Donnie is waiting for the lunch bell to ring outside a high school, and with kids finally milling about, he sneaks in. A hoody is enough to get by with the apathetic attitude of NYC teenagers. Only getting a few odd looks when he blends in with groups, but moves quickly through the halls. Notably, he is absolutely loving being here, even has a laugh of joy, moving amongst the kids, getting to look around the school. He spots a teacher and moves up into the ceiling until he gets to the computer lab, sneaking down to balance on the lights.
He gets April's attention with ninja stars. He them proceeds to slip and fall from the hanging fluorescent. No one really cares in the back corner. April thanks him for coming and he assures her its 'no probbles' because he loves being here. Smells like learning and puberty. He gets some odd looks from the students around him until he sits down.
April asks for him to look over her computer science project to be sure she didn't miss anything. He does so. He ends up condensing some lines of code because while hers was Right, his was more Efficient. Notably, he does this while talking to her and barely looking at the screen. Donnie goes on about how lucky April is to be in school, to be surrounded by intellectuals and scholars and Donnie has an Extremely Idealized View of High School. Right up until he notices the purple satin jackets from the corner of his eyes and then that is All His Attention.
Donnie has The Most Autistic Reaction to those jackets, they are hitting literally all his clothing based stims. To be fair, they are very cool satin jackets with a boss dragon on the back.
April is less than impressed with Donnie's admiration of the Purple Dragon Tech Club, and calls them stuck up jerks who think they're smarter than everyone else. Donnie is just ECSTATIC at this description because he doesn't mind rude arrogance, almost prefers it because it means he has to worry less about filtering his own self, and the thought of meeting more brilliant people just has him delighted. He watches them, April is still not impressed, but he sees how they are with their tech and various other things that point to, yes, they are actually Incredibly Smart.
Donnie declares he's going to join this club despite April very much not approving, but also she doesn't do much to stop Donnie because she knows how he is. He approaches the three Dragons, Kendra, Jeremy, and Jason. Kendra is the leader and rather dismissive of him and he introduces himself as Othello Von Ryan and starts to brag about his abilities. Even when she steps on his foot, he isn't dissuaded and when asked to bring something to the table, he shows off the Tech Bo.
Its called the grandaddy of all multi-tools because it has So Many Tools that just spring out of it, things that don't even look like they SHOULD fit in the Bo. Kendra is interested and wants to know what else he's got. April tries to say he doesn't have to impress them and Donnie is of the opinion people only say that when they don't have anything impressive, which he DOES. He uses a button on his goggle, summoning up various battleshells. Two different kinds of flyers and a spider shell.
Jeremy and Jason are extremely impressed and admiring his work, and then Kendra declares that he's part of the club, taking Jason's jacket to give to Donnie.
And Donnie is
Incredibly happy.
One, he's got this FANTASTIC jacket that is indeed hitting all his texture stims like he thought and he thinks he looks great, and two, he's part of a club! With other smart people! Who he impressed!
He's made friends!
Even April's continued not being impressed state does not dampen his joy at this in the slightest.
This good mood follows him home where he brags to his brothers about his jacket. They're acting like they don't care, but he knows they're all just JEALOUS. (He is not actually wrong, they are all Very Jealous, but you don't feed Donnie's ego.) Also Donnie lives in a literal sewer, but its also pretty decked out, all things considered.
Time passes, but its just him being Super Happy and working in his lab on things until he's tired enough to sleep. With the jacket because seriously, the stims. He was dreaming, but its a dumb kind of nightmare where an airplane fell on him when he starts awake. Then there's a call from April telling him to turn on the news.
The Teen Tech Bandits are robbing electronics stores. The footage shows very familiar tech and a lot of feelings are bubbling up in Donnie. Betrayal, pain, and a whole truckload of anger. Leo is awake, drinking tea, asking what's up and Donnie outright dismisses him before running to check his lab. All his battleshells and Tech Bo are gone.
The anger takes control because anger is a lot easier for him to process than everything else, and he quickly grabs his hoody and whatever ninja weapons as he calls April to meet him. They go after the Purple Dragons. April says she warned Donnie and Donnie shot back she warned him they were full of themselves, not criminals. He says in a small sense, this is her fault.
Because that's what he does when he has the sickly, squirming feelings he hates. Anger is easy. The feeling of betrayal, that he had been lied to and manipulated, that something that was so important to him was taken, it all leads him feeling vulnerable. So he gets defensive and lashes out. April is Still Not Impressed, but also does not seem terribly surprised.
They talk about what the Purple Dragons are trying to accomplish and they come to the conclusion they're going to steal from the vault of the biggest tech company in the country. At first Donnie tries scaling the building old school, but April realizes that's not viable on a mostly glass building, and gets them into the emergency stairs. Which they run up the fifty plus levels of.
