3507/Let's Try That Again

Let's Try That Again
Date of Scene:	22 September 2020
Location:	Swimming Pool / Patio Deck
Synopsis:	The mansion isn't as big as it appears. Drake and Noriko run into each other again, and this time finally talk.
Cast of Characters:	Drake Riley, Noriko Ashida

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Drake Riley has posed:
So the recreational room was a bust; hostile territory. Drake's efforts to integrate into the herd through that venue didn't quite go as well as he'd hoped. But it did at least recall to mind someone he'd met recently in a similar situation to himself. He'd need to find her, check up on her, and make sure she's doing alright - now that he might be in a position to help others. But half the day is gone already. Tracking down a homeless teleporter in the dark is not his idea of an effective strategy. He knows where she hangs out. He knows what her tent looks like. He'll hunt soon.

For now, Drake's determined to correct his mental mojo. Water has always been the best medicine for that. The sounds of it, the feel of it, everything about it; it's all the positive qualities of home. And though this isn't a beach, it's peaceful and warm enough to lounge as though it were.

Drake had changed out into his stylized trunks and lost everything else; as one tends to do around a pool. But he didn't do it with the express intent to attract eyes, at least. When he arrived, no one else had been around. But despite being dressed for the water, he's clearly not yet been in. Instead, he can be found languidly stretched upon a deck chair, his left arm folded behind his head while the right hand supports a laminated memo, blocking out the direct sunlight from his face. Upon it are written available jobs around the mansion, positions needing filled. He'd said before that he had no intention of being a mooch. He has time now. Why not look into it now?

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Most people aren't lounging at the pool or trying to swim at this time, and that's what Noriko is counting on when she heads out in a pair of red cotton shorts and a lavender tank that's verging toward lazy sporty.  Her two piece is visible, black with yellow accents.  Clackety clack clak go her flip flops.  Nori doesn't even notice Drake.  She walks straight up to the edge of the pool and looks down into the water as if it could snap her up like a dragon.  Not to be trusted.

The blue haired girl tosses her towel a few feet away at one of the chairs.  She sheds her tank and then returns to the edge, pausing to eye the water again before sinking down to sit on the edge.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley continues perusing the list of jobs, lips twisting slightly. Most of these, he doesn't even feel qualified for. It's not that he was lazy. It's that nothing is listed with 'Thievery and/or carjacking skills required.' He wasn't skilled at too much beyond that. Though a couple things catch his eye as at least interesting prospects. He'd need to research how to do it, but by God, that's why Youtube exists.

The unmistakable sound of flip-flops reaches him. The memo is tilted out of the way for Drake to get a look at the new arrival. Though he only /just/ met her earlier in the day, the blue hair and gauntlets give her away. With a flattening of his expression, he tilts the memo back in front of his face just as she takes the lower hem of her shirt in hand.

...

He tilts the memo again just slightly. She didn't seem to notice him. He can spare a look, right? He's still annoyed with her, it's fine. The tank is removed, and- alright, she's in good shape and she has a nice face when not being acerbic. Whatever, no big deal! He'll go back to the memo in just a second, shut up.

Why is she looking at the water like that?

Oh. Surge. He bets he knows why.

The hand supporting the laminated paper drops as he hedges. He really shouldn't say anything. He knows he's inviting trouble. But that look on her face...

His legs swing over, and he smoothly lifts to his full height. Bare feet pad along the deck to the pool, unsure if she'll pick up on his approach or not before he kneels near her.

"Electricity, right? Surge?," he asks, cautious, but earnest. His head tilts slightly, attempting to match his eyes to hers.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Had she known she was putting on a show...  No.  Noriko still wouldn't have given a fuck how she effortlessly shifts from outer to swimsuit wear.  She's just not that kind of girl, which is exactly her charm, sure...charm.

