[Open] We All Fall Down We Live Somehow

[purplexing]

Who: Donnie purplexing and you!
What: Vibin' under pressure
When: Early - Mid July
Where: Central City until he can find a hook-up to menace people elsewhere
Content Warnings: N/A
Notes: Will match tag format preferences!


Productivity levels take a huge hit when you're holed up for a couple of weeks, getting over a concussion. It is No Fun. And yet it had been rest and recovery much needed, Donnie would have to admit, although as soon as he was able to, he's been up and about, especially once Leo's stopped hovering so much.

i. Ars Botanica (closed to Leo and Accelerator)
The first item of concern on his list is surprisingly not even of the technical sort. Since Huvrye's jailbreak they've been scarce from their usual apartment, which means his poor plants have been left unattended. His being out of commission hasn't helped, so he's not completely surprised, if just a bit upset that some of his babies did not make it. Some however look like they have a chance to be revived, they just need a place that someone can actively keep an eye on them.

Luckily, Donnie knows just the place.

Accelerator hadn't seemed to mind the initial intrusion and a few new blooms and potted greens arranged near the most ideal spot for sunlight- or indirect sunlight, as needed. But Donnie is only one turtle and while he'd been able to handle bringing over the ones that had needed the most immediate attention on his own, there'd still been a sizable amount left that needed to be moved, and he didn't want to linger around the apartment too much in case anyone was keeping an eye out for them. Thankfully while one pair of turtle hands wouldn't cut it, two pairs prove just about ideal enough, and so armed with a box a piece bearing an arrangement of potted flora and gardening equipment and materials, the trip is once again made to the esper's residence.

Leo's been left to do as he pleases once they're there. Donnie's taking the liberty of moving things around and setting his plants in the most optimal spots. Is Accy even home right now? Well, they'll find out, eventually.


ii. Ars Umbra (Open!)
With the collective efforts of Starfallen and Mechanima within the city, it seems like the number of guards has been thinning, but that doesn't keep Donnie from dropping his own. He still opts to do most of his activity at night where there are more shadows to blend in and less of a need to move in disguise.

Perched up high on a rooftop, he's not taking in the scenery, but rather monitoring windows displayed on the holographic interface of his bracer computer. Potentially one might catch him with his eyes closed for some strange reason.

Maybe it's not the turtle you notice, but the sight of a tiny purple light that blinks intermittently as it zips about between buildings, high above streets. Miniature drones, out looking for signs of any guard activity, or just the guards in general. Once Donnie gets a hit, he'll be on the move to investigate.


iii. Ars Relaxo (Open to whoever has access to Dylan's apartment)
In between more work on the sewer lair among other things, Donnie has been rather enjoying the fancy place that Dylan's let them stay in. He also hates it because going back to a sewer is never going to be the same again. This world's spoiled them so bad!!

Plate of leftover pizza beside him, if he's not actually sitting upright on a couch looking through stuff on a laptop or his phone then he's lying on the floor with his feet up on the couch for whatever reason (it's because he can), doing about the same. Probably not the best position to digest, let alone eat, but he do what he want.

Alternatively he'll have claimed coffee table space or something to use as a makeshift workspace for some gadgetry or another. Is it safe to be doing welding in here? Eh, he's been doing it in Huvrye's kitchen and hasn't burned anything down yet, it's probably fine.


iv. DIY
((OOC: AKA choose your own adventure/wildcard me! Hit me up if you wanna do something specific or just throw down something for a starter.))

Comments

III

[robintohood]

When Jason first moved in, he hadn't expected the penthouse to get as crowded as it is now. Not that he's complaining. With everything that's been happening recently, Dylan's friends need to be protected.

In terms of day-to-day activities though, it's been taking some getting used to on Jason's part. He's not used to having a household with this many people. So far, Jason thinks he's done fine and hasn't really bothered any of the others. It's usually none of his business.

The welding however, he can't help but be curious about.

