i_speak_softly | Thirty-Seventh Theory [Voice/Action for Housemates]

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Thirty-Seventh Theory [Voice/Action for Housemates]

((Backdated to this morning.))

Filtered to Helios || Unhackable

Helios, I need to talk to you. About your barrier.

[After this conversation, Don will attempt to occupy himself around the house. He swore off his tools and computer earlier in the week, and hasn't quite figured out yet how to fill his time without them. While he putters, he'll wonder whether anyone will remember that it's his birthday. Probably not. It's an arbitrary date, anyway - unlike six days from now, which will mark his one-year anniversary in Luceti.]

[The thoughts put him in a melancholy mood. Or maybe that's because it's been snowing for three days straight; or maybe it's because yesterday's events have taken a toll on his energy. Whatever the reason, it is a quiet and reflective Donatello that his housemates will find if they come looking for him.]

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[He gestures for her to come in and sit on the bed.] It's been a bad week. [And April may not be aware of all of it.] A bad three weeks, I guess.

[April moves into the room but doesn't sit just yet. Arms folded, tired.]

Tell me.

[He starts counting on his fingers.]

You were kidnapped. Derek left. The Malnosso put things in my head again. And in a pattern I'm getting very tired of, I built something for someone and they disappeared before I could give it to them.

[Now she sinks down onto the bed, saying nothing. Just waiting to see if he has more to say.]

[He might get around to having more to say. For now he moves behind April and asks:] Where are you sore?

Huh? Oh. Yeah, you know. Everywhere.

Lean forward a little. [If she complies, he'll lay his hands on her back and attempt a combination of the shiatsu he learned from Master Splinter and the healing magic he's been practicing in Luceti.] Do you remember anything?

[April obeys, leaning her forehead onto her hands and closing her eyes.] Yeah. Yeah, I do.

[He starts at the base of her neck, working the pressure points, finishing each one with a little push of healing energy.]

Do you want to talk about it?

It's not something I really want to talk about, Donnie.

[But this is making her feel better.]

I came in wondering if YOU needed to get something off your mind.

[He understands.]

[He's quiet a while, concentrating on his work, while the rest of his brain tries to figure out what it is he wants to say.]

I feel like I'm going the wrong way.

[There is just the quiet of an open listener following this sentence. She doesn't prompt for more; if he wants to enlarge on it, he will.]

It doesn't have to be forever, right? It's okay to just... take a break for a while.

[April may get the feeling Don is answering some other conversation.]

[Okay, now she's confused.] What doesn't have to be forever, Donnie?

Quitting things. [He leans over her a little, trying to catch her eye and see what she thinks.] I quit a lot of things.

[And she leans back, reaching over her shoulder to pat his hand and trying to get a read on HIS expression.] Like what things?

[He pauses in his work.] I quit school. I quit inventing. Do you know I had quit training for a while?

Don't quit rubbing my back. I'm not prepared for that yet. [Joke.]

See, you call that "quitting" but I call that "taking a break from stuff."

[He obligingly resumes the massage.]

My family doesn't really believe in taking breaks. I mean - when you stop doing something, how do you know whether it's a break or not?

[she closes her eyes again, allowing a held breath to release slowly.]

You know when you feel ready again. When you want to do things, not because you HAVE to, but because you feel like it.

[He moves his hands down, almost to her waist.]

Isn't that kind of retroactive? If I don't know if or when I'm going to start something again, I can't really say that I'm just taking a break.

Mmhmm. [That...feels good. But then April snaps out of it:] Donnie? You're overthinking it. Knock it off.

[He shuts up for a minute, then says:] These are the questions Raph will ask. I have to be able to answer him.

Do I need to have a talk with him?

Please don't...

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