And I Carry a Bo Staff

The Math Lesson

Wed, 22 Jul 2015 03:46:33 GMT

( A chibi fic for any universe )

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Stripes

Tue, 21 Jul 2015 15:27:33 GMT

( A 2k12 fic )

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Seventy-Third Theory [Action/Video]

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 02:05:35 GMT

[Don fights off the droids just long enough to get an idea of what's going on, then goes with them more or less peacefully.]

[Once in the park, he stakes out the arrivals area, making sure all his friends come through the transporters safely - and learning that a few have departed Luceti in recent weeks.]

[Later, he'll establish a position in the highest place he can reach, and given that he's a ninja, that's pretty high. From this vantage point he surveys the park, studying its geography and figuring out each area's peculiarities. He has his journal with him, and anyone can hail that weird turtle guy perching on the tall flagpole above the park's biggest roller coaster.]

[Eventually, he'll fold the journal backwards and tuck it, still open, into the front of his belt. Somehow in the course of doing so he accidentally turns on the video function, so anyone still watching will get a gut-dropping view of how a ninja travels around a giant amusement park. How's that for a thrill ride?]

[Throughout the rest of the week, Don can most often be found observing the "mini-experiments" in Bubble Land, indulging his aquatic side at the water park in Thrill Land, or consuming outrageous amounts of food at the park's various eateries.]

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Seventy-Second Theory [Voice]

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 03:06:25 GMT

[Don has been living in the tunnels since the beginning of the last experiment, and for that time he's been almost entirely absent from the journals as well. Today, he finally re-establishes contact with the outside world.]

Has anyone ever considered building another village elsewhere in the enclosure? [...] Don't we have an organization that's always looking for that kind of volunteer work? The "Blue Viscera"?

[The transmission ends there, but later in the day there's another one:]

If anyone is willing, I would be very honored to have a new sensei. I'm fourth-dan in bojutsu but I haven't been formally trained in two years.

[After dark, he seals up his lair and goes home. When he reaches House 55, he doesn't announce himself, but goes silently to the winter room and re-closes the door behind him.]

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Seventy-First Theory [Voice/Action]

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 02:47:23 GMT

[It's been an extremely frustrating month. First he was kidnapped and experimented on by the Malnosso, while everyone else in the village - as Don learned later - got to fly, with their own wings. As the long-vanished Raphael would say, "Turtle Luck runnin' true to form".]

[When the droids returned him, he was invisible for a week, and spent most of that time watching his partner have a serious substance abuse problem, while the Turtle himself was powerless to do anything about that or the underlying issues causing Robert's addiction to resurface.]

[When Don became visible again, Robert tried to explain himself, but the Turtle had seen too much of drugs in his own world to want to hear any more about it. As a result, for the past few weeks relations have been strained at best in the Hamato-Hastings household.]

[Today Don heads out to the beach, seeking to clear his head and reconnect with his Filial magic. The Malnosso's experiments had had strange effects on his control of the elements, and he thinks he'd better spend some time re-establishing his bond with the spirits, the true source of these abilities.]

[In the afternoon, he happens to check his journal and finds a long, privately-filtered written message from Robert: another attempt to explain his behavior. Part of Don doesn't want to read it, but another part knows he owes that much to his partner of over two years.]

[That doesn't make it easy, though, and Don can only stand to read the manifesto in small pieces over the next several hours.]

[When he's done, he stays at the beach, watching sunset, watching the stars come out. When night and solitude have made him invisible again, he opens his journal.]

Have you ever learned something... that made you change your perspective... on something you thought you would never change your mind about?

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Seventieth Theory [Video]

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:00:13 GMT

Hello, everyone. My name is Donatello. I was just like the majority of you here in the village, until a -- an incident I cannot speak of turned me into what I am today. I have become accustomed to this form, though it does present certain obstacles in dealing with a human-centered world.

Fortunately, I have an incredible talent for creating inventions both useful and aesthetically-pleasing. [Here, the video shows some objects of indeterminate purpose, which appear to be made primarily out of gears, wires, and brass.] Due to certain circumstances, I have heretofore not been able to use this talent to benefit others, but now I am able to offer my services in developing assistive technologies for the non-human members of our community.

I am also available to fulfill requests from humans, although non-humans will be served first due to their obvious superiority. [...] I mean, their greater need.

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Sixty-Ninth Theory [Voice]

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:00:40 GMT

[Yesterday the village grew quiet, as many villagers were called on a draft, and many others began the anxious wait to see if their friends and loved ones would return to the village safely.]

