2007-07-14: Dragons In His Pants

Starring:

Lee_icon.gif Liv_icon.gif Dorian_icon.gif Rochelle_icon.gif

Summary: Random people in the East Village converge transiently. Someone has dragons in his pants. Lee and Rochelle connect over music.

Date It Happened: July 14th, 2007

Dragons In His Pants


East Village, New York City

"Bye, mate!" Across the street from the Secret Lair, a woman with colourful tattoos up her arms and across her chest is whirling around in front of an apartment complex to give the wave to whoever is peeking out the fourth floor window. Spinning back around on her heel in one fluid motion, she keeps on 'til she steps right off the curb in her floppy black sneakers. Traffic, traffic, traffic-break! Liv makes a run for it. Jay-walking! Does she not see the police officer standing right over there? Why yes, she does. When she's in the middle of the street. No going back now, lest she get hit by a bus — oh crap, A BUS! She makes a run for it, veeeeering off to the right away from the law as soon as she jumps the opposite curb.

A thin young man leans up against a brick wall that has been decorated with foul words and gang symbols while letting the red glow of his cigarette illuminate his face partially. His faded blue jeans are frayed at the bottom and don't look like they have had the same proper care as the tight black tee-shirt that clings to his torso. His gray-blue eyes peer up and down the street, as if he was waiting for someone, just not someone in particular. He spots the cop over at the corner dealing with some nut ranting about a shoplifter and maintains his cool, after all it's the Village and he knows how to blend in with the background when he needs to.

Rochelle seems to be the only one in between stationary and moving around at a run; for simplicity's sake, she is really just walking down the street with a black instrument case slung over her bare shoulder. The policeman down the length of the sidewalk is given a moment of watching, but as she moves around the bunch with an intent to pass them by, the policeman utters those ridiculous words. So ridiculous that Rochelle has to stop, swivel around, and speak. "Did you…just ask that kid if he had dragons in his pants?"

Lee totally blows Liv's cover by looking alarmed when the bus nearly hits her. The cop turns around, but he tries to re-cover for her by saying, "Oh, uh, she almost tripped in front of the bus." he explains.

The policeman buys it, at least partly because he's distracted by Rochelle. He explains to her: "Shoplifting at the nerd store." "Hey, you knew what D&D was, asshole." replies the kid. "Shut up." says the policeman, offering a statement form to Lee to sign, which he does. "Trespass him?" Lee says. "Sure." replies the cop, before moving on with his new charge in handcuffed tow. Apparently Lee is attached to the store in some way, funny that he didn't protest the 'nerd store' thing. He looks at the two women nearby, shakes his head: "Standards are slipping, it used to be armed robbery in this neighborhood." he quips.

Whew. In an upbeat mood, particularly now that she's on the sidewalk, Liv loops her thumbs in the pockets of her black cargo shorts and just starts to meander along, giving the young man leaning against the wall a curious glance — granted, no more curious than the glance she gives the graffti behind — when … dragon in his pants? What? She's walking away from the police officer, but when she hears someone speak those words, she has absolutely zero strength of mind to stop herself from peering over her shoulder. She's completely unaware, of course, that the shop-owner covered for her a second ago there. When the cop leaves, though? She realizes she's walking in the wrong direction. Spin time. "… every good thief's got to start somewhere," she interjects, her voice pointing out pretty clearly that she's Australian.

A gentleman walks past Dorian with a smile stretched out across his face but continues to walk past him. Even with the cops around it's never stop a potential client from approaching him. He tries to shake it off and chuckles lightly to himself when he over hears about the plight of the neighborhood, "Poor nerd boy," he says to himself and continues to press his back up against the graffiti-covered wall. His eyes focus in on the small gathering at the corner and begins to laugh a little at the situation, how many opportunities will someone actually have to watch some being arrested for stealing D&D miniatures.

Rochelle has to watch the rest of this, because it happens to be the most interesting thing yet this afternoon. Nerd Store? She looks over towards the storefront as the policeman moves away and Lee comments on the crime as casually as the weather; in any case, it seems that way to Rochelle. "Well, how d'you know I don't have a tommy gun in this fiddle case? Maybe I'm gonna go to rob a bank." Rochelle looks Lee over with a false air of seriousness as she says this, but it is clear that it's some attempt at humor. She tries, at least. The tail end of this try gets marked by Liv's voice, which receives a curious look in return. "Maybe he'd have had better luck in bigger somewhere, though." Tsk.

