revivalproject | Maybe I've Been Partly Cloudy

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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

"Doing things your own way isn't always a bad thing, but it's making those different ways mesh together that's the hard part," Keith said quietly. After all, Voltron was made up of some very different people, but they'd figured out how to make it work. It just took a lot of cooperation and effort... and, well... swallowing of pride and learning not to be so stubborn.

At least, on his end...

Speaking of, though...

"Mystic tech," he repeated. "Was that the purple light stuff I saw you using?"

Donnie propped his head up with a hand, giving a half-hearted nod. They probably could all use a bit more coordination. He and Leo had just been more annoyed that it hadn't seemed like anyone was trying to do anything, and when they tried, everyone just shot down their efforts.

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. Apparently my family has this ancient ninpō power and I guess it manifests differently depending on the person. Like Leo's portals."

Keith listened, definitely intrigued. It almost sounded like quintessence in that it manifested based on the user, but the fact that it was some sort of familial thing was new.

"So, not just anyone can use that, huh?" he asked.

Donnie shakes his head. "As I understand it, it's connected to our clan specifically. Technically back home I haven't learned about it officially so I really don't know too much by way of specifics," he admits. "Leo might know more there..."

Keith nodded.

"That's fine," he said. "I was just curious. It looked pretty cool."

And, yeah... he definitely understood not fully knowing about something. There was plenty Keith was aware of not knowing when it came to Altean tech.

Oh Donnie would probably love to tear into Altean technology....

"Oh yes, coolness factor is definitely not lacking," he grinned. "Guess I'm also glad I managed to get the hang of it at all. I um. Always had problems with the whole magic angle. None of it made any sense to me. My brothers found magic weapons and just started using them so naturally..."

It made him feel a bit...obsolete in a way, though he'd been loathe to admit it.

"Heh. Leo said that back home, the way we managed to sync with our ninpō involved jumping off a cliff or something."

Honestly, so had Pidge and Hunk.

Keith had been one of the lucky ones. He'd picked up on using quintessence and Altean tech pretty easily, though not from a technical standpoint. It was more from the 'mystical' side of things, likely due to his innate sensitivity.

He quirked an eyebrow. "Off a cliff?" Though, maybe... "Sounds a bit like what Coran made us do to bond more deeply with our Lions. He had us dip into a nosedive towards the planet, and then blacked out the visors on our helmets."

"Lions? Like...some kind of ships..?" At least that's what it sounds like.

"I think it's a highly effective way to test ones bonds of trust," Donnie noted flatly. "The way I finally connected with Leo was when we ran into some giant spiders out in the deeper woods outside of Temba. We both got kind of pinned, so I couldn't reach him. Not physically..."

Keith nodded.

"They were basically giant robot Lions that could be piloted in space," Keith said. "They could transform and combine together to make an even bigger robot person, too." But, bonds of trust? Oh, yeah...

"Yeah, trusting the Lion was a big part of getting the most out of its abilities. Coran was trying to teach us how to use our connections with them to literally see through their eyes."

Whoa, lion-shaped robots? That sounded...well, weird, okay, very specific choice there, but kinda cool? He supposed?

"Waaait, so like...You were able to sync with your robot lions?" Donnie gapes. "Coooool."

Keith nodded, looking a little sheepish. It was pretty cool, definitely.

"They're kind of sentient? A bit?" he said. "Like, they actually have personalities. They can't power themselves as a rule. They need a pilot. But, they can move on their own to save their pilots if they detect danger. And we learned how to tap into that in order to call them to us, and stuff. And we were even able to figure out how to use that bond to fly them remotely."

It had taken a lot of time spent with them. They'd worked with the Lions for a few years at that point, so tapping into that bond and using it had become almost second nature.

Keith wondered if Coran had even expected them to get that far with all the times he told them of how the previous Paladins had done all these amazing things as a team and with those Lions.

"Oh that sounds amazing."

That level of technology is definitely something else. Near-sentient robots that respond to the pilot they're bonded to, what delicious sci-fi! Except not, since apparently for Keith, it's a reality.

"Too bad they didn't bring your Lion here, I'd love to see it."

"I'd love to have it," Keith said. Though... "It might be a little outside their size range. The biggest thing I've seen them bring in is a car, and it was really beat up." Though, he wouldn't mind getting his hoverbike, even if it was beat up. He'd find a way to fix it again.