Metal fingers curl around other elbow, the metal joints protesting in forceful scraping noises.  Surge's eyes narrow.  A beat passes and she looks over at Drake.  She resettles her gauntlets on her folded knees.  "Bingo."  Her gaze flicks sidelong to him as if giving him a metaphorical inch.  It's in the look.  The whiff of desolation.  "What about you?"  Deflection?  Genuine interest?  Either, both, neither.  Who knows.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley takes the metaphorical inch into the literal, and scoots just a little closer to her before settling on both knees. His hands come to rest over his lap, feet folded beneath himself. "Let's just say I recognized that look," he replies, letting the caution ebb a little from his voice. He glances to the pool, then back to her. Despite his words, he does intend to elaborate and offer some hopeful sense of understanding. "When I got here a few days ago, they had me demo my powers. Called it electrokinesis."

Bare shoulders bob in a gentle shrug.

"Being underwater does really bad things to my powers." His gaze drops to the nearest gauntlet, studying it. As his focus raises to her face again, he asks, "Are you able to get in at all?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"What did you do?"  It's easier to focus on someone else, even while the entire conversation also has to do with her.  Noriko moves away from Drake when he moves closer, but it's not further than he moved.  Either instinctual or a calibration.  It happens quickly, without thought, and the moment passes on.

"What does it do?..."  Nori looks down at her gauntlet too and sighs.  "They help me regulate the charge, but I can't turn off my ability.  Since, everything...submersion isn't really my friend.  It's complicated," she mutters the last.  "What do they mean by electrokinesis?"

Drake Riley has posed:
"I nearly died the first time I experimented with it," Drake replies.

If he noted her retreat, he doesn't act on it. He stays put for now. And rather than answer her immediately, he refocuses a moment on the gauntlets. They regulate her powers, so without them, she's just... sparking? Discharging? That's rough. Rougher than his own limitations.

His hands lift to sternum height, palms upturned to the sky. "This is what they mean." His palms suddenly ignite in brilliant blue ionic energy, multiple thin tendrils of electricity arcing between his palms. "I can do a lot of things with electricity. But if I use it in the water, I... I dunno. I short out. It strains something. I feel like I die. And it's probably insanely dangerous to anything even remotely nearby."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Nori stays quiet as she can't help but compare her own experiences with Drake's.  She's never met someone else who had electricity based powers before.  Heck until a year ago, she didn't personally know any other mutants.  Wasn't really high on her list of priorities.

The blue haired girl doesn't bother expounding since Drake doesn't bother asking.  When the electricity leaps from his hand, she doesn't flinch or stare with her jaw dropped.  But there is some deep seated curiosity, like chatting with one's doppleganger.  Everything is expected and not at the same time.

"Maybe it's a closed circuit amplification thing or something," Nori shrugs nonchalantly, pretty sure she doesn't care if her sloppy hypothesis has any merit past a fleeting thought.  "That's cool though.  Have you ever forgot and zapped yourself into dropping the soap?"  A smirk tugs at the edges of her lips.  "I have.  God.  So many times."  This last year alone.

Drake Riley has posed:
A smirk finally edges the corner of his lips, and the extravagant display of electricity abruptly ceases. "Maybe. Hard to really know for sure, when it's just you trying to figure things out. Best I can guess is that water is such a good, like, material conductor that it winds up pulling a lot more out of me than I intend." The smirk spreads slightly at her confession. "That's... just the best thing ever, but no," he snickers. "Showers and rain aren't enough to make me a risk to myself. To other people, though... maybe. And I've never actually zapped /myself/. I've always wondered if I'm immune."

Another glance to the water, and Drake's smirk fades. There are differences between their powers, he's seeing. They're certainly not the same in personality, either. But there's certainly empathy. He gets what she's dealing with, and he can sympathize. "Does it trigger the same way with you? Do you have to activate it in order for it to happen in water? Or is it automatic?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko sidesteps the subject of immunity.  "I'm most concerned about screwing up my gauntlets, and yeah, dropping the soap.  It happens a /lot/.  I mean they're supposed to /help/ me right?  Look!"  Noriko pivots out the gauntlet of the elbow she's leaning against her knee.  She twists her palm upward, wiggling her fingers in the bulky gear.  "The grip could be a lot better."  As if she knows how to design anything.

