3953/The Ridiculously Chill Debut

The Ridiculously Chill Debut
Date of Scene:	27 October 2020
Location:	Comic Shop
Synopsis:	Virgil visits Phantom Comics in Westchester, where he encounters Noriko and Santo. They discuss various things, Santo is a jock, and things are vaguely 80s!
Cast of Characters:	Noriko Ashida, Santo Vaccarro, Virgil Hawkins

---

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko is one of the rare students at her boarding school who is both 18 and pretty much unstoppable if she wants to go somewhere, at least without resorting to inhumane measures which isn't going to happen.  Still, today was a slow day, and so the blue-haird teen is here, in Salem Center.

Nori arrives out of sight and rounds the corner to the front of the store.  She's got her own stories for people to swallow about her powered antics, but they're hardly ever designed to be effective.  How is she going to hide those clunky metal gauntlets or the little sparks of electricity, or when the lights flicker or someone's cell is suddenly drained?

Noriko's gauntlet clinks against the door as she pushes it open, stepping inside.  The Asian youth has a sun-bleached lime green backpack on over a white hoodie jacket with single stripes running the length of each sleeve from the shoulder to the cuff.  The jacket is left open, revealing a lavender raglan shirt with orangesicle sleeves.  She's blocked out "A League of Their Own" across the front in that nostalgic ballpoint script they always use for uniforms.  The letters look sketchy and aren't filled in.  Her hoodie sleeves have been stretched over her gauntlets, so it's probably a tossup which one draws more looks.

The terminally bored teen, like a fish out of water, steps inside and chews the side of her bottom lip as she tries to gather how the store is organized.  She looks over in Virgil's direction as he handles the Vegeta figure.  The store isn't exactly booming right now, so Noriko walks over and waves her hand in between Static and the figure.

"Hey.  Do you know s-gah.  My name's Noriko."

Santo Vaccarro has posed:
Nori isn't the only student that gets to go places, the quarter ton walking pile of rocks, gets to do that as well! Cause hey, how many people want to get between him and the exit when he wants to leave at any rate. He was bored and he has been cooped up, so Santo decided he would go out to the town and figure out something to do there.

Once he got to town it was an easy decision to go and pick on the nerds at the comic shop. Also he wanted to go look and see if they had the newest issue of Danger Dog!!! Getting to the shop, he starts to squeeze his body through the door, doing some fancy angles just to get it through. Standard door frames are not made for rock people!

Once that is done, he starts to look around the shop. He is dressed well like he normally does. A black tank top and a pair of jeans. They are easy to find after all, and well the tall and big store doesn't like him shopping there, not after the last time he tripped and took out a wall...

Santo being well Santo, he's not polite in how he approaches things or anything like that. "Hey where do you keep your Danger Dog issues!" He calls out, to well anyone who would actually listen to him.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"Do I know who now?" Virgil asks, offering his hand to her. "Oh, uh, Virgil." He stares down at the figure, then suddenly places it back on the wall. "That, uh, for my sister. I don't buy toys or anything. I've moved onto man things." He looks around and calls out, "Anyone have a tobacco pipe? Man things happening over here!"

Then, tilting his head to look behind Noriko to the large man. "That sure is a big dude... oh yeah, I heard there's lots of mutants around here." He calls over to Santo, "Hey, man, I saw those over there!" He points to a wall not far from them where the Danger Dog issues are mixed in with the other new comics.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"No one," Noriko replies curtly.  "Yeah Virgil so I was going to ask if you knew about a cool graphic novel that guys would be into.  I'm shopping for my 'little brother' too."  She really is, but she can't resist, smirking all the while.  She has only the faintest of Japanese accents, but it's there, something that's easy to forget with time and given how fluent she is.

When Virgil looks past her to comment, she looks over her shoulder, already familiar with the booming voice.  She makes eye contact but doesn't say anything.  Instead she jerks her head for him to come over...Santo and Nori have never said hello a day in their lives.

