3596/Azeroth Casey Jones

Azeroth Casey Jones
Date of Scene:	27 September 2020
Location:	April's Apartment
Synopsis:	April and Donatello share a meal and discuss how the turtles might be able to assist Casey pick the right path, as well as make plans to introduce April to Kainashi. Donnie admits that he turned Casey onto Warcraft and that their fantasy world might soon have one more inhabitant. Oops!
Cast of Characters:	Donatello, April O'Neil

---

Donatello has posed:
    Tap tap, tap tap. The window in the kitchen receives a faint percussive greeting. It's the subtle announcement that a turtle lingers, waiting to be let in. A careful eye would reveal that Donatello remains crouched in the fire escape, peering inside with a hand over his eye ridge. Humans would call it a brow.

    Donatello looks better than he has in a while. The bags that hung under his eyes are gone -- the wrinkles, typically associated with fatigue, have cleared. His breath is no longer clouded by the faint bouquet of energy drinks. All in all, a marked improvement. Ultimately, the experience of having Donatello waiting at the window is no longer as horrifying as it once was.

    He presses his face against the glass and squints, trying to get a good luck. Is she even home?

    Tap, tap, tap, tap.

April O'Neil has posed:
There's a light rain outside as the seasons transition from summer to autumn. It's cooling off rapidly more every day as well.

April is in her kitchen, as it so happens, so Donatello chose wisely! The 'tap tap tap' is heard on the second try too, she has music on her phone playing from the kitchen table and she's standing in front of her stove with her hair tied up behind her head, a white shirt on and some pink pajama pants on.

April's eyes look over to the window and she pauses her cooking to go and unlock,then pull the window open. "Hey there, stranger." She tells him, motioning with her hands. "Come on in, get out of the rain..." April moves then to the counter to grab a towel for him to use to dry his face off if he so wishes, which she offers over to him.

"What sup?" April then asks with a soft smile.

Donatello has posed:
    When the window is opened, Donatello smiles and takes a step inside. With the offered towel, the turtle wipes off the top of his head, but otherwise doesn't seem too concerned.

    "Hey, April," he greets, doing his best to climb over the sink and into the kitchen itself. Donnie hands the towel back and manages a smile. A pregnant pause.

    "Oh," he answers, looking around. "I just thought I'd check in. You know, with everything that's going on."

    That's vague.

April O'Neil has posed:
April takes up her spot by the stove again as she's boiling some spaghetti noodles with the sauce on the pan beside it. She glances over at Donnie and just shows him a light smirk.

"You mean with Cassie?" She asks. "Yeah, he's... he's had a bit of a boil-over, so to speak." She states, topically considering the bubbling steamy water pot in front of her. She spoons at it for a moment, stirring the contents.

"I think he's coming around though. He made a mistake, it's why I'm still not really keen on vigilantism without rigorous training. You and your brothers?" She glance sover at Donnie. "You all do the rigorous training."

"Casey?" She questions as she glances away and shakes her head slowly. "Not. so. much." She adds, exhaling there-after.

Donatello has posed:
    Donatello has a lingering, though subtle smile. It's like he's trying to say something, or perhaps not say something. But, April's accusation --You mean about Casey-- relaxes the turtle. He takes a breath and manages a slight shrug. "Yeah," he replies, glancing down at the spaghetti and sauce combination. He makes a face.

    "I don't know, lately, he seems kind of..." Donnie's voice trails off before falling silent for a moment. Suddenly, he shrugs his shoulders and throws his hands up, as if to absolve himself of what he's about to say.. "I'm just going to say it."

    "Crazy."

    Donnie reaches out to take the saucepan's handle and gives it a little jostle to keep the sauce moving. It's just an awkward affectation. He's not a chef.

April O'Neil has posed:
April smiles at both the words Donnie says, and the assistance he offers her in cooking the food. She mirrors him and shrugs her shoulders back. "He seems like himself to me." She says. "But it's probably the case that I've spent more time with him than all of us combined." She's got her phone with her, because everyone her age most assuredly does these days, and her eyes glance down at it as a text pops on screen.

She reads it, puts the phone down and then looks back to Donnie. "I think he just gets this way when he's not feeling horoic enough, you know?" She says. "I don't think he's had a 'big moment' in awhile, it makes him feel inadequate. Which there... in... makes him act... crazy. Probably the, ya know, aliens and such, have got him on edge too because that is an issue that even he knows he can't handle, and it was right here, on our door step."

Not to mention Terry, though Casey probably doesn't know Terry. But the rest of them sure do.

"I think we're all feelin' a little out there right now, yeah?" April asks with a side-long stare and smile for the purple clad Turtle aside her.

Donatello has posed:
    Donatello returns April's smile and releases the pot handle. He takes a few steps away and leans his weight against the refrigerator. Donnie's arms are folded across his chest, giving the cellphone a brief glance. When can he have one of those? It's maddening!

    Donnie lowers his eyes as he listens to April's analysis of Casey Jones. His head bobs up and down, a nod to confirm that he's listening and understanding April's diagnosis. Still, the turtle takes in a deep breath and looks up to return his gaze.

    "Well, I guess we're a little worried -- or I guess, I'm a little worried," he admits. "I thought that maybe you'd be good for Casey, but now I'm wondering if he's..."

    Another deep breath.

    "Dangerous?"

    That last word is said with some confusion, almost like he's unsure of it. Donatello's eyes naturally move towards the direction of Harley Quinn's room. Perhaps April is okay with dangerous.

April O'Neil has posed:
April steps back to the sink to grab the strainer off of the top of her cheap coffee maker. She sets it in the sink over the drain and flips the water on to steam up and run through the strainer.

Donnie's words make her grin, and then release a light and lyrical bit of laughter. "We're all dangerous, to be somewhat fair." April replies before she glances over at him leaning on her fridge. "But, I know what you mean. he /did/ hit someone in the head with a bat though, who was apparently innocent of any wrong doing. The guy didn't die, thankfully, but still. It's something, I dunno, I mean, we could all make a mistake that could get people hurt like that... with what we do. Yeah?"

April side steps back to her stove and starts to dial down the burners. "I like Casey,m he's fun, he's funny too. He's a nice capable man, strong and smart... even if he doesn't express his intelligence with any shred of eloquence. The way he fixes cars proves he's got an engineer's mind up there somewhere, hidden behind all the macho manliness that tries to shove its way to the fore front all the time."

Donatello has posed:
    Donatello considers that and eventually nods. Everyone makes mistakes. The eyes behind that purple mask study April for a moment -- not checking her out, but simply seeing her in another light for a moment. In response, Donatello manages a faint smile. But, perhaps she might not be so kind to learn what he has to say. Taking a breath, Donatello looks around the kitchen, allowing his eyes to stop at this and linger at that. He's not really looking for anything in particular, but rather seems keen on avoiding April for right now. His eye ridge raises and he takes a deep breath. "Well, we've been kind of maybe giving him some advice," he begins. "But, you know, maybe it should just play out however it does."

    Donatello raises his hand, as if he's swearing an oath to something, and turns to face April. "Okay," he declares. "I promise that we will no longer give Casey Jones dating advice as it pertains to April O'Neil. The O'Neil-Jones experiment can happen in a vacuum. No turtles."

    Suddenly, Donatello flashes a bright smile. "You know, April, if you were looking for an engineer's mind with a veneer of manliness, you should've just said something earlier -- but, it's too late now!" he exclaims with a grin.

April O'Neil has posed:
April goes about straining the noodles with a nice big cloud of stream rising up toward the window that Donnie crawled in through. She laughs softly while doing this. "Any assistance that the lot of you give Casey could really actually only do him good. You're all wiser than your years, and you're all far more polite and kind than most of the people who grew up on top of the sewers, rather than down within them." She smiles back at Donnie.

"In fact, what I think you should do for Casey... don't worry about his 'love life' but help him with his night life. In that I mean his patrolling. He needs... that wisdom, that you have, that Splinter put in all of you. I know there's no way in hell that Casey Jones could ever train to become the Ninja that you all are. But even just a /little/ bit of that could make a huge difference in his life. That discipline... he just lacks it, and suffers for it, you know?"

She smirks back at Donnie then as she moves to combine her dinner into one pot. "And as for 'too late' well? That's just the story'a my life, Donnie Dearest." She grins at him then. "Want some food?" She asks him.

Donatello has posed:
    Donatello manages a faint smile, lowering his eyes to the floor for a moment. "Thanks, April!" he replies with a smile. The turtle takes a breath, leaning towards the pasta steam for a moment -- a consequence of the end of summer means a greater reliance of outside sources of warmth. The life of a turtle!

