Boom Boom Lights and Sparkly Stuff [Open]

[Mituna Captor]

It'd been a while since Mituna had been by himself. Usually he'd be roaming around the dream bubbles with Latula or Kurloz...unfortunately for him, he was quite lost.

He'd gotten himself stuck on a roaming dream bubble, which had anchored itself to the city of New York. He hadn't been able to find any of his friends from his session, not yet anyways. The damaged troll had some hope to see them again, especially Latula. She was probably worried sick about him. He felt bad about that. He'd have to make it back up to her somehow.

Currently, he was exploring the streets of the city. Anyone that walked past him stared or jeered, but no one really attempted to speak to him or even make eye contact. He didn't pay them any mind though. He was on a quest to find his friends, and nobody was going to stop him. That was until the night sky began to fill with beautiful lights.

The Beforus troll lifted his head to see giant, colorful, exploding lights falling in the sky. His dead eyes widened beneath the visor of his helmet as he watched more colorful lights join the dying ones. He didn't know what they were, but apparently he wasn't the only one stopping to watch.

He looked around him to see others staring up at the sky as well--some laughing, others smiling, and even little ones perching on their Lusus' shoulders to see the lights better.

Mituna was fascinated how these strange lights could capture everyone's attention so easily. Were they amazed at how strange the sky was acting too? Or was there some sort of spell cast on these lights to make everyone watch them? So many questions jumped around in the troll's damaged think pan.

Mituna fumbled with his helmet as he slowly, and with some difficulty, removed his helmet. Black bangs hid glazed eyes as he stared up at the sky--his hands playing with the straps of his helmet.

A big, toothy, grin covered the troll's face as he continued to watch the lights take over the sky. It was like he was witnessing a miracle.

"WH04

[/font][/color]"
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[Sly Cooper]

Mr. Ronald Pace did not seem to have taken up the holiday spirit.

In fact, he'd chosen today - the fourth of July - to launch his campaign against non-humans coming through the rifts, insisting that they, their species, and their abilities all needed to be 'registered' and their progress in the new world monitored carefully. It all felt a little oppressive to Sly - so he'd taken advantage of today's festivities, and decided to send good ol' Mr. Pace a nice message.

Bentley had snagged the precise coordinates of where Pace's vault was located in the bank building, while Murray had secured the fireworks. And then, they'd all waited until the Fourth of July festivities began. With all the fireworks going off, no one would even notice Murray launching the explosives at the bank wall, creating a well-proportioned hole right on target: in the wall of the vault. As the dust cleared, a lithe figure slipped through the hole - and emerged about two minutes later with to large bags full of what was, undoubtedly, cash. Darting out through the alleyway again, he skidded up next to a large blue van as the back doors swung open. The bags of money landed in the van with a satisfying thunk before the thief slammed the doors shut again, allowing the van to take off with its payload.

Sly would be joining his gang in awhile - he wanted to keep an eye on the scene for a bit, give his friends an early warning in case anyone pursued them. Besides - who wouldn't take the chance to watch the fireworks in New York? Slipping back onto the open street, the raccoon had to admit that they were pretty impressive. A faint smile tugged at his features, and he leaned against his cane, hat slipping down a bit over his eyes as he peered up at the spectacle above.

A moment or two later, however, he noticed the presence of a rather awestruck individual nearby. An individual who was very clearly not human - and looked a bit out of place for reasons beyond just that. Sly considered him for a moment - everything about him, from his body language to the way he was staring up at the fireworks as if they were the most incredible sight he'd ever witnessed, suggested that he was rather young. Sly wondered if he was a recent arrival. ...Well. If he was, there was only one way to get him settled in!

"Hey, kid." Stepping out behind him, Sly pulled out a stack of cash he'd saved from the heist, and handed it to the troll. "Something tells me you're new around here, so you might be needing this. Happy Independence Day." He gave a quick grin - although he was already anticipating the questions that might follow a stranger giving away money. Still, he'd stolen this from a human who hated all other species. Might as well make this nice and ironic, right?

