[ Things don't go as bad as they could on the way down. The bar is pretty low, so that's not saying a lot, but it's still worth saying.
Raph doesn't remember much about the space between point A and point B. There's not a lot to say about falling through the dark, he guesses. Just falling, and the dark. Slamming into something that knocks the wind out of him, and--
And something.
And what?
Donnie's voice is the first thing that really registers again. It kinda rolls around in Raph's skull a little bit to start, pings alarm even when it's muffled and hard to understand. The tone is the thing that does it. He sounds scared. That makes two of them, but Raph is the big brother here. If he's scared, he's gotta wait.
So he tries to move instead, to stand up, blindly scrabbling for a handhold in the darkness. It doesn't work. Everything hurts, knocks the wind out of him all over again. He's weighed down; whatever's on top of him barely shifts. So he's a little stuck, he guesses, and that's scary. Not stuck-stuck. Right? He felt it move? He just needs a minute. Just.
Unless he doesn't have a minute. Unless Donnie's stuck somewhere, too, needs his help, that pinpoint flash of purple light-- what if he's hurt, what if he-- he needs his brother, what if he needs his brother?
Too scary to ignore.
Raph starts scrabbling again, because he can at least get an arm to move, can try to get some leverage with a stuttering stop-and-start mystic hand. He grinds out some sort of sound shaped like Donnie's name, which he hopes can be semi-reassuring. Raph is here. He's here so Donnie should feel like everything is gonna be okay, because that's like Raph's whole point.
This turtle is getting nowhere though. The sewer is trying to eat him rn. So hopefully Donnie is not currently dying, or at least not dying super fast. ]
[For a heart-seizing moment Donnie hears a low growl and thinks that he isn't alone, until he remembers that he shouldn't be alone and that growl registers as fairly similar to Raph's do not wake me before 9am growls.
Something red flashes for just a second and stone clatters at Donnie's left and he finally manages to convince his legs to work; not quite enough to get him full to his feet, but in this darkness it's probably a safer bet for him to crawl anyway. There's debris everywhere,sewer dust nasty and thick in the air and on his tongue every time he takes a breath. His markings are only bright enough to light up a radius of one or two feet around him, so he almost kneels on Raph's hand before he finds it with a yelp.
He grabs up his brother's fingers in his own, clutching desperately with trembling hands as the nerves start to catch up. They fell through the floor; no, he fell through the floor and Raph jumped down after him. Donnie managed a shield for all of a second before it shattered and, presumably, Raph took the rest of the abuse on the way down.
Donnie starts to feel up from Raph's hand to his arm, shoulder, seeking his neck and head, his shell, his-
Stone.
So much stone. Piles and piles of it; broken bricks, slabs of foundational concrete; dusty, slimy, wet, old and crumbling. All of it sitting squarely on top of his big brother, leaving only an arm, shoulder, and (terrifyingly, just barely) his head free.] R-...Raphie, [Donnie manages, his lips numb with shock as he comes to terms with the fact that his big brother is buried alive in collapsed sewer tunnel debris. He hasn't even graduated to acceptance yet, still working on understanding just what he's seeing here. His brother can't be in this much trouble. This isn't fair. They were fine just ten minutes ago.]
[ Oh. Good. Donnie came to him. Or maybe Raph had some kind of supercharged adrenaline moment and blacked out for the part where he dragged himself over there. On balance, he feels like the first one is probably the most right.
Either way, it's hard to beat the relief that rolls in. Donnie's here. He's still got both hands and everything. Even if he still sounds scared, or some kind of scared-adjacent feeling that Raph can't pinpoint. Gotta get it together, Raph. Scrape it together. Do some words. ]
Y'good? [ Nailing it. Very normal, very demure. Not panicking a little because it's dark and he can't do a visual check and the air is super gross. ] Dee?
[ What kind of pat-pat can one arm do in this position and situation? Not much of one, but going by Raph's wheezy grunt, he's trying to find out anyway. ]
Stop- [Okay. Donnie grips the sides of his head, hard, for just a moment. The pressure helps ground him, even as the earpieces of his goggles dig painfully into his skin before he finally lets go. Raph always hated it when Donnie did something like that; scratched, or squeezed, or otherwise did something to his body to try and interrupt his thoughts when they'd catch on a single point like a needle on a scratched record. Donnie had trained himself out of it, but this is- Raph is-
Raph's in danger. Leo's not here to take charge. Donnie's the only one here.] Mm- okay. You- [Donnie slaps his fingers against his mouth a few times, as if to chase the stammer away physically before trying again, ignoring how his hands shake as they begin to search the rubble as carefully as possible around Raph's carapace.] Don't- don't speak. Try to take slow, even breaths. There's- there's debris on your shell. [Debris on your shell. Like it's that fucking simple. Like Raph isn't wearing half a sewer tunnel atop of him, isn't barely managing to breathe only because his shell is so spiked and sturdy. If it had been any one of them under that instead of Raph, they'd already be dead.