    "Yeah, well, if there's anyone who shouldn't be educating anyone on their love life, it's us," Donnie admits with a grin. He brings a three-fingered hand up to his chin and gives April a sideways glance. "Well, maybe just some of us shouldn't." His eye ridge rises and he gives April a smile. An implication!

    Donatello opens one of the cabinets -- a behavior bred only out of extreme familiarity with each other -- and takes down two plates. He sets them down on the nearby counter and then squints his eyes just a touch. "You want us to help him on patrols?" he questions, sounding a bit confused. "Casey made it seem like you were making him give up the vigilante stuff."

April O'Neil has posed:
April laughs at that implication too, because she understands it. "That's riiiiight.... Donatello is the suave one of the bunch, first to have a girlfriend, yeah?" She asks with a grin back to him while she gets the food ready on the plates. "I bet that eats your brothers up, but... I'll never tease them about it, I guess you're free to do it though." She smirks at him.

April gathers up some napkins from the wooden holder and offers some to Don, then takes her plate over to the table where her phone is playing music out of a bluetooth speaker that she bought for a boating trip last summer. "I never told Casey to stop his patrols. I told him to take a break." She clarifies as she settles in at the table and curls one foot up under herself.

"It's not like patrolling... is abusing alcohol, or drugs. It's dangerous, but it's also just helping the community-- at its core anyway --so yeah, I don't mind him doing it." She pauses before preparing to take a forkful of food. "I just want him to be smarter about it, you know? Like the four of you are."

"He had to learn how to fix cars. He should have to learn how to patrol the streets too." She adds.

Donatello has posed:
    Donatello takes one of those napkins between two of his three fingers and offers a smile of thanks, not wanting to interrupt April's description of events. He smiles down at the plate of food -- made by someone who knows what to do with it -- and picks it up with his other hand. Donnie follows April towards the table and sets the plate down.

    "That makes a lot of sense, April," Donatello replies. He pulls a seat out and lowers himself -- carefully -- into it and scoots an inch or so towards the table. Apartment living, and the furniture that goes along with it, does not look favorably to the turtle bod.

    "We can help him with that, I'm sure," Donnie adds, looking down at the pasta. "I mean, I don't presume that we'd be able to be like Master Splinter, but, you know, we could try." Donnie takes a fork in his hand and fumbles with it a bit. It's honestly a small miracle that he's able to muster up the dexterity needed to 'do machines' with those large, gawky, three-fingered hands. Eventually, he manages to get the tiny fork held the right way and sticks the prongs into the pasta. Twist, twist, twist.

    With one of those awkwardly long spaghetti strands dangling from his mouth, Donatello manages a grin. "Well, you can believe that I'm the suave one of the bunch, but honestly I've just been a nervous wreck the whole time," he admits. The turtle slurps the marathon strand of pasta into his mouth and grins again -- it's impossible not to. "But, the guys don't have to know that."

    Compared to the last few weeks, Donnie has a noticeable ease surrounding him -- seemingly not the nervous wreck he's trying to describe. Donatello carefully moves his fork into the pasta once again. "You'd really like her, April," Donatello adds as he spins his fork again. His words are matter-of-fact, like he couldn't understand how anyone wouldn't like Kainashi.

April O'Neil has posed:
April sets her phone down on the table and adjusts the volume on the music so it's a little quieter. She then glances over at the turtle enjoying the spaghetti which makes her grin, along with what he's saying, but she ultimately drops her eyes down to her own food and enjoys a bit of it herself.

After she dabs at her lips with a napkin she looks back to him. "Of course I'd like her. If you like her, then that means I would too, by default." She states, flashing a grin before glancing away again to shake her head.

"And any little bit of help with him, in this regard, would go a long way. No dating help, just... fighting and patrolling help, that's what April O'Neil needs." She glances up then and exhales softly. "I really gotta not start talking about myself in the third person..."

Donatello has posed:
    Donatello squints his eyes and shakes his head. "No, no," he replies with a big grin. "Not that 'if you like her so will I' kind of things. I mean, you really would!" He smiles, looking down at his plate. "Anyone would," he adds quietly, directly at his food. He manages to bring another twist of spaghetti into his mouth, this one getting in there all in one go. Still, there's sauce on his face, fingers, and a small bit on his face mask. Spaghetti is a risky food.

    Donatello manages a smile and then nods his head. "Well, we can do that, April," he decides. "We can maybe get him some of that fighting discipline. Besides, all of my dating advice kind of only applies to...Well, I think it's fair to say Casey's situation is quite different from my own."