"No.  There aren't, and you didn't hear that, got it?"  Noriko takes a half step closer, probably treading on Virgil's personal space if he's not atypical about such things.  Her fingers stretch, threads of electricity connecting each one before she balls her fingers up.  It's cool, but that's really all she can control at such minutia before arcs ripples up her forearms.  She quickly tries to hide it as it is now more visible to others in the store, but she tries various positions and it just doesn't work out, causing her more consternation along the way.

"Wait.  Who told you that?"

Santo Vaccarro has posed:
Oh man the nerd is calling him over. But wait that was the nerd that went missing or something like that. The big guy does go to say hi though, plus he can totally tease her and stuff, it's fun! "Yeah, what do you want?" he asks, cause well until today they never actually bothered to talk to each other or anything like that.

He starts to eye Virgil, "Don't tell me this guy is bothering you? I can bounce him off a few walls if you want." The big tough guy roll, he was born to play it after all. He of course didn't hear any of the conversation before he walked over, or well he wasn't paying attention if he did hear it. But it seems the blue haired chick needed some help, so Danger Dog can wait for now.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
Virgil's eyes widen when Noriko steps closer, and then suddenly he's staring over at whatever is not directly in front of him. And then he feels electricity vaguely draining from him, and stares down at his hands, then to Noriko.

Okay, Initiate Excuses Protocol.

It could be just him, it could be that this place is full of mutants, it could be a lot of things. She's clearly not hurt, so at least some of this electrical disturbance has to be her. Plus he can sense whatever the hell she's wearing on her arms.

"Whew, wow, electrolites, am I right? Too much Gaterade" But, to her question, he answers, "Just rumors, you know. I was reading up about this comic shop. I live in New York right now."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"This guy says he's heard there's a lot of mutants around here," Nori tries to keep it down while she positions herself where Santo helps block other people from looking over are the electricity rippling up her arms.  

Nori's lips press into a flat line at Santo chomping at the bit in this particular way.  She rolls her eyes.  "While I'm sure some girl someday is going to fawn all over you and ask you to do everything for her like take out the trash, walk her tiny accessory dog named Yappy, and bring her coconut water for being Mr. Macho, I'm not one of them.  Oh, do you know about something that a 16 year old guy would like?  Seriously.  Like what's the coolest shit out right now?"  She can multi-task!  Especially as her charge starts to build up from all all the ambient energy she's been soaking up.  Her speak speed is now on the rise, but her pitch remains the same.

Whatever Noriko is wearing on her arms, certainly isn't the source of her power.  Virgil would be able to tell that.  All signs point toward a channeling device.  She shoots a look at Virgil, "You're weird.  My brother probably likes the same shit you do."

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
When Santo eyes him and starts talking, he holds his hands up even while a bit of electricity is arcing from his fingertips and into Noriko. "Whoa whoa! Hold on big guy, I'm just an innocent bystanding looking at these figures for my sister."

"Hey, I'm not weird, I'm //cool//! A dapper young gentleman. And the coolest thing out right now..." He walks past her, causing more electricity to arc between them from the closer proximity, he grabs a book and holds it up. "An American comic based on a Japanese manga that was based on an ancient Chinese novel. Pogo's Outrageous Journey." He motions at the cover, full of muscular men and women in high fashion doing cool poses with crazy powers.

Santo Vaccarro has posed:
So yeah Nori's little comment aside goes totally over Santo's head. Yeah he really does have the big dumb jock thing down put. "A 16 year old? Remove the parental blockers on his computer, that's all he wants." Someone had to be the one to say the obvious one of course.

He does look between the two people though, and at Nori's arms for a moment, "Nope no mutants here. Don't know what would give him that impression." Nah not going to freak him out and turn off the image thingy that they gave him. He watches the sparks just a little more, and then actually whispers to the blue haired chick for a moment, "Listen if you need it, I can get you out of here, kay?"

