Closed;

[alphatar]

Characters: Donatello (i_speak_softly), Korra (alphatar), Raphael (meanandgreen)
Date: A week-ish after the explosions.
Location: WA-3B
Situation: Initial meeting.
Warnings/Rating: N/A

Once Korra had full use of her leg again, she left Mako’s suite late in the evening. There were people she needed to check up on and Korra had no idea if they even tried to contact her since she was temporarily staying somewhere else. First place to check was in the Water Sector and Korra made it there on foot easily enough, her leg didn’t bother her too much.

Night was perfect, the turtles were practically nocturnal and it gave her cover to get there without drawing any unwanted attention. A few hops across the canal on the ice that form under her boots and Korra was just outside the window to Mike’s suite.

As usual, the curtains are drawn. "That’s a good sign at least."

Taking a quick look around to make sure there wasn’t anyone around, Korra glanced up at one of the windows on the higher floors; the one belonging to the room that she had stayed in back in January.

Opening the window, she climbed inside and then the sudden sound of an alarm filling up the room made her instantly alert, or as alert as one can be when saying "Aahh!" snapping into an offensive stance while looking quickly about for something. Anything at all since this was not how her visits usually went.

Comments

[alphatar]

Korra nodded and headed to follow Donatello. "Or turtles in general. I'm living on one, friends with some and practically a parent to one."

But she did take in how the room was set up now, and she saw Raphael's point. There was a lot more there, and mostly technology of sorts from the look of it. Something Korra knew very little about. But that did remind her that Donatello might be interested in seeing the commission piece she got from Tony Stark.

"And your room's spotless?" Korra said it with a wry smile, she couldn't help herself as they went down the stairs.

[i_speak_softly]

That's informative, Raph. And the comments about his room aren't really necessary either.

"A -- do you mean the hatchlings?" Don has been introduced to Mike's hatchling, carefully referred to as "Little Raph", but isn't sure what to make of the whole thing. What does one do with a giant, intelligent, juvenile turtle? (Is this how Splinter has felt for the past eighteen years?)

[meanandgreen]

"It's not full of junk!" He yells from halfway down the hall. Though that's exactly what his room is full of. If anything, he's got more actual junk than anyone. It's just nowhere near as packed full as Don's, and it's full of stuff he can actually identify instead of a mess of metal and wires.

For now, you guys can do whatever. At the mention of the hatchlings, he's even happier to get out of there, considering he's still less than pleased about his little namesake. He's just gonna go move his weapon cleaning stuff to the living room and maybe meet everyone down there.

[alphatar]

Korra breaks out a smile and it can be heard in her voice when she yells back "Prove it!"

Looking back to Don, Korra nods. "Yeah. I found Eshai's egg back at Sinbrilee with the other two and we've been taking care of her since then. Have they been in your dreams yet?" Hatchling talk is right up Korra's alley, big animals are one of her things. But she hasn't had a chance to learn the names of the other baby turtles yet.

"They do that sometimes even if you're not taking care of them."

[i_speak_softly]

Hey, Don can identify everything in his room. Except the things he brought home specifically because he can't identify them, and he's working on those.

"Not more than usual," he replies, as he gestures Korra out of the room and turns to follow her. "I'm still a little out of the loop when it comes to local affairs."

[alphatar]

"There's a lot going on, it's hard to keep up. The network being down didn't make things easier. My encryption doesn't work." The stairs are familiar enough that Korra knows where to step to avoid any creaking. "So you know everything about why we're here, what we're fighting and not saying the name, right?" Because that last one really messed everyone up.

[i_speak_softly]

"Hardly," Don replies. He has a faint hope that Korra might be more forthcoming than Leo, while at the same time being really disturbed that she knows where all the creaky spots are - an important fact he's barely mastered himself yet.

"All the packets are being routed through a decryption module that, as far as I can tell, employs incredibly advanced machine learning and NLP to test all possible algorithms until the output resembles a permissible sentence." He pauses as they reach the bottom of the stairs. "I can't get it to fail, quit out, or divert to a different codepath."

And he looks pretty irritated by all that.

