9370/Downtime Below

Downtime Below
Date of Scene:	29 September 2019
Location:	Turtle Lair, Williamsburg
Synopsis:	Leo zones out, and a group descision is made to take a break. Pippi worries about going to a farm.
Cast of Characters:	Leonardo, Pippi, Raphael, Alopex

---

Leonardo has posed:
Down in the lair, in the place the Turtles call home, now shared with a few others who have been pulled into their orbit, the day has been fairly quiet, all things considered. Everyone seems to be busy with their own things, be it training, studying, getting in some relaxation, sleeping, or even out doing something topside.

Not Leonardo. He's set aside a couple hours - because everything in his life must be scheduled, naturally - for video games. Michelangelo isn't there to interrupt, so he can get some quality time with one of his favorite RPG-style games on one of the older consoles they scrounged up. He leans forward in the ragged couch they found somewhere else, controller in his hands...

...only he isn't doing anything. The game is not being played. The main character is just standing idly in place, waving at the screen like it was programmed to do when someone's set the controller down or something. It's as if Leo's zoned out, staring through the television.

Pippi has posed:
    Video game music just brings back nostalgia for some folks, and for Pippi it was a sign that someone was in. She yawns, stretching her arms above her head as she slips out of her area, padding along the hallway wearing ripped up jeans and a loose I <3 NY tee, slipping up to the livingroom area, her ears pricked up, her nose giving a little bit of a twitch. Incense, sword oil, steel. Smelled like Leo.

Leonardo has posed:
The music continues, one of those MIDI-based soundtracks that people bought on import from Japan because they just had to be the coolest around their friends. Leo's grip on the controller is a loose one, just cradled in his overlarge fingers. His expression reveals a thousand-yard stare. One might guess he was in the midst of a gaming marathon, ready to tap out from exhaustion, but he was training just an hour or so ago.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi's tail gives a momentary wag in the air, before she looks over herself, smooths down some of the waviness of the 'hair' growing -- she's not shorn off the curly poodle-like fur at the top of her head, giving her a sort of unkempt look at this moment as she makes her approach, coming up behind Leo and looking at the screen as the character goes through its idle animation.

    She's rather quiet, though, not sure if she should interrupt.

Leonardo has posed:
Were Leo actually doing anything with the game, interrupting might be a bad idea. But, this is not really normal for him, sitting like this with the distracted, almost empty expression he shows. The mask is in place, but he doesn't even look like he's focused on the game. The sprite on the screen finally moves, but that's only because his thumb twitches against the control stick.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi's tail curls down, watching as Leo stares at the screen. It's uncomfortable, to be sure, fo her to be here with no back up, and she glances around for signs of the other brothers, or the other boarders in the Lair, and then takes a deep breath, and pipes up in a quiet voice.

    "Hey... Leo? ... you okay?" she asks, but doesn't make a move to come closer than she is, amber eyes carrying concern for the "Eldest Brother". Her ears draw back, then draw up, focusing on reply.

Raphael has posed:
    Raphael, for his part, has been training for the better part of the day, his grunts of exertion no doubt heard and or tuned out by the other inhabitants of the lair over time. When they finally die away, for about an hour or so, Raphael emerges, looking somewhat haggard and armed as though ready to face some manner of threat or another. He glances over the Lair, noticing Pippi standing and watching Leonardo, who seems... unusually zoned, holding a game controller and playing what Raph can tell is some sort of nerd game.

    Or at least 'playing' since the avatar is barely moving at all. Pippi breaks the question, and Raph leans against a nearby wall. "Yo, you forget you were gamin' or somethin', bro? This ain't the time to be meditatin'."

Leonardo has posed:
At that point the controller finally slips out of Leonardo's hands and bounces off the floor, his head beginning to dip forward before he jerks back upright with a start right about the time voices are registering. "..huh? What?" He looks around in confusion, eyes passing from Pippi to Raphael a couple times, then the screen, then hands rub over his eyes. "What are you guys talking about? I was playing this game," he explains.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi now looks worried, her ears drawing back as she looks to Raphael, and then she hops over the couch and sits cross-legged on the cushion, her red-and-white 'eyebrow' patches drawing up as her ridges rise up.