A slight snort though at Virgil, "Sure for your sister..." Yeah like people would totally buy that one. "And she's right, you're just weird."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
No longer as preoccupied, and with Virgil getting Noriko's full attention, /this/ time she notices the leap of electricity between him.  Her brow furrows and she figures he must have some kind of metal on and a power to just nonchalantly act like he hasn't felt a thing.  Even static shock startles mutants, and this was way more than that.

It's actually Santo's comment gets another bristle from the already sensitized teen.  "Yeah.  I would, but he's in motherfucking Japan."  Her /other/ Motherland.  Things are complicated, but Santo backing her up seems to give her a moment of reprieve in her emotions to bring everything down to a simmer.  Clearly, a button was hit.  She takes a few moments to breathe and looks up at the big guy to cup her hand and whisper back.  "Doubtful he can catch me, but backup is good.  Thanks."  At least she's aware her prickliness is her and not him.

"Cool people don't say they are cool.  They have people who think they are cool.  Like I think this guy is cool, so he gets a cool point."  Yeah Nori doesn't know what that is.  Boredom rushes up in the most aggressive way possible on the electrokinetic speedster.  "Test Question.  Have you ever had a heated debate or a discussion that lasted longer than 15 minutes about anything in science fiction or fantasy?"

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"Some 16 year olds like to have an enriched mind, //and// the parental blockers removed." Virgil corrects as he waves a finger at Santo. But at Noriko, he blinks, putting the comic back. "Where do I even start? Like the debate about the entire horror genre! You see, I think most supernatural horror is actually a sub-genre of sci-fi, though there's a complex intersection between genres. Like sometimes you have something that clearly is set up like a sci-fi, but is a horror. So they call that a sci-fi horror. But then it gets complicated..."

He moves around the store, then picks up a boxed Jason Vorhees statue, circa Final Friday. "And then you have Jason X, clearly a movie that takes place in space, but no one calls it sci-fi because it has Jason in it. But supernatural horror in of itself is often already sci-fi. So where do we draw the line, where do we merge the lines? I think I can answer that!"

Santo Vaccarro has posed:
"Yeah I used to call those kids the nerds and beat them up." Santo casually mentions as he moves and does a knuckled crack. And then the nerd proves his point and goes into the speech thingy, "See the guy here is proving my point." Total nerd, it is taking every ounce of will power that Santo has not to try and steal his lunch money.

"I think you broke your weird friend. Or is there an off switch that we can flip or something." See total nerds, where are the cool kids and jocks and stuff for Santo to hang out with when he really wants them.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko starts to zone out immediately when Virgil tears right into his genre fest.

Why is this taking so damn long?  Why can't I be free of this?  It might be because Nori's an unwitting victim of her own speedster power.  For her the moments stretch, prolonging her captivity.  She snaps out of it when Virgil finally starts to move around the store.  "Hopeless," she says softly with a grin.  Then she looks up at Santo, "Why do I have the feeling you'll be working for him one day?  In his warehouse."  It's clear by her amusement that the teen has bounced back from earlier.  For now.

"I could zap him," Nori offers, looking up to her temporary ally for input.

Nori cups her hands around her mouth to direct to Virgil as he goes mobile, "Hey I just want to get something for my brother I haven't seen in four years man."  A stranger now, but this doesn't brim to the surface.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"Hey, you can't turn off this brain. Would you feel better if we discussed the intricate relationships of the Paul Brothers, or maybe the Kardashians?" Virgil asks, shooting a burn back in Santo's direction.

Then, when Noriko speaks up again, he finally grabs another comic. "Here's a hot teen one. Duper Man. It's an edgy comic based on the real life Superman, but it explores the concept of... what if Superman is dark and bad. It's written by the prominent writer Max Nider." He offers it over to her. "Teens love edgy stuff."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I don't even know who the Paul Brothers or what kardashians are.  Are they some kind of sweater?  Like made out of some new global warming Antarctic goats?"  Okay now Noriko's speech is cooking with gas.  She's approaching chipmunk impersonating a human status, just lucky her pitch doesn't rise too.

