revivalproject | [closed] A-MAZE-ING

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[closed] A-MAZE-ING

WHO: turtle bros
WHERE: the Warrens
WHAT: maze time!
WHEN: maze time!
WARNINGS: maze time!

If Leo's being honest, he doesn't have the best track record with mazes.

And he and Donnie haven't exactly been... okay, lately. And Leo is still worried about Donnie's leg.

So all things considered, maybe they weren't the best choice to volunteer to trek down one of the routes that opened after Keith's group went ahead.

But the thing is, Leo doesn't know if either of them would have been happy sitting around waiting for something to happen. Donnie always wants to fix things. And he would have gotten too anxious the longer they sat there.

So here they are, in the maze. Leo supposes, in good news, that nothing scary has happened yet. The maze isn't full of monsters or deadly traps. It's just big and confusing. The most dangerous hazard so far is the threat of running out of food, but at least they thought ahead on that front.

So they're exploring, and trying not to have to double back too much. This has been going on for awhile now. Leo hasn't been paying attention to how long, but he's sure Donnie knows. At least tech works down here.

"I wonder who built all this?" he asks. "Was it just for... a-maze... usment?"

This is hardly his first maze pun since they came in here, but now he's really stretching for what even counts as a pun.

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Snacks are something at least. Donnie doesn't take long to start shoveling things into his mouth. Hopefully this doesn't just make them feel hungrier.

"Yeah. That'd really be bummer," he says with a brief laugh. He pretends not to notice as Leo leans more and more into his space, but it's not like he's complained much about it lately.

There is a chance it could. The curse of being a teenage mutant.

If Donnie won’t complain, he’ll stay in the bubble. It feels better this way.

“I wonder if anyone else has made it to the end.”

Donnie will just reason that it's warmer sitting closer together. Yeah. That's totally it.

"There's how many of us so I'm sure there has to be. And if it really is a giant spaceship like we've been thinking, then....okay so that doesn't quite explain the room back there, but still! -it can't go on forever."

Then Leo will scooch in until their arms are pressed against each other. Nice.

"A giant spaceship? Like, one we could leave on?"

If the Agrii will ever let them go anywhere else.

"I...don't know," Donnie has to admit, always hating when that's the only answer he has to give. "It's a wonder that it's functioning at all. It's got to have been doing so for even longer than the Agrii had ever been established here."

He pulls up the rough map he's been making, swiping the screen back to the area of the Warrens that they started in before zooming it out some. If one didn't know better, at a glance the way the rooms and corridors were set could have been mistaken as some kind of circuit board.

"This is all we'd seen and mapped of it previously. There's various machinery that's blocked from tampering, there's pipes that carry water... I think it's been running at its lowest levels of functionality, but even then it'd have to be powered and charged by something..."

Donnie's eyes flicker back down the hall and the door they'd just come through. "...a geothermic source is pretty viable..." He frowns.

"But with how deep we've even had to travel to get here, I don't know if it'd be so simple to unearth the ship. And even if we did manage, the damage to the terrain would probably be catastrophic, especially if it's somehow tapped into magma flows. It'd probably trigger another volcanic event or worse, and we can't do that. This may not be our homeworld, or even the Agrii's, but it's the plantkin's..."

Leo listens to this explanation quietly, munching on his snacks. The map doesn't mean much to him; he may have learned some programming, but not enough to recognize that.

"Yeah, we don't want to destroy the whole planet," he agrees. He may think the Agrii would be better off finding somewhere else, but the plantkin are happy here; would probably be happier if they left and stopped incentivizing whoever was messing with the place to mess with the place. "Even if it can't work as a spaceship, maybe we can use it for something else?"

He doesn't really mind living underground again. As long as he can go up without getting eaten by a zombie.

Donnie blinks, slowly picking at what of the snacks he's been given to try making it last longer.

"I mean, I guess? We just have to deactivate any trap-programming but I think we can manage that much. But we'd have to find a central computer."

Maybe it had some actual facilities instead of having to open up some pipes for a shower...

"-unless...this is the ship the drones came from..." he wonders as the thought comes to mind.

They'll get more food when they get back... which Leo hopes will be not be too far in the future.

Finding a central computer and then letting Donnie disarm any traps sounds simple enough. Leo nods along, cramming the last of his snack into his mouth, then pulling out a bottle of water.

"The drones?"

Water's probably a good idea after getting nearly cooked. Donnie fishes out his own water bottle.

