[Open] Transmissions Echoing Away

[purplexing]

Who: Donnie (purplexing) and you..?!
What: Weathering the aftermath of Downburst events while trying to get back into some semblance of whatever accounts for normal around here
When: End of July into Mid-August
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: N/A
Notes: Will match pose pref!


i. Lost Child (Tiny Turtle 1)
It was supposed to be a couple of simple errands, a stop at the hardware store and then an automotive shop for some replacement headlights. Sure, he might've been able to scavenge those but finding purple-tinted ones is considerably more difficult when you can't turn on cars in the junkyard to check.

Donnie tucks his phone away, a corner coffee shop catching his eye. Well, maybe a stop there on the way back. He stuffs his hands into the pockets of his purple hoodie, crosses the street...

...

The first thing that hits him is the noise and the brightness. This isn't the sewers, it's not even an enclosed space. Not to mention there are humans everywhere!

It's the blare of an impatient car horn that sends the suddenly small bundle of purple and green running for the nearest cover in absolute panic. But when you're only about two feet tall, practically everything towers over you and is that much more scary.

The purple-hoodied tiny turtle cowers under a bus bench. Just breathe, just breathe. What did dad tell them to do in a situation like this?

...he has no idea.


ii. Runaway (Tiny Turtle 2)
He has decided that the world above is terrifying. While he's been somewhat surprised that not everyone seems to freak out at first sight of a small, glasses-wearing, green child, not everyone proves to be very nice!

Case in point, a couple of thuggish bullies who have apparently decided it's good sport to chase him down.

For the record, Donnie does not think this is fun! He's in tears as he does his best to get away from them, but he has tiny legs and not the greatest coordination.


iii. What Fun is Force if it Can't be a Little Deadly
For how effectively Donnie had managed to clear out the otherwise abandoned warehouse the last time he and Accelerator had made use of it, the place seems to more or less have become a default space to use for their choice of illicit activities. The tape's probably still stuck in some places from when Leo outlined the layout for their even earlier heist.

Today, it is for the purpose of testing out weapons. Donnie's been working on a few things, one being finalizing Accelerator's laser attachment for his crutch, which Donnie can't really test out in the penthouse.

And then there's his personal project he'd decided to sink some time into ever since those Arcadian guards had popped up and power neutralization was a thing: the resurrection of his beloved tech-bō, Version 2.0. This one's considerably pared down from the original model, sleeker and more subtle. True, it was hard to convince himself that he didn't need a flame thrower, or a saw, or even a third of what his fourteen-year old self had crammed into the original design, but he is pretty happy with what he's come up with.

He's even more eager to put it through the motions.


iv. Frequency - (first come, first serve)
It never fails; you're just walking along, enjoying your fancy cup of coffee when you suddenly get hit by some several hours' worth of memories that you technically hadn't even experienced yet. The sensation's jarring enough that it stops Donnie dead in his tracks.

A foiled heist gone wrong, The Foot Clan again, April dragging some unconscious kid into the Lair, aliens--!

His coffee's all over the ground now but his thoughts are still scattered between places, eyes twitchy like he's dreaming with his eyes open. It takes him a moment before he gasps, feeling like he'd just been submerged underwater.

"Uggh that was really weird and highly disturbing, let's not do that again," he groans, running a hand over his face.

Comments

[purplexing]

How can he not get excited about going to the library??? It's like an amusement park of books!

Donnie leans just a little further, as much as Leo's able to support him, looking at the assortment of ice cream flavors. There's. So. Many! How does anyone decide?

He gives an anxious bounce as he looks back and forth at the rows, squinting as he reads out flavor names before finally pointing. "Pistachio!"

[faceguy]

“Pistachio, huh? Alright!”

If Donnie weren’t basically microscopic Leo would have some things to say about that choice, but instead Leo’s instinct is to spoil him rotten. It’s probably good for everyone that Mikey is only a year younger…

Leo steps over to order for them, a scoop of pistachio for Donnie and some double chocolate chip for himself. The cashier only gives them a quick double take but gets them their cones and hands them off.

“Can you eat this without getting it all over me?” asks Leo as he gives Donnie his.

[purplexing]

ICE CREAM! Donnie holds his hands out, little fingers flexing in that typical gimmee-gimmee gesture before he finally wraps them around the cone. The clueless look he gives Leo is by no means reassuring, but he will try very hard!! No promises! Not that this stops Donnie from starting to eat his ice cream.

