2098/The Paint Job

The Paint Job
Date of Scene:	13 June 2020
Location:	Turtle Lair
Synopsis:	A few of the turtle brothers talk about current events while decorating the turtle van.
Cast of Characters:	Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael

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Michelangelo has posed:
"Heh heh heh heh." That low, throaty snicker from Michelangelo echoes throughout the lair as Mikey squishes a clean, dry paint-brush into a small bucket of orange paint. Yep, orange. Just like his mask. "This is gonna be so sick," The quiet mutterings are made as he just SLATHERS the paint onto the side of the van without any technique, huge wads of it slashing across the dry metal. Plenty of excess drips down in a reasonably unprofessional manner (and subsequently onto the floor), but the baby brother of the turtles doesn't seem to care.

What's he painting? Well, you //could// say it is Mikey's piece de resistance; his masterpiece. Or you could just say it's... a mess. Which is what the very rough smiley face looks like. A HUGE smiley face, but a smiley face nonetheless.

"Hm. Needs more flames. Maybe." The assessment is made as Mikey takes a step back to appreciate his handiwork, before eyeing the dripping paint as it rolls down off the van and onto the concrete floor.

Donatello has posed:
    The turtle van has been coming along nicely. One side of it has been reinforced with armor and that's the side that Donnie told Mikey he could start painting. The other side hasn't been reinforced, yet, but the time is now!

    Sparks fly across Donnie's workbench as the turtle puts the finishing touches on one of the armored panels for the turtle van. Donatello is wearing a custom pair of welding goggles to protect his eyes from the work he's doing. They're custom goggles in the sense that they've been broken in half and separated into two pieces to accomodate his larger, turtle head.

    Donatello looks a lot better than he did yesterday. The two pieces of duck tape have held nicely on his shell. "I know we're always saying the Foot are losers, but they have at least one guy who knows some moves," he calls out into the lair, his eyes focused on the welding job. He's referring to his little skirmish in the alley behind the electronics store, for which he earned two holes in his shell that have been neatly patched up by Michelangelo.

    "There!" Donatello puts down the welder and flips up the lenses on his goggles. He takes the large panel in two hands and sloooooowly lifts it off the workbench. The turtle begins to move it towards the parked turtle van, clearly struggling with its weight.

Raphael has posed:
"What, like some mini-boss?" Raphael asks, having come in from being, well, not in the Lair for a while. There are stretches of time where he's not around, but he's always been more of the loner. When Leonardo was gone to South Antarctica or Africa or America or Amsterdam or wherever it was, the point is he wasn't around. Raph tried to lead and struggled with it, leaving the remaining three to mostly do their own stuff while occasionally getting together for something. Not the best of times.

Now, he still has his alone time, but the brother unit is functioning better again. Just don't expect him to admit that they need Leo there to keep it together. Anyway, he stops and rubs between his eyes, fixing the positioning of the mask afterward. "Don't ask, Raph. Don't ask Mikey why he's painting a giant smiley face on the side of the van."

Pause.

"Mikey, /why/ are you painting a giant smiley face on the side of the van?"

Wordlessly, he goes over to lend his extra strength to Donatello's efforts with the panel.

Michelangelo has posed:
SWISH. SWOOSH. SLASH. Those are the strokes that Michelangelo does as he looks to enhance the huge smiley face he painted upon the reinforced door. Like Donatello, he's also wearing equipment best suited for the occasion. Unlike his brother though, it's not a set of custom-made welding goggles. Nope, it's a thrown-away kitchen apron, complete with some faded floral patterns on it and stains from a time when someone used it to prepare food. Granted Mikey isn't in the kitchen, but it serves the same purpose: protection. "Maybe I should be one of those street artists," He comments with a wide beam of pride, examining his handiwork. The orange smiley face certainly looks... abstract. It has two large 'X' marks to denote the eyes, making it look particularly edgy. "I think I will call you 'Steve'. Hm?"

Leaning to the side, Michelangelo can barely overhear Donatello muttering to himself about the Foot. "You say something, bro?"