Lee eyes the loiterer, but there's no law against it. Wait, is there? He says, "Because I know a fiddle case when I see one. I play the electric violin myself." He grins at Rochelle, "No bigger place than New York, I say." He addresses Liv as she doubles back this way. "You okay? You nearly got creamed trying to dodge a fifty dollar ticket."

Liv reaches up to ruffle her hair from the top of her head down idly. Shorn a few inches past her chin, the ends flip upward. "Saw it coming! I had it timed. To the second. Under control!" She gives a sparkling smile. She's about to step on past Lee and Rochelle (who she routinely stares at on and off during this little encounter, 'cause let's face it, you don't see a towering musclebound lady carrying a fiddle ever day) when she's stopped again by her blasted curiosity. "Wait. Wait. Hold up just a minute. Did you just say electric violin?" See this? This scrunched up face is one of deep confusion and maybe, just maybe, appal.

Dorian pushes himself off of the wall and walks towards the little gathering shaking his head, "Ya'll are bad fer business," he quips with a thick southern accent. He looks over at the girl with the foreign accent and smiles, "You really should be more careful, public transport is a bitch." He smiles at the gentleman who took it upon himself to bring the cops down into Dorian's neck of the woods, although he still feels like something is off, if only he could put his finger on it. He turns his attention to the muscle bound lass and offers her a nod of acknowledgement, she looks familiar but a lot of people do thanks to late hours and a lack of sleep.

The response from Lee does pry a chuckle out of Rochelle. "Do you?" Then when Liv decides to cut in again, another chuckle bubbles up. "How does it sing? I've never heard'em much." Annnd another voice? This one belongs to Dorian, and she looks at him now with a small crease above her brows. Bad for business? Dare she want to know what kind of business? Prrrobably not.

Lee says, "Er, yeah, electric violin." to Liv: "Stuff Smith? Eddie Jobson? Laurie Anderson? Yellowcard? Operator Please? Any of this ringing a bell?" Satisfied that his indie cred is fully established, he says to Dorian, "Wait until tomorrow. Nancy Reagan is going to be here with her 'Just Say No' bikini on." He has no sympathy for Dorian. He says to Rochelle, "Depends on how you work the pickups and the amps. I even rigged a tape bow and a couple of MIDI systems. My sister and I have this combo. Mostly keyboards, but it's sort of a Beck meets Information Society thing. I'm guessing you play…bluegrass?"

Maybe Rochelle doesn't want to know what kind of business, but we've already determined that Liv is curious. However, she's also way more perceptive than someone who almost walks in front of buses would seem to be. She just gives Dorian an inquisitive little eyebrow raise - which then turns on to Lee, only less with the inquisitive and more with the incredulous. "Blaah blah blah yikes— " Insert Yellowcard-related wince here. " —blah." About to ask why violins need to be electrified, she stops when Lee starts rambling about things she doesn't understand.

The young man's smile broadens as he focuses on Lee, comments like that generally end in compromising positions. But there is something really wrong tonight, the geek boy should be swooning by now. A look of confusion washes over his boyish face, Johns are just walking past him and now this small group doesn't seem to want to budge from his territory. He smiles at the foreign woman when she quirks an eyebrow at him and listens to the other man drone on about obscure band, at least obscure to most of the public.

Rochelle lets other people handle the more technical things, so while some goes over her head, she does seem to understand the lattermost bits. Whether she understands or not, she absorbs it for later. Finally, she smiles. "Yeah. I suppose fiddles are pretty easy to guess. Celtic, bluegrass, or folk, is what most people think. The fellas I play with are more Americana based—and covers of other genres. We figured it worked for Cash, so why not." Rochelle is easy enough to talk to, and doesn't seem to get very complicated. The latter is a distinct difference from Lee, certainly.

Lee does not drone, not even close. Actually his voice is quite sprightly, easy to listen to, quick and deft. It is sympathetic when he replies to Rochelle: "Yeah…it's tough to get your own material together when you're doing it in your spare time, my sister's got the store, I've got the school year starting again soon, so we end up with a lot of covers too." He looks at Dorian's puzzled look with annoyance, says only, "What got up /your/ nose?" and adds to Liv: "So you /do/ know what it is, and you were asking, why?" He mistook her 'blah blah blah' for accusing him of saying something she already knew. He must get 'blah blah blah' a lot from people.

