[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

[levelshift]

"That's why you find a kind of metal that's resilient and light. Alloys are good for that, though they're a lot harder to get ahold of because of the work involved in making them," he replies casually.

Academy City probably has some super advanced alloy not available anywhere else in the world. Excelsior, too. He figures Donnie had picked up what he needed for his crutch at the recycling facility here in Central, but he isn't sure.

[purplexing]

Donnie's giving Accelerator his rapt attention, so much so that he's even paused in eating. The look he wears clearly suggests that if he were capable and had a notepad and pen handy, he'd be taking notes. He taps a nugget thoughtfully against his mouth.

"But then you need tools," he says, frowning to himself as he dunks the nugget into the sauce before popping it into his mouth. Metal, tools, figuring out how to even make a thing. Sooo many steps! And largely impractical for someone who's not even ten.

[levelshift]

Accelerator notes the expression on Donnie's face. Once a nerd, always a nerd, he supposes. It's too bad he can't get his hands on Donnie's battle shell to show him, he'd probably love that.

"Yeah, unless you've got some power that lets you manipulate matter, you need a hell of a lot of specialized tools." Which... yeah, he doesn't comment further on the former. No need to give Donnie a whole existential crisis or anything. "You could always look at making your own tools, though. Either by customizing cheap, off-the-shelf shit, or using that kind of crap to make your own entirely new stuff."

[purplexing]

Maybe he can find stuff? Their dad's found a lot of cool stuff for them to use in the Lair. Old stuff, some kind of new stuff. Donnie's familiar with tools, if passingly, but he knows a screwdriver and a hammer won't be enough to make a cool metal staff.

He sullenly munches on more fries, although Accelerator's suggestion of making his own tools does pique his interest again. He looks hopeful for all of two seconds. "But don't you still need tools?" How else does one make new tools otherwise?

[levelshift]

"... Nevermind." The conversation might be going a bit above Donnie's head, and it's making his mind wander to unimportant things. He takes another sip of his coffee. "If you're this interested in engineering there must be shit you're working on for fun, right?"

[purplexing]

Donnie looks at Accelerator like he'd just said something amusing as he polishes off his last nugget. He really has no idea what the human is getting at. Does taking things apart count? He's been doing a lot of that. The TV's off limits though. Dad said so.

Licking off some stray sauce on his fingers, he pushes the Happy Meal box towards the esper. He can have the rest of the fries if he wants, looks like Donnie's done.

[levelshift]

".........."

Accelerator just sighs and looks down at the box, taking another french fry after a moment. He's pretty sure this isn't the equivalent of 'you need to eat all your vegetables' so he doesn't bother saying anything about Donnie not eating everything.

Besides, now that the turtle is finished he's pulling his phone out. This is the part he hasn't been looking forward to.

"... I should call your brother."

[purplexing]

At least Donnie seems to be trying to be neat, making good use of the napkins. His attention of course is instantly drawn to Accelerator's phone, and he holds a hand out towards it, little fingers opening and closing- want to seeeeee!

The esper's words give him pause, however. The turtle blinks at him. That is a silly thing to say, which brother is he going to call when they don't have phone? Wait- More importantly...!

"You know them?" All this time!! Could he have taken Donnie home too??

Accelerator what is it with you and not informing people important things?!

[levelshift]

There's a beat as Accelerator makes a decision, then he hands his cell phone over. It's doubtful at this age that Donnie could break it, and he still doesn't bother keeping anything important on it.

"One of them," he answers. The only thing is... the photos of very normal-aged Leo and Donnie, which he still hasn't bothered deleting. He needs to explain all of that, somehow.

"... It's complicated."

[purplexing]

Donnie is easily distracted by the phone. He takes a moment to study the screen and the little icons. He's always wanted one of these!

He's only half-listening to Accelerator as he plays with the phone, exploring apps. The esper will have to close them all later. The little turtle giggles to himself when he finds the camera function, holding the phone up to take a picture of Accelerator. Of the Happy Meal box. Of a couple of french fries that had fallen out and have been lying on the table. Aaaah this is so cool~~~ Oh look, selfie-mode! Whoa, is that what he looks like. Time to make all the faces.

Plunking himself back down on the chair, he opens up the gallery to look at his masterpieces. His laughs stop abruptly when he finds those pictures of older turtles. He opens up one of shots an older him had taken of himself and Leo, waving the phone around as he stands up on the chair again to show it to Accelerator. Whooo arreeee theeeeeeese?!!

[levelshift]

"......"

Well, this is happening. Accelerator sinks in his chair, making no attempt to take his phone back. It's fine, it's just photos and the phone has plenty of storage space left. He finishes off his coffee while Donnie fools around, only looking over when he starts waving the phone around.

And sees the picture of the turtles at their normal ages. Hoo boy.

"That's what I meant by complicated," he says slowly, watching Donnie's expression. "You're not getting deja vu or anything, are you?"

[purplexing]

Who doesn't need over a dozen shots of close-ups of some purple kid's face? It's hard taking proper pictures when your arms are so short!

