Michelle finishes her walk/run with Virgil and then hastens back to her dorm to prepare dinner for her and Virgil.
After dinner she is still doubting about her choice of her own art to bring in for lab. Frustrated by her own indecision, she takes her three sketches down the streets towards her father's home.
"Dad! Nan! It's me!"
Michelle's grandma immediately comes up to her from the livingroom area and shouts: "¡Dios mío! Michelle, qué bueno verte. Pareces un poco pálido. ¿Todo bien? ¿No has comido todavía?"
"Relax nan, I've already eaten. Is dad at home?"
Mariana shakes her head. "He is working late he said. I've made spicy corn soup though."
"That does sound good." Michelle says before smelling a waft of freshly homemade soup. "Actually I've come to ask your opinion about these sketches of mine. They're all great, but something feels off, I'm not sure which one I should pick for lab."
Michelle's grandma, puts on her glasses and looks at the sketches her granddaughter made.
GM, I guess this might be up to you if she sees anything on there.
Michelle glances at the gathering of men around her and then slowly tightens her hold on Virgil's leash.
"Thank you for the offer though, but I still have some dinner preparations to do for me and Virgil. And I'm not one to go out for dinner with people I hardly know. See you around."
Michelle quickly walks in the direction where Diana and Summer went off to. "Come on Virgil! We've been idle for far too long haven't we?"
Not to burst anyone's bubbles, but I don't see Michelle hitching along with people she hardly knows. Maybe after a couple of meetings.
"All classes? That's quite something. I would have thought mostly people from the arts had gotten off to visit the exhibition. That makes the most sense at least."
I could have easily been mistaken about that. So I may not have seen Diana around campus, but perhaps I've seen her around the dorms then.
Either me as a player is mistaken, or actually Michelle herself has been mistaken where she has seen Diana before. Both options work for me though. Michelle doesn't have an Eidetic Memory.
"It is.", Michelle says, offering a warm smile to Diana before shaking her hand.
"It is also a pleasure to meet you Diana. Will you be attending the Gallery tomorrow as well? I heard Ricky's section is hosted by another local artist, quite the legend actually, Jonah Vane."
Michelle looks over her shoulder as well and nods to Diana. "Yes, I'll be here tomorrow as well. Ricky was a good friend of mine."
Michelle exhales audibly as if to suppress painful emotions.
"He did mention him being involved with some game designers. He always had a lot of interest for different cultures and different worlds. I'm not surprised at all he liked to work with you. I uhm.. didn't quite catch your name."
Michelle looks up at Diana after she took the leash back and smiles.
"Mainly the poet who wrote the Aeneid, though my father thinks of him as the character from the tv-series. He's quite harmless though, though a little energetic."
Michelle looks strictly at Virgil and the dog shirks back towards her side and sits down.
"I've seen you and your friend around before on campus. Never had the pleasure to get to know you. I'm Michelle Arguiz, art student here. What is your expertise?"
"Nice to meet you Clara, I'll remember your name for future exhibits. The teachers here are nice, a little too much focus on painting maybe, but other than that they're okay. I'll keep enjoying painting, but my true love of art lies within drawings and sketches."
Michelle looks around and sees the group gathering near her and Clara.
Who are they all? I recognise the two girls as students here, but I can't say I know them that well. Same goes for that man with the dreadlocks. Isn't he a professor?
Michelle looks back to Clara after her momentary distraction.
"You're right about the installation though. Usually they take more care in timing these things right. What kind of art will you be displaying? Paintings? Sculptures? Drawings?"
Michelle glances to the increasingly larger group and Virgil seems to tug on her arm as well. He seems to like the commotion.
Seems like a lot of interest for the gallery. I wonder if that is because of Ricky.
Suddenly Virgil breaks loose from her grasp and energetically sprints towards the collected company. After making a few rounds around the group he lies down and waits to be patted.
"Virgil! I'm sorry Clara, he's quite the ball of energy sometimes. Nice talking to you, I'll see you tomorrow."
Michelle hastens towards the group and quickly grabs Virgil's leash again.
"I'm terribly sorry about Virgil breaking into your conversation. He likes crowds and large groups for some reason."
Michelle her looks are definitely Latin-American, her long black hair often hangs in a large braid from her shoulders. She's got dark-brown eyes with a hint of green in them and at the moment she wears a red sweater vest and sweatpants. Though seemingly common at the moment, there is something quite intriguing about her.
Michelle comes jogging behind Virgil as he pulls her along. But when they get to the gallery iself she digs in her heels and makes Virgil halt in his tracks.
"Good boy Virgil. Now we can take it easy for a moment."
Michelle looks around and sees the truck and works being unloaded from it.
Guess those are for the exhibit. Then she must be one of the artists. Never seen her before though, perhaps an introduction is in order, if she knows Ricky then she couldn't be all that bad.
After walking Virgil towards the truck, Michelle greets the woman excitedly standing near the truck.
"Hi! Nice afternoon isn't it? I reckon you're one of the artists on display in the Gallery tomorrow evening. I can't wait to see your work. I'm Michelle by the way, one of the local art students. Did you know Ricky Thompson well?"
