The Laundromat

[semimeme]

 

the LAUNDROMAT

Perhaps you live in a dorm or an apartment that hasn't seen renovations since the eighties. Maybe your luck has really dried up and your washing machine at home broke the night before a job interview and you haven't done a load of laundry in two weeks. Whatever your story is you've ended up at the local 24-hour laundromat. It could be creeping in on midnight or three in the morning. Either way, the place is a dead zone. Leaving you floating in a liminal space where reality has been stripped down to the sounds of clattering quarters and the continuous thrum of the machines under the buzz of neon lights. This would be a horrible time to bump into someone you know, or worse - a complete stranger while you're staring into the middle distance in nothing but your American flag boxers reading a paperback.

HOW TO PLAY:

+ Comment with your character, preferences, etc.
+ Leave the comment blank or be daring and write a top-level starter
+ Comment to others and play out all those awkward run-ins or strange chance meetings

Comments

Mina Ashido / My Hero Academia

[pinkxeno]

[ She is sitting by her washing machine while she hears music on her earphones. feel free to poke her to get her attention! ]

Aaron Dingle | Emmerdale

[teenagebadboy]

theo fletcher ◤ original (werewolf)◢ ota

[hababa]

Miya Osamu | HQ!! | OTA

[twinit]

[He's sitting on top of the washer, half-eaten onigiri in one hand while the other flips the pages of a random magazine.]

Vicious | Tales of Crestoria

[sintoxication]

[Having been kicking and cursing one of the damn things for five minutes, he can now add the dubious honor of "would fight a washing machine" to his list of transgressions.]

C'mon and work, ya piece of sh--

[It might help if he put money in it...]

[shigure]

[Two washers away and taking damp clothes out of the bin stands Shigure, trying very hard to keep to himself and not poke the bear, so to speak. But at this point, it's impossible to ignore him. Maybe, he figures, he can help? Somehow?]

Um. Excuse me, I can't help but notice you're having some trouble with the machine...

[He purses his lips and considers his next few words.]

Would you like for me to help?

[unshakencowboah]

[Laundry day means he's sitting on top of a dryer in his boots, boxers-and hat of course-while everything gets washed. He's also either writing or sketching in a leather-bound journal to pass the time]

tifa lockhart | final fantasy vii | ota

[heavenlybrawler]

Yami Bakura 👻 Yu-Gi-Oh!

[destinybored]

[ why can't he get this blood out of this shirt

will one more spin cycle fix it ]

[saudadist]

[ From the opposite row of machines: ]

Try seltzer water and lemon before washing.

[ Spoken with all the blase confidence of someone who's had to use that exact combination a lot. ]

Michael Demiurgos ✝ Lucifer ✝ OTA

[andtherewaswar]

[It turns out that human lives are more complicated than Michael originally thought and that, despite his months of research and observations just to get to this point, he now finds himself woefully unprepared. It’s the little things he’d failed to notice, small nuances of human behavior he didn’t account for when he decided to leave the Silver City and take up more permanent residence on Earth for the first time in… Well. Ever, actually. Arbitrary things like traffic signs and pop culture references, things that change depending on the time period or the culture or what age the human is. Even an archangel couldn’t hope to memorize all of it.

Which is probably why he failed to realize that, eventually, given enough time spent on Earth, he’d need to wash his clothes at some point and that owning a grand total of three sweaters and two sets of pants probably puts him at a disadvantage. At first he’d considered heading back over to the Goodwill bin he’d originally dug his meager belongings out of, to add to his collection but then quickly abandoned the idea. Clothes are expensive and now he isn’t impersonating his brother and mooching off of his credit cards he’ll need to make whatever he has left last for as long as he needs to be here. Which could be anything from hours, to months, to years depending on when it might once again be safe for him to show his scarred, wretched face in Heaven again.

So, not an option then. He has to save what he can until he can figure out a way to get more and washing what he already has is by far the cheaper option. That’s all well and good except it takes Michael an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to work Google Maps on his phone and navigate the route to the nearest laundromat, which turns out not to be so near after all because he isn't really all that familiar with the area yet. It's far enough away, in fact, that it’s past sunset by the time he walks there, his wings too stiff and too aching to carry him.

He steps inside, the ironically cheerful chiming of a bell announcing his arrival as the door swings closed behind him, the place dingy with damp, lit with a harsh fluorescence that washes all the color from the room. He stops short. Now what?]

[deckered]

[ There are few things in life that are less annoying than the damn washing machine going out. It's the agitator, or some part of it, she's pretty sure - either way, the machine isn't working and Trixie needs clean clothes and so does Chloe.

She's just stubborn and independent enough to not ask Dan to use his, so Chloe packs it all up and loads it into the car, drives to a laundromat where she's pretty sure she won't run into anyone she knows.

Last thing she needs is this all circling back around to Dan. Besides, the problem is being fixed - stuffs getting washed, the repairman will be at the apartment in the morning. It's fine, this is fine.

Except it's not fine, because the second she walks in the door with her basket there's someone decidedly familiar standing right in her direct path. ]

Oh come on. Are you kidding me?

annie edison | community | ota

[disneyeyes]

Kuko Harai | Hypnosis Mic

[notanchin]

[Usually, he's handwashing things. Today, however, he's coming here to let things go. Catch him in a loose t-shirt and shorts, blowing bubble gum and reading a comic book.