By the time they get to the top, the Purple Dragons have the code they need from the vault to hack into literally any system in the country, and they're making their escape. Donnie and April pursue them and with some quick action, take down Jeremy and Jason. They take the Sipdershell and Jetpack from the boys and go after Kendra with the code.
April gets to go on her first jetpack adventure with Donnie advising her to do what's natural and April calls out the BS right away. Still, April manages it fairly well and they chase Kendra through the sky until she manages a good hit on the jetpack and beams Donnie pretty hard with the hammer, and sends them careening down. Luckily the tether between Donnie and April catches on a power line and kills their momentum for a non-lethal landing.
The jetpack is a bust, but Donnie is sure he can get it operating soon enough, but Kendra doesn't leave them alone, using the found to hack the chip in Donnie's own tech. After all, those chips are the easiest to scavenge, turning the spidershell hands against him. Donnie manages to get the hands off from choking him and release the battleshell, but he knows the spikes are coming, hoping his softshell is strong enough for them-
But April is quick to beat down the spidershell with a bat. Kendra is staring to fly away, cackling about robbing a global bank and Donnie realizes what he has to do. That battleshell uses rotors. Not as fast as the jetpack, but allows for easier maneuverability. But the rotors also mean things like jackets could get caught in them and mess things up.
Donnie does not want to give up the jacket. April refuses hers, and determines she and Donnie need to have a Talk about his deflection blame game later, but Donnie accepts he has to use his purple satin jacket.
He hates to do so. It really is just Super Nice and just hits all the things he wants in a jacket, even tearfully bids it farewell because balling it up and throwing it after Kendra.
Kendra goes down like a bag of bricks and April is quick to destroy the computer with the code on it.
Donnie watches as the remains of the jacket rain down around the alley and he laments about it being the 'classic' tale of a well meaning loner who couldn't fit in with a band of well dressed crooks.
Now that the Purple Dragons are stopped, his tech retrieved, his anger cooled, now comes the sadness. It was sad to lose the jacket, but it also meant his attempt to make new friends...
Was a bust.
There is a deep feeling of loneliness. It was the same thing that fueled his excitement in the school. The idea of belonging with other people. The theft hurts, that he was used hurts, but nothing goes quite as deep as the disappointment at not making new friends.
April assures him he'll always be part of the dorky pals for life club, and it helps. It is a comfort and he loves her so much.
But that doesn't mean he doesn't wish he could have more.
They hear the police sirens and Donnie asks April for help getting the stuff back to the lair and April sighs on how often she says yes to him, and they run off into the night.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Purple Jacket
Donnie is waiting for the lunch bell to ring outside a high school, and with kids finally milling about, he sneaks in. A hoody is enough to get by with the apathetic attitude of NYC teenagers. Only getting a few odd looks when he blends in with groups, but moves quickly through the halls. Notably, he is absolutely loving being here, even has a laugh of joy, moving amongst the kids, getting to look around the school. He spots a teacher and moves up into the ceiling until he gets to the computer lab, sneaking down to balance on the lights.
He gets April's attention with ninja stars. He them proceeds to slip and fall from the hanging fluorescent. No one really cares in the back corner. April thanks him for coming and he assures her its 'no probbles' because he loves being here. Smells like learning and puberty. He gets some odd looks from the students around him until he sits down.
April asks for him to look over her computer science project to be sure she didn't miss anything. He does so. He ends up condensing some lines of code because while hers was Right, his was more Efficient. Notably, he does this while talking to her and barely looking at the screen. Donnie goes on about how lucky April is to be in school, to be surrounded by intellectuals and scholars and Donnie has an Extremely Idealized View of High School. Right up until he notices the purple satin jackets from the corner of his eyes and then that is All His Attention.
Donnie has The Most Autistic Reaction to those jackets, they are hitting literally all his clothing based stims. To be fair, they are very cool satin jackets with a boss dragon on the back.
April is less than impressed with Donnie's admiration of the Purple Dragon Tech Club, and calls them stuck up jerks who think they're smarter than everyone else. Donnie is just ECSTATIC at this description because he doesn't mind rude arrogance, almost prefers it because it means he has to worry less about filtering his own self, and the thought of meeting more brilliant people just has him delighted. He watches them, April is still not impressed, but he sees how they are with their tech and various other things that point to, yes, they are actually Incredibly Smart.
Donnie declares he's going to join this club despite April very much not approving, but also she doesn't do much to stop Donnie because she knows how he is. He approaches the three Dragons, Kendra, Jeremy, and Jason. Kendra is the leader and rather dismissive of him and he introduces himself as Othello Von Ryan and starts to brag about his abilities. Even when she steps on his foot, he isn't dissuaded and when asked to bring something to the table, he shows off the Tech Bo.
Its called the grandaddy of all multi-tools because it has So Many Tools that just spring out of it, things that don't even look like they SHOULD fit in the Bo. Kendra is interested and wants to know what else he's got. April tries to say he doesn't have to impress them and Donnie is of the opinion people only say that when they don't have anything impressive, which he DOES. He uses a button on his goggle, summoning up various battleshells. Two different kinds of flyers and a spider shell.
