agoodmusekickin

All is mostly quiet in the gym/garage that lives down the Milliways Staff Hallway. If you didn't know any better you'd probably believe the room to be empty. But if you pay close attention, and know what you're listening for, you'll hear clear as day the sounds of a ninja working on a motocycle. It's there in the subtle sounds, the quiet clicks of ratchets, the well greased turns of bolts on treads.


It's even in the slow and steady beat of a bootheel tapping on the battered wood floor. 
Raph, who's taken up his usual spot on the floor beside his bike, shifts positions slightly in an effort to reach a particularly tricky component. This simple action has the unforseen result of jarring his already well burrowed earworm. So in addition to the tapping of his foot, he also finds himself unconsciously humming, and then whistling the melody of a particularly uncharacteristic song.


And then, before he even knows what he's doing....the words spill out.


"<i>go go go
Where you want
But don’t leave me
Here forever
You you you stay away
So long girl, I see ya never...</i>


"<i><B>What can I do, girl
To get through to you
Cause I love ya
Baby</B></i>


This second verse catches him by surprise, not because he doesn't know the words, but because the voice singing them is not his own. No, it's a full octave higher than his soft baritone. Raph rolls slightly, and cranes his neck to look around his motorcycle. There in the doorway stands his youngest brother who saw fit to not only invite himself into the room, but the song as well.


And it appears he's added choreography as well.


<i></b>Standing here
Baptized in all my tears
Baby through the years
Ya know I’m cryin
Oo oo oo oo oo</B></I>


Silence once again falls upon the room. 
Raph looks at Mike.
Mike grins madly at Raph.



The older brother shakes his head and rolls back out of sight. A second or two later a tape deck begins to play, "Them Bones" by Alice in Chains at a volume that can only be discribed as Eleven.

Setting: The Brain of a Certain Gamer

A turtle of unusual size sits across a bar table from a gunslinger.
Between them sits a paperback book.
They drink in silence for a long time...until.

"Just so's we're clear? Any part o' you that touches me, you don't get back."

"Aye. Say thankya."

Adam: They're so cute when they're sleeping.
Mike: You're saying cute because you can't say quiet, aren't you?
Adam: Pretty much. Do you have the hot water?
Mike: Right here. Two bowls.

Context is:
A passed out Alanna and Raph snoring up a storm on a couch together.

Hiding in the protective shadow of a Bar.

"Pssst. Hey. Frak."

"Uh...me?"

"Yup. Wanna do me a favor?"

"That depends...who and where are you?"

"Not important. Just like....turn around and tell me if the funky-haired girl over by the window still looks pissed."

"Uh. Holy crap is that....is that Mel Fray?"

"Maaaaybe."

"Wow...just....wow."

"Yeah yeah, I know. Trust me I know. Does she look pissed?"

"Kinda, yeah."

"Do me a favor? Bring this to her."

A hand reaches up from behind the Bar and places a bright gerbera daisy on the bartop.

"Dude, to be honest...I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Why's that?"

"Have you seen what she can do? I mean...she's a SLAYER."

"Well yeah, of course I have, which is why YOU'RE going to go over there."

"Oh yeah? What makes you think I'm crazy enough to do that?"

Mike peeks over Bar's top and looks deeply into eyes that just so happen to look exactly like his.

"Because to be quite honest, you'd be crazy not to. Sorry dude, you're caught between a ninja and a slayer place."

Dahlia Malloy, you tag Raphael
Tim Speedle, you tag Raphael (ljIM ladyiapetus) or kgyorkos AT gmail)
Raphael, you tag Annabelle Newfield
Raphael, you tag Captain America (sleepygeeky)

Dean Thomas, you tag Michaelangelo
Han Solo, you tag Michaelangelo
Michaelangelo, you tag Kyle XY
Michaelangelo, you tag Molly from Heroes (ljIM ladyiapetus) or kgyorkos AT gmail)

The Flying Squirrel, you tag The Loompas
Francesca Bruni, you tag The Loompas (the brat)
The Loompas, you tag Captain Shakespeare
The Loompas, you tag Nikola Tesla

