licensetocrane | IC CONTACT

I could be persuaded. [Wide grin. Congrats, Casey, this is the most normal she's felt all week.] Might take me a bit, it's kinda new. You better focus on gettin' us there in the meantime, huh?

[Stop staring at her and fly your broomstick. Or staff. Or whatever!]

Ah- right, you got it!

[He starts off again, flying (maybe a little faster this time) towards the lab. Doesn't take long to get there, as he'd promised, the chunk of empty farmland lifting up as they draw near to reveal the sloping path towards the identification scanner and the reinforced door.

It's been... not quite as locked-down as usual, since Donnie died. The mechanism does its usual IDENTIFY YOURSELF shtick, but where it would normally be prevented from opening without Donnie's express permission, forcing any interloper to abandon the efforts, Casey drops to sit cross-legged below the identity pad and straight up rips off some panelling, exposing wires and a complicated mechanism.]

Can you pass me your bag?

[She assumes he means his bag and hands it back over again, this time silently as she takes the place in. Lightheartedness aside, this is apparently where he kidnapped people to-- how? She never found that part out, actually. Was Donnie mugging people in the middle of the night or was this more experimentation with constructs?

...she's not going to ask. Not right now.]

[Yes, perfect, his bag on her back- anyway. Casey pulls out a couple of things- his laptop, the tablet he'd pilfered and essentially dumped future malware onto, and a handful of connecting cables. After a minute or so everything is on, linked, and smothered in what is essentially several open tabs and what might as well be a Matrix code.]

This is the part that might be slow and annoying, sorry. [Hmm, speaking of.] Can you think of a noise that would bug the hell out of him?

[Please help him be passive-aggressive, April, he's been so well-behaved about all of this-]

[Casey Jones, what are you doing... she eyes the whole setup for a moment, tracking what she can with her own familiarity with coding, but you know what. She doesn't really need to know.]

Plenty. [She crooks a weary smile.] Depends on how you're gonna deploy it for maximum effectiveness. Is this just a Donnie says no no no kind of setup? [Like the most annoying-ass access denied message? Is that what he's after?]

[He pauses for a moment, debating how to explain himself, then clicks on the laptop a few times and turns the screen towards her. It's an image of the Genius Built logo, except it's obviously the wrong colour.]

I want to be annoying. To him.

[Casey says no no no, more like. Because if Donnie comes down here, he will absolutely know who did this. (Who else has access to his own programming 20+ years into the future?)]

[She hesitates on this one. Partly she thinks antagonising Donnie at this point is absolutely not going to help things and she feels bad just considering this because Donnie is still her best friend and a stint in supervillainy won't change that (yet), but also she considers:

a) Casey definitely deserves to be angry here, and:
b) April doesn't want Donnie coming back to this lab again, like, ever.

So she gives a wan smile in the end.]

I don't suppose you guys magically worked things out in there. [Yeah, she doesn't need an answer on that one, it's rhetorical.] Legit using your own voice to parrot back his condescending access denied stuff would probably work.

I mean, either that or monkeys. He hates those.

[Rhetorical it may be, and he definitely doesn't answer, but the expression he makes - a visible grimace, practically a flinch - tells her a story anyway. If they worked things out it was for worse, not better. (Claws and teeth. She doesn't need to know that.)

Her actual answer has him considering it for a moment, then he shrugs and turns the laptop back, getting to work.]

Thanks, I'll play with it. It's just flavour, anyway.

[He begins typing, quiet for a long moment as he sets up a compiler. Most of the heavy lifting should in theory be handled by some of Uncle Tello's automated malware, he just has to guide it in the right direction.

Before too long, he asks more quietly,]

How is he?

[Yeah, that's what she figured. Some part of her just feels even more awful that the idea of some kind of understanding between them is not only not on the table, it's out the door and getting drunk under a barstool somewhere.

She lets him work, kind of just not even looking at her relic but hanging out-- gives a sigh at the question.]

...still Dee. Now with a dose of trauma and doublin' down. We're... workin' things out. I just wish it hadn't got to this.

