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

[thepurpleone]

Donnie groans in response. "Yeah, pretty sure. I think I only caught about half of the conversation but enough of the numbers to know he was probably ripping me off," he huffs.

It can't hurt for Leo to give it a shot anyway, so far as Donnie's concerned. And it might be funny to watch either way, but if he gets a better price out of it, then who's he to complain? "Shop's back that way," he says, thumbing towards the direction he'd just come from.

[faceguy]

"Alright, let's go!"

He pushes around Donnie to lead the way, totally confident as he saunters into the shop. He takes a moment to look over the shop, making a show of it. He has no idea what exactly Donnie was looking at, but he walks around and picks things up and then puts them down anyway. This is just part of it!

[thepurpleone]

At least he knows his brother enough to leave Leo to his 'perusal'. The shop in question has an assortment of items, leaning more towards electronics for everyday use, but at some point someone had thought they might entice more people to open their wallet if they had a selection of collectible figurines of a sort. At least one wall's been sacrificed for them, giant soulless eyes staring out at customers, a few with wobbling heads.

Donnie follows in Leo's wake, if loosely. He pauses to consider the staring heads.

The shopowner sits behind the counter, not really paying much attention to the customers as he watches some sort of sports game on something that almost looks like an old boxlike television set.

[faceguy]

Leo completes his circuit around the shop, then comes back to Donnie, leaning casually against a counter.

“So what were you looking at?” he asks, in English and hoping the shopkeeper doesn’t have some kind of translator on him.

[thepurpleone]

"Some even worse rendition of those figures that are all over the place back home," Donnie mutters as he reaches out to poke a finger at one of them, helping it get its bobble quota in. "Maybe we should get one."

Over where the shopkeeper is, an...earstalk? antennae? twitches at the potential of a sale. It's hard to tell whether he's responding to their actual words or just the tones. Or maybe Donnie's touching the merchandise.

[faceguy]

"Heh, why?" Leo gives a little laugh. Sure, he loves a good (or bad) merch figure, but... "There's not an Atomic Lass."

Or any Jupiter Jim that he can see. Though... when he looks closer, he thinks he recognizes what one or two of these are supposed to be, so perhaps some pop culture icons from their own universe have made it over here...

[thepurpleone]

"I don't know, just like for a crappy souvenir so when we end up back in a dilapidated city we can look at it and go 'oh hey remember that cool spaceport we visited where there was actually stuff to do?' ....on second thought maybe not, that's kind of depressing actually."

Donnie wouldn't be surprised if there were at least some kind of cultural overlap between dimensions and what-have-you. Maybe knockoffs here were the real deal!

[faceguy]

"Oh man, you've been sooo bored here, huh?"

It's not boding well for when Leo himself returns to the planet, because his attention span is way shorter than Donnie's... This is why he likes comics, the story moves fast and you move on to new storylines entirely every few issues.

"Let's save our money for stuff that we can actually do something with. Bobbleheads can wait."

He says that now, but who knows if he'll find one he really wants...

[thepurpleone]

"I mean, I've found stuff to do! I have lots to do! But it's still a pain. -but at least now I have my phone, and if I can find the parts, I can probably rig up a projecto- oh wait, there's still some holoprojection parts I have. I'd just need parts to hook my phone up or transfer files but we can potentially at least have movie nights!"

Adding another project to the list.

"Pff. Our money, he says." Donnie looks at Leo, brow lifting at that. He's kidding, but he likes to see his brother squirm just a little.

The shopkeeper's attention's been drawn away from his sports game, watching the two expectantly.

[faceguy]

"Oh, nice." Movie nights sound rad. He will absolutely encourage Donnie in this endeavor.

The reminder that the money is not, in fact, theirs does make Leo laugh sheepishly and shrug with his hands, but before he can say anything more he notices that the shopkeeper is giving them his attention now. Right, probably can't spend too much more time seeming like lookie-loos with no intent to spend...

He throws a smile to the shopkeeper before looking back at Donnie. "Alright, what was the tablet you wanted?"

[thepurpleone]

Oh, right! Donnie instantly homes in on what he'd wanted earlier. "Shelf behind the counter, third row down from the top, sixth down the line from the right." Or he could have just said the purple one, because that's exactly which one it turns out to be.

"He's got newer models in the window display, I could make out the model numbers at least- unless things are backwards here but I'm still ninety-five percent sure the one I want is at least two releases behind."

[faceguy]

Third down, sixth from the right… It’s purple. Of course…

Leo flashes a peace sign to Donnie, then saunters up to the counter, leaning against it casually.

“Hey, how’s it goin’?” he says, in the alien’s language. He points out the tablet Donnie wants, asking, “Mind telling me about that tablet?”

[thepurpleone]

It is so very weird to hear a foreign language come out of your brother's mouth when you know he hardly has a grasp on Spanish. Donnie can't help for the weird look he casts in Leo's direction as the other turtle goes to chat up the shopkeep.

The shopkeeper himself looks a bit surprised, eye/earstalks/whatever-they-are perk up, his actual eyes narrowing just slightly before he seems to relax, resting one of his arms on his side of the counter.

