Stars Under the Stars

[thepurpleone]

WHO: Y'all
WHERE: By the not-spider warehouse in the southeastern quarter of Temba
WHAT: Movie night!
WHEN: The night after this announcement
WARNINGS: N/A
NOTES: We're all chill here, feel free to backtag or whatev


Maybe it was a lot of effort put into but Donnie never does anything without reason. The recent free display of memories thanks to the last storm had gotten him thinking. What's the point of it all if they just keep getting railroaded by bad experiences and memories here? No one's stopping them from enjoying themselves in an otherwise dilapidated city, and if they keep on focusing on the negative and being stuck for an indeterminate amount of time then that's just more fuel the Atroma or whoever's out there has to use against them.

So Donnie's got the designated space all set. He's made as much use of convenient rubble as he could find within the area for some makeshift seating. He's found some kind of old cushions and blankets to pad them. Since Steve's offered to handle prepping the popcorn, Donnie's happy to leave that business to him and Leo.

The movie selections for the night are definitely things appreciated by a certain audience and might in some universe be considered cult classics, and once it gets dark enough for optimal projection clarity, it's show time!

Teriyaki Shakedown is a martial arts action movie starring the great (as so proclaimed by Leo and Donnie) Lou Jitsu, who's trademark seems to be a pompadour and a flare-legged spandex onesie.

"Where's our free grub, noodle man?"

"Okay- How ‘bout some . . . hot soup? Too spicy for you? Hahaha- Everyone’s a critic."

It's very cheesy and definitely reminiscent of what you'd expect of martial arts movies made in the seventies and eighties.

Jupiter Jim's Last Trip to the Moon turns out not to really be his last trip considering it's the second time it's apparently happened, but what's continuity? It's a sci-fi flick, dated effects and melodramatic, and perhaps one might wonder how anyone can watch more than sixty movies of this?

Comments

[thepurpleone]

"There's four of us altogether," Donnie says around a mouthful of popcorn. "Raph, Leo, me and Mikey." He has to use a finger on his other hand to finish the count.

"Maybe I'll just volunteer you for snack committee for the next time."

[madginger]

"That's a lot.... I was an only child before my mother remarried. I've only ever had the one brother. Can't imagine four of you," she admits to Donnie. "What are the others like?" She's met Leo, after all.

"Oh, no," Max shakes her head. "You don't get to volunteer me for anything." She still sounds amused, though. And she will still probably help out, next time, just to help these movie nights continue.

[thepurpleone]

"Is it? I can't really imagine not having brothers. ...it was really weird without any of them when I first got here." Weird to be apart from any of his family at all. Sure, there'd be days when Donnie would coop himself up in his lab working on things but that was different, because he knew his family was still just in the sewers beyond his doorway.

He shakes his head, straightening up as he pulls out his phone to provide Max with some visuals.

"Oh, well Raph is huge. He's an alligator snapping turtle and six feet tall, the oldest of us. Love to punch things and can definitely pummel someone if he so pleases but don't let that tough exterior fool you because he is a big softy inside," he explains as he brings up a large, thickly built turtle with a red mask and a snaggle-tooth, in the process of stuffing an entire sandwich into his face.

"And then Mikey-" Donnie says as he swipes to the next image, showing a smaller, round-faced turtle with a big grin. He wears an orange mask and a couple of stickers adorn his plastron. "-is the youngest. Our resident artist and chef. Very energetic, absolutely capable of literally bouncing off the walls."

He laughs, the volunteering mostly a joke, but he isn't going to turn down any offers for help with these things, especially if it encourages people to come.

[madginger]

"Feels like it, to me. But I get that. It felt weird without my other friends from home. I can't imagine when it's family you're used to having around." She's mostly alone, back home, these days, so it didn't feel odd, to her.

She's interested in the pictures for more than just what they have to offer, but the phone itself causes Max to pause.

"That's convenient. I know our devices here are a lot like those, but it's still new to me." So very new. But a phone that holds pictures? Incredible. What else can it carry?

"Never seen an alligator snapping turtle," Max says, eyes wide as she adds, "until now." She chuckles to the inner softy comment. People probably could say the same about her. Sarcastic as she is.

She smiles at Mikey's face. "If I ever see Raph and Mikey, you and Leo will be the first people I tell," she assures Donnie. And it helps she knows what they look like. Because who knows, there could be more turtle people, right?

As for the volunteering, if it keeps movie nights going, she will, gladly.

[thepurpleone]

Donnie definitely wasn't used to being alone. Sure, he likes spending time alone because that's the only way he tends to get any work done, but actually being alone is...not fun. It had been a strange weight that had been lifted off of his shoulders when he'd found out that Leo was here.

"Oh, this? It's my phone from home. Absolutely can't live without it," he says, grinning as he swipes through some pictures of them skateboarding on a stupidly huge ramp that seems to be built within a...sewer?

Not that it's difficult to spot a turtle anywhere, he supposes, but Max's offer comes without preamble, and Donnie fully appreciates it. "Thanks..." he says, smiling faintly.

[madginger]

At least, here, Max doesn't feel lonely, not with all of the people she's met, and living in a hotel.

"Not even our cameras are that small, back home," she admits, a bit fascinated. If she had something that could take and carry pictures? As well as take phone calls? Yes, she might not be able to life without it, either.

She pauses for a moment and peers at that image, but it's not the sewer she remarks on, "Skateboarding? That looks like a good ramp. Did you make that? All of you?"