[ Things Raph should not squeeze out an involuntary laugh-breath about, in the spirit of listening to Donnie: there's debris on your shell. He can't really help it, though. Debris. It sure feels like it, yeah.
How is he supposed to tell Donnie it's gonna be okay if he's not talking and just taking slow breaths, anyway? How is he supposed to help? It's his fault they're here in the first place. He was the one who said they should keep going.
He tries his ninpo again, a little more successfully than last time. Instead of a desperate flicker, it takes a slow crawl up and over the tips of his fingers, his hand. If he could just-- get his mind right, scrape his mystic form together, make this less claustrophobic-- make it easier to catch his breath--
But he guesses he can settle for trying to get a half-decent look at his brother for now. A little red light to see by, however long he can keep it going. Like in the submarine movies. One thing at a time. ]
Something cold slips into Donnie's stomach. His legs feel as if the muscles have atrophied, as if he couldn't ever stand again no matter how hard he tried. Ligaments severed, tendons torn. Donnie's hands don't stop shaking.]
I-it's- it's okay, Raph, [Donnie whispers, both of his hands clasping Raph's between them, holding tight. That red power keeps crawling up Raph's arm only to disappear again, like pilot light attempting and failing to catch, over and over. The power is there. Raph can do anything. Of course, Raph can do anything; but he needs the focus, he needs the smarts to help sometimes. Donnie can do that. Donnie can provide that, he thinks. All he needs is latticework. All they need are buttresses. Arches and steel cable netting beneath the debris, spawned from Raph's body, light a burning magenta, red-filled and purple-lined.
Donnie doesn't notice that his eyes have lost their pupils, all off-white sclera as he seeps a little further away from himself and into the blueprints. He can do this. They can do this, it's easy. He has to protect his little brothers. That's his job, as the one who is the biggest.
[ Hands on his hand. Tight. Even just that helps somehow, settles-- settles the something always curled up in the back of Raph's brain scared of being alone. Donnie's here. He's still here.
They can figure this out. Make this work, easy.
Raph can see it, suddenly. Feel it. Something catches. A path laid out in shapes and angles, one that leads into another into another into another mathematically the sturdiest, simple architecture, a simple build to fill in the gap. This is what he does. He builds. He fills in the gaps, he provides the contingencies, he fixes the problems.
The rubble shifts above him. Creaking metal, grinding stone, a fresh shower of dust as it starts to lift.
Raph breathes. And yeah, it still hurts to do it, but at least he can do it at all. At least this is working. (Of course it's working. Stay focused.) ]
S'okay. You're okay, [Donnie...says? Hears? He has no idea; it's a voice, and it's to and from both of them. The rubble is lifted off of Raph's shell and Donnie can breathe easier now, Raph's hand in his lap, between his own, their combined light pink and red and purple and mauve, like a busted bruise.
...time to get Raph out from under it. Donnie stands up carefully, still holding Raph's hand.] Gotta pull you out. Give me that strength, Raph. Okay? Help me pull you out. [The latticework flickers; darkens purple for a moment. Too much. They have to stay connected.]
[ Gotta pull him out. It has to ping around in Raph's head for a second before it really registers. The weight is gone. That was what stopped him before, right?
Donnie needs his help. Raph can't not help him. Not when it really matters. Not when Donnie is all alone if he doesn't. ]
Yeah. Just gotta-- just gotta... [ Gotta something. Pull in another breath. Fail to come up with the words he was looking for. Raph looks for the feeling instead: the hook-tug of impulse that sends someone diving over the edge after their brother. That need and fear, the way that something sparks to life halfway down. I can catch him. Let me catch him. Let me help him. Let me save him. That feeling of being bigger than himself. Being able to take more, punch harder, be stronger.
He curls his fingers, squeezes Donnie's hands as much as he can, lets it start there and move out, up over Donnie's arms. No blueprints, no structures, no architecture, just simple physical instinct. All Raph ever has to give is himself, and he's happy to give it: an arm's framework filled out in purple, red threaded through and around it like veins, like training wheels, trying to help hold the shape.
Neither of them is alone. It has to be okay, if they're together. ]
Edited (damn thx typo) Date: 2025-02-26 02:55 am (UTC)
[Like using simple machines to exert incredible force upon an object. Easy. No complex designs, no planning periods; there's a point A and a point B and the determination to make it between the two.
All the lines are red and purple pools within them.
It's going to hurt.
Donatello begins to gather Raph up into his arms; his larger arms, arms made of light, lined red and pooled purple, curling up above him like his own avatar, sharp toothed and slim as it curls its great hands around Raph's biceps like they're the size of uncooked spaghetti. Moving Raph is inadvisable until his injuries are categorized but the latticework is already flickering, so the construct above them both pulls Raph five feet out and five more to keep him safe from the clattering of boulders as the net dissolves, Donatello acting as a fulcrum before the construct dissolves like smoke and leaves them back in the dark.
