metalogs | [Open] Trying Not to Fall Apart

Entry tags:

[Open] Trying Not to Fall Apart

Who: Donnie

purplexing and you!
What: Oh you know, just an average week in the life of a teenage mutant ninja nerd
When: Early June before things start to really implode
Where: Central
Content Warnings: N/A, will update as needed

can't sleep something will eat me - Apartment
It's easier to sleep when you run yourself ragged and let yourself pass out. Then there's a seventy percent chance that you'd be too exhausted to dream. That hadn't necessarily been his plan but it had been more or less effective the night he, Leo and Accelerator had come back from their tech heist. Since then, sleep had been...elusive.

While it's not unusual for Donnie to pull late to all-nighters, he's been leaning on such practices extra hard lately. It's easier to get away with when he's got actual projects. Guy's telescoping stun baton gets done relatively quickly in this regard. The game systems they'd found at the recycling center have been reappropriated into a single gaming system and they now had a high-definition projector that freed them from the constraints of a flatscreen TV. Spare phones have been repaired, wiped and upgraded in the case that they might run into anyone who needed a phone or just didn't trust the ones the Guild handed out.

But even productive turtle teens need sleep, and whenever he succumbs to it, it's always fitful and ends up with him clawing his way to wakefulness, away from the blood-filled nightmares with the grasping, reaching hands and tendrils. Sometimes he stays in his room, other times he slips out to sit in the kitchen wrapped around a cup of coffee or huddled under a blanket on the couch, reading a book or poking around things on his phone. If his head's clear enough then he'll do some late night work dismantling something or another, or work on repairing circuitboards.

third time's a charm - Sewers
The whole point of having a lair deep in the sewers is so people can't get to it easily. The sewers are already a maze, but thanks to the flooding from all the rain last month, Donnie's managed to get a decent amount of it mapped out with the aid of his mystic-tech. They aren't as convoluted and full of abandoned places like New York, but he and Leo had finally found a promising location.

Moving things into a new lair is never much fun. They'd already had to rebuild their home once, after all. Here at least they don't have too much stuff to worry about, but then they are still basically starting from scratch. Priority had gone to hauling their ill-gained goods down there once basic setup had been handled, some tidying up (okay, a lot of tidying up), and initial security measures installed. With things stirring in the world above, Donnie's not taking any chances.

There's still a lot to do, but they've got this much done. It's just a shame that they have to do this at all after getting so used to living almost normally.

what a town - Around Central
Life still goes on, even when you're trying to play things cool after being mildly (?) traumatized, even when there've been drastic changes in the meta-world.

There are library books to be returned, after all, and if Donnie can't sneak-borrow more by using Leo's card, he can at least read things there, his earphones bumping some techno or K-Pop (it's catchy okay) so he doesn't accidentally nod off. It's an attempt, anyway.

Coffee runs go without saying, and there's something nice about being able to sit in a cafe enjoying an iced latte. It's a change of atmosphere and he can more or less blend in with others who are here tapping at their laptops and tablets. Kind of. Other times he'll just be grabbing a drink to go, so one might catch him all purple hoodied up on his way to or from.

It might be weird be hard to believe, but Donnie has other hobbies, which is why at some point or another one might come across him carrying a small cardboard box with a variety of plants ready to be repotted. The backpack slung over his shoulder holds a few pots and some potting soil. He's a turtle on a mission and nothing is keeping him from working on a balcony garden. Alternatively one can find him perusing the selection at a small plant nursery or shop.

that other option - Wildcard
(Got any other ideas/requests? Have at it or ping me on discord or the plork!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He laughs at the picture of Accelerator. "Super intense."

They should definitely take more pics of the people they meet here. Real pictures. Hopefully, when they figure out how to go home, they can take them with them. And for now it would be nice for the frames.

"Nah, I like doing it this way." It's more time-consuming, but he doesn't care when this is what they're consuming that time with. "I haven't seen any of these in awhile, anyway..."

