10525/Decorating the Lair

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Decorating the Lair
Date of Scene: 24 December 2019
Location: Turtle Lair, Williamsburg
Synopsis: The Turtles and their allies set up a Christmas Tree in the lair.
Cast of Characters: Nemean, Pippi, Leonardo, Raphael, Alopex




Nemean has posed:
Twas the night before the night before Christmas and all through the Turtles' Lair, nothing was stirring, not even a large man-sized rat ninja master.

Nemean had been out Christmas shopping several days prior and had unfortunately made the news thanks to his exploits. But thinking about Christmas had made him realize that there was no tree in the lair. So he went and found one.

At the moment he was bringing in a very large, very full Christmas tree, one that would very barely fit into the open area that made up the lair's main room.

Pippi has posed:
    When up from the livingroom arose such a clatter, Pippi sprang into action to see what was the matter. Rising up from the couch like a a mummy of old, her ears rising upwards in spite of the cold as she peeeers over the couch at Nemean, her head tilting slightly.

    "Do... you need a hand with that C-Nemean?" she inquires, her tail giving a very slow wag.

Leonardo has posed:
Some lions drag back a kill. Nemean, instead, is dragging back a..tree?

Leonardo is dusting and wiping down a few things in the kitchen area, doing so quietly, and he's got on some sort of..is that a maid's apron and nothing more? It's a strange thing, and even more of an oddity given the fact he's an upright, humanoid turtle.

A glance up from his work leads to a squint and tilt of the head. He leaves Pippi's question to cover things for the moment, then he sneezes thanks to the feather duster.

Raphael has posed:
    Twas two days to Christmas, and to the Lair's surprise,
    Raphael was here, looking at the tree of great size!

    Raphael doesn't immediately move into action, only help to straighten up the conifer when it's pulled into the main room of the Lair. He eyes the tree, then glances at Pippi and then to Nemean. "That's a big'un. All for us, huh? Thoughtful, man. Thanks." He offers a smile, then glances around. "Ain't it supposed to be lit up and all that like one they set up in the Square?" he asks, before he glances back. His eyes narrow at Leo in his apron, one eye cocking as he snorts in laughter.

    "Classy look, bro. You oughta patrol with me like that one night. Scare the bad guys off with yer dustin' prowess!"

Alopex has posed:
    In yet another room, also known as a training room, and alternate meditation room, Alopex had been finding her calm. She was doing well, but there's so much comotion from beyond the room. People all starting to shuffle about, something scraping against all the surfaces, but what gets her eyes to open is the pine scent. Last she checked, Leonardo wasn't using pine-sol to clean in the kitchen!

    A few moments later, the white fox appears, looking between everyone, but especially the tree. "... I knew something was off around here and I couldn't quite put a finger on it. With everything going on I think I forgot what time of the year it was.."

Nemean has posed:
Considering Pippi can probably lift this thing with one hand and still have plenty of use. So he nods and motions her over, "Can you carry it? Set it up nearby.." He motions to a spot on the floor the huge tree should fit.

Once Pippi has gotten the tree out of his hands, he disappears back out of the door before returning with several of those clear plastic storage containers full of decorations and lights.

Pippi has posed:
    "What time of year is it?" the magenta-haired canine asks as she braces herself and hoists up the tree, holding it over her head as she tries to manuver her way around to the indicated place of settlement, the top might be swinging around haphazardly behind her as she moves to avoid stepping on anything -- careful, Raph!

    It smells very piney. And vaguely like exhaust. Some needles stick to her fur, along with a little fir pitch.

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo plants his hands at his hips, scoffing at Raphael. "Sensei said I would better understand the purpose of cleaning if I dressed the part. There is a possibility Splinter was pulling his leg.

"And I completely forgot about this," he adds, noting the tree as others begin to converge on the main room, drawn by various things.

Soon, the duster is flying at Raphael's back, to strike the shell.

