danielmndoza

[danielmndoza]

get to know you meme

What is your full name?

Where and when were you born?

Who are/were your parents? (Know their names, occupations, personalities, etc.)

Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?

Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people.

What is your occupation?

To which social class do you belong?

Do you have any allergies?

What is your favorite color?

What is your favorite food?

(rest of the meme continued HERE.)

[danielmndoza]

"Tell me about it. I haven't had one in a while. Too bad. I was starting to think I'd been cured," he sighed, curiously peering at her bag when the phone continued to ring. "No. I guess I should put on some easy listening or something over the sound system, it might actually help. Other than that, I'm stuck. Had someone no-call no-show today so it looks like I'll be here a while to cover for them." He wasn't sure why he was rambling so much. Something about her coolness was having the opposite effect on him, rattling him.

"Oh, migraines are killer," Nancy drawled, still flipping through the gossip rag of a magazine she'd swiped before getting into the mile-long checkout line. It was indeed her phone going off, chiming wildly in her purse, but she didn't make a move to answer or silence it. "Bet the fluorescents aren't helping, either."

[danielmndoza]

"Oh, damn. You're right. Guess I just wanted an excuse to talk to you," he teased, scrunching his face at her in a look to let her know he was teasing. "I'm being completely serious and I need you to know that I am when I reference this, but that reminds me of that one episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Remember? The Halloween one? Where the haunted room smells like pizza. That's probably a best-case scenario of smells to be haunted by. – Sunny." He tilted his head. "You can't just go around hexing everyone who gives me a bad time. Unless. You can't, like, magic them into being quieter. Can you?"

" speaking of hearing things that aren't there, did you know people in new york city still to this day report hearing sounds of ringing and and smells lingering from 9/11? it's almost like it lives on like a ghost. i could hex your roommates if you want me to. "

[danielmndoza]

"Nah, no worries. I wouldn't usually say anything but the lack of sleep is definitely making me lose my filter," he said apologetically. "Hopefully it wasn't too important. It doesn't happen so much anymore but I used to always have to answer my phone in the middle of stuff. If you need a quiet place to call them back we do have a back area that's kind of sectioned off. Nothing much there but the POP figures and other collectables. – Yeah, exactly. Still though. I promise I'm not usually this cranky."

“Oh, shit. I didn’t even realize that was mine,” he dug out his phone from his back pocket. Unknown number but he recognized the area code as one back home. He quickly silenced the call and pocketed it again. "I just changed the ringtone and I’m still used to the old one. Sorry about that, though. It only takes a little to turn a migraine from bad to excruciatingly painful.”

[danielmndoza]

His brows had raised a bit upon recognizing the song, but he decided to do the polite thing and pretend not to notice. And he soon felt he'd made the right call when witnessing her reaction and the continued buzzing. "Oh, no. It's okay, I just thought maybe it might be important."

Danny waited for a moment, not wanting to fluster the poor girl further, but after she spoke up again he relaxed his shoulders, taking on a soothing tone. "Hey. It's alright. Really. Take a second if you need to. You can tell me to mind my business if you want to, but are you okay?"

"—what? Oh I..." Dakota's attention shot from her wallet that she swore she had a crisp folded up twenty in to her phone she'd sat down on the counter, on vibrate because The Boyfriend's ring tone of choice (Hinder's Lips of an Angel) was embarrassing enough and given how much he called well...Dakota was at a boiling point today. Ignoring the phone, as text buzzes started to filter in, she grimaced placing a hand over the phone, the counter though buzzing even louder it seemed she quickly shoved it in her jean pocket, cheeks flushing, "Sorry, hopefully you can't hear that now, it's not likely it'll stop." Sympathetic to his migraine, she flushed again when she couldn't find the bill she was looking for. "Shit—sorry, I know I have it here, just what you need more headache..."

[danielmndoza]

"Nah, don't worry about it, it could be worse. You could have a really embarrassing ringtone on max volume and I could be singing along to it and make things super awkward." He smiled. "Actually? Caffeine isn't a half bad idea. Pretty sure there's a coffee stand right down the road, feel like grabbing some with me?"

"Shit. Sorry." She hadn't even noticed her phone was going off. Typically, parents were instructed to call or text her at specific hours of the day, but that didn't mean they listen. "Do you need Tylenol or some caffeine?" Lavender asked. Her brow bent stiffly at her friend.

[danielmndoza]

"Now, Lu. What kind of man would I be if I just ran around smashing things willy nilly? This toxic masculinity you're encouraging in me is honestly pretty disappointing." He was joking, of course; pretty much the only thing he could do around her now other than shuffle around each other awkwardly. But. That was better than things turning sour and losing her completely, of which he had an extensive and impressive track record of happening with people. "Oh, you're asking if we should actually be working instead of just hanging around aimlessly? Why on earth would we do that?" Walking around the counter, he gestured towards the back. "But if you really wanted to, I guess there's a new shipment of cool stuff to unpack. If you're just hellbent on helping I fear I can't stop you. And, y'know. Browse for your collection while you're at it."