It definitely makes him wistful for home, but he's okay with that.

Time well spent. Donnie can't remember when the last time was that they'd ever all gotten together to go through old pictures. He knows he doesn't go through his own phone very often for that purpose.

"Here's a good one of all of us. Even has April there," he says, smiling. He can do without the ache of not having any of the rest of their family there, but he keeps reminding himself that Leo's gone through it longer. It's a sobering thought.

He shifts just a little closer on the mattress, under the guise of readjusting how he sits.

Donnie shifts closer, and Leo does too - also just readjusting, of course.

"Oooh, yeah." He grins, a little teasing. "I look great in this. Oh, and you guys are fine, too."

He's still going to say stuff like that - it's his thing, and Donnie knows it.

"That's a good one of Miguel." He points at one of the other thumbnails, of Mikey grinning in front of some graffiti he just painted.

"Please, any shots of me are more than just 'fine', but I can understand your wanting to downplay it," Donnie snorts. It's his phone, terrible pictures of himself simply don't exist.

He does smile as he pulls up the picture Leo points out. "Agreed, and might I point out, an excellent composition of contrasting colors. Him in front of the wall, I mean."

Aaand copied.

"Let's see if we can find a decent one of Raph where he's not stuffing something in his face or asleep..."

Again, it is too bad Leo doesn’t have his own phone, because he absolutely has unflattering pictures of Donnie: ones taken while he was asleep, or eating, or mid-sneeze.

He’ll just have to catch more of those kinds of shots on the phone he has in this world and slip them in when he has time. A prank for another day.

He nods in agreement at the assessment about the picture of Mikey. Their little brother would appreciate the artistic consideration.

At the comment about Raph, he laughs. “Hey, those pictures reflect his natural state!”

A minor upside that Donnie hasn't realized.

He does laugh as he can't really disagree regarding Raph. Food and sleep are among their older brother's favorite pastimes when he's not intent on smashing bad guys.

"Too true. Well, there's no shortage of those. Oh! There should definitely be some of our cosplay pictures in here too." Can't not include those!

He’s sure they can find actual good pictures of Raph, too. He keeps his eyes peeled.

“Oh, definitely. Cosplay photos, skateboarding photos… Oooh, you have any basketball photos in there?”

Of course Leo cares about those, he’s the one who’s good at basketball.

"Haha, yeah, should have plenty of th-" He makes a slight face at the mention of basketball before rolling his eyes as he continues scrolling, but the smile doesn't completely vanish. Of course Leo would ask about basketball.

"Should be some in here," Donnie admits. After all, not every balling session had ended up with him getting a ball bounced off his face. And there are some decent captures his brothers making shots, so Leo should be appeased there.

What’s the face about? Not Leo’s fault Donnie is terrible at sports! (It’s definitely Leo’s fault for bringing it up, though.)

He just grins in response, before turning his attention back to the pictures. Finding skateboarding pics, at least, is something they can both agree on. And he is appeased by a good pic of him making a basket.

“Oh, there’s one at Hueso’s!”

He points it out, of the four of them cramming into a selfie at one of the booths.

“Man… I could kill for Boneman’s pizza right now.”

Given their tendency to show off, there's a lot of skateboarding shots. Probably not all of them very flattering (of his brothers, anyway).

"Ah, I love that one," Donnie grins. He does have to sigh again as Leo mentions pizza. "Right? Definitely one of the major downsides to this Earth. I wonder if there even any yōkai around here."

He better pick only the flattering ones! Leo is watching!

(Of him, anyway. If he wants unflattering shots of the others, that’s more negotiable.)

It’s a great picture. Definitely one to add. But Leo sighs, too; this world can try, but it will always be inferior in terms of pizza places.

“If it does, they’re probably Starfallen, too. But I guess I haven’t been to New York to check for the Hidden City yet…”

Bonus if it does exist, they won’t have criminal records in this version of the city.

There's always later to slip in other ones...

