revivalproject | Maybe I've Been Partly Cloudy

Entry tags:

Maybe I've Been Partly Cloudy

WHO: Donnie and you?
WHERE: Agrii Ship
WHAT: Just trying to keep up with things and question gift choices
WHEN: During the New Tick stuff
WARNINGS: N/A

I. No Rainchecks Allowed
The party seems poorly timed for all that he and Leo had been talking about throwing one once they were out of the depths. Donnie's hardly in the mood for a celebration, much less being surrounded by moist, fuzzy pink, clingy aliens. It says a lot when all he wants to do is lie in bed and sleep.

If this was the universe's way of telling him to get more rest, Donnie felt that it could have taken less extreme measures.

But even with the lingering brain fog, the details of the color gangs that have become more prominent around the Agrii ship are not lost on him. That's not something he looks forward to having to deal with. He tries to avoid Agrii contact in general (there's only one whose company he'd welcome, really), trying not to come off as too irritable but he's still recovering from being trapped in a burning building. Too many overeager Agrii is still too much when he's still prone to shortness of breath, and he's always been picky about his personal space.

Maybe you catch a strange spark of fuchsia light, crackling noiselessly in the air, or maybe you notice a small throng of Agrii swarming the poor purple turtle who looks on the verge of a panic attack. Save him?

II. Party of Two (For Leo)
Leave it to ninja to find somewhere secluded and out of the way to hide. They hadn't lingered long once the gifts had been passed out, neither turtle feeling up to socializing very much. Considering the bulk of some of the gifts, slipping away had been an interesting challenge. In a way it reminded Donnie of when they were younger and trying to avoid being caught by their father after poking about sewer tunnels that were farther than they were allowed to explore. ...not that it seemed to matter much as Splinter never questioned where Donnie'd come up with some of the appliances or parts used to fix things around their home.

It's funny how much more comfortable a sewer can be to a large alien ship. Ensconced behind a few large crates in the hangar, the boys have made do, sitting on the floor with a few plates of food for their own little private party. They're teenagers, they're not turning down food- and that it doesn't taste like peanut butter is an absolute plus!

Donnie sighs, leaning against a crate, feeling better having something solid at his back with the absence of his battle shell, but he hasn't been able to repair the shoulder clasp on it yet, not to mention his own shoulder is still sore. A hoodie and jacket suffices for the time being.

He chews on a decidedly vegetarian pizza as he eyes their strangely shaped packages. "Well...it definitely can't be another phone," he finally puts forth. The orange-wrapped one definitely looks much too obvious for what it should be, and yet Donnie could see no reason why it should.

III. Work-a-Holic
Once the main festivities begin to settle some, Donnie feels a little better about wandering. He knows better than to waste an opportunity, and the times they've been able to come aboard the Agrii ship are too far and few. He has diagnostics to run, data to check, new things to contemplate. Maybe he can get another tablet from the Agrii while he's at it.

Of course, things would be easier if he were operating at 100%. Staring at screens starts to give him a headache after a while, forcing him to note where he's left off so he can rub at his eyes and stare at a wall until the pain recedes. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Donnie seems to lose track of the conversation (if you can even call it that) for a moment, and Leo can feel his anxiety inch up that much more. It’s probably just the lingering effects of smoke inhalation… he hopes.

Leo nods when the answer finally comes, then licks off his own fingers and shuffles closer, fist balled up over his palm and ready. He pulls on a grin, like he always wears when he’s preparing to beat his brothers at something, though today it doesn’t seem to fit quite right on his face.

“Alright. Rock paper scissors shoot!”

He’ll go with scissors.

What is it about that grin? It's a Leo grin, on Leo's face. Maybe it's just his imagination, but Donnie knows somehow that it isn't simply that.

He tries to push the nagging thoughts aside, lifting his own hands to mirror Leo's, smirking back. It's been ages since they did anything so simple as this. He bounces his fist in hand several times until it's called, splaying his fingers open; paper.

"-knew I should've played a Raph," he mutters, but the smile he pulls on his face after that is much more natural as he sweeps his hand out towards the small pile before them. "Well, you're up then, 'nardo."

Despite the circumstances and his current mood, Leo can't help but grin a little bigger, some of his normal cockiness peeking through. A little thrill at getting the win, even if it's for something so pointless in the long run.

"Sometimes it pays not to think so much," he says, giggling to himself as he reaches over and pokes Donnie's forehead with one of the prongs of his "scissors". Then he scrambles back before he can face retaliation, reaching for one of the pink and purple gifts first. He grabs the smaller package, because he's at the age where smaller usually means better.

He gives it a little shake as he lifts it, like he can hear what's inside. The package doesn't make much noise at being shaken, though; all he hears is some shifting around.

"Ooooh, what have we here?" he asks, trying to sound like it's a normal Christmas morning. He rips open the paper with little care, then opens up the box, and...

Stops for a moment, eyes going wide.

Then he reaches in and wordlessly pulls out a Jupiter Jim comic, holding it carefully in his fingers. He didn't expect this.

