ya_assemble | [LN] Beat of His Own Drums [Open]

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[LN] Beat of His Own Drums [Open]

As soon as the yeti finished that beautiful, beautiful brand spankin' new not liberated from the trash drum kit, Raph had swooped in and commandeered it, dragging it off piece by piece to the room he'd also commandeered as his own when he'd first arrived.

"You can make another one," he'd shot back at the pouting yeti, who'd sighed and gotten back to work as he stole the cymbals.

It was a Pearl Export kit. Not exactly top of the line but solid, had a good sound just like the real thing (talk about trademark infringement, right?), and most importantly of all, it was new. Like so few of Raph's belongings were. In fact, the only belongings he had that weren't, ahem, "recycled," were things April and Casey had given him. Everything else was junk scavenged from the surface by Splinter - and then by him and his brothers when they started going up.

New drums. Actual new drums. And a new cd player. And new cds. He'd managed to grab a few new things, actual new things. For the first time in his life, he was playing on a new drum kit.

All the "you have to save all of existence" stuff aside, this place rocked.

That was why he was in his room banging away, sometimes playing very recognizable drums beats by themselves, sometimes in time with the original music. If it sounded like he was crazy enthusiastic about what he was doing, it was because he was.

He'd left his door open out of a general lack of consideration for others, but the noise didn't add much more noise pollution to the busy workshop than there was - and at least he was good. Very good, in fact.

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"I could keep making drummer jokes all day," Nico said, making herself comfortable where she sat.

"I like sewing," she answered, jabbing the needle part way through the cloth of her project so she could gesture at the outfit she was wearing -- the white long-sleeved blouse she'd come here wearing (since modified with a length of black ribbon and a few loops of thread to create a removable empire waist), worn over a wine colored camisole with the sleeves rolled up above her elbows, the dark gray capris (with enlarged and reinforced pockets), the red and white striped tights (she'd had to cheat and use magic just a bit to adjust the candy-apple shade to something more appropriate for her wardrobe).

"My clothes don't come off the rack looking like this, and I didn't really have the funds to pay other people for it even before I was a homeless runaway. But I'm good at it and it gives me something to do with my hands."

The rolled up sleeves did mean that the scars on her forearms were visible, but at least "dinosaur bite" and "battle axe injury" looked more like she been in a fight than that she'd been cutting herself.

"Makes sense as a hobby for you," Raph acknowledged and to his credit, he didn't mock it or call it girly or anything. "When you get right down to it, technically it involves repeatedly stabbing things."

He briefly looked up at her from where he lay on the bed, looking mischievous and it was then that he noticed her arms.

He wasn't trying to be nosy, really he wasn't, but one of those looked almost like teeth marks and his curiosity overwhelmed him.

"What did that?" asked Raph, pointing to the bite scar, curious. "Did you get bit by a shark or something?"

There was a pause as he remembered at least a basic modicum of non-crappy manners. "Unless you don't wanna talk about it."

Edited 2014-12-07 07:07 (UTC)

"Ha. Ha."

Nico rolled her eyes at his implication that sewing and stabbing were similar skillsets, but smirked when he boggled at her arm -- and then awkwardly tried to pull his foot back out of his mouth when he realized he may have just crammed it in.

"Oh, that? No, it wasn't a shark," she said, her voice a study in casual, modest tones arranged to suggest that the actual answer was so much cooler. "It was a dinosaur, actually."

Okay, it was less cool than she was making it sound, considering that she'd had to threaten to choke Gert to get Old Lace to even tentatively bite down; but she ought to get some mileage out of the scarring considering that she was pretty much stuck with them.

"Nuh uh," Raph insisted loudly , sitting up and turning to face her, his face making it clear that despite his words, he actually really hoped it was true, because that was freakin' cool.

Then he paused. "What am I even saying? I've fought a giant rock bug and a zombie dogman before. It's so crazy it has to be true."

He settled back to read his comic, but sitting up this time, and next came the questions, enthusiastic in their nature, but delivered in a way that showed he was trying to keep said enthusiasm slightly under wraps so as to not appear too eager to be awesomed by her. "Was it a mutant dinosaur? Or was time travel involved?"

