neonleon | post-snek recoveries

[ Hunter leans his forehead down to rest against Leo's. Gentle, so gentle ... ]

Come on. We're going home.

[ He blinks away again - again - until there's finally the glowing outline of a door just ahead of them, with the reddish trees of a forest visible just beyond the threshold. ]

Home... Yeah. Yeah, let's- Go home.

[He doesn't move, closes his eyes until they're at the door and the light hits him. It's so different from everything in this dimension it's impossible to miss. He has to shut his eyes once Hunter steps them through from the light until he can adjust, his body going dead weight with the full proper gravity.]

[ Hunter staggers a little as the full weight hits him, but he's a strong former grimwalker and he's not going to let Leo fall. Instead he gently lowers Leo to the ground. ]

-- Raine! Darius! I got him! H-he needs a healer!

[ And while things are moving in the background, Hunter whirls to get the door closed before trouble can follow them through. ]

[Raine and Darius were on standby while their protégé embarked on this task. But once the turtle 'demon' is out and on the ground, they approach carefully, even as Leo is turning his head to watch Hunter.

Prime found the door, he's coming for it, arm outstretched - Only for it to be slammed shut in his face. They don't hear his wail of anger from the other side of it. Not when the now former-coven heads are trying to get the turtle bundled up for transport.

But Leo is watching Hunter and. This is real. It's real, not a dream or anything.]

[ It's VERY real. Once the door is closed, Hunter lunges forward to activate the circle of fire glyphs he had set up. They don't look like the ones Leo saw before? It's a new design, and they're much larger for way less effect. But the end result is the same: Hunter SCORCHES the living daylights out of the spot where the door had been just in case of lingering Krang.

Hunter turns back as Darius and Raine are bundling. ]

Be - be gentle, please. He's even worse off than I thought.

[ He's holding a couple pieces of Leo's shell in his hands too. ]

You have to stay with us, Leo. Okay?

[He's already mentally trying to tally up his own wounds, but chief among them is definitely a concussion or five. Hunter's right, he has to stay with them. The vines around his shell and plastron are holding together, but Darius gets a bit of sludge to encase it further, and Raine carefully helping it solidify for now.]

I'm- I'm here. With you.

[With all that settled, Raine comes to stand next to Hunter while Darius uses a bit more sludge to lift Leo up and start carrying him.]

"I'm sure he'll be fine."

[ Hunter clings to the shell pieces as Darius starts to carry him off. There's nothing else he can do now, except hover by Leo's bedside once he's been tended to, and hope that the time it took to have healers and a bed prepared for him at the university was worth the extra time the Krang had to maul his fiancé. ]

He - he needs to be. If he dies after all this -

[ the temptation to go full Belos and make grimwalkers would be SO high. ]

[They smile gently at Hunter, keeping their tone sympathetic.]

"They took care of me and Eda. They can take care of him, I'm sure."

"To be perfectly fair, you were not in as many pieces." [Darius is still carrying Leo but watching them over his shoulder before he looks at where they're going toward the university. Raine smiles a little.]

"We won't let him die."

[ Darius please you're not helping. Hunter winces. ]

Please. Please. I'll do anything. Anything at all that will help him--!

[ He drifts after Darius, not taking his eyes off Leo for a second. ]

"Don't worry, Hunter, we won't let anything happen to your special friend." [Darius does think it's cute, but this situation is not how he would have wanted to meet Hunter's fiancé.

The university is big and open for them. They're ready for whatever Hunter had told them, but it's still a shock that not only was it true, but it's worse than they expected from what Hunter told them. They're rushed in to the healers as they start working on Leo as they walk, some of the abomination sludge having to be cracked and broken to get to his plastron.]

[ Hunter had given him all the details he could - that a turtle demon would be arriving with a cracked shell, that his arm would probably be messed up badly, and that there would be internal injuries too. But all of them put together like this, and worsened by the last couple of hits ...