Donnie gasps, blinking rapidly; his eyes sting as if he'd had them open too long and he blinks, rubs at them, then goes back down to his knees to pat around and feel for his freed big brother. Okay. One thing at a time. Find Raph. What did they just do- No, find Raph. Focus.] Raph, make a noise, are you okay-
[ Raph can confirm: it does hurt. He can't fit a lot of being very proud of his brother into the non-pain space while he's being hauled, but he does his best.
He's mostly just LARPing as a speedbump in the dark after the connection and the construct dissipates. If a speedbump could breathe. A little recovery moment, as a treat. A little free rest. He thinks his ribs might be made of dust now? Not ideal. But where's-- aha. ]
Donnie. [ Gasped out, but very relieved. ] Dee-
[ He helpfully flops his arm in the vague direction of Donnie's voice and ground-patting. Get a brother over here. Raph needs the stat boost of knowing exactly where his little brother is. ]
[Crawling over, extremely nervous about all that wheezing as Raphael struggles to breathe. Holy shit please don't say that Raph broke a rib in there, or worse; one of his lungs collapsed. Oh fuck oh shit now Donnie is reviewing everything he's read about what happens when a lung collapses, even as he reaches Raph and takes that big hand between his own again.]
No speaking! You- will not be speaking, unless you need to, because now I'm fixating on the worry that you have a collapsed lung! We shouldn't have moved you. Okay. Okay! That was- possibly a mistake, maybe I should've- used the form to just move all the debris instead, we could've done that maybe, it didn't stick around long but moving you was not the best of my ideas-
[ Brother obtained. Everything is okay again. He's talking a mile a minute, but that means he's probably mostly fine. Hopefully. Donnie hasn't really said much about the other side of the hurting fence, and Raph's got more than half a mind to worry about it.
It's good, though. Knowing he's right here. It's good he wasn't the one who got caught under all that. And as far as Raph figures, it's good that they moved him, because he was getting real claustrophobic under there. On balance? Best-case scenario.
This party tank is not above hanging onto the adrenaline rush relief of no longer being slowly crushed to death. He can lock back in after a few minutes of rest. Probably. If that's what his little brother needs him to do. ]
Nah. S'okay. [ No speaking whomst. It doesn't really count if he's careful and slow about it, right? ] You-- you did great.
[ Pure of heart. Dumb of ass. Full of love. Not sure how much impact is lost by being laid out on the ground like a big dead fish. ]
Did you just speak immediately after I said not to speak due to very serious medical concerns?? [Donnie hisses in a rush, and if he wasn't preparing to check his big brother for broken ribs he would try and smack him around. HE JUST SAID IT. It hasn't even been ten seconds.] Shut up. Let- I'm-
Oh my Röntgen, I have x-ray goggles. [HE'LL THROW HIMSELF UNDER THE DEBRIS NEXT ITME. Why does he have no fight-or-flight and instead has a freeze function? How is that useful at all.
Donnie flicks his goggles down and twists one of the lens casings until the x-ray function engages. Thank goodness that still works. Hands careful on Raph's shell, Donnie presses his palms down along the edges to check for movement. Raph has to be okay. Raph needs to be fine, needs to be able to move, to walk. They have to get out of here and there is no reality in which Donnie leaves Raph here to get help, absolutely none.]
[ Damn. Raph's in trouble for trying to be supportive and reassuring like a good big brother. That's so unfair. He gets it logistically and all, but still.
There's not much open space for being offended about that once the poking and prodding starts, of course. He's gotta shift his full focus to trying to hold still, lest he be hissed at for disobedience again. Which is hard to do because it kinda sucks, so he whines and grumbles anyway like a big baby.
Pros: Raph's lungs yet live. If any vital organs have been collapsed or punctured, they're a lot better at lying about it than any organs of Raph's have a right to be.
Cons: their asking price did, in fact, include ribs. The economy is in shambles. Which is more to say they're bruised as hell and one in his right side might be looking at a fracture. Raph couldn't tell you the difference between one or the other. All he knows is this is dumb and it hurts. If part of him doesn't hurt from getting his bell rung so hard, he can't find it.
Wasting daylight right now, he thinks. He should be turning this floor time into getting-home time so that they can move. Get to where the painkillers and icepacks and brothers who can check on Donnie better are. ]
We gotta go.
[ In his defense he waits until he thinks Donnie is probably done with this check-up. He wants that passing grade in being a patient. ]
[Even more in Raph's defense, that "don't talk" order arrived directly on the heels of "say something so I know you're okay," so he's damned if he does or doesn't. We're all operating on the high octane of terror-fueled adrenaline rushes right now, don't even worrryyyyy about it.
