thepurpleone | Cyberformed [] Inbox

It isn't more than a few seconds before the portal opens and Leo hops through, basketball under one arm with his tag along lantern tagging along. He leaned his sword against the table and turns to free throw the ball across the room, where it lands perfectly on a bean bag chair. Score!

"Alright, D, work your magic!" he said as he faced Donnie again, picking up his sword and sheathing it. He made a face, realizing what he said. "Ok, before you say anything that was a figure of speech and I meant science, but I won't say no if the magic works."

Leo reached over his shoulder and hooked his fingers through the ring at the top of the lantern, swinging it over towards Donnie. When it was being held, it didn't see to care as much about floating, looking for all intents and purposes like a normal, if mystical, lantern.

Donnie smiled blandly as he watched Leo show off, although inside he was at least a little glad that his brother was feeling better enough to be able to do so.

Said smile tugged upwards into more of a smirk, although when paired by the dry look he was still otherwise giving his brother, it somehow suggested something more sinister.

"Hah," he said, turning briefly to pick something up from his work table. "How about a bit of both?"

He held up a screw about the size of his palm, fingering his chin as he studied the lantern. For all that he'd interacted with it, this was really the first time he was getting a good look at it.

The glowing purple lines of circuitry traced along the one arm as he closed his hand around the metal piece, changing it into a carabiner attached to a sort of clip that looked like it could attach to a belt. It was all terribly anti-climatic, right through to him clipping the carabiner around the lantern's ring.

"Locked," he said, giving the clip a tug before thumbing a switch, and with Leo still holding it, he tugged the other end to show the thin string-like cable that unfurled.

"Unlocked."

Leo wouldn't have considered that showing off, but that all depending on your perspective and what you thought was easy or not.

His expectant grin turning into an unimpressed look at Donnie's little trick. As if he hadn't already thought about clipping it to something.

"Donnie. Brother. Mi hermano. I admire the economical solution but we both know I was looking for something a little more inventive. If I clip the lantern to my belt it'll still be in the way, so why don't you try again. Unless you want me to walk out of here knowing you gave me something Raph could have thought of."

Donnie was trying very hard not to smirk at Leo's look.

"What! It's simple, but effective!" he diverted, failing to completely stifle a snicker.

"But seriously, if it's not attached closer to you then I don't know what you expect otherwise. A baby carrier, maybe, hmm?" Okay, he couldn't quite stop himself from grinning at that image.

"Even if it were physically tethered, would it stay put? Have you tried locking it somewhere? It's got some kind of mystic power so what's stopping it from just...vanishing and reappearing beside you?"

Donnie tapped his finger against his chin before he took back the clip, flicking the switch back to locked. "I'll hang onto it. Let's see what happens when you try to get too far."

Leo hadn't ruled out a backpack or baby carrier-esque solution, but he wasn't about to give Donnie any ideas.

"That's exactly what it's been doing! I try and ditch it and it just pops back to hovering. Here. Watch."

Leo shoved the lantern into Donnie's hand and teleported himself to the other end of the room. The lantern remained innocently still. Seeing this, Leo threw his arms in the air with an exasperated yell.

"OH COME ON! Now you behave!?"

In Donnie's hands, there was no change from the lantern. The purple glow was however giving off a slightly different flavor of tranquility. Sanctuary, a safe place. Also a decidedly smug vibe.

Oh, okay fine, they'd do it that way then. Donnie kept from rolling his eyes as he found the lantern in his hands. He waited, watching as Leo vanished through a portal to reappear further within the room before his eyes flicked towards the lantern he still held, expectantly.

He smirked just a little at Leo's response when the lantern didn't perform as expected, his expression softening into a faint smile as he gave it a pat.

"You know, it spoke to me before it uh...linked itself to you," he said as he looked back over at Leo. "Have you tried talking to it? Ask it to hang back or...if it can tuck itself into a pocket dimension of some sort?"

Leo reappeared next to Donnie, looking down at the lantern as he crossed his arms loosely, the small frown on his face very different from the moment before as he thought about Donnie's words.

"I mean...a little? It talked to me, too, when it first flew over to me but it hasn't said anything since. Maybe it isn't as strong out here?"

"Hmm..." Donnie considered, loosening his hold on the lantern to allow it to float if it wanted to.