[Jax]

The Forth of July. Jax snorted loudly as he saw the firework show up above. Sure explosions were nice but these little safe crackles of sparks were nothing. People would oh and ah about colored fire yet they couldn't appreciate the beauty of molten steel, the glory of a welding torch, the reverb of a hammer hitting metal again and again. He shook his head as his various piercing moved his ears a bit more with the motion and continued walking with his groceries. Glass bottles within the large paper bag clinked against each other as well as the crinkling of bags of chips.

The Heavy Metal Mage carried this grumpily as he once again blow his hanging green hair out of his face. His usual green mohawk was not there, instead it just hung from lack of hair gel which was what the little late night shoping spree as well as quickly turning into a booze and snack run so he could hole up until the drunken idiots of the city went away. He snorted irritably as a car nearly clipped him as it drove by the sidewalk. By sheer maliciousness he kicked out with a steel toed boot and just clipped the side of the car. He watched and almost smiled as he saw a small green rune appear and vanish just as various horrible sounds could be heard from the engine as it tore itself apart as various parts of the engine briefly took on the structural strength of cheap plastic for a split second which with the power within even a small engine was bad, but this turbo charged yuppie mobile was enough to rip it apart from the inside. As the car ground to a halt spewing oil and gas Jax smiled as he walked away. Small people didn't deserve to have nice things.

The brief encounter and the screams of anguish from a drunk preppie over soon enough Jax kept walking home. He wished he had his bike but earlier it seemed to have over heated a couple of hoses, in hind sight he supposed his newest additions might have been a bit much for those rubber hoses and getting some high grade heat resistance ones would have been smart. As it was he would have to wait till morning to get them and when he noticed he was out of hair gel a shopping trip was decided... there was no way he could go into an autoshop without the right hairdo. They might think they could get away with back talking to him. He expressed his displeasure at the admittably silly notion by scowling. A scowl that deepened when he noticed a raccoon on his hind legs talking to one of those trolls.

He didn't have a problem with either truth be told. What irritated him was he bet that raccoon could walk into a store and peopel would coo over it and smile at it... while Jax was watched like a hawk to make sure he wouldn't steal anything. It was annoying and stupid. Jax didn't steal... sometimes he salvaged... in less then legal ways. But even when he was starving and poor he had never stolen from a supermarket. He was thinking on it when he noticed the stack of green being handed to the troll. Jax's eyes automatically roamed around him and sure enough he found some people watching the two with unfriendly eyes... eyes that looked predatory when they saw the cash. Jax starred at them and soon enough they turned just enough to meet Jax's angry glare... and suddenly decide the fireworks over head or the sidewalk below were MUCH more interesting.

Despite that... Jax... was going to have to do the right thing again. He blamed Mia... stupid head shrinking robot would have a field day if he just walked away. Would have so many questions. He sighed and walked over, a slightly shorter then average human sporting green and black hair, a t-shirt proclaiming "Go ahead, Give me a reason.", his steel shod boots jangled with each step as chains hung from them and his tattoos were easily visible in the t-shirt. He just walked over and stood nearby glaring at people occasionally. He spoke out of the corner of his mouth to the troll.

"Kid, Grab that money and hide it fast. Word ta da #$&*ing wise. Dis is not a neighborhood ya want to wave wads of cash around... granted wit dis being na york dere really isn't a great place ta da dat but still. Grab it from ya furry friend before someone decided what is yas should be theirs ya get ma?"

[Mituna Captor]

Mituna wouldn't have noticed Sly if he hadn't said anything. He perked up slightly upon hearing Sly's voice. Turning, he found himself looking at another marvel. A talking, clothes wearing, bipedal, furbeast.

He tilted his head as Sly held out the money to him. He'd never seen this type of currency before--it surely wasn't any type of boondollar he'd ever gotten.

"WH47 15 17? GR33N P4P3R? 4ND WH475 4N 1ND3P3ND3NC3 D4Y?" Mituna asked, waving the money around as if it were a paper fan. ("What is it? Green paper? And what's an independence day?")

Then Jax appeared, and Mituna looked at him in confusion as he started talking. What was cash? What was a New York? Was that this planet? He winced a bit as his brain attempted to absorb the new information--but a broken brain doesn't do well when it's taking in more than it can chew.

"1 DN0N7 UND3R574ND." ("I dnon't understand.")

