fandomtownies | The Perk; Monday Afternoon, after 4th Period.

Entry tags:

The Perk; Monday Afternoon, after 4th Period.

Considering that he had a promise to introduce Beauty to ice cream tomorrow and coffee shops were generally more conducive to pretentious artsy types like himself, anyway, A.J. had ~~handwavily~~ left a message of Charlie to meet him at the Perk instead of Chilly Boulder like their last jam session. This might have been a potentially bad idea. He was already charged up from using pastels in the art class that had just finished and was now drawing some stylized versions of the scenes in their graphic novels with the little pack he had brought with him. Adding such volatile creativity to caffeine, massive amounts of it, no less with lots and lots and lots of sugar, could be more creativity than one little coffee shop could handle once Charlie got there. But only time would tell.

[[ post is open for all your coffee-nated needs; A.J.'s here to meet with

girl_zippo, but feel free to catch him and say hi before she gets there! ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Charlie waved to A.J. when she arrived, then headed to the counter. "Tall espresso, extra whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles please." Mmmmm. Caffieeeene. Good stuff.

Most of Charlie's writing lately had gone in the direction of the space ship, partly because she felt Officer A and newly-minted Lieutenant Ildiko deserved some more focus. And partly because she had to figure out how to get them out of the brig for letting Sean and Derek get away. Hmm. Maybe another attack...?

"Hey, A.J. What are you working on?" she asked, settling in across from him.

"Hey, Charlie," A.J. grinned lopsidely as he swiped another pastel across the paper to give more movement to the character's already very flowing hair. "Look," he said, and setting the sketchpad up so that Charlie could see. "It's that one scene, but, it's all....pastel-ly."

"Oh, cooool," Charlie said, leaning forward. "It's much more sky-like now, a lot more foggy. I love that. Bobbi looks a lot more ethereal like this." She grinned. "I came up with a new character, and I have to figure out how to break her and Officer A out of the brig cell. How'd your art class go?"

"Good," A.J. chuckled. "We worked on pastels. Thus?" He gestured to the sketchbook as he laid it down on the table. "Got to do a landscape for next week, which will be easy as cake. Even got my spot in mind, over in the Rocky Bits, where Troy and I fir-- err, where we, uh, hid from that dinosaur that one time, remember that?"

Yeah, A.J. was a little pink, which seemed a good chance to switch back over to work. "U, but, yeah, tell me about this new character, maybe I can help?" He grinned at their coffees. "And if I can't, I bet this stuff will. Fuel for the artistic soul...Or crack for it, I forget which one it is."

"Thus," Charlie echoed, agreeing and taking another energy-inspiring sip of caffiene. "The Rocky Bits? I don't think I've been out there yet-- wait, are these the really jagged parts, near the beach?" She half-remembered going by there on the back of Johnny's bike a month ago. "And yeah, I remember you mentioning that." Troy and he... did what? Hunh. Well, if he didn't want to get into whatever that was, she wasn't going to push. She did give him a curious look, though.

"She's the Communications Officer, so she was jamming communications so the MP's couldn't find my commandos. Umm, Asian, probably Japanese, but she doesn't have to be, slim, and looks really smart. A looks enthusiastic and like she'll whap someone with a hammer, but Ildiko would be setting trip wires."

"A hammer, huh?" A.J. smirked; of course it would be the hammer he fixated on. His fingers were edging toward his sketchbook to start a possible prelim on this Ildiko. He wasn't sure if it was who Charlie had in mind, but he couldn't help thinking of Hoshi for a model, and wondered what Charlie would think if he suggested that she should make Ildiko a fan of grilled cheese. "So, you've still got to figure out how she helps, right?"

"Right! I mean, I know she was diverting signals, but... now I need to know how they get out of jail. A can replicate herself, but Ildiko needs something equally cool so she's not just getting rescued." Charlie frowned, and started making lists in her notebook. "Maybe... electronics? Or--" And she thought of her roommate. "Talking to computers? Or robots?"

"What good is a hammer against reinforced titanium?" Ildiko demanded. "We can't get caught! There'll be alarms if you use that."

A looked mutinous, then sighed. "Fine, you think of something!"

"Maybe..." She sent the control panel a speculative look.

"Electronics in general?" A.J. offered, flipping open his notebook and going to dig through his pocket for a pencil. "Like, not talking talking, but just communicating? She can just 'understand' them, or something, by tuning in on their...I don't know, wavelength? And that helps her figure out how they work? Does that even make sense?"

