6708/People don't look up often enough

People don't look up often enough
Date of Scene:	26 June 2021
Location:	April and Harley's Apartment.
Synopsis:	Leonardo goes to check in on April. He surprises her and her roommate by sneaking in and observing from near the ceiling before dropping in on them. Tea and information is shared.
Cast of Characters:	April O'Neil, Harley Quinn, Leonardo

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April O'Neil has posed:
The drying machine broke this morning.

Casey says he'll come by and fix it, April has a new one on 'stand by' on Amazon if he can't fix it...

But in the mean time, she had to do the wash this afternoon and hung it out to dry on the old line that stretches from her building over to the neighbors over the alleyway.

It's late evening now, the sun is going down, the television is on in the living room and April is sitting on the window sil that overlooks the alleyway. She's listening to a report on the tv and is reaching her left hand out the window to feel one of the pairs of jeans that are drying on the line. She doesn't bring the clothes in until the jeans are dry, that was always her way of knowing when everything else on the line was likely dry too.

April is wearing a yellow tanktop and a pair of gym shorts. She's got no shoes on because it's hot and she likes her feet to be as cool as possible. Her auburn hair is tied up in a messy wad on the back of her head and she's got her black framed reading glasses on her eyes because she'd been on her laptop...

She takes her eyes off the tv to lean out and grabby-hands the jeans to see if they're dry yet while the television is on the News prattling on about a gunfight that Wonder Woman just broke up in the Bronx.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Ya know ..."

Harley comes walking out of her room dressed in a pair of ridiculously large overalls, expression a touch grumpy, hair held up in the traditional pigtails and hands on those big pockets. It's the kind of pockets where she most likely could make her whole arms disappear! No shoes on her feet though, all bare as she wanders in.

"I hope ya didn't go and blow up the dryin' machine just cos ya wanna make some crap porn script with Casey, mmmm?" her expression turning sly, blue eyes glinting with amusement.

"Oooo, Casey.." Now she is imitating April's voice. Sorta. It's a bit pitchy. She holds her hands to her heart, "Will ya come ovah and fix my machine? It broke and now I have nothin' ta dress. Literally..!" it's followed by a good-humored cackle and she walks behind the couch, jumping and sliding down to sit on it relaxedly. "Ooo, Wondah Woman on tv! Have I told ya I went ta the Embassy foh my pen pal's turn into am Amazon?!" she probably did tell that story around hundred times by now, yes.

Leonardo has posed:
Before April leaned out the open window a certain blue-eyed terrapin had slipped though it and took up a place in the corner of the ceiling, holding himself in place with his feet and one hand against the walls 'just so'. He too is watching the news with the roommates.

At the mention of Casey Leo smiles, gladdened to hear that the gang is still looking out for each other and then as Harley jumps on the couch he uses the inevitable noise that makes to cover his soft drop back down to the floor a few feet away from April at the window.

"That's not a story I've heard before, sounds facinating," he says unceramoniously to Harley before saying, "Hey there, ladies," to the pair as a whole.

He keeps his back to the corner and his eyes on the room in order to be aware of Bud and Lou if they enter the room. Best to be safe after all, right?

April O'Neil has posed:
"God, don't put those thoughts in his head." April says outside the window now having heard the porno subject that Harley was proposing be the reason behind all of this. "Besides." She adds. "You're the 'attractive roommate' so don't act like you wouldn't be involve din that." She snaps back...

Having NO IDEA that Leo had slipped in to the apartment through the open window.

April tests the jeans and feels that they're still damp around the pockets so she sighs and is in the process of leaning back inside...

"Yeah, you told me about that, Harls. I'm still upset you never take me with you to her Embassy, I have /so many/ questo---AHH!" April shouts when Leo drops from above and lands a few steps away from her.

She nearly falls back out of the window too! But the fire escape balcony is there, so she's safe and grabs on to the metal railing.

Bud and Lou and downstairs in the stairwell area that leads in to the Antique Store, i.e. the Bud and Lou guard-station-rec-center-lounge-area-for-hyenas.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"You awhe the one puttin' those thoughts in his head, Apes!" Accusing finger pointing at April! J'accuse! But then Harley lounges back on the couch in a sort of a sprawl. "I can take ya one da--" she pauses when April shouts, immediately un-lounging herself with a spring up to her feet, "Holy ceiling ninjas, Batman!" she sorta curses when Leo is just there in a flash. "When did ya get theah..?"