There's more of the Leo he knows. Maybe he was thinking about it too much. Gasp, Donnie overthinking things? The very thought!

He scowls at getting poked, Leo being wise to move out of arm's reach as Donnie takes a swipe at him. Not a great thing to do with his shoulder still sore, but Donnie hopes he hides the wince behind a pout as he folds his arms, watching as Leo picks which of his gifts to open first.

Curiosity gets the better of him as he leans forward, trying to see what's inside once Leo finally gets around to opening the box. It really is much like a Christmas morning.

"What is it, what is- oh my Marcus Moncrief is it really??"

“It is!” Leo shouts, unable to hide his excitement. He pulls more comics out of the box, five in total - three of them are some of his favorites, though these look like new copies and not their well-read ones from the lair, but the other two…

“We don’t even have these!” he says, voice still loud as he flips one of the last two over for Donnie to see the cover. Two older, rarer comics that are hard to get now. He holds it reverently in his fingers, afraid to crinkle or bend the pages.

Donnie scoots over closer, a happy gasp escaping him as has a better look at the covers.

"We don't!!" he confirms, Leo's excitement contagious. "I've only seen these in digital format and those scans were terrible!"

"Well now we can read them just how they were meant to be read, hermano!" Leo's smile is the most real it's been in awhile now, as he happily picks up the other new comic and flips it over to look at the back, full of old toy advertisements. It's the real thing. "Oh man, I can't believe it! Oh JJ, I've missed you."

He cradles the comics lovingly in his hands. He can't wait to read these. He can't wait to read the old ones, either; even though he knows the stories, it's been a year, now. It'll be almost like new again!

It's an expression that thaws something in his chest, a reassuring warmth he hasn't felt since they'd conquered those stupid rooms beyond the Warrens.

Donnie leans closer, shoulder to shoulder with Leo as he watches his brother look over the comics again. They even have that fresh printed paper smell. "Man, what I wouldn't give for some mylar sleeves." Maybe he can get those from the Replicator.

It really has been too long since they've read any JJ comics, a travesty!

"Okay, okay, now I have to see what I got," Donnie says as he looks over at his stuff, fingers wiggling in anticipation. Everything's either big or bulky, so he doubts it's more comic books, as much as that would have been great. He picks up the smallest of his gifts, which isn't really all that small. Maybe the size of a football? Smaller than a basketball? Too oblong to be one though...

He digs his fingers into the wrapping, deciding to forgo being neat about things as he tears right in. Just as promptly he drops the thing with a yelp, the object ringing hollowly of metal as it landed on the floor in front of him, the open portion revealing a horribly familiar face.

"Wh-why?!"

Leo is still looking at the comics reverently, but when Donnie rips the paper off, he looks up just in time... to see something he never really wanted to see again.

He jerks back, holding the comic in his hands close to his chest, as though he needs to protect it from the presence of Donnie's gift.

"What the heck!? Is that Skully!?"

Why is it here!?

Maybe he does, who knows?! That teakettle's betrayed them once before!

Donnie's scooted back away from it- or at least attempted to, but the crates don't allow for much by way of escape. Brow twitching, he carefully extends a foot, nudging the thing with a toe. It rocks a bit in place.

"It...appears to be..." he says, frowning so hard because this is not a gift! He lowers his goggles, frowning even more, if that's even possible. "Definitely mystic metal. And..."

With all the look of someone who wants anything but to do so, Donnie reluctantly moves back over beside it to pick it the half-opened package back up, gingerly peeling away the rest of the wrapper to reveal the back where the tell-tale legs of an action figure protrude.

"It's like it was before the whole stadium incident."

That's true, and Leo can't let anything happen to his comics. They're his precious...

He leans forward over his knees and gives the legs of the action figure a gentle poke. Yep, it's real. This is crazy...

"Sooo... what do we do?" He looks up at Donnie. "Do we... smash it again?"

Would that break the time stream or something?

Setting the kettle down in front of them, Donnie pushes his goggles back up, brow furrowed in thought.

"Well...technically it shouldn't pose a threat if the rest of the Dark Armor isn't around, and no one else should know what it is. Plus it's still got a flaw," he adds, flicking the spout with a finger.

Honestly he wouldn't be surprised if its being here already has broken some time stream. He has no idea how this is working and it hurts his head trying to think about it.

"...makes me less eager to find out what's in these other packages."

Donnie makes some good points. Leo gently lifts it, turning it around in his hands. He keeps expecting something to happen, but it remains a normal, if slightly macabre, teakettle.

He sets it back down again. "I guess you're right. I mean, Dad was just using it to make tea, so it's harmless as long as it's like this. I think."

He hasn't seen anything in his time to contradict that, anyway.

He looks back at his own other package warily. "Well... at least we got the comics."

"Yeah..." Donnie says, although he's still wary about the thing now that they know what it is. Dad's been drinking tea from the head of a family enemy all this time? ...gross.

The comics are still a solid win so far as he's concerned, so he gives Leo a nod, even if his smile is a bit strained. His eyes drift towards the large package that says 'Leo' before glancing at Leo himself.

