7569/Visiting an Injured Friend

Visiting an Injured Friend
Date of Scene:	27 August 2021
Location:	Terry O'Neil's NYC Apartment
Synopsis:	A convalescing Vorpal calls his sensei who comes to visit and check in on his student.
Cast of Characters:	Terry O'Neil, Leonardo

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Terry O'Neil has posed:
It's been a rollercoaster week and a half for Terry. Getting mortally wounded is certainly no picnic, but the luck of having two bodies one can easily swap between is that you can put the broken one aside for a bit until a healer presents themselves.

And one certainly did present herself- Phoebe had used her feel-good holy magic to put Humpty Vorpy together, but the result of having so much order-aligned magic pumped into him was that the cheshire...

Well, there was no other way to say it- he was rather loopy, which is the reaction benevolent chaos seems to have when exposed to high concentrations of order magic.

He's texted his mother, April, Lois and everyone he considered close to him to alert them of his condition. Of course, in his current state, it wasn't exactly the most coherent of things:

<<HEY! Leo! <3!>>

<< So I nearly died>>

<<But don't worry I didn't.>>

<<I got pumped full of the good stuff>>

<<Magic. I mean. Not drugs. Drugs aren't good. Just say no. To drugs.>>

<<Unless they're the good kind of drugs, I mean? Sure, then you gotta say yes!>>

<<What was I saying? Oh. Right. It's right here in the history. LOL>>

<<Just wanted to tell you I'm not dead. Just very kinda wheeeee because that magic is like whoa she should bottle it and sell it because I've been seeing fairies for a week now>>

<<But I'm still kind of ow. And kind of whoa. But I didn't want you to think I was skipping out. Just can't do any physicksirk eks.J#&*HhfhAKHH#$>>

That last part was sent as gibberish. The reason why will become clear once anyone checks on Terry, because the Cheshire cat has fallen asleep. He's sprawled out on the couch in his underwear, his phone on his chest and his arm dangling off the side of the couch while Enya plays in the background. It had been Kian's idea, "something nice and relaxing" he had said. Well, nice and relaxing it was- and now Terry was dreaming about walking the maze of moments but everywhere he turns to begins a new beginning---

Parts of the living room, which sports a rather wide (and currently open) window overlooking the area, is currently being touched by Terry's subconscious power of illusion and parts of some sort of fairy world setting seems to fade in and out here and there. The effect is subtle... for Terry. Every now and then the apartment seems to be much bigger on the inside- with nooks and crannies of delightful forest or a regal but ethereal setting peeking through odd corners or corridors that weren't there before, only for them to vanish again once more.

And through this, the Cheshire cat sleeps.

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo was in the middle of katas when the first message went off with an audio clip of Sterling Holloway, as the Cheshire Cat from Disney's 1951 film, saying "Most everyone's mad here" but with the rapid fire messages the clip repeats and interrupts itself multiple times leading to a repeating "Mad... mad... mad... mad here... one's mad he... mad he... Most everyone's mad he..." which then ends with the full clip playing one more time.

The first time the clip starts doesn't get a reaction. Then the repetition starts and his focus begins to waiver then finally shatter and he steps out of his stances. As he walks over to his Shellphone Leo asks, "What have you gotten into Terry?" of the room as he's alone at the time. Then he reads the notes and concern paints across his features.

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Using a combination of skateboarding along dry parts of the sewers, running and hitching a ride on the back of a subway, Leo gets from the Mall Lair to the neighborhood in which Terry's apartment is located. The open window makes for an easy access to the residence...

"Woah, Donnie'd love this..." Leo says pondering for a moment before saying, "Its bigger on the inside" as if quoting a show he's been exposed to but isn't, himeself, a diehard fan of.

Finding Terry asleep on the sofa with his phone laying on the floor next to it where it dropped from his hand, Leonardo chuckles and reaches out to gently tap the center of Terry's forehead. If and when Terry gives any sign of consciousness the blue masked turtle says, "Hey, sleepy head," and then asks, "You went and broke yourself so hard you had to be healed with conflicting magic?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
His brow twitches a little at the contact, and a slight burst of purple color flits around the cat as if it were a two-dimensional butterfly. Whlie cats are capable of falling asleep at the drop of a hat, they are also capable of waking up at a whisper. His eyelids flutter a moment, and then his green eyes snap open, focusing on Leonardo at the same time that his ears twitch at the turtle's words.