[Also yesterday, a breath of warm weather arrived in Luceti. Don has been out enjoying it, trying not to dwell on those who are fighting on a flying island right now. He has enough other things on his mind, and around midday he does something about one of them.]

Filtered to Beast || Unhackable

Beast... I haven't thanked you properly for what you did for Robert and me. For everything you've done for us.

End Filter

[Later, he leaves a brief, unfiltered message:]

Would anyone be interested in learning how to program computers and fix cars?

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Sixty-Eighth Theory [Action]

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 02:08:47 GMT

[For the past few weeks, Don has spent an increasing amount of time staring out the windows of his winter room, watching for signs of spring. As comfortable as the room is, after two-plus months of living in it he really just wants to get out.]

[To that end, he has been packing for a camping trip, and today - not knowing that winter isn't yet done with Luceti - he shuts down all the systems in his room and leaves the house.]

[Anyone out and about in the village may see the Turtle, bundled in his snowsuit and carrying a duffel bag, heading out of town. He's not going anywhere in particular and isn't in a hurry, so he'd be happy to stop and talk.]

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Sixty-Seventh Theory [Accidental Video]

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:42:58 GMT

[Turtle Luck runs true to form, and Don crashes shell-first into the full bathtub in the winter room, Robert falling unceremoniously on top of him. The scientist, mildly stunned from the impact, pushes back and breaks the surface with a sputtering sound. Don fights down his panic reaction at being suddenly submerged, and simply sits up in the shallow water. He tries not to bang Robert against the sides of the tub, but the close confines ensure Robert's legs get squashed somewhat as Turtle and human attempt to suddenly coexist in an unforgiving ceramic tub.]

Don, are... are you a-alright?

Yeah. Just -- can you get up?

[Robert complies, scrambling out of the tub.] What an... unusual place to be returned. Perhaps the rogue Malnosso were... more interested in seeing our reaction to that than... "testing" us...

[Don coughs, and drags himself out of the water behind his housemate.] Typical. Give me a minute to convince my lungs they're fine, and then we can theorize about the Malnosso's motivations all you want.

[As the two talk, neither notices that Don's journal is transmitting video of their awkward return and private conversation.]

((Joint post! Don and Robert's conversation will be continued in a thread; feel free to assume your character can hear all of it. Specify who you want to talk to or you may get both. :) ))

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Sixty-Sixth Theory [Voice]

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 18:22:19 GMT

[Things have been remarkably normal for Don lately, a very tolerable mix of the mildly bad and the mildly good. On the one hand, he's coming down with a case of his annual flu, and he actually kind of misses his elf. On the other hand, his various lessons have been going well, he's enjoying the new toys Robert gave him for Christmas, and all the effort that went into creating the winter room has been entirely worth it.]

[In between keeping his hands and mind occupied, and lounging indolently just because he can for once, Don has made a habit of posing a random question over the journals every day. Today the low-grade fever is making it hard to think straight, so the question is a strange one:]

People. In Luceti. Are from different worlds. [Give him a minute, he's pretty sure he's going somewhere with this.] But. Some of us have a lot in common, in surprising ways. Who... Who in Luceti seems like, you know, like long-lost twins? Even if they maybe haven't met each other here yet.

Or. What combination of people here would just be... really interesting. I mean, if you put them together to make a new person. Who's different from anyone we already have.

[A long pause.]

I think I'm sick.

[He's going to. Um. Do something about that. Then he will be back to answer any comments.]

((I am Donatello-mun and I pre-approve all thread-jacking.))

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Sixty-Fifth Theory [Video]

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 15:49:22 GMT

[The video feed clicks on, and Don looks thoughtfully at the camera for a moment before speaking.]

Another Christmas in Luceti.

[His tone is direct, just stating a fact, but somewhere behind it is a note of melancholy.]

This is my third. All of them have been in this house. All of them have been with different people.

[He slides back from the journal, revealing a corner of his winter room. He's been gradually moving into it over the past week, and has more or less taken up residence now.]

I've seen a lot of people come and go. There probably aren't many left who remember when Luceti didn't have electricity.

[He picks up some small bit of tech and squints at it.]

When I arrived here, the drafts were just starting. There were no missions. The Battle Dome didn't exist. We didn't have a farm and there was a desert where the ocean is now.

[He carefully threads a length of wire through a hole in the tech part.]

