licensetocrane | IC CONTACT

[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.]

[Casey chuckles, unplugging his laptop and stuffing it in his bag, swinging it over his shoulder as he stands to follow. The rest of the cables can wait until they're done.]

Most of the front section's the same as ever. But he had the rooms he didn't let anybody else into, and I guess he just... built backwards from there? Like a whole secret section. That's where it all went down.

[He'll point her in the right direction for it.]

It's all real structurally? Like... not what he pulled in that house? [She says it while peering around, not sure how to feel about that. If he wasn't creating whole rooms based on ninpo, then great! He wasn't overstretching at least in one way. But that also means he was entrenching for the long haul. Which... could mean a lot of different things, admittedly. Or nothing at all.]

Aight, I guess you're my guide here. Give me the whole horrible shitshow.

I didn't actually see what he did there. [He was not invited to that party. ...It was already kind of a full house anyway, and he wouldn't have been much use, so. That's fine, he just can't compare.] Far as I could tell it was all real, though. Some of the drones were ninpo, the walking bots were, and the force fields might've been. But the cells, ducts, scanner, and portal gate were real enough.

[Sure enough, they enter a hallway with a long line of parallel rooms, now open-faced with no forcefield to act as the door, but otherwise very cell-like. A few of them are messy or busted up, several with the vent covers torn off. Some are unscathed, having trapped people who were either unable or disinclined to cause trouble.

As they pass by one with a stripped bed, a torn vent, and a broken toilet seat cover near the front, Casey waves dismissively at it without giving it a second glance.]

That's mine. All this is most of what we saw here. Not much to look at, or do.

Dumbass. [Frigging not only randomly kidnapping people and having a supervillain arc, but overtaxing himself to do it, she's so gonna kick his ass a second time. That's what she tells herself anyway, trying to mask the flipflop despair she's feeling with a more light anger.] He could at least have given you a magazine.

[A joke delivered with no lightness whatsoever. Faced with this disaster, she doesn't find it very funny that he literally took not only complete strangers but Peter and Casey and locked them away in here for a week. Like what the fuck.]

[He makes an agreeable noise but isn't sure what to say for a long moment, so he keeps walking. He's glad he invited her, but it's harder to maintain the anger when he's pretty sure hers burns at a different heat. That's not her fault, though- not a fault at all, really. He's just kind of stuck in limbo with it, and mad about that.]

He brought some stuff if we asked for it. Or asked the drones, anyway. They got me paper. I did some glyph practice. [He pauses, and then for the first time sounds actually kind of quietly pleased?] Figured out a new one, that was cool.

Well hey, silver lining. [He sounds pleased and thus she means it. At least he got something out of it. Different levels of rage aside, she wouldn't begrudge him any of his own bitterness. She follows along behind him, and stops peering into every cell once she realises they're mostly the same. May as well not rub salt into the wound.] What's the new one do?

[There isn't much to see in the cell category, so Casey keeps following the path through without stopping. There's a storage room at the end, so they can check for loose items people might be missing. (Presumably it's been pilfered by now, but Casey would like to be sure as well.)]

I learned how to make snow! Even Hunter didn't know that one yet.

[Probably not super useful, but it was pretty and he was incredibly bored and mad. Good relaxer glyph combo when you're stuck underground.]

[If they find them, April will help him get them back to their owners at least.]

Snow, huh. Honestly gotta remember that one if we ever get stuck in the desert again. That's pretty cool, Jones. [...] I mean, no pun intended, but there it is.

[She gets him to laugh at that one. It's quick and a little quiet, but still a laugh.]

Pun accepted. [A classic, but a good one.] I can also draw my own glyphs now, so no more weird blood doodles, ideally.

[He can just draw in the sand now instead of "painting" over a crumpled glyph. Small victories!]

Ideally.

[...hmm.]

Is Hunter the one teaching you that?

The blood thing? Nah, that's the "use what you've got" apocalypse brain. We normally carry pens. Though he definitely would if he had to, he's got, um.

[He hesitates, since it was awfully personal at the time, but Hunter's been a little more free about going short-sleeve/sleeveless at home, or out and about when weather allows, so it's not like they're fully hidden like they used to be. Most of all, he trusts April.]

I thought they were tattoos at first, but he has glyph scars on his arms and back. If he needs to cast a spell and he doesn't have a staff with him, he can just tap one.

That's pretty convenient. [She hopes it was voluntary and she doesn't want to pry long enough to ask. Not yet.] So you can create snow and ice. What else can you do?

[Ha ha ha ha hAHAHA-]

Well, I started with light, then fire. And flying too, but you knew that. I started learning the plant glyph recently, but it's really difficult, so I'm not sure I can get away with saying I can do it yet.

[See sometimes not asking is a good thing--]

...what's the plant glyph? Is it just, like, growing them real well or can you create those out of nothing too?

It can do either, depending on location or the size of the glyph. Like, I don't think it would work down here unless the floor isn't too thick. but it could make something big appear if there was some ground nearby.

You're not movin' in on Barry's territory, are you?

[She's joking. He can do what he damn well pleases.]

[He smiles back at her. Joke or not, there's a degree of truth to it.]

More like his legacy. Hunter taught me these glyphs, but who do you think taught me theory?

[Alchemy, glyph magic, plenty of science nerdery. He couldn't do magic but he could help draw glyphs on the floor for rituals, listen in on lectures and take notes. Master Draxum was there his whole life, too, and very much part of the family.]

It is a mystery. [It is not.] Legacy, huh. I think he'd like that.

[She kinda misses him. Unsure what Draxum would have thought about this whole situation; she wonders if he'd be on Donnie's side in all this.

...look, she still misses him.]

I think so, too. Well, he might not say it, but he'd do that noncommittal grumble and smirk to himself about it. Probably.

[Some things don't change, even decades down the road. Casey misses him, too- both versions.]

I think it's good he's back home with Mikey, though. [...] Maybe it'll stop Dee from doin' even more stupid stuff.

[There's logic in there somewhere, promise.]

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