neonleon | Snek IC contact

....

I wasn't sure.

You seemed so....

Resigned.

Yeah, because I had the after parts all worked out. You just kept focusing on how upset you were so I never got to explain it before.

Of course I was upset! How could I not be upset?

Just-

What is the plan?

I go with Hunter back to the Boiling Isles. Hunter explained they have a stable portal door there they use to go to Connecticut, then I can just portal hop my way to Manhattan whenever.

[Except part of Leo's problem is thinking they're different New York's-]

....

Yes, that is part of my plans to making sure we can see everyone after this. Between Hunter's knowledge, the knowledge back home, Viktor, and Choco-chan and Wash can apparently just...dimension hop themselves.

The parts are all there for interdimensional travel for everyone.

Yeah. Exactly. So. It's all worked out.

Well, the idea. Still have to get it all together and find all the locations.

All very doable, it just takes time.

And maybe mystic trackers.

[Don still not trusting Leo has it. It really is that simple, but Leo waves him off in favor of watching the crowd looping below.]

I've got it so don't worry about it.

You have a way to find Eve and our other friends?

Working on that one still, just need a few details worked out.

Details like you have an idea, or need an idea.

Details like don't rush genius.

....

Nardo, is there a reason you don't want my help? Because I do have ideas.

Because every time this comes up, you get upset and I'm talking to a brick wall, and nothing gets done because you have to be the one to fix it.

This has literally come up ONCE before because you kept it to yourself, and of course I got upset. Are you saying you would have been calm in my place?

[How many times have they talked about Leo being dead, of Donnie being so dead set being the one to fix it? Enough times that they're talking past each other now.

It isn't worth it. He wants to just ... not.]

I don't know, to be honest. Wouldn't know unless it happened.

[It had been a different context. Not knowing Leo thought he was an alternate. Of course he had to dismiss it under the premise of being the same timeline.]

Judging by past reactions, you would not have been rational. [Namely when they lost Raph. Or Gram-Gram.]

I just....

[He sits up. Lifts up his legs and wraps his arms around them.]

I don't understand why you're shutting me out. Portals are doable, we know that. Your idea works for you, but we need to find others and I have ideas. I don't-

I get why most anyone else doesn't want to work with me, but you-

You know how I am. [His voice is quieter, staring out at the city]

Has my work really been that disappointing?

Am I really so...unbearable to rely on?

Did I say either of those things?

No, I did not. I said to trust me.

I do trust you, but it feels like you don't trust me.

[He presses his face to his knees.]

It hasn't felt like you have in a very long time.

[He wants to just let it go, say it's not his problem. Because it's not. He trusts Donnie, but Donnie doesn't trust him to have his own situation handled. Every conversation has been Leo beating his head against the brick wall that is Donnie's stubbornness to make Leo's situation about him somehow, like Leo has no agency in any part of it.

But looking at his brother right now.... Not the time. Instead, he reaches an arm to drape over Don's shoulders, easy to shrug off but there if he wants the comfort.]

This place keeps messing with us.

[He doesn't lean in]

[But he doesn't pull away either]

This place. The circumstances people left. There are so many here with bad circumstances and they keep telling me when they won't even hope for better.

I'm so tired of being the one who hopes.

Of being the optimistic one.

You guys are the ones who are supposed to do that and I come up with the way to make your ideas work. Raph needs information. I hack the cameras. Mikey wants to haggle, I play bad cop. You want me to move the ship, I move the stinking ship.

But now you...you act like me doing what I always do is me distrusting you and I...

How am I supposed to take that?

[He was trying to steer the conversation away, make it easier. Leo sighs through his nose in a heavy breath.]

What you've been doing is taking charge of everyone's situations and acting like you're the only one who can do anything.

I have a plan for myself now. You don't have to worry about that. If you wanna help everyone else we know, then I'll help with that, but I don't have the know how for interdimensional travel and all that.

Did everyone else who tells you this stuff ask for your help? I'm asking because I genuinely don't know and I can't answer your question without knowing.

I don't want to be the only one who can do everything! [That's a shout, and a voice crack.]

But everyone....everyone just acts like they're beyond saving.

Like the literal multiverse being an option changes nothing. It's clear they don't want things to be the way they are, but they refuse to let themselves hope. They just give up on themselves.

We can't beat the snake, we can't escape, I'm not worth caring about, I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead-

[He curls up tighter.]

You were the third dead person. Out of four now.

Hunter and Choco have been the only ones to dare to hope, to even entertain finding a solution.

Everyone else was like you.

...But did they ask you to help.

Most of them wouldn't ask for help if they were bleeding from a gaping chest wound.

Edited 2023-06-11 08:46 (UTC)

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