Taking Care of Business

[thepurpleone]

WHO: Donnie and you!
WHERE: NG-102
WHAT: Trying not to get too distracted from mission while most definitely getting too distracted
WHEN: Uh. Yes.
WARNINGS: N/A
NOTES: Will match tagging preference


This is more like it. This is how space adventures start- panning into the expanse of some kind of sprawling conglomeration of structures hanging against the darkness of a star-pocked backdrop. Yes, Donnie is fully aware that they are here for Reasons, but this is the first chance he's ever gotten to go anywhere that resembled some sort of active alien civilization. A spaceport like that is just screaming new and interesting sorts of technology and culture just waiting to be explored.

Eager as he is, Donnie's also practical. While waiting for things to be cleared for them to disembark, he pulls up any information he can on the station, a directory, a map. There has to be some equivalent of a space extranet or something, or at the very least a local network to patch into. He knows better than to dive into some place that big without doing some research!

He's also quite aware that paying for things is going to be an issue. It's tough starting out from scratch, but he's always been the enterprising sort, and he's not about to let such foreign circumstances stop him from getting down to business. It'll just take some work.


I. Research & Development
The turtle teen spends the first couple of days getting a feel for things and looking for business opportunities. He figures he shouldn't stand out too much amidst an alien crowd, but he also knows that certain people can pick up on Tourist vibes and he's not about to let himself be a target. Having swapped to Communications for the occasion, he makes note of places that might be interested in hiring someone for repairs or upgrades and places he might be able to sell to. Copies of rare cult classic Earth movies? Foreign plants? Small but functionally useful gadgetry? Ka-ching.

In the days that follow, he's out making deals. Hopefully people don't think him underdressed for doing business but he still carries himself about as professionally as one can when they're just dressed in a purple hoodie. He has a bag slung over his shoulder and a backpack awkwardly set over the bulk of his hidden battle shell. If he sees someone from the ships, he makes a beeline towards them.

"Hey, you busy? Okay cool-" not waiting for a response, he passes the backpack over. "-here, hold this and whatever you do don't drop it."


II. Deployment
The best part about having money is being able to spend it. With what he hopes to be a sufficient amount of starting funds, Donnie sets out with the intent to shop. He has several lists, one for parts needed to repair the Agrii mess, one for Leo because Donnie is a most benevolent brother, one for himself of course because what's the point of having money if you aren't going to buy yourself cool things? and another for general items that might prove useful for the inevitable return back to the isolated, ruined city.

...he doesn't want to really go back, not when they've been able to do all this.

Unfortunately it's difficult to haggle when there's a problem with communicating. Donnie's in a bit of a mood as he leaves one store, folding his arms tightly in front of him and his bag as he goes. He may not understand the language but he's pretty sure they were trying to overcharge him on his purchase, and so he'd left without it. Would it be weird if he switched data points and came back? Annoying, certainly. He sighs, starting down along towards where the repair shops are. Maybe putting in some hours fixing crap will make him feel better.


III. Roots
It's not stealing if it's junk, right? The spaceport may as well be its own city, and that has to mean it has its own salvage and trash lots. This is Donnie's normal means of acquiring most anything to tinker with back home, so it's second nature for him to track down where things are being dumped and go to scope things out.

The areas aren't the nicest places, but then that's no big surprise. Making sure to avoid security cameras, Donnie's elbow-deep in junk as soon as he finds a promising spot to dig through. Maybe you caught a glimpse of him sneaking out here. Maybe you were following the toughs that were meaning to have a nice secret exchange at an unsuspecting junk lot. Maybe you just got lost.

In any case, things might get hairy in a few minutes, and Donnie tends to get a little carried away with his scavenging.

Comments

3.

[manofmanynames]

As it turns out, Fang is scavaging too. He's trying to dig through a mound of stuff as quietly as possible, looking for possible parts to fix their problem as well as parts to maybe start building a version of his precious Marvelous Queen hoverbike.

"This spot's taken!" he snaps without looking up. But then he thinks he catches sight of someone familiar and he looks up to see Donnie at the next mound over. "Oh, it's you." He smirks now. "Lookin' for a good deal too, eh?"

[thepurpleone]

Donnie looks offended for all of three seconds when he finds out he doesn't have the place all to himself. He has his mouth open, about ready to fire back some words before it seems he's been recognized, and only then does he think to get a better look. Oh, the...hat guy.

"Scoff, I would be remiss to overlook a bountiful treasure trove such as this. Anyway, it's my usual go-to for anything, and no one will try to overcharge you," he says as he ducks back down to rummage.

[manofmanynames]

Fang grins. "Then we're of the same mind on this." He finds a couple of parts that might work for his hoverbike project and tries to quietly shove them into a bag.

"So, you getting anywhere on our quest?" Meaning the ship repairs, of course.

