her purse from Sam, and headed out the door, followed by Andrew.

“Follow me” she smiled and headed off down the street. Andrew caught up to her without putting much thought into it.

The night was calm outside of the bar. The stars were coming out, and there was a slight breeze. It was almost chilly. Hailee turned down a street headed for the park. She liked to sit in the park late at night sometimes, watching the moon reflect off the lake. She usually came alone, but she was glad to have company from time to time. She headed straight for her favorite spot, a big square bench atop of a grassy knoll next to the lake. She laid flat across the bench and patted the spot next to her for Andrew to lay down as well.

“I didn’t think we’d end up in the park” Andrew commented, laying down on the bench, unsure how to get comfortable on the concrete slab.

“I like to keep people on their toes.”

Hailee crossed her arms over her body and played with the beads on her bracelet with one hand.

“Tell me about yourself Andrew.”

Andrew didn’t know what to say. “Well, I live with a few roommates, and I’m in school at the moment…” Andrew trailed off.

After a while of stargazing in silence, Hailee pulled a piece of paper out of her purse and scribbled something on it. She handed it to Andrew. He propped himself up on his elbows without looking at it. “What’s this?”

“It’s getting late. I’ll see you around, I’m sure.”
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Post Post #4 (ISO) » Tue Jul 10, 2018 10:38 am

Post by Chickadee »

Spoiler: I also wrote an intensive backstory about Hailee if anyone is interested
Previously established:
Pinball Lady - Haschel’s story
Auburn hair
Meets Andy in a bar while she’s playing pinball - is there with her friend

Character development:
Hailee Whitehall
24 years old
Likes: pinball, drawing, stargazing, and horror novels
Dislikes: turtle necks, texting,
A large scar on the right lower leg received due to an accident with a large bird.

Courteous: Sometimes
Risk-Taking: Often
Ambitious: Occasionally
Curious: Often
Self-Controlled: Generally
Nurturing: Sometimes
Romantic: Never
Flirty: Often
Sympathetic: Generally
Altruistic: Generally
Optimistic: Often
Observant: Sometimes
Logical: Sometimes
Social: Usually outgoing
Emotions: Very unstable
Trusting: Often
Honest: Sometimes
Loyal: Often
Affectionate: Occasionally

Skin: Fair
Hair: Long, slightly wavy, auburn
Eyes: Green, average-sized
Height: 5’5
Weight: Slim
Build: Narrow

Fond of vivid warm colors and is fond of a flirty look. Your character also loves jewelry. Doesn’t wear a lot of makeup

gets annoyed when things are too tidy.
is prone to loss of appetite when stressed.
Instagram: BoneSpellArts

"Yo I'm so good at anime girls" - pj
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Post Post #5 (ISO) » Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:20 am

Post by Xalxe »

Inbox


From: Amazon.com [shipment-tracking@amazon.com]

Your Amazon.com order has shipped
Hello Brian,
Your order #1834-8938927-4438 of “Codenames” has shipped. Below are the shipping details.


From: Genevieve Ana Santiago-Kim [gas19@mail.univ.edu]

Office Hours
Hi Professor,
I know you said recently that you’d changed your office hours, but I couldn’t find the new ones in my notes. Are they online somewhere?

To: Genevieve Ana Santiago-Kim [gas19@mail.univ.edu]

RE: Office Hours
Hi Genevieve,
My office hours are Tuesdays and Fridays from 1-4pm. I’m also available right after our class on Thursdays if you have a quick question.

From: Thomas Marcello [tlm22@mail.univ.edu]

Extension?
Hey Prof,
I know the essay on colonialism is due on Monday but my boss just scheduled me for, like, 28 hours this weekend, and he’s sort of a hardass, plus he’s already tweaked cause last week I had to call out to finish the calc assignment, which was total bullshit, but whatever. Any chance I could get it to you by Wednesday? Thanks.

To: Thomas Marcello [tlm22@mail.univ.edu]

RE: Extension
Thomas,
As I believe I explained to you earlier this semester, my extension policy is outlined in the syllabus. In short, per university protocol, extensions are only offered in extreme circumstances, such as documented severe illness or death of a close family member. I will not be able to offer an extension at this time.

Best of luck,
Prof. John Moses



Because You Purchased “The Merry Spinster”
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John, based on your recent purchase of
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our team of experts hand selected a few recommendations just for you. Check out your personalized picks below, or find something great at your local B&N store or on BN.com.

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...

From: Keith Moses [ka1977@gmail.com]

Dinner?
Hey babe,
Did you want to grab dinner tonight? Barb and I were talking about that new place on High Street you mentioned last week, the Italian street food? She said it was pretty good. You know when I’m off, let me know. Love you!

PS: Season 2 of Nailed It! is on Netflix! We can start watching after we get done nailing something else ;)

From: Millicent Beauregard [mjb4@mail.univ.edu]

Middle Ages Group Project
Hi Professor,
So, I really didn’t want to bother you with this initially, but I sort of feel like I have to say something? I dunno, maybe this isn’t important, but we’re sort of having some friction in the group.

See, Andrew and Helen used to date for a while, and they don’t anymore, thank goodness, because they weren’t working at all. But things didn’t end great and Helen’s one of my best friends and I know having to work with Andrew is driving her crazy, and she’s started blowing off the group work. I don’t want her to get in trouble, and she’ll kill me if she knows I said anything, but is there any chance that you can do something? Like, switch Andrew to a different group or something?

From: Jared Evans [jwe2@mail.univ.edu]

Your Office Tonight?
Hey John,
So, I know that lecture today on the plague was really important, but honestly, I don’t think I got most of the notes, something was just…so distracting at the front of the room. Any chance I can come by your office and get some help again? I know if I work long and hard at it, I can give you what you want…

To: Jared Evans [jwe2@mail.univ.edu]

RE: Your Office Tonight
5:30. Everyone should be gone by then.

To: Keith Moses [ka1977@gmail.com]

RE: Dinner?
Hey love,
I’d love to, but something’s come up, I gotta stay late tonight. Should be home by 7. Sorry, I know your professor husband isn’t supposed to have to do that!

Lots of love,
John
"I, too, would prefer to know the Xalxe of my demise." - Felissan, 2022
- On this day in history: mundanity, and terror, and food, and love, and trees -
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