This Object Is Not Orange

Participants:

delilah_icon.gif doyle_icon.gif kaylee2_icon.gif mouse_icon.gif

Scene Title This Object Is Not Orange
Synopsis Inspired by a group in Detroit, four attention-seekers turn an abandoned building into something far more eye-searing with the help of Disney Color by Behr, available exclusively at The Home Depot.
Date December 12, 2009

Three years have passed since the Bomb, and not a one of them has been kind to this neighborhood of SoHo. Residents vacated in droves when the media hype began about radiation and fallout; rent prices plummeted through the floor, at least relative to the rest of Manhattan, and that — that brought in a population SoHo wasn't known for before.

Everything was different before.

Spring Street is, like most of the city, lined with buildings three, four, and more stories tall. Some of them still have functioning shops on the bottom floor, all secured against the night hours; most are left with boarded-over windows, or broken ones, shards of glass clinging to their frames, decorated with the remnants of frosted lettering. A banner with some now-meaningless logo hangs from above the third floor on one building — hangs from only one fastening, vibrant yellow cloth swaying back and forth in the breeze. The fraying of its edges can't be picked out in the darkness, nor the accumulated soot on its surface; but night's shadows don't soften the state of the rest of the street nearly so well.

The stoplights still work, mindlessly cycling through their colors — green, yellow, red; trading off directions in the complete absence of traffic and crosstraffic. The streetlights, on the other hand, are about half burned out and broken; some provide light, some don't.

Mouse doesn't mind the poor illumination; goes with the complete lack of anyone else on the street. It's after curfew; the cautious and concerned have taken to their beds, leaving the city to him. And his companions. And — well, to be honest, there's plenty of unsavory people still out and about, the kind it's not good to run into. Which is why, even as he speaks quietly with the others, he keeps his eyes and ears attuned to the surrounding gloom.

"So, the one I picked out — it's up ahead on the corner. The gray thing with the dying birch tree in front of it. Scott was supposed to stash a couple of ladders… they'd better still be there."

There's a seventeen-year-old boy coming down the street with a bucket of paint in his hand. Vivid 'Blast Off Yellow', it is. And a nice broad brush he isn't afraid to use.

…Some things never change; teenagers and mischief still go hand in hand.

A can of grossly snot-colored 'Sonic Boom' swings lightly in the grip of one hand, as Kaylee grins at Mouse. "This will be an interesting challenge." Her eyes move to squint ahead at the building of choice. When she had read the article that Mouse had given her, Kaylee had found that it could be a fun little project to dig a thorn in the side of the government. She had quickly recruited her buddy, Doyle, to the challenge, followed shortly by Delilah. Hey, more the merrier to the mischief.

Her head tilting, she turns her gaze back to Mouse. "With hope this will work." Kaylee grin is rather impish at the prospect of what's to come.

Eric Doyle appears to have split the difference in colours between Mouse and Kaylee's choices — the can that's swinging from his hand with a soft creak of the wire handle is labeled 'Alien Green' and is an almost painful to look upon shade between green and yellow. He's puffing a bit from the exertion of the walk, his other hand mopping at his brow as he hisses out worriedly, "You sure we're not going to get caught for this?"

Of course, paranoid as he is, he's still here. Kaylee generally knows just how to prod him out of his isolationism and drag him out to do things. Even paint-related mischief, it seems!

Delilah may have been more talkative than usual tonight, but it all seems to stem from that jittery, child-like excitement. In her hand is a bucket of 'Enchanted Princess' pink paint, which clashes very delightfully with the other colors chosen. It swings like a basket in her hand, and it is only out of chill that Delilah isn't skipping along with it past the other three.

"We're doing the city a favor, technically— I mean, its just a yucky old color, innit?" Sure thing! "Ohhh, did anybody think of some patterns? How about swirls? Polka dots? I don't like stripes much…"

"Caught?"