"hm, oh ah, yeah feel free to smash it against the wall, you gotta do what's best for you...and uh your head." Lucy said pulling her headphones gently down, the music still playing softly as they hung along her neck. She didn't mean the double-entedre with her words, implying daniel would do what daniel wanted, in regards to exactly what their relationship was and wasn't. It wasn't like Lucy wanted the male to be her boyfriend, or even something along the lines of serious, yet she couldn't deny when he abruptly ended their casual whatever it was that a bit of a sting remained. She did her best to shrug it off, it wasn't like she would quit her job at gravyard, not with the discount she got, so she did her best to put up a front of not caring, friends they were before, friends they were now, right? "so boss would like me to work on anything in particular, or should I continue to look busy but really just browse for my collection?" she said with her alluring smirk and familiar sarcastic tone.

[danielmndoza]

" — I'm sorry. I don't mean to bother you but I think your phone's going off? Bit of a migraine right now so I feel like I have superhuman hearing, or something. Feels like there's not enough caffeine in the world to counteract bad roommates."

[danielmndoza]

"Oh." Daniel nodded with a slightly absent-looking stare, as though he was lost. But he thought he'd meant to come in here. Maybe he better check, just in case. "This is the Lotus, right? I was supposed to be picking up someone..." His face became warm, the thought occurring for a moment that he might've just gotten stood up.

for: open location: black lotus tattoo

Turiya popped up from the backroom, lunch in hand, eyeing the newcomer through her smeared mascara. "Diego is busy." And then, like an afterthought, "and Alexa just left." She paused. "You not looking for the 3PM, are you? Cause they ran off."

[danielmndoza]

[DANIEL MENDOZA. 30. CIS MALE. HE/HIM] is here! They’ve lived in Asbury Park for [30 YEARS] and are originally from [ASBURY PARK, NEW JERSEY]. They are a [RECORD STORE OWNER/MANAGER AT GROOVY GRAVEYARD] and in their downtime love [WRITING SONGS FOR HIS D&D GROUP] and [FALLING ASLEEP TO PODCASTS]. They look a lot like [SEAN TEALE] and live in [SUNCREST]. The song that makes people think of them the most is [UNDER PRESSURE BY QUEEN].

FOLKS!! [clap] it is time for me to round out my promise and present idiot #2. strap in.

meet DANNY.

going to do this in bullet points because his story is a lot less linear than kacey's and also ??? i feel like it ??? ok

people know him as either daniel or danny, both is fine, he'll even respond to dan or "hey you guy" because honestly he Hates Confrontation

oldest child, was always used to bearing the brunt of responsibility. it was kind of like his siblings could do no wrong but any minor mistake he made was scrutinized

his family runs a restaurant and fully expected him to take it over. him and his siblings all worked there since they were teens, and when he saw the opportunity to break out in the form of buying his dream shop (groovy graveyard) he took it, along with his former best friend. they bought it together after the old owner with no next of kin passed on

his dad was very upset by this and no longer speaks to him, his mom tries to still keep in touch quietly without his dad knowing

his siblings, despite danny being the scapegoat, he loves very much and would do anything for them. in my head he's very close with his little sister. he used to be close to his younger brother but they've fallen out of touch a bit. his brother is the one that ended up taking the restaurant over and has taken on the role of "stepping up" so there's probably a bit of tension over that

danny generally assumes people have good intentions. this gets him into hot water more often than not, especially in the case of his business. probably the happiest moment of his life was acquiring his store, but he enlisted the help of his friend in order to do that. his friend, who, embezzled all of the funds for the business and disappeared for a year afterwards. the friend is no longer on the paperwork, but they still haven't paid danny back for the money they stole, either. the store nearly closed over it, and danny hasn't forgotten nor forgiven them for it.

in love he's very loyal, almost to a fault. he had the same girlfriend all through high school until she went away for college and cheated on him. since then his relationships have been a series of falling for someone very quickly, thinking the world of them, and the relationship turning out to not be what he thought. ok listen ill just say it, 500 days of summer-core

he's a huge dork. really into music and writes songs and stuff, so you would think he would be a Cool Guy. and I guess maybe he is and can seem that way, but hiding underneath that vintage leather jacket is like, an entire sleeve of Magic the Gathering cards and ideas for his 79th new D&D homebrew campaign.

also loves video games, board games, and weird shit. i think he had an ex at one point who was super into astrology (insert "someone cooked here" meme) and he actually learned a lot about it, he just likes learning about things in general. very open minded. will gladly talk to you about the denver airport if you ask

CONNECTION IDEAS;

the big one is obviously his ex friend who stole money and nearly ruined his business, i will probably offer that as a wc but in case anyone saw that and it fit into their bio i'm slapping it down here

siblings will also be a wc, but i'm open to other family! cousins, or that thing of like where you grow up around each other so you feel like family? the fake cousins at the neighborhood barbecue

all the exes, but especially his first love that broke his heart

friends!! all the friends. some ideas - regular customers at the groovy graveyard, a long time best friend who has stayed close with him and helped him through the mess with his other former best friend, his D&D group and other friends he games with (please i beg) and anything else you can think of

for rival/antagonistic connections, i'd love people who have been bad influences on his siblings in some way.

oh!! he is a cat dad so any other cat people RISE UP ok but no really maybe they debated the pros and cons of automatic feeders one time at the grocery store

ALSO I FORGOT TO ADD HE NEEDS ROOMMATES !!!!

that's all for now but im always open for plotting out other things!! sorry this is so messy i just really wanted to get this up so i could start writing ok ok

[danielmndoza]

CHARACTER INTRODUCTION MOODBOARD * ⋅ — DANIEL MENDOZA.

[danielmndoza]

[danielmndoza]

[danielmndoza]

[danielmndoza]

[danielmndoza]

[danielmndoza]