lucetilogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who:

semper_cogitans and

gaijin_ninja at first, with

i_speak_softly ,

the_mikester ,

honorthecode and

ninjacane probably joining in afterwards
What: Robert desperately needing his butt rescued
When: Backdated to yesterday (March 23), after the events of this thread
Where: Near the riverbank of the stretch of river between the bridges near Community Building Four. Will probably move to House 55 later
Summary: After an extremely short sprint away from Yuber (thanks to Litchi), Robert's pretty much passed out on the riverbank. Then he has a rather unlikely knight-in-shining-keratin come to rescue him. Shenanigans follow.
Rating: Gods, I have no idea. Tentatively saying R because Raphael is involved and things will likely get awkward later, but it'll most likely only be for language and/or violence - two things you can't really avoid with the TMNT

Robert is not doing well at all, by anybody’s standards of “well”.

Sprawled out on the ground with his forearms streaked with mud from where he’s collapsed on the sodden riverbank, shaking with utter exhaustion and terror; fear’s still coiling in his gut and driving him to get up – except he can’t, because he is so totally demolished physically from even the short sprint from the fountain’s perimeter to the riverbank. Adrenaline spikes through him even now, enough to make his hands tremble – but he still can’t will himself to get up. It’s useless. He’s useless. Litchi is there, in front of the angry Yuber – possibly even dying for his sake, dear gods - and he’d been too useless, he had needed to run...

He sobs softly, losing himself to the feeling of panic that threatens to overwhelm his rationality, even when it still sits there in his mind, quietly, coldly; surveying the situation, making notes. Yuber wasn’t attacking before I left. I sent out that message on the journals.

The question is... had anybody actually heard that message?

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Sooner would be best. Splinter watched Leonardo as he spoke, and nodded his agreement. Yes. The sooner they were hidden, the sooner they could all breath a sigh of relief.

"If he can be trusted, this would be the simplest solution," Splinter reluctantly agrees; he still doesn't know this Helios. "And the most discreet."

Donatello always quoted that the simplest solution was often the best, and it is something that Splinter has taken to heart. It does not always work, but it works more often than not. Sometimes he felt like he learned as much from his children as they learned from him.

Don looks alarmed at this, but says, "It usually only lasts a week. It would be just our kind of luck if he had lost his magic, though..." He glances at his family members. "I'll talk to him later and find out."

"Then you must do so at the earliest convenience," Splinter concludes; there is really nothing more to be done for now.

But since Robert is already here....

"You may use our bathroom to wash up," he states, turning to look at the human. "And then I wish to speak to you and my son."

He already got a chance to meet his family. Now Splinter wants to speak to him in person.

"You can use my towel..." Don murmurs to Robert. He won't be needing it now himself.

Robert nods at both of them. "Thank you kindly, Master Splinter, sir..." With a still-unsteady, but significantly less weak, gait, he picks his way over to the abandoned bathroom and closes the door.

Once he's inside he stares at himself in the large mirror set over the sink. He looks like a complete and utter mess - entirely unprofessional. While there's little he can do about his clothes - though he takes some time to at least rinse the majority of the mud and grime out of them - he gives himself a thorough washing. Not as meticulous as he'd usually be able to be, since it's somebody else's house and he doesn't want to seem rude, it's good enough.

Maybe.

He probably won't take too horrendously long, due to perfectionism. Hopefully.

~~Let's hope Don's brothers don't harass him too much while his boyfriend's in the shower?~~

Mike looks over at Donnie uneasily. This seems like his cue to tell them to leave. Not that he's going to, unless Splinter makes him. But still. His stomach is churning. He doesn't want to watch Don tear more holes in this family than he already has.

Klunk leaps into his lap and purrs. Mike smiles.

Don, already halfway off the couch, catches Mike's look and returns it from an awkward semi-standing position.

"... What?"

For the record, Mike's not the only one staring. Raph's practically glowering at him from his spot leaning against the far wall.

"Whaddya mean 'What?'"