"… Never mind." Even though she gives Lee a rather unimpressed look - to the tune of 'are you for real?' - Liv has an easygoing smile to go along with it. She tucks her hands into her pockets and moseys around the pair of musicians, looking the Secret Lair up and down as she goes. Especially its door.

Dorian lifts his arm and nonchalantly sniffs his armpit, "Nothin'," he starts to say then thinks about it, "Sorry, ya'll ma bad, I'm thinkin' I'm the one that's bad fer business." He looks back at both of the women and the strange little man, "Enjoy yer night, oh and buddy their both WAY outta yer league." With a lighthearted laugh he heads down the road and disappears into the night, leaving a trail of cigarette smoke behind him.

Rochelle glances past Lee's head towards the storefront when he mentions it again. It looks like a cute little place, but comics and old school video games are about the extent of Rochelle's nerdisms these days. "You're a teacher?" Her brown eyes shift back to the man's face, and away again as Dorian takes off. They literally roll back into place when she looks back to Lee. Where was I? "Teach anything specific, or just a bit of everything? I hear teaching around here isn't the easiest thing, either. That true?" What a social butterfly she is today.

Lee shifts from annoyance to puzzlement as Dorian withdraws. "What the hell?" he says, shaking his head, like what Dorian said made no sense whatsoever. "Aaaaanyway." He informs Liv: "It's just as bad on the inside. No, probably worse. You can't see the 'kryptonite display' from the street." He shudders. "I teach junior high civics up in the Bronx. It's about a thousand times worse than you've heard. Let's just say I'm treasuring every moment between now and when school starts."

"Not lookin' for kryptonite!" Liv calls out without a glance back, just a wave over her shoulder as she wanders down the street, through the Village.

"If it's so bad up there, why do you do it?" The question may seem innocent enough, but Rochelle is more thoughtful than she might appear to be. Sometimes it is a good thing, sometimes it is a bad thing.

Lee says, "Uh, good, good. Excellent taste. Don't get hit by any busses?" to Liv's back. He then turns his attention back to Rochelle, "It's pretty much the only job I could get with my French Literature degree after I dropped out of grad school and moved back to New York. What do you do?"

French Literature? That's awfully out-there. Rochelle takes that answer as enough, a small smile covering the previous expression of consideration. "This'n that, but—my 'job' is in construction engineering." There is a hesitant second from her before one rough, strong hand floats out beside her in an offering of a handshake. "I'm Rochelle, if y'care." Another smile; good mood today! It is helping.

Lee says, "Oh, of course! I should have introduced myself. I'm Lee." He shakes, gracefully enough. "So where do you and your band play? Maybe I could drop in sometime?"

"We frequent a few places that fit the band, and mostly play when we're all fit for it. Cowboy digs, redneck bars—sometimes little get-togethers in the park. We've been practicing for something later this month, but I guess we're not sure where it's gonna be yet. I could always get in touch if you're really interested?" Rochelle rattles a little bit, but the point gets made eventually.

Lee loves to talk, in case anyone hadn't noticed, and that includes letting the other person have a go every once in a while. "That would be great." he says. "I'd love to check it out. It's not usually my thing, well, other than the greats, but all the small bands should at least keep their ears open for each other, I think. You'll call?" He fishes out a crummy school card that identifies the hellhole in which he teaches as John Philip Sousa Junior High School, and writes a number on the back.

Rochelle doesn't often get phone numbers from anyone unless she actually tries, so this is something relatively new. Oh. Hm. Alright. She nods once, ready to accept the card(albeit with a pause again). "Oh, yeah. I think I'll definitely remember. I can't really forget someone I met after the sentence 'do you have dragons in your pants?', so you'll hear from me eventually."

Lee laughs. "The one upside of shoplifters. They make ya memorable." Assuming you're not a giantess to start with. "Was great to meet you, Rochelle."

Rochelle nods again, glancing at the card. She lifts her hand in a partial wave as she moves off with a smile. "Nice to meet you too, Lee. Take it easy."

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