"Genetically-engineered dinosaur, but there was time-travel involved," Nico said, her smile stretching into a grin even as her heart clenched a little in her chest. "Gert's parents went a few millennia into the future and had someone make a Deinonychus that responded to Gert's mental commands. We found her in their basement, and it turns out having a dinosaur around is pretty handy when you're on the run from, oh, everyone."

She ducked her head sheepishly. "So it's not like I was fighting Old Lace or anything when it happened. I just shoved my arm in her mouth and told Gert to make her bite me, because I needed to get the Staff out of my chest before we all got shot or Chase lit any of the cops on fire."

"Whether you were fighting her or not, I'm still thinking having a dinosaur bite you so that you could summon your staff to shoot blood magic at cops is kiiinda hardcore."

Seriously, Nico. Wow.

"Most of mine aren't nearly as awesome."

He put his comic down and leaned forward so that the skin at his shoulder near where it met his shell was a little more visible. A particularly large bite mark was visible, though the scars made it clear the creature's teeth had been longer and narrower.

"Mutant fishman with robot legs. Thanks to his venom, I spent the next ten minutes after he bit me rolling on the ground hallucinating and barfing. Mikey told me that while I was under I told him he was the smartest person I know and that I kept asking why I had fingers on my feet."

"It would have been cooler if I hadn't brought the entire cave down on our heads," Nico demurred as she leaned forward to inspect the scar he was showing to her.

"Eww," she said obligingly at the mention of vomit. "I never had anything that made me hallucinate. I had some weird fever dreams, but psychic light dagger things don't really leave physical scars."

She held up the arm without dinosaur bites, pointing to the scar about a finger's length below her thumb.

"I got this one trying to punch Mr. Yorkes in the face while he was holding some kind of battle axe. It was also when I found out how to get the Staff of One out of my chest." She made a face. "It was pretty stupid of me, but we were kind of on the ropes at that point."

"You tried to take on someone with an axe. With your fists." Far from thinking it was stupid, he clearly looked tickled that she'd had the nerve. "I'd say to remind me never to get on your bad side but I figured that out when I saw you unleash unholy hellfire on that lab."

She just kept saying things that impressed him. Getting a dinosaur to bite her to get her magic staff out to fight (he assumed, given what she'd said of her parents) corrupt cops, trying to take on someone with an axe with just her fists...

Maybe it wasn't smart, but a lot of people curled up and caved in to fear when they were that desperate. Instead, she tried to deck people.

"Most of the rest of mine aren't that exciting." He pointed to one on his fore-arm. "Training. I didn't back off and tap out when I should've and Leo nicked my arm pretty bad. He spent the whole next hour apologizing."

He pointed to a thin one on his right upper arm. "Ninja." And one on his shoulder. "Ninja." One on his thigh. "Also a ninja."

He pointed to another on his right hand. "Robot ninja." To the burn near his left elbow. "Alien robot."

For a moment, he wondered if he should say it, worried that it'd make him look stupid but he found that he didn't care. So far, he'd told her some pretty serious stuff and she hadn't looked at him like he was a weak or weird or crazy. It was just strangely easy to talk to her, so much that he didn't feel as guarded as he usually was.

Besides, if anything, she'd just laugh and he...he kinda liked seeing her laugh.

He pointed to the little scar of a scrape on his chin. "LARPing. I ran into a wall." He added quickly, "It wasn't my fault, though."

Edited 2014-12-09 08:10 (UTC)

Nico laughed. "That wasn't hellfire. I used my one shot with 'hellfire' months before I got here."

Spider-Man probably hadn't deserved 'hellfire', but it wasn't like she'd managed to tag him with it either.

She hid a snicker behind her hand when he admitted to LARPing, because she'd so called him on his secret nerd hobbies back when he'd been eating his way through all the holiday snacks. Then she turned around and pulled her hair forward over one shoulder, undoing the ribbon belt on her shirt so she could flip it down around her elbows. The scar there was partially hidden beneath her camisole, but enough of it would be visible to give him an idea. "This one's my only 'ninja attack' scar, and the last with any real story." She pulled her shirt back up over her shoulders and tied it closed again. "Everything else is just medical procedures and chicken pox. And ear piercings, if those count."

She'd already used hellfire as a spell. Oh, wow. Already. Months ago. Her brain had gone there, months ago. Her brain was a place that went there habitually.