[thepurpleone]

The turtle doesn't answer right away as he tries to find where the main body of the scrapped machinery he's come across lies, pulling other bits and pieces of things to the side.

"I've made some progress," he says. "Smaller components mostly, and spares to save us the trouble of any future breakdowns. You?"

[manofmanynames]

"I got a couple of bigger pieces, but mostly smaller stuff too," Fang says. "Spares are a good idea, when we can find them." He scowls in frustration as he finds a rusted part. "Let's just hope we can come up with everything we need."

I

[doubled_speed]

Wait, dude, what? There'd Tommy been, talking animatedly with a synthetic life form that had learned English insanely fast and who could talk to Tommy at a reasonable speed, and then this. Donnie just showing up and thrusting a backpack into his hands. Seriously, it was almost suspicious what the kid was up to, like a purse snatcher thrusting their take into your hands to direct attention away from them as they fled.

Actually, it's Donatello. This is scarier. Especially with that 'don't drop it'. It could go boom.

So of course Tommy's cradling the thing carefully in one hand before his arm darts out to try and grab the turtle by the hoodie.

"Hold up kid," oh god he just called Donnie a kid, he's becoming one of those adults and he's not that old and fuck. "What's with this?"

[thepurpleone]

"Grk-" Wow, rude! Donnie stops, frowning as he tugs the front of his hoodie loose around his throat.

"What do you mean what's with this? I am entrusting my wares to you because I think I overpacked and if it looks like I have too much stock then people will be less inclined to pay up for something otherwise advertised as rare," he explains, like this is supposed to be obvious and not at all sketchy.

[doubled_speed]

Not rude. Using him as a pack mule without asking for permission is rude. He'd have said yes.

"You really think that it was right to just recruit me for your schemes without asking, while I was in the middle of a conversation?"

He is a little amused, but he's also curious.

"Couldn't you just take some of this back?"

[thepurpleone]

He places a hand on his chest with a gasp. "It's not a scheme! And it didn't look like you were doing much- Not like I'm asking you to go with me."

The very thought of taking stuff back has Donnie stare a moment as though Tommy's sprouted another head. "But then I'd have to go back again to restock. This is much quicker."

[doubled_speed]

Really? Not a scheme? He literally just said that he was using artificial scarcity to make more money. Tommy knew that was what he was saying, man.

"Yeah, but right now you're expecting me to stick around, aren't you?"

1.

[buildingitsir]

York likes to think he blends in - but that's only thanks to his hoodie that he does. The only thing it doesn't cover is the eyes, the inhuman blue of them, but for the most part the aliens leave him alone. Thankfully.

It's when he's talking with one of them that could speak some English that it happens. Some other alien guy comes up to him to shove a backpack at him. The sudden weight of it almost knocks the android over, but with some footwork, he holds it up.

"Hey, what the fuck? Is this some weird sort of robbery? I'm not going to be apart of it——" and he tries to push the backpack into the hands of its original owner.

[thepurpleone]

Unlike his brothers, Donnie does pay attention to people and remembers names and faces. While he may not be particularly close with a lot of the people from Temba, there's always some weird sort of...well, not necessarily kinship but, just knowing that you are familiar with at least some people in an even more foreign place is kind of comforting.

Kind of.

Donnie had not been expecting resistance, and when he finds his bag being shoved back at him, he's quick to grab it if only so it won't fall. "Hey, hey, hey! Careful with that! What did I just say?!"

[buildingitsir]

"You said 'Hey, you busy? Okay cool, here, hold this and whatever you do don't drop it.'," York recites with the same inflections in his voice as Donnie has just used.

He doesn't remember seeing this guy before, though upon further inspection, maybe on the network. The android lays one of his glares on the guy. "No one likes having a random bag shoved in their arms, shitbag. Makes it look like you're trying to make my an accomplice in something you might've stolen!

[thepurpleone]

That throws him off for a moment before Donnie frowns. "Haha, funny. -I know what I said!"

Scowling, Donnie makes a quick check of the contents before he carefully slings it back over his shoulder. "And gasp- how dare you suggest I was stealing something! I was in fact going to do business to pad my sorely inadequate funds. These- know what, never mind. Not sure why I'm even bothering. Good day!"

He huffs and turns to leave.

[buildingitsir]

"If you know what you said, don't ask for me to repeat it, knucklehead." York doesn't look impressed.

"How the fuck am I supposed to know? You do that kind of shit in NYC or Detroit and people are going to think you stole something! And I've only seen you like, once or twice on the network," because that memory has slotted into place now, thankfully, "so you running up on me like that is not a good look, my dude."

The guy looks so offended York almost can't tell if it's from York's attitude or from him accusing the guy of stealing. Even though it wasn't a direct accusation. "What did you need me to hold the bag for?"

