[OPEN] Maybe not a literal monster mash

[robintohood]

Who: Jason Todd robintohood and you. Also a mingle!
What: Various antics at Descendant Karaoke Bar and Lounge during October
When: Throughout October
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: N/A for now. Will edit if needed.

[There may be some changes to the timeline now but Descendant Karaoke Bar and Lounge is still open for business. There are always people looking to have a good time drinking and blowing off some steam with a good song. It doesn’t matter if they’re ordinary civilians or some of Central City’s more... colorful characters. Just be nice to the bouncers and check your weapons by the entrance first.

To reflect the fall season, Descendant has included seasonal drinks like pumpkin beer, apple cocktails, and spiced maple bourbon.

Meanwhile, some of this month's most popular songs seem to be reflecting Halloween, such as Highway to Hell and Monsters. Or maybe you want to do a more classy number like Witchcraft? Descendant looks like a speakeasy after all. And in a total coincidence, Time Warp has also shown up on the popularity chart.

If you drop by at Descendant on a Coyote Ugly Night, you’ll find the atmosphere considerably wilder and wetter. You might’ve even already seen some of the social media posts and videos of the employees performing. They certainly look like they’re having a good time.

Perhaps you’re coming in during a more normal time. Come by for a drink. Maybe rent a private karaoke room or karaoke on stage in front of others if you’re feeling brave. There are some bar games around too.

You can always just people watch as well. Those who are especially observant might notice that some of Descendant’s customers are a bit... furtive as they keep their heads low or quickly scurry to one of the private rooms.

There’s always the reading room too for those who want a more quiet ambiance.

And then there's the very select few who are allowed upstairs in the attic apartment.

Whatever the case may be, Jason will be around. As Descendant’s owner, he’s a busy guy with plenty he has to do]

((OOC: Jason will be around but feel free to mingle! My contact information is on this journal's profile and I'm in the game's Discord server. Also feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns as well. I also have a feedback post.))

Comments

[purplexing]

Donnie winces a little at the singing, but he still finds himself grinning. What's karaoke without some off-key singers?

"Not really, no," he admits with a shake of his head, eyes lingering on the doors in passing before he looks back down the hall. "Back home we try to keep out of sight, do most of our outings at night, sneak into places when we can. So...being able to do things here like other people has been kind of nice."

One of the nice things about being in this weird, crazy world, anyway.

[robintohood]

It's easy for Jason to imagine how that kind of life could make someone restless for more beyond their home. It's partially why he isn't kicking Donnie out despite his own rule about kids being on the premise.

"So it was just all disguises back home? No holograms either?" Jason asks.

[purplexing]

"Yeah, more or less," Donnie says. "No holograms, but we could usually get by just wearing hoodies or under other circumstances, say we're cosplaying. People usually don't ask too much questions, but then it's probably easier to ignore small details when bipedal humanoid turtles are not a natural existence."

He doesn't seem particularly upset about it. It's just been fact, and while he and his brothers had at one point made the attempt to get people to warm up to the existence of mutants, it had failed pretty badly. But it hadn't gotten them down, not exactly. They just went back to how they always did things, and how they lived hadn't necessarily been terrible. Ending up here just opened up so much perspective. Donnie feels a bit spoiled for it, having a taste of what it's like to live like humans do.

[robintohood]

"Must be a total 180 after coming here then," Jason says.

Once they're back in the open bar area, Jason leads Donnie to the staircase leading up to the second floor. It's not as spacious as the first floor but there's still plenty to do. There's a small arcade area with a couple of pool tables, a pinball machine and an arcade machine for a fighting video game. Meanwhile, most of the tables and chairs are positioned towards the back of the second floor, where a stage for live performances is.

At the very corner of the floor is a mostly unassuming locked door with a "PRIVATE. DO NOT ENTER" sign on it.

[purplexing]

"A little, yeah. I was kind of trying to stay hidden at first, when I got here. I never registered and Leo figured it was probably better that way. But I guess that's not a problem anymore at least, and to be honest, I'm kind of tired of hiding."

It's such a pain. And how's he supposed to show people what he can do when no one knows who he is?

Donnie sighs, rolling his shoulders back as he follows Jason up. His eyes immediately go to the arcade machine before doing a sweep of the rest of the setup. It's a simple setup but it looks fun.

"You have a lot of private events?" he asks as he looks towards the stage area, eyes inevitably trailing towards the door in the corner, but seeing a restricted area is certainly no surprise.

[robintohood]

"Sometimes. We but also have to have places for storage," Jason replies with ease. It's a well-practiced answer and one of many ways to hide what Descendant actually is. He then shrugs.

"It's just easier this way and we can't shove everything in the basement."

[purplexing]

Not that Donnie had thought too much about it. Most businesses had some kind of off-access area.

"Too true," he nods, walking over to check out the
arcade machine. It's a lot more to-date than any of the cabinets they had in the old lair but the boys hadn't been too picky. After all, they had an entire private arcade and old games could be just as fun as new ones.

[robintohood]

"We try to rotate the machines every few months or so, depending on how popular something is," Jason says. "We might add another if we got enough space for it. You ever played back home?"