Raphael has posed:
    CLUNK.

    Raphael bounces the duster up off his shell, catching it in one hand before blindly chucking it back at Leo. "Now now, that's no way to be, Leo. Yer always so stuffy. And there better not be dust on my shell. You know what a pain that is to get it outta the crevices, man." As Pippi narrowly misses his face and sets up the tree, Raph moves around to pull at the containers Nemean brings in. "Ahhh, we gotta make it up ourselves, don't we?" he asks.

    "Sounds like fun. Take that thing off and get over here, turtledove."

Alopex has posed:
    Wait. Did Pippi not know? Did Alopex just completely not realize this would be her first year with it? ... Yeah. That's kinda embarassing. "Oh, ah," that gets a nervous grin out of the neck-rubbing fox. "Well, around the winter solstice the humans have a few different holidays where the tradition is to give gifts to one another." She's not doing the Santa thing. Someone else can do the Santa thing. "It's why you've probably been seeing red and green decorations, the big tree near the ice skating rink down town, things like that."

Nemean has posed:
"I brought all these out of storage from my old apartment. I hope that's alright guys." Nemean says as he sets the boxes down near the group, and then moves to help get the tree set up and anchored down, "We can make our own decorations too if you want, or whatever. I don't know if you guys have any Christmas traditions or anything I should know about.."

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo loses the apron. Splinter probably did put him up to it, after all. "Yeah, sure. I can help." After the duster is left behind, he gives Raphael a brotherly elbow in the side in passing before sizing up the tree and the things they've got to decorate with.

"We do have a traditional Christmas pizza, but we also have a Thanksgiving pizza, a Halloween pizza, a New Year's pizza, a 4th of July pizza..." He ticks off the holidays, one finger after another.

Pippi has posed:
    "Oh. So that's why there's all those commercials on TV about gift giving and stuff and all the weird sales?" Pippi asks Pex quietly, her ears drawing back a moment. "Was /I/ supposed to get gifts for people?!" she asks with a little more urgency to it, looking alarmed. "Do I have to learn how to ice skate?!" she asks Pex in abject panic.

Raphael has posed:
    Raph gives Leo a playful punch on the arm as the older brother gets his digs in, before chuckling at Pippi's reaction to learning about Christmas. "Now now, Pex, we don't want her melting down on her first one, do we?" he asks, before shaking his head. "Yeah, we usually just get a pizza and hang out together, ya know. Any time it's time for family, it's time for a big special pizza and brotherhood, ya know?"

    Though now his gears are turning with gift ideas. He hadn't really considered that angle until Pippi reacted so strongly to it. "Ain't got to, nah," he says to Pippi, "Just bein' together is gift enough for us, yeah?"

Alopex has posed:
    Yep. Should have realized this much, much sooner, "No no, no. It's alright. You don't have to ice skate or get gifts. You may get some, though. To be honest, your gauntlets could be considered an early christmas gift, to be honest," the fox realizes before setting a hand on the pup's shoulder. "I think it's more about just being together, showing people you appeciate them. It's a nice time to just enjoy everyone's company, so don't fret over it too much. We aren't going to hate you for not knowing..." .oO(Cause someone forgot to tell you.)

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo snaps his fingers. "Oh, I almost forgot the most important one. World Turtle Day!" He looks around expectantly at Alopex, Pippi, and Nemean, a grin forming as if awaiting for them to recognize it. "May 23rd? No? It's a real thing. I'm not just making it up."

Maybe he's better off not trying to be funny. Leave it to the others, like Mikey. "Anyway, we've never really gone crazy with the gifts because we never had much. Master Splinter has given us some things and we've scrounged up some other stuff, but mostly we just celebrated another year of being a family."

Nemean has posed:
"Nah don't worry about all that Pippi." Nemean says, as he starts to unpack some of the boxes, "Basically I just brought this here so folks can decorate it at their leisure. I got a bunch of oranaments, or you can put your own up, whatever you guys want. I brought it all so I could say thanks for you all letting me hang out here, all things considered."