Some of the noises Raph makes are...not great. But his lungs are inflating, even if Donnie can see at least one hairline fracture in Raph's ribs. Very much not good; that side must have taken the brunt of the impact and the crushing pressure afterwards hadn't done it any favors. If it hadn't been Raph under there-]
-Yes. [Donnie flicks his goggles back up on top of his head, ignoring the way his fingers tremble as he stands up again. That insane strength from earlier seems to have left his limbs rubber, though maybe that's just the comparison between Raph's strength and his own. Like night and day.] Plan. We need a plan. Hold on, let me... [Donnie stoops, a hand on one of Raph's spikes as he manages to concentrate long enough to summon a flashlight made of purple Ninpo, shining it about the...room? They'd found themselves in.
Two tunnels leading in opposite directions, water pooling in the corners. Dust in the air; not too wet, then. No sound of rushing water nearby, and no painted markers. Much more enclosed than the tunnels from above.] I...I don't know where this is, [Donnie admits, voice small.]
[ No logic no reason only terror. Sometimes that's all there is.
Raph takes the news pretty much in stride. He figures there was a good chance Donnie would know, but a good chance isn't a guarantee even for a genius. Plus it's not like Raph has any clue. ]
Hmm. [ And other such sounds of thought.
He should sit up for this. He's gonna put that off, though. This is brainstorming, not plan-actioning. ]
Probably where we were before. Just, uh. [ U know. ] Down.
[ Down some. From that. By a lot. ]
So... same basic compass. Right?
[ What's the general home direction? Can Donnie build another drill and they bust through the floor? Raph's marking that as plan B to himself. ]
[GIRL HE LOVES THE OPTIMISM (he doesn't, he has not the gene necessary to appreciate that) BUT,] It's not. We don't know the layout here; knowing where north is doesn't do us any good if we don't know where north leads! [Oh okay, maybe panicking is ok to do again. Donnie is going to just frantically flip through all the blueprints and plat maps he has for the sewers and tunnels in New York (there are....so many), wrist computer fritzing out but hanging in there.]
Leo! Of course- of course, Leo. You two are so much better at that mind meld nonsense, [Donnie you JUST did one with Raph, stop pretending like it's silly] right? Can you do it from here? [Grasping desperately at this pathetically bent straw]
[ Nonsense?? Wow. Rude. Right in front of the rubble that they saved Raph from using an incredible mind meld power.
But in the spirit of Donnie probably being really upset about all this, fine. Raph will play calvinball. ]
Never tried it like this. [ This far away, this out of nowhere, this roughed up. Nothing ventured, nothing gained?
He guesses. ] Gimme a minute. If it don't work... move somewhere, try again?
[ Damn. Actually Raph really hopes it works now. The idea of a lot of walking for a while and stopping and then having to get back up and go again sounds... bad. As much as the stops could be rests, they don't sound restful. ]
[Something far, far off in the distance rumbles, like thunder not having quite made its way over to them yet, but it's enough to make Donnie jump and swing the light in the direction of the ceiling, searching for any more cracks in the stone (besides, obviously, the huge fucking hole they fell through.
Even that is half-obscured by dust and stone, but maybe not so much that they can't get back up through their original entrance to at least one more floor up...maybe.] ...conservatively speaking, big guy, what does, uh. What does moving look like for you right now? [Because if any of those hairline fractures decide to become the real thing due to a cough, they could puncture a lung and they do not have the tools and expertise needed to keep Raph from asphyxiating on his own blood down here.]
[ Raph makes a sound that's mostly laugh-based. The humor is there. His timing for it is impeccable. ]
Whatever it's gotta look like. [ If it comes to it. Something tells him there's not a lot of not-moving plays left in the book if the answer is different. So he'll cut out the middleman himself. Ugh. ] Just maybe... we're gonna hope it don't gotta look fast anytime soon.
[ He'll do whatever he has to, but if it's "go fast" at any point, he reserves his right to complain about it. All the better to showcase that there's clearly nothing to worry about. That's how Leo and Mikey do it, right? If they're too quiet, it's a problem? Raph can use that metric. ]
You got eyes on a route?
[ Otherwise he might just randomly pick one. All roads will lead to home one way or another, because Raph refuses to let them not. ]
['Whatever it's gotta look like' isn't totally encouraging, but Donatello isn't in a position to make demands himself. If Raph wasn't here he'd have full meltdown'd himself into a catatonic state for at least the next six hours. Or he'd be a squished bag of bone jelly underneath twenty tons of rubble.
Not thinking about that.
Donatello stands up on legs only a little unsteady, shining the light up at the pile of rubble and the potential hole.] ...maybe. [Okay. This is literally the easiest part; they already fell, Raph is already hurt. What more could go wrong?
(So much more.)