The buildings were shorter. Some of the stores and restaurants weren't open. [A pause.] I think I'm forgetting things...

[The wire slides through, and he knots the loose ends to form a loop.]

Does anyone remember other things that have changed? Or, does anyone want a history lesson? I'll be here all day.

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Sixty-Fourth Theory [Action/Voice]

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 17:12:38 GMT

((First part is backdated to yesterday, November 10.))

[Would it really be so difficult for John's droids to just bring Don home?]

[Apparently, because they instead leave him in a side room of the barracks. On their way out, they drop his journal on the floor, just beyond his reach.]

[He can't feel his legs.]

[He woke up this way on John's table, and while part of his brain tried to assess the situation rationally and offer the mitigating factors that it's just for a week, thank goodness he didn't get this as his death loss, the rest of his brain was screaming too loudly to notice or care.]

[And now he's back in the village, half-paralyzed, still uncertain of his speech, and completely alone.]

[It takes a while, but he pulls himself together, drags himself a few feet across the floor, and painstakingly constructs a filter in the journal.]

Voice to Beast | Unhackable

Help. The barracks. Please...

[He closes the book when he's done. Beast won't get any reply from him through the journals, but will find him prone on the floor of the barracks, just wanting to go home.]

Voice for Everyone, November 11

[By the next day, Don has rediscovered his voice, and wants everyone else to hear it too. Being couchbound, he has nothing better to do than broadcast his every thought over the journal system.]

EVERYONE. Citizens, denizens, residents and inmates of our village of Luceti. Those of you who have just arrived, please find adequate shelter, because this is miserable weather to be out in. You're fortunate, though, to have missed our recent tornado. Also an infestation of ghosts and some messy business involving zombie viruses. Never a dull moment. I advise reading the guide, which can be found in your journal.

Those of you who are already jaded by such events, please entertain yourselves on this dreary day by suggesting a topic of interest: a fascinating subject, an intriguing project, or a hypothetical occurrence that you would find truly surprising. Jokes and stories are also welcome.

[He'll stop there. Finding words is still difficult and tiring, and like exercising any other faculty that hasn't been used in a while, he should take it slowly. Full recovery will come from patient practice, not from exhausting himself all at once.]

((Initial action is locked to Beast. Friends of Don are welcome to handwave hearing of his return and come visit, yesterday afternoon or any time during the week. Today's voice post is open to all.))

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Sixty-Third Theory [Voice/Action]

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:07:15 GMT

[Voice - October 10]

[This is too important for his usual mangled speech, so Don communicates what he wants to say to Robert, and makes the man repeat it over and over until Don can echo it correctly into the journals:]

Leonardo has gone home.

[Action - October 11]

[The next day, Don turns his mind to practical matters. House 55, which at times has had as many as six residents, is now down to two. At this point it's just silly to keep using the space in the same way. So, on this rainy afternoon, Don heads to the library to pore over diagrams of the floorplan that he has accumulated, and to think about how much has changed since he first moved there with Raph, Casey, and Derek.]

( Introspection )

[The winter room is too much for just one Turtle, but since the major construction is already complete, Don just makes some minor tweaks to his plans for stocking it. He dawdles over his blueprints for much longer than is strictly necessary, until late in the afternoon he looks wistfully at all the books he can't read - just a few more weeks - and heads home.]

[Action - October 14]

[Donatello is not okay. His coping methods have collapsed, and he can't deal with this. In a haze of grief and loneliness, he goes to the Battle Dome, picks a program he hasn't seen before, and sets it on a stupidly difficult level. Then he battles artificial enemies until the simulation aborts. In the empty chamber, he screams wordlessly at the walls, not caring who can hear him. When the rage is spent, leaving only the pain, he limps home, bleeding from everywhere. He is not in a mood to accept help.]

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Sixty-Second Theory [Action]

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 02:40:33 GMT

[Today, Don can intermittently be found standing outside House 55, eating a large but careful amount of the household's remaining food, and watching a long line of Kin'corans walk - or be forcibly herded - into the barracks to be teleported to wherever they're going.]

[In between these breaks, he will be industriously stripping the plaster from the walls of one of the house's long-vacant bedrooms, demolishing it right down to the studs. He has the windows open to help ventilate the inevitable dust, and the sound of his efforts can be plainly heard in the surrounding area.]

[Ask what he's doing in there? Complain about the noise? Or just join him to observe the sad parade of refugees?]

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Sixty-First Theory [Action]

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 15:49:35 GMT

[People may have stopped scuba-diving and playing Whack-a-Mole around the fountain, but at least by some standards, it’s not entirely back to normal: now a giant turtle is sitting on the edge of it, staring intently at passersby.]

[Well, not just staring. Donatello is trying to establish psychic contact. He’s thinking a message as hard as he can at anyone who walks through the plaza, and while it isn’t exactly in words, the gist of it is: If you can hear this, help me.]

[Of course, to anyone who can’t hear it, he just looks like some kind of creeper. He’s sorry about that, really...]

((Death penalty reference.))

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Sixtieth Theory [Action]

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 19:17:52 GMT

[Luceti is a cruel and perverted world. That's the only possible explanation for why Don revives from his death-by-drowning at the bottom of the lake. He thrashes for the surface with none of his usual graceful movement, and crawls ashore, panting and trying to figure out what happened.

He knows he died.

He remembers there is a price for being restored to the living world.

He lies in the rain, wondering if it will ever end.

When he has enough breath back to sit up, he does so, and carefully checks himself over for what the Malnosso took. Limbs, senses, memories… all seem in order. He stands and walks, and his legs work. He speaks a few words, and his voice is still there.

It doesn't seem possible that the Malnosso brought him back for free, and he's scared for what hidden deficit might reveal itself later.

He has his mask, belt, and pads. All his other gear is absent, hopefully still at home where he left it.

He starts walking.

He knows it will take some time to travel from the western lake to the village, but he knows the way and he's not in a hurry. It will be good to get his thoughts together before he sees his housemates.]

((Don's death penalty is a language disorder called aphasia. Reference post is here, and linked from the index post at the top of his journal. Meet him anywhere on his way back to House 55.

Plotting note: In the near future, Don will want to go to the clinic to find out what's wrong with him. If your character works there, and especially if they would recognize aphasia, please hit me up via PM.))

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Fifty-Ninth Theory [Voice/Action]

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:31:29 GMT

[After the experiment ended, and as summer came to Luceti, Don settled into a new routine. In the morning, he leaves his house, walks up the path to the barracks, and takes the teleporter to the beach. He runs several miles along the sand, then dives into the sea and swims back the same distance. Then he practices some magic, manipulating Wind or Water in any place that strikes his fancy, or moving to a rocky part of the shore to work with Earth.]

[By late morning he's home again, and after lunch he heads out to the smithy. He spends several hours in a back room, working on mysterious projects, then emerges again. He often visits the library afterwards, and in the evenings he can be found around the village, studying a book. Then home to sleep, and he starts all over again.]

[Today Don's projects are finished. He hauls the pieces out of the smithy, across the plaza, and into a clearing behind the playground, where he assembles them. Later, the following five structures can be found:]

[The first is a crazy assortment of reflective surfaces. Placed strategically among them are shallow metal bowls, which have been filled with kindling. A carefully-carved plaque beside this object reads: FIRE.]

[The second consists mainly of buckets on wheels, and buckets on a vertical conveyor belt, all installed in a kind of basin. The sign next to this one reads: WATER.]

[The third is a kind of Rube Goldberg machine. It's not clear what it does, but it appears it can be triggered by tilting the seesaw at one end of it. It is labelled: EARTH.]

[The fourth is a rack holding metal pipes of varying lengths, and glass jugs of differing sizes, and clusters of smaller metal rods hanging from strings. The plaque here says: WIND.]

[The fifth structure is different, and stands a bit apart from the others. It's a small hut, plain on the outside, with only a door in one side and a tiny hole in the other. There's a complicated canopy-like structure shading the door, so that even when it's opened the hut is still dim inside. The sign outside reads: SUNRISE, SUMMER SOLSTICE.]

[After completing his handiwork, Don will rest at the foot of a nearby tree, and pull out his journal.]

Earth. Fire. Water. Wind. What do they mean in your culture?

((Choose your own adventure!
A. Meet Don on his daily routine, any day that isn't ridiculously forward- or back-dated.
B. Catch Don while he's assembling these structures.
C. Come upon the structures sans-Don, and try them out. They are designed to become interesting when triggered by the corresponding element: flames reflect off the surfaces, water turns the wheels, a rock dropped on (or raised under) the seesaw starts the machine, and wind plays the instruments.
D. Explore the fifth structure. It does nothing interesting until June 20, when, if Don's calculations are correct, the rising sun will shine through the small hole and illuminate the inside.* Visitors will then be able to see what Don painted there: careful reproductions of constellations, and complicated equations describing various astronomical phenomena.
E. Answer Don's voice post. You know, if you want to do the obvious thing.))

((*Except that the calendar calls for thunderstorms that day, so sunrise may get rained out.))

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Fifty-Eighth Theory [Voice/Action]

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:06:23 GMT

Open Voice

The person who made the little wind-up dragon... can I have another?

Action for Nezumi

[The reason Don needs another dragon is because he took the first one apart to make a camerabot for someone he doesn't even know. He hopes this was a good idea.]

[He heads to building three, floor one, room five, as he was told, and knocks five times.]

Action for Isamu

[After making that delivery, Don circles southward to the home of one Isamu Nitta. Allegedly some other people live here too, but Don has never met them. Hopefully, if they exist, they won't mind too much that a giant turtle is climbing in their window. Isamu did say to surprise him.]

Action for Buffy

[Around sundown, Don makes his way to House 7. He knocks here too, though he doesn't count how many times. He has a question to ask...]

((Housemates of the people Don is looking for are welcome to tag in, and of course the Voice part is open to anyone pinged by clockwork draconids.))

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Fifty-Seventh Theory [Written/Voice/Action]

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:05:18 GMT

[It's sunny and warm and spring, and Don can't wait to get outside. Or he wouldn't be able to wait, if he didn't have such impressive self-control.]

[He diligently starts the morning with his usual exercises, then sits down to leave a few messages in his journal before leaving the house.]

[Tutoring Beast in reading has made Don reconsider his own literacy skills, and after much thinking he's decided to do something to improve them. To that end, he easily constructs a filter, then labors through writing a brief message:]

Filtered from Housemates | Unhackable

[In translation-shielded kanji:] I WANT PLEASE: SOMEONE IS ABLE TO TEACH TO READ JAPANESE A SLOW STUDENT.

[There. Anyone who can't read that is automatically disqualifed as a teacher; anyone who can should immediately see the need for some teaching.]

[Reminding himself that lack of knowledge is not a cause for shame, but an opportunity to learn, Don closes that filter and opens another.]

Filtered to Leonardo | Unhackable

Hey, Padawan. If you ever take a break from mastering the Force, call your otouto and let him know you're okay.

[And finally:]

Filtered to SHELL members | Unhackable

The world visit experiment should be happening soon, if we can believe anything that blue man says. After that I'd like to have another meeting.

I'm taking nominations for other topics of discussion or club activities.

[Don will check for replies later - for now, he closes the journal, takes his gear, and quietly leaves the house. He'll be spending the next few hours meandering among the cherry trees, looking for early blooms.]

[Anyone who meets him may notice he now wears a silver chain around his wrist, half-visible where it laces through the leather wrappings.]

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Fifty-Sixth Theory [Action]

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:24:54 GMT

((Forward-dated to Sunday the 26th, after the village has cleaned up from the ice storm.))

[That was a good last try, Winter, but you are rapidly losing your hold over this ectotherm. He was trapped in C5 for several days, after Luke Skywalker’s guests shook off their movie-marathon stupor to realize they were iced in, but since making it safely back to House 55 he’s been increasingly alert and moving around with greater purpose.]

[Today he put on his heated snowsuit and struck out across the snowy village to the library. He had found this puzzle-box among his things, and he wants to work on it without his housemates hanging over his shoulders.]

[He also wants to strike up a conversation with anyone who so much as glances at him. Cold weather and semi-torpor don’t present many opportunities for socializing, and the normally-quiet Turtle has a lot of pent-up conversation in need of an outlet. It won’t be at his normal intellectual level, but it should at least be better than it has been in recent weeks.]

((Feel free to help Don with the puzzle-box, but I don’t want it to be opened yet.))

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Fifty-Fifth Theory [Voice/Action]

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:29:13 GMT

[Don has been returned from his mission with the Malnosso. In this case, that means that his guide-droid politely but firmly made it clear to him that sorry, but he had to leave.]

[His journal is returned to him, he's shown to a teleporter, and a moment later he's standing in the village's coffee shop. After getting something - well, a number of somethings - to eat, he settles into a booth and opens said journal.]

Filtered to housemates || Unhackable

Guys, I'm back. I'm at the coffee shop. [Almost as an afterthought:] I'm okay. Robert, can you bring my snowsuit?

End Filter

If anyone was waiting... I'm back.

[Some time later, he adds:] Has anyone heard of a Deadly Nadder? Or a Gronckle?

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