Mouse turns around to walk backwards, the better to grin at Doyle in the dark. "Nah. No fear of that. Curfew patrols are regular, anymore. After we do two or three of these, then it'll be time to worry."

Two or three. Someone thinks big.

The building is gray, and very nearly square; three floors tall, three windows wide, just slightly longer on one side than the other. Half of a sign hangs over its entrance, Sol—; the rest lost to who knows what mishap. Most of the windows have several panes broken, the proprietor apparently never having bothered to board them up; the front plate-glass window has been shattered for so long that almost all of its pieces are now gone, and the door hangs ajar. The inside looks to have been ransacked, probably more than once. The outside, at least the wall facing Mercer Street — where the ground floor doesn't have windows — has been rather thoroughly tagged.

The fire escape on the front may or may not actually stand up under any significant burden.

"We do need to keep it pretty simple," Mouse points out, although he can't be said to like the stifling of creativity that entails. "If we're still here at, like, five in the morning — well, then we will get caught, I bet." So don't be here that long.

The tall youth pokes his head around the door; those behind him can't see the very broad grin that stretches across his face, but they can hear it in his voice. "Oh, goody. We have ladders." His paint can thunks against the floor. "You guys figure out the art while I haul these outside."

"I think we should just slap the paint on and make a huge mess." Kaylee offer her opinion to Delilah, her eyes and grin full of her excitement. "That will get their attention… like a giant Jackson Pollack painting of nasty eye-blinding colors or something."

The puppet man gets a nudge of Kaylee's elbow, her can of paint clanking with his lightly. "We've got our ways not to be caught; if need be…" She gives a little swirling wave of her hand, "I can make them think they saw something else." As long as it's not a lot of people that is, but she doesn't say that out loud. "So — less worry, huh? If those people in the article could do it… we should… and we've got an advantage."

A wry little smirk snakes its way across Doyle's thin lips, his head shaking in a miniscule little movement — perhaps still a bit on edge about the idea of being caught, even as amused as he is by the young man's enthusiasm. At the nudge from Kaylee, he rolls his eyes, swinging the can of paint over his body to the other side to free a hand with which to ruffle her hair.

"Always the optimist, blondie. I suppose if the cops try and bust us, we can just…" He wriggles a hand through the air, "…fix it. I imagine the cops could do a great job pitching in to paint."

As they pause there in front of the building, he looks up at it with a dubious expression before turning back to his compatriots. "So. Uh. I'll take the ground level, okay?" He grins a broad, cheesy smile.

"Nice. That could work." Delilah answers as she follows along, pausing to take notes about the outside of the building. "Maybe we could do red with white dots next time?" The redhead inquires about this quite seriously; being goofy the first time is all and good, but sometimes a plan is nice too. The girl taps the clean bristles of her big brush up against her chin, eyes roaming over to look at the others it finds there. "That's a good idea. The— ah— help.

"Hopefully it doesn't come to that." Delilah just smiles, stuck on the thought for now.

Dragging one ladder out as quietly as he can — could be better — Mouse hauls it around to the Mercer Street side and studies the extending mechanism. "Red — and white?" he echoes, around contemplation of aluminum pieces that are supposed to move. "Mm — ah-hah!" The top of the ladder slides up, bottom pushed out a bit. "There we go. That should do for someone to start with." He dusts off his hands and turns to Delilah. "How about Gamma Sector Green and Donald Orange on Princess Purple?" he counters. Another quicksilver grin. "Be properly grotesque about it." Mouse ducks back into the building; there is a second ladder to be fetched.

"Ground floor and lookout." Kaylee chimes brightly to Doyle, batting at the ruffling hand. She gives him a mock glare as she combs hair back into place, but then her lips can't help but pull into a smirk. The ladder is then eyed with some uncertainty. Height issues? Surely not! Rubbing a gloved hand under her nose, Kaylee ponders the pros and cons before getting a better grip of the can and moving for the ladder. "Okay… let's get to work… darkness is burning. " She pulls a small screw driver out of her pocket and works to pry open the lid of her can. Once it's open enough that she can pull the lid on and off, she offers the screw driver to Doyle for his can before she heads up the ladder.