[alphatar]

"Okay, obviously no one told you; but I only know English and Chinese." Of course it's sarcastic, Korra can tell when someone's talking technology at her even if she doesn't understand a lick of it.

"All I know is I turn on the encryption someone made for me and it works. But now it's not because of the output not getting permission to make a sentence." Yeah, she's just going to scrap that because it sounded kind stupid to her. "Er, what you said."

Tech lingo. Guh.

"Tell you what. I know a couple of people who are good with that stuff. I can see about getting in touch with them for you, I know you guys like to keep a low profile." Or at least, most of them did. Sometimes.

[i_speak_softly]

Well, good, because Don did that on purpose.

"I'm already working with Aya and her team. Are there other people I should know about?"

He sticks his head in a couple of doorways, then goes into the living room, where Raph has pitched camp with an array of weapon-cleaning paraphernalia. There, he takes up a position leaning against the end of the couch, arms crossed, waiting for answers to any of these questions.

[meanandgreen]

He'd just sat down, one sai balanced on his knee, as they both file in. On the coffee table, there's his own little arsenal of knives and shuriken, along with rags and oil and a few varieties of sharpening tools. Surrounded by his weapons, it's probably the most relaxed Korra's ever seen him.

All he has to do is hear the word "encryption" to know where this conversation's headed. Slinging one arm lazily over the back of the couch, a sly grin sweeps over his face like wildfire.

"Ah, jeez," he teases. "You got him speakin' geek? I shoulda warned you."

[alphatar]

"So you know Aya, good. She needs more friends. The other one is Rex Salazar, he's a machine guy."

Literally.

That is a ton of sharp things in one place, and Korra's looking from the clean section to the dirty ones before seeing Raph being as cool as a cucumberquat. She only met Donnie, so she doesn't join in on the teasing, though she did kind of want that warning since most tech stuff is beyond her. Especially the type that's outside her era.

Which reminds her. "My friend back home is a whiz with that kind of stuff too, if she was still here I'd introduce you." Not that helps any, but Don's pretty nice overall so far and maybe if Asami ever came back...

That made her grin.

"So clean up here too?" Sorry Raph, her turn to tease.

[i_speak_softly]

... Aya needs more friends? That can't mean anything good for his own social life. He doesn't yet know this Rex person, though, and files that information away for later.

He doesn't get Korra's joke, but he's happy to let it deflect the ribbing away from himself. He's just going to watch where this goes.

[meanandgreen]

Not counting everything loud and fast, sharp things are his favorite kind of things. And now Korra knows what he's been spending his extra money on.

"Cleanin'? This's just maintenance!" He jabs back, gesturing with the whetstone in his hand. "I don't gotta lose a bet every time I gotta get stuff done, you know."

Talking about getting stuff done, he grabs the sai balanced on his knee and starts working at sharpening the tip of the longest prong. It's an unorthodox practice that always drove Splinter crazy, but he likes it that way.

And he obviously isn't connecting how close that vicious point came to Korra's jugular. Right now, this's all just de-stressing from the earlier interruption.

[alphatar]

"No, but it's a good motivator." When she'll wipe that smirk off her face is something only she knows. "But it's a nice collection anyway." Even Natasha would have appreciated the quality Raph's keeping his small armory at. "Hey, speaking of which; do you guys have any staffs? There's someone I know who might be able to use one. Well, sort of use one."

[i_speak_softly]

Loud and fast, Don understands. Sharp, not so much. But Raph's habits are comforting in their familiarity, and he enjoys watching the smooth repetitive movement of the whetstone.

"You mean like this?" he asks, gesturing over his shoulder at the bo he holstered earlier after grabbing it in his room. "I can make more."

[meanandgreen]

It's only because of the compliment Korra gets nothing more than an eyeroll for that taunting.

"How do you 'sort of' use a staff?" He asks without looking up. Not sarcastic, just curious, even if it doesn't sound that way. "Use it like a flag pole?"

You either use a staff or you don't. It's not like they're complicated weapons. Not like his sai, anyway. Now they are the real deal. And with the way he's doting on them, it's easy to see just how obsessed with his weapon of choice he really is.