"Oh, that one? You don't want that one, already gathering dust. Same line, newest features just in the other day, bigger everything, faster processing- good for gaming."

[faceguy]

“Ah, you know.” Leo waves that off. “Leading edge is the bleeding edge. I don’t mind staying a few updates behind in case there’s a bug or something - remember when everyone’s new Samsung Galaxys were exploding?”

Probably not, since he doesn’t live on Earth, but Leo continues before anything more can be said about the topic.

“But hey, if it’s gathering dust, you wouldn’t mind me taking it off your hands, right?”

[thepurpleone]

The reference is clearly lost upon this one, all of his eyes (including the ones up there- huh, guess they are eyestalks) blinking one after the other. The effect's kind of weird.

"Hrn..." the shopkeeper considers as he pulls at his chin, one eye glancing between the two turtles, another looking back at the tablet in question. "True enough," he says begrudgingly. "But it's still new. Works perfectly fine." He rattles off specs before quoting a price.

In the background, Donnie is trying very hard not to look in their direction but the bobble heads are kind of creeping him out, so he goes to study the newer tablets.

[faceguy]

Man, with this many eyes it's hard to know exactly where to look. Leo chooses the ones that are most level with him and tries to ignore the stalks.

"New, huh? Not used at all?" Because this looks like the kind of shop that would sell refurbished tablets along with new ones. Though Leo can't actually tell the difference between a new and used one on sight, that's more Donnie's area.

"But, even new, it's still old, you know?"

[thepurpleone]

The higher eyes narrow slightly, focusing back on Leo. "Turned on and off, quick check for functions. Still mostly new," he admits, turning to pluck it off the shelf to show the turtle, although not without a not so surreptitious attempt to wipe the thing off with a sleeve- he hadn't been kidding about the dust apparently.

"See, even has screen protector," the shopkeeper points out the sticky, slightly peeling protective film.

[faceguy]

“Mmmm… I see that.”

Leo reaches out and picks at the film lightly with his fingers, pulling up one of the peeling edges with a soft “schoop” noise.

“Listen, you have all these shiny new tablets in this shop and you don’t really need this one gathering dust anymore, right? So cut us a deal and we’ll take it off your hands, mmkay?”

[thepurpleone]

As many eyes as the guy has, it's not hard to tell the sour look on his face at the very suggestion. His shop isn't the sort to run sales, but being at a veritable hub of commerce, new models come and go, sometimes too quickly to get rid of the old stock that had been new but a few rotations ago. His eyestalks give away his thoughts as he's clearly considering his options. This is why he's terrible at poker games but naturally no one's informed him of his tells.

"Twenty percent off," he says carefully, calculating his gains and losses. That tablet's been sitting there for longer than he'd care to admit, but he hadn't been lying about how old the model had been. Naturally everyone tends to want the newest shiny thing, so long as it's still new and shiny when they see it.

[faceguy]

Ooh ho ho, now they’re getting somewhere! Leo hums like he’s thinking it over, glancing back at Donnie.

“20 percent off,” he says to Donnie, in English this time. He doesn’t know exactly what the guy offered Donnie the first time, so he needs to know if this is actually less than they were at before. “Thoughts, hermano?”

[thepurpleone]

By Donnie's expression it's clear he's at least caught part of that conversation. He snorts.

"Scoff, twenty percent would probably barely make a difference once you add whatever space tax there is, and who knows what sort of hidden fees he's just waiting to add up on there," he says.

[faceguy]

“Mmmm, sounds like a no from my associate,” says Leo as he looks back at the shopkeeper.

“Come on, think hard. When was the last time you actually sold one of these old things? And how many more are just rotting away in the back? You know the batteries go bad eventually and then it’s just a fire hazard.”

[thepurpleone]

Those eyestalks level a bit of a glare in Donnie's direction, the turtle's scowl turning into a bright and very false smile.

The shopkeep's expression sours as he looks to Leo again, the top eyes squinting. Leo seems to have hit things right on the nail there. He sighs heavily, as though very put upon, and perhaps by his perspective, he is.

"Twenty-five," he starts, but Donnie's already talking over him. "This is like pulling teeth, gotta give him a counter. Highball it and maybe he'll meet us in the middle. Honestly I'll settle for forty but if you can talk him down to half off I am certainly not complaining."

[faceguy]

Leo tosses an annoyed look over his shoulder - let him handle this! - before refocusing on the shopkeep and his eyestalks.

"Mm, I dunno..." He sucks in air through his teeth. "I think I can go somewhere else and get this for a third of the price."

[thepurpleone]

Donnie returns the look, he can't help but be a backseat haggler! He's the one that's going to be spending the money! Huffing, he turns and looks at some other contraption even as he still tries to listen to the two at the counter.

The shopkeeper drums thin fingers against the counter, his upper eyes still narrowed. His lower eyes squint shortly after as he frowns, fingers drumming a little more anxiously at Leo's suggestion that he could find a better price. It's possible, and the shopkeeper's already drawing up a shortlist of competitors that he knows has similar stock.

"-a third? That's practically giving it away!" he still insists, even as one of his eyestalks twitches. "Thirty-five percent off."