semilethal | general psl

We've already negotiated a ceasefire. Apologies are superfluous. [Donnie doesn't care about your social conventions!!!! All he cares about is Solving this Problem and getting his shit and going home, not necessarily in that order (solving problem always comes first tho).]

So. We both experienced...something at the same time that resulted in odd physical deficiencies. You couldn't see out of your eye, and I couldn't hear your voice- and only your voice.

Correct so far?

[ Counterproposal: Raph doesn't know what superfluous is so he blows a raspberry about that first part. Catch him later, he's a professional guiltman. ]

So far, yeah. [ Ugh he guesses he'll think back on the details of it even though it was. Not a great time.

If solutions were always super easy and comfortable to get to, none of them would basically ever have problems to start with. So for now, he will activate the Raph chasm. When they're home safe, he'll gnaw on something and put higher brain function on vacation for a few hours. How's that sound, Raph? Solid plan. Thanks, buddy, you got this. ]

I couldn't find you for a second there. It was weird.

[ The vibes were off. Hated that. ]

[Hm.] And I saw...the Krang ship. [He still hasn't told the rest of their family what he did. Michael has been sworn (and bribed) to silence, but it's not going to last much longer. Especially not if he's seeing things about it.] I thought I was stuck inside of it. I couldn't see anything, not even the junkyard.

It happened at the same time. Some kind of mystic auditory hallucination that plays off our own personal fears? As you said, sounds like Hypno. But he usually doesn't do something like this just for fun, so he must have an objective.

[ Problems with being in big mystic form: he is technically sort of holding his brother but not truly Holding His Brother. If Donnie would even want the holding. He's always been the iffiest about that.

What a terrible thing to get stuck seeing.

So no more splitting off. Raph doesn't think that's on either of their to-do lists right now, all things considered, but he still tells it to himself very firmly. Important planning point. No separating. ]

I guess so, huh. Somewhere to rob. He shouldn't have any fresh beef with us, right? Last time we saw him, he got what he was after.

[ That's what criminal hippos care about, right. The ends, not the means.

And then there was almost an apocalypse or whatever. ]

It also doesn't make sense to just come after the two of us when we're out here alone. Even if we were incapacitated, Leo and Mikey would just pick up the slack. [Stands up on Raph's hand and snaps his goggles back down over his eyes, scanning the junkyard.

-then something pings on his goggles, lights up that bright pink-purple of mystic bullshit in the shape of a rectangle flat on the ground.] Ah ha! Over there! [JUMPS DOWN to run over and inspect what appears to be, by all intents and purposes, a trap door]

Great. So we got a motive in the wind.

[ It's always good to do the basic corners and edges of a puzzle first. Really outline around the gaps, see what you're working with.

All this kinda feels like one of those weird curvy free-form puzzles where the point is being all abstract. Not a cool detective puzzle. ]

[ ?

ah.

a bright yellow blinky dotted line in the shape of the little brother who was once standing right there. ]

[ ..... AH.

Raph de-mystic-forms with a lil pop and books it after him. No one in this family has impulse control unless it's about someone else's impulses, smdh. ]

THIS IS NOT A DIVIDE AND CONQUER SCENARIO!

[ U LITERALLY JUST SAID HOW LAST TIME WE WERE ~30 FEET APART YOU HALLUCINATED A SPOOKY ALIEN SHIP ]

[Sorry did you say something? Because you are not ninja mind melding anymore since Donnie both a) jumped off the physical tether to ninpo aka brother hand and b) mentally severed the connection unconsciously in favor of investigating with Science, and On His Own, emotionally speaking.

Sticks bo in the trap door that looks just like normal junkyard dirt to the naked eye and levers the trap door open. Whatever's down there is completely pitch black, because Donnie can't even see how deep whatever this tunnel is. Is it the sewers? Should he not even try to make a guess because they're probably in a hallucination?] Hmmmm.

[...kicks a toaster into the hole and waits for the clang.]

DONNIE!

[ Deafness will not stop Raph from yelling. Or from yoinking Donnie by the battleshell hoping to prevent future escape attempts. ]

Respect for teamwork, it's about the respect, it's about a little bit of safety in numbers, y'know? [ Mind Raph does know but he's also a big "you know how kids are" guy, but Raph doesn't wanna argue with the drill sergeant guy again because actually! His brothers have learned enough stuff the hard way already! A turtle can't have a good mental convo anymore, ugh. ] How's Raph supposed to have your back if you ain't... there...