Donnie's playing nice at the moment though. He hadn't brought those picture frames out to start a photo war.

"Mm...true. Or maybe even some production of the Confluence. I don't know, are they still considered Starfallen then? Or...just metas or something..." From what he's read, it seems like things had been pretty normal on this Earth until the Confluence happened. And then kept happening.

Eventually the photo pranks will begin, but not today.

“No idea. Guess that’s just one of the many mysteries.”

In some ways he doesn’t care all that much. That’s for this world to sort out.

It does remind him of something, though.

“There’s other worlds with mutants, though! But they’re like, human mutants.” He shrugs. “Not really a big surprise, but I learned that recently. Oh, and Huvrye’s friend said we look like demons from his world.”

Everywhere is so different, and yet, similar at the same time.

"It's pretty wild how much humans seem to be some sort of baseline existence across dimensions," Donnie muses. "Demons though? Wow, now that's interesting. Some guy just flat out assumed I was an alien out to abduct him."

Sadly it still suggests that for all the similarities, it's still a toss-up as to whether they'd be able to exist normally. It's not like Donnie's surprised by this given that their origins have been less than normal. But it'd be nice to know that maybe somewhere there's a world like the Hidden City where they'd just be considered part of the natural inhabitants.

Not that he'd trade any place for their home, and this is still far from that.

“Hah, what? An alien?”

That idea actually makes him laugh. Then again, he can get where it comes from, what with the green skin and reptilian features. It’s a pretty standard alien design, as evidenced by how easily they fit in at a Jupiter Jim convention.

“You know, that guy who said I looked like a demon said they’re treated normally where he lives. They go to school and even date the witches sometimes.” He still isn’t sure why witches and humans are distinct groups, but whatever. “It sounds like yokai, from what he was saying.”

So maybe there really are places that they could live and just… exist.

But he wants to get back to their home more than he wants to go there.

"Could be. I mean, traditional yōkai cover a pretty broad range."

It's hard not to have some response to the fact somewhere there's a place where people like them an go to school along with anyone else, but there's that flicker of a...something. Is he upset? Yes. Angry? Yeah, a little. He'd been so close to being able to experience it for himself before all this Fantastic business came up. It's so not fair.

...he needs to change the subject, at least a little.

"...I don't know about the possibility of visiting other worlds from here, but...I heard that it was pretty much a thing to be able to visit our own world of origin. Only temporarily though. I guess the Confluence somehow creates some sort of tether between us and here, so Starfallen can only manage a trip back home for maybe a week or two before they get yanked back. And then there seems to be some kind of cooldown before you can access it again."

Donnie pauses, scrolling half-heartedly through a few more pictures.

"But I was told you keep you memories of here, and could potentially change things by going back. I thought maybe..." He frowns, abandoning that idea, although maybe it wouldn't be too hard to tell where he'd meant to go with it. "Anyway, that whole thing's been controlled by the Alliance apparently, so I guess that's definitely not an option either way, especially now."

Ah, shoot. Leo should really think before opening his big fat mouth. Of course Donnie’s going to run from that subject as fast as he can.

Leo feels bad he even brought it up, but the sudden topic shift does a good job of completely obliterating that train of thought.

“Yeah, I heard about that… Never tried it, though. I’m not sure where I’m… tethered to, anymore.”

And if it just sent him back to the Prison Dimension… he barely survived ten minutes, two weeks would kill him for sure.

Donnie, though… he would go home, and maybe he could change things. It’s not hard at all to guess where he may have been taking that thought, and a familiar swoop goes through Leo’s stomach, when he wonders what happens if Donnie changes things and it splits their timeline for good.

More importantly, though… he just doesn’t want Donnie to live through that. It’s inevitable, really, but if Leo could spare him he would.

Suddenly it feels too cold in their sewer hideout. Leo shivers, his eyesight narrowing on the phone in Donnie’s hand.

“Yeah. Don’t really feel like trying to break into Alliance HQ right now… Hah.”