He'd never dealt with anything like infatuation or a crush yet. At least not one on a real person. The only time Raph had felt tingly crush feelings before was when Sensei had found them all a stash of VHS tapes and Raph had discovered a ton of action movies from the eighties that starred action star Cindy Hardrock. He had been twelve at the time and it had made Raph acutely aware of the fact that it was possible for him to find human women pretty.

That still wasn't even close to the strange feelings blooming to life in chest every time he talked to Nico. That was why he didn't really know what they were yet.

In any case, he didn't even have time to think on it, on the weird tingly feelings that had prickled to life in the back of his skull over hearing her talk about hellfire, because she was...welp. Shirt. Lifting shirt. There was back. And camisole. And back. And a giant badass-looking ninja scar (definitely caused by a katana). And back.

And then he didn't see anything else because he clasped a hand over his eyes, out of sheer instinct.

By the time she turned back around, she'd see him sitting there with his hand clasped over his eyes.

Edited 2014-12-09 09:03 (UTC)

Nico turned back around and saw Raph with his hand over his eyes like the time Chase had apparently discovered that Victor slept naked. For a brief moment, she was concerned that he'd seen something inappropriate; but couldn't think of what that thing might be, so she laughed and poked him in the shin.

"For a guy who runs around naked except for a belt, a mask and a few wraps around the joints, you're pretty shy about my shoulders."

He finally peeked between his fingers.

"You were - you were lifting stuff and showing stuff," he said, face flushing a deeper green. He was still holding the hand over his face, but now it was to try to hide his blushing face. "I didn't know what you were doing for a second."

His face suddenly retreated slightly as he drew his head partly into his shell to hide his embarrassment.

"Also, I am so totally wearing something. I'm wearing my shell." His voice echoed slightly as he spoke and he sunk down further, "See? If I can hide in it it's technically clothes. But if you don't count it as clothes then, yes, I'm a proud turtle nudist."

Edited 2014-12-09 09:25 (UTC)

Nico laughed again and rolled her eyes. "It's attached to you. If I'm feeling generous, it counts as clothing about as much as Xavin's uniform does, and I'm about eighty percent sure that that's all shape shifting and she's just running around naked all the time."

The twenty percent was mostly that Karolina didn't act like her girlfriend was running around naked all the time, but then, she could have gotten used to it while they were off in space together.

She'd be lying if his total embarrassment over totally PG shirt adjustments wasn't kind of cute, though. "I promise, I'll warn you before you see anything that would violate school dress code."

Edited 2014-12-09 10:16 (UTC)

Subject change, yes, he wanted to roll with that subject change. He peeked his head back out from his shell again.

He was far more comfortable talking about his lack of clothes than about how he'd freaked out over a peek of camisole and skin.

"Me and my brothers used to play around with clothes when we were little but we stopped as we got older," he said, "We didn't need 'em and the only ones we could get were ones that'd been thrown out. They get in the way of fighting, anyway."

"I can see that," Nico said with a nod. "I can't imagine how you guys managed in the winter, though. The first time we ended up in New York, we had to borrow coats and scarves and stuff from a church because we literally don't own anything meant for that kind of weather."

Even if they hadn't been abruptly teleported there via the hell inside Cloak's cloak.

"All four of us are mostly muscle and that puts out a lot of body heat. Between that and our shells holding it all in, we don't get cold easily and Donnie has - well, he had the lair all rigged up with a heating system. The flip side of that is in the summer, even if we did wear clothes, we'd have to run around naked because otherwise we'd be baking in our shells. Luckily the sewers are nice and cool and we mostly only go out at night so nobody sees us."

Raph picked up his comic again and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Besides, we're New Yorkers. We're naturally tougher than you avocado-worshiping New Agey California people. While you California people are 'cleansing'" - quotey fingers "- and eating your locally sourced vegan ice cream," he said it with great sarcasm and self-importance in his voice, "we grow up nice and strong by eating pizza that's actually good and not breathing in quite as much smog."

"Pretty big talk for someone in a city completely lacking in In-and-Out Burgers and Mexican food that isn't an offense to anyone with a mouth," Nico retorted, rolling her eyes at him and not sticking out her tongue. Because she was so much more mature than that. Neener. "Besides, the hippie-est vegan I know kicked plenty of Old Time New York butt, and zapped an alien commander straight through a tree about four feet across."

And now he wanted to meet her friends and the way he grinned when she told him about Karolina slamming aliens into trees made that clear.

But he wasn't finished yet.