"We could always find out if you're immune," Surge says with a smirk and a tilt of her head.  The amused look in her eye suggests this would be fun, maybe.  To her at least.  But the look fades a fair amount at Drake's last questions.

Noriko looks back over the water, eyes tracing the rippling reflections.  "Mine's on all the time.  It's fast...I suck up a lot of shit.  At least now I can listen to music if I'm careful....I used to go to all those free festivals in the parks?  Well, I tried.  Just a lot of cellphones there and too many people."  Realizing she's just going on, her guard is down, she shuts her trap, pinching off her side of the conversation into an awkward silence.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley probably knows just as much, if not a little less, about prosthetic design than her. At least she has experience wearing the regulators! But he attentively watching her hand, and the metal digits kind of flexing. It does seem like it'd be a pain to work with.

She moves the topic along, and he brings his gaze back up to her face. Her smirk is mirrored back at her, a small perk of his eyebrow in unspoken challenge. However, that too fades with the topic shifting to something more serious.

"So you're just constantly absorbing," he surmises. "And shorting out those shiny gloves of yours would be like a cascade failure."

He turns to attempt moving close to her again, a few inches to sit beside her at the edge of the pool. "Playing it safe and keeping off the radar is a full-time gig," he offers aside, voice leveling out into a gentle, somber tone. His head turns to her again, and he offers her an out from the spotlight: "I know when my powers first showed up, everything changed."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"They aren't the only solution.  And they aren't event he total solution," but Noriko doesn't deep dive into that of her own volition.  "They're just the only solution that's acceptable here," she gestures with her metallic hand as if it too came with the brochure of paradise and safe learning.  If there were a brochure.

"I could hurt people.  I have hurt people." Noriko corrects herself, a sidelong look shot to Drake.  "Without something?  I'm just a time bomb.  I was so afraid that someone walking past me had a pacemaker or something.  I don't even know the range on how far I can draw, so.  Yeah.  Cascade failure."

This time, for whatever reason, Noriko doesn't back off when Drake moves closer again.  She does look down the side of one of her gauntlets though.  A fleeting moment.

"Yep.  All the OT and none of the perks."  Noriko sticks with the humor.  It's more comforting to her obviously.

"Oh yeah?" Noriko expertly feigns disinterest until her gaze pivots back toward Drake, belying her curiosity.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley notes that she doesn't retreat this time, and he stays right there; less than a foot from her, comfortably close. At least by his standard. Mileage may vary. But she keeps making points that are entirely too relatable. He, too, researched the risks involved with his powers, and pacemakers are among the chiefest concern. Criminals don't tend to have them. Gas station attendants, on the other hand, may.

Bright green eyes shift aside to her browns, catching that interest. He lingers on it a moment before saying, "Yeah. I hurt people, too."

Looking ahead again, Drake reclines beside her. His arms reach back, propping his frame at that languid angle. "Few years ago, I was caught up with this gang doing stupid hoodrat stuff. Built up a nice little rap sheet. And at some point, some of'em got extra stupid about it and started tagging a much older, much bigger, much more violent gang's territory. It went about how you'd expect. I got cut off from the group. One of'em cornered me. I freaked and shot lightning."

His lips twist, and his gaze hardens on the water.

"So yeah. I killed someone. And from that day forward, my life was just about learning to control it. How to regulate it, how to be safe. Learning how to work with it, what it feels like to send thirteen thousand volts or lethal currents. Studying what humans could take and what they couldn't. Learning what was a myth about lightning, and what wasn't. Because I couldn't let that happen again."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko naturally breaks her gaze from Drake when he does as if she'd had plans to do so irregardless of him.  As Drake dips into his past, it's as if falling back into a distant stare, she's also transported to not that long ago..  She listens in deep silence, brown eyes distant, softened, yet somehow determined, an ember more than a fire.

