|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:05 pm
The dorm was jackin' huge, Roch thought, scowling as he walked down yet another hall, his hands in his pockets. He was looking for a certain reaper boil, but it was interesting just to see what all was in the place. He hadn't started yelling for the other boil yet, at least.
He probably should have sent a message over groanspring, but he'd checked Rikki's groanspring and the last question the boil had answered was over a month ago. Who knew if the guy checked it? And besides, that gloomy b*****d next door was playing that even gloomier music again, and Roch wanted to get away from it.
So he kept walking the hallway, glancing into any room that had its door open for the drummer boil in question.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:21 pm
The boil in question indeed had his door open, but he was at the very end of the corridor. He had been sitting at his desk, face down - quite literally - in his book, as he groaned over something that he really didn't care to study. There wasn't much that he cared to study, actually, outside of food, drums, and ghouls. Why was he in school again?
"Parents..." He groaned aloud to himself. Entirely done with trying to learn his material through diffusion, he spun himself out of his chair and padded to the corner of the room where his drum set sat. He slid out of his hoodie and flopped onto the stool, taking up two black sticks and beating lazily on his snare. Lately, things had been kind of slow. He hadn't seen Lilura recently, many students were off on their own little break adventures, and he was supremely bored.
He picked up a beat that was a little more complex, biting at his bottom lip. He needed entertainment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:27 pm
Roch's ears told him. Had he been a dog they would have perked. As it was, he looked up and broke into a jog, stopping at the bedroom door where the sound was coming from. He peeked in briefly before knocking on the open door and walking into the doorway.
"Rikki! This is your room?" he asked, looking around. "Got a lot more stuff in it than mine, that's for sure. Hey, you doin' anything?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:37 pm
It took Nyyrikki a moment to realize anyone had even knocked, but as soon as he had, he stopped his drumming and rested his sticks on his legs, leaning slightly to look at his visitor. To his surprise, he found Roch peeking into his room.
He looked around his dorm and nodded. The dark blue walls, posters, and large bed were all very cozy. He was pretty comfortable in his little corner of the world. "Yeah, it's pretty jackin' snazzy I guess." He shrugged. It was better than the hole he'd had at his parents', that was for sure. And the floors in this room only creaked when some serious s**t was going down, which was a welcome change. "Nah, I'm free. Whatcha got goin' on?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:44 pm
"A couple of questions, actually," Roch said, heading inside and dropping down on the nearest thing there was to sit on. Then he hesitated. "How... ah... comfortable are you doing really stupid stuff?" he asked.
Maybe this hadn't been such a great idea. Mot had volunteered by stalking him there, this guy was a perfectly uninvolved bystander. "Actually, nah, I probably shouldn't ask you," he said. "Hey, wanna jam a bit? I mean, you got your drums, I can summon my guitar--"
Which was just asking for the other boil to ask what the problem was, wasn't it? But Roch was already distracted. There were a lot of things he could do with a drum in the background!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:57 pm
Nyyrikki leaned back against the wall closest to his set and crossed his arms, leveling a very serious look at Roch. "I'm extremely comfortable doing really stupid stuff." He waved his stained hands at Roch to vouch for him before crossing them again. Something really weird was going on, and it didn't take a smart reaper to see it. Good thing, too.
"What's goin' on man? You can ask me whatever. I don't have anything to hide," he shrugged. He really didn't. He was pretty much an open book. One with pretty pictures rather than words. "You obviously didn't come here for a jam sesh, no matter how awesome that sounds."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:15 pm
"Okay," Roch said, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees. "Things... happened last night. I dunno if you'd call them good, or not, but I did get paid, and invited back--most importantly, I got paid. But the gig--dude, I can actually say that, how awesome is that? Well the gig is an open door thing, provided I give them two things. One is I keep my mouth shut. The second is, I bring a drummer."
Then he stopped, examining what he had just said. "Except it's in a pretty... dangerous place. And I ain't sure, but the most dangerous guys are the ones that run it."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:28 pm
Nyyrikki rubbed his face, watching the boil with interest. "A gig? That's crazy," he said admiringly. He'd never really thought about gigs. He'd just started playing in front of people recently. Getting paid for it? Well that seemed like the kind of dream his parents would scoff at.
Which had Rikki's immediate interest.
"What kind of dangerous are we talking? Reaper dangerous? Gang dangerous? Unknown dangerous?" So many kinds it could be. Every one presented it's own challenges. This was turning into all the entertainment he could ask for, and more. He leaned forward, his orange eyes glowing behind his dark bangs. "I'm so jacking in, by the way."