The screwdriver's taken in hand, and Doyle sets the can down upon the sidewalk, hunkering himself down into a crouch and shoving the screwdriver into the edge of the lid — prying it up with a faint snap-pop and flipping it off, revealing the horrific day-glo green-yellow of the paint. His own brush is brandished, then, and he delves it into the paint can.

"No time like the present."

"Because sometimes the level of absurdity is better than gross tastelessness, Mouse." Delilah puts her fists onto her hips, paint and brush hanging in her hands. "Then at least if they don't touch it, it might look remotely more interesting." She stoops to pry open her own can, having shook it up as she was walking. That was what the swinging was for! Duh. It pops up and open, revealing the girlish color pooled underneath.

"I'll race somebody, who's up for it?" Delilah runs her tongue over her upper lip, looking devious as she uses the paintstick she brought to give it all a molasses-bogged stir.

Mouse carts the second ladder out of the interior, setting it up against the front of the building. Gray eyes study its length and the white-painted fire escape above — of course he's going to dare the rickety structure.

This is Mouse we're talking about.

"Since when is red on white absurd?" Mouse counters, albeit absently. "At least make them multicolored polka dots, if you have to be traditional." He points with his brush at the building's face. "I'm going up onto the fire escape, and then you can move this wherever you want." His gaze slides sideways, and a mischievous smirk tugs up the corners of his lips. "I bet I can paint this side of the third floor faster than you can get the second."

What people don't see as Kaylee goes up the ladder, is her look of fear. "But we want them to knock it down…" She manages to keep the waver of fear out of her voice as she continues to climb higher. "Or do something… other then leaving it there." The ladder vibrates slightly as Kaylee tries not to move too much once she gets to the desired height. The paint can is perched on the ladder, leaning against the wall. "How about fluorescent yellow with hippy fluorescent flowers? That would make me want to tear down a building." Once she's sure the can won't fall, she extracts a large brush out of her back pocket, dunking it deep in the paint she slaps the mucus colored concoction on the wall… Woe he who paints right below her.

That would be Doyle.

The puppeteer's brush sweeps a swathe of horrible dayglo colours across the wall, an even and smooth stroke as he starts to work around the window with a practiced sort of manner to it. He's just about to say something else when, naturally, a dollop of 'Sonic Boom' splats directly on his bald pate, and the brush pauses. He doesn't look up, just narrows his eyes at the wall. "…blondie…"

Delilah goes up a ladder as soon as she can— staying to the middle where she can get at the parts alloted to her. "Fine, forget I mentioned it, I suppose we can stay uncoordinated." Somehow, the thought bothers her! Is this what an obsessive compulsion is? Hm. Maybe hers is matching things to …other things. She doesn't notice Kaylee's dripping until she hears Doyle, head turning sidelong to look at him.

Ffffffsnortffff. Delilah practically chokes on her laugh, brush paused in a loop.

"The idea isn't actually to make them tear it down," Mouse corrects, as he scrambles up the ladder, paint and brush held in one hand. "It's to make them look at what's around them. To make the building stand out so that people will think about the city." There's a pause, as he pries the lid off his own paint can and sets yellow-dipped brush to wall. "…And, y'know. 'Cause it's fun," the youth has to allow.

Oops! comes the mental admission of guilt, followed by a vocal one. "Sorry…" Kaylee calls down softly. Shortly after, Doyle gets hit by something else, as a rag flutters down to fall over his head. "There you go." Wait.. is she holding back laughter? Can't tell in the darkness. Dipping the brush, and being more careful, Kaylee sets off to work again.

Work which is four whole neon-colored paint cans of fun.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License