Edited 2025-03-06 15:25 (UTC)

...Mm.

[A noncommittal noise, and the clickity-clack of typing fingers for another long, hanging moment. You and him both, sis.]

A bunch of people went back to their worlds recently. Mr. Clay's got lots of free time now.

[Juuuust saying. Therapy schedule opened wide.]

[That nets a huff of laughter.]

Way ahead of you on that one. I am bullying the fuck out of him. [It, uh. Came up. When he snuck into her bed. ~~or it will at some point in this thread hush~~]

Uh-huh. [Casey has doubts - not so much about the bullying but the effectiveness of Donnie's follow-through - but that's not even entirely what he meant.] For you too, maybe.

[She's endured a lot, like the rest of them. He sure hopes she's talking to someone.]

Don't you uh huh me. [But she says it fondly enough, if tired.] He's goin' if I have to drag him by the goggles. He owes it to us. [Mostly, he owes it to himself, but if she can't get him to go for his own sake she will sure as hell guilt him. Watch her pile on the I nearly froze to death, Dee, you gotta sort your shit out so it doesn't happen again if she has to.]

As for the other part...]

Yeah. Been thinkin' about it.

Well, you know who to call. [He has more faith in April actually going for it (and taking it seriously; even if dragged there, he'll believe in Donnie talking through his feelings with a stranger when he sees it), BUT he does have faith April will at least get him there, so.

...He does hope it helps. For Donnie's sake.]

My door's always open too, y'know. If you want to talk about stuff.

[He's pretty sure she already knows that, though. They've had an open door kinda policy for a while now. God knows she's done wonders for his sanity plenty.]

[She tilts her head back to give him a smile.] I know. 'preciate it.

[And actually, while we're on this subject, she'll just ask the guy who's already In Therapy.] Seriously just like that? Just call him up and say 'hey, you got any therapy spots open'? Like genuine question, I don't wanna overstep.

[He pauses once - to finish his tippy-tappy train of thought on the keyboard - then a second time as he pushes the laptop aside while the code tears through another one of Donnie's barriers (A+ again Uncle Tello). Hm.]

I don't think it's overstepping. For me, Rue set it up, because he'd mentioned to them that he did like, grief counselling in his world. [Incredibly relevant to him in particular, but also kind of all of them, now? Between Peter, Raph, now Donnie...] He did a public thing on the network about it, though. Open to helping anybody. So yeah, you can legit just ask.

Aight. [You know what, she's just gonna shoot him a quick text while talking to Casey, so hah.] Definitely worth it. Y'know. "Hi, my best friend decided to have a supervillain arc, nearly killed me in the process of doing it." The usual.

[She's kidding. Well, about the nearly killing her part anyway--Dee didn't know he was doing it. Miserable week regardless.]

[Casey winces at that. He gets the gist, and that she isn't... totally serious. But yeah, he's glad she's reaching out.]

He didn't know it was happening. [He'd started saying it before, after it was over but before Donnie came back, and hadn't expanded back then because he'd had too much else on his mind to be very certain. He feels more certain now.] It really shook him, hearing what it was doing to you. The whole point was to keep everyone else safe, not make it worse.

[It didn't make him stop, apparently, though Casey's scan had been later in the week, so maybe by then it would've been better to keep going than to backtrack. If it succeeded, they'd all have been able to leave this world. ...Still not great, but not the worst case scenario.

He's mad about a bunch of stuff, still, but at least he can't call Donatello a total jackass in this department. He might've been a little crazy but he still cared about his family. That was the whole point.]

[April pauses before answering, letting that sink in.]

...yeah. I figured. [Her voice is warm.] But it's good to have it confirmed. I'm not keen on it happenin' again, but we'll work on that part.

That feeling's universal.

[Even the people who are still pissed at him would surely agree- no one wants this to happen again. Or anything similar. He doesn't know how to prevent it, if the consequences of how it ended aren't enough to make Donatello rethink, but that's not going to be his cross to bear. He doubts he'd be listened to.

He watches the code work its magic a bit longer - nearly there, looks like - before exhaling quietly and taking a chance.]

