Thirty-Third and a half Theory [Action/Illusion]

[i_speak_softly]

[Today Donatello is lying on the couch in House 55, staring into space. He's sick and he knows for a fact that he's hallucinating, so he will not be at all disturbed by anything that might present itself to his vision. It's only a product of his feverish brain, after all...]

((Go on and barge into his house, fourth-wallers. Replies may not be entirely coherent, but they will at least be agreeable.))

Comments

[hiddenbadass]

[The "we" is his answer.

This is starting to get very awkward. But, at the same time, he doesn't let go. He shifts so he can hold Donny better.]

Sorry I didn't get here sooner. ... Wherever "here" is.

[i_speak_softly]

Luceti. Nexus world. Been here ten months... Raph eleven. When - When're you from?

[hiddenbadass]

[... Wait, ten months? Eleven? A nexus world isn't as surprising, but--

Well, Don had come back still as young as he was. And they had been through weird time stuff before. So, something had happened again. He'd figure it out later. For now, Don is probably half-coherent and unable to answer his questions properly.

Ignoring everything else that's happened to him beyond his last moment with Donatello--and even that moment--Mike starts with the simple things.]

From our last chance to bring Shredder down.

[i_speak_softly]

Ugh... which last chance?

[hiddenbadass]

The one where you were gonna spear him with the Turtle Tunneler.

[i_speak_softly]

[He spends a long time thinking about this before reaching a conclusion.]

Later than me, then.

[hiddenbadass]

[Seeing that expression on your sickly face is so familiar that it hurts. That causes a long blink.]

... Later than you? What's the last thing you remember?

[i_speak_softly]

[Mike, these questions are difficult. Do you really have to ask them now?]

... Stealing Bishop's train car.

[hiddenbadass]

[Sorry, Donny. He needs to know. Now.]

... Stealing Bishop's train car? But he isn't--

[And then Mike goes extremely silent, but eventually almost whispers.]

When he captured Karai?

[i_speak_softly]

Yeah... [Something that's been slowly seeping through his fever-fogged brain finally reaches his consciousness.] Mike, you have no arm.

[hiddenbadass]

[And Mike goes stalk still, just staring down at Donatello with what could only be described as a horrified look because Donatello doesn't remember him. And, until the last few moments, he thought he did.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don pulls back. It's a sensitive subject, obviously, but he couldn't not ask.]

... Mikey?

[hiddenbadass]

You don't remember.

[i_speak_softly]

No... Maybe Raph does...

[hiddenbadass]

[Mike's just quiet. Again. Until....]

Don, the last thing you remember happened over thirty years ago.

[i_speak_softly]

[Congratulations, Mike, you just made Don's brain explode.]

You're forty- -- [His ability to do math fails.] Over forty?!

[hiddenbadass]

[That somehow makes him feel a little better, having Donatello react in shock like that. It was kinda funny.]

Almost fifty.

[i_speak_softly]

[He grabs compulsively at Mike's other arm.] And the rest of us?

[hiddenbadass]

[Mike jumps slightly, but doesn't jerk his arm away.]

Raph and Leo are older, too. You just came back without aging a day.

[i_speak_softly]

[His head drops forward to thump against Mike's plastron. Alive. His brothers are all nearly fifty and still alive. Somewhere, sometime, he must have done something right.]

[But still.] That's not supposed to happen.

[hiddenbadass]

[More like that's the one thing that they managed not to screw up. Staying alive, if even sometimes only barely.

Slight snort.]

You're telling me.

[He does shift his arm back around sickly Don so he doesn't fall over. Or something. Now that Don's pretty much curled up with him, he's remembering he used to love physical contact like this.]

[i_speak_softly]

And you don't remember being here before?

[hiddenbadass]

No, I don't. Don't remember the wings, either.

[He was in another place before this. But he was human there. It didn't make any sense.

Also, he might be shifting his arm just enough that he can poke one.]

[i_speak_softly]

Ow. [Apparently being sick makes the wings even more hyper-sensitive than they already are. He pulls them flatter against his shell.]

[hiddenbadass]

Sorry.

[Very slow blink.]

... Those are weird, Donny.