Pretty chill.]

Claire Redfield | Resident Evil | OTA

[ridingvalkyrie]

[Another town, another laundromat. Travelers have got to wash their clothes too, y'know? She might travel light but things get dirty and so here she is, a duffel bag of clothes and a roll of quarters tucked in the only things she had left that are reasonably clean.

She drops the bag on top of the nearest surface to the gleaming row of washers, blowing out a breath in a rush before she turns to take the machines in. She's adjusting her ponytail when it occurs to her.]

... Detergent. That usually helps.

[Christ. Surely there's a dispenser machine around here? Little packets of the stuff? Something?]

Ichika Arima | Koikimo

[oneflower]

[Currently Ichika is in hot pursuit of a rogue coin.]

Aaah, wait!

[Okay so she gets yelling at the coin won't stop it but details.]

Jefferson Pierce | DC Comics

[likegreasedlightning]

Hayame 🏹 Jinba

[horsearchery]

[ Is... is that a centaur? Doing laundry? You know what, weirder things have happened. ]

[salamandrill]

[ Salamandinay's only surprise is that a centaur actually properly fits in the laundromat. She's something of a dragon herself, with tiny wings, and a long reptilian tail swaying a little behind her as she peers at the functionality of the machines curiously. ]

I rarely see anyone take full advantage of the settings on these, you know.

⚡ barry allen / the flash | dceu+zsjl | ota

[speedofforce]

I've come to bother you!

[oldmanfive]

[ Is it strange to see a seemingly teenage kid at the laundromat so late at night? Probably, but it's been a messy kind of night and he's got to wash up his stuff, so he doesn't have to hear it from any of his siblings later.

Though it might be a bit more surprising when he teleports himself to the top of an empty washer to wait out the cycle. He simply perches as he checks his phone. ]

Sal Fisher | Sally Face

[sallyfaced]

[Sal definitely looks like he waited until the very last moment to do his laundry, sitting in an oversized rainbow sweater, bright red pants — a clown mask? One might question (if they know him) if his mask is in the wash as well, but no. He figured he may as well match mask with attire.

And the truth is he is, in fact, wearing this outfit by choice. Catch him sitting up against one of the machines he's using, on the floor — he almost looks like a life sized clown doll, but he can't really help that. He has a textbook in his lap and he just happened to stop to think about what he's studying for an upcoming exam, causing him to stare off into space. Sorry you have to be near this creepy clown man.]

rosaria, genshin impact.

[clergywoman]

[ voicetesting. ]

valery volkov — original

[crack]

[allmytroubles]

Hello, lover.

[ it's impossible to sound sultry whilst holding a bag that says "laundry today or naked tomorrow", especially when the bag tips over her shoulder and almost tips her over onto the floor, but aggie is nothing if not determined. she fails when her hello become punctuated by the yelp of her almost falling on her face, but she straightens up quickly and throws her hair over her shoulder like nothing happened. ]

Did your mom like her present?

sister maria juliana — original

[residues]

Emil | NieR

[genetica]

[Let me know if you want Little Edwardian Child or Smiling Coconut, but either way he's just sitting quietly in a corner, humming to himself.

Why is that tune so catchy? Where's it from?]

opts for coconut boy

[ryugyo]

[Even though he wears a suit most of the time, Ichiban finds himself at the laundromat more often than one might expect. Most of the time, it just feels like socks-- when did he get so many socks? Other times, it can be shirts he doesn't feel like shelling out to dry clean, or even someone else's clothes if he owes them a favor.

It's probably a combination of all three tonight, but it doesn't make any difference. The same rattling spin cycles, the same sluggish clock, the same little skeleton huddled in the back--

Well, maybe not that part. Ichiban is positive if he blinks enough times, the figure will disappear, or at least correct itself into something sane, but all it does is allow him to catch onto the humming. Ah, it's a kid. A kid in one hell of a costume, out way too late, but. Not a ghost, right?]

You waiting for someone to pick you up, kid?

Aerith Gainsborough | Final Fantasy 7: Remake | OTA

[ancientflower]

[Either relaxing with a book or daydreaming and looking at nothing in particular while sat on the windowsill beside a steam fogged window.]

Ami Bites-Thumb | Werewolf: The Apocalypse

[dontleavehome]

[Well, looks like a homeless woman has decided to set up camp in this laundromat for the night, probably related to the cold and unpleasant weather outside. At least she doesn't smell too badly, despite of what she looks like. There's a shopping trolley piled high with stuff sitting next to her and she's reading what appears to be a very beaten up copy of... something, the cover of the book is smudged and half ripped off.

To those with normal human willpower levels it's also highly uncomfortable to be around her, so much so that the guard who dropped in some time ago left her alone - but then, it's quite normal for people to not want to get close to a homeless person, right?]

Kishin Asura ΦΦΦ Soul Eater

[strongestcoward]

[ You say laundromat, he says free clothing boutique! He came in wearing one shirt, like a normal person. He is now up to five layers, just yanking stuff out of dryers and popping them on if he likes them and throwing them on the floor if he doesn't. ]

jyn erso || rogue one || ota

[made_of_stars]

[ooc; but make it shippy.]