tushanshu_logs | You are hereby thought to be the most senseless and fit man of the Watch

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You are hereby thought to be the most senseless and fit man of the Watch

Characters: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michaelangelo
Date: June 5 and after
Location: Leo and Don's suite in the Metal Sector
Situation: Testing out this lantern business
Warnings/Rating: None

After the initial visit, Raph and Mike had managed to stay in their own suite for an entire day before drifting back to Leo and Don's building. Don had certainly been glad to see them again - the place didn't feel right without them - but his enthusiasm for the situation waned sharply when it became clear they didn't plan to leave.

It's not their continued presence that Don has a problem with. It's the whole business with their souls being bound to lanterns, and the strongly-worded advice - delivered just days ago - that they not stay away from their lanterns for too long.

In calm but certain terms, Don suggests that Raph and Mike go reunite body and soul for a little while. No one listens to him. Mike seems determined to put a shell-groove in another couch, while Raph simply claims territory in his own inimitable style.

By the third morning, Raph and Mike are decidedly sluggish, and Don appeals to Leo to put an end to this reckless - if extremely intriguing - experiment.

"I think we should take them home," he says, despite Mike and Raph's increasingly-incoherent insistence that they want to stay. "Whatever they're trying to prove, it's not worth it."

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Leonardo has been keeping an eye on them from day one. Joy and relief are infamously fleeting things; within an hour of Raphael and Michaelangelo sweeping into their suite, Leo had the sneaking suspicion that this was more than a short social visit. And when the first night comes and goes and they're stubbornly sprawled around with no obvious plans to go home, he thinks he gets what's going on.

But because he knows better than to fight two Turtles who feel like their ties to family are being threatened, he lets them stay. And he does it without more than an initial comment, because - selfishly - he's missed them, too.

But by the third morning, Donatello comes to him with a proposal that he damn well might have effected himself if Don hadn't. Leonardo nods curtly in agreement, eyes sliding to the protesting lumps of terrapin that haven't found their way off the couch yet.

"This has gone on long enough, you two." He pulls away from the conference to take a few steps closer to them, his tone hard. "We have to get you back to your own suite."

After the first day, Raphael really started to believe that they'd been lying to them. It's not like he'd been listening very closely to what Evandau's little cronies had to say. But if they were really going to be separated from their souls, wouldn't he feel it? And what kept them from getting sick when the lanterns were in the palace?

They had to be lying, and even if they weren't, he had to see it for himself.

On the third day, he woke up tired. And not his usual morning sluggishness, either. It felt like his head was full of wet cement, and there was a weird haze settled over his vision. It's that bone-deep tiredness like the day before coming down with the flu, and it's getting harder and harder to ignore.

They go through the motions just like every other morning. Breakfast. Training. But after that, he finds himself exhausted, and when Mike gravitates to the couch, he crashes with him for just a quick rest. Before he realizes, he's waking up from a nap that's lasted 'til almost noon, his head even murkier than it was before.

"Hm?" He replies groggily, sitting up and rubbing at his face. A Leo-like blob hovers over him before he can blink his eyes somewhat clear. "You say somethin'?"

Edited 2014-06-20 05:48 (UTC)

Mike rolls his eyes, going as close as he can get to scoffing at his older cousin without actually earning the other turtle's ire. Mike doesn't have to go anywhere, and even if he did...it wouldn't be Leo to make him go.

Especially not Leo.
Please.

Look Leo, he says. We're fine. There's nothing wrong. All that soul lantern stuff was a good story, but it's not true. We're fine. Just go about your business and stop worrying.

Or at least, that's what he thinks he says.

From the outside, however, all that comes across is a thin and reedy whine as Mike exhales. His expression is slack, and his glassy eyes vacant with a thousand yard stare that just won't seem to quit.

Raph is at least moderately functional, but Mike's behavior is really worrying. Don moves over to him, checks that he still has basic vital signs, then tries to get his pupils to react. If that's successful, he'll attempt to elicit a more conscious kind of reaction.

"Mike, can you hear me? It's time to go home."

Leo worriedly looks on as Don performs some basic tests on Mike. After a moment, he clenches his teeth and leans in closer to Raph, waving a hand in front of his face to see if he'll track the movement.

"We're taking you back," he says again, and if there had been any room for argument in his tone before then there certainly isn't now.

"He's fine," Raph drawls muzzily, grabbing Mike by the shoulder and giving him a rough shake. "C'mon. You just need some fresh air."

Because that'll cure it. They just gotta go outside and clear their heads and everything will be fine.

Raph's shake pushes Mike's face directly into the hand Don had been using to test his cousin's reflexes.

"...ow, dude! that was my eye!"

At first it looks like he's bringing his hands up into a defensive position, but...that idea goes right out the window when instead he uses the backs of his knuckles to rub at his face. An action that makes him look like an overtired toddler.

The yawn that follows doesn't really help.

"...g'away. stop poking at me."

That's slightly encouraging, at least. Don sits back on his heels and puts his hands in his lap, not wanting to accidentally poke anybody anywhere else.

"I don't know, Leo. Maybe they do just need some air."

"They'll get plenty of it on the way home," Leo points out, apparently unwilling to put this up for debate. "We're leaving now. Before the sun gets any higher."