Not that she cares about the answer to that because she continues talking without waiting for an answer to it, "I can show ya a lot of movies like that, Leo! With oh without a roommate steppin' in.." Harley the mistress of porn? But then she adds, "When ya get ta the right age foh it!" she waggling a finger in his direction.

"So, wassup Leo?" She asks. And indeed no hyenas in sight.... for now!

Leonardo has posed:
"April!" Leo exclaims and moves to catch her as she falls towards the fire escape, slowing only when he realizes that she is safe but still extends a hand out to help her get back into the apartment.

Speaking over his shoulder to Harley, Leo says, "I've only been here a few minutes. I was already in place when you came out to the sofa though." Then, taking a page from Master Spliter's proverbial book, he adds, "Don't forget to look up when entering a room. So many people don't," as a teaching moment.

Once everyone is safe he says, "It'd been a while since we'd visited you guys. I just thought I'd drop in." His delivery is smooth, leaving it completely unclear if the pun was intentional or not.

April O'Neil has posed:
April accepts Leo's hand and gets back in to the apartment, leaving the window open since it's not /that/ hot outside today, and she doesn't like to run the air conditioner because it breaks all the time...

She adjusts her glasses and smiles at Leo before rubbing his shoulder. "We're always happy to see you here." She tells him as she walks back further in to the room. "Do you want something to drink?" She asks, back-walking toward the kitchen doorway.

She glances at Harley and smirks at her. "We still got non-alcoholic stuff, right?" She asks the former Clownette of Gotham (former!).

"Hows the others?" April asks, back to Leo again.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Or ...." And Harley gets this rather sagely look to her expression, eyebrow up just so, her fingers near her lips as if she'd be stroking an imaginary mustache, " ... look too much up ta the sky and ya miss the shit undah yoh feet!" it's a good one to live by, specially if you have Bud and Lou living with you. Deadly gifts they can sometimes leave!

She slides from the front over the sofa in a smooth manner, making her way over, "But it's good ta see ya, Leo! Didn't bring the rest o' 'em? Ya know, I still got Dawson's Creek ta see with Mikey." reruns!

As for non-alcoholic stuff. "I think so? I don't drink that crap... And I mean, theah's tapwater too!" yuck.

"You know, ya could had asked Donnie ta come ovah and handle the dryin' machine. Isn't he a genius?"

Leonardo has posed:
"A drink sounds wonderful, April," Leo replies to the offer quickly adding, "Water'll do find unless you have some green tea I could brew up?" Even as he asks he heads toward the kitchen himself to look and see if there's a proper teapot even as a starting point.

"Of course, Harley, you can't ignore any part of your surroundings for any other. But that was my point you see, too many people ignore ceilings," the ninja turtle explains.

April O'Neil has posed:
April walks in to the kitchen with a grin on her lips. She steps otu of the way when Leo joins her though and motions to the oven, a nice tea pot is on the back left burner. There's a wooden cup holder beside the oven that has coffee mugs with April and Harley's faces on either cup, because they're just that kind of corny roommates, eat your heart out Rachel and Monica.

"Yeah, we got all kinds of tea, I've made sure to keep tons in stock incase you or Splinter are ever looking." Not that Splinter comes by here a whole lot, but he has been here in the past after all.

She moves to the cabinet by the laundry machiens in the corner and opens it up to root around for the box of green tea.

"Did Mikey tell you about our adventure in Gotham?" She asks, turning around and holding the box out for Leo. "We got an interesting lead on the Rat Bastard." She says with a smile, glancing over to where Harley was. "Thanks to miss Quinn. She's been a huge help."

She refrains about telling Leo about her visit to the insane asylum wing of Blackgate Prison though... for now.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Oooo, tea! Sounds good ta me. I can sprinkle some whiskey ta go with it, I am suwah it will be great..!" No it won't Harley. But she might just be joking. Might! The clownette joins them in the kitchen, resting with her shoulder to the door while watching the other two, hands in her pockets, "Man, that big crocodile guy was crazy...., it was right outta a horrah movie. And we still need ta go through those papers and laptop with moouh attention and see what we find too."

Not that she explains the adventure in much more detail either. She's an unreliable narrator in any case!

"But maybe we'll be able ta kick that guy's ass soon enough, or at least find him! It'd be good.." A smile, "Ya guys been outta yoh home in a while, though I saw you weah sorta adaptin' well to the mall? Which speakin' of I still gotta open up my hair saloon theah." a toothy grin on her lips.