Is a Presence + Socialize in order? If so. Prsence + Socialize:5d10 ⇒ (10, 4, 9, 7, 9) = 393 successes Reroll 10:1d10 ⇒ 5
Michelle waves Nathan goodbye. "See you later Nathan. Good luck on your sketches!" "Now where we Virgil? O yeah that's right, we would go for a short run. But hwere to?"
Virgil looks at her with his head askew, then looking back to Nathan who just rounds a corner. Then he looks up again.
"Oh I know, why don't we go see if there's any posters or some things to see already at the gallery? Afterwards we'll have dinner. Come on Virgil!"
Michelle sprints away, ahead of Virgil. Virgil is quick to give chase, happily barking alongside of Michelle. Just another day in her life, maybe...
Michelle nods smilingly at nathan as he asks if he can pet Virgil.
"Working in graphite makes your work all the more special Nathan. It takes time to perfect it. I'm sure you'll get the perfect balance eventually."
Michelle shrugs as Nathan's trying to evade mentioning Ricky's disppearance. "Don't feel the need to bloom things Nathan." She says, while pushing back her hair a bit.
"I'm going mostly for the new art, but I'm also a little bit intrigued what kind of thing they have about Ricky. If it's not your thing then you shouldn't go."
Michelle bends down to pet Virgil again, ready to go for the brisk walk and run with him.
"I'll be sure to send you a text if the other art next to the special exhibition is worthwhile. We could go to the Gallery another day together then. Any plans for today Nathan?"
When Michelle walks out the building with Virgil, she almost bumps into another classmate of hers as she tries to get Virgil to sit down and put on his leash.
"Oh Nathan! Sorry for that. Virgil is always difficult to handle when he just gets outside. How are your sketches of the parks and statues coming along? You also going to the Stroehmann Gallery tomorrow evening?"
Before Nathan could answer, Michelle looks at Virgil and with a forceful tone says: "Sit Virgil!"
Virgil holds his head a bit askew, then after a moment sits down and Michelle puts on his leash.
Then looks up at Nathan with a bright smile. "Where were we?"
An exhibit with a special sort of memorial for Ricky? I guess I should've seen this coming.
Michelle sighs deeply, inaudible to anyone but her and her collie Virgil. Virgil immediately looks up to see what's the matter, but then drops its head again as Michelle sits down at her desk.
It's been such a long time. I had always hoped he would turn up again, sometime, somewhere. But I guess his parents have given up hope of him turning up alive at least. Whatever happened to you Ricky?
Michelle jots down pencil stripes without even noticing she does so, a quirk she has developed over the years. Somewhere her mind and hand drift to a scene about 3 years ago. The smiling face of Ricky after he came by for dinner and her grandma, Mariana Gabriela, making insinuations in Spanish about the two of them. Even though Ricky didn't understand Spanish, Michelle's red face and bothered look was enough. They were eating an old-fashioned chili that night.
Even though there was nothing between Michelle and Ricky, he still felt like family to her, her grandma and her father, Mateo Diego Arguiz. Something about that night felt home. Safe. She looked up from her daydream and looked at the little sketch she made. Four people chatting at a table, one smiling like an idiot, another smirking.
She looked up at her drawings and wondered what felt off about them. Something didn't feel... normal?
Perhaps another sketch could work? No there's no time really, to make a piece that good.
She looked at the time: 3.45 PM.
Certainly not enough time, well I'll think about it when taking Virgil for a walk.
"Come on boy! Come on Virgil! We're going for a walk, then I'll take care of dinner for us both."
Virgil barked and jumped up, already searching Michelle's slightly cramped room for the leash.
Michelle changed into jogging pants and put on her running shoes.
"Hopefully I can keep up with you this time."
She walked to the door of her room and opened it, letting Virgil go outside first running down the hall. He would come back as soon as he noticed she wasn't there yet. Then she locked the door behind her.
Hmm, well I imagined Michelle not to be that strong, but perhaps she's also not as dextrous as I imagined. I'd rather have her as a regular person, so maybe shifting the Dexterity into Strength would make more sense.
I looked into the specialties for Expression and found Art not in there. In that case I went for the other specialty that made sense and took Art in Academics.
As for my two dots in Occult, I reckon Michelle's grandma has taught her a thing or two. It explains at least the Tarot specialty. If Occult is too high, I could take a 3rd point in crafts if that's okay. Her father is a carpenter, so that might explain that she's more handy than most besides her usual drawings. If not, where would you recommend I put the extra point in?
Animal Ken is indeed quite high is 2 dots is already basic professional level. I imagined her having a dog so at least 1 point into it. Maybe the other is well put into Streetwise. I don't think Michelle will ever try to Intimidate or use Subterfuge quickly. Hey that makes for a better Virtue: Honest.
I'll put my Aspirations and Backstory in it right away.
Same with Michelle there James. Just for future RP purposes, does your book have illustrations on the front? If so, are you more interested in using local artists to do that?
Thanks for inviting us all Loup. I've been thinking more about Michelle's story and mechanics as well. More on that later.
I imagine Michelle as mostly a sketch artist, she can paint as she's been a student for about 3 years now at Romney State, but prefers charcoal and pencil drawings. She draws mostly portrets and scenes she comes across, as well as making face portrets on commission.
I'm also thinking she might have gotten a dog to feel safer as she crosses the streets late at night. Especially now she has had the dreams about the chupacabra again. Maybe a small shepherd dog/collie.