But Donatello is channeling his inner Mikey optimism right now as his one single coping method, and is making his way tentatively up the rubble pile to see if there's a) enough room for Raph to fit in through this hole and b) a viable pathway for a person with rib fractures to climb without winding himself and/or falling down and breaking his ribs even harder.
It takes a couple pushes of some stone blocks that Donnie belatedly realized he should've warned Raph about for the noise, calling down his hurried apologies after the clatter, but then...there seems to be a path. Even better, it seems like a path that Raph might be able to traverse injured as he is.] Okay...I think we can get up to at least one floor higher this way.
[ Apologies accepted. Mostly on account of it meaning Donnie's not the thing falling down the rubble pile. He's nice and secure going up. Flashlight can attest.
That's good.
And Raph gets a minute keeping an eye on him to just kinda breathe. Pull his focus back together. Really run the what-can-he-manage diagnostic and have it in mind when he does whatever he needs to do anyway.
They'll be fine. It's gonna be fine. He'll make sure it is. ]
Good spot, bud. [ You gotta be supportive. You gotta be nice to your genius bro in these stressful times. ] One floor up's better than stayin' down here by a long shot. Stinks down here.
[ Mostly emotionally. Physically, there's not much to be done about the stink. They are in a sewer.
Time to commit. Raph grunts and starts getting to his feet. ]
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momijizukamori
entropy WHOMST
Date: 2025-01-21 12:27 am (UTC)Raph doesn't remember much about the space between point A and point B. There's not a lot to say about falling through the dark, he guesses. Just falling, and the dark. Slamming into something that knocks the wind out of him, and--
And something.
And what?
Donnie's voice is the first thing that really registers again. It kinda rolls around in Raph's skull a little bit to start, pings alarm even when it's muffled and hard to understand. The tone is the thing that does it. He sounds scared. That makes two of them, but Raph is the big brother here. If he's scared, he's gotta wait.
So he tries to move instead, to stand up, blindly scrabbling for a handhold in the darkness. It doesn't work. Everything hurts, knocks the wind out of him all over again. He's weighed down; whatever's on top of him barely shifts. So he's a little stuck, he guesses, and that's scary. Not stuck-stuck. Right? He felt it move? He just needs a minute. Just.
Unless he doesn't have a minute. Unless Donnie's stuck somewhere, too, needs his help, that pinpoint flash of purple light-- what if he's hurt, what if he-- he needs his brother, what if he needs his brother?
Too scary to ignore.
Raph starts scrabbling again, because he can at least get an arm to move, can try to get some leverage with a stuttering stop-and-start mystic hand. He grinds out some sort of sound shaped like Donnie's name, which he hopes can be semi-reassuring. Raph is here. He's here so Donnie should feel like everything is gonna be okay, because that's like Raph's whole point.
This turtle is getting nowhere though. The sewer is trying to eat him rn. So hopefully Donnie is not currently dying, or at least not dying super fast. ]
we don't know her!!!!
Date: 2025-01-21 06:46 am (UTC)Something red flashes for just a second and stone clatters at Donnie's left and he finally manages to convince his legs to work; not quite enough to get him full to his feet, but in this darkness it's probably a safer bet for him to crawl anyway. There's debris everywhere,sewer dust nasty and thick in the air and on his tongue every time he takes a breath. His markings are only bright enough to light up a radius of one or two feet around him, so he almost kneels on Raph's hand before he finds it with a yelp.
He grabs up his brother's fingers in his own, clutching desperately with trembling hands as the nerves start to catch up. They fell through the floor; no, he fell through the floor and Raph jumped down after him. Donnie managed a shield for all of a second before it shattered and, presumably, Raph took the rest of the abuse on the way down.
Donnie starts to feel up from Raph's hand to his arm, shoulder, seeking his neck and head, his shell, his-
Stone.
So much stone. Piles and piles of it; broken bricks, slabs of foundational concrete; dusty, slimy, wet, old and crumbling. All of it sitting squarely on top of his big brother, leaving only an arm, shoulder, and (terrifyingly, just barely) his head free.] R-...Raphie, [Donnie manages, his lips numb with shock as he comes to terms with the fact that his big brother is buried alive in collapsed sewer tunnel debris. He hasn't even graduated to acceptance yet, still working on understanding just what he's seeing here. His brother can't be in this much trouble. This isn't fair. They were fine just ten minutes ago.]
no subject
Date: 2025-01-21 02:45 pm (UTC)Either way, it's hard to beat the relief that rolls in. Donnie's here. He's still got both hands and everything. Even if he still sounds scared, or some kind of scared-adjacent feeling that Raph can't pinpoint. Gotta get it together, Raph. Scrape it together. Do some words. ]
Y'good? [ Nailing it. Very normal, very demure. Not panicking a little because it's dark and he can't do a visual check and the air is super gross. ] Dee?
