licensetocrane | IC CONTACT

[Aww. She makes a face and pushes the brooch back towards him, then. All yours my guy.]

Uh huh. And how'd that work out for ya? [Did you stick the landing.]

[He accepts it and puts it back where he found it.]

It was awesome. I went so fast! I think I scared some birds.

[Thankfully he did not have to stick the landing, Raph caught him. Probably still playing it safe with the (at the time) new babiest bro, but mostly it was because he had nowhere to throw Casey besides up.]

Man, those poor birds. [Amused.]

...and okay, I'll bite. [She was trying to be nice, but the gremlin is just too strong.] Leo nearly lost his mind, you say?

[He grins, direct gremlin to gremlin communication.]

He made a noise I'd never heard before. It was like a tea kettle. Couldn't even get through a "hello"!

[Cackling.] Oh, man. I wish I'd been there to see it. Anything that makes Leo speechless is totally worthwhile.

I wonder if anybody else could show up at his door with a brooch and pretend they'd always been that way, or if it worked for me because he'd only known me a handful of months...

[Rethinking the prank potential of this brooch, now.]

Runnin' joke. Every week like clockwork get another turtle child to turn up at his door lookin' hopeful.

[Okay, that sparks a proper laugh out of him, loud and helpless, before he hastily covers his mouth with both hands. Right, right, he's supposed to be quiet. It's still late.]

...hah... thanks, April.

[He'd already felt pretty good about all this, but he feels even better now. He's glad she came over.]

Any time. [Grin.]

...you said it's footage you have, right? Like... the live stuff?

Mostly, yeah. It sort of varies depending on how far back the footage went. A ton of early footage got deleted, or lost when a base was destroyed, and it looks like Uncle Tello set up, like, facial recognition or a motion sensor to delete empty hallways and sort out stuff involving people he didn't care about. There's a lot of old still images, glitchy footage, corrupted data...

[He makes a wobbly hand gesture.]

And there's still a ton I haven't gone through. I knew to check certain dates, and a few to avoid, that's how I was able to get most of the photos I have now. [He gives her a questioning look, curious on why she's asking. Does she want to see it?]

[Yeah, basically. Though she's still hesitant because this is so personal, so...]

...would you be open to me watchin' it with you some time? The stuff you've already seen. [His right to look through his own footage first after all.]

I'm totally okay if the answer is no. Genuinely. I get it.

[That hesitation is echoed on his part, his brows furrowing as he thinks over her request. The lack of pressure is welcomed, and yeah, it is personal, but that isn't entirely why he's hesitant. He hasn't forgotten the night of their joint dive into his mind, and how hard it had been on her to see, well, the horrors. But he also doesn't have to show her the horrors... it would be up to him to essentially pre-approve what she sees. Which means they can both think about it first.

Is it okay? Is he open to it? Kind of yes, kind of no. This stuff has always been private viewings, not even Hunter has seen it. At most Rue's seen a handful of his unsorted screenshots. And watching them has been really, really hard. To bear witness to the history of so much of his life, whether he was present for it or not. Meetings he hadn't been able to sneak into. Shared whispers of their impending doom. Jokes and laughter and playful shoves in the hallway, lost to time. The smiles, screams, and silence of the dead. Sometimes he's fine and sometimes he's a horrible snotty mess, even on a rewatch. It has some wild and messy potential to be super awkward.

She probably knows this, considering her tone. She knows what she's asking. He wonders, though, if she knows what she's offering: company, through the best and the worst of it, if that's what she wants.]

Well... the answer isn't no. [He's not definitively opposed, for sure. It may not have been her life, but she's still April. Her alternate self lived through it, that counts for something.] There's a lot of it. What would you want to see?

[Is this a dealer's choice sort of thing, or is she investigating? Does she want drama or shenanigans? The guys, herself, silly Diego-novella moments or just- anything goes? He's suddenly somewhat paralyzed for choice.]

[That there is also a difficult question. She can't help her curiosity. She doesn't want to see the painful stuff, not really, but she's sure willing to make sure Casey doesn't have to sit with it alone if he doesn't want to. So she takes a step back from the photo board, glancing again at all the future turtles. Casey's family. Hers... by association, in a sense. They will never, she hopes and prays, end up in a future anything close to this.

But.]

I dunno. [Softly.] I think I'd just like to see them live.

[And she hates that Casey is the only person who remembers them. They deserve more than that. So does Casey.]

[The answer is simple, but one Casey can easily understand. It's the same reason he listened to every story sensei or the others used to share about their lives before the invasion, and why he absorbs (or tries to) every little detail their younger selves are inclined to offer up as well. He loves them, he wants to know them and the lives they led.

It's all the convincing he needs, really. He'd meant what he said before: he wants to remember them, and he wants to share them. This is a welcome thing, what she's asking for.]

Yeah... yeah, okay. [He considers for a moment. She's here now, they're both awake, and he's not very sleepy. Hm.] Wanna see something now? I got a few good ones in mind.

[This isn't a bad conversation by any means, but it's also nice to end the night on a high note.]

[She smiles back at him, straightening.] Yeah. Yeah, show me what you got. Movie night. Movie... early morning? You know.

[The most bittersweet movie night, but she'll take it.]

Yeah!

[Night, morning, what even is time, especially in this family. (Thinketh the time traveler.) He grins back, takes a step towards the door - pauses, rethinks it, and just. Closes the distance to give her a hug real quick first. This! Means so much! He's almost as excited as he is nervous. Bittersweet is definitely the word for it.

He doesn't cling too long, though, fetching his laptop and heading for the living room to get everything set up. He'll be sure to put on a few good memories, something fun or lighthearted, for both of their sakes. Maybe the day they brought Raph home after all those years missing, everyone was so happy...]

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