metalogs | [Open] Transmissions Echoing Away

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[Open] Transmissions Echoing Away

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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."

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?!!

"......"

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?"

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.

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."

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.

"...."

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."

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.

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."

"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?!"

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."

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."

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

Oh, maybe this was a mistake, everything's still so loud and busy and big outside and Donnie has no idea where he's going. Being out in the open again makes him freeze up briefly before he's off and running again and aah what was that noise?!

He doesn't want to look, not going to look-! Maybe there's a monster! Maybe something exploded! There are too many maybes and his imagination isn't doing him any favors. He darts past people's legs and out into the crosswalk. Which would have been fine if it hadn't been the last minute, and the walk sign changes to a red hand, the lights not long in following form.

It really, really doesn't help that Donnie is tiny. He's far too small for the cars at the light to notice, which makes remaining in the crosswalk when the signal changes incredibly dangerous. The light changes, and the cars speed forward, unaware of one very small turtle still in their way.

That's when Accelerator lands. He does so directly in front of Donnie, unconcerned about the SUV laying on the horn as it runs into him.

But instead of ending up a smear on the street, the vectors of the vehicle's momentum are redirected from forwards to downwards. The tires burst from the sudden pressure and the entire frame is forced with a loud crunching noise down onto the asphalt. The car behind the SUV rams into it and there's some honking and swerving from other vehicles, but the SUV doesn't budge.

"What a pain," he says with a sigh.

Donnie notices the cars then, but by that point there's no guarantee he can avoid them and that SUV is incredibly huge. He's about to squeeze his eyes shut and fall back to cowering but that blur of black and white makes him look up. The human's found him! But the car-!

The turtle ducks down, dropping the phone (thankfully from not so great a height) to throw his arms over his head at the blaring horn. They're both going to get crushed!! And oh, the noise! He hears it, although it takes him a moment to register that the sound is a pretty strange one. There's more sounds of metallic crunching and for a while Donnie's too afraid to look. He finally dares to open his eyes, looking out from behind his shield of purple.

The cars have stopped somehow, like something huge had sat on its hood. The white-haired teenager's still standing where he is, looking almost bored. ...did he do that?

Now people are yelling and it's not making Donnie feel any less scared about things, but he's done with running after seeing what's just happened. He goes into a full wail, tears gushing as he throws his little arms around Accelerator's leg, crying.

This isn't the first time Accelerator has wrecked a car in such a specific way. It had been the same way he had saved Last Order, and he found the method pretty useful in stopping a vehicle while preventing the driver from getting injured. The interior of the thing is still in one piece, though the airbag is going off.

He doesn't really care. He turns to look down at Donnie, who... oh. He's crying. And clinging. Hoo boy, this is a lot. He's grateful he's used to Last Order's clinging, otherwise this would feel a lot more awkward than it is.

Surveying their surroundings, he shoots a monstrous glare at the people on the sidewalk yelling and approaching. The murderous intent radiating off of him is enough to dissuade people from getting too close to him and Donnie. The brave ones swerve and go to help the driver of the SUV.

Which is just fine to him. He bends down, grabbing his phone off the ground and scooping Donnie up in one arm. He makes no attempt to stop him from crying. It's probably better to not even try and just let him get it out, honestly. "C'mon, brat."

"Uwaaaah..."

Mildly relieving as it is that he's not being pried off for good, Donnie instantly latches onto Accelerator once the esper's carrying him, burying his face, glasses and all, against Accelerator's shoulder. He still doesn't know the human's name but he's all Donnie has to rely on right now.

At least his hero doesn't sound mad at him for all the trouble he's caused, but Donnie's apologies are muffled and lost between all his sobbing. He's just going to be extra clingy for now.

Accelerator sticks his phone in his back pocket, thinking he'll have to try and call Leo later. Now is a bad time, he's fairly sure he'd never live it down if he did. Better to wait for Donnie to calm down, first.

Making a mental note to register this property destruction with the Society, he'll make his way past the growing crowd. Donnie needs somewhere quiet to calm down and he doesn't particularly want to deal with the police, so with a light hop he takes off, right up to the roof of a nearby building. He'll hop from roof to roof until he spots a small park, and will jump down to the edge of it.

The movement catches his attention enough that he takes a peek over Accelerator's shoulder, the little hiccups dotting his sobs to a lesser degree as he watches the city pass beneath them. It's both scary and exhilarating, making him hold on tighter although he's pretty sure the esper won't drop him.

By the time they've touched down at the park, Donnie's got his crying mostly under control. His face is still leaking but that's okay, he's wiped most of it on Accelerator's shirt.

It's a very good thing Accelerator is used to small children being small children. Last Order has never cried on him, but there was that one time she took it upon herself to try one of his coffees, and after spitting it out wiped her mouth off on his shirt. So it's fine, he's just going to have to wash this shirt later.

.... He does pull a pack of travel tissues out from his pocket, though. It's probably too little too late since Donnie's crying seems to be calming down, but he might as well hand them over.

He heads into the park, walking towards a bench. "Feeling better?"

[Open] Transmissions Echoing Away

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