"So why here?  Why now?  Not making any progress..or something?" Noriko tacks on the last as a lame and fleeting attempt at injecting some banality back into their intense conversation.

Drake Riley has posed:
"That's... skipping ahead a bit." Drake dips his head slightly, lips briefly thinning. "Alright, so... I worked really hard on improving myself. Getting that control. And I think most everyone'll tell you, I've got a really good handle on things. Sure, there's some stuff that I think I could do better, or maybe some ways of using my power that I haven't thought of yet, but there's also the fact that my power... like... flexes. If I use it, it gets stronger. So there's no telling where the upper limit is. And since I intend on using it, I wanna be sure it doesn't get out've my control."

He glances aside to her, studying her face, her eyes, her body language. He isn't sure he should explain the rest. But he decides to test the waters. "There's more to it, but... yeah."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I like to cheat."  It's like the girl can't stop.  It probably wouldn't be all that surprising to find her making smart ass remarks in more serious situations in the future.  As Drake expounds on his exploration of his powers, glossing over his progress and such, she continues to get lost in that melting gaze.  The movement of the water has taken on a hypnotic quality with repetition.  It's a lot easier than fully processing how the guy's words are making her feel.

Noriko chews lightly on the side of her lower lip.  "Sounds like you're on your way though.  Right?...More to it like what?"  No stone left unturned, no matter how innocent she makes it sound, which is not to say it isn't..but...this conversation, in all that it is, isn't as horrible as continuing on with her own business at the pool.

Drake Riley has posed:
The waters are saying to come on in, but Drake continues to hesitate a little. He doesn't really know Noriko all that well. She's being ultimately more agreeable now than she had been before, but should he really get into the 'deep lore' that is his reason for being here?

There's a brief, instinctive glance over her. She's more attractive up close. Okay, he can tell a little more. Maybe it'll bridge that gap.

Don't judge.

"Alright, okay," Drake resumes, pulling his gaze away from hers to settle on the water. No checking her out while explaining his extremely difficult past. "My family, my parents and I, we didn't have a good relationship to begin with. My dad's a cop, and here I was doing.. 'thuggery' out there," he notes, opting for the lighter-hearted word over being brutally blunt. "Everything was always my doing. I was driving the family apart. All that crap. But one night he, outta the blue, decided he'd try to patch things up. So I stupidly told'em what I could do, and gave a tiny little demonstration. And he friggin' lost it. I can't remember everything he said exactly, but I was told to never do it again, and that he wouldn't have a freak for a son. Bunch of other things."

Toned chest rises with a deep breath, then lowers again as the teen exhales a slow, breezy sigh.

"So I went back to keeping it secret. Extra secret, because now my parents knew. And I was treated more like an unwanted outsider than ever before. I got through graduation, and that night, started out the door. My dad caught me, and told me to not come back."

His left hand raises in a mild, deferrential shrug.

"That was that. Me, homeless. I decided to head east, since New York's like where /all/ the weird seems to happen. And along the way, I decided I wanted to... y'know... not be this thing. This cursed not-human that destroys families. It was never, like, tested to see if I were a mutant, or just had special powers. But I was treated like one. And I couldn't help but wonder just what the Hell's the difference. Genetics? Yeah, miss me with that lame excuse. If people could do great things with what made'em different, and if they could really... you know, /matter/, and use it for good... why couldn't I?"

It's all rhetorical, his gaze having shifted to his knees. There's some nervous energy, afraid to glance in her direction that she might be laughing at him or something.