[ Big hole... trap door...

Raph is standing very still either because he is also waiting for the toaster to clang or, more likely, he's putting all the power he has into resisting the urge to immediately cannonball into it. ]

[The toaster does not make a sound at all. So that's concerning.

Donnie stares down into the hole with his hands on his hips, debating silently before retrieving his bo and tapping a button. A wire pops out of the side and he holds out the bo to his brother, attaching the wire clip to his own belt.] I suppose it's up to me to investigate.

[ Donald... please... ]

Uhhhhh, no?

[ Wait Donnie can't hear him.

Pokes him with a mystic gauntlet hand. ]

Hey! No!

[ How come you get to do the cave-diving I mean it's dangerous and unknown to us literally why would I let you out of my sight in the BOTTOMLESS PIT ]

[Rolls eyes and grabs Raph's mystic gauntlet, and it's weird how all of a sudden Donnie can just feel what Raph is trying to say, both literally and emotionally. It's like all of a sudden, he's thinking inside of Raph's head- or Raph is thinking inside of his? And he can tell that the itch under Raph's skin is Don't let him out of my sight, an instinct so deep-rooted it's almost animalistic. Lizard brain.]

-what? I mean, obviously it needs to be checked out. [Too much information to sort through. He needs to focus and not get distracted by all this knowledge about his big brother he's never had before.] Who is better suited to yank whom out of danger? Clearly, it is you.

[ Raph is not immune to desires to investigate things. But it's weird to have Donnie brain about it for a hot second. Feel the too much. The need to process.

Which like. Sometimes he's too much for himself even when they're not in the middle of a situation that started messing with their heads and then doing a whole mind-meld on top of it. And he is him. So he guesses he can't really fault wanting to step back, refocus. Figure out one issue in front of them at a time.

The mystery door of it all, Raph just does not care for. For the highkey reasons Donnie is already privy to. ]

Yeah, but you can't hear me! How am I supposed to check on you when you're down there?

[That's the other thing too, is when they communicate like this, Donnie gets more than just Raph saying words. He likes to think he has a reasonable understanding of the people his brothers are, but this is something else entirely. Leo and Raph had only mentioned the 'ninja mind meld' thing in passing, and never really went into the specifics.

Donnie, in his hatred for all things mystic, had dismissed it at the time. Arrogant.

But here he can feel the worry pulsing through Raphael as if it's his own. What if he can't check on Raph? What if someone tries to take him again, do something to him? What if Donnie is once again only good for running away?]

That is a conundrum, [Donnie murmurs, keeping a hand on Raph as he rubs his beak and peers down into the hole.] Then there's nothing for it. We both go together.

The together plan, Raph likes.

[ Better to investigate an endless void toaster trap as a team than to have one of them falling in eternity while the other one stands back at surface level not knowing what's going on. By his humble mental calculations.

Raph'll have to figure out some other way to un- too much this jam for Dee. He has literally no idea what that looks like, but he's willing to slam his face into the effort until it clicks. Proximity is the big thing. Knowing if something happens.

Take ur bo staff back bro, return to your normal levels of the demon inside telling you to bonk brothers. ]

If I can make another Raph, we could jump him down there to check for a spike pit?

[ He hasn't actually accomplished clone Raphs since the big Shredder fight- animation budget, you know how it is- but still. ]

[Normal levels are at an 11 on a scale of 1-10. Donnie takes back his staff but doesn't detach the wire from his belt because he doesn't have a lot of faith in this particular plan. Not Raph's forte, bless his big, bleeding heart.]

Can you do that? [Leans against his bo, hanging onto a brother shell spike now instead of just like. Hand on the chest. Maybe he is also leaning over to look into the pit. Strange, lately Donnie's been the one lending himself to caution, but ever since Leo and Raph worked out their issues he's finding it easier and easier to be reckless. Mikey doesn't need to be looked after anymore because Raph's back on it.] Maybe I could make a construct and send it down. A floodlight or something. Ooh, I bet I could add constructs to your constructs! I've always wanted to try ninpo integration.

[ The audacity of the reckless lean. The shamelessness.

He is a trained ninja, though. And Raph is literally right here if something happens. And he trusts him or whatever that character arc was about. The one that's easier to remember now that it's not directly at odds with Leo's character arc buildup. (How much he wishes that kind of stuff made for lessons that didn't have to be learned the hard way notwithstanding.) ]

It would be easier to see what's goin' on in there if Raph 2 could actually, uh. See. [ Jumped a shadow clone into the infinite abyss to check for traps, couldn't report back because I forgot he wouldn't be able to see anything in there. ] Let's collab, brother!