Because turtles have a lot of hair.

Leonardo has posed:
Having found April's teapot, Leo takes the box of green tea and begins the process of preparing it in the pot on the stovetop. Another glance at the cabinet the pot was in has the tea cups identified and four are retrieved and set aside.

"Thanks for the help then, Harley," Leo says before asking the question that April's teasier begged him to ask, "I've heard a bit but you know Mikey and stories. Why don't you give me the details as you see them, April?" He hammers this home with a sincere but complimentary, "You're always good with the facts."

April O'Neil has posed:
With Leo doing the tea, April walks over to the table to sit herself down and she glances toward him as he tells her to recite the happenings of the investigation. She smiles softly at his compliment and then looks to Harley.

"Yeah, we found a... medical research office?" She asks, looking to Harley for confirmation on that. "It's a bit fuzzy still on what it is. But the bad part is, something was protecting it. Something in the form of ... Foot Ninjas." She admits to the back of Leo's shell.

They haven't seen a lot of Foot Ninjas since Shredder's passing almost two years ago this October. But then again, April saw a man claiming to be Oroku Saki in Harlem just a handful of months ago...

"But that wasn't it. They had something else, a giant... reptile monster, thing, helping them. It came at us. Harlye and I made for the windows and Mikey was right on our heels. We got a laptop from the place, and some papers. I was gonna go over them here this week. I needed help breakin' in to the laptop, but my computer guru friend got it, I think."

Leonardo has posed:
"Giant reptiles, who'd think of that," Leo says with a hint of Raphael-eque sarcasm in his voice. Then, more seriously, he says, "Donnie must've been busy doing tech support or the like I guess," a bit ruefully and then asks, "Did your friend get anything back to you about it yet?"

The teapot beginst to softly whistle indicating the water is boiling so Leo turns away from April and Harley to take it off the heat and put a teaball he found in a drawer - likely April's grandmother's more than something the reporter acquired herself - and after filling it with a few over-sized finger pinches of tea leaves begins steaping the tea. The pot and all four cups are put on a tray and brought over to the table before the mutant terrapin takes a seat with his friends. "It'll be ready to serve in a few minutes," he says with an unspoken encouragement to share anything more that might be shareable.

April O'Neil has posed:
Just as Leo is settling in at the table, Harley's phone starts a bubbly-ringtone from the living room and she has to get up and rush out, stomping her feet to go get it. She can be heard loudly talking on it as she starts to shout at whomever is on the other end and then the door to her bedroom slams shut.

April smiles at Leo, like nothing is going on.

"I'm sure it'll be great." She says about the tea as she leans back in her kitchen table chair and pulls one leg up to prop her foot on the edge of the chair.

"The laptop is unlocked now, yeah. I plan to snoop around on it this week to see what I can find out." She then goes on about the 'job' with the medical research place. "It looks like the Rat King was... working there? We're not sure. It could be why he has such a strange control over the rat population..." She shakes he rhead then before she looks back to Leo.

"I want this guy off the streets, so you guys can have your home back. If you even still want it now that you've been at the Mall so long." She says with a smirk for him. She knows they have nostalgia with their sewer-based domicile though.

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo nods in agreement and understanding about the laptop and the Rat King. Harley's departure, allows Leo to relax, letting go of a trace amount of tension that April might not even have noticed was there until it was gone.

"Won't need these two," he says setting aside half the cups he'd pulled out. Then comes the pouring. A quarter of a cup at a time first into one cup and then into a second. He sets down the pot and waves a hand at the cups, indicating that April should feel free to choose between them herself. Not a formal tea ceremony here, just a sharing of tea between friends.

April O'Neil has posed:
April is aware of a lot of people having that reaction around Harley Quinn. She used to feel that way too, especially the first night Harley broke in to this apartment in a prison jumpsuit and... well yeah.

She smiles softly at the visible deflating of Leo's tension at Harley leaving.

Her right hand reaches out for a cup of tea then and she takes a sip of it after blowing on it. "Mmm, delicious." She says of it before setting it down beside her again.

"Mikey did a good job on the run too. You would've been proud of him. He was right there keeping us safe and such. I think that... giant creature thing put some scratches on his shell too. War wounds." She grins then. "Chicks dig scars, is how I laid it out for him."