He didn't need to know more to know that much. How often did an opportunity like this present itself? Not often. At least not in the grim's short life.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:36 pm
"It's a gambling hall," Roch said, grinning. At least one other person that saw the awesomeness of this happening. "So that means it's monster dangerous, demon dangerous, and reaper dangerous all in one ugly, smoky little ball. They even broke out in this massive fight the time me and Mot where there. It was scarier than s**t, but--"
He dug a bag out of his pocket, showing it to the other reaper. "Full of silver seeds, man. I haven't even blown it all on food yet! That's saying a LOT. But this place..." He frowned. "The only downside--" Did he just say that? For serious? "Is the guys that seem to run it. Some scary a** bastards in the back room."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:10 pm
Nyyrikki pushed himself up from his stool and ambled over the look at the bag of seeds, peering inside with interest. Seeds. Just sweeten the deal a little more, Roch, cause Rikki was on his way to a pretty serious toothache as was.
"You're playin' my song, man. Playin'. My. Song." This was all too good to believe. Danger, excitement, and drums. All in a gambling hall? Skellington-Jack-in-a-pumpkin-pie! He was practically buzzing with excitement. "I'll introduce you to my parents one day and we'll have a conversation about scary." Of course, his parents weren't really that bad. Serious as s**t, but not too scary, unless you weren't used to Grim Reapers.
As he passed the boil, he reached across his bed to grab a jet black hoodie and pull it over his head, the over-sized hood shadowing his face a bit. It was like a thinking cap - he needed a hoodie to think properly. "They got a set of their own?" he asked, motioning at his drums. He could pack them up, but it would take more than one boil to carry it all. He supposed he could always drag the bongo set out of his closet. He didn't use them often.
"How did you find this place?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:18 pm
"I told them if they want a drummer they gotta supply the drums," Roch said, watching the other boil with a slight grin. "We can't go running around at midnight carrying an entire set with us, y'know? But ah..."
Now how to explain it? "Well I had this little... conversation with my old man. It involved pets and weapons and all these little non-important things--" Lie. Seriously, Roch, you deserved your pants catching on fire all those times! "Well anyway he finishes up by saying someone named Vegas is in town and he'd explain later, but the jacktard STILL hasn't explained, so I went looking for him. And Mot said he heard about a Vegas one time, who's a really big gambler. So we went to a gambling hall."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:30 pm
He paced a little bit as Roch explained, all his energy making it hard for him to sit still. "Vegas. Haven't heard of him..." That wasn't a huge surprise. He wasn't a street kid, and hadn't done any gambling. His parents were way too proud to let him do something fun like that. But, he was here at the academy and on his own, so it seemed like as good a time as any to start enjoying himself.
"Daddy issues? Maybe he got himself into some serious s**t. Off fighting the bad guys like a hero."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:40 pm
"What do you mean by... 'Daddy issues' exactly?" Roch asked, his tone going flat. "I ain't got a dad complex, jackdammit!" Which seemed like that comment had hit a nerve. "Hell, forget about the Vegas part, we didn't find him anyway. This is more important. I need seeds and I need more of them, otherwise I'll be stuck on a three meal a day thing, and that's not going to happen."
He still looked a little agitated over that statement, his knee was bouncing and a slight frown pulled at his lips. "I've worked street corners all my life. Not once have I made this much in one night. At least, not without working and splitting it with Bones. But if people find out, we might get in trouble..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:53 pm
"Whoa whoa," he held up his hands defensively, shaking his head - though the motion was probably lost under the hood. "Slow your speed, man. I didn't mean anything by it. You just seemed less than pleased with your old man." He dropped the subject though.
"So we've got to make a jack-ton of seeds, and do it without getting caught... Easy enough for me." He melded into the shadows, and quickly reappeared on the other side of Roch in coiling wisps, tilting his head at him. "So you don't have to worry about that." He poked at his own lower lip with a stained finger. "Is Mot coming, too?" This was starting to look like a reaper party. Whoop whoop.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 9:01 pm
Roch glanced up at him. "I dunno," he admitted, wondering briefly if that trick could be taught. "He wasn't too happy with the old geezers that ran it, almost got both of us killed because of it, but he did seem to like the prospect of gambling and making money. Hell, I haven't even decided when to go back. I can't do it nightly, and if we do it too often we're more than likely to get caught."
He frowned over this new problem, trying to view it from all angles. "Maybe once a month? And yeah, we might need to get a new singer. I only know of one other, though. That Ren guy from the auditions..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