Right... It's his turn now.

Leo tries to give a reassuring smile as he pulls over the significantly larger present, once again in pink and purple. He tears off the wrapping paper with less fervor this time, then opens the box, and...

"What... what is this?"

He stares at it a moment, before reaching in and pulling out a bulky, robotic arm. Though, once he realizes that's what it is, his eyes go wide.

"What... What!? What is this!? What does this mean!?"

Donnie gapes at the thing once Leo pulls the huge contraption out. Naturally it perks his technical interests, but the colorscheme is definitely...familiar. His thoughts echo the same as Leo's spoken words then, and for a moment all he can do is stare.

"Maaaaybe it means nothing? I mean. Who can really say? I randomly received an evil tea kettle and you got someone's robot arm that looks suspiciously like someone else's arm oh sweet Devol why does it look like that."

The fact that it looks a little too much like Raph's arm is not lost on Leo. But why would they give this to him? What is its significance to Leo? It's future significance?

Leo stares at the arm for a long time, then looks back up at Donnie.

"Am I going to lose my arm?!"

Or is Raph going to lose his arm...? Leo isn't sure which is worse.

"I don't know!"

Donnie looks simultaneously frustrated and concerned, not liking either implication. He swallows his unease, reaching over to have a closer look at the thing, grimacing at the weight. Ow, he really has to stop using that shoulder so much.

...what if it's his-

He shakes his head, nope, not thinking about it, stop thinking about it!

Instead, he busies himself with studying the arm. Any thought of suggesting it's just randomly from some robot that looks suspiciously Raph-coded dies as he has a better look at the connection. This is meant to sync with far more than just a robotic joint. A possible prosthetic then. Unsettling.

There's something else concerningly familiar about it and he can't quite put his finger on it right now, and he doesn't have his tools to do a proper examination. Maybe later.

Leo gladly lets Donnie take it, not wanting to touch it, like doing so will cause his real arm to fall off and this one to take its place. He notes that it's a right arm, which feels even worse, since that's his dominant hand...

That doesn't mean it's for sure his, though! Surely, if something happens to his arm and Donnie has to make him a new one, he'd make it actually look like Leo's arm, right? Where are the yellow stripes? Where is the blue? And why is it so big?

That's it. There's just simply no way that this is his arm. But then why did the Agrii give it to him...?

He's quiet while Donnie looks at the arm. He's a little nervous about what his technologically-inclined brother might discover.

Edited 2025-01-13 07:41 (UTC)

He doesn't like that Leo seems to be waiting expectantly for some sort of diagnosis. It's making him nervous. Another wince as he moves the thing aside, all the fun injuries he's suffered from his latest brush with death reminding him of their presence.

"I can't really say for sure who it's supposed to belong to," he sighs. "I can open it up later- if there's anything to patch into, maybe I can glean something from the codework."

Ah, right, Donnie is still injured... And Leo is still concerned about the smoke inhalation. Guess he'll have to wait to find out anything.

"Yeah, sure." Leo reaches over and takes the arm back, gingerly, and sets it back inside it box. Then he closes the box so he doesn't have to look at it.

"Well... at least I got one cool gift," he says.

"Still better than a possessed tea kettle," Donnie points out. He stops himself from rubbing at his arm, not wanting to exacerbate the burns he's got bandaged up beneath his sleeve.

"Okay then." He sighs, fixing a look at the remaining two gifts of his. "Well, may as well get the rest of these over with. Hope for the best, or something..."

He doesn't want to think about his lost tech-bō nor get his hopes up, leaving the orange gift for last as he pulls the purple and pink one over. The box was longer than the one that held the robotic arm, but narrower. Please don't let it be another limb, he can't help but think as he gets past the wrapping and opens the lid.

"Huh. Gardening tools! Weirdly color-coded gardening tools but they'll be useful!" he says, feeling a little better as he picks up a trowel.

Gardening tools? Wow, boring! But at least it perked Donnie up.

Donnie picks up the trowel, and Leo realizes he’s seen these particular gardening tools before - or at least, ones that looked just like them.

“Oh hey! Those are the ones Todd made for us!”

To fight the Shredder with. Hm.

It's weird, why would he need two trowels and two hand rakes? Donnie picks up the other one, looking them over.

"The quality's not bad- Wait, what?" He blinks at Leo. Right, his brother had mentioned something about that, hadn't he? "I'm still trying to turn that one over in my head." What can Todd not do?

He spun the trowel in hand, holding it out. "Then...these are actually yours, right?"

Todd is a man of many talents, it's true.

Leo watches Donnie turn the trowel around, and he goes ahead and reaches out to take it. When he holds it in his hand, he feels like it would be so easy to turn it into his katana again. Call on that familiar well of ninpo and shape the metal into what he wants it to be.

But he has a couple swords now, and he feels bad taking the only present Donnie seems happy about away from him.

"Nah, man, it's yours." He flips the trowel back around, holding it back out to Donnie. "They gave it to you."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject