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

[i_speak_softly]

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."

Comments

[duelkatana]

His fists tighten over his knees, chin tipping downwards slightly as his jaw clenches. He hopes, but when it comes down to it, he doesn't really think so, either. He never did. This was a bad idea from the start.

"I know," he finally says, one hand releasing and traveling up to rub his face. "Okay. Stay with them. I'm going to check on something."

He gets to his feet and turns towards the door, grim determination set in his features.

[i_speak_softly]

As Don settles onto his knees, he mentally replaces "something" with "the lanterns". Being just a little fed up with the spiritual stuff, he decides he's going to check something more substantial: namely, Mike's pulse.

It's still there, steady but slow. Too slow, to Don's mind; almost like a precursor to torpor. Don doesn't like it one bit.

Leo has about five minutes before the pacifist kicks them all out of the house.

[duelkatana]

It's almost seven minutes before Leonardo comes through the door again, making a beeline for his katana. He barely breaks his stride to point in their general direction.

"Let's go. You get Mike; I'll handle Raph."

[i_speak_softly]

Don is not a huge fan of these instructions either, but fine. Seeing as how just seven minutes ago it took both of them to move Mike, Don assumes that Leo now means to get Mike moving under his own power. To that end, he'll do whatever it takes to get their cousin lucid: slapping him in the face, poking at strategic pressure points, saying his name in a very firm tone. Up and at 'em, Michaelangelo.

[michaeljangelo]

The slapping does nothing. Neither does his name, no matter how firm a tone that Donatello adopts.

The pressure points, however....those work. Mike's eyes pinch closed and he whines again.

[meanandgreen]

Meanwhile, completely dead to the waking world, Raphael has started to dream. At first it comes to him in disjointed images: A stand of silver trees in the dark. The cold, gray ruins of a temple on a hill. The chirp and buzz of nightbugs.

In the swamp, it's warm. Dark. Inviting. He wades through the knee-deep water, thick as wet cement. He doesn't know where he's going. The moon is huge, shafts of white light lancing through the dense canopy. There's no wind, but the trees stir with a life of their own.

It makes him feel vaguely sick, like the warm mud between his toes is leeching into his insides. Turning them cold, then scooping him empty.

Lost in the forest, he doesn't know who he is or where he's headed. The night only gets darker.

[duelkatana]

With Don taking care of Mike, it's up to Leo to handle Raph. A task easier said than done. Raphael can move mountains when he wants to; sometimes, he is the mountain, rooted however far into ground it takes to ensure he's as immovable as the earth itself. Leo's blood pounds in his head as he moves to his brother's side and crouches down.

If Donatello can't get Mike moving on his own, they'll be in some real trouble. They already are.

He takes the most natural approach, first: reaching forward and grasping his brother's shoulder, shaking gently.

"Raph. Get up. It's time to go."

[i_speak_softly]

Don tries to take a similarly sympathetic approach with their cousin.

"I know, Mike. It's time to get up. We're really going now."

[michaeljangelo]

Mike doesn't move, and gives no sign of having any intention of doing so anywhere in the near future.

"...but it's still light out," he mumbles. "we'll get in trouble."

In his mind the daylight is still filtering in from the "garden level" alley side window of the basement unit April has lent them. He can hear the thrum of the water heater on the otherside of the wall. Kirby must be up and showering now. Or maybe April's running the dishwasher before heading off to work.

[meanandgreen]

The further he wanders, the warmer the water becomes. But inside, he's freezing. What starts with a chill turns into ice, and the hot, humid swamp beacons him farther.

He just wants to get warm. To fall into the warm water and swim. To let the mud envelop him until he doesn't shiver anymore. Until the numbing cold doesn't make his body ache.

So he goes deeper, and the water rises up to his hips, lapping at the edge of his shell. Up to his waist. He feels like his muscles are frozen, but it pulls him in anyway. Promises relief. If he could just go a little farther...

Suddenly, something lands on his shoulder. He looks, and it's a mosquito the size of a melon. It's long, gleaming proboscis plunges into his arm like a knife.

Raph gasps awake like something stung him, wildly lashing out at Leo's hand as he sits up. Scuttling backwards, he looks at his arm and finds nothing, then frantically searches the room.

"The shell...!?" He curses faintly between panting breaths.

[duelkatana]

Raph's reaction catches Leo completely off-guard - when he lashes out, Leo snatches his stinging hand back with a quiet curse, reflexively jerking away from him. Alarm bells ring in his head like a siren when Raph shuffles back, looking down at himself and then around the room as though searching for something and finding nothing.

Very slowly, Leo stands up, his hands going out placatingly. Raphael didn't feel that warm when Leo touched him just now, but if he's started hallucinating, things could have just gotten a hundred times worse.

"Raphael... it's me."

[i_speak_softly]

Mike's behavior is worrisome, but Raph's is downright alarming. Under normal circumstances Don would write it off as the aftermath of a nightmare, but given the current situation, it could be something much worse.

Don straightens up slowly, watching to see what happens as Leo tries to calm Raph down.

[michaeljangelo]

"jus' just go back to bed, raph," he says, though it's nearly swallowed by the huge yawn that quickly follows. "leo'll have kittens if we sneak out again."

And with that he stills once more.
But only on the outside.
On the inside he's fully back in New York. The longing for his brothers replaced by the longing to find their father. And really, it's that longing that's messing up what is a really sweet deal, if he's being honest.

April's basement is hands down the nicest place they've ever stayed.

"maybe splinter'll let us stay, when we find him."

[meanandgreen]

The room spins around him like a drunken carousel ride, his heart drumming madly in his ears. The swamp is gone but he can still feel the heat. Still feel the sting of the insect feeding on his arm. The voices of his family come in disjointed clips and phrases. He hears them, but none of it makes any sense.

"There's a bug in here," he breathes, crawling on his hands and knees to rummage feverishly through his blankets.

[duelkatana]

Leo's gaze flits away to the blankets just for a moment, searching for the alleged bug. But he knows there's not going to be anything there. It only takes a second to confirm his suspicions, and when he does, he looks back at Raph, unwilling to get closer or touch his brother.

They're all well-versed on handling each other during hallucinations. But these are... special circumstances.

"Raphael. Can you hear me? Can you tell me what's happening?"

[i_speak_softly]

"Leo, we have to go," Don urges, because this whole situation is managing to rapidly go even further downhill. "They can't travel like this. I think we have to just knock them out."

[michaeljangelo]

"Just think. We could set something up on the roof so we could be outside in the sun and not have to worry about someone seeing us! Think how awesome that will be."

A wide, peaceful smile breaks across his face.

"It'll be perfect."

[meanandgreen]

Everybody's talking at once, he's still half-dazed, looking for something that isn't even there in a place he doesn't recognize, and he's way too exhausted to process any of it.

Rocking back onto his knees, Raph presses the heels of his hands into his eyes.

"I ain't deaf," he groans, trying to slow his breathing. "I just... I thought somethin' stung me."