"I didn't want to be some monster that wrecks families. I wanted to be something that could give people hope." He clears his throat quietly. "Started helping people as I hitchhiked and walked across the country, and went by Volt. And when I got here, I got a, uh... weird... idea."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
An idle little bolt dances along the knuckles of her gauntlets like a creature briefly spotted before dissipating with a soft snap.  Noriko's blinks, realizing how deeply she'd fallen into some reverie, brought on by Drake's story about his father.  She stays quiet, a sullen expression suddenly like some occupying force whose invasion sticks with her much longer than she'd like or is even pertinent to initial circumstances.

And so, she doesn't laugh.  Drake doesn't get his head metaphorically bit off or anything.  "So you've graduated.  You-" Frown, though the look in her eye suggests it's more to do with reasoning something out than leaning toward some kind of ire.  "Volt. Kay. Annnd so you're thinking you'll try out to have the privilege of being called an X-Men while your head is being exploded by some asshole for the common good or something?"  It's actually a genuine question, even if the words leave much to be desired.  Her unassuming tone is the only indication that her intention isn't as rough as her way...in this instance at least.

Drake Riley has posed:
Well, she's not pushing about his idea, so Drake drops the recap there. Convenient enough. He's not exactly proud of it, or the implied hypocrisy behind it, so it's just as well that it stays obscure.

What she says, however, gets a curious look. "A what?" An X-Man? He's heard that on the news, but doesn't really know much about it. "Maybe?"

"I'm saying I have a superpower. It's... not particularly utilitarian. But I can use it to stop crime'n stuff. I know that's vigilante talk, but the reason I'm here in the first place is because a superhero told me to be. Said that's how she got her start."

His shoulders bob again.

"I've been here three days now, I think." It's kind of blurring together. "But that's what I wanna do with it. We'll see how it shakes out. 'Til then, I'm just happy to finally be around people who I don't instantly freak out. Though, uh..."

After a beat, he tilts slightly towards her to nudge his shoulder against hers.

"You're the first person here who isn't faculty or medical that's seen my power."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Nothing," Noriko resettles her gaze on the water again.  "So, you think people here can help you do that?  Fight crime or something?"  Noriko keeps reaching for a connection between all the dots.  "Oh..cool.  Well, stay in school right?  After all that thuggery you really drank the school special koolaid," she says with a smirk which speaks more of careless self-amusement than anything else.  The combination is at odds with itself as it grates against the norms.

"So you aren't a student.  You don't plan to be a student because you already graduated?" Noriko tries to lead the guy to water so to speak.

Nudging her is almost like nudging an island.  There just isn't as much flexibility as her posture would imply, at least not once there's contact.  Another protective shell.  Another wall.

"How come?" Nori asks bluntly.

Drake Riley has posed:
Despite the rigidity met with the nudge, the point was human contact. She may be an island in steadiness, but she's not an island unto herself now.

"Because I barely passed," Drake admits, his voice flattening a bit. "And I have no clue what I'd even go into, or even if they'd /want/ me taking courses. The idea of college kind'a freaks me out." His left hand lifts, scratching at the side of his neck. "Anyway, Rogue told me this is where she got her start," he repeats, only now with the name-drop. "So if it worked for her, I'm just hoping it can for me, too."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Oh," Noriko's own curiosity saves her from making a snide remark at Drake's expense, and him too of course.  "Did you nuke someone's toast or something?"  Yep.  There it is.  Noriko tilts her head, brow arched expectingly.

"Well, you come to schools to learn.  Get better right?" implying everyone's gotta start somewhere.  Noriko shrugs.  "Yeah, well, I'm told part of college is figuring that shit out or something.  I'm sure they've told you the same old," she's making a 'hand' puppet with her gauntlet.  The metal clatters with her flippant blah blah blah gestures.

"I don't know man.  Since you already know what you want to do, sounds like you're somehow...ahead of the curve."  A wry chuckle follows at how that logic played out, as if Noriko just unearthed it.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley blinks at her. The snide remark seems less snide than in the rec room, and it results in merely a smirk. "Keep talkin'. See how your toast comes out," he 'threatens' with a cant of his head.