...there are probably going to be two very sticky turtles.

[faceguy]

They are definitely going to be sticky. At least Leo is bald so there’s no hair to worry about, but he hopes his mask tails escape. The hoodie he’s wearing is destined for stains, but oh well.

“Worth a try, I guess,” he says, before carrying Donnie back out of the store.

“This is probably your first time being topside, isn’t it? That you can remember?”

Leo is pretty sure their dad didn’t let them go out until they were at least a little older than this, but then, who knows. It all gets a little muddled for him, but Donnie’s memories may be sharp.

[purplexing]

At least Donnie is trying to be neat about it. Things haven't started melting yet so he hasn't had to lick his fingers off.

Even though he's intent on his ice cream, he nods at Leo's question. "It's too big."

[faceguy]

Points for effort, at least.

"Yeah, guess it is big, huh? Lots of people, too." Leo only ever remembers being excited about it, and whatever fear there was just made it more exciting. Of course, he never ventured out alone, not at first; he always had Splinter, and later Raph, to protect him.

"It's alright, though. Just don't wander off from me and you'll be fine, right?"

[purplexing]

It'd definitely be a much different experience with the rest of the family. Finding yourself suddenly out in the middle of a busy street and with none of your brothers or your father in sight is pretty unsettling, to say the least.

Donnie nods, determined to stick close to big brother because it's easy to think that there should be nothing that would draw him away when there might be other scary people about. For now all that consists of his world right now is Leo and ice cream.

[faceguy]

It's good that he's agreeing. Leo lets him eat his ice cream, licking on his own, and heads for the library.

By the time they will likely be very sticky. Once that ice cream starts melting, Leo can just see it dripping onto his hoodie. Oh well, at least Donnie is content.

Once they get to the building, Leo sweeps his hand at it and says, "Here it is! The library! Woo!"

He may not get excited about the library on his own, but he does want to see little Donnie's reaction to it.

[purplexing]

It's okay. Between licking his hands clean and wiping it on Leo's hoodie, Donnie's managed to take care of most of the stickiness by then. Mostly.

Leo's theatrics certainly do the trick, or at least add to the impressive sight before him once they arrive. Donnie's eyes widen behind his glasses, mouth opening with an awed gasp. It looks huuuuuuge! He can't even imagine how many books it holds!

He starts tugging at Leo's hoodie as though he can haul his brother inside by his own power. Muuuust go iiiiiiiin!!

[faceguy]

Great, so it's just his hoodie that looks like he was rolling around in garbage. Oh well...

"Okay, okay, we're going!" he says with a laugh, walking for the door. They get inside, and he puts Donnie down.

"Alright, uh, I think... kids' books are over there?" He rubs at his chin while he tries to remember the exact layout. "Ah man, I don't even remember... you aren't reading textbooks yet, are you?"

[purplexing]

Once they're actually moving towards the door, Donnie clings to Leo in eager anticipation, at least until they're inside.

He doesn't budge once he's set down, too busy staring. It's not lined from floor to ceiling in books, but it's still a lot of books. Where does he even start? He's too young to have such a dilemma!

While Leo's trying to work out where things are, Donnie seems to have decided that the only way to do this is start at one side and see how far he gets in finding anything interesting. Already it seems he's forgotten about the not wandering off, but at least he can't get too far.

[faceguy]

"Hmm, maybe the best place to start is aaaaand you're gone."

Leo looks down in time to see the distinct lack of brother next to him, and it takes him a few seconds of looking around before he sees purple and green.

He moves quickly to catch up.

"Hey, Dee, don't book it away from me! Heh heh."

[purplexing]

Donnie stops and turns, just long enough to hold a hand up to his mouth. "Shhh," he says. Doesn't Leo know they're in a library?

And then he's off again. Leo's following so that should be okay, right?

He's not even sure what section he's heading towards, but his current path of exploration is quickly disrupted as he walks by the computers. Instantly his little steps detour towards the desks- not quite running because you probably shouldn't run in a library either but they don't say anything about fast walking!

[faceguy]

Leo rolls his eyes at that. Sheesh, not even three feet tall and Donnie is still bossy!

He does follow Donnie’s exploration along at an easy pace, letting him decide the destination. Which turns out to be the computers - no surprise there, actually.