"Woah - you're putting another huge panel on the other side? Dude, this thing is gonna be more like a TANK by the time you're done. And after my slick paint job? It'll look like straight FIRE." Insert fire emoji here.

With Raphael making himself known and helping Donny, the orange-bandana wearing turtle only grins in a mischievous fashion. "Dude, it's reverse psychology." Clearly. "People will think we're friendly. Then BAM!" Another slash of paint is made, a random orange streak on the van appearing on the side of the smiley face. "We get 'em. Pretty smart, huh?" The follow-up snicker confirms that he at least thinks so.

"What are you going to paint on the side, Raph? We all have to throw down something here."

Donatello has posed:
    Donatello sighs in relief as his older brother lends a hand to move the armored panel. "Thanks, Raph..."

    "I don't know, yeah, mini-boss seems right. He was leading a little pack of them to find Kai," Donnie explains, his voice still strained from lifting the panel.

    THUNK. Donnie sets the armor panel down and leans it against the turtle van. "Michelangelo..." Donnie points his finger at the panel he just carried over and then at the section of van bearing the big smiley face. "The other side! You were supposed to paint the other side! This one hasn't been reinforced yet."

Raphael has posed:
Raphael brings the panel over to where Donnie wants it, and it's not much of a problem for him to keep it steady. It's not that his nerdier brother is weak, but Raph is the one who's got the workout routine in the gym area - with salvaged equipment, of course.

"How about you work on getting more actually /on/ the van instead of on the floor or yourself, bro? And I dunno what I'd add. Maybe a middle finger, so the bad guys know we're ready to kick some ass," he suggests. Whether serious or not, it ought to at least generate a response, and that's what he's after.

Studying his own hands, he grunts. "You know how hard it is to flip someone off when you've only got two fingers and a thumb? They just think you're pointing up." Crossing his arms after the panel is where Donatello wants it, Raphael frowns. "One of these days, we're gonna have to figure out what's going on with that group and all this Null and Foot stuff, if they're connected or what. I've been itching for a good fight lately."

Michelangelo has posed:
"This is my warmup side." Michelangelo fires back to Donatello without missing a beat. "How am I supposed to do my best work straight outta the bat, bro? Come on. This is art we're talking about. Once it's there it's there forever." Or until it gets painted over. Picking up his orange paint can, the baby brother of the group wheels about to the //other// side of the van and gets to work once more.

Raphael admitting that he will paint a middle finger earns a thoroughly bemused chuckle from Mikey. "So good. So they can see my sweet roadkill face and then your finger. Think of the reactions we'll get?"

Beginning his paint job once more, this time on the proper side, Michelengelo bites on his lower lip in concentration. "Leo said we might be going to Japan soon to fight the Foot. I dunno though, man. Fighting guys that can throw shuriken hard enough to pierce turtle-shell? That's pretty ridic. Normal humans don't have that kind of arm strength, do they?"

As he continues to splish and splash the paint, Mikey pivots and twists on his ankles. "Is Kai alright, Donny? You never did say -- did you manage to kick the mini-boss' butt?"

Donatello has posed:
    "I don't know, Raph. Giving the finger isn't really an impulse I can relate to."

    Donatello plants one hand on the back of the couch and vaults over it, continuing into a slow jog back to his work bench. The purple turtle comes back holding a welding torch and a can of fuel, which he immediately screws into the bottom of the torch.

    Flipping his goggle lenses back down, Donatello nods his head in Mikey's direction. "I think she's okay," he replies, lighting the welding torch. "She's really tough. We gave them a good fight but they gave up and ran."

    As Donnie begins to slowly weld the new panel in place (and on top of the wet, happy side of the van), he continues his assessment. "Well, Raph, if you're looking for a fight, you're bound to find one around Kai. The Foot /really/ seem to want to get her back." He pulls the welder back and turns his head towards his older brother. "I think they're gonna..." His voice trails off. It's pretty clear what he means.

Raphael has posed:
Raphael rolls his eyes, for both of them, really. "I'm not /actually/ going to paint a middle finger on it." Neither Leo nor Splinter would likely approve, but he's not going to say that part out loud. "Maybe a little fluffy pink bunny right on the hood. That'll really drop everyone's guard." Heavy, thick, sarcasm.

He steps back to admire the unique handiwork of his brothers, some of it a higher quality than others even if taste is subjective, but the van is secondary to the rest of the talk. "I've already seen enough of her to know there's trouble when she's around," he says cryptically. It's no great secret the first encounter he had with her, that the others know of anyway, led to her pinning him to a wall with a dumpster. At least it's got better since then. "But that dumb dinosaur is after them too, and I'm pretty sure that one ain't connected to the Foot."

The /other/ topic is also one that has captured his attention. "You think we're gonna have to go to Japan? How? We gonna swim the whole way? Because I'm pretty sure we ain't just going through airport check-in and flying like normal people."

Michelangelo has posed:
"Classic." Mikey muses at Donatello's retelling of the encounter. "Maybe they're called the Foot 'cause they just cheese it when they're at the disadvantage?" An honest shrug is made as he keeps painting, though he pauses again as Donatello trails off. He leans to the side, eyeballing his purple-clad brother carefully. "They gonna what, bro? What're they gonna do? Hm? What? What do you think they're gonna do?" Pester pester. Annoy annoy.

"Maybe you could draw a fluffy pink bunny giving the finger, Raph. Heh heh. Wait, what? There's a dinosaur after her too? Like an //actual// dinosaur? A for-real one?" He's definitely keen to see that!

"Donny says he can make the van fly." Mikey answers for Raph casually, as if it's a matter-of-fact. "Maybe these steel walls we're putting on will turn into wings? But I dunno when. That's just what Leo said." Finishing off the second painting, the turtle takes a moment to appreciate his handiwork with a solemn nod. "Pretty sick though, right? Us in Japan? We might even be able to get some sweet new weapons over there! The home of ninjutsu. And anime, of course. Hopefully we'll be able to see all the sites and tourist spots."

Donatello has posed:
    As Michelangelo pokes and prods about what he thinks the Foot'll do to Kainashi if they were to catch her, Donatello turns his attention back to the van and reignites the welder. Sparks fly in all directions as Donnie's illuminated face oozes concern.

    "Something bad, Mikey."

    As Michelangelo begins his detailed description of how the van is going to get converted for flight, Donatello pauses the welding long enough to turn to face Raphael and shake his head in an obvious manner. Nope, not doing that!

    But then...not even Donatello is immune from the allure of Japan. "Tokyo is one of the most high-tech cities in the entire WORLD, guys. Just imagine what they might have there..." He manages a smile and reignites his welder yet again. "I'll figure out a way to get us there."

Raphael has posed:
"Vans don't fly all the way to Japan, Mikey," Raphael says, trying to put an end to that fantasy, as he sees it, right away. That's not something he's going to worry about right now, not before there's an actual need to. Mikey gets a chuckle at his suggestion for the bunny, but that's as far as it goes. He doesn't actually add anything to the van for the moment.

He grows quiet, as if he's actually in thought about something, then he shakes his head and grumps about. "There's too much crap going on up on the surface. I guess we're a part of it now, but it was different when we just heard about stuff and stayed out of it. Everything's changing fast. We gotta make sure we watch out for each other even more now, no matter where we are."

Michelangelo has posed:
"It's alright, bro." Mikey comforts Donatello with his token air-of-confidence. "We won't let anything happen to Kai. Right, Raph?" Not even waiting for a response, Mikey puts down his paint brush and removes the apron from across his body. Tossing it to the ground in typical teenage fashion, the turtle moves to grab his skateboard that lays standing up against the old couch.

"I'm all done, so I'm gonna hit the sewer pipes, dudes. Don't wait up for me." The joke is made with a wink as he throws his board down onto the floor, jumping onto the rolling utility with effortless finesse. "I expect a fluffy bunny when I get back, Raph!" And just like that? He's gone from the lair, pushing off with a strong leg to pick up speed as he goes to loosen up and retreat for some alone time.