IC CONTACT

[licensetocrane]

 "Hi, this is April.  If you're calling at 3am, you better be someone I know REAL well."

Gif source

Comments

audio; shortly after Trial 18 has ended

[oweschildsupport]

You around?

[licensetocrane]

Nope. I'm totally a recording.

[oweschildsupport]

Har har. [He responds blandly. And then, without any kind of lead-in:] What do humans do when they're sad?

[licensetocrane]

Uhh. [That was left field. Is Draxum sad? Seems fake, but okay.]

...depends? Like humans get sad for a whole lot of different reasons, so the way they get sad is different too, and the way to cheer them up. Makin' someone laugh works if they're just a little down, but try that on someone whose brother just died and they'd punch you in the face.

[oweschildsupport]

Hrm.

[He looks to his right where, not too far off in the distance, a pair of calcified skeletons are just visible beneath the murky water. Somehow, he doubts they're going to tickle his funny bone. Neither does his own pun, but eh. That was never his type of humor.]

All of those scenarios involve another person. What about when they're alone? I once had a co-worker who claimed she finished an entire ice cream carton by herself in one sitting because her boyfriend dumped her, but that struck me as preposterous.

[Not that he has ice cream either. Maybe he could summon some. Do Spoons work in swamp water?]

[licensetocrane]

Ice cream cheers people up! It's why people eat chocolate, too, endorphins and all that.

Do you have to stay alone? Because honestly, like, the best thing is to go hang with someone who gets you.

[oweschildsupport]

[Pfft, as if. Has he ever had anyone who gets him? Sure there's the rat, but he's insufferable, and Michelangelo doesn't really get him so much as he throws whatever absurd solution will stick to the wall. Neither of them are here. He might have had a pretty good rapport with Hunter going, but who knows how the boy feels about him after—

He feels the shift of mud and sinks an inch deeper into the muck. Right. Focus on solutions, not problems.]

I don't know. [The lie comes smoothly, unbothered.] Probably. The person I saw on the train had headphones in, so I assumed they preferred to be alone. I can't speculate on their lifestyle.

[Because this is a totally random person they're talking about, April, gosh.]

[licensetocrane]

[...]

Barry.

[oweschildsupport]

[Still bland as before:] O'Neil.

[licensetocrane]

Where are you.

[oweschildsupport]

[...Damn. He actually thought that would work (and if he slides a little bit deeper again into the muck, it's not because it bothers him that it didn't).

Well, lying's not going to get him out of this. On the other hand, he doesn't want April sending anyone out here. Exile is as wide as it is twisting, and easy to get lost in. Even someone who could teleport like Leo likely wouldn't find him fast enough. Whether he could be convinced to accept it or not, outside help is useless here. There's no point in mentioning it. So for a moment the silence stretches, as Draxum considers his options and finds... none, really.

When he speaks again, this time he just sounds quiet. Tired.]

Another suggestion, if you would.

[licensetocrane]

[That's actually. Far more alarming than a more defensive shut up I'm not depressed YOU'RE depressed response, which is what she was kind of expecting.]

I'm gonna assume you don't wanna talk about what's making you miserable as shit. Give it to me in broad strokes. Do you miss home? Are you stressed about invasion stuff? Did Miriam kick you down another hole?

[That last one deliberately trivial.]

[oweschildsupport]

[The comment doesn't even get an amused snort. The sucky thing about this swamp? It seems to just take all of the sorrow and grief you're feeling and makes it feel heavier. The magic is so dense here; he can feel it pressing in on all corners, and cognitively he knows what it's doing, but he can find no safeguard against it. It makes it hard to act like his usual self.

April says to tell her what's wrong in broad strokes, but even as he considers it and lines up all the thoughts in his head, it's just one thing after another. He doesn't think he can sum it up easily. Really thinking about it all at once instead of trying to bury the hurt where it belongs though makes it feel like his right leg is about to give out, though, so as it does he blurts out the first thing that comes to mind.]

The invasion.

[The foot that sunk goes a little bit further, then seems to at last find purchase on something. Doesn't come back out when he tugs on it, though. Carefully adjusting his stance so as to not lose his balance, Draxum continues.]

Decades of work wasted. Not being there when it mattered. Timelines.

[licensetocrane]

[April doesn't yet know about the swamp's qualities so she doesn't even think to wonder what else might be going on in the background-- heck, she doesn't know he's there in the first place. But he does sound vaguely distracted, and she's growing slightly concerned despite herself.