[Okay this is very cool. Their ninpo is already cool, if infuriatingly difficult to analyze, and getting to play with the concept is almost worth being trapped in some pocket dimension whatever/wherever.

Donnie switches his hand to hold onto one of Raph's spikes instead, leaving his brother's hands free for whatever he needs to do to make a clone. At the same time he taps into his own powers, a purple glow bleeding over his brother's back and shoulders. A set of shoulder-mounted floodlights, similar to those in his own battle shell, begin to build onto Raphael's shoulders block by block. Time to see if those clone with him.]

[ If doing some weeb-ass Naruto hand sign shit is part of Raph's process, that's Raph's business. And now Donnie's. It's the whole pocket dimension's business, technically. Whatever. This is for a good cause. (Like "getting home alive.")

He gives the cool floodlights process the appreciative oooooooooh they deserve, of course. Brains and brawn club, brothers with mystic powers that are kinda pixel-y and manifest as physical constructs club, love that for them. ]

Slick stuff, Donnie! And now, one bonus Raph!

[ The incredible power of being able to manifest a version of himself to do canary in the coal mine duty. ]

[ POOF. Or kzzzzzzt hologram sound or whatever that we didn't get time to figure out how it works in the series finale, but was probably very cool and awesome. ANOTHER RAPH.

Pros: it's a Raph.

Cons: Raph 2 doesn't know the safe and secure feeling of having a Donnie-created mystic construct directly attached to him. Stinks to be that guy. OG Raph is hogging all the sincere reassurance that comes with this, he guesses. ]

Great.

He's mid.

[ Insert offended clone Raph gasp here. ]

Now now Raphael and Raphael-mid, nobody throws a one thousand ball run goal. [That's how that saying goes right] A plan B is in order. Barrel of monkeys, with Raph clones.

Or my favorite, plan C where I go down myself like I wanted to from the beginning.

What...

[ We bring a "say something almost a hundred percent wrong or nonsensical with full confidence and move on without stopping to check" energy to the family dynamic that the haters don't like to see.

It's back to square one of the struggle. Need to do something to make something happen because if nothing happens then they're not gonna get out of here. The barrel of Raphs is like, sounds fun ngl, still not ideal for a possibly bottomless pit. Who knows how many it would take? That's a time-sink.

But he doesn't want Donnie down there alone any more than before, either. What if there's a weird sound barrier and then neither of them could hear each other at all, what if something happened too fast for Donnie to signal--

(What's the point of anything if he can't keep him safe?

This is why fights are so much easier.)

Hrrrghrrhghrhrgh, and etc. ]

Take Raph-mid with you.

[ He'll do rappel anchor for both of them, it'll be fine. ]

Of course, of course. [Uses his proximity to his brother to also make a purple light construct shoulder-mounted multiple missile launcher while he's at it. A lil boom boom backpack, if you will. For funsies.]

Come along, brother, [Donnie says breezily, flicking his goggles down and reattaching the wire to himself. Is he being arrogant because his powers are coming so easily to him, or is he pumping up his own confidence in response to Raph's obvious concern? Or is it a defense mechanism so he doesn't panic again?

...whatever! Donnie tosses his staff to Raphael to hold and jumps down into the hole.]

[ The boom-boom backpack is a vital component to this mission. An element of fun, sure. A reassurance of maximum property damage potential as needed, which is something that can be so personal.

It also helps that Donnie is willing to accept the clone-escort compromise without pushing back. Big positive. Raph puts a note to self in the back of his brain somewhere about doing more clone practice. It would be cool if he could make them tiny enough to hitch rides on his brothers. Like, grow in case of emergency.

Mystic stuff is so weird, he could probably do that. ]

Just be careful! Double-careful!

[ TRIPLE CAREFUL!!!! ... WHATEVER THE THING FOR FOUR TIMES CAREFUL IS. Etc.

Raph catches the staff and takes on his sacred anchor point duty while clone Raph gets a hand on that cord and just kinda slides down after Donnie.

This is fine and cool. Not creepy. And he is not alone because his brother is literally physically tethered to him right now, sort of, so it's clearly great all the way around. ]

general psl

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1/3 i will b Extra as a bedtime treat for myself

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3/3

a treat for WHO? this is MY treat

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1/2

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im back from the void also

we are so powerful and so brave

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