[Sly Cooper]

Only for a moment, Sly was taken aback by the questions the troll bombarded him with. His ears flicked, and his head tilted a bit to one side - this kid really was new here. Not knowing about the Fourth of July was one thing, seeing as it was strictly an American holiday - but not recognizing money for what it was? ...Maybe the currency was something really, really different where he was from. At least he was speaking English, though. That was something - and it'd make explaining things a whole lot easier. "Valuable green paper." Sly emphasized, straightening up with a faint smirk. "Money. You...you know, exchange it for things that you want. Like food, or clothes..." Of course, one could always steal those things, but that took a certain amount of skill if you didn't want to end up in jail - and besides, he wouldn't want to be a bad influence, or anything.

He was a bit more reluctant to explain the whole holiday thing, not wanting to delve right into a history lesson here. None the less, he cast a brief, pointed glance at the fireworks lighting up the sky. "It's a celebration. That's why they're setting off those fireworks. ...Basically, it's to celebrate the day this country earned its -" But in that moment, Sly was cut off. The man who addressed them...well, the raccoon could only raise his eyebrows. Not the appearance of someone who wasn't trying to draw attention to themselves. But then, some people had means of dealing with any unwanted attention, and...something told Sly that this guy was one of them. ...Still, he'd seen stranger, he supposed, and after a moment he recovered from the slight surprise.

Well, he had a point. Not everyone around here looked friendly, and the little cash exchange that had taken place a moment earlier hadn't seemed to have gone entirely unnoticed, either. Sly scanned the area briefly, taking note of the threat. A moment later, he'd turned back to the green-haired man and shot him a quick, cocky grin. Beside him, the kid he'd given the money to seemed even more confused than ever - but on the plus side, it'd keep him from freaking out if he realized danger was near. "Thanks for the heads up, but...we are in the middle of a Fourth of July celebration. The cops probably aren't too far off." In fact, Sly knew they weren't - part of planning out the earlier heist had involved pinpointing their locations and assuring that they were all distracted with the festivities.

A bank robbery, right under the cops' nose. Carmelita would have thrown a fit. This was good - even for the Cooper gang.

"So all things considered, I think he'd be safest sticking to the crowds, for now." Sly's gaze darted to the nearest unfriendly looking New Yorker - this time, he was sure to make direct eye contact with him, silently communicating that his attention hadn't gone unnoticed. But beyond the thug, there were plenty of - for lack of a better word - normal people. Families, out with their kids, just wanting to watch the show. He didn't think the troll would fare too badly, sticking with them. None the less, he glanced back to the human man and crossed his arms. "Unless you'd like to give him an escort out of here?" He was half-joking - he was pretty sure that something like this wasn't what this guy had planned on getting himself into.

[Jax]

Jax looked the Raccoon in the eye... which in itself was unusual experience for him... but the raccoon seemed to take things in stride while accepting the advice and while not concerned he was not being stupid about it all. What froze him in place wasn't the fact he was talking to a raccoon... that wouldn't have shocked him too much since his Gotham days. What did surprise him though was the offer to have him escort the kid. He opened his mouth to tell off the raccoon, to tell him where he could put his stylish hat... but once again Mia's face flashed in his, The woman whose car he fixed... Ruby... Even.. Cord's... They all looked at him with raised eyebrows. His eyes flicked skyward and once again his brain suggested to his conscious that surgically removing it was still an option. It simply smugly smiled at him within his head.

He looked down in response and grumbled obscenities about his own mind as his eyes flicked around him seeing faces that did not look happy nor friendly. Finally he breathed out through his teeth and cracked his neck first one way then the other.

"...Fiiiinnnne... Yeah... sure why da $&*@ na.... na like ah got a lot going on tanight."

His eyes did look skyward again as mentally he screamed more at his own brain as he reached into his grocery bag and pulled out to small bottles of milk and tossed them to the two strangers.

"Eh, in this heat those will go bad fast, why dan't ya drink them. Ah'll just get more tamarrow."

He grunted as he grabbed himself a beer... he wasn't about to share his beer with strangers... besides the troll kid seemed... young... and the raccoon... was a raccoon. He had no clue if raccoons should get drunk. So he popped the top of the beer with a flick of his thumb and took a hard swig before letting out a roar of a belch. He looked at the two.