"Maybe? I mean...there is a lot I don't understand about the Cathedral." Did anyone though? He wasn't really feeling up for a return visit so soon to try working it out, if ever.

Absently he patted the lantern again. "...it asked me to open it, back there. I...think I channeled my ninpō into it to do it. Have you tried syncing with it somehow?"

"To be honest, I'd be worried if you did; and suspicious," Leo replied jokingly (mostly) as the lantern gently floated between the two of them, content to hang out there.

"Hm. Nah, not yet. It doesn't have anything to do with the Hamato so I didn't think about that. When I was able to tap into your power it was you, and on that magical girl planet it was still our own powers. I didn't think other magic here would work like that, ya know? All the other magic stuff been its own thing. Like this-" he flicked the brooch from Maya that was pinned to the belt across his chest.

Leo grabbed one of the chairs pushed off the the side and pulled it over, sliding it into place backwards and sitting on it with his arms crossed over the back, head resting on his arms.

"You think that'll work? It sounds, I don't know..." like it was going to take a lot of boring meditation.

"...why did it pick me anyway? You're the purple one."

"Ha-ha yeah no, I don't want to touch that place with a thirty-foot pole," Donnie said, the exaggerated smile flattening in an instant.

He stroked his chin as he thought about what Leo said. It was true enough, and to be fair he really still didn't quite have an understanding of all the mystic stuff they had access to. He hadn't even completely tapped into his own ninpō on that planet, but he knew that he'd felt Leo then, had reached out. That much made more sense now that he was connected with his brothers.

Frowning as he tried to puzzle things out, Donnie nudged his goggles down to have a look at the brooch Leo had, wincing as he quickly shoved them back up. He really had to figure out a way to tweak the settings when potentially viewing something at more powerful magic levels than the norm, otherwise he'd end up blinding himself.

"I mean... I'm hardly the expert on mystic anything," he said as he rubbed at his eyes. "Maybe ask someone who is?"

Donnie hesitated then at the question, shoulders hitching just a touch.

"...I think it was my fault." He grimaced. "Not that I knew what it was going to do," he hurriedly added on. "I just- I panicked. And then it said it could help if I opened it, and I just thought of all the times you were there, protecting us..."

"Yeah, that seems to be the general consensus on advise. Even Mik said that. I'll track one of them down in a bit." Once he remembered who all the magic users were. That cool strange crystal garden might be a good place to start.

Leo's eyes widened, not expecting Donnie's 'confession,' followed by a small breath of a laugh, almost relief. Even so his chest felt tight. The fact that Donnie had felt that way, had trusted him like that- it felt good. He'd always have their back just like they'd always have his. Still though, there was also the fact that that decision had undoubtedly been colored by their alternate life as mice, and that was hard to set aside. He was still trying to put those feelings of guardianship and that particular flavor of protectiveness away in a box in an effort to get things back to normal.

...something he wasn't certain was going to happen.

"Right, it's your fault," Leo replied with an exaggerated sardonic tone, "I can't believe you would do something to help all of us and heal me and Megs and keep me from attacking anyone. How could we ever forgive you?"

He reached forward, giving Donnie a light punch on the arm, all jest aside. "I can always trust you to find a way to turn around a bad situation, and I'll always have your back. Thanks, bro."

One of Donnie's favorite places, the crystal garden- very peaceful and mesmerizing, and surely nothing terrible about the big shiny cube that you could get so easily lost within when you tapped into it.

Leo would be wrong in that thought though; even though they'd been mice at the time, there was nothing influencing him from the role he'd established himself as, as protector then. It was still Leo who'd taken up position before them, acted first to give them an advantage. It was Leo who came to his rescue when he was being swallowed alive by a Witch. It was Leo who stayed by his side even though they were being roasted alive in an ancient guardian, fighting back an evil, destructive presence.

Donnie started to look mildly offended as Leo spoke up, expression shifting into dry annoyance instead as Leo continued. He snorted, glancing away until receiving that punch, some kind of brotherly seal of reassurance that only siblings or best buds would ever understand.

He smiled back, a strange expression that for once didn't look like it'd vanish at the first sign of something wrong, a smile of relief, of hoping that something he'd thought might have gotten lost was reestablished.

"Anytime, brother."

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