Leo suddenly wonders if Donnie has his weird new technopathy while he’s like this. They hadn’t unlocked ninpo at this age (thank goodness, or Donnie would be a baby with a gun), but he’s pretty sure those powers are not part of Donnie’s innate ability.

He’s going to hope he doesn’t and keep a close eye on him just in case.

“Gonna look something up?” he whispers.

[purplexing]

Up he goes! It takes him a little but he finally manages to clamber up onto one of the computer chairs, with maybe just another momentary distraction because weee! It spins!

Okay, back to business!

Donnie's still standing on the chair so he can reach things easier. He looks at the keyboard and the mouse, and then up at the screen, nodding at Leo even though he's not at all sure what he's doing, but he is going to do something!

That something involves some experimentation with the mouse as he moves it around, watching the cursor do likewise on the screen. He's sounding out the words on the menu before looking at the mouse to push a hand on the button, all too easily amazed as it changes the screen to the search menu.

Oh...but that is a lot of empty boxes that he has no idea what to do with.

[faceguy]

It’s kinda weird watching Donnie work a computer and not know what to do with it. Conceptually, Leo knows he had to learn at some point, but in his memory it’s like Donnie always knew how to use computers. And read. And do quantum physics.

It’s kinda fun being the one of them who actually knows how to do stuff.

Leo sits in a chair next to Donnie and scoots in so he can better see the screen.

“You got to the search page, bud, good job.” Assuming that’s what he was going for. “We can put in a book title or author name… or just some keywords like… hmm…”

He leans in and types, “space,” into the keyword box, then hits enter. A bunch of book titles pop up.

“See?”

[purplexing]

For a brief moment Donnie looks a bit anxious, because of course he'd wanted to figure things out. And the Leo he's more familiar with would probably just be hitting keys at random by now.

He watches Leo go to one of the empty search fields, reading which one and then looking on as his brother types in something to look up. Such a simple thing but he looks thrilled all the same as more words come up on the screen, all sharing the same magical word somewhere. So that's how it works!

"Are those books?" he asks, pointing at the title listings. Sooooo many!

[faceguy]

Was he not supposed to do that? Whoops, well, he did it anyway. Donnie can play with it more after this.

“Yep, those are all books! You can search for any kind of book you want that way.”

He leans back and lets Donnie do whatever he wants with this information.

[purplexing]

"Any kind?" So many possibilities! Donnie's not sure where to start first but he sizes up that search bar with a determined look on his face. Any book he wants! But what does he want to find? There's so much! Space seems like a good start but how can he possibly choose when there are pages of titles alone?

Little by little that expression whittles down in intensity as he seems to deflate. He sits back down on the chair, looking about ready to cry.

[faceguy]

Oh no, what happened? Why does he look like that?

Leo thought Donnie would be launching into a billion different searches by now, but instead he looks miserable. Leo would never admit to panicking, but he's panicking a little bit.

"Aw, bud, what's wrong?" He turns Donnie's chair just a little, so he can better see his face. "What's got you all frowny?"

[purplexing]

"I want to read all the books," Donnie pouts. That had been the easiest thing for him to figure out. "But there are so many and it will take forever!" He might be proud of his reading skills but even he will admit, that is going to be a lot of words.

"And...and then I'll never get back home." Where does his little mind even go.

[faceguy]

Alright, Leo followed that first part. Donnie is crying because he can’t read all the books. Feels Donnie-ish.

But then he says that last thing and throws Leo for a loop again.

“What… what does that have to do with you going home?”

[purplexing]

Have you not been paying attention, Leo?! He gives the most exasperated sigh that only a child can give, observed from adults and then liberally applied to the most fitting situations, or at least as they're perceived to be.

"B-because there's so much to read!" It's clearly the end of the world!

[faceguy]

What is that sigh for!? He asked a reasonable question!

Anyway, Leo thinks he’s following now. He shakes his head.

“You don’t have to read them all today. We can check some out and take them with us. The when you’re done, we bring them back and get new ones. See how it works?”

He’s really hoping Donnie is back to normal before any books are due, but maybe this will calm him down…

[purplexing]

It's almost disappointing as much as it is a relief that he isn't expected to read everything in one sitting. Donnie brightens up at the prospect of being able to bring books back with them. Crisis averted!!

"I can read them at home!" And then he won't have to live in the library, not that this sounds like a bad idea to him. Maybe the family can move here. It's nice here.