[purplexing]

"Sounds like a reasonable plan, especially with limited space." Donnie laughs then. "Do turtles swim? -but of course I played! Maybe not this specific game but back in the old lair we had our own arcade, it even had one of those dance games. Lemmee tell you, that was a pain getting into the sewer but we made it work somehow."

He sighs wistfully as he pokes at the buttons on the machine. "The place got trashed though. That was a couple years back. The new lair's not as open as the old one was but it's spacious enough and it's still home."

[robintohood]

"The new place is somewhere not a sewer?" Jason guesses. Though he understands the comfort one could possible get from a subterranean home. The BatCave was part of his home and he had plenty of good memories from it. "How you'd haul the stuff?"

[purplexing]

"Oh, we're still underground. Abandoned subway station. It's even got some old forgotten railcars. I still miss the old place though. We had these giant skateboard ramps in the middle of everything, and several levels of repurposed pipeways." He sighs wistfully.

How did they get anything down into the sewers? Donnie laughs a little as he turns from the game machine to go poke around the pool table.

"Our big brother'd usually handle most of the heavy lifting, but otherwise it'd be group effort. And there are more ways than manholes to get into a sewer. I mean, how else would I have built a tank from a prop movie-vehicle down there?"

[robintohood]

Given the other inventions Jason has seen that were made by Donnie, he believes him and whistles. He's impressed.

"Seriously? That's a hell of a job to pull off," he says. "The tank was also part of security?"

[purplexing]

"Haha- nah, that's just to get us around town."

Because a tank driven by underaged turtle teens is totally legal, right?

"Oh here, I have it on my phone," Donnie says as he digs it out, thumbing through images. He's always eager to show off his stuff! "Ah, here we go- my baby, the Turtle Tank."

[robintohood]

Jason looks over at the picture Donnie pulls out. The vehicle certainly lives up to the name, just like how the Batmobile lives up to its own moniker.

"Wow. Must've taken you forever to build that thing," he says.

[purplexing]

"Thankfully I didn't have to build her completely from scratch, but I wouldn't say it took forever. I mean, what's a few nights sleep? And it's not like we had any real daily routines or schedules so... yeah."

Once Donnie had his mind set on something, it was pretty hard to get him to step away from a project until he'd made what he considered adequate progress or completed it. And usually his brothers left him to his own devices. What is intervention?

"Too bad we don't have it here, but then given how people are in this world, they probably would have given us more trouble about it. ...which is why the transportation I've been working on for here is more acceptable for daily use."

[robintohood]

"Which is what? A bike?" Jason asks, figuring a car would probably be too difficult for either turtles to get.

Plus, from his own experience riding a motorcycle in Central, one could get far.

[purplexing]

"Ha-ha-ha- no. Actually that's a special order for Leo that I hope to finish by Christmas," Donnie admits as he tucks his phone away.

"I have been working on a car I found. It's just been taking me longer than usual because of everything happening, but I'm almost done with it."

[robintohood]

"Nice," Jason says. "It must be pretty satisfying to get what looks like junk and turn it back into a beauty."

Jason never had a full-blown project like that but he's had his moments of pride after getting a vehicle running in good condition again. Granted, sometimes they were stolen vehicles but the general sentiment was there.

[purplexing]

"It really is," Donnie grins. Vehicles aren't technically stolen if they've been abandoned, right? True, he did have to sort of fight for it but then he made a pretty good friend by it in the process.

"It'll be great to have something to haul things too. And take a trip. I have no idea where but...the option's there at least."

[robintohood]

"Sometimes the road trip itself could be fun," Jason points out. At this point, he's heard more than enough country songs about taking a journey. "Just know what roads to take."

[purplexing]

The turtle teen picks up one of the pool cues, testing its weight and giving it a spin because of course he has to.

"True, I guess. But it would still be a good idea to have some kind of destination. But yes, knowledge of what directions we need to take will be important." He pretends to set up for a shot before he sets the stick back down.

"You ever take any road trips?"

[robintohood]

"I've done a few. Nothing super extensive though," Jason lies. As far as he was concerned, most people don't need to know that he traveled for five years around the world training on how to be a more efficient killer.

"Seems like it might be fun to do it again if I got the time."

[purplexing]

Jason's a better liar than Donnie is, that's for sure.

The turtle nods, tucking his hands back into his pockets again. "Well, with things quieting down or at least kind of shifting into some semblance of normal.... Eh, who'm I kidding, I don't know what accounts for normal around here anymore. -but no time like the present?" He shrugs. Who knows how busy a bar owner can be?

[robintohood]

"Yeah, maybe in a few months I'll do it. I could use the break," Jason says. It isn't entirely a lie. He could use a break but he also feels he has too many important things to take care of before he could take a vacation, if ever. "I wanna see the car when you're done. It must be pretty impressive."

[purplexing]

Donnie grins at that, nodding. "I think everyone could use a break, especially after everything. But yeah, I'd be happy to show you." Jason's always been an eager audience and the turtle's only too happy to oblige. He loves it when his work's appreciated.