revivalproject | Taking Care of Business

Entry tags:

Taking Care of Business

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.

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Donnie grimaces, his own gaze sliding over in that direction before he squints at the menu again.

"Well, seeing as how I can't make out anything on this list, I'll let you pick. Or we can try our luck asking for some tasteful but frugal recommendations," he suggests. "Maybe they have an appetizer list? I have no idea what the drinks might be- but if there's a bar then...the alcoholic stuff should be mostly over there, right? No?" Is that how things work? He's never been a formal guest to a fancy restaurant before!

“Aaauuuuuhhh… maybe? Um…”

The waiter is headed this way. Leo glances at them, then tries to pull his game face on.

“I’ll give it a shot. Just… leave it to me.”

He managed to get a deal on the tablet earlier… surely he can do this!

The waiter comes to the table and asks if they’ve made a drink selection. Leo clears his throat and tries to look smooth.

“Ah, well, we were actually wondering about your non-alcoholic selection.” He laughs. “Because we’re sober! Aaand also still kinda full from our last meal, so if we could see the appetizers?”

Not like Donnie has much choice, but Leo's the face man! This shouldn't be difficult, it's just ordering food while trying not to look completely clueless about how the upper crust functions!

He has no idea what Leo's said but he can quietly envy his brother's ability to play things off so smoothly. ...not that he'll ever admit it of course.

The requests are reasonable enough, although the waiter does tilt their head slightly before reaching over to tap at the puck, shuffling between 'pages'. Donnie hides a grimace- well he should've been able to figure that out.

Ah… right. That easy, huh?

Leo scans the drink selection quickly - though even this is difficult to understand, because he doesn’t recognize the brand names. In the end, he just asks for two of the soda brand listed first and hopes it’s at least something like Coca-cola.

The waiter leaves to retrieve their drinks, and Leo leans in to look at the appetizers.

“…Well, this part of the menu isn’t as scary…”

"At least the numbers seem smaller," Donnie cautiously agrees as he eyes the listings, stroking his chin. "Is that like...a one or a nine?"

Well, at least when it comes to potentially weird food, it's not like they haven't eaten strange things. Run-of-the-Mill Pizza did offer some pretty unique toppings, so Donnie's not too concerned about what might be served, but another thought does cross his mind.

"...ahaha, but what if these numbers turned out to just be like...space calories or something?" He shakes his head, pausing to check his funds on the sly. "Anyway, can't let a few numbers ruin this night, let's just pick something and then do what we came here to do, yeah?"

Donnie tries to make an educated guess at things and points out something he assumes might be in a middling range, brow arching at Leo to see if he has any objections.

“Man… even with the Comms point it’s hard to tell.” He’s definitely had more luck with talking to people than reading things, which is not helpful right now.

He looks over Donnie’s selection, then gives an obliging shrug. Next time the waiter comes back, he orders it with all the confidence of someone who knows what he’s getting.

"Well that's reassuring..." Donnie mutters, but given what he can see of the text he can't really argue too much there. Is this what it is to go to fancy places? It's assumed you know what all you're ordering? "I should have done more research."

Their drinks are brought and set in front of them, the waiter giving a professional nod at the selection, looking expectantly at Leo because surely that isn't the only thing you want, is it?

“Well, too late now.” Leo shrugs. “But this is a fancy place so all the food must be good, right?”

And now the waiter is here. Leo grins wide and points out their chosen appetizers, ordering as smoothly as he can. At least it seems like they bought it?

Donnie would assume price equals quality anyway. He picks up his drink while Leo starts picking things out...a bit more somethings than he'd suggested but they're appetizers so it shouldn't be that bad, right?

The waiter's off again once Leo's done and Donnie breathes out a small sigh. "Cool. Okay, that's out of the way, nothing left but to see how things taste and enjoy this maaaarvelous view."

It's only one more thing! Might as well get a little variety going, right?

He relaxes once they're left alone, too, letting his gaze wander back up. Man, he's always loved space through Jupiter Jim, but seeing it for himself is something entirely different. Not that he wants to get all sappy, but... it's beautiful. It'd be so cool to be an astronaut...

He looks back at Donnie after a second, smiling wide. "Let's get some pics!"

You couldn't get as clear a sight of stars unless you really got away from the city, back home. Even then, there's simply nothing to compare. Stars are one thing, but sitting here it's easy to see just how limited a view of anything they'd ever had on Earth. Donnie doesn't care if anyone catches them being all starry-eyed at the sight, it's still amazing.