And thus also vaguely annoyed because it's Barry.]

What makes you think you weren't?

[oweschildsupport]

[Clipped:] Everyone I've spoken to has confirmed I wasn't present. It doesn't matter what I was doing instead.

[He wasn't there when it mattered because he wasn't there with them.]

1/2

[licensetocrane]

Are you kidding?

[Now she sound annoyed.]

You weren't present where we were. So what? There's no way you were just lazing around in your apartment going "oh, seems to be an invasion on" and sipping tea, you dork. You coulda been doing anything! You coulda been down helping in the Hidden City, or helping at the school, or any number of things. You have no idea! But you ain't the stay home and be useless kind! [You could have been at a lunch lady convention! She doubts it.]

[licensetocrane]

Also, I got an addition to that, but if I hear you told anyone else I said it I'm gonna kick your ass.

[oweschildsupport]

[Well yes, he knows he wouldn't have just sat on his hands while something like that was happening. He knows wherever he was he must have done everything he could. But does that matter? The fate of the world and the lives of the people he now considers family—all of that went down on the frontlines. The vision of Casey's future that's literally carved into his mind tells him that whatever he was doing, it would have been for nothing.

Might still be for nothing, if he's from Casey's timeline and not theirs. If, if, if. He's getting so tired of if.]

Yeah, sure. [Palming his face, Draxum's sigh is resigned.] What is it?

1/2

[licensetocrane]

[Draxum you overthink. Go sit in the corner. She can't address those brackets, she's not a mindreader, so back to her point:]

The guys are amazing. They're the ones that went toe to toe with the stupid bubblegum brigade and won. Because they're smart and brave, and that's on them. And they got their ninpo, that sure helped.

But they're also tough as hell, and that's on you.

[licensetocrane]

[Somewhere, Splinter is clutching his chest with great offense.

He can stick it. Her voice is much softer.]

Leo was a mess when he got out. They all were. I think they beat the Krang with their own awesome, but they survived because of you.

[JFC THEY EXIST because of you. So rude.]

You're the only reason I still have a fam, so don't give me that crap.

1/2

[oweschildsupport]

[She's met with silence again, but not because he's wallowing in his own misery this time. No, no. That comment struck true, just with the kind of whiplash that leaves you disoriented.

The muck beneath his feet feels just a little bit firmer all of a sudden.]

Oh. [He's still taking that in.] They were created to save the Hidden City... instead they saved the world.

[oweschildsupport]

[Very quiet—almost inaudible—there's a short, wet laugh on the other side of the line.]

Even in that alternate timeline they were the last ones standing. [The ones who sent Casey back, and to whom they owe everything in the end.] It's incredible, isn't it? The way they defy every expectation.

[Their destiny was never meant to be that painful, but they've risen above it anyway and fulfilled what has been for decades his sole wish.

And he's the one who made them. He wasn't there, but they were, and they were there because he made them. ]

[licensetocrane]

[That sounds a little more promising. She snorts on her end, hiding her relief.]

Yeah. They're amazing.

You done havin' a mid-life crisis?

[She doesn't care, obviously.]

[oweschildsupport]

[He tries to tug himself free again, and while he manages to drag one foot partway out of the mud, the other's still stuck. Not yet, it looks like.]

Mostly. [Is what he says instead, so as not to worry her. And then a bit awkwardly, he adds:] Thank you, April, for hearing me out.

[He kinda still needs her to stay on the line, though. As uncomfortable as it is to talk about this stuff, it is clearly helping, and he doesn't think he needs too much more to free himself.]

Time and space work strangely here. I'm not sure that anyone from home will have noted our disappearance, but in the event they have... Do you think Michelangelo will be all right?

[A beat, then:] And the rat. I guess. But I'm less worried about him.

[That's a fucking lie. If they have noticed, Lou is certainly taking it worse, BUT LIKE. Given what he's heard of Michelangelo ripping open portals between worlds and coming close to disintegrating in the process, he feels the passage of time more pressingly as it concerns him.]

[licensetocrane]

Sure. [Easily said. Actually she doesn't know what he thinks of Splinter, needs a big It's Complicated status stamp, but Mikey?]

He hasn't noticed we're gone. I'm from a couple months after the guys, and I sure didn't notice a sudden lack of three turtles. And Mikey didn't either.

It's really weird, I gotta tell you. Like I have all these future receipts on people. I know Jones a lot better than he knows me! Or like. Present me, anyway.