[alphatar]

Korra makes no hesitation in getting an up close look at the bo and putting her hands to it as she tries to measure out.

"When it's sort of a glider instead." Korra grins at Raph. Her own glider staff hasn't been used all that much ever since she came into possession of Hal's power ring. "I don't know how to make it, but I might be able to find someone who can make one like mine for a friend. It's the best thing for an airbender to have."

Aside from meditation and inner peace and stuff.

"Think I could get a few of these for the dojo? I can pay you." If Don can make them, she can put some traditional use to them.

[i_speak_softly]

Don keeps a firm grip on the staff as Korra examines it. He trusts her if Raph does, but he's not about to hand her a weapon.

Raph's opinions on the relative merits of bo and sai aren't enough to distract him from this, but Korra's statement is. A bo that turns into a glider? How has this never occurred to him before?

"I will make bo-gliders for a cup of coffee and a punch in the face," he says, though he might reconsider that offer after he gets over his initial excitement. It turns out that money is somewhat important to life in Keeliai, after all.

[meanandgreen]

"Don't tempt her. She's got a mean right hook," he jokes, returning Korra's grin. Then his gaze slides to his brother. "And don't make me remind you about the last time you built one of those gliders." Leaning forward like it's some kind of secret, he looks back at Korra and juts a thumb back in Don's direction. "He jumped off a building and almost bit it in the East River."

Not that he wants to shatter his brother's dreams or anything. He just doesn't want to see anyone get hurt because Don forgot to carry a two or whatever.

[alphatar]

Korra can't help but smirk and give a pert nod at Raph's 'warning', crossing her arms rather smugly.

Of course she can't hold the look for long, not after hearing about Don's blunder, and lets out a "Pffthp" that turns into a laugh. "Turtles are naturally drawn to water, if they're anything like turtle ducks anyway."

After giving a brief wave while she gets her shoulders to stop shaking from suppressed laughter, hard to do considering the intense instant they just had, Korra's finally able to get back to the point she has in mind. "I have one already, so I can show it to you if you want a better idea. Coffee's on me. The punch too if you still want it."

[i_speak_softly]

Don shoots Raph a dirty look while Korra laughs at him, and feels obligated to add: "That story has become grossly exaggerated."

When everybody is done being entertained at his expense, he continues. "I'll take that offer. Rain check on the punch."

[meanandgreen]

Man, he loves making her laugh. It gives him this feeling in his chest like he could run rooftops for days and never get tired. He doesn't even notice Don's dirty look because his eyes are on Korra, a big, goofy smile plastered all over his face as he sits up a little straighter in his seat.

"Aw, c'mon, Donnie. Don't feel bad," he chuckles, swatting his brother's leg with the back of his hand. "I mean, who knew the water was that magnetic?"

And now it's his turn to bust out laughing. Sure, it's a little mean. But it's funny.

[alphatar]

And all she got out of Donatello's clarification is that there's some truth in Raph's words, but she doesn't say anything. Her taut, small smile does that job well enough on its own. Though Raph's jab is testing her limits on keeping it in this time. So Korra gives Raph a jab of her own, a literal one on his arm before getting back to business.

"You got it. It might be pretty simple, I don't know." Considering it was made by Leo Valdez, demigod and mechanic, Korra never really questioned its design. "I'll even throw in a free meal at the Brazen Turtle."

[i_speak_softly]

Don intensifies his dirty look a notch, but it's not reaching its target because Raph is ---

Oh.

Oh.

Don looks away quickly.

"Sounds good," he says, keeping his tone normal through a valiant effort of will.

He'll find out later what the "Brazen Turtle" is.

[meanandgreen]

Don't act weird, Don. There's nothing strange about this. Never mind Raph's still grinning like a moron as he goes back to sharpening his sai, taking her jab without flinching.

"Looks like you got yourself quite the collection of employin' mutant turtles," he drawls, looking up again and casually gesturing with the tip of his sai. "All you gotta do is get Leo a job at the dojo teachin' people about bein' boring. Then you got the whole set."