As for the heads up, she shrugs, "Don't thank me yet."

[thepurpleone]

"They'll get there eventually," Donnie promises. "And it's not like big cameras are ever phased out completely. While camera phones are getting better and better, it's still part of a phone. Specialized stuff will always be more optimal, but this is definitely handy. You can even make movies with these!"

He grins, looking at the skateboard picture before he flips through a few more pictures, including one of Leo eating ramp after a failed trick until he gets to a good shot from the top of the ramp looking towards the other end that curves up the opposite side of the massive chamber. "Oh yeah. Definitely a team effort. All the graffiti work is Mikey's."

And then he shrugs. "Hey, you didn't have to offer to do anything."

[madginger]

"Videos, too? Do you have any on there?" Max asks, still giving the device a confused look.

She laughs at the picture of Leo, but takes in the ramps with eagerness. "So when you build a ramp here, it's going to be great, then? I'll gladly help with that, if you do." Because she wants a ramp, and she has experience working on them. Sort of. Okay, hers and her friends' were nothing like the one in the image, but she can still assist!

Another chuckle. "Mikey's pretty good," she muses as she looks, specifically at the graffiti.

"It's just," Max shrugs, too, and looks down, briefly, "now I get what it's like. Missing a brother."

[thepurpleone]

"Where do you think I've been keeping the movies?" Donnie smirks. He swipes to another picture, at least it looks like one until he taps it and it starts moving, showing Mikey taking a turn on the ramp.

"Been working on it but with everything else I've been trying to do, extra hands would probably be appreciated."

His expression sobers a tiny bit, a wistful smile on his face as the skateboarding video ends. "Oh... Yeah. It's...not the greatest feeling."

[madginger]

Her eyes go round to that.

"They fit on there?" and she peers at the device with extra confusion and curiosity. She is, after all, accustomed to video tape cassettes and movie reels. This is very different.

"I will gladly help. I need a ramp, after all."

Max nods her head, once. "Yeah, it's not. At least you have Leo here."

[thepurpleone]

"Yep. Digitized and stored as data." All of their favorite movies are otherwise on VHS because they're so old, but given how much their dad liked to hog the TV Donnie's picked up plenty of tricks to get around technical issues. Especially since the Wi-Fi Incident.

He snorts, glancing around to seek out his brother in the audience. "...yeah," he says again, but this time he smiles faintly about it. It makes all the difference in the world having someone he knows around.

[madginger]

Max's eyes narrow, then widen. "So, music, movies, conversations.... Digital text, as well. What else can be digitized?" There are a lot of possibilities, and Max didn't even realize it, until now, of course.

She watches Donnie as he looks over, and she gets that, too.

"My brother used to be a real asshole. But...I can't imagine being here without him, now. You and Leo get on? He seems like a good guy."

[thepurpleone]

"Oh, practically anything! Of course some may take more specialized equipment than others."

Donnie chuckles a little as he puts his phone away. "Eh, we're brothers. There are good days and then there are days when I'd like to throttle him."

[madginger]

"Practically anything? So practically speaking, not plants, animals and people, yet, outside of a picture of video?" Look, Max doesn't want to be digitized, but her curiosity teeters on morbid.

She laughs.

"Also, understandable. I think that's normal for siblings, though."

[thepurpleone]

The turtle laughs. "Nothing past image scanning," he confirms. "Although there's plenty of science fiction that explores otherwise."

He grins then. "Yeah, pretty sure. That is how it's been with my brothers, definitely."

[madginger]

Max cants her head at the device as she points out, "That, to me, is still science fiction. So you never know, right?"

She laughs.

"Thanks for confirming. First brother I've ever had, and things were really bad between us, before. Things are..." she turns to Donnie, "sounds more like normal sibling stuff. I like it that way. Even if I want to throttle him, sometimes."

[thepurpleone]

"That is quite true."

Donnie smirks. "Don't worry. You're completely normal so far as I can tell."

[madginger]

Max laughs to that.

"Not sure how normal we are, really, but glad to know we're normal siblings." She is, of course, thinking more of the events that transpired in their lives, but that can be taken multiple ways.

[thepurpleone]

The turtle gives her a bland look. "To be fair, my version of normal may be slightly skewed," he admits, gesturing vaguely at himself before he grins.

[madginger]

To which Max peers right back, though she smiles.

"My version of normal is skewed, too, if that helps."

[thepurpleone]

Donnie laughs. "Immensely. We always do get along better with the weirdos." He grins impishly. "Our best friend back home, April? Major weirdo magnet."

[madginger]

Max laughs, though she looks confused, too.

"So, this April, she have a group of loyal nerds and a badass friend with powers, too?" Because, luckily, weirdo magnets at least get perks out of the situation.

[thepurpleone]

"Pff. Well, she's the only human we regularly hang out with. Normal so far as abilities go, no super-powers but she is pretty handy with a bat," Donnie shrugs. "She's a couple years older than me but she lets me help with her homework sometimes. It's the closest experience I have to school but I'll take it."

[madginger]

Max grins, and laughs a little as she says, "I'm pretty handy with a bat, too." And then a huge pause.

"You sound like you like school?" Max likes educating herself, expanding her boundaries, but not school.

[thepurpleone]

Donnie smirks at that. More friends with bats isn't necessarily a bad thing so long as you weren't on the other end of it.

"Ohhhmigosh I love school. I've always dreamed about going. Buuut not like I can so I must live vicariously through April's experiences and sneak into the computer lab on occasion."