    "Leo, I came out the hallway and you hadn't even moved until I asked if you were okay." she states gently, and she rubs the back of her head "An' that means that you'r eprobably not okay, so I'm gonna start worrying."

Raphael has posed:
    Raph stirs a bit, blinking heavily. He's never seen Leo nearly fall asleep at the controller before, or at least not that he was able to remember or focus on. He pushes off the wall, making his way to the couch cautiously. "Bro, seriously, pup's got a point. You're crashin' where you sit. What's goin' on in that head'f yers?"

    While he and Leo may have their differences, he's still concerned for his brother, though he tries to not show too much. "Don't make me knock ya around."

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo's eyes can be seen to seek out the clock on the wall, to determine how long he's been at the console. Not too long, not even half the amount of time he'd set aside for it. Looking back down at the controller, he reaches to pick it up and set it beside him on the couch. "I was just trying to..you know." He gestures toward the screen, the sprite beginning to make motions at the screen again already.

"And I'm fine. I guess I dozed off a little. Just need some extra sleep." He sounds defensive, avoiding eye contact with either of them, suddenly evasive. "Nothing's wrong."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi watches Leo, her ears pricking forward as he evades the question, and she rubs the back of her head, and her tail curls upwards, and she cheerily states:

    "Well, that's good that there's nothing wrong, since after all we're all s'posed to be a family that can lean on each other when we need to. Pex says there is wisdom in both lending a hand -- /and/ accepting once you have a need."

    And then Pippi just reaches over and very, very gently knocks her knuckles against Leo's shoulder.

    "I /trust/ you wouldn't be trying to hold up the world on just /your/ shoulders."

Raphael has posed:
    Pippi is diplomatic and philosophical with her response.

    Raphael is brash and rude in his.

    "You gonna sit there and lie to me, bro?" he says, outrage clear in his voice despite the hypocrisy, given his own hanging secret. "Anyone lookin' at ya can tell you ain't in the right headspace. Spit it out, Leo. What's goin' on?" He cracks his knuckles, stepping in front of his eldest brother with a stern gaze in his eyes.

Leonardo has posed:
Two contrasting approaches. Pippi's, more concerned and cheerful and supportive. Raphael's, blunt and loud and accusing. Both potentially effective in their own ways, separate from each other, but when they hit Leonardo at the same time he visibly flinches. Not so much from the light contact Pippi engages in, but from the whole thing.

There's the briefest of moments when he shares a look of appreciation with Pippi, but it's Raphael's way of handling it that gets him to bite, some of that sibling rivalry stirring him to react. "I'm tired, okay? Everything going on, Shredder's still out there and he's got more mutants on his side. Father's been acting differently enough lately that I'm worried about him. We have more people around here to look after and keep safe. There's the Nightstalker or Nightwatcher or whatever he calls himself out there too." His voice speeds up by the time he's finished listing the issues, a bit louder as well as he reaches the verge of shouting back at Raph.

"I just wanted to give myself a little time to do something fun and I couldn't even go an hour without.." He looks back to the game, the screen, the controller, and in a moment of impulsiveness he just unplugs everything from the wall outlet, the power to the entertainment setup winking out. "I need to meditate," he claims, but it's obvious the last thing he's fit to do right now is try to meditate.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi's ears drop back at the abruptness of Raphael's accusations, and her hackles rise up a little -- protective a little bit of the blue-banded brother as Raphael takes the more aggressive approach -- but it was Leo's bite back that made her turn, and her tail curl and shoulders rise up. She looked back and forth between Raphael and Leonardo a few times before she physically winces, drawing back from him as he gets up to unplug the whole she-bang. The high-pitched electronic hum of the TV ends, and her ears draw forward a moment before she softly suggests:

    "... without... without what, Leo?"

    Her ears are still back, her eyes set on the elder bro as she folds her hands against her knees, and that left ear pricks forward, the one with the triange-shape and the 447 written in it. She's watching him carefully, but she's visibly tense.

    ... she's also ready to get between the brothers if it comes to blows.

Raphael has posed:
    Raph snorts lightly as Leo reacts, then watches him unplug the TV and gaming system in a single stroke in his annoyance. The red-banded brother draws himself up, crossing his arms. "Yeah, you're seeming real reasonable right now, Leo," he goads, though he nods as Pippi picks up on something he missed. "Yeah, what she asked. Without what?"