[ What kind of pat-pat can one arm do in this position and situation? Not much of one, but going by Raph's wheezy grunt, he's trying to find out anyway. ]
no subject
Date: 2025-01-26 07:35 am (UTC)Raph's in danger. Leo's not here to take charge. Donnie's the only one here.] Mm- okay. You- [Donnie slaps his fingers against his mouth a few times, as if to chase the stammer away physically before trying again, ignoring how his hands shake as they begin to search the rubble as carefully as possible around Raph's carapace.] Don't- don't speak. Try to take slow, even breaths. There's- there's debris on your shell. [Debris on your shell. Like it's that fucking simple. Like Raph isn't wearing half a sewer tunnel atop of him, isn't barely managing to breathe only because his shell is so spiked and sturdy. If it had been any one of them under that instead of Raph, they'd already be dead.
Focus, focus, focus. Focus, Donatello. Find problem. Diagnose. Apply solution.]
no subject
Date: 2025-01-27 03:22 am (UTC)How is he supposed to tell Donnie it's gonna be okay if he's not talking and just taking slow breaths, anyway? How is he supposed to help? It's his fault they're here in the first place. He was the one who said they should keep going.
He tries his ninpo again, a little more successfully than last time. Instead of a desperate flicker, it takes a slow crawl up and over the tips of his fingers, his hand. If he could just-- get his mind right, scrape his mystic form together, make this less claustrophobic-- make it easier to catch his breath--
But he guesses he can settle for trying to get a half-decent look at his brother for now. A little red light to see by, however long he can keep it going. Like in the submarine movies. One thing at a time. ]
brains and brawn mind meld babeyyyyyyyyyYYYYYY
Date: 2025-02-01 04:31 am (UTC)Something cold slips into Donnie's stomach. His legs feel as if the muscles have atrophied, as if he couldn't ever stand again no matter how hard he tried. Ligaments severed, tendons torn. Donnie's hands don't stop shaking.]
I-it's- it's okay, Raph, [Donnie whispers, both of his hands clasping Raph's between them, holding tight. That red power keeps crawling up Raph's arm only to disappear again, like pilot light attempting and failing to catch, over and over. The power is there. Raph can do anything. Of course, Raph can do anything; but he needs the focus, he needs the smarts to help sometimes. Donnie can do that. Donnie can provide that, he thinks. All he needs is latticework. All they need are buttresses. Arches and steel cable netting beneath the debris, spawned from Raph's body, light a burning magenta, red-filled and purple-lined.
Donnie doesn't notice that his eyes have lost their pupils, all off-white sclera as he seeps a little further away from himself and into the blueprints. He can do this. They can do this, it's easy. He has to protect his little brothers. That's his job, as the one who is the biggest.
One thing at a time.]
its everything they deserve
Date: 2025-02-24 03:11 am (UTC)They can figure this out. Make this work, easy.
Raph can see it, suddenly. Feel it. Something catches. A path laid out in shapes and angles, one that leads into another into another into another mathematically the sturdiest, simple architecture, a simple build to fill in the gap. This is what he does. He builds. He fills in the gaps, he provides the contingencies, he fixes the problems.
The rubble shifts above him. Creaking metal, grinding stone, a fresh shower of dust as it starts to lift.
Raph breathes. And yeah, it still hurts to do it, but at least he can do it at all. At least this is working. (Of course it's working. Stay focused.) ]
S'okay, [ he coughs out. ] You're okay.
[ He's not sure who's saying it.
He's not sure who's hearing it. ]
no subject
Date: 2025-02-25 05:35 am (UTC)...time to get Raph out from under it. Donnie stands up carefully, still holding Raph's hand.] Gotta pull you out. Give me that strength, Raph. Okay? Help me pull you out. [The latticework flickers; darkens purple for a moment. Too much. They have to stay connected.]
no subject
Date: 2025-02-26 02:54 am (UTC)Donnie needs his help. Raph can't not help him. Not when it really matters. Not when Donnie is all alone if he doesn't. ]
Yeah. Just gotta-- just gotta... [ Gotta something. Pull in another breath. Fail to come up with the words he was looking for. Raph looks for the feeling instead: the hook-tug of impulse that sends someone diving over the edge after their brother. That need and fear, the way that something sparks to life halfway down. I can catch him. Let me catch him. Let me help him. Let me save him. That feeling of being bigger than himself. Being able to take more, punch harder, be stronger.
He curls his fingers, squeezes Donnie's hands as much as he can, lets it start there and move out, up over Donnie's arms. No blueprints, no structures, no architecture, just simple physical instinct. All Raph ever has to give is himself, and he's happy to give it: an arm's framework filled out in purple, red threaded through and around it like veins, like training wheels, trying to help hold the shape.
Neither of them is alone. It has to be okay, if they're together. ]
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Date: 2025-02-26 11:16 pm (UTC)All the lines are red and purple pools within them.