Donnie pulls his knees in, hugging his arms around them though he still tries to keep the phone accessible between them.

Maybe this wasn't the greatest subject change. The last thing he'd suggest is for Leo to try going back, not with knowing where he'd last been. Really knowing, now that he's at least seen the place and caught a glimpse of what sort of terror awaited his return.

"...yeah," he murmurs. He figures he'd have had to somehow sneak in or something one way or another, given his unregistered status, and if that wasn't already difficult, now it's practically impossible if simply because the Alliance and anywhere near it is the last place any of them want or need to be.

Leo sighs through his nose, keeping his eyes on the phone. They already promised each other they’d figure this out, that they wouldn’t give up. Leo wishes that it didn’t hang over them like it does, complicating an already complicated situation, but he just has to hold on to the hope that they’ll find a way to get them both home.

For now, he looks over the pictures, then grabs for the phone, pulling up one of himself, having just crashed on the ramp after trying a new skateboarding trick.

“Hey, why did you keep this one, huh?” he asks, trying to push the conversation back to friendlier waters.

It's hard not to think about such problems when they're looking at photos that only remind them of home, and it's just frustrating that current events have basically nixed the possible solutions and options he'd managed to find out about. It just makes him madder about the situation.

Donnie doesn't put up much of a fight to try keeping his phone in hand, resting his face against his knee as he continues to watch Leo skim through things. Although the one that his brother does pull up makes him snort.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that one," he mumbles, a faint smirk tugging across his lips. "Thought it really captured your good side."

Always problems on top of problems. Maybe if the Fantastic situation gets dealt with, they can think about looking into the portals.

And if they send Donnie home...

It scares him, to think of sending his brother alone into what he knows will be a harsh fight, the worst of their lives, but he survived it in Leo's timeline. Leo trusts his brothers to take care of each other and he's... learning to trust himself, too.

But those are thoughts for later.

He rolls his eyes, though it's mostly for show. "Well, I'm going to say it again: all my sides are good, even this one."

So there! Can't embarrass him if he refuses to be embarrassed.

He won't be alone though. They're all together when they face this alien menace, he knows that much. Donnie also knows that Leo's been bearing the details of this burden alone, and as much as it frightens him as to just how bad things will get, and the potential that it might be the last time he ever sees Leo again, back home, Donnie doesn't want to just leave it at that. If he can change things somehow, then all the better, but...if he can also find some way to relate to Leo, to close that weird gap of ignorance...

Was it worth it?

But then if he can make his brothers happy in any way, it would be worth it.

Donnie lifts his head, his smirk a little less forced as he glances between Leo and the picture on his phone. "If you say so. But this one's probably your best side," he insists.

“Hah, you only say that because you wish you could look as good as me even wiping out on your board.”

He keeps it up, his own smirk coming easy in return for Donnie’s. It’s good to see his brother’s expression get less forced - it shows he’s getting him back from whatever thoughts he’s having.

He feels less cold now.

“This is why you delete all your had pictures: no confidence.”

Said like he wouldn’t delete the picture they’re currently looking at off Donnie’s phone if given the chance.

"Maybe I don't have any bad pictures to begin with," Donnie sniffs. The egos, they are clashing. Really, that Leo's saying he deletes his bad pictures is just common practice by any selfie-taker. Who keeps bad photos of themselves!

But enough ribbing each other ~~for the moment~~. "-oh, the next photo set should be good though, if I am recalling correctly. One of the conventions we were at." Which meant Turtle Aliens, ahoy!

Leo just snorts at that, but he’ll let it go for now. Eventually he’ll have photographic proof of Donnie’s bad pictures, but he can put down the hatchet.

Anyway, what comes up next is more exciting. Leo holds the phone back where they can both see it and scrolls through.

“Ahh yeah, cosplay shots.” Their costumes really are impeccable. Leo will let himself be impressed by it. “Sometime we should get those professional photos where they edit in special effects and stuff. That would be sweet.”

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