Donnie sighed. "Yeah, I guess that's true. The Turtle Tank'd be great to have around, especially where the roads are still busted up. But I guess that'd take a lot of energy to transfer something that big, let alone a robot Lion."

He tilted his head. "How big are those anyway?"

Well, now Keith was curious as to how big this tank was... but...

"Um... I'm shorter than the paw... and I'm like... six feet tall... so..." He shrugged. "They're really big.

"How big is your tank?"

"Oh wow...was not thinking they'd be that huge."

Donnie sat back, his focus drifting as he tried doing some mental calculations. "Not that I'm an expert in the body structure of the Felidae species, or how realistic or stylized your robot Lions are built, so that does make it a bit difficult to estimate an actual number, not to mention I'm not sure if by paw you mean like, you lay down next to it or the height of it, in which case that just makes this thing even bigger-"

Really big was an annoyingly vague descriptor but it seemed like he'd have to settle for it. Keith at least interrupted him from going too far down the math rabbit hole.

"How- oh! Well, it takes up two lanes on a standard street, and he front cab alone is a little taller than a food truck and the main wheels are easily almost twice as big as I am tall-" he said, gleefully rattling off the specs, numbers and all. A bowling ball launcher? Harpoon hooks? Something about a rocket cab and a boom cannon...

Oh... oops... Keith just opened a whole can of worms, didn't he? For a second, it sounded like Hunk and Pidge having a conversation with Matt, and all of the spec data was going waaaay over his head. Well, not all of it. He knew enough to be able to fix things, but build from scratch? Eehhh... He was most definitely not an engineer.

Still, he was willing to sit there and just listen until Donnie finally ran out of steam. A few things had caught his attention.

"A bowling ball launcher?" He supposed that would be effective in a lot of cases that didn't actually require firepower.

As for the size of the Lions, Keith was happy enough to put that aside for now. He'd clarify if Donnie got back to it to ask him again later.

Donnie did love to go on about his tech any chance he got, and next to his beloved tech-bō (R.I.P.), the Turtle Tank was his pride and joy and it showed.

"Oh yeah, takes out blimps relatively well, actually. But also, as much as I'd love some actual heavy artillery, I can only do so much with salvage and unfortunately New York junkyards do not simply have those sorts of things lying around," he sighed, shrugging.

"Well, yeah... I imagine not," Keith agreed. Speaking of...

"So, uh... Is everyone in your world a talking animal?" Keith had seen cartoons like that... bears, ducks, mice... And, at this rate, anything was possible from other realities. He wasn't discounting it anymore. Then, like, he realized that was probably kind of rude to ask. "Sorry, I just... I mean... well, you're a turtle."

Keith, no. You can't just ask someone that.

The turtle laughs. "Rest assured, you are still the dominant species," he says, waving a hand. "My brothers and I are the anomalies, really. Or maybe not so much? I mean, there's a whole city of yōkai under New York after all, but we only found out about that recently." He shrugs.

"We started off as normal turtles though. And then we got mutated by a scientist guy from the Hidden City because he wanted to make ultimate warriors to wipe out humans. So. Fun stuff."

"Yeah that's something we don't openly have in my reality..." Talking animals, demons... just space aliens.

"So... do you remember being 'normal' turtles?" Sorry, he was kind of curious.

Donnie shakes his head. "No, we were like, baby turtles so really not much to remember I guess."

Which is kind of good he supposes, since after watching one guy get mutated made it look quite painful!

"Mm." Keith nodded. It made sense. There was a lot from really early on that he didn't remember about his own childhood... which had been rough growing up because he didn't remember his mom from before she left.

"How many are you?" Keith had met Raphael a long time ago when a version had been around. Something about red-coded heroes having tempers...

"Four of us total. So aside from Leo, we have two other brothers," Donnie replies. "There's Raph, who's the oldest. Hard to miss, he's like, a six foot tall alligator snapping turtle. And Mikey's our little brother- he's a box turtle."

With them being different breeds of turtle, Keith definitely picked up on the 'found family' type vibe. That was his relationship with Shiro. They weren't actually brothers, but close enough. Still...

"Raph... Raphael?" he asked. The description sounded very different from the one Keith had met a couple years ago. "Red mask?"

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lol that makes me miss playing Alfor

aaaahhhhh 🤩 You have an Alfor????

I haven't played him in a bajillion years but yeah XD

awww... that's cool, though! not a lot of Voltron players around anymore, especially rare characters

part of my dangerous nerds list T_T;

the best kinds of nerds, tbh

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