"Anyway, I didn't come here for the school. Unless that's somehow a part of it. This place is more than that. Or that's what I was told, anyway. And so far, no one's pushed me to take courses. But they might still be trying to figure me out, so..." His head tilts back, facing up at the sky. "Who the heck knows, right?"

He suddenly sits up again, and gently nudges his shoulder against hers. Is he testing to see if there's any flex now? Or simply for its own sake? "What about /you/? What're you doing here? You don't look any older than me, so what's your deal?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
How /would/ her toast turn out?  Noriko's mind wanders to little scorched patterns on toast.  Oh wait no that's the outline of an anthropomorphic donut on her mind-toast.  Her stomach rumbles rebelliously.  "My stomach has something to say on that," she relays as if introducing Drake to an alien life form.

"Oh, well.  Good luck with your...whatever it is they're doing here and using children as a front.  Just promise me you'll teach me the super secret handshake," she teases as she unfolds her legs to give them a stretch.

"Not much to it.  I needed help.  I was having trouble, managing my shit once so I came here.  Some jerk told me to take a bath so yeah, didn't stick around.  Things happened...and there was a misunderstanding, caused me to start overloading.  Anyways, I ended up back here.  I was given a choice but you know when it's not really a choice?"  Noriko sighs and shrugs.  "You run out of choices.  People seem to care here though."  There's a deft evasiveness to how she glosses over and through various particulars.

"Basically.  I'm still trying to graduate."  Noriko presses her lips together and draws in a deep breath.  "It's kind of a shitty waiting game.  I wait for the teachers to give me homework and tests.  They wait for me to make some kind of enlightening remark that rubs them just the way they don't like.  We all hope and pray to anything that will listen that I'll make it," she says dryly.  "And that I won't up the body count."

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley wasn't quite expecting that to be her ending remarks. But the exceedingly evasive answer leads him to expect /something/ along those lines. Not quite where it lands, but something in that direction. Still, it does nothing to lessen the frown he wears in its wake. Whatever joke he was going to say in response to the secret handshake is certainly abandoned and forgotten.

The teen is silent for a few seconds, his bright green gaze settled on her face. Finally, his head tilts a little, allowing those hanging obsidian bangs to drift a little further from his face. "Hey. I barely got through," he reminds. "And that was with California's public education system. No one there was pullin' for me. But you're smart." He realizes that might sound hollow, and clarifies, "At least, you sound smarter than me. And you've got people here on your side, sounds like." The frown slowly adjusts, the corner of his lips lifting in the dawning of a tentative, boyish smile. "I'd offer to help, but God knows I wouldn't be much. And it looked like you're already running the racket on pool. Don't think I didn't see that shot. But for what it's worth - I hope you get through it. And y'damn well better not end up a statistic. You're not so bad to talk to. And besides that-" His gaze flicks down briefly, foreshadowing the playful flirtation. "-you've got nice abs. It'd be a waste."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"California.  Isn't that like a different planet?"  To her it might as well be.  Noriko moves her feet back and forth once or twice before drawing her legs back up closer again.  "Yeah," she nods, "and you've known me all of less than a day?"  She tilts her head and shrugs.  "Nah.  I'm just better at faking it."

"If they make you some kind of teacher or something, your lips are sealed.  No, your lips are sealed already."  On the pool racket of course.  "It'll dry up anyways once word gets around."  Her mind drifts for a moment as Drake continues.  She has to figure out a way to keep that whole thing going.  "Statistic?  Oh, thanks.  Yeah.  Kind of weird talking to someone else who has electricity based powers.  But good."

The sudden shift (at least for Noriko) into overt flirtation has her open mouth not producing any sound.  She had started to say something, but then.