Noriko steps away from Santos side to meet the curious, though helpful supernerd halfway.  She takes the offered comic and looks it over from the outside.  "Cool.  Thanks."  There's a soft relief in her voice.  "I'll have to see if the library has a scanner.  I might have to send it to him digitally."  Eyes lift from the comic as she steps aside, opening all three of them up into a triangular formation again.  "Long story short, my parents are assholes."

Nori doesn't spend long dallying.  She's eager to get this thing into a sack she hopes she doesn't catch on fire or melt before she can get back to the mansion, still engrained with her lone wolf survival of the streets.  When she's done paying for it, pulling out the last of her cash it looks like, she asks, "Can you hold onto it for me till I'm ready to go?"  and she is obliged.  A quick thanks delivered and she strolls back to possibly rescue Santos from his ultimate weakness.  Nerds.

"So how old is your sister?" she asks Virgil, lighter in demeanor.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"These days you usually get a digital copy of the comic included with the physical one." Virgil reaches over to pat her on the shoulder. "I've got you, grandma."

But upon making contact with her shoulder, there's a sudden spark between them, and he pulls back until the arc of electricity breaks off. "Sorry about that. I've really gotta start using fabric softener. You okay?"

"Oh, my sister, uh... 22."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko tries to duck her shoulder away from Virgil's hand in a heavily delayed reaction, as if her mind wandered elsewhere.  Ignore that!  But it's hard to ignore that spark.  He gets a palpable look, but who wouldn't coming from Nori.  "Maybe we just shouldn't touch till you have that...fabric softener and Gatorade under control..."  While he's trying to figure out if she's okay, she's trying to figure out why he /is/.  She didn't catch that the arc came from him to her.  It was in her peripheral vision.

"Are /you/?" Nori asks with a tilt of her head, but there's something more to it with the slight pop of that hip out as she shifts her weight.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." Virgil pulls a metal Warhammer 40K Space Marine figurine from his pocket. "See? Metal in my pocket, it absorbs the electricity, so no harm done! Also, this isn't a toy, it's a miniature, for tabletop gaming. Very intricate and intense stuff, not for kids."

Santo Vaccarro has posed:
"I don't know the Paul Brothers. Kardashians are celebrities who got famous cause one of them had a sex tape. How does someone not know the Kardashians by now, were you living under a rock or something?" He of course does notice the sparks or whatever between the two people, and resists the urge to make the get a room comment, and decides he doesn't need to point it out even more.

"So nerds, is there anything else you two can do, besides just talking a lot about stuff that makes us normal people sleep?" Or does he have to resort to grabbing random store goers and giving them noogies to keep himself entertained or something. "Or should I start playing toss the nerd, I can see if I can break my record or something." Eyes start to dart around the room at saying that, trying to find a fun target.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Clearly.  A child would choke on that," Noriko says and spares Virgil another rib.  Santo can pick up the slack if he rumbles that way.  "Yeaaah.  I don't think metal absorbs anything.  It conducts."  Woah.  Why would the consummate senioritis 18 year old junior know something she hasn't been taught yet?  Neeeerd?  Can you smell it?  Can she?  Nerd nose blind to herself perhaps?

"You're adorable.  Really, but a knife is way more intense, and people chop harmless fruit with knives," as if it somehow followed that this meant the knife was all the weaker than we've been lead to believe by entertainment.  She looks back to Santo mouths, 'Save me,' overdramatically.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"What are you an 80s high school bully?" Virgil asks as he motions to Santo. "The Breakfast Club called, they want their jock back."

Okay, so she isn't dumb. He scratches the back of his head after putting the miniature away. "Well, you know, a lot of strange things happen in the world. Like ball lightning. But yeah, let's keep separate for a bit. Hey, why don't you tell me about yourself? What do you do in a small town like this, just hang out in the comic shop?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Don't hurt his feelings.  He might sit on you," Noriko warns Virgil with a serene smile.

"Yeah.  I don't know.  I'm kinda getting a whiff of something...do you smell that?"  The girl looks up to Santos.

