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Leo was currently in his room, staring at the computer screen in front of him, as he was about to start a livestream.
“Okay, Leo. You can do this. You just need to stay cool, get into ‘Neon Leon’ mode, and let everyone know what’s been going on. Simple.” Leo told himself.
After quietly saying, “Three. Two. One.”, Leo pushed the ‘Go Live’ button and began the livestream.
“Hey, everyone, it’s your favorite turtle! Neon Leon! I know it’s been a minute since I last posted anything on here or on any social media, to the point that there were people out there who actually thought I died or something. Well, guess what? Your boy is here in the flesh, live on YouTube, and now I get to chat with all of you,” said Leo.
As Leo talked, he read through the messages on the live chat, and after the rough few days he’s had, seeing comments like ‘Welcome back’ and ‘We missed you’ made him feel good inside.
“Aww, thanks for all the kind comments, guys. You really know how to make a turtle feel loved. So, please type out any questions you have for me, and we’ll get the show on the road,” said Leo.
It took no time at all for the questions to start pouring in, which overwhelmed Leo, as he didn’t expect people to miss his presence THAT much.
“Wow, chat, you guys are going a mile a minute with the questions,” said Leo.
Leo spent a good few seconds trying to cherry-pick questions he wanted to answer and avoid ones that made him uncomfortable.
“Okay, first question, ‘Why were you gone for so long?’. I had a feeling this would be the main question asked. Alright, so, the reason I’ve been away from the internet is that I’ve had A LOT going on in my personal life. Lots of family-related drama and whatnot, and I’d rather not talk about it here,” said Leo.
Reading through more questions, Leo said, “Alright, next question, ‘Why does your room look different?’. Well, that’s because this is my new room. Yeah, again, like the last question, I don’t want to go over the details because of…family-related drama.”
As much as he wanted to be as vague as possible and put on a mask for his fans, he knew deep down his fans weren’t stupid. They could see right through him. He’s seen the comments where people noticed that he looked off, or had a fake smile, or that he was potentially hiding something. Leo just wasn’t the type of guy to openly express how he really felt about things. He just used smiles and jokes to cope with his problems.
But no amount of cringey jokes could change how miserable he felt on the inside, and it was only a matter of time before the ‘Neon Leon’ mask slipped right off his face.
And today was the day that it happened. In front of thousands of people, no less.
“I…you know what, I can’t do this. I can’t keep lying to you guys, and I can’t keep lying to myself. I know you guys want to see funny, energetic ‘Neon Leon’ but…it’s getting harder and harder to keep that mask on. So, if you guys are cool with it, I think I want to take the mask off and just be my real self. Is that okay with you guys?” Leo asked his audience, somewhat scared of how they would react, as he was about to share information that only he and his family knew.
But to his surprise, plenty of people were more than okay with him opening up and not putting on a façade.
“Okay, it seems like you guys are cool with me taking the mask off. Cool. Alright, let’s start over then. So, a lot has happened in my life recently. A lot of bad shit. Our home was destroyed by an enemy of ours, who goes by the name of Shredder, and we lost someone who, although we only met for a short amount of time, was still family, and seeing her die was just…the worst feeling in the world.” Leo said, as tears leaked out of his eyes.
Looking away from the camera, Leo took a moment to wipe away the tears and calm himself before continuing with the stream.
“But hey, life goes on, right? You can’t just be sad forever; you have to get your shit together and move forward. And that’s what we did. We beat Shredder’s ass and got him out of our lives, we found a new place to live, the fam felt stronger than ever, and it seemed like everything was going to be okay. My fellow Mad Dogs and I were going to do our thing and be heroes. That’s what we thought. But you know what our dear old dad does? He takes my big brother’s role as team leader and gives it to ME, with no warning or foreshadowing or even a talk beforehand! He just did it on a whim!” said Leo.
Leo took a breath before continuing with, “Like, I keep getting told I have all this potential to be a great leader, and yeah, I’m decent with strategy, but that doesn’t mean I want all that pressure on my shell. Because if anything goes wrong or anyone gets hurt, it ALL FALLS ON ME. Plus, Raph wasn’t even doing that bad a job as team leader. Sure, he made a ton of mistakes, but who doesn’t make mistakes, right? And right after we beat Shredder, Raph was SO HAPPY. He was so proud of himself, and we were all proud of each other. And what does Dad do? Ruin it. And now I’m more or less dead to Raph. He hasn’t talked to me or even looked at me since the change, and I don’t know what to do. It’s not like I made that call. It’s just-”
Leo couldn’t even finish the sentence as he put his head in his hands in frustration. Unbeknownst to him, Raph was right outside his room, listening to his brother’s words, and it tore him up inside.
“I want things to go back to the way they were. With Raph in charge and us Mad Dogs stopping bad guys and having fun. Back when shit wasn’t so scary, and I didn’t have to worry about anyone dying. I…I just want shit to be normal again,” said an emotionally vulnerable Leo.
Feeling terrible, Raph walked back to his own room and sat on his bed, contemplating whether he had gone too far by shunning his younger brother.
“So, yeah, that’s what’s been really going on in my life. It sucks, but it’ll get better…at some point. Um, sorry about dumping all this on you guys. I know a number of you are here for the fun stuff, and this ended up being the opposite of fun, but don’t worry, I will be going back to my normal content pretty soon. There’s been a big influx of news recently, and it’s given me plenty of material for videos. And yes, you will get your fanservice, courtesy of my two-toed grippers. Anyways, that’s all I have for now. Remember to drink water, save the trees, and keep being awesome. Alright, see you guys later.” Leon said before turning off the livestream.