It's going to hurt.
Donatello begins to gather Raph up into his arms; his larger arms, arms made of light, lined red and pooled purple, curling up above him like his own avatar, sharp toothed and slim as it curls its great hands around Raph's biceps like they're the size of uncooked spaghetti. Moving Raph is inadvisable until his injuries are categorized but the latticework is already flickering, so the construct above them both pulls Raph five feet out and five more to keep him safe from the clattering of boulders as the net dissolves, Donatello acting as a fulcrum before the construct dissolves like smoke and leaves them back in the dark.
Donnie gasps, blinking rapidly; his eyes sting as if he'd had them open too long and he blinks, rubs at them, then goes back down to his knees to pat around and feel for his freed big brother. Okay. One thing at a time. Find Raph. What did they just do- No, find Raph. Focus.] Raph, make a noise, are you okay-
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Date: 2025-02-28 02:41 pm (UTC)He's mostly just LARPing as a speedbump in the dark after the connection and the construct dissipates. If a speedbump could breathe. A little recovery moment, as a treat. A little free rest. He thinks his ribs might be made of dust now? Not ideal. But where's-- aha. ]
Donnie. [ Gasped out, but very relieved. ] Dee-
[ He helpfully flops his arm in the vague direction of Donnie's voice and ground-patting. Get a brother over here. Raph needs the stat boost of knowing exactly where his little brother is. ]
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Date: 2025-03-02 08:20 pm (UTC)No speaking! You- will not be speaking, unless you need to, because now I'm fixating on the worry that you have a collapsed lung! We shouldn't have moved you. Okay. Okay! That was- possibly a mistake, maybe I should've- used the form to just move all the debris instead, we could've done that maybe, it didn't stick around long but moving you was not the best of my ideas-
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Date: 2025-03-03 01:12 am (UTC)It's good, though. Knowing he's right here. It's good he wasn't the one who got caught under all that. And as far as Raph figures, it's good that they moved him, because he was getting real claustrophobic under there. On balance? Best-case scenario.
This party tank is not above hanging onto the adrenaline rush relief of no longer being slowly crushed to death. He can lock back in after a few minutes of rest. Probably. If that's what his little brother needs him to do. ]
Nah. S'okay. [ No speaking whomst. It doesn't really count if he's careful and slow about it, right? ] You-- you did great.
[ Pure of heart. Dumb of ass. Full of love. Not sure how much impact is lost by being laid out on the ground like a big dead fish. ]
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Date: 2025-03-04 02:58 am (UTC)Oh my Röntgen, I have x-ray goggles. [HE'LL THROW HIMSELF UNDER THE DEBRIS NEXT ITME. Why does he have no fight-or-flight and instead has a freeze function? How is that useful at all.
Donnie flicks his goggles down and twists one of the lens casings until the x-ray function engages. Thank goodness that still works. Hands careful on Raph's shell, Donnie presses his palms down along the edges to check for movement. Raph has to be okay. Raph needs to be fine, needs to be able to move, to walk. They have to get out of here and there is no reality in which Donnie leaves Raph here to get help, absolutely none.]
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Date: 2025-03-04 08:06 pm (UTC)There's not much open space for being offended about that once the poking and prodding starts, of course. He's gotta shift his full focus to trying to hold still, lest he be hissed at for disobedience again. Which is hard to do because it kinda sucks, so he whines and grumbles anyway like a big baby.
Pros: Raph's lungs yet live. If any vital organs have been collapsed or punctured, they're a lot better at lying about it than any organs of Raph's have a right to be.
Cons: their asking price did, in fact, include ribs. The economy is in shambles. Which is more to say they're bruised as hell and one in his right side might be looking at a fracture. Raph couldn't tell you the difference between one or the other. All he knows is this is dumb and it hurts. If part of him doesn't hurt from getting his bell rung so hard, he can't find it.
Wasting daylight right now, he thinks. He should be turning this floor time into getting-home time so that they can move. Get to where the painkillers and icepacks and brothers who can check on Donnie better are. ]
We gotta go.
[ In his defense he waits until he thinks Donnie is probably done with this check-up. He wants that passing grade in being a patient. ]
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Date: 2025-03-13 03:49 am (UTC)Some of the noises Raph makes are...not great. But his lungs are inflating, even if Donnie can see at least one hairline fracture in Raph's ribs. Very much not good; that side must have taken the brunt of the impact and the crushing pressure afterwards hadn't done it any favors. If it hadn't been Raph under there-]
-Yes. [Donnie flicks his goggles back up on top of his head, ignoring the way his fingers tremble as he stands up again. That insane strength from earlier seems to have left his limbs rubber, though maybe that's just the comparison between Raph's strength and his own. Like night and day.] Plan. We need a plan. Hold on, let me... [Donnie stoops, a hand on one of Raph's spikes as he manages to concentrate long enough to summon a flashlight made of purple Ninpo, shining it about the...room? They'd found themselves in.
