revivalproject | We Be Shipping (Not like that)

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We Be Shipping (Not like that)

WHO: Donnie and you?
WHERE: Agrii Ship, Glitter Party
WHAT: Fixing things and making it better. ...okay he's trying.
WHEN: Mid-late this month
WARNINGS: N/A

I. Not the Most Agrii-able
This still isn't quite the space adventure that Donnie nor any of his brothers have envisioned, but it's almost one step closer. At least in going back and forth on the shuttles, he can almost pretend for a moment that they might be traveling to distant galaxies. Just...really slowly.

He hadn't taken much convincing by Leo to come to the decision to stay aboard the main ship, and both of them felt some responsibility in helping out the Blues, especially with Te Mi stretching himself thin.

One would think that with all the things going on in Agrii town, being aboard the ship is the last place anyone would want to be. But that's where the problems are, that's the next thing that has to be fixed, and at least with a majority of the Agrii secluding themselves to one part of the ship, it at least means there's less of a chance to be swarmed, and maybe Donnie can get some actual work done, especially if it keeps the Oranges from attempting to be destructive.

II. All That Glitters
The only thing that Donnie objects to aboard the Agrii ship is the attempted enforced naptimes. But while it would be more convenient figuring out if and where the Agrii had a forge or something similar to make use of, he at least knows he won't get interrupted from some good solid work if he does so aboard the He Row ship he's been assigned.

There's been a pile of neatly stacked titanium ingots within the room the forge is contained, an assignment Scuttle had taken to with the utmost responsibility. Forge all fired up, Donnie's been working his way through hammering out some plating for a new battle shell. Something sleeker and lighter that won't take up so much room under his clothes, but still hold up when he needs the protection.

The one he'd been using still needs the shoulder piece repaired, badly dented in as it had been, but Donnie's still trying to figure out the best way to go about it. There really isn't a simple solution when everything's been designed to be fitted perfectly. Either way, the state around the forge room is either the near incessant clanging paired with the heavy thump of dubstep or an upbeat techno tune, or simply the latter as lack of enforced naptimes means impromptu pass-out times, nestled on the floor under a blanket.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah?" Donnie blinks as he falls in step beside him. "Those two words don't sound like they should ever be in the same sentence."

But he waits to see what Leo has to say since he knows he's been hanging around the Blues a lot more.

"You know Mu Ly, the guy leading the Oranges? Apparently, he has the hots for this girl, An Ne." Leo gives his head a sad shake. "But she likes Ny Ak and won't give him the time of day."

He shrugs dramatically. "So all this drama has got a love triangle at the heart of it."

He's not sure what he'd been expecting but Agrii love triangles sure wasn't it!

"Wh- oh wow. What." Donnie hadn't considered the existence of Agrii romance so this is something to process. He's not sure he ever wanted to process that.

"Wait, An..." He frowns. "Agrii names are so weird. I know I kind of talked to an An something once," he shrugs. "So is that why Mu Ly went homicidal on Ny Ak?"

"Yeeaaah, it takes a long time for me to tell them apart." Leo nods sympathetically. "But I think so? I mean, politics was probably part of it, too, but with it being close to the... spawning, and all," ugh, he still hates that word, "I think it's a good theory."

Mu Ly wanted to be with An Ne and Ny Ak was in the way. It all adds up!

"I guess love makes people crazy."

Even Donnie shudders. Spawning in general is just...unpleasant sounding when it's not related to video games.

"I guess? Definitely sounds like some cliché movie plots though."

Not that the news helps anything so far as he can figure. "So what all's happening with Mu Ly after all that?"

Edited 2025-02-27 06:47 (UTC)

"Yeah, well, this whole place has felt like a cliche movie plot."

And it's true it doesn't seem to change much, but Leo always likes having more information rather than less. He can't complain about the gossip.

"Well, I think they still have him locked up? Which, apparently, was always an option."

And yet, Stu and Billy still walk free.

"Unfortunately true," Donnie concedes with a frown. Making movie comparison just leaves a bad taste in his mouth with how much Stu tends to throw around such references.

"Really?" Did they have holding cells on the Agrii ship? He doesn't remember seeing any on the layout, but then the place is pretty big.

It might be that his train of thought is just within the same hub, but he picks up on that shade almost instantly. "Don't worry, I've got their stupid evidence. They'll have to do something about those two now." Instead of running circles and making excuses.

“Yeah! They locked him up in his room and it seems to be keeping him out of trouble.” Leo scowls. “Apparently some other He Rows did that to someone way back before either of us were here.”

So yeah, it was always an option, which just makes Leo more frustrated with the whole situation.

But of course Donnie has already picked up what he was putting down. Leo looks over at him, wide-eyed.

“Wait, what? What’d you find out?”