"What're you doing?" He asks while purposely making his footsteps heard. It'd be bad to surprise someone while they're holding a welding torch.

[purplexing]

Donnie's more or less kept to himself whenever he was occupying the more open space of the apartment, so it's no surprise he's overlooked Jason's comings and goings. At least he's not unaccustomed to interruptions while he works. It's rather hard to be when you've lived with three siblings your entire life.

"Juuust making sure this housing's good and secure." He finishes up the seam he'd been working on, shoving his goggles up as he frowns to himself. Where's he heard that voice before...?

His brows go way up once he turns to glance back at Jason. He might not be readily recognizable outside of the holo-disguise he'd worn back then, but he remembers Jason well enough. Bookstore guy. Although it's possible Jason might recognize the voice.

[robintohood]

Jason has also being getting a funny feeling he's heard Donnie's voice before but hasn't clocked in yet that the teenager was disguised last time they met.

"I guess with the way things are going, it wouldn't hurt for the place to more like Fort Knox," he muses. "Sealing up some stuff then?"

[purplexing]

"I doubt Fort Knox is as posh. I've been dying to go for a swim but I don't know if I have clearance for that."

Donnie relaxes a little- not that he really has that much to hide. The whole point of the disguise was to keep this whole situation under wraps and there seems little point for it now. And if this guy's here then clearly he's trustworthy or something.

"Yep, if this thing is gonna hold a retractable laser then I don't want to do a crap job on it- not that I ever do," he says as he looks back at the piece he'd just welded, eyeing it.

[robintohood]

"You've made lasers before?" Jason asks, curious and eyeing Donnie's piece.

i let’s bother Accy

[faceguy]

When Donnie brings up that he needs help moving his plants, Leo readily agrees - solely because it involves invading Accelerator’s apartment. Unlike Donnie, who has apparently been coming here for some time, Leo has politely respected his friend’s privacy!

But the time for politely respecting his privacy is over.

After Leo sets the box down for Donnie to deal with, he heads directly for Accelerator’s kitchen. The food on offering is exactly what he expected, so he grabs some onigiri and munches on it while he walks around and looks at everything.

“…Nothing but the furniture they put in here, huh? Man, he’s boring.”

Donnie has put his plants in here, so maybe Leo should consider adding some personal touches of his own.

For now he flops on the couch and starts flipping through the tv for something to watch.

[levelshift]

Lucky for them, Accelerator has been at work all day, so they've got free reign of the place for a little while. Also lucky, he has made exactly zero progress on decorating the apartment, so there are plenty of sunny and semi-sunny spots for all of the plants.

Of course, he has to come home from work eventually and even though, when he approaches the front door, he can hear the tv on he doesn't bother hesitating. He just unlocks the door and heads on in.

"....."

Accelerator stops for a few seconds, taking in the whole scene. Nothing is trashed, it isn't Arcadian guards or vandals breaking in, it's just Leo and Donnie with a bunch more plants making themselves at home, so....

So he shuts the door, kicks his shoes off in the entrance, and immediately starts for his bedroom.

[purplexing]

"This is the guy who probably still has factory settings on his phone and doesn't update contact names, what do you expect," had been the response to Leo's observation. Not that Donnie disagrees; for some self-proclaimed villain, Accelerator has extremely boring taste.

Still, he has no idea what the esper actually does when he's not napping or chugging coffee, but it seems like he's out on business. Plenty of time for Donnie to get the rest of his plants situated and watered.

In between he's certainly been watching some TV with Leo and helping himself to a snack or two, and at least one can of coffee.

By the time Accelerator's come back, Donnie's in the process of removing dead leaves and things from pots. He greets the esper with a big ol' smile, not in the least surprised when the kid just makes for the bedroom.

[faceguy]

Leo has been perfectly content to chill, and now, as Accelerator comes in, he also turns a big smile his way.

Accelerator, of course, responds by heading for his room, and Leo chuckles.

“Maaan, even your response to a home invasion is boring.”