Leo's over there, arms crossed and looking thoughtful. He's not leaving either unless Splinter tells him to. He looks up at Don's 'what?'.

"You know what, Donny." His voice is even, gaze giving away little. Especially not the turmoil. He's not glaring, but he's watching carefully.

Don sighs and sits back down. "I had thought we might take a short intermission from the glaring." But since that seems to not be the case, he resigns himself to putting up with whatever his brothers are about to subject him to.

Splinter can feel the tension noticeably rise after Robert left the room. Things have come to a head, and the next few moments of conversation are crucial. His family has gone through much in his absence, enough that it is threatening to part their closeness. But Splinter does not believe this will come to pass--they have survived through too much for something as simple as a--a boyfriend to split them apart.

For now, he says nothing, and watches them all equally. If they can mend their relationships themselves, he will not interfere. But if they cannot, he will do everything in his power to bring this family back together again. The cracks are on the surface, and despite what it may seem, the foundation is still strong. It's merely their family settling to a new equilibrium.

"I'm not glaring. Who's glaring? Well, besides Raph, but you should know by now his face is frozen that way."

He'll let Raph and Leo do the glaring.

Edited 2011-04-06 02:58 (UTC)

"Cute," Raph snorts, but doesn't make an effort to change his expression. He's mad at Don. There's no doubt about that.

"So you gonna kick us out or what?"

"There's not really much point now."

So you may as well just say whatever you've been waiting to say.

"Is the lack of Chi why you wanted to keep us from meeting him?" He'll ask point blank. For his sake and maybe for Mikey's. Outside of the chi, Robert wasn't that bad. He lacked that threatening aura that could label someone as an enemy at first sight.

So far, this conversation has not exploded in their faces. Splinter looks to each of his sons in turn as they speak. There isn't much for him to do, other than wait, listen, and stop them if it gets out of hand.

Mike hadn't even thought of that. He jerks his bandanna tails out of Klunk's reach again, and watches Don for his reaction. That might actually be better than what Mike's been thinking for the last few days.

Leo, are you even thinking before you ask these questions? Your paranoia, which Don has always had a healthy respect for in the past, has been getting completely out of hand lately. It's kind of worrying.

"How would I have known he had no chi? And I never said I didn't want you to meet him. Stop twisting my words."

"Sounded a lot like it to me," Raph grunts. "And you're actin' like it now. Like we ain't actin' perfect enough to be around your little boyfriend."

Leo's trying to find reason for it. Because there's a part of him that doesn't want to believe Don's ashamed of them. What else were they supposed to think, when he hadn't been talking to them.

"It was the way that you said it." He says. "Telling us we needed to be somewhere else. Then getting angry that we were going to be here. You haven't even talked to us since then."

So Donnie's denying it. Or maybe he hadn't really said it. But he'd meant it. He didn't think they were good enough, didn't think they could handle themselves around Robert. You break everything you touch. And now the guy was- inexplicably- chi-less. And Mike knows Donnie had no way of knowing this, but... it just makes everything worse even so.

Klunk mewls and Mike realizes he's petting him too hard.

Don takes a deep breath before replying. It's depressingly usual for his brothers to misunderstand him, but he's beginning to suspect that right now there is a miscommunication of disastrous proportions at work.

"Guys, can we start over? All I said was I wanted Master Splinter to meet him first. Is that an unreasonable request?"

Raph takes a step forward, eyes narrowed, and juts a finger in Don's direction.

"Don't you go actin' nice all of a sudden. That ain't what you said and you know it. You said nothin' to us about meetin' him, only that you wanted to kick us out of our own freakin' house so we'd be out of your way when he talked to Master Splinter. Don't go changin' your tune just 'cause Splinter's here. We know what you're doin'."

Leo moves forward and puts a hand on Raph's shoulder. Can we keep this civil? He's looking at Don though.

"Explain it then." He says. "After we talked about Robert, you told us that we had better not be in the house. Your tone indicated you weren't going to compromise on this. When I said I was staying, you told me flat out no."

Mike fixes Don with a hard look. Let's hear your explanation, bro. It better be good.