[open catch-all]

[duelkatana]

Characters: Leonardo (duelkatana) and OPEN
Date: throughout the month of May
Location: various
Situation: various
Warnings/Rating: none yet; subject to change

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{ooc; If you'd like me to write up a header for you or otherwise plot, feel more than free to PM me or catch me at throesofangels. Or you can tag in with your own starter! This month Leo will spend much of his time rooftop-hopping in the Fire Sector, lingering as near to Tu Vishan's head as he can get away with, and keeping a self-imposed vigil near damage control spots throughout the city. Brackets or prose both welcome!}

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[duelkatana]

Standing on the edge of the pit, his feet balanced on a gnarled support beam that twists at the end like it had been wrenched off, Leonardo stares down. The damage here isn't like it was in the Water Sector. The attacks filled their home with poison, but here it carved whole chasms, ripped buildings down as though they were built from hardened sand. He sees no bodies in the trench, but it's probably because they've already been removed by relief workers.

When the reconstruction starts, there will be many more bags lined up along the concrete.

Leo's fists clench.

Damn war. Damn every war there's ever been, for every body he'll never see.

Raph leaves, but Leonardo lingers a moment longer, bandana tails whipping across his shell. Then, silently, he turns and follows, letting his brother lead the way this time.

[meanandgreen]

Raph's feet pound the gravel rooftops, launching himself off concrete ledges and into the dead air until he lands on the other side again, whole and alive. That's how running rooftops always feels. Like lengths of time fighting gravity, fighting himself for speed and exertion interrupted by those miniscule, weightless moments of perfect freedom.

When he runs, Raph is always escaping something. And as he goes, it feels too good to put the rubble behind him.

He's not sure exactly where Donnie's suite is, but he has a rough idea. So slowly they circle the sector under his lead, passing more burned-out shells of half-demolished buildings. He doesn't stop again until he's found the Foreigner housing, his mouth drawn into a hard line as he takes in his surroundings.

[duelkatana]

It becomes clear soon enough that Raph is looking for something. The way his gaze passes over buildings, skipping jaggedly across skeletons and crumbled architecture - Leo isn't sure, at first, but he hazards a guess soon enough.

Don's suite is in this Sector.

He doesn't know if he's right, and if he is, why Raph wants to see it so badly. But the truth is, Leo does, too. There's something he's been thinking about for a while. He'll need plenty more time to think about it, but the option has been on the table ever since the attacks.

The only thing stopping him from bringing it up to his brothers lies all around them. Poison, or annihilation? How can one possibly choose between those two dangers?

Either way, when they stop near the Foreigner housing, Leo stands side-by-side with his brother, eyes sliding across the landscape. Eventually he tilts his head in Raph's direction.

"Do you know which one it is?"

[meanandgreen]

There's no real reason why Raph wanted to come scope out his brother's suite. Just curiosity. Don's been spending a lot of time down here and he wants to see what it looks like.

Perched on the edge of one of the housing buildings, he watches quietly as two people pass under the streetlights, not turning to answer.

"Don't remember," he says with a shrug.

[duelkatana]

Huh. Leo returns his gaze to the horizon. He'll ask Don to show it to him later... once he's thought about the idea of moving a bit more.

They stay like that for a while; Raph crouched on the edge, Leo standing with his arms crossed, both shadows lingering in a far-bright place. Somehow, it feels like they belong anyway. Leonardo doesn't see a need to break the silence.

A block down, there's a scaffolding set up around the charred remains of a building, worker kedan with lamps fastened to their heads laboring through the night to tear down charred walls of metal and set up new support beams. Leo's eyes settle on a pair feeding wire into a searchlight; they point it up into the sky and switch it on, bathing the framework of the building in neon blue light.

War never changes, but neither do peoples' will to live and rebuild.

[meanandgreen]

Seeing what's slowly become of the city, it's hard not to ask Leo where they're going to go from there. What happened before their little run is the only thing that stops him.

All he can do is sigh heavily and let his mind wander. Think about this place and what they're expecting them to do. Just sitting there makes his skin itch, but even he knows there's nothing they can do about it now, and that's the worst part of it all.

After a while, Raph stands up from his crouch and silently hops the next roof, heading back in the direction of home. There's no fancy footwork this time. Only the quiet flit of shadows into the night.