neonleon | SERPENTINE HORIZON

[The rogues have got the usual suspects - Meatsweats looking enormous and bulging, Hypno and Warren together but a black marker done over their faces recently, the crab brothers barely sculpted beyond the shapes. Draxum is in a weird state of having parts swapped, but his face sculpt is harsh, the smirk not at all nice.

There are the three pink blob figure set on their side, away from the rest like trying to be shoved out of sight.]

[...]

[Yeah, lets pick up the Kraang, LET'S SEE HOW GOOD A DECISION THAT IS]

[The most recently made, the most detailed sculpt on Prime. Sharp, sneering pleased with himself. As close to the real thing as it can be in Donnie's hand. The other two are not quite as detailed, but are of the same similar make.]

[Hmm hmm hmmm.]

[Lets put those back.]

[...shove them a little further back.]

[Let's look at the comic books.]

[The comic titles are all colorful, well read, with pictures of Leo on the front in various poses and a secondary character depending on the title.

Such titles as PrimeTime and Red Reign defeat the GhostBear!, and Leonardo stars in Portal Jacked! with so many others of similar make.]

[Portal jacked? Donnie frowns, trying to remember what that was.]

Wait...was that when we went to Tahiti?

[He's gonna open that comic.]

[Inside the comic pages are bright, colorful, and action packed.

Portal Jacked! starts with Leo going to Hueso, begging for help to get his brothers back. Talking the reluctant skeleton man into helping him. As they go, his odachi stolen and then recovered from a black market weapons stall.

The action comes to a crawl when he's walking alone with Hueso and the man starts to leave Leo alone. But Leo asks him to stay.

"I'm nothing without my brothers."]

[At first, its nothing so surprising. Leo is worried. Of course he's going to go a little crazy trying to get them back, especially if he thought they were kidnapped. Ha, leave it to Leo to think it was pirates over thinking he'd just made a mistake with the portal.]

[Even bringing Hueso along made sense. He was familiar with the concept, more familiar with the Hidden City.]

[Then that line hits him like a truck.]

What...?

[He flips between the pages around the scene because surely there was more, some kind of joke, or specifications about the event.]

[The whole scene is there, the one honest, not played up for action or Leo's ego.

"I will not be fine! There’s no team with just a faceman. I need my brainy guy, and my smashing guy and eats peanut butter with his fingers guy. I’m nothing without them. You wouldn't understand. At least your heart made of bone too. Adios, Hueso." He looks at Hueso pleadingly before the next panel has him turning to leave, walking away alone to search.

"Pepino, wait! I do know what it is to lose someone. I will help you."

The rest of the story plays out, still emphasizing Leo's strengths and action elements, but that moment was real.]

[He]

[Stares at the comic for a time.]

[Its not as if he doesn't get the sentiment, to a certain degree. When he had arrived here, he had felt like a ship lost at sea. There was no stability, an anxiety that would not leave. He had spent hours trying to connect to his Ninpo, see if there was a way to communicate, work out the possibilities of a portal. Any means to get back to his family.]

[The utter relief of seeing Leo again.]

[The pain to see him leave, and to be ordered to leave.]

[There had been no doubt in his mind he needed his family. That everything was worse to be without, that it hurt.]

[But there was a difference]

[To be hurt because he was alone]

[And to think there was no value intrinsic to himself. He needed his family. But without his family, he was still that brainy guy, he could still do things, he could still help people.]

[Maybe it was demon possession AND severe depression.]

[He closes the comic and puts it back. He scans over the shelf. Are they all just adventures, or are their comics of that are more slice of family?]

[Donnie, my man, it's whatever episodes are there that Leo was taking a lead on or did something EXTREMELY cool (he thinks) during. Take your pick.]

[HMMM]

[Let's check out Man Vs Sewer. Let's see if that's got a Real Moment to it.]

[The comic definitely goes over the basics, goofing off, having fun with the "river". Leo's athletics and cool factors being on display more than Donnie might remember them.

But that real moment is there. Watching Raph get swept away by the other water path and Leo calling out to him, "We'll find you, Raph! Guys, Raph is all alone, we've got to-"

Donnie and Mike still goofing in their own tubes.

"Go down that slide again?"

"Yes, agreed. Raph’ll make it home eventually, I’m sure."

"No. Raph's our brother, and we need to-

"Then why doesn’t he have Splinter’s rugged good looks like we do?"
A panel of Leo annoyed, frustrated with that undercurrent of fear. He flips Mikey's tube, turning him upside down. He has to get them to understand.

"You know how savage Raph gets when he’s alone. He’ll totally lose it if we don’t find him fast. Clock’s ticking."]

[Certainly making Leo look cooler than he had been, mostly because they were screaming a lot when dealing with Raph.]

[It does tell him there is some misunderstanding. It wasn't like he didn't care, but if he had started to worry as well...]

[There was a reason why he stuck to his modes so hard. To change was to lose control, to become Worse.]

[But it would come across as tone deaf, wouldn't it?]

[He had been really scared, hadn't he?]

[He puts it away, and picks up the Ghostbear comic.]