...should I... stop trying? Just leave him alone, or...

[Maybe it'll never get better. Hard to see a way backwards, now especially. Would it be better to surrender and at least not make it worse? He doesn't get it... he doesn't get it at all. He doesn't remember it ever being this hard.

He feels guilty immediately after asking, though (April's juggling enough already without him dealing her an impossible hand) so after a beat he backtracks, awkwardly,] Sorry. Nevermind.

[April gives a faint huff of amusement. For a long moment she doesn't answer, still texting through her conversation with Cad (tomorrow? Yikes).

But then.]

You know, Dee was the last turtle to warm up to me when we first met. Mikey took to me straight away an' Leo soon after, and Raph was, uh. Raph about it, but he was always nice. [Worried about random human, being overprotective.] Dee doesn't do well with new experiences. New people, either. And we had a pretty friendly start.

You guys didn't. [It was rough and immediate and traumatic and then Casey got put on the spot and did what Donnie will always regard as unforgivable. Because Donnie's family is his whole world, and the actual world is a distant second.]

[They sure didn't. Casey has to consider that one. It's not like he wasn't aware of that fact that Donatello - Uncle Tello, even - wasn't someone who warmed up to anyone easily. He didn't like to be bothered and he didn't want to talk about his feelings and he was, for the most part, standoffish at best. It could be even worse in the apocalypse because he was always busy. Casey had seen it countless times.

It's just... the rules always felt different, for him. He was family from the start, it was built-in. That's no longer the case in the past, so of course things have changed. But maybe that's only how it seemed, from his perspective.]

...I don't... remember that part. I was too little, he probably didn't like me when I was a kid, either. But some of my earliest memories was being with him in his lab, learning his tools, watching him work, listening to him talk about his projects...

[It wasn't the same, but he'd wanted that again here. He'd been Donnie's assistant for a while, things were going okay. But then the fae took Leo's arm, and the detention session happened, then the mindscape, and he'd had the gall to say no a few times, then the fight, then Mikey disappeared and Raph died, and... and.

Now this.]

I guess it doesn't even matter. He's not Uncle Tello, Uncle Tello's not him. I've known that for a long time. I made that mistake with Leo during the invasion, expecting him to be like sensei, because it's all I knew. Or... more like, it's what I wanted.

[He'd wanted sensei, Uncle Tello, his family to be there with him, to take care of him and love him, and if they weren't then that meant they were really dead and no one did either anymore. He was alone, and could never go home, surrounded by shadows of the people who used to know him. The scales are off of his eyes now, have been for a long time. He knows who they are, and they know who he is, and he's loved again.

It's okay to not be loved by someone. He has enough.]

I just... thought it might get better, eventually, but it's only ever gotten worse. But I'm also not going anywhere. [He's part of the family here, now, so they are officially Stuck With Each Other. Anyway, even if he could leave, where would he go?]

[She hums at that, thinking it through. Donnie's under a massive amount of stress in Folkmore--they're sitting outside exhibit A, c'mon--and she's been trying not to compare her family here, with a year or so under their belt, with the ones she knew at home for those months after the invasion. Leo's the same time as her. She's not sure about Donnie, actually. She thinks he's earlier, given how he's treated Casey so far, but she can't be sure.]

They're not the same person, no. I think--you know, I wonder if Donnie went through something like this in the early days of the invasion? All stress all the time, desperately wanted things to go back to the way they were. Makin' some questionable choices, probably. [She can imagine it, almost. The others, wanting to save as many as possible. Donnie would, sure, try and help others, but he'd be concentrating on keeping his family safe first and foremost.

...she understands a little bit. She's angry all the time now, probably gonna take that out on someone who doesn't deserve it, and she hasn't been here anywhere near as long.]

But your Donnie... I mean I'm not sayin' they didn't go through hell because they clearly did. It's awful to think about. But he woulda found a new normal, eventually-- realised the past wasn't comin' back, found a new role to play. You know, your Uncle Tello. Settled into his skin a lil more. It takes time. It takes a lot of time.