Pippi has posed:
    "Oh... well, good. I don't think I could ice skate. THose little spins some of them do look really, really hard!" Pippi reflects a moment, listening to the different phrases about being together, about gifts and ribbing each other, and she just gives a thoughtful nod, scratching the back of her head.

    "So, holiday about being together and intead of a giant parade with balloons of Mickey Mouse we put up a tree and decorate it?" she questions, hopping over to one of the totes and begins to pull out bulbs, and begins to help assemble the decor!

    "I think I can get behind that!"

Alopex has posed:
    Phew. There's a mental sigh of relief from Alopex as she just gives a nod. "Ah, yes, there is a parade.. well two. I suppose, one after Thanksgiving and one on Christmas Day. . . We don't have to do that, no. I can't imagine what goes into one of those. I'd much rather just decorate this tree and be content with it," Pex agrees as she moves on over to inspect the tree. "So, I have to wonder, where did you get the tree, hmm?"

Nemean has posed:
"Someone that works in Central Park is going to be very mad in the morning." Nemean replies to Alopex. He lets that answer sit for a few moments before he laughs, "I'm kidding. I bought it from one of those roadside tree stores. You'd be surprised how little they care what someone looks like if you pay cash."

Raphael has posed:
    Raph is already diving into the decorations boxes. He could help make some, sure, but he thinks Donnie and Mikey would be more adept at that. For his part, he could hang up various baubles and strings of lights, but only so far as he could reach.

    He isn't the tallest turtle by any metric.

    But the bottom of the tree? It's in for a Raphening.

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo moves over to give Raphael a hand with some decorations and lights, ringing the tree before long. "It's going to be different this year with everyone here, but that just means we have more to do as a group," he explains.

Then he's looking toward Pippi, a question coming up. "How's that foot, by the way? That was when you were fighting the Nightwatcher, wasn't it? I haven't seen him lately."

Pippi has posed:
    "It's fine, the ointment Sensei had me put on it helped it heal without too much scarring, but he took out a chunk of glass from it, so I got a bit of a stern talkin'-to about making sure my wounds are clean before trudgeing about in the sewers, especially since cuts on feet don't heal as quickly." Pippi replies as she takes a couple of plastic bulbs in her hand, looks up at the tree and then LEAPS, pinning them to the top of the tree before she lands on the other side, skidding along the floor before knocking over a stack of pizza boxes.

    "Nightwatcher's not too bad though. I kinda started the fight with him."

Alopex has posed:
    Mmm. "This nightwatcher has been giving you a heck of a time. I may have to start looking for him myself." She sounds pretty serious about it too. She lost track of how many times she heard that Pippi had run into this other vigilante. It was time to, perhaps, teach this individual just what family he was causing trouble for. "Where have you been running into him? Just random locations or does it seem to be in one area..?"

Nemean has posed:
"So uh. I know you guys are ninjas and you do your best to stay in the shadows and such.." Nemean says, as he hangs a couple of ornaments, "I kinda maybe got on TV the other day since I was helping Beast Boy stop some criminals downtown. But don't worry I totally didn't lead anybody back here, I'm sure of it."

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo watches Pippi's way of getting the bulbs on the tree, only to grimace on instinct when she comes down and plays bowling ball with the pizza boxes. "Careful there, Pippi," he lightly warns, before he gives Raphael a quick look and responds more to the others.

"It might come to that sometime," he admits, a frown hidden from view of his brother thanks to the tree in the way. Then he steps back toward the kitchen as his part looks to be coming to a close, considering Nemean afterward. "That's one of the ones in that group..what is it, the Titans? What happened?"