    One of them is a maniac. The other is a turtle.

April O'Neil has posed:
April shakes her head while she enjoys her own spaghetti cooking, one of the few dishes she thinks she does well with,the sauce in particular. "I don't think you should introduce her to any of us until you've had time to get to know each other better and shake off some of the awkwardness of being with each other. In my experience, that helps a lot with the inclusion of friends and family into the equation." She says with a slight smirk. "But that's just my advice, it's nothing ya gotta hold to. I'd be more than happy to meet her as soon as possible. To be honest, I'm quite curious and I have had to restrain myself from trying to ask you to bring her over." April says with a growing grin before she looks away again, and just softly shakes her head.

"If Casey really is trying to turn over a new leaf though, helping you guys out, and you guys helping him out, would be a hell of a step toward that, I think. But again, no pressure on ya'll. It's up to you what you guys wanna get in on with him. But it might help you ease those thoughts about him being dangerous."

Donatello has posed:
    "Oh, my brothers already know her. She's, you know, one of us," he explains before managing to get that last bit of spaghetti into his mouth. It seems that he likes it too! Pizza's great, but at a certain point, something's gotta give! Donatello brings the napkin up to wipe away his shame, but really it's too much sauce and not enough napkin. "I think maybe I'm just the only one who's awkward," he admits. "She seems to just have it all figured out. She just...says what's on her mind. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out which of the million things on my mind I want to say." He brings a finger up to indicate his brain.

    "I think she'd really like coming by," Donnie adds, glancing around. "You have such nice stuff." It's a simple sentence, but it tells a story. Mutant animals have a particular appreciation for a place like this -- it's nice, cozy, and not a sewer or abandoned building. It's a home.

    "Okay, well, I'll tell the guys you said that," he adds. "Casey's going around going on and on about how he's hanging up his sticks and mask and..." The turtle sighs audibly, making a show of it. It's a message that Casey's managed to beat into the ground in a very short period of time. "I'll tell the guys that you're cool with us, uh, bringing him along."

    Donatello places his fork down onto his empty, though saucy, plate. "Thanks for the food, April," he adds with a smile. "It was really delicious. You gotta teach Mikey how to do that."

April O'Neil has posed:
April's brows perk up when she hears that he's already introduced her to the brothers, and apparently they've accepted her... not that she's surprised they accepted her... they're a caring and loving bunch, and accepted April afterall! And she's pure trouble!

A smile crosses her lips as she enjoys her own dinner, much more slowly than Donnie scarfs his down. "Bring her by soon as you'd like then. Maybe with Harley here too? Harley would be nothing but smiles the whole time, I'm sure of it." She grins then. "And thank you, Donnie, for checking in on me about all of this. It's been a wild week, and you're alwyas the one who sees the considerate angle of how overs are feeling." She smiles warmly to the purple clad one.

"Tell Mikey to come by some night that he wants to cook, I'll have him makin' the best sauce in the city, Chef Mikey will be on his way to owning his own restaurant some day." She adds with another little grin.

Donatello has posed:
    Donatello, the turtle with the sauce smeared on his face, stands carefully and reaches to take his plate to the sink. "I think they all knew her before I did, actually," Donnie considers. "Raphael certainly did. She hit him with a dumpster." He adds that last part as a matter of pride before moving towards the kitchen's window. "I better go, April. Brooklyn's power company has been zigging against my zagging. I was able to cut the power in the neighborhood so easily, but I think they've been onto me and have been fixing their servers. I have some work to do."

    And, just like that, Donatello accidentally just told April he caused the blackouts that the neighborhood experienced over the last few nights. Some ninja! Donatello opens the window and climbs up onto the counter before looking over his shoulder at April. "Don't sweat it, April. You're family," he explains with a smile. The turtle steps through the window and turns around to stick his head back inside the apartment. "Oh," he adds. "I almost forgot!"

    "I might have accidentally told Casey that we play Warcraft and I'm pretty sure he's going out to buy a computer so that he can play with you, okay, so, haveagoodnight!" he calls out as he slides the window down before April has a chance to protest.

    

April O'Neil has posed:
April offers a smile and a wave, along with a parting goodbye before Donnie's on his way out.

But it's that last part that makes April look up with a mouthful of spaghetti. Casey? Computer? Azeroth Casey Jones??

"Waif, whaf?!" She fullmouth-asks, but Donnie's already gone!