    He keeps his cool, which is rare enough for Raphael. Inside, he feels as though he's been struck at the mention of the Nightwatcher. Had his nightly masquerades seriously been weighing this heavy on Leo's mind, enough to break the eldest's legendary composure? He shakes his head a bit. "Ain't no need to worry about that night creep," he says, "Ain't heard nothin' from him in awhile, and we can take him as a team if we gotta, right? Though I ain't gotta lotta answers for the rest of it. But what I do know, Leo?"

    He steps up to his older brother, putting a hand on his shoulders. "You ain't in the right mind to meditate. You need that game, and to take your mind offa all this. You fall apart, what are Donnie and Mikey gonna do? Sit back down."

Leonardo has posed:
Meditation may be a retreat for Leonardo, even if it helps him center himself and stay that way. He isn't centered right now. He isn't balanced. He just looks worn out, from his body language to his words to the brief fit of anger that goes away as soon as it showed up.

"Falling asleep. I couldn't even go an hour without falling asleep just trying to play a game." With his strict schedule what it is, surely he's /been/ sleeping, hasn't he? It may not have been good sleep, but he may also have been up later than planned trying to work out the best ways to tackle the various issues they've got going on.

Given the hints that Leonardo may have had a clue who the Nightwatcher really was could have left Raphael looking over his shoulder. If this was all just part of an elaborate plan to get him to give up the alter ego...it'd be a great acting job, and Leo's not known to go to such lengths to manipulate others. He's always been up front with them, honest. So it must be weighing on his mind, yes.

The shoulder is tense when Raph makes contact with it. "I don't need the game, bro. I need..something else. A b...a br.." He can't even /say/ the word, sounding frustrated.

Pippi has posed:
    "... a break?" Pippi suggests, her ears pricking up.

    "... Alopex and I were talking the other night about maybe... getting out of the city, at least for a little while. Training... since Nemean and I can't really go all-out without risking a wall..." she trails off a moment, looking embarrassed with the admission as she rubs the back of her head. "An' with winter coming, people might not be out as much?"

Raphael has posed:
    Raphael shakes his head. In some part of his mind, he feels bad for stressing his brother out to such a degree, but he also knows he can't come clean in any regard without causing a rift between the two. Even more of a rift. He gives Leo's shoulder a squeeze, perhaps a bit tighter than absolutely necessary before pulling back. "You need a nap and... yeah, a break. Toss the schedule for a couple days and reset yerself. We ain't gonna fall apart or anything when ya do. Not everything in life has to have such a heavy structure, ya know." He crosses his arms.

    "Sounds good, Pip. Take Leo out for awhile, and don't let im stick to his schedule. Someone's gotta make sure the Lair's safe, so I can stick around. It'll be a vacation for me, too."

Alopex has posed:
    "You need far more than 'just a break', Leonardo." The voice is nearby, having been observing, and there's clear concern in the tone. "Aside from that, you should have realized by now that the entire weight of the city, and the fight against Saki, is not a weight that is on your shoulders alone. It's shared by everyone in this room, and especially myself. You can trust us to keep going if you need a moment. Not every day requires you to exhaust yourself to the point of sleeping while standing, ... metaphorically speaking."

Leonardo has posed:
It's always the ones that seem the most in control that run the risk of cracking at some point. Every so often, a reset is needed, a refreshing of the body and mind through changing things up, getting away from the norms, the routines, the rigid and almost militaristic way of planning out every last detail. Time and space is needed to just let things be.

"Yeah, that," he confirms when both of them make use of the b-word. Then he just about jumps in place when a third chimes in. Alopex. He hadn't even noticed her yet. Score points for her if he was in his right mind, but Mikey probably could have got away with the same thing with Leo in the state he's in now.

There is at least a reassured, if brief, smile between Leonardo and Raphael, one for Pippi as well, and finally even for Alopex. "But we should all go. Remember Northampton? April's farmhouse? We could go there. It's nothing like it is here. Maybe a week or two, long enough to just do something different. We could all do that. I can call April."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi's ears prick up. "A farm?" she inquires, sounding just a little worried, "... with like, chickens? Cows? Barncats? They don't have goats there, do they? Or llamas?" she pauses a moment, glancing back and forth between Leo, Raphael and Alopex.