Or, well, not /enitrely/ focusing on Leo. Just mostly.

"Leo?" he says in a voice that is still heavy with sleep, "Are you actually here or am I dreaming you? Maybe I'm dreaming you 'cause I was texting you before I..." he glances around. The apartment is deffinitely looking like one of Enya's more 'whooaaa' videos now. There's vases, There are paintings. There are windows looking out into impossible bucolic landscapes that you don't get to see in New York unless you happen to be renting a room at the Belvedere Castle (which you can't anyways). "Huh."

He focuses back on Leo, "But you're really here? You came to visit me?" He seems to doubt the substantiality of the turtle, since it has been hard to tell what is dream and reality in this state. He reaches over to touch Leo, because at least his illusions aren't solid.

Of course, he doesn't touch Leo because his hand misses him by at least a head. "... I'm still not fully coordina-... coordi... that thing." He tries again.

Leonardo has posed:
Leo puts his hand firmly but gently against Terry's chest and says, "Hey, if you want to sit up I can help you but... eight messages in five minutes?" He pauses and asks, "How fast do you type?!"

Seriously though, with fingers like their's Leo and his brothers need to take more care in their typing techniques. This is almost assuredly the source of the disbelief that clearly colors the question.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry laughs and puts his hand's over Leo's, "Hey, you /are/ here! You came all the way to visit me and I don't even have a tray of canapes for you!" He doesn't get up, because Leo's hand is on his chest, but now that he is reassured of the turtle's reality, he doesn't need to sit up nor wax philosophical about the nature of existence. "My fingers are super fast! I can do all sorts of things, like, woosh. But the technique's in the thumbs- sometimes you gotta take notes fast on an interview 'cause the interviewee is a sourpuss and won't let you record them so you gotta go thumbthumbthumbthumb slide thumb thumb slide slide..."

He pauses for a second and glances at his phone. "Eight messages? Wow, I must've been wired." And then fell asleep. Cats.

"C'mere, siddown. Get comfy, I haven't seen you in weeks. Week. Week and a half. I wanted you to know I wasn't dead. Or ghosting you." And then something strikes him as funny, "But if I /were/ dead, I would be ghosting, wouldn't I? I could go around rattling chains and scaring Donnie and hiding Raph's weights..."

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo adjusts his swords so that they're leaning in the same direction as he climbs up onto the sofa at Terry's feat and crouches down so that his tail and the back of his shell are balanced against the pillows in the far corner.

"You're yourself, at least I can say that for sure," the teenaged reptile says. Looking down toward Terry, Leo asks, "Can you tell me what happened? How baddly you are hurt?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The Cheshire waves a hand towards his left arm, "Oh... well, you see, there were these alien bird-people, but they're nasty, not like Kian. They're called... the... Shii-at? Gosh I can't rememb- anyways, they were attacking this woman's family because she is basically the antichrist of their legends and so they decided that wiping out her family was a /great/ thing to do. And we didn't think it was so great, so we went to stop 'em."

His expression becomes downcast all of a sudden. "... I kind of got lasered by some sort of near-omnipotent dude who just absorbed everything you threw at it. Energy. Telekinesis. /Magic/. He took /my/ magic and just... batted it aside. Then he lasered me. My arm was..." he shudders. His arm looks perfectly fine right now. "Blackened and bleeding and like I'm pretty sure it was just held together by spittle at that point."

His voice is very quiet, all of a sudden. "And my stomach. I had a hole in my stomach. I knew I was dying." He glances out towards the window. As if responding to the sudden shift in mood, the apartment is now decorated in shades of blue and grey, and the windows look towards a blustery landscape that would make Wuthering Heights look like a summer spa.

Leonardo has posed:
Leo listens. He doesn't interrupt to point out that he doesn't know Kian, that's not important - that Terry knows a bird alien that isn't nasty and that he encountered a group that are is and the statments made are sufficient for that purpose. He winces visibly at the description of the stomach wound, "Ugly things," Leo says on that topic.