Not that he and Donnie are particularly threatening (well, not in this context, anyway).

[levelshift]

Accelerator doesn't stop.

"What do you want me to do, kick both of you and all those plants out the window?" He replies curtly. Fortunately, (fortunately????) the place is just a small one bedroom, so all he has to do is raise his voice a little for them to be able to hear him. "Because I can do that if you're expecting it."

He sets his crutch aside and drops down onto the bed with a thump, pulling his work phone out and plugging it in on the nightstand so it can charge. Then he flops onto his back and scrubs his hands down his face.

Oooookay, here we go. Socializing.

"Am I going to have to water all this shit?"

Ars Umbra

[fearfully_symmetrical]

She's pretty itinerant these days, flying from place to place, figuring out who she is and what she wants.

She's more introspective these days, but that doesn't mean a purple light doesn't attract her as she's transiting over the city. It's a bit more of an effort to catch the little light, with a lot of statements along the line of 'c'mere you little bugger' or similar.

When and where she's from, drones are a largely neglected form of technology, at least like this. So she peers at it for a long moment, identifying its purpose.

"Huh. Somebody likes to do some peeping, looks like."

Is this a chance for her to chase down another bad guy? She can do that. She wants to do that. Be the good guy. Be on the right side.

[purplexing]

The drone seemingly goes dead in her hands, its rotors ceasing to spin once it's caught. The light even ceases to blink. Possum mode activated.

On the other end of things, Donnie frowns. Not exactly the sort of trouble he's looking for, although he's not sure what side of things this woman might be on. She doesn't strike him as familiar though. He waits a moment. Watches.

Because the second it seems like she's not focused on his drone, he's going to try and send it flying again. A little game of follow-the-leader.

[fearfully_symmetrical]

"Hey!"

Oh, no, you suspicious little bug, you don't get away from her that easily. She'll keep an eye on it, following along at a distance - first rule of tracking she'd learned: you don't need to be right on the heel, you can do it a lot smarter.

[purplexing]

Tenacious, he'll give her that. Donnie's pulled another drone in from its guard-hunting, following from above to keep a better eye on his blond-haired tail.

She's definitely being smart about it. But as much fun as this is compared to monitoring other streets, Donnie doesn't really feel like keeping this up and so long as this person seems intent on following his drone, he really doesn't want to end up leading her anywhere he'd rather not have people knowing about. Which means getting up and seeing what the deal is, himself.

The drone zips along, darting sharply around the corners of buildings with every intent to try losing her- he doesn't want to make it easy, after all! Eventually it zips between a taller pair of buildings that stretches down a ways before being boxed off by another.

A trap..?!

[fearfully_symmetrical]

The possibility that she's being lead on a merry chase has occurred to her, and she's about to just to go grab the drone and take it apart to look for some clues - but then she realizes where she's being led.

"Aw, crap," she mutters. This place is dulling her edge - she'd have copped this long before, back in the day.

III

[paperclipsong]

Knowing that human stuff doesn't run on magic really doesn't say a lot about how it all actually works. Gus was absolutely not allowed to take anything apart at the Noceda residence, even if he promised to be extra careful to keep track of it all so he could put it back together. Consequently the inner workings of most human tech is just a big question mark for him.

Watching Donnie work on...something...has activated the curious part of Gus's brain, which is to say: basically all of it.

"How does that thing make fire like that?" he asks, referring to the welding torch. He picks up one of Donnie's spare tools -a crescent wrench- to study it, as if he can narrow his eyes enough to make it give up its secrets. "Y'know, so that it fuses stuff instead of melting it?"

[purplexing]

Donnie maintains his focus on finishing the current job, but he doesn't have to look to identify who's come to watch.

"It uses a combination of gas for fuel and oxygen to produce an ideally heated flame. Consistent pressure is also important to maintain the proper temperature in order to get it to a point where it will liquify metal."

[paperclipsong]

“Wow,” says Gus, and means it. “And you don’t have to use explosive salamander goo or train a fire breathing demon not to cook your face off or anything. That’s SO cool.”