"Name's Jax by da way. Mage of da Earth's Bones."

[Mituna Captor]

Mituna didn't understand most of what the two were talking about. Who were the cops? Were they like the troll cops back on Beforus? Were they fleshy, pink, human versions of the trolls cops? Did they work for the Empress? Were they evil? He gave himself a tiny headache trying to process all the thoughts that coursed through his brain.

His attention slowly drifted back to the fireworks as the two continued to talk. It wasn't until he was offered a milk that he snapped back into reality.

He tilted his head a bit at the bottle and its white contents. Was this like the milk made by Lusus back on Beforus? Or was it taken from a woolbeast? Or a moobeast? He shook the bottle lightly, watching the milk slosh around inside.

It took him a few minutes to manage to unscrew the cap to the milk. Once again he swirled the bottle around, a smile growing over his face as he watched the milk.

"H3H3H3H3 M0000.

[/b][/color]"

He lifted the bottle to his mouth and prepared to take a sip when he heard a clink!

He looked a bit confused after hearing the noise, and tried to take another sip, but all he heard was another clink!

Frustration began to wash over the troll as he repeatedly attempted to take a sip from the bottle but the noise continued.

What Mituna didn't know was that his fangs were hitting the bottle's opening when he tried to drink from it.
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[Sly Cooper]

Sly skillfully hid his amusement at the clear conflict his suggestion had sent the man into. To be honest, he was a bit surprised when the stranger actually agreed. What had prompted that decision? Was he really doing it out of the kindness of his heart? This guy really didn't seem like the soft, compassionate type, but...hey. Maybe you couldn't judge a book by its cover. He easily caught the milk bottle thrown to him, considering it with a raised eyebrow briefly. Well - in the smothering July heat, who could say no to a free cold drink? "Thanks." he replied, twisting the cap off and only glancing up a bit skeptically when the man proceeded to introduce himself.

"Mage of the Earth's bones, huh?" Mild curiosity edged his tone. He could safely say he'd never heard that before, but in a city like this? He was kind of starting to think nothing would surprise him any more. Still, didn't keep him from wondering just what this guy might be capable of. "How very...green of you." He couldn't pass that one up, his gaze swiftly flickering to the man's hair with only a hint of a good-natured smirk. He'd let Jax expand on that if he wanted to - or maybe toss a few questions at him later, but for now, he wasn't going to pry. "My name's Sly, and - I guess we're not getting an introduction out of you any time soon?" His attention turned to the troll now, who, the last time he'd checked, had been more interested in the milk than the conversation at hand.

It was only then that Sly noticed the clinking.

It took him a moment to realize exactly what the sound was, but when he did, he had to suppress a laugh. Looked like the bottle wasn't exactly accommodating to someone with fangs. Probably why vampires always had to drink right from the source. Eyes bright with amusement, Sly shook his head - this kid certainly was a character. Jax was going to have his hands full, being his escort. Entertaining as he was, though, the raccoon took pity on him after a moment. "Nifty as those teeth of yours are, looks like they're kind of getting in the way, there." And since they didn't have any straws - well, Sly assumed - they were just going to have to improvise a little. "Here, watch me." Tilting his head back, Sly lifted up his own bottle, and let some of the milk pour into his mouth without making contact with his lips. Hopefully the kid would prove coordinated enough to mimic such a feat - but hey, he seemed to be a very determined learner. What could go wrong?

[Jax]

Jax took give the raccoon the appropriate response to his pun. Thankfully the beer in his hand didn't really slow down his ability to flips someone off and he was about to spew off a few choice words when he also finally registered the clinking nose. While the raccoon... Sly... Really? Sly? A Raccoon named Sly who thought he had a right to make fun of him? Really?... but Sly was attempting to show the kid... he had to be a kid... or something... how to drink the mild Jax just shook his head. How in the name of Gaia was this kid still alive in New York unescorted. The fact that the prohuman first groups hadn't found him and use his horns to decorate their walls was all the proof Jax needed that there had to be some sort of god whose soul job was to keep stupid trolls like this alive. Jax was wondering if this was normal for Trolls or if this one was just a special case... he doubted this was normal cause if the entire race was like this they probably would have swallowed their own tongues by accident and all died off by now. (OMG... Jax... so mean... I go where his muse leads him)

As it was and the Raccoon tried to show the kid to drink Jax found that despite the kids.... special needs... he was kinda... wanting to watch out for him. The kid needed it... and that in itself brought out questions and so as soon as the kid was done trying to drink Jax reached over and tapped him on the head. with a finger to get his attention.