So... I dunno. [She's not sure if she's making sense, but--Dee's been through a lot, and she never talked to him about Raph's death but she knows damn well he knows about it. Because c'mon, it's Donnie. Leo's arm, Raph's death, Mikey's disappearance--] He's runnin' scared and not willin' to be flexible, and our Donnie never had the space to sit down and come to terms with things. He would-- he will-- if we can sit him the hell down and get him to stop obsessin' for a while, I think.

So...

[She couldn't have reasoned this through if she hadn't been watching all of Casey's recordings with him. Spotting the differences. Spent the last week trying to find any kind of understanding for what the hell Donnie did here.

She hopes she's onto something. She's tired.]

I don't think you should give up on him. But I don't think you should be easy on him, either. He's treated you like dirt. [...] I dunno what I'm sayin' anymore. But I know Dee could like you, Casey.

...he likes you just fine back home. [In a guarded fashion, sure. But Casey is an accepted part of their world in New York. Donnie's too. That's...never happened here.]

[It's a lot to take in. Donatello likes him alright back home? Is it Folkmore and ADI, then? Or maybe it's him? Or maybe the lack of stress and disaster in New York means Donnie can hide it more easily, and the same resentment is still beneath the surface, bubbling and waiting for the right trigger to come out-

That's... really negative, though, and he doesn't have enough rationale to counter April's claim, so he buries that thought before it can make him too anxious. If she says it, he'll try to believe her.

What happened at ADI, even the little that he knows, was awful. Folkmore hasn't been easy on anyone, either. He can imagine the same thing as she can, regarding Uncle Tello as well. The earliest Casey remembers of him was still a good 14 or 15 years post-invasion, at least. Plenty of time to change, get used to the new normal that was the resistance and decades of an endless war. They were no longer the isolated mutants with one or two human friends, living beneath the surface. Humans, mutants, yokai, all of them had to come together or be annihilated. He'd had to get used to, even if not caring about, at least keeping alive and working with strangers, new people, temporary allies and fresh company sharing his space. He couldn't just bury himself in a solo lab all the time working on projects that made him happy or fulfilled, with infinite money and modern resources. Everything was different. Everything was harder. A Donatello who had that as his normal is of course going to view obstacles and interruptions differently.

Casey has to looks at things differently now, too. He has for more than a year now, as he settles into this life, discovers what it means to live instead of simply survive. He's had to rewire his instincts on so many issues, big and small. From eating slowly enough to taste things (because it isn't just rats, because he has time to pause and breathe rather than hastily scarf down a meal and rush to the next mission) to paying extra lore for like silky high-thread count bedsheets (he doesn't have to use the same threadbare set for a decade or wash blood out of it when something bad happens, he can just get new sheets). He has to reexamine how he approaches this... relationship? too. Figure out what he wants, what he can't have, whether or not either of them can compromise or meet in the middle. Decide whether or not to accept if Donnie can't (or won't) compromise.

He doesn't have to go easy, doesn't have to take what's happened (or maybe what will happen, in the future) quietly. It's not that he needed her permission or anything, but there is some comfort to be found there. Donnie could like him. Could. Doesn't have to, but maybe. Maybe someday.

He can have a little hope. He can also decide later if he... can't get over this, and they can just exist in rotation around the same family sun. It doesn't have to be a bad thing.

He lifts a hand to scrub at his eyes - stupid, this is so stupid, it isn't the time or place - and nods slowly.] ...Okay. I'll think about it. [Not like he's going to be kicking down Donnie's door demanding friendship when they go home. This can be a later (much later) thing.

Speaking of doors, though, his laptop blips, the decoder completes itself, and with a stubborn shudder, the big doorway to the lab begins to open for them. Casey sits up.]

There we go. Uh, ladies first?

[Thinking about it is pretty generous given Donnie has shut doors on him at every turn, only to kidnap him. April smiles faintly but rolls up to her feet, and then deliberately snorts with amusement to lighten the mood.]

You see any ladies round here? [But she'll absolutely stalk through the door first. Hesitancy is for some other April, she'll face Donnie's poor life choices head on.]

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