    "... there's no geese, right?" she whispers, and looks a little spooked.

Raphael has posed:
    Raph blinks. He... he had kind of just expected Leo to take him up on his offer to remain behind, but he was silly to have thought such a thing. He should know by now: they're a unit. Where one goes, theoretically, they all go. "Yeah... Yeah, alright," he says, "That sounds like a plan." He offers a grin back at Leo, noting the marked improvement in Leo's mood at the thought. Even if Raph is a renegade, how can he be hard hearted to such a display? "Make the call. We'll start getting packed up. Seems like a good way to get a chance of pace." He crosses his arms. "And I mean it, Leo," he says, glancing at the other two, "No schedule, or I'll lock ya in the chicken coop."

Alopex has posed:
    Seeing Leonardo realize that, well, everyone in the room was telling him to go on vacation, and agree to it, was rather satisfying. "Glad to see you're taking our advice instead of being stubborn about it, Leonardo. Not everyone would agree with such an idea so suddenly."

    The fox wanders further into the room, finding a seat before replying to Pippi. "Possibly? I doubt however that there are any goats. ... I cannot promise there will be no geese, but they should be migrating right now. They may fly over, but hopefully that is all."

    "Raphael is right, by the way," the fox notes, going back to Leo. "No schedules, no chores, no itineraries. We go, we relax, we enjoy the outdoors... and the indoors for some, and just enjoy the company of one another. ... Someone get some marshmallows if they go to the store. I think our youngest deserves to enjoy a campfire and some of the treats that are made with them."

Leonardo has posed:
Perhaps Leonardo knew he needed a break, but needed to hear it from someone else to validate it, to make it all right to actually go through with. Who knows, with him?

"What's the problem with geese?" he asks, not quite getting it. "Aside from them being noisy and rude and messy. And, Alopex? Watch it. Tell Raph he's right too much and it'll start going to his head." But, while still showing signs of his fatigue in the form of a sluggish pace, he begins to walk around and check off some items in his head. "We'll need to make sure we have enough food, and we probably can't get pizza delivery. Mikey will flip over that, but if we bring enough frozen ones we'll survive. And we can.."

Freezing, he gives the other three a somewhat embarrassed look, teeth seen as he kind of grimaces. "I'm doing it again, aren't I?" He eyes Raphael at the threat, then relents and decides a cola Slurpee might hit the spot so he heads over that way. "Tell you what. Someone else can make the food plans and stuff. Maybe April can make sure we have enough."

Pippi has posed:
    "Nah, when I came out of the river after falling off the transport I got attacked by geese until I hid in the parking garage in the Bronx." Pippi replies casually as to her aversion of geese. "They're mean, and they bite hard!" she adds, and then hops up.

    "Well, I'll be ready to go in fifteen min--" she pauses, mid-slide-off-the-couch, and glances to Alopex.

    "... you're talking about me, aren't you?"

Raphael has posed:
    Raphael smiles. Even with his hard exterior, he can't help but feel a bit of excitement in the thought of a family retreat. Leo immediately stops himself planning, and Raph steps up. "We'll have April hit the store for us, provided she's agreeable. If not, Donnie can be on food duty. Mikey's gonna help YOU unwind, and the rest of us are gonna make sure we have a good time!" He claps his hands together, "Sounds good."

    He then shakes his head. "And that's the extent of my plannin'. I dunno what to do."

Alopex has posed:
    "Yes, you are," Pex points out with a reassuring grin before moving on, looking toward Raph as well since he brought up meals for the trip. "Actually, I'll look into the food situation. I already made one suggestion, I may as well follow through with the rest of it. I think this whole idea will be really good for all of us. Having some good food will only make it better. ... I can't believe I may have to put a smore on a pizza for Mike to try it though."

    The pup gets a kind smile, "You deserve a break as much as the rest of us. Your training has gone well, we've found a suitible weapon for you, I think trying a few new things won't hurt. Except possibly the Smore. Chocolate.. hrmph. Maybe I can figure out a substitute..." she considers out loud.

    Once Raph is done, the fox can't help but laugh a little, "Let me handle it. Leonardo can reach out to April, and I'll see about figuring out the rest, especially once we get there. This should be fun. For all of us."