Santo Vaccarro has posed:
"Those guys were the best. And Johnny Lawrence is one of my heroes!" Not even joking, Santo totally has a few Cobra Kai T-Shirts laying around. Santo has never hid the fact that he actually models his personality from the 80 movie bullies. Maybe that's why he doesn't have many friends.

At what Nori said he starts to sniff the air, "I can smell something, the Rock is definitely cooking!" See that one is now secret around the school that Santo is totally a wrestling fan. He makes everyone watch it whenever it's on. "I wouldn't sit on him, I would just punt him a little."

At that line though he does cross the massive arms and just stares at Virgil. We all know the bully stare that Virgil is getting right about now. He of course could show the guy what the rock is cooking, just by turning off a certain device, but well teachers and them frown at that, sadly.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"God you're like a pile of bricks," Noriko says without even modulating her volume.  "Bullshit. It's /bullshit/ you smell."

And now Noriko looks over to Virgil and mouths 'Save me' in full view, lips breaking into an amused smirk after.  At this point, it's all just play for the seemingly graceless girl.

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
Virgil crosses his arms, much shorter than Santos as he sees the exchange between the two of them, then walks up to Santo very calmly, as if he's about to do or say somethiing very intense.

Noriko said don't hurt his feelings, and Virgil is a very likable person, usually!

But he's read the room, and read Santo. "Hey, what's your name, again?"

He pauses for a second, and then immediately holds up his hand before Santo can answer. "It doesn't //matter// what your name is!!!"

Santo Vaccarro has posed:
Do not punch him, do not punch him. That is the thinking that is going through the big bully's head. "Ha ha, very funny. You are no Mick Foley, so you don't get to use the rock's line." Hey maybe Santo should just start talking about himself in the third person. It worked for Dwayne Johnson after all.

"Hey not my fault you didn't give a better line. You should know me enough to know where I would have went with that!" And why would he want to save her, he's the one that needs saving from all the nerd stuff flying around. Next thing you know he'll start to need glasses and stuff.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
The truth is, Noriko was living under a bridge, not a rock, but neither would help her understand Santo's references.  She just lets the boys have a moment, no longer caring about making their banter make sense.

"Why should I know you better?!  You're a senior.  I'm a junior.  We don't even share any of the same classes.  We don't have any friends in common."  That'd be hard to do since Noriko's friendships at this point include 15 year olds (maybe) and a clown her age named Patches.  "The line was perfect...god...let's just get out of here and find something horrible to do."

What just came out of her mouth.  The word let's.  Gross.  Instinctual but gross, and now she's committed.  Unsurprisingly stubborn.  "I'm starving and feeling...eh.  Need to eat."

Virgil Hawkins has posed:
"Well... I think I'll get my stuff and get going, you two can have fun." Virgil motions to the two of them. "Since you've got a thing going on, I can give you some privacy."

Then, to Santo, he laughs, "You read Danger Mouse or whatever, I don't think you get a big say in line distribution." He walks over to a pile of stuff that's been collecting on the counter, likely his stuff, and waves back to them. Noriko might find herself absorbing less electricity now. "I'll be around."

Santo Vaccarro has posed:
"Lets go get some pizza, the greasier the better! There is an okay place right around the corner. The city stuff is better of course, but it's doable here. My treat. And you should know, cause I'm that awesome and everyone is totally in awe of me!" And then he can go and talk loudly about how the Red Sox are better than the Yankees, and watch the fun begin, that should be horrible enough."It's Danger Dog." And he was picking up for one of the kids at the school. But that would ruin the bully image, so he can't let that slip of course, people would start to think he's nice or something, can't have that.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"A thing?  What are you talking about?."  With an exasperated sigh, Noriko just walks over to ask for her bag and then slides it into her backpack.  She lifts her chin over to Virgil in parting and picks back up the conversation with Santo.  "I can't.  I just used the last of my money.  If I don't get back I could get really sick and bad things.  Trust me.  Let's not go down that road.  Next time."  Did she forget she didn't have money when she said she suggested they do something?  Of course.  Her mind is racing on charge and her body is running on empty.  "Seeya."