He stays back out of the way of the healers, but he's not leaving the room. ]

I - I know. I just. He's already had so much happen to him. I didn't realize it would be this bad.

[Raine rests a hand on Hunter's shoulder, trying to offer support where they can.]

"I don't know that any of us could have guessed. But they'll get him taken care of."

[Leo tries to breathe as they start working on him, removing some more of the abomination and rolling him onto his stomach and the back is. It's bad. Cracked and open but thankfully nothing had fallen out.

Darius steps away from the healers to come stand by them, arms crossed and his half-cape draped over his arm.]

"He's in their hands now."

[ Hunter just stares at that cracked and open back. He shifts forward to put the shell pieces down for the healers to use, then gets out of their way again. Back under Raine's hand on his shoulder. ]

What do I do now? Just - just wait?

[The healers see them and nod; they'll grab them when they know for sur they have a way to seal them back with the cracks.

Raine looks from Hunter, to Darius, back to Hunter.]

"Let's work on getting you fed. That portal probably took a lot out of you. And we can fix something for him to eat too."

"I'm sure he'll be starving by the time the healers are done."

-- Right! I can make sure he has the best the Boiling Isles food available! A-anything he wants!

[ totally skipping over the part where HE is exhausted from portalling and HE needs food too. ]

[Raine smiles gently, figuring that's what would happen. They start guiding Hunter to the cafeteria. Darius gives a few instructions to the healers to message them when the turtle's at a less critical point.

It's okay though. The food is like... It's all the same food Hunter knows and remembers and loves, and Darius makes sure Hunter actually gets a plate for himself while Raine takes the things Hunter told them and considers it when putting together a plate for the turtle. Simple things, ease him into the Boiling Isles.]

"He's... a bit more spindly than I thought he'd be."

[ No fairy pies YET. Twitching tentacles though, that's probably fine.

Hunter reluctantly allows himself to sit and eat once that's all been compiled for Leo. Nothing to do but ache with worry over his fiancé. ]

... Yeah. I think ... I think he's been in there a long time. Longer than I realized. Maybe longer than he knew about in that temple place.

[Raine and Darius exchange looks before Raine settles with their tea.]

"That temple place... I'm certainly glad you aren't there anymore. How long did he think he was there?"

[ Sorry Raine and Darius. Hunter was probably a sight when he got home for the first time - new scars, babbling about saving a turtle demon. ]

... I thought it was just a day or two. But you can't get that thin in just a day, right?

"...No. Not unless that dimension runs differently than ours or Luz's dimension."

[Sip sip... Raine's just... Thinking. Darius watches Hunter carefully; he would never admit to being openly worried about the boy when he showed up, scarred and taller and going on about this snake god and a turtle and other dimensions.

But Hunter had such conviction in it, and now to see it's all true.]

"We'll get him back on his feet in no time. Don't worry."

[ Hunter nods at that, staring down at his plate. ]

Yeah. He - he can tell me for sure. When he wakes up.

[Both mentors nod and sip at their respective drinks. Eat a little of their own food but far more focused on making sure Hunter eats well. Waiting really is the worst part. But eventually, Darius does get a message. He looks at his scroll to read it.]

"Ah. They've done what they can for now. Let's see if he can stomach down some simple soup."

[ Hunter is reluctant but famished; he winds up finishing everything with some encouragement.

Well. Almost everything. He drops his own bowl of soup with a clatter. ]

-- I'll help him! He'll eat better if I feed him!

[Both blink at the reaction a little, seeing the soup that spilled a little. Darius smiles because wow. Subtle much?

He pushes a tray of soup, whatever amounts to crackers and water to Hunter.]

"Of course. He'll be happy to see you, I'm sure."

[ Hunter nods and takes up the tray. Gee someone might be a LITTLE over enthusiastic about a "special friend." ]

Yeah! So - I'll go do that, and.

[ He bobbles the tray a little. ]

Thank you for your help.

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