marimba & her mint gum

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: a guy named mack (but not really) decides to start an entire community in which there is no free will. the idea is that there will be hundreds of rules keeping everyone so similar that no problems would even have the opportunity to start. he recruits two others to help him out: michael, his very charismatic bestie, and marissa, who is a really talented receptionist. turns out, they can bend this new community to their will very easily, and with the power of friendship, they make each other worse. i mean better.

CHARACTERS: mack (short for "machiavelli"— he chose that name himself and he's very proud of it): the president of the Fellowship and Brotherhood. he's skittish and anxious, and when he isn't, he's faking it. think of the day where you felt the most insecure. that's every day for this guy. he hates himself to such an extent that it's comedic. he is obsessed with fixing himself. he worked a basic office job so basic that he wasn't even entirely sure what he did there. then he quit to start this whole Fellowship thing. it's a community free of insecurity, basically. he says it's to help people, to protect people, and such. however, the HUNDREDS of rules he comes up with as the days go by are all just his personal insecurities. so he can get rid of them. and there are a LOT of them. he rewrites his own reality with these rules. things like his height and fashion sense annoy him. things like his sexuality rip him apart.

michael: mack's ride-or-die sidekick & vice president. he's smart and sarcastic and Will be the center of attention if he enters a room, just because that's how he is. he's the best public speaker of the team. he and mack were roommates in college, at A Prestigious University. since then, michael has been, for lack of better words, obsessed. michael would literally follow mack to the ends of the earth. he himself is not a bad person— he's charismatic and fun to be around, and generally very likable— but he's mack's sidekick first and foremost. even though being gay for the Fellowship's president is VERY MUCH AGAINST THE RULES, michael cannot seem to follow that rule correctly.

marissa: the Fellowship's official secretary. to be blunt: she's a workaholic with no real friends. she worked at the same office job as mack, so she knows how boring life can get. when mack and michael asked her to join their project, she was skeptical, but the prospect of a place where she would be appreciated, plus the bonus of Actual Friends, was too much for her to resist. she's put in charge of running confessional, which is where people go when they break rules. although she's thrilled to have a position of importance, and really wants to make mack & michael happy, hearing about people's problems 24 hours a day weighs on her.

SOME OTHER NOTES

i have a playlist for them so if you want song recs i have quite a few.

it's tempting to say that mack gets no bitches. this isn't exactly accurate. he gets One bitch and ignores it. michael can get bitches but is too hung up on an anxious train wreck. marissa doesn't have time for bitches anyway.

it is absolutely imperative to me that every scene just drips with homoerotic tension

i'm writing when i am physically capable of writing. this is not often. the stars have to align. they're not aligning, but i'm trying my very best. (edit: the stars aligned and now i have a play)