[PrimeTime and Red Reign Defeat GhostBear! is probably the least serious comic of the bunch, telling the story of Leonardo becoming a pro wrestler with his sick dive off the lighting and into the ring. Rising to short-tracked fame only to be shown up not only by his big brother, and then GhostBear himself. Of working together to defeat him.

There wasn't much soul searching or worry in this adventure, but an acknowledgement that he was wrong about wrestling at least.]

[....]

[okay]

[He has to look]

[Kraang comic?]

[The only comic with any Kraang pink in it is shoved in, haphazard and rumpled. It's newer print, with a lot of yellow narration bubbles for Leo's thoughts.

Get Raph back, get Raph back at all costs, get him back, it was my fault it was MY FAULT.

This comic seems to be almost all real moments. Still too fresh to be compartmentalized and repackaged into something more palatable. The moment with Casey Jr in the subway, Leo scared of whatever happened to Don and Mike. The running from Metro Tower after the first run-in with Raph waking up.

After the portal, the pages are blank white. Unwritten but with black marker scribbled on all of them, like an artist frustrated with their own artist block.]

[....oh]

[Hey]

[Confirmation he did fucking die. As well as everyone else.]

[Things he never had the nerve to ask Casey Jr. outright, 2022.]

[Just. Close that and put it back down.]

[He will pick up the Operation Normal comic, looking for that real moment, because this is helping him interpret some memories he watched earlier.]

[Look, most of that one is comedy antics. But there is a moment -

Arguing with April at lasertag while a few Foot goons fight behind them.

"Really? Again? Come on Leo. Ruining my normal and laser tag. Laser tag is sacred."

Foot Recruit, they now know Cassandra, chimes in, "Beyond sacred. How could you?"

Leo just wants her to understand, they're trying to help with something important to her. "We’ve been trying to help you have a normal day, but those Foot bozos keep following you."

It isn't much but his want to help April was genuine.]

[....]

[The amount of not feeling understood is getting]

[Real familiar]

[He will put down the comic and okay. Time to drop kick the daddy issues, yeah? Yeah.]

[Picking up the comic about what happened with Big Mama that one time.]

[Donnie saw the memory of Leo making the initial deal. Their father lamenting that he didn't bring Donnie instead.

But it keeps going, their father deriding Leo for doing this, for making the deal even worse adding in the extra goons. Getting fitted for his own suit, but the thought bubbles adding in his plans - and then I used the custom fitting to sneak in one of Big Mama's teleportation coins, a neat trick for later *wink* - and their father even angrier.

It culminates in Leo being betrayed by Big Mama and thrown into the ring as well. He decries the double-cross for one second before admitting to their father it was their plan.

"Please this was my plan all along."

"Just admit it already, son. You were played!"

The dismissal stings. It sinks down to his heart and digs its claws into him. "How come nobody trusts me? None of you guys have any faith in me. Why?"

"Maybe this whole situation!"

"This whole situation was my plan all along. If it wasn’t, then why'd I ask your tailor to make me this outfit?

"So we could both perish looking super fly?"

He rolls his eyes, and pulls out the coin. "Or so I could sneak this baby in..." And the portal opens, letting him grab his odachi from Big Mama's box, "To sneak this baby in. My deal was no weapons for you, not me."

But he'll never forget. His father doesn't trust him.]

....

Dad was never very good at talking through when he's wrong.

[He sighs, rubbing at his face, closing the comic.]

[Hm.]

[Picking up the death maze at Hueso's.]

[An earlier comic, a lot more worn. But the beginning starting with Leo struggling with his portals, his brothers ragging on him while they have theirs figured out for the most part. Not their fullest forms, no, but they can at least get them going at will. Meanwhile, Leo's struggling. He's never struggled at anything like this, and it's wrong. It shouldn't be like that. And his brothers are not making it easy.

So the discovery of Hueso's Run of the Mill Pizzaria is good. It's a chance to prove himself. Prove to his brothers that he's still just as skilled as he's always been, this is just new. The whole adventure plays out more or less as is, with Leo's mental struggling with his portals, whispering to himself that he is a champion quiet and subdued, moreso than whatever it may have looked like in the moment to them.]

[~~Gifted kid life~~]

[Donnie realizing that may he and Leo are even more alike than he first thought. He knew they had a lot in common, but now its Even Worse.]

[Is it worse?]

[Its probably worse.]

[There is a lot of]

[Stop starting]

[This time]

[Before he goes to check for a comic about the Gift fiasco]

[The gift fiasco...

Donnie's Gifts

It starts easy enough, the brothers enamored with the gifts Donnie made them. But as they start to fight Meatsweats, they turn and make things worse. eventually they're separated, and Leo tries to talk to them.

"Anyway, we need to tell Donnie that he doesn’t get to tell us what to be."

Raph nods, though hesitant. "Yeah, I know. But he’s got such a softshell."

"But it’s like he’s trying to fix us. What are we, broken?" Leo needs them to know they aren't broken. Because if they are, that means he is too. And he can't deal with that, not right now.

But Raph and Mikey agree: "No."]

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