People can just MAKE things like this, whenever they want. To a person who lives in a semi-pre-industrial society, that’s mindblowing.

“What are you making? I never get to look at the guts of tech stuff. Does it have any actual guts?”

He’s not foolish enough to jump on the table while Donnie is welding. After he’s done? All bets are off.

[purplexing]

One must forgive the brief eyebrow twitch. "Literally never. Um, so where exactly are you from anyway....?"

Donnie's always happy to explain- and sometimes over-explain, but he doesn't usually get questions like that. He pauses, shoving up his goggles now that he's finished with the one part he'd been focused on.

"Technically? No, not in the way organic creatures do, although there can be similarities. The innards of machinery are much cleaner to deal with though." He taps the end of the unlit torch against the metal frame he's been working on. "This is going to be a small construct with sensors that will draw it towards sunlight. In terms of 'guts'- the wiring here serves as the nervous system and blood flow, this compartment will be where the battery will be housed- I suppose the heart equivalent, this flat piece here is what you can consider as the brain where the programming of its function is stored."

[paperclipsong]

"The Demon Realm."

He says it so matter of factly, one might think he was talking about...well, really any place that isn't literally called The Demon Realm.

Gus follows the torch with his eyes, taking in Donnie's explanation, trying to make some sense of what he's looking at. He can understand that all these pieces do what Donnie says they do, but barring the wires actually kind of looking like veins and nerves, they don't really look like the things they're supposed to mimic.

"Wow...witches have to use actual hearts and blood to make our gadgets. It's SO crazy to me that little green plate thing can actually function like a brain. I never got to look at the inside of stuff when I was staying in the other Human Realm."

later July but before the end of the event

[faceguy]

All things considered, Leo's been doing pretty well the last few weeks.

Donnie getting injured had scared him, for sure, and Huvrye's arrest before that hadn't been great either, but Donnie's gotten better and Huvrye hasn't been attacked again. The Central City quarantine, bad as it might be ethically, has saved them from the worst of the scrutiny of the Arcadia guards, and things have been relatively calm. Accelerator broke his arm, but that was just an accident. They had a fun movie day and everything has been... actually pretty nice. Relaxed.

Leo's had nightmares since he and Donnie started sharing a room, but none of them have been that kind - the ones that leave him in a panic, fighting off an enemy that isn't there, screaming for any sort of help he fears won't come. Instead they slip away from him when he wakes up in the morning, or keep him up for half an hour or so until he can slip back into sleep without worrying anyone else. Which is good, because he doesn't want to make it even harder for Donnie to sleep.

But then they start hearing more news from Excelsior - about how there's apparently some kind of cult involved, weird sacrifices happening, the worship of a "god" that may not believe in free will, and Leo just... has a feeling like something is coming, something that isn't good.

And it's just close enough to what the Foot Clan was up to that the stress and anxiety is starting to pile back up again. And maybe that's dragging back up all the stress and anxiety from Donnie getting hurt, and from Huvrye getting arrested, that Leo has so far been doing so well at pushing back down, and...

Well, maybe he was just due for this.

It starts off like one of those inconsequential nightmares, the normal dip into the prison dimension, the empty void and sharp cold all around him. But then harsh red light sweeps over him, and then the sting of metal grabs his leg and yanks.

Leo's hands scrabble for any sort of purchase but it's too late, he's being tugged forward into the cruel embrace of the Krang. He's held upside down before the empty mechanical eye, the real face of the monster below him, scanned up and down like a piece of meat at the butcher's.

And then he's thrown into the rock, and even though this is a nightmare Leo can still remember the sickening crack when his shell met stone.

Through the starbursts in his vision, Leo stares up at the krang, as it turns away from him, as it moves...

toward the portal, the portal is open, who opened it, why would they, after Leo tried so hard to save them, he fought so hard-

(The city Leo can seen beyond it is as much Central as it is New York.)