VII

It doesn't really matter how one gets where they are in dreams; one second you're nowhere and the next somewhere. This particular somewhere is a place Raph would know from anywhere, it's Milliways...and yet not. The overall layout is the same as it has always been; the front door, the tables and chairs, the bar. Something isn't right though, and as Raph walks into the room he becomes very acutely aware of what that something is: all of the chairs have been placed seat down on the table tops. It's almost as if The Management is trying to give the one lone patron the not-so-subtle hint that it's closing time and that while he doesn't have to go home, he can't stay here. That patron in question isn't Raph, it's the tall pale man in black seated at the bar. He's leisurely nursing his beverage, a nameless drink that Raph can't identify but something in the back of his mind believes it to be a White Russian.

"Yo, buddy. I think they want us gone."

The man says nothing. He doesn't even turn to acknowledge Raph's existence.

"Hello? You deaf or somethin'? I said they want us outta here. Looks like they're closing shop."

Out the window the universe appears to bruise. Now angry, Raph crosses the space between them at a march.

"What the fuck, man. You blowin' me off?" The moment he lays a hand on the pale stranger he knows him to be the Dark God, and that drink he's holding isn't a White Russian at all, but wine so dark it looks freshly bled.

Raph staggers back a few steps, swallows hard, and finds himself giving voice to a fear he's long held.
"This is the end, ain't it. It's the end and...she....she ain't comin' for me, is she? Ain't ever."

The man, still looking forward, sighs.

He regains his bravado.
"Yeah, well that suits me just fine. I don't need her anyway."

Now the man swirls his drink, watching as all the liquor forms legs which slowly form and ooze down their way down the inside of his glass.

"No, you know what? It ain't fine. It sucks, is what it does. I waited for her! I spent an entire year waiting for her. Just waiting for her to come and make it all stop. Oh I could have made her, but...I didn't want to have to have to seem me like that. It was bad enough I was broken as I was...as I am. I didn't need her to see me wanting to be out of my misery, even though...that's all I fucking wanted at all!"

The man holds the glass to the light now, admiring the jewel tones of the liquid.

"IT AIN'T FAIR, YOU HEAR ME? What they did to me wasn't fair! I didn't do nothing to them. I fuckin' saved them. All I do is fucking save them, people....HUMANS, time and time again. From themselves. From each other. And it still ain't enough. Still a freak no matter what I do, or what I look like, or where ever the fuck I am! Nothing ever changes! Nothing's ever right! And they ain't got no fucking right to do what they did to me! I was there to HELP them! Tie me to a table. Cut me up inside. Two years of my life they took! Two! Two I'll never get back! And for what? Because I was different!? And now this?! Stuck in your fucking dimension just because? What gave you the right to do that, huh? I ain't some pawn for you to fuckin' toy around with! What's the matter, got tired of actually playing with people who actually believe in you? Felt like you had to branch out?"

Slowly, as if completely immune to the ranting beside him, the man raises his glass to his lips and drinks.

"HEY! Don't you fuckin' ignore me! I'm right the fuck here! I'm not going anywhere! I'm staying right the fuck here! I'm staying here until I get some fucking answers!"

And with that Raph knocks the glass out of the man's hand.

Time passes slowly as the glass flies through the air and crashes down on the floor behind the bar. It's only after the last shatter of glass has come to rest that the man turns towards Raph. There's no anger in the God's face, in fact there's really no emotion at all.

Get over it.

The words aren't said so much as imprinted in Raph's mind. Actually, with the force they are received it's possible the words have been imprinted down to his very DNA.

The dark god stands and claps Raph on the shoulder....hard.

Get over her.

He passes the ex-turtle and makes his way for the door, pausing only to issue his last command once his own hand is on the doorknob.

And yourself.

The Dark God shuts off the lights and exits, making sure to close the door behind him leaving Raph alone in the dark.

Raph shudders as the dark swallows him whole, voice lost to the vacuum of time itself.

A sliver of light appears where there was once the memory of a door. The Dark God leans back through the portico.

AND CUT YOUR HAIR, HIPPIE.