[Open]

[i_speak_softly]

Characters: Donatello and OPEN
Date: April 27, and some number of following days, depending how this goes
Location: All over the city, but starting at ME-3B and hopefully ending at WA-3B
Situation: Leo ordered Don to get off the networks, so the brainy Turtle sets out to find his brother the old-fashioned way.
Warnings/Rating: Probably nothing exciting.

It takes Don the rest of the night to pick over the components of his console, put them back together again, and boot the machine in his best approximation of safe mode. This still doesn't solve any of the issues - unsurprising, since Mike Weston had told him the problem was in the network - and he checks his messages as carefully as possible.

Leo has left him a cryptic instruction. Not daring to reply, he memorizes it, then shuts down the machine and hits the street.

Where the water meets the steel. A shipyard? Don heads toward the edge of the city, where one is likely to be, but inquiries direct him westward towards the Water Sector.

As he walks, Don wonders if the sector border is what Leo meant. But the border is a long one - it took Don an hour to get across the city by car, and he can tell he hadn't crossed nearly all of it - and he doesn't know which side of the line his brother is on.

Or wait! What if Leo meant a weapons forge? Submerging a steel blade in water is a critical step in the sword-making process, and that's just the kind of thing Leo would think of when giving coded orders on short notice. But a place like that would most likely be in the Fire Sector, and that's really a long way… Maybe he can hitch a ride?

Comments

[sticksaround]

It... it takes him a couple of seconds to realize he said 'introduction,' but without adding an actual introduction to it. Once he hits that realization, though, he grimaces. Way to be on your game with the other-universe turtles, Jones, sheesh.

"Oh, right! Sorry, bro. I'm Casey- Casey Jones. I, uh. I know the version of you and your bros back home. And I met two of the turtles who are stuck here. Who hopefully you already figured out about through ninja shenanigans or whatever?"

Unless he's putting together some kind of high tech fortress of solitude because he doesn't know about them yet. As far as Casey knows, that's fully possible. And Metal would be the part of the city to put that together in.

[i_speak_softly]

There's a weird sensation of something sliding into focus, and suddenly all the things about this man that resemble the Casey Don knows become glaringly obvious.

"Mike's Casey?" No. Wait. He was told something about this. "You're a third Casey."

Meaning there's a third Donatello. Or maybe a fourth, if he's understanding his brothers' stories correctly. This just keeps getting weirder...

The question about who he knows - and implicitly, where he's living - he avoids for now.

[sticksaround]

Wow, so there is definitely another Casey Jones out there in the multiverse. Not that he doubted the other Raph's word or anything. It's just weird getting it from a second official source. He wonders what his situation's like over there.

Probably not the best time to be asking, though. Casey scratches the back of his head.

"Maybe just a second Casey. Mike doesn't really remember havin' one around. I guess we've kinda got a hodge-podge thing happening out here, huh?"

[i_speak_softly]

"Sorry. I mean a Casey from a third world." Don juggles the box so he can offer a hand. "I'm Donatello, but I guess you already knew that."

[sticksaround]

"Yeah, mask gives it away." He grasps Don's hand and gives it a firm shake. "Can't say you have the best luck for a time to get brought in, Don, but it's still good to meet you."

[i_speak_softly]

Definitely not the purpose of the masks, but hardly the first time they've been used that way either.

"Everyone seems very happy with my timing. They couldn't wait for me to fix their consoles and cure their fungal infections." And judging by his tone he enjoyed doing so, if he was less delighted by the circumstances that made it necessary.

"I'm bringing some equipment back to the other apartment. Come inside?"

[sticksaround]

"Can't blame 'em." It's the Donatello spirit all over the place, even if it's not quite the same general vibe as the Donatello he knows. The guys must be about head over heels happy to have him back, or at least part of them? Casey's still working on translating turtle brothers from another canister, but he'd bet that some things just plain don't change between worlds. It's probably been a while since they saw any kind of Don. How long, exactly, he's not sure- he didn't want to go poking at open wounds- but definitely long enough.

The question catches him a little off-guard, in a good way. It makes sense that the guy with the big box would have stuff to do, and no time for standing around in the middle of the street chatting universes.

"Uh- yeah, sure. If it's not a bad time? Hate to break up your mock turtle U.N. or somethin'." One of his primary goals at the moment is to not get on the new guys' nerves. He doesn't know them too well, but he'd really like to be allowed to stick around for a while on the friendly front. If that means giving them more space, then so be it.

[i_speak_softly]

"Not at all."

Don isn't exactly close with his own Casey, and he doesn't have high hopes for liking this one any better, but he's a friendly Turtle at heart. No reason not to give the guy a chance.

Anyway, if this Casey is anything like Don's, he's far more likely to indiscriminately spill information than Don's infuriatingly tight-lipped family. Information is what Donatello wants right now, and he is not above taking advantage of a certain hockey nut's talkative nature - and possible sports-related brain damage - to get it.

"Really, I'd appreciate the company."

[sticksaround]

Sometimes a good hit to the head does a man good like that. He usually spends more time with Raph or Mike than the other half back home, but they're all good guys. It wouldn't hurt to get to know this Don a little better.