In the real world, Leo tosses over in bed, his murmurs growing into low shouts as he panics, hands reaching like he's searching for something.

"No... no no no, don't- close it, please, close it, I can't- leave them alone, don't hurt them, please...!"

In his dream he tries to get up, tries to get his sword, but he's powerless, useless, stuck watching as the monster bears down on the city below.

[purplexing]

For all that they both agreed that working until you wanted to or did pass out was a bad method of coping with things, Donnie had been caught up in projects and new interests that kept him up solely for wanting to finish things or work things out rather than hope to circumvent any lurking nightmares. And indeed those had still been cropping up, although not very often, and Leo had made good on his word to help him escape them whenever it did occur.

The new developments that had come up on certain networks had been a disturbing revelation, but without such a keenly adjacent experience as Leo had, it's remained firmly in that category with no reason to slip into Donnie's subconscious. Probably good considering he already has enough things sneaking in and warping his dreams. Sometimes it's not even things grabbing at him or whispering about his weaknesses. Sometimes he's buried under rock and old bones, and everyone's so far away from his reach.

Donnie hadn't immediately gone to sleep even though he'd flopped into bed not long after Leo had. He'd been working on some reconfigurations to some blueprints, something he could do with his eyes closed, his head directly interacting with his computer. Using his weird tactile ability's become pretty second nature, at least when it comes to the tech he knows so well and always has at hand. It's probably still not a good thing to stay up too late doing, but at least there's only so much he can do on that end, and sleep had eventually won out over any consideration of slipping out to the Lair to do some actual work.

He hadn't been asleep for too long when Leo's pleading startles him awake, and he sits up with a gasp. A vague flicker of heliotrope fades in the darkness as he sees nothing's changed in the room, relinquishing whatever half-formed weapon he'd started to shape. It's not even been ten minutes since he'd drifted off, but hearing and then seeing Leo panicking effectively pushes him back into wakefulness.

There's really no further pause for consideration once key things click. It's clear enough to Donnie what's happening, and without hesitation he grabs for Leo's reaching hands.

"Leo? Hey Leo, wake up!"

[faceguy]

It's Leo's sword that he's reaching for, but his hands don't find it - instead something else finds them, and he would panic harder if this particular touch weren't so familiar. The images in his brain are still vivid, but the feel of his brother's hands on his pulls him away from it, and he follows even though the dread is still thundering in his chest.

No, no, no, he has to go back, or it's going to hurt them-

Leo, wake up!

He opens his eyes with a gasp, but with the dark room he's still struggling to separate fact and fiction. He grips Donnie's hands tighter, probably enough to hurt, the one thing tethering him to reality.

"What... where...?"

His mouth isn't up to full questions yet. His eyes dart around without really taking anything in, slow to adjust in his panicked state.

[purplexing]

Donnie draws in a sharp breath, biting down the urge to pull away as Leo holds on fast even as the rest of him tenses. He forces himself to breathe out again. Can't calm anyone down if he isn't calm himself.

"Safe. We're safe. We're still at Dylan's, the penthouse? Central City," he says as he sees Leo's eyes open, giving those hands a slight squeeze to try to get his brother to focus on him. There's an ache in his chest, seeing Leo like this. He'd only seen him react that way once before, but he can guess where his sibling's dreams had taken him.

"I'm right here," he adds a little softer. He's not usually the one doing the consoling, but when it comes to his brothers, it comes a little easier.

[faceguy]

The penthouse, Central City... Leo spins this information around while his eyes focus in on Donnie's face. Adjusting, seeing, comprehending.

I'm right here.

Leo gasps like he's just come out of the water, but his breathing starts to level back out after that. He realizes after a second that he's crushing Donnie's hands and eases up on his grip, dropping one of his hands entirely so he can rub at his eyes.

(Not because he was tearing up or anything, of course not - he's too cool for that.)

When he lowers his hand again, he grimaces at Donnie.

"Guess it was my turn, huh...?"