The ignorance and inexperience of youth... "Oh.  Fuck.  Why does this keep happening?"  Noriko cries out to no one in misdirected frustration, somehow up on her feet in an instant.  She pivots to face Drake suddenly.  "Sorry, I mean, sure, if you want go ahead and look but I'm not into dudes."

Drake Riley has posed:
The deer-in-headlights look gets a blink from Drake. That wasn't /quite/ the reaction he was shooting for. Nor was her wording. But he could work with that, keep things light, and- bombshell! Perhaps surprisingly, the teen bursts into laughter. He drops back into a recline, catching himself on his hands again. "Ohhh, that /would/ be how that goes, wouldn't it?," he sighs, resigned but too amused to be disappointed. One of these times, he's going to actually listen to his logical side.

With a shake of his head, he raises a hand to wave it off. "It's cool, it's par for the course," he muses. Despite her permission to look, the unavailability takes stolen glances from the realm of curious and interested into simply feeling wrong, or weird. Those will likely end.

"At any rate, don't go thinking I was being nice with ulterior motives," he notes, head tipping again to the side. "You don't seem dumb, or incapable at all. Yeah, I just met you, but if we were going on snap judgments? I wouldn't have even come up to talk to you now, after the other room."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko shrugs.  "Yep."  She grits her teeth in commiseration like someone waiting for their friend's go cart to slam into a bundle of hay bales.  You know they'll be alright, even if you can see it all coming.

Noriko's eyes widen, "Well I wasn't thinking it before you pointed it out so conveniently."  She holds that look of alarm for just a split second before it breaks with a laugh.  As much as these misunderstandings that she seems to inadvertently generate may cause inconvenience, Noriko doesn't seem one to let the humor of them go to waste either.

"The other room?"  Seems like a lifetime ago.  Noriko blows it off by looking down, then saying, "Well at least I now know I have nice abs....and we got that out of the way.  In case we see each other around."

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley lifts his right hand to snap-point to her with a wink, "And that's yours to keep," in reference to the compliment. It's bittersweet, but Drake's alright with it. Better to've found out with a more playful, preliminary flirt than to've risked getting invested.

"Anyway. Tonight's like a /school/ night for you, isn't it?," he emphasizes teasingly, finally letting a more relaxed, natural grin settle to his lips. The sun isn't quite down over the horizon yet, but it's been making a trek while they've talked. "And here you are hanging out with the new guy. Not that I'm trying to run you off or anything - I'm still curious about you. Like, where are you from?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Oh well thank you."  Noriko offers just a good measure of sarcasm in her tone, but by now it should be obvious that the bite is only skin deep.  He may snap point, a single finger gun, but she heaves an imaginary grenade launcher from her back, cocks, and even makes that muted, "Thew," sound before the explosion, crackles of electricity between her spread fingers.

"Wow.  Yeah.  I guess it is my curfew."  Noriko loops her tone in massive exaggeration as she moves to push herself up to her feet.  But it's either a ruse or she's just too lazy to get all the way up.  Could be both.  "Japan.  Originally.  It's just a place.  Hardly all that interesting.  People are born and die here just like there and California...wait, what day is today?"

Drake Riley has posed:
"Tuesday," Drake replies. "The day of the week no one dies in America. I didn't know Japan was exactly the same." His delivery is rocksteady in expression, but the faintest of lilts behind his voice would give away the tease.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"They're both places where people live," Noriko says with a shrug.  It goes right over her head.  "Crap.  I have a pop quiz tomorrow."  How can it be pop if she knows about it?  She groans.  "I hate history.  It's so boring.  It's like taking the most interesting things and condensing them into the most boring format ever.  It's a sin," she detours as she pushes herself up onto her feet.

"I'll see you around yeah?" Noriko cocks her head to the side and nods once as if cementing it before anything could interfere.  As she backs away in the direction of the main building, she flashes a peace sign, electricity zipping between her two fingers.  Food.  Gotta feed the beast...and pretend to study.