"So there's been problem people before? Did they drag out a whole judge and jury for that too?" Yeah, he's a touch miffed at that.

"I asked the ship AI about access to video feeds and recordings that they were receiving from Temba and the ships. Why it still insisted on privacy issues despite my reasoning about them being public locations and our own privacy's already been more or less breached, is beyond me but at least I was given access. I just had to filter through things myself."

Donnie huffs, but he's probably the only one with such patience to be willing to go through recordings... or lines of alien code for suspicious addendums.

"Anyway! I have both of them on footage collecting copious amounts of red juice from the ship dispensers, and them skulking about at the scene of the crime before it occurred." He looks oh so smug.

"Maybe! Since everyone here wants to play lawyer so bad."

Leo is equally miffed. But at least Donnie has made some real progress!

"Wait, seriously? Bro, that's awesome!"

Leo uses his free hand to clap Donnie on the back, which is probably more painful than usual without his battleshell on.

"But... I dunno. They'll probably still say it's "just a coincidence" or something."

Leo feels too burned by the whole situation to trust it anymore. He can't imagine anyone would believe them.

It's no more painful than getting smacked in the face, so it's more out of surprise that he jumps a bit in response. Donnie looks only briefly offended at this violation, but he draws in a breath, a little wounded that it sounds like his hard work's being brushed off.

"Well, I'm also handing them every conversation I've had with Stu, as well as the one of when he tried to encourage the Orange Agrii to shoot me," he says, expression flattening.

He doesn't mean to brush it off! He just doesn't have a lot of faith in anyone else.

Though, at Donnie's addition, Leo abruptly stops walking.

"He what?"

He knows it's not what Leo'd meant, but...it still kind of stings. His brother's response to that bit of news isn't unsurprising though, and he stops to turn and look at him.

"It was when I was down with the Greens below Engineering. He was tagging along with a bunch of Oranges and tried to instigate them against me because I wasn't going to let them through to damage anything. And then he whips out a gun and tries showing one of the Agrii how to use it."

Donnie holds up a hand to forestall anything from Leo. "-for the record they did not shoot me, it went off on accident when he was trying to show them and the Agrii were not inclined to try using it again."

If that was meant to forestall Leo from anything, it fails. Leo stares at Donnie, bewildered, for only a few seconds longer, before his face hardens up and he pushes his way past Donnie and down the hall.

He needs his swords.

"I'm going to kill him."

"Leo wait-"

Donnie grabs for his arm as he tries to pass him. "It wasn't like I was standing there waiting for them to try their best. I was ready for a fight, just not him trying to egg them on, not that I was surprised about it. If he straight up tried to attack me himself, I wouldn't have held back."

His own expression chills a few degrees. "But of course he won't do that, because he and Billy are cowards and they'll only cry and play the victim because that's the only roles they're really good at. I'm not letting you waste your time on him if it's just going to play into their dumb-dumb game. You're better than that."

Leo's arm is shaking when Donnie grabs it. He stops, but doesn't look back.

He gets what Donnie is saying, but he's just so angry. Angry that Stu tried to hurt Donnie again, yes, and angry that nothing he does means anything. Nothing he says matters. Nothing penetrates. He might as well not even be here. He was on the same ship, and Donnie still got shot at.

"He'll think I was bluffing," says Leo. "It looks like I can't protect you."

Maybe it proves he can't.

It's...scary seeing Leo like this. Donnie knows he's angry, and part of why he'd held off on saying anything about it to begin with was because he didn't want Leo to be worrying about him again. So much for that.

His grip only tightens, arm pulling himself closer.

"Who cares what he thinks! But anyway, that's not true. And circumstantially, you weren't there, so that doesn't apply. And if you think you need to be glued at the hip to do so I think we'll both go crazier so don't even consider that option."

He looks towards the floor, still clinging, as though hanging on any tighter might cease his brother's trembling. Or maybe it's him shaking too. He can't tell.

"...I'm not expecting you to protect me, but I know you can and will. You guys always have. I...I just...want to know you're here for me, no matter what happens. And I hope you know I will be too."

Leo was going to worry whether Donnie told him or not. Though usually it's worrying about if he's eating enough or sleeping enough, not worrying about if he's going to get shot.

Leo doesn't know if his own shell could take a bullet. He has his doubts that Donnie's could.

But he does know Donnie can protect himself. He's been trying to give him his space, after all. And Donnie's right that if they spent all their time together, they would probably go crazy. Even if Leo spends a lot of the time they don't spend together feeling so lonely he rethinks that hypothesis.

"...I am here. I've been here." Leo presses his knuckles to his temple, the comics flopping down to shadow his face. "It just feels like..."

He takes a sharp breath.

"Raph told me to start taking this stuff seriously. And I'm trying. Ever since you got shocked, I've been trying!" He drops his hand, looking back at Donnie a little desperately. "You know that, right? That I've been trying?"