"Hey... kid... Da ya have like... a #$&@ing keeper, or someone dat is supposed ta be watching ya? Ya know... make sure ya don't eat more paint chips or something?.. Fa dat matter ya da have a place ta stay right? Someplace ta #&*$#ing sleep? Or even just @&*#?..."

Suddenly he looked back to Sly.

"If he doesn't den Not It."

He just firmly glared at the raccoon. He was firm on this. To some calling 'Not It' might seem a bit juvinile but Jax was trying to be discrete about the whole... being-willing-to-bash-the-raccoon-over-the-head-and-duct-tape-the-two-of-them-together-to-keep-the-troll-from-coming-home-with-him-thing... Jax was not a bad man... he just really didn't want to bring this kid into a place filled with fire, tools, guns, and sharp metal things... also didn't want another roomie until the whole... thing between him and Mia was... certain. He had no idea where this all was going. What their relationship was and until then... no new roommates.

"Ah already have a robot therapist living with me and a garage filled with scrap yard minions. Sa... Not It."

With that he looked back at the kid.

"Seriously?... is there a phone number or someone we can text who is probably looking fa ya?"

[Mituna Captor]

"57UP1D P13C3 0F 5N17.

[/color]" ("Stupid piece of snit.")

Mituna continued to fight with the bottle until Sly started speaking. He stopped what he was doing, in such a manner that his mouth was still open--teeth touching the bottle.

As Sly continued, Mituna slowly brought the bottle away from his mouth and watched the thief. The troll nodded a couple of times in response to Sly, and then tried to copy the raccoon's actions.

He tilted his head back and did just as Sly did, and whaddya know…he actually got the milk into his mouth! The Gemini troll grinned as he sucked the bottle down. When he was done, he gave Sly a great big smile when the bottle was empty.

"1 D1D 17![/color][/font]" Mituna was quite proud of himself. ("I did it!")

His attention then turned to Jax when the mage started to speak.

"1 H4V3 4 LU5U5, 8U7 7H3YR3 0N 4N07H3R DR34M 8U88L3…[/color]" ("I have a Lusus, but they're on another dream bubble.")

He smiled again, "MY H1V3 15N7 H3R3 1 7H1NK 17 3XPL0D3D 0N 83F0RU5.[/color]" (My hive isn't here, I think it exploded on Beforus.)

He followed up the "exploded" bit by mimicking an explosion--though the boom part had a bit of a lisp to it due to his fangs.

The noises continued until his brain caught up on what the rest of what Jax had said. He looked confused as he tilted his head towards the mage.

"WH475 4 83D?[/color]" ("What's a bed?")
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[Sly Cooper]

He only acknowledged Jax's rather profane response to his earlier joke with a faint chuckle, eyes gleaming mischievously. More important, in his opinion, were the words the human spoke shortly afterwards. It seemed he really did have a hidden streak of compassion, because he was suddenly questioning things like where Mituna was staying, and who he was staying with. Sly had to admit, the idea of a kid like this wandering around on his own in a world he clearly wasn't very familiar with was a bit...disconcerting. But Jax was quick to pin babysitting duty on him, something he definitely couldn't agree with quite as quickly. He was a master thief who spent his days traveling with a band of other thieves. Taking care of a kid just wasn't in the equation. Although admittedly, the idea of training a thief from scratch did sound kind of fun, but...nah. You could file that under corruption, couldn't you? They were better off getting Mituna back home, if he had any home to go back to.