"Oh. The Wanderer plantkin? I got to talk with them about how things had been before the Agrii had come. The cities... It sounded like they had been built by an automated process. I'm guessing some kind of building drones since prior to the Agrii or the Graq, no 'animals' had been there to establish anything."

“Huh.” Leo hadn’t talked to that guy, so this is some new info. “It’d be nice if we found ‘em down here and could use them for the Agrii.”

Then they could use the drones, and everyone else could go home.

"Yeah... It'd make a lot of things easier. Well, this thing seems huge so who knows what all is around here. But that's a problem that can at least be addressed once we get into a computer."

Donnie takes a couple gulps of water, leaning his head back against the wall with a sigh.

"Yeah. We'll find a computer and you'll know exactly what to do."

He has faith. Donnie is the smartest guy Leo knows, and he doesn't care that his experience is limited. None of the smart guys on this planet have impressed him much.

"I just hope we have enough food to get us where we're going."

That coaxes another grin from Donnie. "Of course," he says, tipping his nose upward.

He refuses to let anyone down on that, especially not his brother.

"That...is a valid concern. Too bad we can't order delivery. We'll just have to make do." At least he's used to skipping meals..?

That’s not a good thing to be used to! Sheesh, maybe he should let Tae threaten him…

Anyway, Leo is not used to skipping meals, though he’s gotten some practice since coming here. So he will get through this with no (or minimal…) complaining.

“We’ll just have a big victory celebration when we get back. Maybe we can bully Tommy into it.”

He can’t say “into making them pizza” right now or he’ll be sad.

Surely Leo won't notice when Donnie insists he's had enough snacks on his end.

"After all that? We'd better have some sort of all out celebration!" Not just these weird rooms, but after dealing with zombies? A 'Congratulations, you've survived!' party seems adequate.

Donnie's been trying to refrain from outright suggesting pizza, himself. That's a surefire way to stir up their stomachs and they'd have nothing to show for it.

He will and he will give him crap about it!

“Ha!” Leo snickers, his shoulders shaking a little where he’s pressed against Donnie. “As soon as we’re out of here, I’ll hand out invitations.”

Ugh.

It makes Donnie grin, even if planning a party (whether they're serious or not) at this time seems almost ludicrous. But he feels like they've earned something good after all that they've been having to deal with lately.

"Excellent! And Thomas should have no objections to supplying for a celebratory engagement."

“We have a plan,” he says happily. “We can invite Max and Robin and Cayde. And anyone else you wanna ask.”

Wow, his circle of friends is depressingly small. Let’s not think of it right now!

Thinking about it, Donnie's own list of acquaintances has shrunk due to the fluctuations of arrivals and departures. But he's also pretty sure that Leo wouldn't care for some of the people still around that he'd think to invite, given the usual reactions his brother has to even a name-drop. He refrains from making any suggestions, not wanting to spoil the mood, not when Leo seems so happy about it.

At least they're on the same page with Max and Robin.

"An excellent start already," he says instead. "Ooh! Maybe we can invite the Wanderer. They might not eat what we do but I'm sure they'd enjoy observing how we party. They're big on information gathering."

Hey, he’d let Donnie invite whoever he wants! Even if it’s someone who sucks…

“Yeah, why not? Maybe the plants have some wild party traditions to share.” He chuckles. “Too bad you can’t invite Te Mi. I guess he can’t come down from the ship.”

Leo would be happy to invite some of the other Agrii kids too.

"I do have to wonder what they might do for their own celebrations," Donnie muses.

"Ah, but that is so true. I'm sure Te Mi and some of the others would like the idea. It can't be much fun just watching us do things." He sighs. "Well, some day we'll be able to hang out without them having to worry about being physically compromised."

“Maybe when we get rid of the storms,” Leo suggests, nodding. He knows his brother would like to invite Te Mi, and the others.

“Or we can have a big party next time we go to their ship.”

Donnie nods back. "That'd be the ideal situation," he says. "But I'm not opposed to a ship party. I wonder if the politics have settled any."

A different problem that he hopes won't end up somehow bleeding into their own, but it's not like they can do anything right now.

"So how much longer should we sit here?" Far be it for him to suggest a nap.

"We can call and ask after we get out of here," he says to that.

But ah, the question... Leo is not one to suggest a nap either. Even if one would be nice, right about now...

"Probably not long... We have more to go, after all..."

"Sounds like a plan. We'll probably have a list of things to do once we get back."

Donnie looks down the way they've yet to explore. "Yeah... Well, whenever you're good for it."

[closed] A-MAZE-ING

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