Some would expect a friend to express more sympathy at this point but Leonardo takes a different tact. Instead, going into instructor mode, he instead says, "So you were unable to evade the attacks. It is good that your friends were able to get you from the field to someone who could heal you," and then asks, "Have you ever explored the defensive capabilities of your powers?" as he waves a hand at the gloomy illusionary landscape surrounding them.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I did. I tried. But this guy... I don't know /what/ he was. He absorbed everything. My rabbit holes collapsed around him. My constructs- I can shield myself with them- just vanished. I had nothing. I was... completely helpless." He blinks, and his eyes glisten a little. "I tried to move fast but you can't outrun /lasers/ 'cause it's light and only the Flashes can do that."

He pauses. A long-time fanboy, he feels the need to add, "... and maybe Superman. And maybe DIana- but if she couldn't, she could have reflected them with her bracelets. /Nothing/ penetrates those bracelets."

He sniffles a little and rubs his nose. "... I don't know if I hated being powerless in the face of a monster more than I hated knowing that I was dying. The dyning part... got fixed."

He glances down at his trim stomach. There is not even a trace of an injury there, just like with his arm, but his hand comes to rest on it, touching the memory.

Leonardo has posed:
"Most people can't outrun /bullets/ either. So... can you not make yourself appear to be somewhere you aren't? Maybe even just half a foot?" Leo's response might surprise Terry as he seems to be dismissing the Rabbit Holes and is talking about the illusions. "Mikey and Donnie got us all into this game called Dungeons and Dragons, you may have heard of it," there's a pause there before he grins showing that he understands that Terry likely does of course. "Displacer Beasts. That's what I'm thinking. But hey, even if the magic isn't working, we need to work on your not being where the opponent thinks you are. Best way to avoid a projectile is for the opponent to be sending it to the wrong place."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"He sucked any magic I made up like... like..." he fishes for an analogy, "Like Mikey getting his hands on a sixty-four ounce super slurpee with extra cherry. Just. Gloooop. I was so surprised that when he unleashed the laser, was a sitting duck."

He sighs, and the apartment slowly comes back to its usual appearance, the illusions fading. For now. "That was a rookie mistake... I thought I was done making them."

But, sobering or not, he is still pulsing with the clashing magic. So it's not too long before the smile tries to come back. "I switched out to my human form so I didn't die. And got in touch with a friend. She's the healer that brought Wonder Woman back from a coma." He doesn't so much get up as maneuver himself, turning himself in one eighty so that his head is closer to Leonardo, "She pumped me so full of holy magic, I've kind of been tripping for a week. 'Swhy I thought you were... you know." He gestures to the other end of the couch, by Terry's feet.

There is a Leonardo there, too. "Him." The illusion is perfect, of course, and Terry does a very poor job of hiding the mischief in his eyes.

Leonardo has posed:
"Anyone can make a mistake and feel like a rookie, Terry," Leo says with the voice of experience from where Terry gestured while talking to the illusionary version of him sitting on the floor near to the other end of the sofa.

After clearing his throat to call attention to the fact that he is the Leonardo speaking, the blue bandana wearing turtle says, "The true difference comes in how you react to it. Do you learn from it." He then asks, "Do you think that maybe you depend too much on your magic maybe?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"At times I do. Mostly when dealing with enemies that are... you know, super-powered. But I'm trying to learn not to rely so much on it. It's why I went to the most awesome ninja I know for lessons." He reaches over and pokes Leo's shoulder playfully. The other Leonardo vanishes. "But you're, you must be thirsty. Let me get you somethin' ta drink."

After slipping into accidental Harleynese, he quickly gets to his feet in a move that's more agile and coordinated than he seemed capable of a second ago. And as he takes a step towards the kitchen, it becomes evident that he still isn't- he wobbles for a second. "Oh man. When did the floor become jello?"

Leonardo has posed:
Hopping to his feet, Leonardo catches his friend. The turtle is as strong as he looks and effortlessly guides the still loopy Titan back onto the couch. After getting Terry re-situated, Leo says, "I'll get us both a drink."

As he heads to the kitchen he says, "And for you that means water," before asking, "Want ice in that or not?"

It takes some looking so there's time for an answer to be given before Leonardo finds whitch cabinet the cups are stored in.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Yes! I'll have water on the rocks! The sink mixes up a mean one!" He's joking with his allusion to alcohol, of course. Unlike many teens, he doesn't feel the temptation for the forbidden fruit of alcohol because his mother wisely allowed him to have sips of it at home, under supervision, and thus it's something whose forbidden allure has been completely demystified.

"You're awesome, you know? You just are."

He looks down, and then raises his eyebrows. "Hey. I'm on the couch!" he says, seemingly surprised by this revelation. He extends his legs and wiggles his toes, "Ya ever think how funny legs are? I mean, if you really look at them. And you gotta ask yourself why don't we just have legs all over so we could cartwheel all over the place? That would be fun.' He pauses, as a new idea edges the previous one out, "But then... we'd get dizzy, and we'd be puking all over the place, and we'd be these rolling, spewing masses of legs and... okay, maybe it wouldn't be /that/ fun."

Leonardo has posed:
After the sound of ice going into a glass is heard twice and the faucet flows three times (wait, three? Who would the third one be for?) Leonardo returns with his hands full: one arm is upright, holding two glasses held in one hand via a finger over the lip pressing them into the matching palm, and a third one carried more normally in the other hand.

"You are too loopy to believe, Terry," Leo says a moment before the cool (but uniced) water in the glass held by itself is tossed from its container into the magical metahuman's face.

While Terry reacts, the now empty glass is dropped onto Leo's upraised toes with which he prevents it from stopping suddenly as he lowers it to the floor and takes one of the two from the other hand with his now free hand and, with a gentle semi-toss, switches from the one fingered grip to a normal grasp of the other glass.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Three glasses? Are we expecting gue-" there is water flying at his face. And open mouth. There is sputtering, and shuddering, and wiping of his face with his hands. His usually unruly wild, red mane lies flat over his face, so he has to comb that out before he can glance at Leo with water dripping down onto his chest and briefs. Peeking through the parted curtain of red, the Cheshire cat says, "... are you telling me I need a flea bath?" He seems to be caught between laughing and being surprised, and plotting.

Leonardo has posed:
Looking to be fighting laughter, Leo shakes his head. "No, I haven't any idea if you have fleas," he says, "Just that you're loopy and I wanted to wake you up." He then nods at the other two glasses, both with ice in them, and asks, "Which would you like?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Oh, you wanted me /awake/, issat it?" He says, his green eyes glinting and that famous grin returning. He is still loopy but now that loop is /focused/, and focused loopiness equals mischief. It only takes a second for Terr to decide his course of action, seeing Leo holding the glasses and asking the question.

Now, it would be very foolish to pounce a ninja. A ninja can see what you're doing, can react with honed instinct and skills.

That's why the gamble is throwing in something /else/ on the table. For all appearances, Terry is still sitting on the couch, dripping and deliberating. But, in reality, an illusion has been cast to allow him to appear that way, while the real Terry is made invisible.

It is the real terry who leaps from the couch in a mischievous pounce, invisible, towards Leo. For sporting chance, he does allow himself to become visible right before contact, which Leo could still evade. However, Terry is counting on Leo's concern for the glasses, having seen him stop the other one with his foot, to weigh into the surprise, since that might get Leo soaked as well. "I'm awake now!" he says with a laugh. Whether or not he manages to pounce Leo to the ground or the turtle evades him, it's a worthwhile prank.

Leonardo has posed:
The move is successful, Leo is indeed surprised. A traditional dodge is also out of the question because of the glasses... but this is a turtle that Terry is attempting to pounce and so Leo reacts in a way that only a turtle could.

Arms, head and leg retract into the shell. The glasses, held firmly, go inside along with the appendages holding them. The shell falls to the ground with a thump and Terry likely flies over it into what ever was between Leonardo and the kitchen.

Ice and icy water flow out of the shell ahead of the limbs as they come out of the shell, leaving Leo laying on his plastron holding the now empty glasses. "Brrr, cold but worth it," Leo says with a laugh in his voice as he rolls into a seated position exactly where the illusion of him had been sitting earlier. He then says, "Good to see you're awake and not languishing anymore," to his equally wet student.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Laying on the linoleum floor, on his back, Terry has to look up to glance at Leo. "I'm not languishing, just convalescing!" he says. He considers another effort to stand up, but decides that he might fall over, so instead he turns onto his stomach and crawl on all fours to Leo, and then lets himself drop on the floor next to the turtle, leaning against the couch, and he shakes his mane to deliver water everywhere- splashing it onto leo, the couch (leather, so it'll be fine), the floor, and he chuckles. "Thank goodness it's Gar's turn to clean the living room this week."