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi's ears turn back a moment, her tail drooping slightly at the mention of going after Nightwatcher, and she shakes her head "No, Pex, I went after Nightwatcher for him hurting Raph... but he says it was a bit of a misunderstanding. And we called a truce, and he helped me nab some jewelery store robbers." Pippi points out, "I think he's probably on our side." she explains, and then glances at Leonardo, then at Nemean, and she rubs the back of her head.

    "Ah... I don't think I was on the news, but I was involved in a bank robbery stopping-thing. I miiiight have ripped the steering wheel... and everything the wheel was connected to.. outta the van." she states with embarrassment.

    "I am trying to keep to the shadows, though, but at least if you're seen, Big Guy, people can be like 'oh no it's like this mutant' and there's this guy named Detective Chimp and he says in Gotham you don't even bat an eye at a *chimp* walking around with a fedora on!" she exclaims, sitting on the back of the couch as she inspects her foot to make sure she didn't hurt anything there.

Alopex has posed:
    Not fully convinced, Alopex still seems to accept at least what Pippi has said. "Hmm, alright, for now," but that's about all the fox is going to say of it. After rummaging through a few of Nemean's boxes, she comes up with a few different bits, white and purple ones, before adding them onto the tree. "Ah, well, maybe leave the grounds keeper a bottle of something on the stump. Just a way of apologizing, perhaps," she offers to Cody before considering the top of the tree.

    "So. What are we going to put up there?" Her eyes would dart to Mikey if he's around, or she'd say to the room in general, "No, not a pizza box."

Nemean has posed:
Nemean leans back a bit to look at the top of the tree, and hmms, "Not sure." He muses, as he considers, "A ninja star, maybe?" He says, as he looks over at Leo for a second, before back to Alopex, "Oh right, before I forget.." He heads back out the door for a minute before he returns with a large box, a wrapped gift, "This is for everybody...I wasn't sure what to get each of you so I got something for everybody."

Leonardo has posed:
"Heh. Good idea." Leonardo pulls one out of his belt, where there are slots for them to be housed in, and after a moment to judge the force needed, he flings it up where it sticks in part of the tree's trunk. It's pretty thin up there, but it splits it perfectly and stays put. Everyone's a showoff sometimes.

He comes off as uncertain about the Nightwatcher stuff, shaking his head. "Time will tell," is all he has to say there, seeming to share some of the same sentiments as Alopex - acceptance with reservation.

He waits for Nemean to get back before noting the box, looking toward the others before he indicates the tree. "Go ahead and put it there, then. That can be the first gift." He shifts topics, following up on something else from Pippi. "I'm starting to think more about some of that. It might not make sense to try to hide ourselves all the time any more. That doesn't mean we can't be stealthy, and we still have to keep this place a secret, but with so much else out there, are we really that abnormal now?"

Pippi has posed:
    "Well... how many more mutant animals are there out there?" she questions, and rubs the back of her head before she looks down.

    "Even if you could, even if you all could..." she trails off, then gives a huff of breath out before she shrugs her shoulders, and runs her hand through her brilliant magenta locks a moment, making the curling poodle-like hair stand all over the place.

    "Ah well." she murmurs, and looks at the gift, ears pricking up, tail going stiff, and she sniffs in its general direction.

    "It's not pizza, is it?"

Alopex has posed:
    "Hmm.. we're still ninjas, but I guess this is the way. Just how we operate, you know? It's just difficult to break old habits. I have to admire the detective though, it's probably nice to walk out and about like that. From what I can tell, they deal with more animialistic folk a lot, though last I checked Batman isn't part bat. . . I think.." shrug. "Either way, it could be another place to visit sometime. Just a train ride away, isn't it?" she smiles at Pip. It's a tease, and not at all a scolding.

Nemean has posed:
Nemean watches as Leo plants the star in a perfect spot at the top of the tree, and grins, "Just what I was hoping you'd do." He says, before he places the gift down under the tree and steps back, "Well, it's not quite Christmas yet, but Merry Christmas all the same."