themainframe | [Video]

[Here we have Beastboy broadcasting from his new apartment in the Hope District. It actually looks pretty tidy which is surprising to anyone who knows Beastboy and how messy he can be. Rita is in the backround fiddling with her keyboard and Chili is sitting on the sofa sipping a cup of tea]

HEY THERE DUDES!

[The noise startles Chili and she almost fumbles her tea, shooting a glare at Beastboy and shuffling to the side trying to get off camera.]

So according to my little calender here you know what today is?!

[Rita pipes up from her side of the screen]

Sunday?

[Beastboy rolls his eyes, Chili smirks]

No dude! It's December 1st! And that means Christmas is just 24 short days away! Hope you've started shopping!

But the marketplace was mostly destroyed. And what are you shopping for?

Presents!

[Beastboy pulls on a rope and some decorations fall from the ceiling including a wreath, some colorful lights, a Santa hat on Rita, an Elf hat on Chili and a whiteboard that Beastboy has drawn some Christmas images on]

For those of you who don't know, in my world we have this EPIC holiday called "Christmas!" It happens every December 25th and you take the whole day to party, spend time with friends and family, give each other gifts and eat lots of yummy food!

Oh that sounds nice.

It sure is! We can play games and tell stories and there's all kinds of great traditions! Like Santa Claus!

Santa who?

Santa is this super powered dude who can travel across space and time and delivers gifts to all the good little boys and girls around the world! To thank him you leave out a palate of milk and cookies and he puts gifts in your stockings and under your tree!

He puts gifts in our socks?

What tree?

Oh boy...you guys have no idea do you!?

[He's gesturing wildly at the board]

See you hang up stockings on your wall, over a fireplace if you have one. Then Santa comes and puts little gifts in them. And you also put up a tree in your home. Most people use fake ones because it's less messy.

What kind of tree?

Well...usually pine but any kind will do. Then you decorate it to look all pretty and if you buy presents for other people you can wrap them up and put them under the tree too!

Sounds expensive.

[Beastboy wags a finger]

Christmas is all about giving! You give to those less fortunate, you give to those you love! Sure you can get lots of awesome gifties from those who love you...but you get like this super warm and fuzzy feeling inside from being nice to other people because it's Christmas...and then you can go back to being a jerk for the rest of the year.

I don't think I understand...

That's OK! If any of you have any holiday traditions from back home for this cold time of year I wanna hear about them! Maybe we can all do them and have some fun! If you have any questions about Christmas I'll be happy to help! It's my favorite time of the year!

I still don't know how you're going to buy any gifts with the main market trashed.

If I have to make candy canes and eggnog from scratch I will!

Whatnog?

[Transmission ends]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah... I just really miss him. I know we talk but I can't just, go be with my brother. I've never been without seeing any of my family this long in my life.

He is... and he's trying. I know he is. He just.. he's worried about losing me, he's really afraid of it and when he gets afraid he becomes angry, because that's what he's used to from... before.

S-sorry, I shouldn't be throwing this at you.

Aw come on dude don't be like that.

When Leatherhead got here first we became friends. Then when Donnie got here he and I became friends. He helped me out of some deep dark funk dude.

And then of course you and I hit it off!

Just because the three of you have kinda become this little like...bubble doesn't mean I don't care what's going on inside. I wanna help if I can, however I can. And if that means just listening when you vent? Then I've got two pointy ears wide open for you.

I don't normally...

I'm the happy brother.

[And that was the problem. Mikey had let himself become the brother that was always happy, always worry free, and so rather than let out his problems he tended to tuck them away, hide them. And now he just couldn't do that, there was too much happening for him to act like he was just always happy.

And that was why there were suddenly tears on his cheeks.]

And I'm the goofy Titan.

But you know what dude? Even the funny happy guys have to feel things. That's how we stay so close to the people we're trying to help.

And after spending like...a month as the biggest jerk in the world to all my friends? I understand it a little better.

Even if you can't let them see it? You come to me dude and we'll hash it out.

[At Beastboy's words the tears on his cheeks were suddenly more of a torrent and he was sobbing a bit, hiccups counter pointing them.]

I-I don't know what to do. I want to see him... Donnie's my brother, I can't not forgive him for everything. Especially since he would never do this kind of thing normally.

B-but... when I think of just... going and seeing him I get all scared and thing start to hurt again, even though they're healed. I-I don't know what to do.

W-we talked about... Christmas, seeing each other again then, b-but what if I'm not ready, what if I can't and I hurt Donnie because of that?

Easy bud, it's OK. Let it all out.

[Nodding encouragingly]

You can do this dude. He's your brother not that monster, you're just feeling a little burned.

But when push comes to shove? When the chips are down and when you two really need each other? You'll come through.

It may hurt alot to be the goofy guy, but it makes us tough on the inside.

[Mikey's hiccups started to break up anything he might have went to say and he curled up around himself for a moment. But even this was broken as he reached up to tug at his scarf, trying to get it off with some kind of rush, as if it were suddenly irritating him.

When he finally stops messing with it the scarf is just draped across the back of his neck and hanging down in front of him. Around his neck, centered and still fairly stark on his skin, is a dark mark. A constant reminder to the orange haired teen of his brother, taken over and controlled, strangling him.

As he continued to cry and hiccup coughs started to intermix with them, one hand up and softly touching the mark, as if to sooth it.]

[Beastboy winces watching this breakdown. He's moving swiftly though since he's watching the camera it's hard to see where. He's on his way to Mikey's apartment]

That's it dude, no shame in those tears. You love your brother and he loves you.

This place just messes with ya.

[As the teen hadn't left his apartment too much since the fight it was the best place to come find him. He's in his room curled up on the bed.]

I just- I... I don't want to hurt anymore. I want Donnie to not hurt anymore, I want Leatherhead to not hurt anymore.

I want to be happy, and have both the person I love and my brother and none of this horrible memories anymore.

It's gonna happen dude.

[Puts a hand on his back]

It's just gonna take time. You're gonna find your strength again and so will he. And you'll like...come together and reforge those busted bonds like bros do.

Even the memories and scars will fade after awhile.

I just... I don't know what to do.

I don't know how to make things better, I'm always the guy who makes things better, or not so bad.

I'm the one that distracts everyone else... but... I can't stop thinking about the bad things now.

It's OK dude it's OK.

Here, lemme put it to you like this. You're not the answers guy right? You're the feelings guy. So of course you don't know what to do.

And your feelings are all jumbled up and knotted, so you need a distraction. And you can't do it yourself!

Lucky for you? I'm the distraction guy on my team too! Come on we're gonna go get loaded on Japanese soda pop and try to figure out how to play these board games I salvaged from the toy store! We'll make the Digimon play with us!

[A distraction, that sounded nice... in fact that sounded exactly like what he needed. The truth was... he is like Leatherhead in a lot of ways, they both just feel things so much, sometimes they can't help themselves but to react.]

Yeah... T-that sounds good.

[Mikey hiccuped slightly as he slowly stopped crying.]

You bet it sounds good. Get your coat shellboy.

[An encouraging grin]

[Mikey sniffed a bit more but nodded, going over and grabbing his coat.]

Okay.

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Good end?

Good end!