And he holds his hand out, like the guy might change his mind and give it back.

II

[faceguy]

Leo had given his list to his very benevolent brother and since then he's just been wandering around the spaceport, checking out the local culture and indulging in all the sights. After all, what's he going to do without any money? Try to earn some? How, by getting a job? No thanks!

The spaceport is super cool, though, and just exploring it has been a blast, even without much ability to buy anything. His communication skills might be more limited than normal, but thanks to the comms data point he's been getting along, making "friends" here and there as he goes (they all seem to be happy to be rid of him, how strange).

As he exits a shop ("Just looking~" he'd said to the shopkeep), he's surprised to see a familiar head and shell up ahead. Leo grins, hurrying into the path to catch up. He wants to see what Donnie's bought so far!

"Dee! Dee!" He jumps a little to see over the heads of the aliens between them. "Donatellooooo! Hey!"

[thepurpleone]

It's only after the second 'Dee' that Donnie actually starts to pay attention, dragging himself out of his thoughts as he turns to look around for his brother. He has to dodge a bit as it seems spaceport foot traffic can be about as persistent as New York foot traffic, ducking past a couple of people who don't seem to care about slowing down for is abrupt stop.

Now, where is- ah, there he is. His mood at least lightens up considerably once he meets his brother. "Nice to see some things never change no matter where you go, right?" he says blandly, glaring a bit at the backs of the aliens that go on past.

[faceguy]

Leo laughs at that, shifting to the side so he isn’t shoved around by people trying to get past. Feels like home.

“I don’t think I could make it in a place where pedestrians didn’t try to run each other over.” He watches the crowd a second, then turns his attention back to Donnie. “Isn’t this great!? This place is so cool!”

[thepurpleone]

Donnie does have to smirk at that, turning to face Leo then. It's not hard at all to match his brother's enthusiasm. "It's amazing, there is so much to see! And save for the inevitable language barriers, a shopping paradise!"

If Temba were more like this, he'd be a lot more excited about going back. As it stands, it's not something he looks forward to, and just knowing that they won't be here forever is incentive enough to do all the things. Or at least as many things as possible in their allotted time.

"I've only managed a few things on your list so far, anything change since you last made it?"

[faceguy]

"Eh, the language barrier isn't so bad if you have comms. And if you're a face man like me, of course." He tosses his mask tails over his shoulder like it's hair as he says this.

At Donnie's question he does give it some thought. He's seen all kinds of cool things here, but he doesn't want to mooch off Donnie too much (he'll still mooch off him a moderate amount, though).

"Hmm, well, I saw this cool snack shop that has snacks from all over the galaxy. It looked so wild, we have to go back and check that out." He rubs his chin. "But otherwise I think I'm good."

[pursuitofcappiness]

No, Steve was coming to scavenge for junk parts too, because the people here... do not like him, and if he can't get anything to barter, then he'd like materials that he can make art with later.

But maybe they can help each other - whatever scrap Donnie doesn't want, Steve might, and vise versa. He holds up a transistor. It might even work. "You want this?"

[thepurpleone]

Donnie tends to hoard anything that he figures might be useful, so it's a toss-up as to what he might not want, if anything. Anything can be used for something, after all.

It's a safer bet for Steve to just tell Donnie what he's looking for, if anything specific. But the kid certainly won't say no to the man's offerings.

"Ooh! Can never have enough of those," he says, holding a hand out for it. "I found some... Well, it used to plate something but I guess it's too dented to make a decent cover anymore. But the sheen is nice- I think the color goes all the way through!" he says as he holds up a bent up bit of metal.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve looks at the metal and takes it. "I'm sure I could make something out of this." He keeps looking for more things. He doesn't really have tools back where they came from either, so, he'll really just accept anything he can manipulate with his hands and basic tools. But. That is a lot of things.

Digging through the pile, he eventually comes across a few more things he thinks Donnie might like, which he puts to the side for him. The pile is sizable, though he does keep things he'd like for himself in another pile.

"You know yet what you're making with all this?" He figured that inspiration would strike once enough materials were gathered.

[thepurpleone]

Donnie'd happily help with tools. He actually likes doing stuff for people, or making things that he thinks they'd need or would be helpful. It makes him feel useful.

He's been putting some things he's found into a backpack he's brought along, the things he's pretty sure he wants to take, while the things he needs to consider are set to the side. He'd take everything if he could, but unfortunately he does not have infinite space.

"For some," he admits. "Most of it's parts I know can be used to fix things, so it doesn't hurt to stock up on those while we can."

[pursuitofcappiness]

Good thing Steve's stronger than he looks, because cumbersome objects is no problem for him. Space might eventually be a concern, but not terribly. The ships were quite large.

"Sure. Can I take a look?" He could more easily sort through and help him find those, if he had an inventory to work with.