He punctuates the order by ducking to take Raph's arm and pull it across his shoulders, then making an attempt to haul his weight off of the couch. It's been a while since he's had to exert any sort of authority like this, but the steady decline in Raphael and Michaelangelo's health alarms him greatly - in no small part due to his own aggravation over the lanterns.

The minute Leo goes to touch him, Raph's shoving him away, getting up without any problem on his own.

"Would you get off me!? We're fine! Can't a guy take a nap in peace?" He snaps, putting himself just out of arm's reach of either of his overbearing brothers. "Me and Mike are just gonna go outside, get some fresh air, and everything's gonna be fine. Right, Mike?"

His glare says it all. You better get your butt off that couch now before he's got anything else to say about it.

Mike whines again.

"But outside is so far, Raph," he says smooshing himself deeper into the couch. "And the couch is so close. Close and comfy. Close and comfy and..."

He brings his best pout to the table, and levels the full force of it at his cousin.

Look, Raph. Look how comfy he is.
You don't really want him to have to move, do you?

Don is more than familiar with Leo's "no arguments" tone, and he's not about to ask any more questions. He's also not going to deal with Raph's misdirected outbursts when Leo is so good at handling that sort of thing.

"Come on, Mike," he says, giving his cousin's elbow a little shake. "Your couch is comfy too. It wants you to come back now."

Leo just manages not to growl at Raph's quick shove. As it is, he doesn't give any ground, but he doesn't go after his brother either - he'll just tire him out more quickly and end up having to drag dead weight home.

"Fresh air isn't going to solve anything. Do you really think it's a coincidence that you two just happen to be like this after spending time away from your lanterns?"

That outburst alone is all the energy Raph had on reserves, and he's already having a hard time keeping track of the situation. His head hurts, and it's like his brain won't keep up. But still, he's too determined to beat this and do whatever he wants. He's not gonna let some stupid lantern tell him when and when he can't see his brothers.

"I said we're fine. So maybe we're a little tired. So what?" He insists with yet another pointed glare. "That ain't enough of a reason to call it quits."

Edited 2014-06-30 07:04 (UTC)

"Yes," says Mike to Leo's question. "Yes I do. It could be anything. We could just be sleepy, or maybe we had too big a lunch, or perhaps it's you guys who are sleepy and are projecting this onto us."

SO much logic, so little energy. Mike only just barely gets through that whole bit of reasoning before having to yawn.

Edited 2014-07-02 02:28 (UTC)

Not buying it, Mike, given that you've done hardly anything but sleep for the past day and a half.

With a "nice try" look at Mike, Don gets up and pads out of the room. While Leo persuades their brother and cousin to get moving, he'll just pack a few things for the trip over to the Water sector.

"This isn't up for debate," Leo growls, and there's a thread of harshness in it now that he'd kept veiled up to this point. He takes a step closer to Raph, jabbing a finger at his chest. "Maybe you want to keep up the tough act, but Mike can't take much more of this. I'm not letting you two put yourselves in danger just because you're being stubborn!"

Normally, this kind of thing would send Raph's temper right off the deep end. But this time, there is that indignant swell of rage blooming in his gut. There is that feeling like he's fighting every inch of his body to keep himself from just punching Leo in the face. But the usual fire just isn't there.

"I can do what I want, Leo," he growls lowly, shoving his hand away. "Bein' tired is not puttin' us in danger. It ain't enough of a reason."

Leo hardly reacts to that second shove; he simply clenches his fist and steels it at his side, a few more lines creasing around the glare directed towards his brother.

"What is enough of a reason, Raph? Do you want us to wait until you're passed out on the floor and we have to drag you back?" The question is hard with sarcasm, but to Leonardo, it's quickly becoming a viable option. If Raph is really going to fight him the whole way on this... his hot head is going to be the end of him.

"I'm still standing, aren't I?" He says, at the same time wishing it wasn't true. He feels too tired to even stay on his own two feet, but he can't let that show.

As if it wasn't obvious enough. It's the only reason he isn't yelling right now. And the drawn look on his face isn't easy to miss, either. His color's just a shade off, and his eyes look dark and sunken. Not quite focused.

"We don't even know what's gonna happen, and there's only one way we're gonna find out."

"Raph's right," Mike says mustering up enough momentum to roll over so his back is to his arguing cousins.

"For science."

"C'mon, Mikey, you're comin' with me," he growls, grabbing his cousin by the elbow, about to drag him bodily off the couch. "Move your shell before I move it for you."

Mike waggles his shell back and forth a grand total of three times, and then stops moving.

Raph is too freakin' tired to deal with this crud, but he'll pick Mike up and carry him out if it could help prove a point. So he grabs Mike by the arm and shell and hauls him off the couch whether he likes it or not. If that's not enough to get him moving, Mike's gonna end up sleeping on the floor. "I said move it!"

"Raphael!" Leo barks, moving to grip his brother's shoulder - hard - and push Mike back at the same time. It's half a test to see whether Raph has enough strength to shake him off, half trying to reign him in before he gets even more forceful against Mike. "That's enough. Cool it."

If tones are anything to go by, his well of patience is very nearly tapped out.

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