Accelerator's answer doesn't really explain much of anything. Donnie looks at the picture again, clearly confused. Is that... Him? And Leo? That's what the color-coding suggests. But it can't be. He looks at the esper, pointing at the purple turtle on the phone.

[levelshift]

That's a no, then. Great, that makes explaining this even more of a pain in the ass. Accelerator draws in a deep breath.

"Okay. This is going to sound insane." Because it is insane, obviously. "But that's you."

[purplexing]

That's...more or less what Donnie had started to figure, but it's still strange to hear it from this person. A friend? He must know them...future them (????). That would explain why he's been so nice!

The little turtle stares at the picture again, putting his slightly greasy fingers on the screen to enlarge the image. He copies big!Donnie's pose, studious hand to chin, jutting out his lower lip.

Did time get messed up somehow? Maybe he fell into a timewarp! But then what happened to his bigger self?

"Where'd he go?" he finally asks.

[levelshift]

"...."

Accelerator is dead silent as he watches Donnie's reaction. More specifically, his voguing. He keeps his expression totally deadpan, even though that's adorable. When Donnie is back to normal he's going to have to tease him about this.

For now, he relaxes a little. Good to see he isn't going to have to deal with a kid that's freaking out.

"No idea," he explains. "You might just have had your age fucked with, or some Confluence bullshit may have swapped you two out. I've never seen this happen before, so I don't know what's going on."

[purplexing]

It's still a little scary? But now Donnie has some answers, even if they're pretty wild ones. It all sounds so sci-fi! Like all the movies and comics they watch. Fascinating!

He's back to scrolling through pictures. The human must be good friends with his big self and Leo if he's only got pictures of them on his phone.

"What's a con...confloons?" he asks. Ooh, maybe he can look it up. Does this thing have internet? Tap, tap, tap.

[levelshift]

He's taking it very well, all things considered. Accelerator makes no attempt to take his phone back, it isn't hurting so far so there's no point.

"Some kind of unknown energy or force," he replies. "It can cause spatial and temporal distortions across universes, but I don't know much more than that."

[purplexing]

"Wooow..."

That sounds like something right out of a Jupiter Jim comic! Donnie's attempt to search for 'confloons' at least pulls up some relative searches. At least he knows how to spell it now! He taps on a video of one such event, gasping.

"People come from the sky?!"

[levelshift]

Leaning over the table, Accelerator reaches for his phone to turn it in his direction and take a look at what Donnie is watching. When he sees it's just some video on a Confluence event, he lets go.

"Usually," he explains. "One of the guilds has some drones that catch people when they're coming down so they don't get hurt. That also makes it easier to scoop them up for registration."

[purplexing]

Donnie holds the phone out for Accelerator to see before turning it back towards himself. There's so much in that explanation that goes over his head, if only because he has no idea where guilds and registration come into the picture. He's just trying to figure out what happened to big-him!

"But...I didn't fall from the sky." He certainly would have remembered that! This is a lot to process! Even getting to play with a phone won't make this any easier to understand. He slumps a little in the chair, still holding the phone in his lap.

"...wanna go home now."

[levelshift]

Well, that lends more credence to the theory that this Donnie is Donnie, just regressed in age. It should be helpful to have more evidence towards that, though Accelerator is annoyed that it doesn't seem to help in... fixing him, or whatever. If he even needs fixing.

It's annoying.

Frowning, Accelerator holds his hand out. "Give me my phone back, I'll call Leonardo. He can come pick you up."

He's hoping to god that Leo is still his regular age.

[purplexing]

The kid hesitates at that, still clutching the phone.

Big Leo's his brother, but if they came from the sky, then this isn't home. His other brothers aren't in the pictures, and neither is his father. Maybe they aren't here. This isn't where he's supposed to be...

That bottom lip of his begins to quiver.

[levelshift]

With his hand still held out, he notices Donnie's lip quivering and oh god, not this. He does not want to deal with a bawling child.

He leans over the table, reaching for his phone. "Don't start crying, that isn't gonna help. Look, your brother will be able to help. When he shows up you're free to cry all over him."

[purplexing]

Is it really his brother? All he has to go by are pictures and this human's word. And he even knows Leo's full name. No one ever calls them their full names!

Donnie pulls the phone back, hugging it to his chest as he shakes his head. "No!" he sniffs, wiggling himself off of the chair. If the human calls Leo, and he turns out to really be big, then that means everything is wrong and he's not supposed to be here. He already knows he's probably not supposed to be here, but maybe...maybe...!

There's already more than a few people looking in the direction of their table now, which is already more than enough attention than he likes. It's probably of no surprise that he bolts for the door, still holding onto Accelerator's phone.

[levelshift]

Well, this is happening. Accelerator ignores the looks they're drawing, more focused on Donnie's increasing agitation. Unfortunately, that doesn't help, as he watches Donnie suddenly sprint off.

He sighs heavily, then gets to his feet and grabs his crutch. Donnie's legs are tiny so he isn't too worried about losing, heaving for the door and leaving the restaurant before flipping the switch on his choker.

There's a boom and he launches himself into the air, following the turtle.