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo's an amphibious reptile so the water quite literally rolls off his skin, but his bandana and the straps of his harness get wet - not that he seems concerned about it. "You were languishing, but you aren't anymore," Leo says matter-of-factly. "Proof was your inablity to control your illusions. I think you just proved that this was because you just weren't trying hard enough," he explains his opinion before asking, "What do you think, Terry?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry chuckles, "I was kind of. Order magic makes me loopy but Phoebe said not to do anything strenuous and to just rest for two weeks while the last of it drained off me. I can focus for periods but then I start getting sleepy and it all goes..." he waves his hands. "Bloosh. But I think I'm finally coming off the last of it. My Rabbit Holes still are kind of wonky. Like- Living Room!"

He gestures, and a Rabbit Hole opens next to Leo.

Out onto a rather paradaisical beach, with miles of sand, ocean, and no humans. "... see what I mean?" The hole closes. "My constructs explode into glitter and I haven't even /tried/ to use my /other/ power because the last thing we need here is a sorcerer's apprentice catastrophe... but at least my illusions are starting to respond when I tell them to and not just on their own."

He leans onto Leo and crosses his arms, "I really do appreciate you coming to check on me, you know. I'm going to do something nice for you when I'm back on my feet and not falling /off/ them." His sense of balance was still touch and go. More go than touch at this time.

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo chuckles softly and shakes his head. "You know you don't have to do anything. You'd've come and chedked on me if I was recuperating, but you're welcome to come visit when you're up to it... or to schedule a training session of course." That last is punctuated with a wink to show he's at least partially kidding.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry laughs, "Oh, I am going to. Soon as I get the go-ahead from Pheebs, I'll be coming 'round the dojo. But just because I'd have done it too, it doesn't mean it doesn't mean a lot to me, you know?"

He pauses, thinking. "Hey. Would you like to go to Tokyo? Kyoto? Osaka? Once I'm better, I could take you there. We can be under disguise of illusion and you can tell me about the history and we can go look at the actual places- I've never been, can you believe it?" He pauses.

"I've got this power that can take me anywhere in the world and most of the time I'm caught up fighting cray alien invasions or guys in tights trying to take over the world and I'm not using it for much except to get to places /here/."

He reaches over and puts an arm Lenonardo's shoulders, his fur is still wet, "What do you say? We could bring April, too, she'd like traveling!"

Leonardo has posed:
"Definately!" Leo says sounding excited about the prospect. "We could even get back to our own beds if needed each day, right?" No comment about the wet fur, what's wet among friends after all. "April'd love it. You two'll be able to do more than I," he says before observing, "I'm not sure how they feel about mutants in the land of the rising sun."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Please, you think I'd let you get left out?" He reaches over and bops Leo on the beak. And then he reaches for his phone and turns on the selfie mode, handing it out to Leo. "See for yourself."

The illusion covering the turtle makes him look like a teen who would look perfectly in place in Japan, handsome and with the considerable bulk of a martial artist. "I think you look just great, but I can magic you up if you want to avoid notice."

He pauses, and then he glances at the kitchen.

"... now, how about some water?"

Leonardo has posed:
After glancing at his hands, Leo hops up to his feet and says, "Wait right here and I'll get you some water."

Leonardo doesn't head straight to the kitchen, instead he goes to the bathroom and looks at himself in the mirror. Coming back out he says, "That's awesome Terry, but yeah, I'm not ashamed of myself so for now it's not necessary." Then one of the glasses is refilled and brought to the vibrantly colored cat-teen.

"While I'm glad to see you, I have to agree with this Phoebe you mentioned and recommend that you keep resting for a bit. Just... don't descend into a funk and keep your senses about yourself I think." Its quite obvious that the young turtle is used to giving pep talks to his brothers, not so much to other people.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry accepts the water and dismisses the illusion, "Alright! But just remember- you're not geting left out of anything in Japan, even if I need to make you look like the Emperor himself to get you into places." He takes a sip of the water, and then he says. "Keeping my senses about me. Huh... I know!" he points to the television, across the room. "... you want to play some video games?"