"Alright, cool." He points to the box Don's been holding. "Want me to get that, man? I hear I'm good for a pack mule."

[i_speak_softly]

Don is not known for his skill at maching abilities to tasks, but he does know better than to let Casey Jones lay a finger on anything valuable.

"Ah, no, that's all right." He inclines his head toward the apartment building. "Would you mind getting the door, though?"

[sticksaround]

"Door. You got it." He shoots Don a thumbs up and jogs ahead to do just that. Man. This meeting's going way better than he dared to anticipate. One of these days an alternate turtle is bound to turn up and punch him in the face just to set the balance right.

[i_speak_softly]

Well, Don's not that kind of alternate turtle, and anyway his hands are full.

He passes through the open door, does some hands-free wizardry to unlock the private inner entrance, and heads into his apartment.

"It's not much. I only stayed here a few days." Oh and by the way - "Where do you live, Casey?"

[sticksaround]

Casey shrugs to the first comment. God knows the kind of mess he and his dad ended up leaving, and they'd lived in the place for years. He's pretty much got no room to judge, especially in places as generally sparse as Metal Sector suites.

"I'm in ME-3A, actually." What are the odds. Apparently they are pretty good. "It's a pretty good part of the city to be in, if you haven't seen much yet. High-tech, people keep to themselves, lotta practical stuff. We do get some gang activity, though, figure everyone should get a heads-up about that. Kinda reminded me of New York before- y'know, before all the damage we're workin' on right now." He's hoping that there aren't explosions and coups waiting for him in New York.

[i_speak_softly]

Oh, right next door. Pretty typical, from the perspective of a mutant turtle.

He sets the box down on the floor and begins unpacking the odds and ends of his makeshift bathroom lab.

"I like it here." Which is as close as Don will get to saying that when things settle down at home, he plans to sneak away from his family and bury himself in the comparatively-advanced technology of this sector. "Do I want to know what's going on in your New York?"

[sticksaround]

It's a Donatello kind of town. He has a look to make sure the door's closed, then shoves his hands into his pockets.

"Not much? Got a few turf wars in the works and sort of a ninja problem, but nothin' huge. Mostly, my guys are just lookin' for a new hideout right now." They'll see how long the quiet actually lasts, but for now things are holding steady enough. He gives it a week. "Is it kosher to ask about your New York?"

[i_speak_softly]

"Mm." A thoughtful hum. "I'm not clear on all the interdimensional physics yet, but Leo thinks it's safe." He carefully sets a covered tray to the side, then sits back on his heels and looks up. "Most recently we've had a problem with wooden ninjas. Before that, things were... fairly quiet." A lie, made obvious by the way he absently touches the bandage on his leg as he says it. Closer to the truth is that he just doesn't remember what had happened.

"What is... your me like?"

[sticksaround]

He raises an eyebrow- your words say one thing, Don, and the rest of you he questions- but then he kind of has to figure it's not his place to ask about the details just yet. If they come up on their own or he gets to know these guys better, maybe, but there's no good reason to risk trouble on tentative grounds.

Anyway, wooden ninjas are weird enough to be leaving home on. How would those even work...?

At least he can always scrounge up some honest enthusiasm for his chosen family and how they're awesome.

"Oh, Don's great! I mean, y'know, all the guys are. I guess I know Raph better than I know him so far, but he's got a good heart. Smart as hell, too." Not that that's probably surprising. "Kind of a smart aleck, but who ever said that's a bad rap anyway?"

[i_speak_softly]

A crooked smile. "But you're the only one here? From your world?"

[sticksaround]

"Ahh, yeah. It's just me so far." He shrugs. It's been a good long while since he saw his turtles and April and all. At least he knows well enough to know they can do fine without him. "Probably better that way, goin' from the noble, responsible side of stuff."

[i_speak_softly]

Don takes the tray and stands up, moving to put it in a safer place. As he does so, he mentally reviews the conversation so far, looking for an opening to get the information he wants.

"Which of... those of us in this world, haven't you seen yet?"

[sticksaround]

"Haven't run into Leo yet. He's kinda doin' his ninja thing." He offers this much with the casual air of a guy who can at least understand that sometimes, a ninja's gotta ninja. "I met Mike my first day here. Went lookin' for Raph... a couple weeks after that?"

In public, in daylight. Just in case he didn't take to all Casey Joneses as well as he took to his personal one. If he knew him at all.

[i_speak_softly]

"I've been a little worried about Leo," Don says, as he sets the tray down on a desk. He doesn't normally volunteer that kind of information to strangers, but this is more of a gambit: Casey doesn't need to know a lot to offer an outsider perspective that might help make sense of what's going on.

[sticksaround]

Casey frowns.

"Yeah?" He knows he's not much authority on this particular group, of course. Hearing things out never hurt, turtle-wise. "You think somethin's up with him?"

[i_speak_softly]

"Mm. He won't tell me much about anything." Leo tends to keep his own counsel, but not usually to this degree. "I think Raph knows, though. Has he said anything to you?"