His gaze shifted to the troll then, and he offered a smile in reaction to Mituna's success in drinking the milk. "There you go, buddy. Not half bad." Though even as the reassuring words were spoken, he quickly stole another glance at Jax with the intention of addressing the 'Not it' comment. "Considering we're not, you know, in third grade, I don't think that's enough to force custody on me. Which would be a pretty terrible idea under any circumstances, by the way." He lowered his voice slightly to try and avoid Mituna's attention, clearly exasperated by the direction this conversation was heading in. Bentley would probably actually kill him if he brought a kid back. Murray would probably have a blast, but...then again, Murray's judgment was pretty much perpetually the opposite of logical.

Then Mituna spoke, answering Jax, and Sly was snapped out of his inward thoughts. He'd expected either relief or disappointment, depending on the troll's answer, but...when Mituna had said his piece, all Sly was left with was confusion. Lusus? Dream Bubble? ...Hive? Clearly he was not up to date on troll culture, but something told him that if Mituna didn't know what a bed was, he probably didn't have a cell phone on him either. Or if he did, Sly doubted its service extended all the way to the troll's home. There were long-distance calls, and then there were...calls to other worlds. The latter, as far as the thief knew, was pretty much impossible, considering the way the rifts around here were opening up. This posed an even greater problem - they had to figure all of this out before they could really decide what to do, and given Mituna's seemingly absent-minded nature, Sly wasn't sure how long that was going to take.

But they had to start somewhere. Leaving Jax to answer Mituna's question however he saw fit, the raccoon posed an inquiry of his own. "Can you explain what a Lusus is? Or dream bubbles? We don't really...have those here." he tried explaining.

[Jax]

Jax listened to the kid with a sinking feeling piercing his gut. This kid... he was strongly suspecting they might have to consider contacting the 'proper' authorities and that would only increase Jax's building headaches and he had a pretty good idea that Sly was in pretty much the same happy little boat of not wanting to attract people who asked uncomfortable questions such as where certain merchandise came from and where others had been sold. True nowadays Jax didn't make weapons much anymore but still if the questions were asked Jax could find himself in Arkum or something stupid like that and he would rather not so as the kid talked what amounted to nonsense he whispered in an aside voice to Sly in response to his comment about how his home would be bad for the kid.

"Does ya house have a forge, multiple weapons, sharp objects, explosives, a potentially hazardous robot shrink, scrap yard helpers, and happen ta sit in da most hazardous part of town? Cause mine does and ha would die in ta minutes in ma home probably..."

He straightened from the obligatory crouch-with-the-whisper and asked the strange visitor.

"Right... what is.... pretty much all of what ya were talking about... and are ya sure there is none of ya friends we can text?... ta make sure they know ya are alright?"

Jax swepted drained his beard and tossing it into a trash can ran his fingers through his wilted mohawk... this was not the best way to end a night.

[Mituna Captor]

Mituna had drifted off in broken thought as Sly and Jax addressed one another. He rocked on his heels as he thought about running into Latula. A smile grew across his face as he continued to think about his wonderful Matesprite, that was, until Sly's questions brought him back into reality.

"LU5U535 4R3 0UR CU570D14N5. 7H3Y W47CH 0V3R U5 4F73R Y0UNG 7R0LL5 COMPL373 7R14L5. 4ND H3LP U5 8U1LD H1V35 70 L1V3 1N,

[/color]" Mituna explained, "4 H1V3 15 L1K3 4 H00M4N H0M3 7H1NG13. 4ND DR34M 8U88L35 4R3 M3M0R135 7H47 D34D 7R0LL5 C4N 3X157 4ND M337 L1V1NG P30PL3 7HR0UGH.[/color] ("Lususes are our custodians. They watch over us after young trolls complete trials. And help us build hives to live in. A hive is like a hooman home thingie. And dream bubbles are memories that dead trolls can exist and meet living people thorugh.")

Mituna then looked at Jax, confusion moving over his face. What was texting? Was it like messaging others on Trollian? He scratched at his head as he tried to think about texting was. He'd only contacted his friends through a computer, but after his accident, well....

"L47UL4 W0N7 L37 M3 U53 4 C0MPU73R, 5H3 7H1NK5 1LL HUR7 MY53LF,[/color]" he replied. ("Latula won't let me use a computer, she thinks I'll hurt myself.")
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