"We don't need In-and-Out Burgers. We have a whole army of guys providing better food with names like Mario, Gino, Tino, Dino, Mario (because there's more than one), Antonio, Biagio, Bruno, Emilio, and so on and so forth. You can keep your little burger franchise, New Yorkers have a small army of Italian guys with names that end in 'o' that give us good food. And that's just one kinda food."

He put his comic down and added, "Also, it's survival of the fittest every day people walk outside because homicidal, human-hating cabs are always trying to hunt them down. Why do you think me and my brothers always travel by hopping across roofs? It's not just because we try not to be seen. And after they thin down the herd, only the strongest are left."

Edited 2014-12-10 08:53 (UTC)

Nico's friends were pretty cool. It was only natural that he'd want to meet them.

"My New York has much lazier cabs, then," Nico said, shaking her head. "Most crowded midnight drug run ever. I practically got elbowed into the portal inside the guy's coat."

She grimaced as she realized how that sounded. "Which is another thing we have less of in L.A. -- creepy dudes taking MGH to mug super heroines and get them put in the hospitals they work at."

Raph put the comic down again, suddenly.

"Okay, that's it. Tell the story." He waved a hand in a gimme gesture. "Fork it over. You can't just drop that you went on a midnight drug run inside a guy's coat and not tell the whole story."

Give him the story, Nico. Give it.

"Oh boy," Nico pushed her hair back over her shoulder. "Okay, so, for context, Cloak and Dagger are a couple of NYC super heroes we ran into the first time we ran away. Our parents grabbed them before they left town to get us help, and mind-whammied them to forget what we'd told them.

"After we ran away the second time, someone who looked like Cloak and had the same powers beat the crud out of Dagger on camera and put her in a coma. The other super heroes kicked Cloak around enough to rattle his memories of us loose, so he teleported out to L.A. to get our help. Chase and I went looking for drug dealers that might be able to get someone something like Cloak's powers."

She pulled her hair back over her shoulder again, twisting it in her hands. Edit, edit, edit, gloss over some of the more horrible bits and the part where she couldn't keep her stupid lips to herself.

"We found a guy with a portal in his coat. Turns out the guy with the drugs did his dealing between dimensions and was a fanboy of our 'rents. Chase managed to convince him that they weren't actually dead, and that we were doing their work for them; so we got a name and enough information to trace the guy back to the same hospital Dagger ended up in." She grimaced and stuck her tongue out. "Super-creepy. Fun fact, that's the trip where I used 'hellfire'. Not on the creep, sadly, just to get Spider-Man to back off."

And then Pusher Man got murdered by the Kingpin, who took pictures of the whole thing. Seriously, she was getting emotionally invested in never going back to NYC again.

Edited 2014-12-11 11:40 (UTC)

Raph looked at her in rapt fascination as she told the story.

His takeway:

"What kind of stupid superhero name is 'Spider-Man'? I mean, it's kinda obvious. That'd be like if I called myself 'Turtle Man.' It's stupid."

He and his brothers did refer to themselves as "ninja turtles" on occasion but that was what they were. They didn't have any weird codenames or make a team name out of it or anything.

"Cloak" and "Dagger" weren't that bad, at least, in Raph's opinion. Especially if they were a duo.

Edited 2014-12-12 08:12 (UTC)

"I'm pretty sure he's just a guy with spider-themed powers," Nico said. "It's not like he's some kind of spider hivemind pretending to be a person. All codenames are pretty dorky; ours were too when we used them."

Then, before he could ask (because she knew he was going to ask):

"I was 'Sister Grimm', which was my instant messenger handle. Molly was 'Bruiser' or 'Princess Powerful'. Chase was 'Talkback', Gert was 'Arsenic', and Karolina was 'Lucy in the Sky'. Alex didn't use one. Like I said, they were pretty dumb."

He laughed. Of course he laughed. The idea of codenames at all was slightly ridiculous to him.

It was gentle, though. Far more gentler than it was with his brothers and Casey. A bit more like how he joked around with April.

"Did you also have a me-space with 'welcome to my twisted mind' as the title? Like, you know, fifty billion other teenagers?"

"Nobody's 'welcome' to my twisted mind." Nico tossed her head. "My blog was strictly friends-only."

She hadn't logged on since they ran away the first time. Her online friends probably thought she'd died or something.

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