That look somehow scares him even more than the anger that had practically been seething off of his brother a moment ago.

"I never thought you weren't," he says, looking lost as to where this was even coming from. This isn't Leo, this isn't the confident brother he's always known, who seems to have something to say for everything, who could potentially charm his way out of any situation.

"You've been more than trying! You're the only reason I haven't completely lost it!" he blurts. Welp, there was no taking that back now. He can't even loosen his grip around Leo's arm because now he feels like it's the only thing holding his brother together. Or maybe it's holding the both of them together? He doesn't know.

"Leo, I have never doubted that you've been taking any of this seriously. I don't care what anyone else might think about you or how our methods are, because I know all you've been doing is trying to look out for us, trying to make things right. And if they don't see it, that's a them problem, not yours. ...because you're my champion."

Edited 2025-02-28 05:00 (UTC)

The anger is still there, but it's beat out by the exhaustion and the despair. He just wants to protect them both, to get them home in one piece. And maybe he wants to hear a "good job" for once. Maybe he wants to be whatever it is Splinter and Raph think he should be. But right now it all feels impossible. Like he's trying to climb a ladder that never stops, just goes higher and higher with a terrible fall one missed rung away.

And then Donnie says he never thought Leo wasn't trying, and that almost gets him to laugh. Because of course his brothers don't think he tries - he's certainly been yelled at over it enough. Even if Donnie doesn't remember now, he will. One day he'll see it, too.

And he's ready to argue over it, he's all geared up to go to war over it, when Donnie hits him with the rest of it.

(It's maybe a little silly, what the word champion does to him.)

"Your-" He splutters, leaning back away from Donnie. Then he squints at him, like he's not sure he actually meant that.

"...Really?" he finally asks, and his voice is a touch more vulnerable than he ever lets it be.

It sounds so incredibly cheesy but it's a calculated response because he knows how hung up on that word his brother is. But Donnie isn't just saying it without real reason. He's saying it because he realizes it's true.

"Yes," he says earnestly. He sucks in a breath, trying to will away the blurriness trying to encroach upon his vision. "You've just been continuously sticking your neck out for me, shielding me. Ever since you came here, you've been taking care of me.

"...and maybe it's too easy to take having brothers for granted when everyone's together and stuff, but...here it's only us. And as much as I hate that you got sucked into this too, I...I'm glad you're here."

Dangit, this is just making his eyes burn more.

It's very cheesy. But you know what else is cheesy? Pizza. So it's clearly not always a bad thing!

"O-oh."

Leo's eyes are getting a little wet for his taste, too, and he turns his head and blinks them rapidly to clear them. He knew Donnie was glad not to be alone, and Leo doesn't care how miserable he is, he'd never want to go back if Donnie was still here. But he still can't help but think of himself as a second choice. It was why he couldn't understand, when Splinter suddenly promoted him to leader.

Though now, when he thinks of his dad saying that, and Raph getting onto him to take things seriously and do his training, and Cayde giving him the cloak he's wearing now, and Te Mi asking him to help the Blues, and Donnie saying You're my champion, he feels like maybe they all knew something he didn't from the beginning.

(It's still scary, though.)

But right now, it's okay. Leo rubs his free hand over his eyes again, then manages to smile.

"Well hey, I couldn't let you have all the space adventures, right? It's out of this world."

He twists his arm in Donnie's grip, until he can grab on back. He's here, too. He's not going anywhere.

Donnie's trying to rely on evaporation because wiping his face is as good as admitting that his lacrimal glands are malfunctioning.

He stands there awkwardly as Leo tries to deal with his own dampness, a shaky smile tugging at his face at that comeback despite his groan in response. "Oh why..."

Yet, the puns are still as good a sign as any that Leo's Leo. Things will be okay.

As Leo moves to readjust his position, Donnie loosens his own grip so it isn't constricting and desperate as it had been.

They'd get through this. Together.

Leo shifts again, so he can give Donnie a quick hug around the shoulders. He won’t overstay, unless Donnie reaches back, but he just needs this.

“For what it’s worth,” he adds, “I know you could have taken that guy, gun or no gun. I’ve just been… stressed out, lately.”

That’s an understatement, but it explains it well enough. But their problem does have solutions…

“But now that you have that video footage… we can do something more useful than just beating them up.”

He might need it a bit too, not something he'll ever say but perhaps it says enough as he pulls his other arm, still holding metal and all, around to return the hug. It had still been a scary moment, but this helps chase the lingering impressions away.

"I know, I know," Donnie says as he pulls back. He's been stressed in different ways, but it just seems like part of the norm and he doesn't remember how it feels without it.

Nodding, he allows himself a crooked smile. "Yeah. And we can prove we were right."

We Be Shipping (Not like that)

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