"-ah yes, let us do," he says readily, grinning back at his brother before fishing out his phone again. "What would be the best angle- no, never mind, let's just take a bunch of different ones just to make sure we have everything covered."

“Works for me, hermano!” Leo hops out of his chair so he can come pose with Donnie. “The stars will look good from any angle, and so will I.”

He shoots Donnie a grin. He has no bad sides.

And immediately he'll get a hand in the face as Donnie playfully shoves him away. The attempted separation isn't long of course, not when there's pictures to be taken.

"Whatever," he snorts, but he's still grinning as he holds his phone out to angle it towards themselves. It doesn't take too long to get into things, and who knows how many shots they've taken by the time their appetizers arrive.

And of course Leo swats that hand back. But the prospect of pictures stops things from escalating into a full brother brawl in the middle of this fancy restaurant.

“Phew! We’re going to fill up your camera storage at this rate,” says Leo once he’s flipped back down in his seat. The food actually looks good!

That would have been an embarrassing way to be ejected from the place, and probably all the better they'd avoided it as then they wouldn't miss this delicious looking food! If it doesn't taste just as good, Donnie will be sorely disappointed!

"Haha, impossible," he says, feeling confident that he's kitted out his phone for maximum memory capacity. He thumbs through a few of the photos before switching back to camera mode so he can get a few shots of the food. "I'll go through them later, but for now? I'm glad we ordered more than one plate because my stomach is reminding me that I haven't eaten anything since.. um. Well I'm sure I ate something before I headed out today."

Leo is already moving some of the food onto his little bread plate when Donnie says that, leading him to look across the table at his brother with narrowed eyes.

“Seriously, Dee?” Dang it, he should have known. Mikey’s usually the one handling the “make sure Donnie actually eats something” job, and Leo hasn’t been thinking about it since he’s been here. “I don’t know how you stand walking around hungry.”

Donnie huffs, following suit with his own plate. "I wasn't walking around hungry because I technically wasn't hungry," he clarifies.

It's typical for him to get distracted by tasks and being in a spaceport just begs for things to be done. Who has time to eat?? Although now that he does, he's not going to waste his breath with further unnecessary explanations as he starts by popping something into his mouth. Oh...oh this is going to ruin them.

"-okay but shut up and just take a bite of that one."

Leo has a hard time believing that. Sometimes he thinks his own stomach is bottomless - he’s probably going to have to eat a sandwich or something later after these appetizers.

Speaking of, they do look and smell really good…

“Okay, I will, but not because you’re telling me too!”

He takes a bite, and immediately forgets what he was mad about.

“Holy cow.”

Honestly now that Donnie remembers what food is he is probably going to have to do the same.

He waits and watches, smirking. "Right? Now I definitely have to wonder how good the rest of this is- and these are just appetizers, Leo."

“I know! Now I wish we could get more…” He would love to try an entree. And a dessert!

Too bad they can’t afford it…

“But we can barely afford this… If we want anything else we’d have to use the three finger discount.”

"Maybe...we can get one more thing at least?" While Donnie doesn't sound entirely convinced on that, that he suggests it at all means he's willing to splurge. Once in a lifetime opportunity and all that!!

He's tapping at the menu trying to do some rough math calculations on what they've already ordered, not that he knows exactly what Leo ordered to really get any really good estimates. With a woeful sigh, he resumes eating what they do have before them. Ugh, this is so good though...

Leo perks up at that. The food is so good, it would be a shame not to get something bigger, right? Besides, they'll both still be hungry if this is all they eat...

"Well, we did get a sale price on that tablet..."

He's just saying!

"Truuuuue..." Donnie says carefully, finding it all too easy to see this in their favor in regards to current funds. He drums his fingers on the table before reaching over to tap at the menu puck again.

"Okay, if we use the prices on the appetizers as a baseline... Which page is this for? Entrées or desserts? Or something else?" he asks as he nibbles on something else.

“Uh, apparently that’s soups and salads? Man, a whole page just for that…”

He reaches over and gives the menu a swipe.

“…Okay, now we’re talking!” A pause, and then Leo makes a face. “Man, hope you didn’t want a steak, because that’s even more zeroes.”

"What? Lame. I didn't come all the way to a super fancy restaurant for a hundred dollar salad," Donnie snorts. "-unless it's made of very specialized and greens. ...in which case it would still have to taste pretty amazing."

He drops his chin into a palm as Leo takes over the menu perusal. "Somehow I am not surprised. Guess we can pass on steak, not my go-to anyway."

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finally made it back to this

XD

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