"Ooooooo." Charlie started scribbling immediately, handing pages over to A.J. as she finished them, big block paragraphs so he could figure out the action. "That works!"

Concentrating, Ildiko found the wavelength and frequency of the program running the security cameras. Then the one running the door. With a tiny adjustment of amplitude, the cameras were now monitoring the cell next door. With another tiny bit of effort, the locks on their cell slid open, the alarm shut off.

"Yes!" A waved her hammer in the air in victory. "I mean, yes," she whispered. "Can we sneak down the hallway already?"

"Right behind you. the first hundred meters are safe, but I think there's a guard at the stairwell...."

A.J. grinned as he read through the paragraphs. "Awesome," he critiqued, brandishing his pen. "Already have it in my head; just give me..." He took a quick swig of his cappuccino. "Two minutes."

And he quickly started to sketch out the start of the scene, already so vibrant and perfect in his mind. And, yeah, Ildiko was looking a lot like Hoshi; he added bangs for variety and difference.

Charlie imitated him and took another swig of espresso, her pen moving even faster as she thought, talking out loud a little. "How many guards would you put to guard a staircase? One, or maybe three? Well, it's my story, I think there should be three."

Unfortunately Ildiko had been completely correct: there were guards at the stairwell. Three of them. A sighed, then shook her head. "My turn."

*Pfft fft fftttt fffffft*

There had to be sound-effects, right?

And suddenly there were four A's where there had been one. "CHARGE!"

Only one of them had a hammer, but they all knew jujitsu, and the three guards were trained and armed, but they weren't berserk. Which A, apparently, was.

Ildiko charged in after a second too, taking away the guns of the fallen soldiers and collecting them under one arm.

Charlie looked up to see A.J.'s efforts, then squeaked. "You've met Hoshi!"

A.J. chuckled a little as he added a little extra black boarder around Hoshi....errrr, Ildiko's exclamation bubble. "...is it that obvious? Did you base her on Hoshi? Totally sounded like her when you describe the character, so I couldn't get her out of my head."

"Yup, that's her. She's really ambitious and poised, you know? Which is a good contrast to how I think of A, who's kind of based on Z Delgado, if you've met her." Charlie grinned and handed over more pages. "Plus, she speaks a *lot* of languages, and wants to serve on a starship. Kind of easy, there. Ildiko will stop acting exactly like Hoshi in a chapter or two, but it's easier if I have a point to start from, you know?"

Finally, all three guards were subdued, but when A re-integrated, it was clear that one wrist was broken. "Ow, ow, ow."

"We need to get you medical attention," Ildiko said, holding the door for her as they plunged down the stairwell. "Soon!"

"No time! If we don't get out of here soon, the next shift will find those guards are missing!" A crouched down, cradling her injured arm, and peeked through the doorway. "Fabulous. We're on the space deck. Can you fly an escape jet?"

"So," A.J. grinned, adding some more to the scenes with a slight glance toward Charlie's ever moving hand, wondering how he was giong to keep up with the rush of inspiration that clearly motivated her. "Now I gotta ask. Where'm I?"

"Oo." Which totally derailed Charlie, just as Ildiko and A were climbing into the cockpit of a two-person flyer. "Oooo. Hmmm. Where *would* you be?"

She tore off another page from the notepad, and decided, "Back on Earth, working on.. working on..." She squinted her eyes shut. "Oooo! A secret underground effort to protect the Earth, under cover of being a street muralist!"

She tapped her pencil on her notebook as she thought, then realized, "I have no idea why they're an underground effort."

Okay, undercover street muralist was pretty freaking awesome, but A.J. chuckled out of feeling bad for sending Charlie off target. "Aw, man," he said, embarrassed, "I didn't mean you had to put me in if it meant stopping your streak, Charlie..." He pouted at her a little, because you couldn't be mad at someone with a pout like that, right? Right?

Charlie certainly couldn't. "No, it's okay! I always need more stuff. And you should be in there." She grinned. "And this way, you can draw yourself in! With really cool hair!"

She shook her head. "I need to do an outline," she admitted. "Something to connect everyone up, and leave space for new characters, but still have an ending, you know?" She frowned, then added, "Then again, the best comics never do seem to end, do they?"

"Psh," A.J. said, tossing his head a little. "I already have cool hair. And, yeah, who needs closure? But, on second thought, maybe I don't know if I'm cool with having to draw myself. I don't know; maybe if you get something, sure, I guess I could. I get to make myself buff, though. And you should, uh, put Troy in, too; he was my sidekick for Superhero class, after all."