Jeremy and Jason are extremely impressed and admiring his work, and then Kendra declares that he's part of the club, taking Jason's jacket to give to Donnie.
And Donnie is
Incredibly happy.
One, he's got this FANTASTIC jacket that is indeed hitting all his texture stims like he thought and he thinks he looks great, and two, he's part of a club! With other smart people! Who he impressed!
He's made friends!
Even April's continued not being impressed state does not dampen his joy at this in the slightest.
This good mood follows him home where he brags to his brothers about his jacket. They're acting like they don't care, but he knows they're all just JEALOUS. (He is not actually wrong, they are all Very Jealous, but you don't feed Donnie's ego.) Also Donnie lives in a literal sewer, but its also pretty decked out, all things considered.
Time passes, but its just him being Super Happy and working in his lab on things until he's tired enough to sleep. With the jacket because seriously, the stims. He was dreaming, but its a dumb kind of nightmare where an airplane fell on him when he starts awake. Then there's a call from April telling him to turn on the news.
The Teen Tech Bandits are robbing electronics stores. The footage shows very familiar tech and a lot of feelings are bubbling up in Donnie. Betrayal, pain, and a whole truckload of anger. Leo is awake, drinking tea, asking what's up and Donnie outright dismisses him before running to check his lab. All his battleshells and Tech Bo are gone.
The anger takes control because anger is a lot easier for him to process than everything else, and he quickly grabs his hoody and whatever ninja weapons as he calls April to meet him. They go after the Purple Dragons. April says she warned Donnie and Donnie shot back she warned him they were full of themselves, not criminals. He says in a small sense, this is her fault.
Because that's what he does when he has the sickly, squirming feelings he hates. Anger is easy. The feeling of betrayal, that he had been lied to and manipulated, that something that was so important to him was taken, it all leads him feeling vulnerable. So he gets defensive and lashes out. April is Still Not Impressed, but also does not seem terribly surprised.
They talk about what the Purple Dragons are trying to accomplish and they come to the conclusion they're going to steal from the vault of the biggest tech company in the country. At first Donnie tries scaling the building old school, but April realizes that's not viable on a mostly glass building, and gets them into the emergency stairs. Which they run up the fifty plus levels of.
By the time they get to the top, the Purple Dragons have the code they need from the vault to hack into literally any system in the country, and they're making their escape. Donnie and April pursue them and with some quick action, take down Jeremy and Jason. They take the Sipdershell and Jetpack from the boys and go after Kendra with the code.
April gets to go on her first jetpack adventure with Donnie advising her to do what's natural and April calls out the BS right away. Still, April manages it fairly well and they chase Kendra through the sky until she manages a good hit on the jetpack and beams Donnie pretty hard with the hammer, and sends them careening down. Luckily the tether between Donnie and April catches on a power line and kills their momentum for a non-lethal landing.
The jetpack is a bust, but Donnie is sure he can get it operating soon enough, but Kendra doesn't leave them alone, using the found to hack the chip in Donnie's own tech. After all, those chips are the easiest to scavenge, turning the spidershell hands against him. Donnie manages to get the hands off from choking him and release the battleshell, but he knows the spikes are coming, hoping his softshell is strong enough for them-
But April is quick to beat down the spidershell with a bat. Kendra is staring to fly away, cackling about robbing a global bank and Donnie realizes what he has to do. That battleshell uses rotors. Not as fast as the jetpack, but allows for easier maneuverability. But the rotors also mean things like jackets could get caught in them and mess things up.
Donnie does not want to give up the jacket. April refuses hers, and determines she and Donnie need to have a Talk about his deflection blame game later, but Donnie accepts he has to use his purple satin jacket.
He hates to do so. It really is just Super Nice and just hits all the things he wants in a jacket, even tearfully bids it farewell because balling it up and throwing it after Kendra.
Kendra goes down like a bag of bricks and April is quick to destroy the computer with the code on it.
Donnie watches as the remains of the jacket rain down around the alley and he laments about it being the 'classic' tale of a well meaning loner who couldn't fit in with a band of well dressed crooks.
Now that the Purple Dragons are stopped, his tech retrieved, his anger cooled, now comes the sadness. It was sad to lose the jacket, but it also meant his attempt to make new friends...
Was a bust.
There is a deep feeling of loneliness. It was the same thing that fueled his excitement in the school. The idea of belonging with other people. The theft hurts, that he was used hurts, but nothing goes quite as deep as the disappointment at not making new friends.
April assures him he'll always be part of the dorky pals for life club, and it helps. It is a comfort and he loves her so much.
But that doesn't mean he doesn't wish he could have more.
They hear the police sirens and Donnie asks April for help getting the stuff back to the lair and April sighs on how often she says yes to him, and they run off into the night.