Two tunnels leading in opposite directions, water pooling in the corners. Dust in the air; not too wet, then. No sound of rushing water nearby, and no painted markers. Much more enclosed than the tunnels from above.] I...I don't know where this is, [Donnie admits, voice small.]
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Date: 2025-03-14 02:45 pm (UTC)Raph takes the news pretty much in stride. He figures there was a good chance Donnie would know, but a good chance isn't a guarantee even for a genius. Plus it's not like Raph has any clue. ]
Hmm. [ And other such sounds of thought.
He should sit up for this. He's gonna put that off, though. This is brainstorming, not plan-actioning. ]
Probably where we were before. Just, uh. [ U know. ] Down.
[ Down some. From that. By a lot. ]
So... same basic compass. Right?
[ What's the general home direction? Can Donnie build another drill and they bust through the floor? Raph's marking that as plan B to himself. ]
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Date: 2025-03-19 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-19 11:12 am (UTC)And he's gonna keep relying on it as long as Donnie needs that gap bridged. ]
North goes north, Donnie. We're gonna figure it out.
[ And probably not even die. ]
Or. Or get somewhere Leo can put a portal.
[ So somewhere he knows and somewhere with like. Signal. There's probably no signals or whatever down here? Raph doesn't get paid to know that.
But, with a reluctant breath hold, he guesses he will start working on getting back up. ]
Easy.
[ So easy. Or maybe he's talking to himself like a horse? Debatable. ]
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Date: 2025-03-24 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-25 02:20 am (UTC)But in the spirit of Donnie probably being really upset about all this, fine. Raph will play calvinball. ]
Never tried it like this. [ This far away, this out of nowhere, this roughed up. Nothing ventured, nothing gained?
He guesses. ] Gimme a minute. If it don't work... move somewhere, try again?
[ Damn. Actually Raph really hopes it works now. The idea of a lot of walking for a while and stopping and then having to get back up and go again sounds... bad. As much as the stops could be rests, they don't sound restful. ]
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Date: 2025-04-01 01:53 am (UTC)Even that is half-obscured by dust and stone, but maybe not so much that they can't get back up through their original entrance to at least one more floor up...maybe.] ...conservatively speaking, big guy, what does, uh. What does moving look like for you right now? [Because if any of those hairline fractures decide to become the real thing due to a cough, they could puncture a lung and they do not have the tools and expertise needed to keep Raph from asphyxiating on his own blood down here.]
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Date: 2025-04-01 03:52 pm (UTC)Whatever it's gotta look like. [ If it comes to it. Something tells him there's not a lot of not-moving plays left in the book if the answer is different. So he'll cut out the middleman himself. Ugh. ] Just maybe... we're gonna hope it don't gotta look fast anytime soon.
[ He'll do whatever he has to, but if it's "go fast" at any point, he reserves his right to complain about it. All the better to showcase that there's clearly nothing to worry about. That's how Leo and Mikey do it, right? If they're too quiet, it's a problem? Raph can use that metric. ]
You got eyes on a route?
[ Otherwise he might just randomly pick one. All roads will lead to home one way or another, because Raph refuses to let them not. ]
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Date: 2025-04-16 03:08 am (UTC)Not thinking about that.
Donatello stands up on legs only a little unsteady, shining the light up at the pile of rubble and the potential hole.] ...maybe. [Okay. This is literally the easiest part; they already fell, Raph is already hurt. What more could go wrong?
(So much more.)
But Donatello is channeling his inner Mikey optimism right now as his one single coping method, and is making his way tentatively up the rubble pile to see if there's a) enough room for Raph to fit in through this hole and b) a viable pathway for a person with rib fractures to climb without winding himself and/or falling down and breaking his ribs even harder.
It takes a couple pushes of some stone blocks that Donnie belatedly realized he should've warned Raph about for the noise, calling down his hurried apologies after the clatter, but then...there seems to be a path. Even better, it seems like a path that Raph might be able to traverse injured as he is.] Okay...I think we can get up to at least one floor higher this way.
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Date: 2025-04-18 11:57 am (UTC)That's good.
And Raph gets a minute keeping an eye on him to just kinda breathe. Pull his focus back together. Really run the what-can-he-manage diagnostic and have it in mind when he does whatever he needs to do anyway.
They'll be fine. It's gonna be fine. He'll make sure it is. ]
Good spot, bud. [ You gotta be supportive. You gotta be nice to your genius bro in these stressful times. ] One floor up's better than stayin' down here by a long shot. Stinks down here.
[ Mostly emotionally. Physically, there's not much to be done about the stink. They are in a sewer.
Time to commit. Raph grunts and starts getting to his feet. ]
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