Yeah, that's it. Sidekick.

"Oh, cool. What would Troy's superpower be? Your guy's would be something like secret messages in the art, or moving murals. You pick," Charlie suggested.

Okay, so she had:
Elisabeth
Sean
Derek
A
Bobbi
Jimmy
Ildiko

And of course, the villain; the pirate; the guy based on John Rainbird.

Not that she'd ever explain that to anyone.

A.J. shifted in his seat a little to better lean over excitedly to see Charlie's work. "Actually," he said, "my super power was to use art as a distraction. I'd super quick paint something and then the bad guys would be so intrigued by it that they would be powerless to do anything but stand around and pretentiously discuss it like art critics. And, uhhh, I guess Troy's could be..."

No, A.J. Dirty.

"Um. We could incorperate his basketball stuff, maybe? Like, he's good with...balls. Basketballs!"

....Nice. A.J., for some reason hopefully unknown to present company, rubbed his eyes a little as if that would scour the dirty from his brain.

Charlie giggled. For lo, she is a teenage girl, and sometimes her brain goes to silly, glittery places. And she's had a lot of espresso.

"Ahem! Okay. Um. Maybe... Ooo, basketball grenades?" she suggested, looking hopeful. "They get armed after he hits a little button and throws them? He can be Super A.J's look-out man. For while he's exchanging information. And I like the super-fast art and distraction idea." She snickered. "Mesmerizing art, right before your eyes."

She could practically *see* it happening, A.J. wielding spray guns like a pro, and finishing them off with a roller of extra pastels.

Oh, God, she was giggling. She was giggling, and that meant that she was totally picking up on all the dirty in A.J.'s head right now. His face was a very noticeable shade of red and his lower lip was getting chewed on a little to much. "Heh, yeah," he said. "Basketball grenades sounds cool. Explosions and stuff...Definitely..."

"But not taking out the murals," Charlie said hastily. "Because art is forever." She grinned at the redness of his face, and wondered if he was thinking the same kind of naughty things she was. And okay, great, now she was blushing.

"Annnd, um, maybe they can meet up with A and Ildiko when they make planetfall," she said randomly, then squeaked. "Oh! Oh oh oh oh! And! Rodney's the scientist who tracks their crash!"

A.J. laughed a little and took another swig of coffee. "And that, my friend," he said, "is why you're the author and I just draw the pretty shinies."

Charlie grinned and elbowed him, then said, "I think the coffee is giving me way too many thoughts. Hey! When you're ready to, you can put your new person in the comic too. Unless you think they wouldn't want to be. And oo, you have to meet Rodney, so you can draw him. And Turtle! I have to put Turtle in here!"

Yeah, that caffiene is reaching critical mass in Charlie's system.

A.J. bit his lip against a grin against that first suggestion. "Uh, yeah, I'll work on some designs, maybe, but, yeah, definitely yes on the meeting Rodney for his design, because, I mean, just look at Ildiko. Works really well when I already know what I'm shooting for."

Charlie nodded hard. "That'll give me time to figure out how he got into the resistance, and what they're resisting, and ooo, I *really* need to think of what Turtle's doing. Or she'll be really disappointed." She finished off her espresso. "And maybe I can give the Nomadic Celtic Chef a cameo."

"I already have designs for the Nomadic Celtic Chef," A.J. pointed out with a laugh, "so he'd better be making an appearance, missy."

Charlie giggled again. "This is going to be so. Awesome! Graphic artists extraordinaire!"

"And I've got....so much more material to start working on now, too," A.J. smiled. "We totally got to do these jam session more often, Charlie."

"Totally! We could have a real book by Christmas, if we keep going like this," Charlie enthused. "Any time you're in the mood, gimme a call. And I'll call you any time I've got new ideas too, okay?"

"Sounds perfect," A.J. beamed.

Tim craved coffee. Craved coffee and coffeecake and other things coffee-y. And so, he was here, satisfying his craving for coffee.

A.J. lifted his non-drawing hand. "Hey, teach," he idly greeted the Toolman. "Refueling?"

"Need coffee," he said in a near-grunt. Words would come after java infusion.

A.J. laughed a little. "Source of all life, man."

"Coffee?" He was coffee'd. "Coffeeeeeee!" he grunted. And resumed a posture less like a caveman.

And A.J. was now convinced that the primordial soup was made of caffeine. "Reaching higher cognizance?" he tried.

"Augh augh augh!" he grunted affirmitively.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Perk; Monday Afternoon, after 4th Period.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject