#Between Leo's weird listening pose

[snackugaki]

one (1) dynamic from a show I watched when I was 12 is has a stronger grip on me than it has any right to, multiversal strength gorilla glue-ass grip.

bayverse setting isn’t conducive to Venus’ mysticism background so uhhh... i guess they argue fantasy vs sci fi genres? idk who would wear big naturals better, Gandalf or Magneto.

zombies, star wars, and star trek are neutral ground

[separatedleoau]

OK the thing with this is I don't see One talking about it or bringing it up in any way. He is very good at hiding it, he has been doing it for years, it takes the AU gang seeing it to realize something was up.

Everything regarding his scars would play out the same way than in the AU aka if they ask about any, it would be about the most visible ones, being the ones on his back and he would talk big shit about them

Any other scar wouldn't rise that much of a question as they are not as big or impressive, and knowing about his usual lifestyle and how their usual lifestyle is they would see them as normal, just the result of training and fighting mutants (in One's case yōkai that had oppossed to Draxum or to him on his little missions)

So how I think things would play out is they would all just be talking, probaly like at the table post meal and Draxum wouldn't stop staring at One. It wasn't weird for him to do that, after all he had been curios of what Leo would have turned out if he had been raised by him.

And he had been happy on the most part, the boy was disciplined, he was a good fighter, more than leo was at his age, he listens to Draxum and obeys without hessitation. He was as self confident as their Leo, thought it came across as arrogance more times as it did with Leo.

He was an excelent strategist when fighting, outsmarting alsmost everyone in the room at least once on the many times a battle had broken out. His skills with the blade were magnificent, more so that Leo's at his age, almost matching him right now, even with two years and an apocalypse under his belt.

With both Leos being quick-witted, smart and cleaver and ridiculously skilled with their katanas, the only reason One was currently being considered more dangerous and deadly than his two year old conterpart was his firey temper and murderus intentions. The child craved violence.

Donnie found that amussing.

It was a good thing the other teens had two years of experience over him, and that they had Splinter to knock him over in no more than two moves if things started to get out of hand. Draxum could also just tell him to stop and he will, but he had a job and couldn't be here all the time.

But the Baron wouldn't stop staring at him, One had caught him many times, out of the corner of his eye. It was starting to make him uncomfortable, Draxum was narrowing his eyes, looking at him in a way One felt he was seeing right trough him.

Is not untill Draxum called his name that One actually turned to look at him head on. Draxum had a pensive look on his eyes and gave himself a moment to think before speaking.

"Do you have any of my seeds with you?"

One stared at him for a moment with a confused expression, then the reality of the situation he was in hits him, of course Draxum doesn't know, this wasn't his Draxum.

"Oh, yeah" The boy stood up and reached for his bag holding out for everyone to see a handful of seeds. "Boss gave them to me, I always carry some" One said as a matter of hand, "I almost never use them, I don't need them, but is fun to use" he said a small smile, looking at the handfull of seeds the same way he looked at the small bomb Donnie tried to give him the other day, before Raph came to 'ruin the fun'.

"Use?" Draxum repeated, "you know how to morph them?"

A cocky grin shinned across One's face in an instant. He tossed one of the seeds to his left hand and sqeezed it as he took a battle pose. Vines exploded out between his fingers quickly wrapping themselves around One's gloved arm. The vines created an arm almost twice its original size, an elbow filled with dangerous spikes with the biggest one being so big it almost reached his shoulder. His hand had now three long, sharp fingers that were best described as claws.

It looked quite similar to Draxum's enhaced arms.

a low chour of "whoa!" filled the table, everyone looking with wide eyes at this boy who aparently had yet another weapon on himself.

"You could have thought us to do that the whole time?!" Mikey yelled

"I didn't even think someone else could learn to do this too" Draxum admited, leaning forwards to look One's hand better, "Impressive" he muttered

One's face lighted up.

Leo rolled his eyes, yes yes, very impressive. but the kid kept lighting up like an exited puppy evey time he recived any validation from Draxum, was his own carving for attention so bad? had it been that bad back then? was he so obvious? did it also show so easy, so transparent on his own face?

He hoped not

"Neither did my Draxum," One said nonchalant, "I kept insisting he teach me when I was a kid. He never thought I would actually be able to do it but I eventually picked it up" He closed his hand again and focused, the weird mass that formed his enhanced arm started to shift, slitering back into his fist. When he opened his hand it had turned back into a seed.

Draxum hummed and took the seed between his fingers, inspecting it closely. what he was looking for, only he knew. One saved the rest of the seeds back in his pouch and stood stright, his hands behind his back, an expectant smile on his face as he looked at Draxum. He looked like Mikey when he gave someone a drawing and was waiting for the review.

"Not bad," Draxum finaly said, "not bad at all"

One really did his best to hide it, but he was beaming. His chest puffed up, and his smile grew slightly bigger, though it was enough to push his cheeks more, making his face look a bit rounder. Leo wasn't the only one to notice, he heard Mikey and Raph at his side trying to hide a squeel. Leo threw them a nasty look.

It was a little heartbraking to see that the only times One seemed genuinly happy was when Draxum gave him any kind of approval. That and when Donnie showed him his newest tech.

But Draxum raised his eyes at the kid and they had a critical look on them again. He gave him back the seed and waved his hand to dismiss the kid. One bowed slightly was about to return to his chair when Draxum stopped him

"Wait"

One looked back at him with a curious look, but the Baron said nothing for a while, just looking at him, he then frowned.

"Those are not the only ones you carry, are they?"

"W-w-what?" One stamered, seemenly confused, "y-ye, I mean, no. I just have those" though from his tone now it was more clear that he was hidding something, and while he often did a great job at that, only Leo being the one who could look through his bullshit, now it was plain obvious for everyone.

"You are lying to me" Draxum said, now in an authoritative tone that made One tense up.

He chuckled, a grin spreading across his face, his body relaxing in a second and taking a more casual pose with a hand on his hip, he crocked his head a little to the side "Oh please, why would I?" he laughed but it was a laught Leo knew, he was about to call him on his bullshit but Draxum beated him to it

"Number One" it was all it took.

Silence fell into the room at Draxum's authoritative voice, at his stance as he slowly stood up, towering over them. Luckly, everyone was looking at him, meaning they missed the flash of fear crosing One's face, they missed the tiny half a stepp he took back. By the time eyes started to shift from Draxum to him, he had already composed himself. a serious expression with a slight frown that would give him a Raph Chasm (TM) sooner than latter.

"You know I can feel them, right?" the Baron asked and the frown disapeared on One's face, his eyes opening slightly. His shoulders tensed up, his arms stright down, ending in tight fists. He stopped looking at Draxum, his eyes in a fixed point in front of him tought they didnt seem to be focusing on anything in particular.

For the first time since the younger red eared slider had showed up he had gone silent. a motified expression plastered on his face.

"One, you dont have to-" Splinter started but was cut off

"No" Draxum said, "where are you hiding it?"

"Draxum, leave the boy alone-"

"There is something different about this one," he said and turned back at the younger slider, "give it to me"

One didn't answer, he didnt move. He was frozen in place. But he was listening, he was thinking, his eyes moving side to side as he mentally saw his options, as he thought of a course of action. but he was slow, too slow, he wasn't landing anywhere.

"One?" Draxum repeated and this time it made the kid flinch, his head ducking a little.

After a beat he reached up with his hands, he said nothing, his lips sealed shut as he took his blue scar pullung the loop around his neck apart, his other hand gripped the dark hood from its back and pulled it off his shoulders.

Mikey left out a loud gasp, April almost yelled, but the one who was louder was Leo, standing up too quick and knowing back his chair. He said nothing, his mouth opened and closed but no word came out, he wasnted to say something, anything. he wanted to scream, to Draxum, to One, just in general. but he could do nothing but stare at the horrible scars going in a circle over One's shoulders. he was paralyzed as much as him.

One was staring down at the floor, an emotionless mask on that seemed to want to fall down. His chest moved up and down with deep, heavy breathes, and Leo started to wonder if he was fighting trough a panic attack, tough this would be the first one he sees coming from the boy.

"Where?" Draxum asked carefully and Leo shoot him a murderous look

One raised a shaky hand to his shoulder, his fingers sliding to his back, slipping under the lip of his shell. He still said nothing.

But Leo had found his voice

"You did this to him!?" he yelled at Draxum

"Dont be ridiculous" the goat yōkai said, of course it hadn't been him. It had been the other Draxum. and it had been on the time before his little "character arc"

It didn't quit the fact that this was fucked up. That One could have been any of them if they had fallen in the misfortune of being raised by Draxum. This could have been Leo's fate, this could have been any of his brothers...

No.

He yelled again, words that didnt register to One.

He was staring at the ground. it was all he could do. He didn't register the screaming match that started over the table, he didn't see who was holding back who or who knoked the things off the table as they tried to climb over it and reach the other side.

One brain didn't even register Draxum's words, he was talking, he was screaming too. He was saying something and all One could do was hope those words weren't directed at him because his voice came in muffled. He felt like he was underwater, he could hear them but he couldnt listen to anything they said, they voices distant.

He couldn't breathe.

One gasped, blinking a few times. His eyes focused and quickly took a look to his surroundings. He was no longer standing aside the table, he still could hear screams, he hasn't gone too far.

"One?" Mikey asked, he had a hand on his shell, had he pushed him away from the table? his other hand reached for One's wrist, graping it soft, but firmly

One stepped away, janking away his hand, he didnt even look at him, he started walking away. Where? he had no idea, just... away form there

I got carried away with this but yeah, something like that.

[well-its-not-human-anymore]

Hi! Could I get HC from the guys? 👀 How they would always react to catching the reader seeing them "badly", in addition to the fact that he usually avoids them, but with his brothers it is incredible and they feel bad because they think they do not like him.  But she actually likes them and she looks at them like that because she "studies" them to draw them and she is too clumsy and shy to talk to them, that's why she ends up avoiding them. Until finally he catches her drawing them with lots of hearts or maybe they'll find her notebook with lots of portraits of them.

It's kind of funny because when I study people to draw them, they think that I look at them with hatred xd maybe I should increase my glasses prescription

God, glasses are such a pain in the ass but I have to wear them. If I don't anyone within my near vicinity doesn't have a face. But why they gotta get dirty so easily???? Makes me wanna explode or something

TMNT Headcanons

The boys w/ a quiet reader who is fine with his brothers but acts cold around him and stares a lot

Michaelangelo

mikey couldn't describe his disappointment upon realizing that you didn't want to be friends with him

well, you never actually said that to him

but he was pretty sure it was the case

you'd never made an effort to be friends with him

stared at him an awful lot though, but there was always something off about your gaze when you looked at him

like you were sizing him up, scrutinizing him, like he was an opponent

it kinda worried him

to add to that, you didn't even attempt to look embarrassed when he caught you staring

you'd just stare harder

on your end it was quite the opposite

you always found the brothers fascinating and you LOVED studying their anatomy, you'd confessed this to Donnie early on and he happily indulged in your questions

and you loved how easily you got along with the boys

well, except for Mikey

but it wasn't for a lack of trying

whenever the orange sporting turtle came around your normally flamboyant personality crept back into its little corner and hid

any words of excitement that had previously been with you died in your throat

for the longest time you didn't understand it

and you hated not understanding things, so you turned to your only outlet

that's how you ended up with an entire sketchbook full of the youngest brother in vastly different styles and poses

you had a separate book for the others, none of them as detailed as this

and when you stared to analyze you'd fallen into a habit of not looking away when caught

by your logic, if you stared back hard enough he'd look away first or just assume you'd zoned out

he didn't

and on one hectic day you'd left your sketchbook open on the kitchen table in your rush to get to work

you hadn't even noticed the slip up until Leo texted you to let you know during your shift

instant panic

in truth, Mikey was the one who discovered the book upon waking up from his nap and he'd spent the next three hours analyzing every drawing

when you finally dropped in after work to grab your book the turtle was waiting for you with it in hand

he'd asked you if you hated him

you told him no and accepted your sketchbook from him

he was relieved and screaming excitedly, just in his head

"Do you maybe wanna hang out sometime?"

You sighed in relief and nodded

"If you're cool with it- you don't think I'm weird do you?"

"I mean- you are talking to a turtle..."

you lightly shoved his chest and smiled, although it faded within a second

"Oh hush, 10 o'clock tomorrow? I'll bring snacks."

he was so stunned he could only shoot you finger guns in approval

Donatello

Donnie genuinely couldn't understand your unease around him

he'd followed all the proper expectations of holding a conversation

he was polite and engaging

so why wouldn't you talk to him?

this boy has read so many social blogs to try and figure out what he was doing wrong and he just couldn't put his finger on it

you were fine with the rest of his brothers, you'd stay up for hours laughing and gaming with them

you'd even sat still long enough to listen to Leo explain some old Japanese myth that he'd read about in a book

but with him it was always a quick, cordial greetings and farewells with bland small talk in between

Donnie had picked up pretty quickly that you weren't interested in any sort of interaction with him

and he convinced himself that that was okay

but that didn't explain the staring

he'd caught you in the act several times, eyes narrowed and locked on him

especially when you were alone with him in a room or just in the lair

the poor turtle just couldn't put his finger on it

then he caught you drawing, he noticed early on that you always carried a small sketchbook on your person but he didn't think much of it

and it wasn't so much that he caught you drawing, in fact, he wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't snapped at him while he was trying to do a sudoku puzzle

"Damn it Donnie! Stop moving! If I fuck this arm up one more time I'm gonna decompose!"

he'd quickly moved back into the position he was in prior

"sorry?"

but you'd gone silent again, occasionally glancing up from your work and running your eyes along his frame before looking down again

nearly twenty minutes later Donnie had finished the puzzle and it seemed as though you had finished your drawing

"Uh- can I ask what are you-"

"I'm drawing you but you kept moving your arm and making me mess up. You always do that when I draw you so every damn picture I have of you stays a sketch because you always come out looking like a fucking octopus."

He just stared

"Sorry, I uh- I didn't mean to explode on you like that. I'm just- I'm really bad at talking to you okay? It's so easy with everyone else but you've just gotta be so damn smart all the time and I worry that you'll think I'm boring so I just... don't talk to you?"

Donnie is stunned™

You refuse to show him the drawing until you can complete the line art and color it

But at least he knows that you don't hate him

Leonardo

To be completely honest Leo didn't mind that you were distant from him

You created an aura of calm when you were around and you always managed to distract his brothers while you were present

And he enjoyed the alone time

But after a few months that calm acceptance turned into jealousy

Not that he would ever admit it

He would just push it off and ignore it, that usually seemed to work

So why wasn't it?

And your obvious staring problem didn't help at all

Leo didn't spend much time considering his appearance but something about your gaze made him self conscious

And he hated that with a passion

Why was it that you could hold entire debates with his siblings? Even his dad for gods sake. You'd have hour long conversations on almost everything but whenever he tried to say hello you'd make up some lame ass excuse and scamper away

He just wanted an explanation

It appeared that the answer resided in your sketchbook

You'd left it open on the couch when Raph had called you away to spar with him

Leo very delicately flipped through the pages, careful not to disturb some of the polaroid pictures of his brothers

He was admittedly surprised to find pictures of himself among the pages

One of him in a handstand, another of him meditating, there was even one of him mid sneeze that you'd recreated with pencil and paper

The image of his eyes was the most startling, but the book held no polaroid of his eyes

You drew them from memory

And he was shocked when you returned to the room and didn't immediately panic

But that might have been because he didn't try to withhold your book from you

"It took me three months to color them, your eyes. I could never get the shade of blue just right."

"I'm gonna be honest with you y/n, I really thought you didn't like me."

You had the nerve to roll your eyes and follow it with a laugh

"I don't. I mean- I do but no, you just remind me a lot of myself and I haven't exactly figured out why yet. I thought that maybe if I drew you it'd be easier to figure you out..."

"Well did it help?"

You grinned

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

Raphael

If there was one thing Raph hated it was not understanding something that was right in front of him

which is ironic, as a much younger version of himself probably couldn't care less

and a part of him wishes he didn't care about it so much

he wishes that your blatant avoidance of him didn't upset him

but shit, it got under his skin better than any needle ever could

was it too much to ask for you to just tell him what he said or did wrong?

was he asking too much of you?

but on the same scale you'd never shown obvious dislike towards him, you were never rude and you sure as hell didn't talk shit about him to his brothers

you got along great with them

in fact it was getting more difficult to remember a time before you became a part of his family

he'd become so used to your presence that it no longer put him off when he found you hanging around the lair

but in another sense he was certain that you hadn't spoken more than three sentences to him in your time knowing him or his family

so what was the reason

several months in he finally caught onto the staring, your narrow, glassy gaze locked onto his body and refusing to look away

he stared right back at you

this annoyed you for several reasons

because within five seconds your very peaceful drawing session had turned into a staring contest and your eyes were getting VERY dry

then you exhaled in a half-sigh and looked back down at your paper

"Huh, I guess your head is more of an oblong shape..."

he took offense to this

"What tha' hell is that supposed t'mean?"

now your eyes held more of an amused silent judgement, you begrudgingly held up your sketchbook

"I'm drawing you, you fucking walnut."

"Oh..."

now you rolled you eyes and tossed the book to him, he nearly dropped it and fumbled with the pages

your annoyance was quickly growing

"Careful with that."

He flipped through the pages at a snails pace, assumingly because he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing

you had some real talent

when he looked back up at you he was wearing that crooked smile

"and here I was thinkin' that my eyes were just green."

Hope I was able to get this down pretty well! I really enjoyed writing this one! Thanks for the patience!

-Mars 🌠

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

i saw your post about Charles and what his personality past and part in the story line so i was wondering if u could do the same for vlad? :)

Ah, well, I can at least let you know what I’ve seen so far? I haven’t delved too far into Vlad, and some of his general impressions can be confusing, so I’ll do my best to make it sensible and unbiased! Here you go lovely <33333

Fair warning, there will be mentions of a lot of JPN app content since Vlad and his boys aren’t around much in the ENG app yet.

My general sense of Vlad is basically discount vampire Sasuke Uchiha.

What I mean by this is to say–according to what I’ve read so far–his clan/family were murdered by vampire hunters in cold blood when he was just a young boy. Presumably as a result of that traumatic event, he harbors a sizable enmity towards humanity and kind of lashes out on them in weirdly specific moments of violence. Another aspect of his motivation is something that’s mentioned within Comte’s route; which is that Vlad went through the timespace door on his own one day and allegedly saw a devastated future, where nothing remains of life on earth more or less.

I guess the reason I find him to be so perplexing is that he speaks about his actions in terms of efficiency, while most of the things he does just feel like unhappy outbursts (v often a product of unresolved trauma symptoms, I’d wager.) I also say this because he appears to have no larger pattern to his fury beyond the original event of his loss. Most of the human beings he attacks aren’t much of a threat to him and hurting them really doesn’t bring him any dividends beyond revenge.

For instance, he insists his disdain for humanity and insistence on controlling them is for the sake of ensuring they do not destroy the future–the horrifying wasteland he witnessed when he traveled through the timespace door. However, I’m not really sure how his current movements really speak to that goal? I mean sure, maybe he’s relying on Faust to create an immortal human so that humans will be forced to care because it will be their future too, but he doesn’t allow Faust to draw his pureblood blood for experimenting. (One can most certainly argue this was more about a lack of trust, and perhaps for plenty reason: Faust is vindictive enough to try to turn the tables and exert control over Vlad, or act on his own whims with his findings.) But if that’s the solution he’s waiting on, turning the rivals of the men in the mansion doesn’t really bring him any closer to that vision either? I mean, what good does it do to bring back Gilles de Rais–a prominent French serial killer? How would unleashing him on the populace help humanity “realize the error of it’s short-sighted and wasteful ways” and move to a brighter future?

Can’t help it, I ask these questions as I read.

In Comte’s main story, Comte hammers home that Vlad is not somebody to be taken lightly. One day when MC goes out to buy flowers, Vlad poses as a human florist to sell them to her–which is how Comte finds out he’s in France, and that he’s made contact with MC. When prompted, Comte describes him in a very particular way; and I think people really overlook this when they talk about their relationship. He says that Vlad is frighteningly pure in terms of the way he thinks and acts. The way I understood his description (given what I’ve seen of Vlad) is that Comte really does mean it point blank: Vlad is very simple in terms of why and how he does things. The issue with this is that nuance and context are lost on Vlad as well–and that’s where the problems start to flood in. Vlad is angry at humanity for what they’ve done to him. Baseline? That’s fair, they killed his damn family. However, Vlad thinks that by extension he has the right to decimate the general public and attack people completely uninvolved in his hurt.

And that isn’t right either–it’s ignoring so many factors here. He’s ignoring how much vampires use and toy with humans as pawns, it’s ignoring the massive power imbalance between him and his victims (this really isn’t a case of self-defense most of the time, nobody but Comte/Leo is a sizable threat to him), and he’s ignoring whether or not a person even did anything to deserve his retributive violence. While murder is never okay, it is perhaps more understandable when we see Jeanne’s frenzied and violent belligerence in response to a man who murders a boy’s mother for the sake of his own amusement/convenience. Vlad literally sees almost every single one of the rivals he created begin to heal/improve and murders them in cold blood because they are no longer of any use to him. That’s uh……..that’s a little messed, not gonna lie to you chief.

While part of me understands the efficiency here–he doesn’t want to leave any traces of his involvement, he doesn’t want any loose ends–it’s also just kind of foolish and cruel ultimately. From my understanding of the narrative, all the people he turned had some visible sign that indicated their origin to Comte. So even if he claims it was for the sake of concealment, it was more likely about his personal convenience. Which…..also yikes.

[Comte clearly does not trust Vlad to be reasonable, and I think there’s plenty of good reason enumerated above, but I actually don’t sense quite so much hatred? I think he’s just given up on the idea of Vlad growing up, even if he doesn’t like giving up on people. And considering Vlad’s behavior, I think it’s overkill to say that Comte just abandons him because he doesn’t care lmao. Even when Comte expresses real anger at the end of his own route, it was more because Vlad was fine with endangering MC’s life just to get back at him. I think Comte’s unhappiness with Vlad has more to do with Vlad’s treatment of human life as meaningless and worthless. It’s fascinating but also kind of sad? Vlad’s traumatic experience results in behavior that is a direct exacerbation of Comte’s trauma, and as such--no matter their potentially fond history--they can’t stomach each other.]

In Comte’s route, Vlad also has Shakespeare abduct MC and take her to the cathedral. Later on in the castle, we see an immediate display of Vlad’s shocking powers: he has the ability to manipulate people’s desires/thoughts. I’m not exactly sure how this works, but he is able to give MC visions of the mansion and Comte coming on to her–which shocks her into realizing it’s all just a dream. It’s not reality; it’s all manufactured by Vlad.

After that...weird introductory note...Vlad gives MC the rundown on his life together with Comte, which as always is subject to a question of bias. My assumption is that he did not lie, only because he was trying to convince MC that he was “right.” Furthermore, he does not omit the most damning evidence of his erroneous judgement, which suggests a continued inability for him to see where he went wrong.

We get a series of three flashbacks. The first is them as young kids. I don’t know if Vlad had already experienced the horrors of his family being destroyed, but this particular flashback focuses on Comte. His parents, in an effort to teach him that vampires and humans have no ability to co-exist, send away all of his teachers/mentors/nannies/the servants--pretty much everyone and anyone he was closely bonded to. Think about it this way: we can see that Comte is very sociable and affectionate by nature. He was living in a house full of people, all of whom cared about him and looked after him in their own way. Now the house is entirely empty. Naturally Comte is very very upset, and Vlad appears to try to cheer him up with little success. 

[When I look back on this scene I don’t think I initially registered the sheer dissonance of Vlad’s reaction, versus Comte’s catatonic misery. There was a very solemn feeling to that memory, and the correct choice in terms of extending comfort is to hold his hand believe it or not. There is a sense that he feels very alone. When young boy Vlad enters one can argue that it was the proper thing to do; he was trying to cheer up his playmate and friend. But at the same time, I think I need to double check. Because I’m beginning to wonder if I was wrong. What if Vlad was happy to see someone as alone as him, and that joy is accordingly dissonant for that reason? He can’t see what Comte needs or how he’s hurting because he’s so glad he isn’t alone anymore in a way.]

The second flashback is the war nurse scene that I have spoken at length about. The important thing to focus on here is Vlad’s surprise that Comte would opt out of turning her out of respect for her wishes. The way Vlad frames the situation is starkly different from Comte’s. Comte sees himself as an outsider, somebody who invaded her life as a result of the timespace door and therefore has no right to suddenly change the course of her fate. He had no idea if she even wanted to live (considering the horrors she’d have to cope with and remember) or leave that time period at all, for that matter (considering the only thing keeping her going was helping the wounded/victims). Comte really was listening to everything she had to say, and he was taking her concerns and motivations seriously. 

Vlad simply says: if you want her, take her. It’s as simple as that for him. And in one way that’s not entirely wrong--assuming Comte would have every intention of looking after her and actually cares a lot about her. But what’s being ignored here is her agency and the fact that they really don’t know each other that well? Something like that could begin and be rocky, if it doesn’t end in complete disaster. Worse, I get the feeling Vlad is perfectly fine with the notion of turning her and if things don’t work out, just kill her or get rid of her. Again, the simplistic thinking comes into play here: it ultimately comes down to Vlad being self-centered. He’s thinking only in terms of satisfying his needs, he doesn’t seem to have any concept of a larger pair or group feeling. There’s an inability to bend/be flexible for the sake of maintaining a greater harmonious feeling. 

[For the record, I don’t think this makes him irredeemable? Only that it makes it very hard to live with him or love him, probably. There’s an inability to live at a joint pace? It’s always answering to what he wants without room for anything else most of the time, which to me is not living and it’s not love ;;;;]

Following their escape back to their own time, Vlad explains how he wants to use the door to turn geniuses and control humanity. He eventually wants to create a surveillance state, which would mean everyone is forced to move with his explicit approval, more or less. (He almost reminds me of Louis XIV, can’t tell if that’s what they were going for.) I have my doubts that his abilities could extend that far, but human history shows us that we are plenty susceptible to fascist and totalitarian rhetoric. In a shocking display of anger, Comte draws the line at controlling humanity and forcing them into a regime in which, and this is Vlad’s description not mine, “we (purebloods) would be like kings.” There’s definitely a concept of evolutionary superiority at play here, which echoes what I mentioned earlier; vampires seem to have this awareness that they’re apex predators in a sense, and enjoy the power that comes with that. Unfortunately, that probably makes for a fairly toxic/uncomfortable larger species culture, which is exactly what Comte and Leo hate lmao.

Vlad does not seem to find any issue with this sort of outlook, and asks MC to decide which of them--Vlad or Comte--is right. Who is more realistic, who best understands the future? As expected the MC replies that it's Comte, and Vlad goes from beseeching to big mad at record speed. He's p much that gif of the teddy bear that smacks its head down on the tables and then has the angry eyebrows.

This is where Comte intervenes, firing a warning shot that grazes Vlad's cheek and demanding he let MC go. In response, Vlad shoves MC into the turbulent timespace door--p much guaranteeing MC's death. (Essentially timespace is a void of sorts, a human being could never survive in that environment for long. Vlad fully knew this, and yeeted her anyway.)

So uh, yeah. Disagreement? Death. Moving on? Death. Nuanced approach to reality? Death. Beginning to think he doesn't really have a lot of patience or open-mindedness or any other kind of problem-solving approach. 

He raises flowers and gardens like a fiend, and he openly plucks any single flower with a blemished leaf. Even if a single petal is slightly damaged, it will be removed and destroyed. So one could argue his extremism reflects a kind of perfectionism as well. No room for errors or troublesome dissent. No ugliness of any kind. I mean in all of his interactions with Faust and Charles this is the overt undertone. Don't ask more of me than I'm willing to give. Behave like good children, mommy's busy. Is that insubordination? boss music begins

One thing I actually don't understand very well is his decision making in Dazai's route. Dazai finds out about what Vlad's doing in a nanosecond when he senses MC is in danger, and yet Vlad makes absolutely no move to eliminate Dazai? He just watches from the shadows. Even when Dazai grills Charles about his loyalty to Vlad, no retribution.

My best guess for this specific situation is that Vlad does derive some level of satisfaction thwarting the future of human beings/former humans. Dazai--being somebody with no great desire to live, no rivals to speak of as far as we can tell, and no larger aspirations--is a life that is easily extinguished. There's no satisfaction in it. When Vlad's clan was murdered and he saw the future decimated, it could be that he felt humans had invaded and eradicated every potentiality that was important to him. Where he might have lived happily with his family, that future was ripped from his grasp. Where he might enjoy his flowers and the creation of an immortal for the rest of conceivable time, that too was ripped from his grasp with a desolate future. 

So much about who Vlad is is about control, so it's very possible his lashing out is an extension of that. Dazai does not awaken any of the disdain he feels, and he does not succeed in overthrowing Vlad's control over Charles, so Vlad simply lurks in silence.

And last but not least, I've seen the preview to Vlad's newest birthday event story. The contents are incredibly revealing, in that MC wishing him a happy birthday and offering him a gift has him saying that it was "the best birthday ever." Granted idk if that’s sweet or just...beyond sad, but here we are. It’s only compounding my curiosity about the wound on his chest--I really do wonder if he was attacked and locked away by vampire hunters or hostile human beings or something. I say that only because that line speaks to a lot of isolation, and given how little he seems to care about turning people/subjecting them to his whims it feels odd. Why the isolation or lack of people who care about him? Is it a perceived lack where his actions alienated all the people who wanted to be close to him, or is it a more involuntary lack?

When she says let’s celebrate again next year, he seems a pleasantly shocked by the notion, and remarks “Ah yes, it’s a promise c:”. The preview was also mega horny: “You make me feel so loved, I don’t think I can be gentle with you tonight. If you enjoy it so much, then I won’t stop. I want to see you completely lost for me. I’ll teach your body what it means to be loved by a pureblood.” Aaaaaand pretty sure the CG was alluding to him licking the good stuff from her basement, though not entirely sure given it was only the preview. 

The brief POV they give us is also very revealing:

“You always keep your promises, and I think I underestimate all the time how much you saved me. You are good, only you are good in this world.”

“Will we continue to make promises to each other in the future? Well in that case--you will always, always be mine, my vampire.”

Tbh he’s...v sweet? In his own way? Honestly he feels like a crabapple that is just so sick of the world and wants softe wife to take comfort in. While granted that’s not really my thing, I know a fanbase appeal exists for these types--so if that’s your thing, have at it!

So now that we have reached the end of my ridiculously long analysis (when am I ever brief, I’m so sorry. If you made it all the way here you deserve a cookie at the very least, if not the right to chase me with a bat) perhaps it’s more clear why I said discount vampire Sasuke Uchiha? “My clan is gone, every other second I’m going to be in retraumatization insanity, when I’m not I’ll be seeking power/hobbies, planning the demise of people who wanted the best for me, building a team to my advantage and unquestioned control, and eventually settling for a lifelong love who sees the best in me despite my more difficult moments and perceived hollowing loneliness. Not the most ideal comparison, but I will say if Vlad was not already named the historical figure, would have pointed and yelled Uchiha.

That’s all from me folks, hopefully this was a fun way to get introduced to him? And again, hope I didn’t alienate--I fully respect what people do and don’t enjoy o7

[migeviellardi]

Out Of Comfort

Genre : Adventure, Action, Humour, Hurt/Comfort

Summary : 2 years after the 'you-know-who’, Donnie struggles to adjust with the new way of life. The precarious science blocks are back haunting him, putting him in total stress while he tried his best to keep up with the new team play and co’ord.

Chapter 2 A New Start

Welding felt relaxing, the sound of tiny sparks are like a music to Donnie’s ears. It might not be a real music, but it’s melodious nonetheless. Donnie lifted up his googles, leans back to catch a break. He almost done fixing the hover shell, not the one from yesterday, the one that he kept fixing and fixing away, despite there’s nothing wrong with it.

The one he used last night was a prototype of a new model. It still looks the same as the old ones, but he did made a few upgrades on them. It was definitely frustrating when it got busted. He’s planning to use it more since it felt lighter than the old one. But, now he needs a new shell to wear on a patrol.

He looks at the battleshell charging station. What left there was his worn down Spider-shell. Below it was none other than his wrecked and broken shells that he hadn’t repair, yet. He let out a sad sigh, he looked around him to find that his lab are somewhat cleaner, much cleaner than he remembered. Usually the lab was littered with piles upon piles of inventions, blueprints, scattered metal parts, and energy drinks. 

Now, it seems as if it was untouched. The sleek metallic purple walls with LEDs are still looks fresh and new. The floor was free from dust due to the roombas roam freely without bumping into any tech pieces. And the workbench,....empty. Only his old battleshell that he kept tinkering that are currently there. Also, a cup of coffee.

Donnie about to take a sip when he realized it was ran out. He inspect the glass and saw small coffee drips down the mug got frozen in place due to a long time exposed to the AC. How long have he been there without refilling his coffee? Does he been getting the science block again?

Putting down the mug, he rubbed his tired eyes in frustration. Was he being unproductive on purpose? What is he doing here? Why can’t he finish anything? 

“Hey.” the voice made him jumped, he looked back to see Leo stood on the doorway. “Whoa, it’s okay. Just a little old me.” Leo held his hands out. Donnie frowned, he turned back to his hover shell.

“What do you want, Leo?”

“It’s training time, Don. Better not coop yourself up in the lab, or I’ll let Raph drag your shell to the Dojo.” Leo ordered as he left towards the Dojo. Donnie sighed heavily, he stood up and followed him. He admit, there’s nothing else he would do, science blocks are the worst and it became a daily routine ever since their Lair was smushed to smithereens. And, the fact that he hate to obey the words Leo told him to.

He wasn’t questioning his leadership skills. If Donnie allowed himself to be honest, the Slider actually knows what he’s doing, good at it in fact. Raph at first had a hard time to adjust, now the former leader putting his trust to Leo, even Mikey approved. Donnie, however, still adapting. 

It wasn’t because that he hate to admit it, it just doesn’t sits right putting the leader role to the one who usually pulled some poor one-liners out of spite and keeps bugging your work with some pranks, jokes and poking on things that could cause explosions like it was some kind of a job, because if it is, he good some pretty good records he might get himself some promotions.

And now, the true color of the team seems to emerge. We got the Leader, The Muscle, The Heart and The Brain. Although, The Brain more likely The Brain-Dead one. Stupid science block keeping him from thinking straight, not much idea that pops out other than upgrading, or upgrading the upgrade, or upgrading the upgraded upgrade.

It might be some improvement for anyone, but for the one with the giant science head-cannon looming inside his head, that’s barely even an add-on. He’s unproductivity hurts him, as if the genius inside suddenly just wanted to stop, no more mad scientist mambo-jumbo. He felt it once again, the feeling that he had gone rotten, expired, outdated.....useless. 

Seriously, what will he be for the team without his big brain? What can he do other than getting kicked in the booty several times that let your little brother saves your sorry butt?

If once again, he got knocked down and having Mikey, of all people saves him, he’s going to lose his mind.

###

“Alright, my sons. Now, let us begin to--Purple, where’s your battleshell?” they stared at Donnie in his bare-shell. He rolled his eyes, dejected.

“I’ll be fine, Dad. I’m not going to hurt myself.”

“Nono, my son. I believe you, it’s just....weird seeing you without one.” Splinter simply said, trying not to offend his purple son.

“Well, it’s in repair, and my shoulders are getting tired. So....” Donnie didn’t have to finish his sentence to earned��a nod from his father.

“Verywell, then. Let us start,....now!” as on cue, the whole Dojo became dark. The brothers immediately forming back to back formation, weapons at their hands, full caution. “Hamatos carries essence of life, the Ninpo. Or what most common people called them, mystics.”

Raph sense a movement to his right, Splinter came in with a kick. Mikey saw the offense, he blocked the kick, swung his nunchaku to Splinters head. The rat dodged it with ease. Upon landing, Raph coming in clutch with his fist. Splinter jumps back into the darkness. “Some may think that it is the most essential in fighting.” 

The turtles back to their formation, listening to every sound to pinpoint the next attack. “Others, prefer something else.” a tail emerge from the darkness. Donnie shielded himself with his bo, the tail wrapped around the wooden weapon. Donnie expected the attempt of pulling, he pulled harder, forcing Splinter to show up. Leo anticipated Donnie’s strategy, he swung his sword at the same time Donnie ducked. 

Splinter didn’t expect the timing between the two, but he flawlessly avoided himself from being cut in half. Splinter pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it onto the ground. The smoke caused them to cough, which means distractions. They have no choice but to bail on their formation.

“There will be a time where mystic powers will do no good.” Leo sense presence near him. He ducked down to escape another kick. “So, you must focus on your own ability.” He tail swipe Leo’s katanas, leaving him unarmed. 

“Agility.” Splinter increases his speed, offering punches and kicks towards the turtle. Leo dodged every attack, seamlessly evading and parrying every blow. He counter-attacked Splinter’s punch, delivering a fist to his face. Splinter caught his hand and kicked Leo away, disappearing into the dark.

“Strength.” Raph blocked a powerful kick out of Splinter, pushed him back a meter. Another tail swipe, Raph let it wrapped on his hand and threw his dad away.

“Speed.” Splinter took a punch from what seems to be Mikey’s fist. Splinter blocked his next punch, only met with a swipe kick a second after. Mikey swung his nunchakus with unimaginable speed. Splinter steps up his game to blocked a series of attacks that his youngest son often called it ‘Razzmatazz’. He manage to grabbed both nunchakus and threw orange from the fight.

“And, Instinct.” Donnie dodged a powerful kick launches towards him. He swings his bo just in time to meet Splinter’s punch. Once again, he disappeared. Donnie waited, trying to hear the footsteps. Behind you! He turns to blocked another powerful kick, this time it was too much to hold, it sent Donnie flying to a nearby wall. He winced and panted, adjusting his weight to his bo.

The lights turned on, Splinter ran towards him. “I’m fine!” his voice sounded a bit too loud. Splinter flinched, he’s unsure if the pain was bearable, but he knows well how stubborn his purple son can be. He decided to let it go, “You did better, my son. If you did not block that last kick, you might get yourself hurt even more.” He thought that he should apologize, but he didn’t think purple would appreciate that.

“Alright, take a break all of you.” he put both of his hands on his back, cracking it forward. “Ugh, while I tend to my bad back, you may have some spar with each other.” he walked away while rubbing his back. 

“Hey, Raphie. Wanna spar with me?” Mikey asked excitedly. Raph smiled, accepting the challenge.

“Sure thing, Mikey.” Raph readied up. Mikey activates his mystic chains and whips the nunchaku to Raph, wrapping his whole body. Raph blinks before he was pulled away.

“AAAAHHH!!!” a lod crash was heard. Leo smirks at the scene. Donnie gathers back his bearings and prepared for the sparring.

“Leo?” the slider slowly turns with his smug face. Donnie’s on his pose, “Care to join?” giving him the serious look. Leo kept his usual expression as he readied himself. Donnie strikes first, jabbing his bo to his head, Leo tilted his head to dodge. Donnie swings, Leo parried them with his katanas. He gave more barraging swings, Leo’s agility gives him the advantage. He dodged, parried him with literal ease. 

Leo still using the same face. “What’s wrong, Dee-man? Can’t catch little Leo?” Donnie frowned. He swung, Leo blocked and kicked him in the gut. Donnie yelped, Leo sent another kick to the face. Donnie fell to the floor, shaking his head from the mild headache. Leo knelled down, “Aww, had enough already?” 

Donnie growled. He swung to his leg, Leo had expected that. He got up and sent more swing barrage, this time a lot faster and more frantic. Leo parried a lot more on this one, but didn’t change the expression on his face. Donnie downward, Leo blocked it. Eyes meeting eyes. “Come on, Don. Is that all? I can definitely fight you blind-folded.” 

Donnie’s patience grew thin. He didn’t have to tell him that. He knows he can, and he might will one day. 

Donnie pushed him back, now anger are definitely involved. Leo step up his game some more every time Donnie pulled off some new combos and new speed and variety. Donnie looked at him in the face. 

Shut up.

He was parried by another sword.

Shut Up!

He can’t beat him.

Shut Up!!!

He’ll never catch up to them.

Shut UP!!!!

He’s not good enough.

“SHUT UP!!!!!”

Leo flinched. Donnie panting hard, hands gripping tightly to his bo. Eyes fixated at Leo, as if he’s ready to kill. Raph and Mikey stunned by Donnie’s shouting. 

Donnie growled for real, this time. The deep reptilian growl filled his throat with his fang showing up menacingly. Donnie engaging his predator side, Leo held out his hand. 

“Okay, calm down, Dee. There’s no need to continue this with violence. Okay?”

“GRRRR!!!” Donnie attacks Leo with full intention. Leo no longer wanting to fight, he dodged every move Donnie makes. It was fast and chaotic, more like trying to hurt rather than spar. 

“Donnie, STOP!!!”

“GRAAAHH!!!” 

Raph blocks Donnie’s bo. “Donnie, knock it off!!!”

“Please calm down!” Mikey plead. Donnie ignored them all, he charged at Raph with blind rage. Raph dodged the jab, throw his fist at Donnie. He didn’t dodge, letting it hit his face. Donnie growled deeply, eyes as sharp as needle. Raph was stunned, he didn’t expect Donnie to accept the hit. He felt guilty for hurting his little brother.

Splinter ran back after being called by Mikey. “Purple!!”

Donnie saw an opening on Raph, he charge in while Raph refused to move. Leo tackled Donnie and pinned him to the ground. He refused to back down and squirmed his way to freedom as Leo gripped his limbs for dear life.

“Donatello!!!”

Leo, Raph and Donnie startled by his father’s voice.

“Enough!” Leo froze for a little while, he let go of Donnie once he felt no resistance. Donnie layed down, panting. He suddenly really exhausted. All that anger took too much energy out of him. He slowly hoist himself up to a sitting position. Splinter approached his purple son. Carefully assessing the damage around the turtle. There’s a bruise on his right cheek, might be caused by his oldest son as when he meets his eyes, he can see the guilt he’s facing.

“Purple? What is up with you?” Donnie refused to talk or making eye contact to his father. Splinter can still feel anger looming around him. Did one of the brothers ticked him off? What provokes him? 

“Donatello!” 

“I DON’T KNOW, OKAY!!!!” he yelled. Splinter jerked up by the sudden loud voice that felt louder to his rat ears. Donnie noticed that he went too much. “I...I just--” Donnie can’t hold back the tears that began to form in his eyes. He looked down to obscure it. 

Splinter was surprised seeing his son cried. The brothers reacts the same way. Devastated seeing their usual emotionless turtle broke into tears.

Splinter held out his hand, “My son,-” Donnie swatted away his hand and ran straight to his lab. Not even the call of his name from his family can get his attention. He closed the iron-forced door of his lab, locking it immediately. Donnie sat under his desk, hugging his legs to his chest as he burst to tears. The lab was eerily quiet, the only sounds that are presence are his and the sound of his family trying to reach for him from the other side of the door. 

He felt vulnerable having to broke down like this, he hates it. The way the others desperately trying to get him to open the door made it worse. He wasn’t supposed to show his weakness at the time, he’s a Hamato, a descendant of heart o’ steel. And steel has a lot influence with tech, his thing. He supposed to be able to control his feelings. 

Now, his meltdown would definitely stuck in the topic for a while in this whole family situation. He knows he’s having trouble, yes he does. And he knows he needs to keep up with the others. He knows, he’s the smart one. 

He tried his best, to keep up, to adjust, to be stronger, for everyone’s sake. But he can’t let his family help him with that, they all helped enough. He can’t let them once again drag their butts to fix his problems for him, no. Fixing is his thing, and he can fix his own problem by himself. Just uh, not now. He needs more time, to figure things out. His family just need to be patience, they can handle the waiting game. They’ve done this before, just like waiting for the drill out of its beta version.

He also, needs to be patience. Everything’s going to be alright, he’ll figure it out. He have to. For everyone’s sake.

###

The rest of the day passes by, quietly. Donnie had refuse to talk or eat, he sent Shelldon to grab some drinkable sustenance for him. He can handle being hungry, but thirst must be dealt with. As he recalled some research he found out that living beings can survive hunger for at least a week as long as they have enough supplies of water. Although, he can’t say the same about coffee, but not like it’s bothering him.

He waited for Shelldon to come back with a drink, his lab door still close but no longer locked. Once in a while his brothers visited him as he succumb to his depressions in his favorite purple hoodie, concealing his swollen eyes as a result from the earlier’s mental breakdown.

They talked, though they tried not to bring up of what happened in the Dojo. Leo, most of all, had a hard time keeping it cool. The red-eared slider guiltily apologized for making fun of him in training. Donnie might not talk about it, but he willing to forgive him. It wasn’t Leo’s fault that he had problems, he needs to stop playing the Blame Game.

“We love you, Don. And nobody can change that.” Leo said.

“I know.” Donnie simply replied.

His thought was broken by the sound of whirring from the purple drone who he manage to salvage, thankful that Shredder didn’t think twice and explode his core memory.

“Yo, Dee. I got the coffee for you.” the drone informed enthusiastically.

“Thanks, Shelldon.” he quietly accepted the coffee and took the first sip before once again continuing his currently favorite activity, staring an empty desk. Shelldon’s cheery attitude turned into worry as he watched his creator’s constant solitude. Slumping his upper body further back into his gaming chair, holding the coffee mug in both hands.

“Dude. You okay?” he asked for what seems like the tenth times by now. The response stayed the same.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Shelldon wasn’t happy with the answer, but he shrugged it off. He took out his lanky robot arm and grabbed something that sitting on top of him.

“Mikey told me to give you this.” he held out a box of pizza at him. “You should at least eat something, Donnie.” he plead. Donnie stared at the pizza then at Shelldon. The look of worry annoyed him. Great, even a robot is worried about him. But he knows better that Shelldon is not just a robot. He’s a family, part of the Hamato, the drone has feelings and conscious of its own. 

Donnie accepted the package, he took a slice and eat it. Shelldon--although not quite visible--beaming away that he had accepted the offer.

“Thank you, Shelldon.”

“You’re welcome, Dee!” Shelldon flew off to the other side of the lab, knowing that he’d done his job. Donnie chuckled quietly as he gone. It’s weird to think that the drone behaving like a kid, which was the intention of installing the emotion-settings in the first place. He can’t remember the last time he acted like one, those days of constant playing, troublemaking and have no care in the world. He said it before; it was messy but gosh, it was fun.

Then, he heard the lair suddenly began crowdy. He didn’t realized that the door was opened, did Shelldon forgot to close the door? How could an AI forget something? Donnie have no mood to stand up or command anything for now, so he let it be. He heard a distant sound of clip-clop from hooves in the lair. The only mutant he knows that is involving hooves is Baron Draxum. What is he doing here? And the sound of chit-chats heard along with it as well, especially some faint female voices and his dad. 

They all having a chat out there. How long they’ve been in this states? Why haven’t anyone informed him about visitors? Then again, he’d been cooped up in this lab and desiring for some temporary isolations, of course they haven’t inform him. 

Not wanting to bother with anything about it, he continued sipping his coffee and chomped down more pizza into his throat. Not much he can do for now, other than listening the distant inaudible voices. Not even bothering to look up to the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer to the lab.

“Hey, big guy. How’s it going?” April leans her body to the door frame, keeping it cool.

“’m fine.” he answered again, too often now that it sounds more like a chanting spell. April offered a sad smile as she bring herself to sit beside the purple genius. 

“Wanna talk about it?” she asked softly. Donnie sipped his mug as a sign that he refused her demands. “I see. Well, we wanted to hang out together as family to the hidden City.” she told.

“Last time we did that we got thrown in jail.” he bluntly respond.

“Well, yes. But things are different now. Now that we stopped that ‘you-know-who’, they pretty much removed the bounties from our heads.” she added, definitely sounding more excited than before. Donnie still can’t trust the sudden change, although he does agree the treatment for doing so after that horrible incident, he didn’t expect anything from the Yokais but pay some respect for sparing them from the devilish evil claws they called Shredder.

“Still, I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Remember that time where we trust that spider lady for taking care of ‘you-know-who’, and look what she did, total havoc, everywhere.”

“Well, at least she did help out with locating the....uuuh....”

“Empyrean.”

“Yeah, that. If it wasn’t for her, we might not be able to save the day and,... You know what I mean.” she reluctantly continued her sentence. Donnie can tell why, he also didn’t want to think of what happen if they can’t find where Shredder had kept their father hostage. Can’t probably sleep knowing if they were too late, Big Mama was indeed offer a huge help even though she’s only can help telling them the location.

Although, the point still stands, she wasn’t a type of person that can be easily trusted. Things happened because of her, and they suffered the most of it. Can’t believe he wished that he should’ve listen to Leo the first time, probably one of the reason why he can be such a good leader.

“Look, I know it’s hard to believe it that way. But I promise, I got some good hunch today. Everything will be fine. You can blame me if anything goes wrong in your way, okay?” And there it is, the classic humble April. The very things he envies the most out of her, dare enough to take the blame and always be there with positive attitude. 

And, yes, April always had a strong hunch, it never failed them and they all knew that. If she thinks everything will be fine, then it will indeed. 

“So, do you trust me?” she stood up with a big confident smile on her face. It somewhat contagious and made him smile as well.

“Of course, you’re the only human that I trust in this world, April.” he responded, with less tense or sad tone.

“What, you still don’t trust Casey?” as on cue, a loud non-feminine female voice shouting in the background, followed by what sounds like his brothers shouting back at her. Donnie grimaced at the behaviour of that girl. Ever since the former Foot-clan helped out with defeating Shredder, the group immediately warmed up to her. Except for Donnie.

He still respected her for saving his father, however he never had any connection with the girl. Her risk-loving-fight-adoring attitude giving his big bulky brother, Raphael a worthy friendly match. She didn’t even flinched by his loud thundering roar, if by chance she roared right back. And her chaotic energy is enough to keep up with Leo and Mikey. 

Donnie didn’t share much with such connections, in which he easily-predicted, the girl hates science. Although, she does find his inventions as cool and awesome, she might thinking about exploding it in place though. Leo would be proud.

Also, she’s terrifying, not as much as April, but she gave him too many goosebumps for the past years.

“In theory, she might be the last person to be trusted when it involves ‘safety’. Please don’t tell her that!” he semi-whispering, not wanting her to charged in and wreck something explosive in his lab.

“Your secret safe with me.” she gestured a zipping motion across her mouth. Donnie chuckles, “Now, come on. Everyone’s waiting. You don’t have to take your hoodie off if you don’t want to.”

Donnie smiled at that, he stood up and let April grabbed his hand leading him to the group. “Thanks, April.”

“Anytime, Dee.” she grinned at him.

[dumbdotcomm]

lessons in opposites

(a/n) a commission for my pal @fanfic-inator795! enjoy some raph and donnie bonding !

It’s not that Raph really prefers one brother over the other; he’s been blessed with three great brothers and one fantastic sister and Raphael is grateful every day, as sure as he’s got life and breath in him, he’s so grateful that he’s not alone. 

April asks, just for laughs, for a silly documentary on their Lair Games, if Raph had a favorite brother; and off the bat, on instinct, he wants to deny that he does. He loves them all. But then he blurts out Mikey’s name without thinking and then things start to shift, and Raph starts to wonder if he’s a terrible brother for that.

“It’s not a big deal, Raph,” Donnie says, after having seen the clips of how little faith his brothers had in his athleticism, and that one little clip of Raph easily admitting Mikey was his favorite, followed up by Leo, “It’s just a joke…”

But he says it in the way that’s pinched and just a little forced like he does when he takes hard hits and bad falls and just wants to laugh it off because he’s fine. 

Raph swallows, nods, presses a smile that feigns belief in Donnie’s words, but he can’t stop glancing over at his brother’s face the whole rest of the time they watch April’s (incredibly edited) documentary film. 

His brother keeps his eyes downcast and does that thing where he wrings his hands till they get weirdly slick with this mucusy stuff. 

Like when he’s hurt and holding back. 

And Raph makes a silent promise, then, that he’ll definitely make it up to his brother.

---

Life has a funny way of just screwing plans and promises over. Raph trains extra with his father on early mornings, learning to think, to focus, to get his fears under control. Donnie locks himself into work by the time training is over, and then they go patrol and watch something on Netflix and then the day is spent and it’s 4am. 

So it’s not exactly intentional, the way their paths just don’t cross long enough for Raph to really get the chance to make it up to Donnie. But it’s still shitty and Raph knows there’s something he can do- he has to. 

And so he googles a bunch of stuff going on in Manhattan, something that wouldn’t be so obviously intended on compensating for basically saying Don is his least favorite brother. Something Donnie won’t suspect, because if he did- 

“If you asking me is a way of ‘reparations’ for the Lair Games documentary, Raph…”

“It’s not-” Raph raises his arms in innocence, and crosses over his plastron, “Turtle’s honor, Donnie. ‘S just the guys...they’ll be all ‘that’s lame’, and you…”

“Wouldn’t think a teddy bear world is lame?” Donnie quirks his perfectly drawn brow and cocks his head a little at Raph.

This is going abysmally, but not quite in a way that wasn’t expected. Raph bites his own tongue from just spilling his intentions heartfeltly- because he can’t scare his brother off right now. He’s gotta play it cool. 

“Uhhh, I mean, I-”

“Because you’d be pretty accurate,” Donnie interjects, and despite his voice remaining flat, his lips curve into a ghost of a smile, and Raph’s heart stops pounding so hard, “I was wondering when you would finally ask one of us, ugh a dream come true.”

Raph genuinely cannot tell if Donnie is being sarcastic, though roughly fifteen years of training has at least let him gather, from that weird way his brother’s eyes got super overbright when he was excited, that Donnie really, like super straight up, means it. 

“Wow…. well, aight then,” Raph laughs with his words, still not believing how easy it was to simply…ask to spend time with his brother, “Just pick a disguise and we good!”

“Yup, normal disguise. Friday it ‘tis,” Donnie returns the laugh, a touch awkward, before taking his sandwich back to his lab. 

And the slightly manic look that Raph catches in his brother, just as he slips from view, makes a lot of little pieces in Raph’s head come together, like a little, horrifying jigsaw puzzle.

Because Raph has been blessed with having Donnie as a brother for fourteen years, he knows a terrible plan forming when he sees one. 

-----

Donnie takes pride in his intellect, like not in a super cocky way, he’s just glad he’s been gifted with the ability to make a pea shooter in one afternoon that also has the capability to laser off a bastard’s face. 

Still he’s not too prideful to admit that he’s sometimes stupid as hell, in the emotional department, and social department. And while that’s not exactly ideal, Donnie’s got four pretty incredible siblings to lean on for that and so he doesn’t really complain about the impossibility of picking up social cues. 

But sometimes, like when his older brother is standing across from him uncomfortably stiff, babbling on about Teddy Bear Town- well sometimes Donnie kinda wishes he did get it. 

It’s only until he’s stacking his third layer of his sandwich that Donnie really understands what this is all about. Because Raph’s got his ‘I’m nervously trying to make it up to you’ stink, and then Donnie remembers the documentary, and Raph’s commentary, and the really…awful way Donnie pretended not to feel afterwards. 

He doesn’t want Raph to pity invite him, he doesn’t need that. And Donnie’s gonna make sure his brother knows he’s fine- he’s chill and and he’s okay with potentially being Raph’s least favorite. 

So he’s supposed to respond to Raph nonchalantly, to just go with Raph and be cool about it but- 

“Shelldon, download all the info you can find on Teddy Town…”

-----

“Rise and shine, bud!” 

Donnie must’ve drank four extra shots of espresso to be this hype this early, and Raph grips the steering wheel of the Turtle Tank a little harder to try and not smell so nervous. Because there’s no way Donnie could have actually known what Raph’s intentions were, like he had to have just thought that this was a normal thing, and not a ‘I’m so sorry I made you feel less than appreciated, please forgive me’ type of thing. 

And Donnie is definitely onto something, even if he’s not onto Raph. He’s just got that glint in his eyes, and Raph feels just a little bit selfish for wanting this to be a normal day- for his brother to  just be-

“Uh...thanks for taggin’ along,” Raph doesn’t intentionally cut Donnie off, but his brother’s talking a mile a minute about the history of Teddy Bear Town and Raph knows that he’s only doing it because he feels he has to. 

Donnie stops himself, blinks, and puts his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, “It’s no big deal…” he says, in complete contrary to his hyperactive Ted Talk, “Being benched for a sprained ankle was shit, needed to get out anyway…”

He glances over at Raph and looks instantly, incredibly smaller. 

Raph thumbs the steering wheel, drumming against it in thought, in a search for words. 

He doesn’t have to do this kinda stuff with Mikey, and Leo never shuts up- and Donnie is just…

“Bluetooth, connect to my phone,” Donnie says abruptly, before Raph even gets the chance to think of something to say. 

And they stay quiet, listening to music the whole way there.

------

Things feel significantly less awkward in the bigger crowd. Raph is grateful for all the noise and movement that he can shift his focus on, instead of the downcast way Donnie’s been carrying himself since halfway through their ride over here. 

And Raph’s always kinda felt his younger brother had a tough time expressing himself- that they were different that way. That Raph carried his heart on his sleeve and that his brother didn’t. But now he’s starting to see that maybe he’s got some things twisted. That he and Donnie are a lot more alike in these things than Raph thought. 

“Stay close,” he tells his brother, because as aloof as humans are, they’re still humans, and they don’t always accept what’s different.

Raph remembers telling Donnie that, when they first met April, when Donnie surprisingly was the first to reach out and grab her little hand and compare it to his. And Donnie had looked at him weird, and yeah, well humans aren’t the only ones that don’t understand ‘different’. 

The memory hits Raph so suddenly, and almost makes him miss a step. 

He turns to find Donnie staring at him, which must mean Donnie noticed, because of course he did.

And Raph stares back because oh. Holy shit. 

“Uh…” Donnie glances around awkwardly, “Raph, you’re giving off a weird...vibe right now. You good-”

“Can we talk?” Raph blurts out, and surveys their surroundings, for a place to dip, “Like real quick?” 

Donnie looks like he wants to bolt now, which would be ideal in the packed hallway of the mall. But he doesn’t. He just swallows and darts his eyes and nods.

Sure. 

Pros to being trained ninjas is the ability to disappear quickly, and they find a quiet, tucked away spot where Raph finally lets himself breathe. 

“You’re different,” he says it quickly and rushed and Donnie’s eyes briefly widen in some sort of surprise, but Raph presses on despite his sloppy start, “You….you think different, you think, like, way smarter than us, an’ you make different jokes and express differently an’ that doesn’t. It’s not bad, Donnie.” 

His brother keeps his eyes to the ground, kicking gently at nothing, “I don’t care that you said I’m your least favorite, Raph,” he mumbles. 

“But you do,” Raph counters back, and keeps his voice leveled, tries not to talk to Donnie too softly or else he’d feel babied, “And that’s normal, and I wish I could say that what I said wasn’t...I dunno, like a…”

“Reflection of how you feel?” Donnie poses, but his words aren’t angry, even if Raph feels his brother’s got full rights to be.

He sighs, deflating a little, “Yeah...yeah, I guess it’s that. But not because I think...it’s because I get really...weirdly insecure man. You’re a freaking genuis and I know you never try an’ make us feel dumb, but- and then we’re both super bad at words and I just… I dunno Dee.”

Raph takes the extra step to go close the distance between him and Donnie, and Donnie stiffens up- at first, for just a couple of seconds, “But I love you, ‘cause you’re an awesome person, and ya not my least favorite. You’re not. And ya don’t gotta pretend you’re cool with everything.”

Donnie pulls back, a dorky smile on his face, which is infinitely better than the sad way he looked earlier, even better than the way he pretended like everything was good and it wasn’t.

“You don’t have to pretend either,” Donnie says, unlocking their eye contact, and staring back at his feet, “I know you were trying to...to make it up to me, but. You could’ve- you didn’t have to invite me.”

“But I wanted to,” Raph says it and means it with everything he’s got, “Really, Donnie. A-and I wanted to do somethin’ that ya wouldn’t think was me just tryna get on your good side, ya know. Somethin’ we could just...do.”

“And I messed up, the whole info-dumping….” 

He’s doing it again, he’s making himself smaller and Raph’s not allowing that. 

“Okay, half of that stuff, I woulda never known- and ya looked all’a that up just to get to understand me better. I just didn’t want you...t’ think you had to...say all that.”

“And I didn’t want you to think you had to invite me,” Donnie quips back, but ends it with a small smile, “So I guess we’re in the same proverbial boat.”

Raph snorts, “The boat of insecurity…”

And Donnie, stiff and awkward and still full of feeling, takes his turn to hug Raph fully this time, “Screw that boat.”

-----

In the end Donnie makes his bear with a shitton of detail, getting so wrapped up in it that they spend a couple hours there.

And Raph’s bear is simple, not all that complex like his brother’s- but that’s more than okay, actually.

Their differences were more than okay.

[nei-ning]

Had a dream which I write down here (since I don’t do diaries otherwise :’D). I also want to state that this dream I have seen first time decades ago, long time before the characters in the dream were created / I had never seen them before in real life. ** There was some sort of small castle / house on top of small cliff somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Inside the place was, what I saw and where I was, small game store with figures etc. I didn’t even search through the whole store when I spotted small shelf area at the back of the room. I spotted Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach) figure with his shinigami outfit. He was inside of original package and the price was 21.99. I don’t know was the price in euros or dollars tho.

I took the package in my hands, looking at it. It was well made and quite big. Maybe around 30cm tall. I remember thinking how good birthday gift it would be to my little brother who turned 30 few days ago.

But then my eyes spotted another figure on my right on the shelf. I don’t remember what the figure actually was anymore, but it was TMNT related, someone in full costume of some sort. I remember the costume had helmet, spikes, and the colors for whole costume were red-purple. I eyed it and I knew I would want it, but THEN again my eyes spotted something else on higher shelf.

There was, also at least 30cm tall, Rise Raphael figure! God, it was lovely and gorgeous! Raphael was standing in some sort of fighting pose and he had long scarf which floated in the air so beautifully! I knew I WANTED IT! But then a man came to my left. He was working there in the shop and came to ask if I needed help.

I told him I want Ichigo and that Rise Raphael, but I can’t have both since I had money only for one of them (while each of them was that 21.99). Then he joked about something and pointed to my left (his right). I turned to look at the small “hallway” area between shelves with more games and books while setting sun colored the room orange-red. There also was another worker, younger man, and he looked at the floor, pointing at it.

I asked did he see something because I didn’t. He said nothing, but kept pointing the said spot. Soon, very faintly, I saw a shadow going there. I waited a bit longer and the shadow got more stronger. The shadow was shaped like one of the yokais what I have seen in one old traditional yokai art. Tho while the original yokai has only 2 legs, this had 4. Here’s the image of the (red) yokai -> Link I watched it run there, its form showing only against the sides of the shelves in sunlight. Then, it disappeared as soon as it had appeared.

Now, for a some reason, I ended up being inside 2014 Leonardo. However he was not wearing his original gears. Pants yes, but nothing on torso or swords etc. As I was him, I instantly knew something was not right in that castle / game store because it was not a good sign to have a yokai there - no matter how small or harmless (tho I don’t know anything about that red yokai so I don’t know in real life how harmless or harmful they can be). Anyway, as I was Leonardo, I decided to investigate it.

Only way to investigate this was to have one female (maybe a worker?) with me / Leonardo in next building (some sort of empty hay barn) right across the castle. Leonardo was half naked (pants on!) and apparently he had tried to seduce the woman to tell him what he wanted to know, but this woman was, well, stupid and clueless. Or then she pretended to be that. As Leonardo was going to leave, he was putting on white shirt, doing the buttons (damn that was nice experience while being inside him! :D) while walking at the barn’s doorway with the woman. At the doorway there came another woman, younger long haired blond with typical “witch’s” nose. She did look like a witch a lot actually even that she was, like I said, young and dressing “normally”. But she had weird feeling and Leonardo sensed it. As he stood still for few second, doing the last upper buttons, he gave a glare from the corner of his eye towards the woman. He did not trust her and he was also pissed at the other woman for not telling him anything.

As I stepped out of the barn (still being in Leo), I eyed the castle and the cliff which was right next to it. I knew there was something going on and it wasn’t good. I decided to head back inside the castle. However, next thing I know I am me again and I’m inside some room. I am in squatted position since right to my left is a wall, above me is black shelf (while the walls are rusty red) and right in front of me is 1 long black shelf and below it is shorter black shelf. On that longer shelf is turtle shells. All brown and appearing to be empty. I wondered why they are there.

Then, suddenly, 2014/2016 Michelangelo’s head pops out in one of them on lower shelf. He looked freaking adorable since he showed to me as 2D cartoon style! He instantly says happily with higher voice: “Come this way!”

Right after that, on bigger shelf above Mikey, 2014/2016 Raphael’s head (also in 2D form like Mikey and rest of them) pops out in the first shell. He happily says to me too; “Come here!” Next to him is Leonardo who’s head also pops out from the shell. He too asks me to come (tho I don’t hear it clearly since Raphael and / or Michelangelo is also repeating their words on top of his). Then next to Leonardo is Donatello, who just happily stares at me (without having his glasses).

Then I woke up. I have to say I have NO idea why turtles were telling me to come to them, but I also know it wasn’t anything bad. Maybe it is because turtles, in their own way and with their own personal messages, are good signs to me. Spirit guides almost if you wish. I also listened Abraham Hicks’s video few months ago and there Abraham says something like this; “Your inner being knows and it’s guiding you: Come this way! Come this way! Come this way! Come this way!” So, since I love that line, I think boys used it too as an encouragement / as a sign.

7.1.2021

[nad-zeta]

Matchup Duo 💎

HOWDY, not sure if matchups for ikeseng are open but here i go anyway?¿ ´･ᴗ･`

-I’m a Leo, and a combination of ENFP/ENTP (if that helps with characterization), but I’m becoming more ambivert as the days go by. But I still act like a crackhead (making up new words, making random sound effects out of boredom and roasting people playfully, having airhead moments, for examples) and a lot of people irl do get put off at how “obnoxious” I can get, but I do know when to “flip the switch” and become serious/quiet.

-I have really low standards for humor idk I laugh at my own jokes it’s honestly astounding, but cursed memes/images are somethin else💀 Dark jokes are always open in my ally👀

-Ironically, I canNOT stand horror, I will legit be so paranoid or freaked out and start overthinking and just cry and DIE—

I’m very open, almost TOO open, but ask me literally anything and I’ll usually tell everyone my honest opinions/thoughts, but I know how to deliver words tactfully and articulately. Debating, (public) speaking, writing, and understanding concepts are my strong suits; likewise I suck ass at math (I have no idea how I ended up in Calc BC ap, I just— 😭)

-Speaking of writing, I write poems whenever I feel like it, I have a whole collection HAH. My love of expressing comes from my tendency to play the devil’s advocate in interpreting and arguing for almost all perspectives in topics. So you can probably guess how I don’t get offended really easily and welcome both playful and serious banter (despite the crackhead persona, I’m very observant of people and their values expressed and how they tick, so I know when to back off especially when they get uncomfortable with my aggressive debating/personality). Need advice? I can use what I’ve gathered from different people and help anyone in their particular situations.

-And speaking of expression, I love fashion and makeup! I love being able to express myself through use of presentation and have fun while doing it! hehe (k-fashion, asian beauty 👀) HECK YEAH I’M DOWN FOR SHOPPING—

-I like to dance yeehaw, and I was on a competitive dance team (well that was before when the corona hit the milly rock a little TOO hard and put all the dancers out of commission😔🤝😭) I’ve also been in my own highschool’s dance club for 4 years!!

-I’m a console gamer :0 Big fan of winding down with video games, but books are the best if games aren’t an option.

-Music is a huge part of my life; I played the flute and the viola for years before and been surrounded by music through dancing as well; while I’ve been in a choir before, my vocals aren’t stellar oof, but at least I’m not tone-deaf.

-Can’t cook to save a life ooooof, that’s where my airheadness REALLY kicks in. I literally burn myself making instant :>

-I’m not phased by sexual innuendos/conversations/kinks because I see them objectively as unique characteristics of every person, but I’ll crack up at a sex joke or a cringe flirt line with friends. And like I’ve said, I’ll share them myself without objection if ANYONE asks. But the moment someone actually TRIES to make a move on me (like what!!¡¿), I’ll first play it casual but then bolt for the door because it’s hard for me to actually imagine that ANY guy would see me in a romantic light LOL but i’d get used to the advances quick and if it’s someone i liked back, i’d tease them the same or raise up the antics ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

Hi, there, dear! <3 Can I just say u sound like a super cool person! Anyway here is your matchup dear, I hope you enjoy it! And thanks for waiting soooooooooo long! ^_^

So I match you with………… Masamune

Selfie Match up

The first time this boi meets you he is ecstatic, finally someone fun to liven up this boring place.

You scream fun and outgoing

Masamune is already imagining all the fun adventures the two of you can go on and he hasn’t even talked to you yet!

He is absolutely captivated by those big dark brown eyes. 

Those big bright intelligent eyes are all telling of the playful mischief the two of you could get up to together.

He absolutely loses himself in your deep warm, captivating eyes, they remind him of home, they are deep and rich like the soil of his home town, soft and comforting, while busting with endless life and energy

HE is absolutely dazzled by the way your soft strands of earthy hair moved so freely in the wind. It low key reminds him of his own wild free personality

If he ever had to imagine his perfect woman you would be it.

You have the same vibe as playful kitten having endless hours of fun, and boy oh boy all Masa wants to do is join in.

He wishes nothing more than to boop your cute nose

His brain goes haywire, all he wants to do is kiss those soft lips of yours

Masamune continues to eye you from the corner of the council room. Gosh if love at first sight did exist than this would describe his exact feelings towards you.

Match up part

You were named as the new princess of the Oda forces and was forced to sit through the rest of the boring war council. It had been 30 minutes in, and you were already losing your mind from boredom, that is when the one-eyed dragon passed you note from across the table. You giggled a little at the joke and wrote back on of your own. The two of you passed notes back and forth, every joke or remark you read made you want to break out in laughter. As the council progressed, the two of you got rowdier and rowdier and the both of you were now making strange noises. You were making all sorts of weird sound effects, and Masamune was howling in laughter. TBH they were so funny even Nobunaga couldn’t help but laugh. Everyone was having a good time except Hideyoshi “Okay that’s the third time the two of you have disturbed the council”. Hideyoshi started lecturing you and Masamune about not disturbing the council any further when Nobunaga announced that the council was over. The two of you couldn’t help but laugh in victory. The two of you continued your conversation in which you were playfully roasting each other. Masamune was right; you really were going to be a lot of fun.

Masa love chatting and spending time with you and honestly, he loved the fact that you understood and laughed at all his jokes. What he loves the most is times just before your about to deliver the punch line to a joke, but you burst out laughing for 20 minutes before you can even get it out. And once you finally coke out the punchline between laughs, you continue to giggle at your hilarious sense of humour for another solid 30 minutes. Masamune can’t help but laugh at you laughing at yourself. When the two of you goofballs are around its always a fun time, but beware of some occasional dark humour i.e. the two of you got scolded one day for joking about some dark topics in front of the kids *cough* Mitsunari *cough*

The first night you arrived, and Masamune barged into your room, and Masamune being Masamune, ignored any boundaries of personal space and started to page through one of your books that were laying on your writing desk. It was your fashion portfolio that caught his eye. He loves all the different looks and the way the colours and patterns seemed to complement each other. You had explained to him that you were heavily into fashion and makeup and considered it as part of your self-expression. Masamune smiled his big cat-like smile at you asking if you wanted to meet up with him tomorrow. You honestly didn’t have anything better to do, so you agreed.

You and Masamune spent hours in the market looking at different fabrics, clothes and makeup products. Everything was so different in the past. After spending the whole day shopping your grab both of Masamune’s hands in your, you beam up at his with the brightest smile stating that you had a fun idea. Masa is pretty much keen for anything, so he goes along with your strange idea. The two of you make your way back to his manor. And that is when the two of you hold a fashion show, to show off your new clothes and accessories the two of you bought. It was a lighthearted fun game, filled with banter and giggles. It had actually become somewhat of a tradition now for the two of you to do this little fashion shows in his room after a long day of shopping. You would always bust out laughing at the strange poses Masamune would do. 

Another fun activity the two of you have adopted is poetry slams. Both of you would spend the week writing your best poems and then present them to each other. Just like the fashion shows, these evenings are also always filled to the brim with laugher and banter. The two of you had gotten to know each other fairly well like this, as sometimes the theme of the poems would be dark and depressing, and after the two of you would discuss the emotions behind it. U guys would in those cases always be there for each other lending a friendly ear to listen to the others problems.

Needless to say at this point, Masamune was head over heels for you and somewhere in between the fun poetry slams and fashion shows, his flirty jokes stopped being jokes. He was serious about you. One night he actually kissed you, you were honestly so shook, you ran, you legit sprinted away. Little did you know the tiger was on your heel running after you. He caught you and tacked you to the ground. The 30 second run actually gave you time to sort your feelings, as you too had realized that you had also fallen for the one-eyed dragon. He stared into your eyes questioningly, and that’s when you snaked your hands behind his neck and pulled him down to return the kiss.

The two of you made such a sweet couple. After work, Masamune would always be on the hunt for his kitten to spend time with you. He was super shocked when he heard singing coming from the kitchen. He snuck up to the kitchen and peeked inside. He had to chuckle when he saw you singing your heart out and dancing like nobody was watching. He never knew you could sing and dance like that, he watched you for a while utterly awestruck by you. He was pulled out of his reverie when he smelt something burning and saw a cloud of smoke coming from the oven. You panicked at seeing the smoke and swiftly opened the oven. You didn’t even think when you took the baked, well-burnt goods out the oven without mitts or a cloth. You had legit burnt your hands to a crisp. 

Masamune rushed to your side to evaluate the damage. He got a bag and filled it with ice, putting it on your burnt hands. He then proceeded to rub some medicine on the burns and wrap your hands “Best leave the cooking to me from now on Kitten”. He then took over from where you left off, making you the best meal you had ever tasted. You sat on the kitchen counter to keep him company. The burnt buns and your burnt hands were long forgotten, as the two of you were laughing and chatting away. 

Now, whenever Masamune cooked, you would sit in the kitchen with him and keep him company. The two of you would laugh and dance together in the kitchen. It was always so much fun spending time with him, you especially love it when he sings in his most false off-key voice it is honestly hilarious. You couldn’t help but think he complimented you perfectly. He could cook when you couldn’t even make toast successfully, and you could sing beautifully, while he sounded like some cat in pain.

Another thing Masa absolutely loves, is to sit and listen to you play the flute or viola. The soothing music and the amount of love and emotion you pack into the songs as you play, washes away all the stress and tiredness from his day. He could sit four hours and hours just enchanted by the sound of your music. Even more so if you sing along to the song, you are playing. He loves hearing your beautiful voice. This boy will legit drag you to sit in his lap and nuzzle and kiss you until you agree to play or sing him a song.

Masamune is always by your side supporting you and showering you with love. Whenever you get sad or insecure, Masamune is always there to lighten the mood. Like one time, some maids pissed you off. “ why is my kitten so angry today” Masamune literally came up to you and pinched your cheeks, he then squished your face “Common lemi see that beautiful smile.” When you still had a grumpy expression, he pulled you up and started spontaneously dancing. You couldn’t help but smile at the goofball and join in. Soon your big wide fast movements slowed down, and Masamune pulled you into his arms by your waist. He then dropped his head down and rested it in the crook of your neck. You honestly love quite moments like this just slow dancing in your lover’s arms. He would ask you about your day and would tighten his hold on you, enveloping you in a warm embrace, while you talk out all your frustrations of the day. After he would nibble on your ear whispering how much he loves and adores you.

Masa is like your fun knight in shining armour whether it is comforting you and helping you get to sleep after hearing some crazy scary ghost stories or spending hours upon hours bantering with you while you playfully insult each other, He is always there for you, loving you from the moment the sun rises till the moment it sets. He has truly met his match with you and never has in his life been happier, or laughed so much. The two of you can always be found snuggled together with Masa’s lil tiger cub in the futon after a long day of laughs, fun and adventures

Perhaps it truly was love at first sight after all 

Other potential matches…………….Mitsuhide 

 Hope you enjoyed it, love! and I hope you are staying safe and well🍭 @smol-vy

[halfgclden]

The Ol’ Chop

Summary: Haircut, Blonde, Neapolitan ice cream

Date: Mid-December

Abel, lying upside down on their couch, flipped over completely to land on their feet on the floor, then stayed squatting. They rested their elbows on their knees and their chin on their fists and looked at Rory for a long moment before speaking. “I have a strange inch-long ring of black hair now that my roots have grown out.” It seemed as though this was not the end of their thought, but they paused. “Have you ever thought about dyeing your hair?”

Rory jumped slightly when Abel suddenly moved, having been distracted by her text conversation with Macey. They had trapped her legs underneath them some time ago so she wiggled them to get the blood flowing again, then twisted her body, now crossing them instead. At their words, her hand reached out to pick up a strand of hair, inspecting the inch of black hair they were talking about. “Yeah, I’ve noticed that. Did you have a new master plan to cover it up or did you just wanna touch them up?” She tilted her head, both waiting for their response as well as the question she had been asked. “Yeah? I mean, not a super crazy color or anything, but I’ve always thought about doing it at some point.” Her eyes now narrowed, though the smile slowly growing showed she was joking. “Why?”

Abel closed one eye as Rory touched their hair. “I don’t know.” They hummed. “I could go totally dark, but Jacob might think I’m copying him.” They opened their eye again to focus both on her. “Well,” they said as they tilted their head to one side, cracking their neck. “Speaking of Jacob, he decided to go back to black, which has left me with an excess of bleach, which, if you don’t know, I don’t need.” They shrugged. “So if you wanted to try anything while I figure out what to do with this mess,” they pointed to their head. “We very easily could.”

“I mean, yeah I’m down. I don’t even the last time I got a haircut, definitely before everything happened.” Dropping the piece of hair in her hands, Rory’s attention then shifted to lift one of her braids, investigating the dark brown hair in her hands. She tried to picture what the strands would look like in a different color, but it was hard to imagine for some reason. She looked back down at Abel, a small frown on her face. “What do you think would look good?”

“Oh my gods.” Abel climbed back onto the couch, and dug their knees into the cushions as they picked up Rory’s other braid to inspect. “You must have a lot of dead ends.” They raised their eyebrows at her. “You down for a makeshift salon in my bathroom? I can give you the ol’ cut and colour. Blondes have more fun, you know.”

Rory swatted their hand away at the dead ends comment, then grabbed the braid for herself and held onto it, looking almost offended. “No, I’m a leo, my hairs perfect.” She paused, blinked then let go of her braid and sighed. “I need to stop listening to Macey with this astrology shit. I have no idea what I just said.” She admitted, but turned to face them on the couch, allowing Abel to pick up her braid again. She looked at her hair again, trying to picture it blonde and felt nervous excitement at the idea of a whole new look. After all, it was hair, it’ll grow back eventually. Looking back at her cousin, she grinned. “I’m down.”

Abel grinned. They hadn’t said the comment to make her upset, but seeing Rory pout was always amusing. “Ah, you’re right that you have good hair, and I suppose it’s a leo trait, but that doesn’t stop you from also having dead ends.” They picked up her braid again before dropping it and climbing off the couch. “Okay.” They were still grinning, clearly excited for the endeavor. “Awesome, cool. I’ll set everything up in the bathroom. Might bleach bath myself to try to turn this,” they pointed to their black streak. “At least brown without making it gross.” With that, they turned to grab tinfoil from the kitchen, then disappeared into the bathroom, obviously waiting for her to follow.

In a totally adult fashion, Rory stuck her tongue out at their back once again in protest of the dead ends. Watching Abel walk off as they spoke, she stayed in her spot on the couch for a minute before letting out another sigh and pushing herself up onto her feet. Entering the bathroom behind them, she looked at everything that had already started happening and was suddenly grateful for the decision to wear one of her older, more comfy shirts. “Need me to do anything? Or do you just want me to sit down?”

Abel was pretty much a pro at getting a bathroom set up to dye hair. They normally did it at Jacob's, just so that their friend wouldn't have to wash his hair out in an unfamiliar bathtub, but since Rory could see, it posed less of a problem. They tapped their lip in thought as they handed her a towel to put around her shoulders, and moved to their room to pull a stool out from it for her to sit on. "Do you need to borrow a shirt?" they asked as they scooped up Soup to get him out of the way, though he just reappeared in the doorway once he was put down. "But just sitting is fine." They filled a spray bottle with water and pulled a few more things from under their sink to prepare for the spontaneous mock-salon. "I'll start with the cut. I'm not gonna buzz it or anything, but how short are you willing to go?"

Shaking her head, Rory moved to sit down on the stool they brought in. She laughed when Soup rebelled and immediately came back into the room, and she reached out to give the cat some rubs before sitting back up. “No I’m good, I don’t really care if this one gets ruined or anything.” As Abel continued getting things ready, she busied herself with undoing her braids, running her hands through her now loose hair to try and get some of the knots out, which doubled  as a way for her to try and get the nerves out over cutting it. “I...don’t know.” She moved her hand away from the strands to try and gauge it out, not really going above her shoulder. “Around here probably? Fuck, I don’t know, Abes. I trust you, just don’t make me ugly.”

Abel nodded as they listened to Rory, glancing up at the mirror to wonder what they were going to do with their own hair in the meantime. Once everything was set up; the bleach ready but not yet mixed, they ushered Soup out once more to keep him from eating the hair dye. They laughed as they sprayed her hair to get it damp and shook their head. "Impossible. You could pull off a mullet. Not that I'm going to give you one, don't worry," they said with a laugh, realizing that the fact that they were bringing up less than appealing hairstyles to her with scissors in their hands. "I'll go simple. But really, I think you could use a change, you know? Mix it up for once."

Rory gave her best dead pan stare through the mirror when mullets were brought into the picture. Her eyes quickly flashed to the scissors though once they got closer to her with them, and let out a breath to get and get rid of some of the nerves.  Rory was a creature of comfort at heart, and once she finds something she likes, she rarely deviates from it. That included hair length, so she couldn’t remember the last time her hair had been any other length, and while she was extremely nervous to be breaking that comfort, she couldn’t help but feel excited about the change. “Okay, yeah. Let’s do it, go ahead.” When the scissors got close again, she shut her eyes to prevent herself from freaking out more.

Abel just smiled at the look, knowing that she would (hopefully) end up loving anything they did. Once they were satisfied with how wet her hair was, they combed through it, then clipped pieces of it up. They kept in mind how long she said she was comfortable with, then made the first cut a bit longer than that. “I tell you I’m getting a dog?”

At the mention of dog, her eyes flew open and she gasped. Barely able to keep herself from turning around - remembering there were scissors almost at her neck helped a lot, her eyes instead moved to meet Abel through the mirror. Luckily she couldn’t see the cuts they were making so her full attention could be on the dog. “Are you really?! When? What breed?”

Abel laughed, pulling the scissors back as a precaution. They should have known that the casual mention would warrant this reaction from her, and they shook their head, pointing at where their phone rested on the sink. “Last few pictures on my camera roll. Cute little thing. I think some sort of border collie-aussie mix?” They waited for her to take their phone before they started at her hair again. “I’m getting it a special magic harness thing to make it so that Alec doesn’t die living with it, and I’ve read through like four training manuals.” They unclipped a bit of her hair to start on the next layer. “We’re stuck on a name. I’m thinking Ramen, or Noodle, to match Soup, but Salt n Peppa, Bones, and Yorick are all contenders too, since I asked the roomies for help.”

Quickly grabbing the phone, Rory unlocked their phone, having known the code for some time now.  A few taps later, and she was gasping over how cute the dog on screen was.  "Oh my gods, I love them. Him? Her? I don't care, I'm in love." She flipped between the few photos multiple times, pouting at both how cute the animal was, and over the fact that it made her miss Sheep.  Hopefully soon her and Keaton would actually talk at some point so it wouldn't be weird for her to randomly show up and see her baby.  "Noodle! Fuck, that's so cute, Abes.  Bones is cute too." She said casually, unsure if Abel knew of her obsession with the show of the same name.

"He, not that it really matters for a dog." Abel was pleased with how well their new pet was serving as a distraction for Rory. She wasn’t flinching with each snip, and they were making good progress with the haircut. They combed through another layer and cut to make sure that it was even, then unclipped another piece of her hair. “Koda’s a big fan of ‘bonesy’, but it might all come down to a coin flip or seeing what he takes more of a liking to." The show didn't cross their mind as they sprayed her hair again; it wasn't as though they were thinking of naming the dog 'Charmed'.

Rory thought that she'd be able to feel her hair getting lighter with each snip she heard in between gushing over the new dog, but when Abel dropped more of her hair out of the clip, decided that it was probably because she has a number of layers to still go through.  "Poor boy is gonna get so confused having so many people calling him different nicknames.  Sheep would get confused if we used to many different pet names in a row." Closing the photos, she busied herself with searching for their Spotify app, scrolling through playlists before putting on one that had more indie vibes to it.

Abel let out a small laugh. “Yeah, I’m gonna try not to confuse him too much. Can’t let the fact that our household is overwhelmingly air signs hinder his training.” They changed scissors so that they could feather her hair out properly, then paused and shook it out a bit so they could make sure it was all even enough. “How’s Piper doing? In general, I know she’s probably pretty indifferent to her name, in normal cat fashion.” They picked up a hair dryer to plug in and dry her hair out a bit, brushing it as they did. “Sorry to drown out half your song,” they said with a laugh once they were finished. “That wasn’t me being passive aggressive. I like the choice, I swear.” They brushed a few strands of her hair from her shoulder. “But, uh, the cut’s pretty much done. Ready for some colour?”

Rory grinned. "That's okay, that's what I'm for.  I'll bring some fire into that dog's life.  I'm gonna be his favorite aunt and spoil him silly." As Abel continued to work, she gently hummed along to the song on the radio, stopping as they spoke up again.  "It's okay, this is on my running playlist so I hear it too much anyway. But, she's doing good, all her nicknames are variations of her actual name, loves the cabin, she cuddles up with me at night and Bailey gives her all the rubs she wants during the day.  As far as she's concerned her life is made." She raised her fingers to count every point as she made them, then moved them to run through her hair when the cut was deemed finished.  It was short, and it was weird beyond words, but glancing in the mirror and catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror made her smile.  "I love it." Her eyes flashed to Abel's through the mirror again at the question.  "As I'll ever be, make me blonde, Abes."

"Oh come on, Ror," Abel started seriously before their lips twitched upward in a smirk. "You missed the chance to say you were going to bring electricity to the dog's life. But, I do approve of you spoiling him, just make sure he doesn't like you more than me, or I'll get jealous." They nodded as she spoke about her cat, not mentioning anything as she brought up Bailey. "Wow, is it bad that I wish I was a cat?" They began mixing the bleach as she inspected her hair, excited by her reaction. The smile was more than they were expecting, and they were glad that she was as pleased as they were by the chop. "And I'll show you how to braid it. If I can manage to get my hair into braids, we can totally do yours. You won't have a total loss of self." Once the bleach was mixed, they separated and clipped up different parts of her hair again.

Rory rolled her eyes at the joke, noting that she had to slap them later for how lame it was. “I’ll make sure to let you be the one to give the treats, there’s no way he’ll love me more if you’re the one with the food.  But yeah seriously, sometimes I just wanna be Piper for a day, it would be way less stressful.”  She grew quiet again as the bleach started going into her hair, sending a quick mental prayer that she wouldn’t regret doing this before pushing the thought aside. Her shoulders relaxed a bit at Abel’s promise of braiding lessons, relieved that she would still be able to keep her braids in. “Thank you, that would be awesome.”

“True. And if he only loves me because I give him food, that will be good enough for me.” They began applying the bleach, jamming quietly to the music as they wrapped her hair in tinfoil. “I doubt my life would be too different if I was a cat. I’d eat more fish, dye less hair, but probably blink about as much,” they joked, their lips twitching upward as they did. “Braids are only slightly harder on shorter hair. Not even harder, you just need the dexterity.”

"Same, honestly." She said in reply to living the life of her cat.  "I'd be able to sleep more, which would be kinda cool."  As time went on and more foils were added to her hair, Rory realized that one: this was going to take a while to finish, and two: the foils covering her head is gonna get really old, really fast. Letting out a small huff at the realization, she fought the urge to lean back and rest against their legs as they spoke about braids.  "That's fine, it's better than nothing.  I think i'd go insane if i had to keep my hair just loose every damn day."

Once Abel had most of her hair dyed and wrapped, they grinned at Rory and poked her cheek lightly. "You're not gonna zap me because of this, right, sparky?" They knew that they were going to get jabbed as soon as they weren't messing with her hair, so they went back to it, hoping she might let them off if they put it off for long enough. "Yeah, your ponytails might half half of them falling out, but that's cute, as long as you can stand the hair on the back of your neck."

At the poke, followed by the words, Rory turned her head to narrow her eyes at Abel. Raising a finger, she made of show of letting the sparks dance across her skin before quickly jabbing them. The zap was no more than a static shock. “I was just going to slap you, but thanks for the idea.” She teased, now turning fully around to face them. “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll look stuff up on Pinterest too and find some things.”

Abel jolted slightly at the prod, laughing. “I meant because of the foil. I was wondering if it was like sticking a fork in a socket.” They grinned. “But thanks for the opportunity to call you Frankenstein. Can you believe we didn’t do anything like that for Halloween?” They shook their head. They put the dye down, clicked their phone on, and set a timer. “Oh Pinterest. That’s a good idea for finding stuff.” They leaned against the sink. “I just forget it exists because I’m not a stay at home parent or getting married.”

Rory looked up at them, a confused look on her face.  "Neither am I? So what kind of excuse is that?" What she wasn't saying is she had Macey to remind her that Pinterest did in fact exist, as a nice chunk of their texts where links back and forth of various things.  Pulling a leg under, she curled up on the stool a bit more.  "Just because you're dumb and forgot it exists isn't my - or any bride-to-be's problem, Abes." She teased.  "But yeah, I do believe it cause you didn't even try to have a matching costume with me.  You knew I was doing the scooby doo gang with Macey and them, yet nothing."

Abel gave a exaggerated eye roll. “Okay, but your best friend is planning a wedding, so I think that counts.” They raised one eyebrow at her. “Okay, I don’t see what you wanted me to do about that. Be Scrappy?” They held up a hand and shook their head. “Don’t tell me that’s exactly what you wanted me to do, because I wasn’t going to be a sidekick to Macey’s dog.” Their amusement was clear on their face. “I didn’t see you offering to dress up as Sakura either.”

Rory waved her hand dismissively at the Macey comment and had immediately opened her mouth in rebuttal, but was halted by Abel's hand lifting up.  After a second, she pouted slightly then closed her mouth, slumping in mock defeat because that was in fact, what she was going to say.  "Okay, but those are two totally different vibes, Abel.  It wouldn't have gone with Velma and Kim Possible." Her words had a hint of a sarcastic tone to it, especially since they both knew she would've happily dressed up with them if asked.

“Liar,” Abel muttered, mostly to get a rise out of their cousin. “Next year we’ll do all matching costumes, how ‘bout that?” They stretched their arms out over their head. “But, if I’m honest, doing a group costume is a great way to guarantee that you won’t stick together during the night. I had a friend who matched costumes with her boyfriend twice and didn’t stay with him either night.”

"Every single one?" Rory let out a long, dramatic sigh.  "I don't know, Abes.  Piper might wanna do a costume with me and I don't wanna just double book myself like that, you know?"  As they stretched, she quickly jabbed her finger at their stomach, letting another small static charge hit them, not even attempting to hide her amused grin.  "Cool with me, who said I wanted to spend the whole night with you anyway?"

Abel somewhat maintained their composure during the shock, but shuddered. “You’re being awful to someone who can literally fry your hair right now, Ror,” they warned, though it was clear that they were joking. They poked her forehead and shook their head. “But fine. Dress up like one of the main characters from Cats and ignore me all night. Sounds like a great Halloween. I’ll be sure to take pictures for you.”

While Rory made a small attempt to look offended at the mock threat and return poke, it was clear she didn’t take it seriously. “You wouldn’t dare, I would just give you a really shitty Yelp review.  But nope, pick literally anything else - Cats is fucking nightmare fuel and I refuse to be a part of it.”  She shuddered as if to prove her point, then reached out for his phone again to peak at the timer.

Abel barked a laugh at the Yelp comment and pushed themself away from the sink so that they could start cleaning the hair from the floor. “Nope, too bad. I’m imagining you as... Taylor Swift? Jason Derulo? James Corden? Take your pick.” They checked on her hair as she checked the timer. “We might be able to wash it out a bit early thanks to your virgin hair, but I’ll leave it for a few more minutes, just to be safe.” They dumped the hair they swept up into the garbage and looked up at her. “You know, Renee has a bunch of pink hair dye. I might see how that works on me.”

Rory's eyes just rolled in response to their list of celebrities, barely stopping herself from zapping them for a third time.  She stayed silent as they started checking the foils in her hair, only speaking up after they commented.  A sigh fell out of her mouth. "You know, my hair was the only virgin part of me left.  At least it was good for something though." She blinked, trying her best not to burst out laughing at her own stupidity, instead focusing on the pink hair dye situation.  "Well, she is the queen of pink, so I'm not surprised that there's just bottles of pink dye here." Her eyes flickered up to their patch of natural color, then nodded.  "Might as well try it, I think it'll be kinda cool."

Abel looked up at Rory, an incredulous look on their face as they laughed. “Um, gross Ror. Are we there? Are we going to be like the Tyche kids? Explaining our various exploits in great detail?” They sounded more amused than appalled, and grabbed a bottle of pink hair dye from the cabinet. “Please call her that to her face, she’d love it. Also, I think I’ll do it. I can zip it into my roots and let it set as we wash yours out?”

Rory couldn't help but laugh along with Abel.  "Oh, I totally thought we were, did you not agree?" She teased, watching them as they pulled out the bottle of dye.  "Maybe not the great detail part, of course. I mean, I'm not thirteen anymore, Abes." She held up two thumbs up in agreement.  "Sounds like a plan, and I definitely will.  I'll be declared Renee's favorite in no time."

"Sorry, my virgin ears couldn't take it," Abel replied, their lips twitching upward. "Oh yeah, be careful if Koda hears that. Don't let the bright hair and smiles fool you, she's a real killer if she's jealous." They were quicker with their own hair than they had been with Rory's, but still careful. Still, since it was just their roots, it took almost no time to apply, and they were just about finished when the timer went off. They jabbed at their phone to shut it off and pointed to the edge of the bathtub. "I can wash it out for you if you sit there, or you can do it yourself s'up to you."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm very aware of how dangerous she is.  Or did you forget that her and I use to train together when we were younger?" It had been a while since she had trained with the other girl, especially since after Koda left, Rory moved away from fighting with knives as often.  "I have no desire to bring that rage anywhere near me, thanks."  Following their directions, she got up off the stool and made her way over to the bathtub, sitting down on the edge of it instead.  "I mean, you are the professional here, so I'll let you do it."

“Just thought I’d give you some fair warning.” Abel turned and ran the water, making sure it was a good temperature before they began taking the foil from Rory’s hair. “Oh yeah, the bleach definitely worked.” They waited until she tipped her hair back to start washing the bleach out, and once they were done, they immediately put toner in so she wouldn’t yell at them for giving her yellow hair. As they waited for the toner to set in her hair, they rinsed their own roots out, and grinned at Rory as they scrubbed their hair dry with a towel. “You’re gonna look so cool.”

Rory didn't retort, opting to keep her mouth shut and eyes closed to try and prevent herself from accidentally eating any bleach, shampoo, or toner as Abel washed her hair out.  Once the water was shut off, she lifted her head up enough to give them room to wash out their own roots, grinning as they spoke again, her eyes focused on the pink they saw poking through as they dried their hair.  "I already feel cool.  The pink looks really good though."

Abel just kept grinning at Rory. "Oh yeah. I make anything work though." Once they felt their own hair was dry enough, they poked her forehead to get her to tip back again, and rinsed the toner from her hair. "Alright. Blow dry and then the big reveal?" They raised their eyebrows as they moved to pull a hair dryer from below their sink. "Are your friends going to freak out on me for this?"

At the poke, Rory pouted, but obeyed and tipped her head back once again to let them wash out the toner, closing her eyes once again until the water was turned off.  Stealing the towel they had just used for their own now pink hair, she quickly ran it through her new hair, before dropping it onto her lap as Abel pulled out the blow dryer.  "No way, Macey's going to practically send you flowers or something.  She's been trying to get me to change up my hair for years now.  No one else will really freak out though, so you'll be fine."

“Perfect, I love flowers,” Abel before blasting her with the hair dryer. Before long, her hair was finished, and they couldn’t hide how pleased they were with their handiwork. “Okay, no denying we’re the hot cousins now.”

When the blow dryer shut off, Rory immediately opened her eyes to look up at Abel, wanting to see and gauge their reaction first before seeing it for herself.  Seeing the wide grin and overall very pleased look on their face, a smile was already growing on hers as she moved to look into the mirror.  "Holy shit." Her hands ran through her now very short, very blonde locks, turning her head this way and that way to get every angle she could of the new style.  When Abel ducked into the mirror to be side by side with her, she laughed.  "Oh for sure, we're the hottest cousins this place has ever seen."  Meeting their eyes through the mirror, her grin widened.  "I fucking love it, Abel.  Thank you."

“Of course,” they said, giving her hair a small ruffle, careful not to actually mess it up. They snapped a few pictures of the two in the mirror for their story. “Tell Macey I like wisteria.”

[heyyyharry]

Halloween Special: Bugs and Hisses (Part 1)

(from the Flatmate!Harry Series)

…in which Harry and Y/N are invited to a Halloween party, but they don’t arrive together (first Halloween as flatmates).

This takes place somewhere after Hand in Hand, Harry and Y/N are not yet together. This chapter is a Halloween Special so it’s a bit long that’s why I split it into two parts! ;)

Warning: mention of smut and nothing else but fluff

So a bit of rambling here but I was watching Reign and there was this character called Olivia who had a sexual relationship with Queen Mary’s fiancé — Prince Francis. She came back after years away from him then plotted to break up him and Mary. I don’t know who wrote that tv series but we sure share a same piece of mind! Anyway, you may now proceed.

.

There’s only one week left until Halloween and Y/N has been waiting for that day from the first of October. Harry has been complaining about the creepy skeleton in their living room which an old neighbor left for them when she moved away. Y/N placed it there not only to give their flat some Halloween vibe but also to scare the kids who come trick-or-treating. However, all it’s done so far is scaring the shit out of Harry whenever he comes home late.

“I should carry around with me a piece of paper saying ‘Y/N did it’ in case I die from a heart attack someday,” he tells her as he walks out from the kitchen with his coffee mug and joins her on the sofa.

“How do you get scared every single time even though you know it’s fake?” She asks while scrolling through Netflix on her laptop.

Harry squints his eyes at her in response. “You know those Halloween movies where a character approaches a ghost thinking it’s either decoration or a man in a costume, only to find out it’s really a ghost? Yeah that’s not gonna be me.”

Y/N stares at her flatmate in disbelief for a couple seconds before shaking her head and telling him, “you know what? Sometimes you’re just weird.”

“Thank you, baby.” He grins and brings the mug to his lips. And despite knowing he’s only joking with the nickname, Y/N cannot help but smile to herself.

She’s had a crush on him for a while now. Ironically she used to think he would be the last person she would fall for, but here she is, heart-eyes for her annoying flatmate no matter what he does or says.

People may see Harry as a tough guy who’s hard to approach, she knows he cries watching The Notebook every single time. They assume he doesn’t care about anyone else but himself, she knows he keeps a photo of his mum and sister in his wallet. They think he’s all about parties and one-night-stands, she knows he likes candles and homemade meals and staying in with a book on a rainy day. But then again, she also knows, no matter how much she thinks she knows him, she’s never going to be the girl he ends up with.

“Have you heard of Alex’s Halloween party?” Harry asks, receiving a nod from Y/N.

“Yeah, I’ve been invited actually.”

“Wait, really?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, I didn’t know you were friends with Alex.”

“Why? Just because he’s popular?”

“No, because the guy’s a dick, and you’re—” Harry pauses then suddenly clears his throat and changes the subject, “anyway, are you coming?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Harry’s trying his best not to sound too disappointed, because he doesn’t want her to know he’s secretly wanting them to go together, not as a date, but kind of like a date.

“I promised Jamie I’d take him trick-or-treating that night.”

Harry raises an eyebrow at the girl. “Seriously? You’re going to babysit on Halloween? Where’s his mum?”

“She’s got a date.”

“You’re gonna sacrifice your night-out so our upstairs neighbor can go on a date?” He puts one hand on her shoulder and looking at her deep in the eyes, trying not to laugh. “Y/N, you’re not Halloween’s Santa Claus.”

Y/N shrugs his hand off her and rolls her eyes, resulting in a smirk on Harry’s face as he realizes she rolls her eyes at lot when talking to him. “I barely know anyone at the party. Alex only invited me because I helped him with his essay, and you don’t count because you never act like you know me in public.”

Harry breathes out a laugh as he hears her then rises from the sofa.

“Alright,” he says. “It’s your loss then.”

As Y/N shifts her attention back to her laptop screen, Harry brings his empty mug back to the kitchen, frowning when he turns away from her.

She wasn’t wrong when she said he never acted like he knew her, but that’s because he didn’t like her back then. Now, though he hates to admit it even to himself, he certainly likes her more than she may want him to.

...

Y/N suggests hiding their costumes from each other until Halloween night because she likes surprises. Harry doesn’t object to it but he hates that idea. He's dying to know what she’s going to wear because if she goes out wearing something too revealing, consider himself dead. It’s frustrating enough for him to get inappropriate thoughts about her once in a while, he doesn’t want to worry about others thinking about her the same way he does!

Well, lucky for him, Y/N chooses to stay true to who she is even on Halloween. When that night comes, she steps out from her bedroom in her costume, which is a long-sleeved, plain white dress, paired with a headband to which attached a halo made of feathers. Harry has never felt more relieved to see the safe length of the dress.

“Guess who I’m supposed to be!” She smiles cheerfully at him, putting her hands on her hips and playfully strikes a pose for her flatmate to get a better look of her appearance.

"A ghost?” Harry chuckles and Y/N huffs at his response. 

“An angel! There’s literally a fake halo above my head!”

“Then where are your wings?” 

“This is a low budget costume, I can’t afford a pair of wings.” 

The way Y/N’s squinting her eyes at Harry makes his smile grow a little too big. She’s so adorable, so precious that he wants to comment something cheesy like ‘with or without all this, you’re still an angel’, but since they’re barely friends, he can’t say weird stuff like that, can he?

“What are you supposed to be?” she finally asks, gawking at him from head to toes. 

He just looks so damn good in that white shirt with the suspenders and corduroy pants, and she also likes how his hair is all pushed back. It doesn’t matter who he’s dressed as, she’s already melting.

“Jack Dawson from Titanic,” Harry answers with a smug on his face. “I’ve been told I resemble young Leo.”

“How could they disrespect Leo like that?” Y/N scoffs, making Harry drop his jaw.

“Angels don’t mock their flatmates every chance they get! No wonder you’ve got no wings!”

“You deserved it for calling me a ghost!” Y/N flips her hair in a playful way, resulting a smirk upon Harry’s lips as she grabs her bag and heads to the door. “I gotta go now. Shouldn’t you already be on your way to the party?”

“I’m waiting for a friend.”

“Oh you’re going with Niall?”

“Uh...yeah, Niall.” He presses his lips into a small smile, already regretting agreeing to go with this girl Niall set him up with, but his flatmate does not need to know.

“Okay, have fun then!” Y/N opens the door and waves at him before she leaves. “And bring your key please! If you come home at 2AM and bang on the door, I’ll let you sleep in the hallway!”

“You will never get your wings with that attitude!” Harry shouts out, then quickly catches a glimpse of a secret smile on her face before the door is shut between them. That smile alone can keep him grinning at the entrance like an idiot, even a moment after she’s already gone.

...

“Thank you for looking after Jamie, Y/N.”

“No biggie.” Y/N smiles as she returns the little boy back to his mum then checks the watch on her wrist, it’s now 9PM, still too early for her to call it a night but already too late for her trick-or-treat companion. Jamie says goodbye to his babysitter then listens to his mum and goes to his room to change.

"How’s your date?” Y/N asks the young mum after his son’s left. She cannot help but stare at this woman’s sexy nurse costume, which is quite PG-13 for her six-year-old son, Y/N thinks to herself, but she won’t say that out loud of course.

“He was hot until he opened his mouth.” The woman rolls her eyes and leans a shoulder against the door. “Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend?”

“The boy you brought here? The one you were handcuffed to?”

“Oh.” Y/N breathes out a laugh, and for some reason doesn’t bother to correct the lady’s false assumption. “He’s out with his friends.”

“And left you on your own on Halloween night when everyone out there is having sex?!”

Y/N immediately lowers her voice just in case Jamie can hear them. “Everyone’s having sex on Halloween night?”

“People tend to have lots of sex on special occasions, like New Year’s Eve, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter...”

Y/N widens her eyes.

“Aaaanyway, go get your man if you don’t want him to stick his dick in a random hole like my ex-husband did! That son of a bitch!” The young mum looks at the ceiling and heaves a sigh before turning back to the girl. “But make sure you’ve got the key before using those handcuffs again. Safety first, young lady!”

Y/N has to hold back her laughter as she thanks her upstairs neighbor for the ‘useful’ advice before heading back to the lift. Suddenly, a soft little voice stops her immediately.

“Y/N! Wait!”

Jamie runs past his mother toward Y/N, carrying his trick-or-treat bag. The boy hands it to her with both hands with a lovely smile on his face as he says, “here, have some more of my sweets!” 

The offer catches Y/N by surprise, she shakes her head fast. “No, no, you keep them all, I’ve got a bunch already, remember?”

“These aren’t all for you. Share them with Harry!”

“You remember Harry?” Y/N giggles as she accepts the bag from the kid who nods his head.

“Yeah and I miss him. You should bring him here next time and we can play good cop, bad cop again!” Jamie bounces on his feet and swings his arms in excitement. So as not to disappoint the boy, Y/N gives him her word, that she’ll bring Harry the next time she comes over to babysit him. 

“Wait, wait, there’s a card inside too! Open it!”

“A card?” Y/N chuckles as she searches through the bag and finds a colorful Halloween card, inside of which are a few simple words written in a six-year-old’s messy handwriting.

Happy Halloween! 

Bugs and Hisses, Jamie.

“Aww, thank you, J! I love this a lot, and I’m sure Harry will too!” Y/N replies and bends down to kiss the boy on the forehead, telling him goodnight, and also goodbye.

Now Y/N hopes she can make it on time to see her flatmate before Halloween is over and before Harry ends up in the warm bed of another girl.

...

Y/N takes an Uber to Alex’s place, which is a bit far from where she lives. It takes more than a fourty-five-minute drive to get there, all for this boy she likes so much who probably doesn’t even consider her as his friend! Thinking about that makes Y/N feel so stupid. 

Does she regret it? Yes. 

Does she still want to go? Definitely!

Normally she never shows up alone at a loud and crowded place, to be surrounded by people she doesn’t know. Call her boring or whatsoever, but she would prefer to stay in her comfort zone. That is why the moment Y/N opens the door to Alex’s flat, and is greeted by the deafening music and a room packed with sweaty and drunk people, her whole body stiffens all at once. 

It’s still not too late to walk out and go home then finish her night curled up in her bed enjoying a horror movies marathon. However, that’s not the option she’s going for tonight. She chooses to enter instead, pushing her way through the crowd to search for a familiar face and figure.

Then, she finds him at last. 

He’s just not alone.

Harry’s standing in the corner, pressing up against a girl in a tiny leopard print dress. His mouth is attached to hers, his eyes are closed as he’s enjoying the heated kiss like nothing else matters. The way his fingers dance across the skin of the girl’s thighs make Y/N feel so uncomfortable. 

She turns away, but she doesn’t want to leave. She would just be sad on the quiet drive back home so she might as well just be sad now in a room surrounded by other people and plenty of alcohol.

Y/N marches the counter at the back of the room where they keep the liquor then pours herself a glass, then stands with her back against the wall, watching drunk people making out, dancing like lunatics, and doing things they’re sure gonna regret when the morning comes. Then she feels thankful she’s not one of them.

“Well, well, well, looks who’s here!”

It’s going to be a lie if she says she’s not happy to hear his voice, but considering what she’s seen back there, Y/N does not wish to look at Harry’s face at the moment.

“Came all the way here for trick-or-treating?” he jokes and comes to stand beside her, leaning his back against the wall as well.

She just scoffs without looking at him. “Why are you here talking to me?”

“Because you’re standing alone? I deserve a thank you.”

She doesn’t reply. Harry starts to feel something is off because there’s only one explanation for her to act so coldly toward him and that is — he must have done something wrong.

“I thought you weren’t coming,” he says to her.

“I thought you came with Niall.” She shrugs and turns to look at him at last. “Who’s your date?”

“I don’t have a date.”

“You were sucking on her tongue a minute ago?”

“What? Are you jealous or something?”

“You wish!” Y/N snorts and crosses her arms in front of her chest, the thing she always does whenever she gets defensive. “I came because you sounded like you wanted me to. But here I am, alone at the back of the room as I expected.”

“I’m here with you now, aren’t I?” He playfully nudges her with his elbow but her expression stays unpleasant. “She’s not my date, I don’t even know her name!”

“Hey Harry!” Niall suddenly approaches the flatmates and he looks so stunned to see Y/N as well. “Why is Y/N here? I thought you came with Clarissa?”

“Ooooh, right, her name is Clarissa! See? I can’t even remember her name!” Harry fakes a nervous laugh but Y/N is not very amused with his lie. She brings the glass to her lips and gulps down the alcohol like it’s the only thing that keeps her sane at the moment. Niall and Harry exchange looks, neither dares to say a single word.

Then comes another one of Harry’s friends whom Y/N does not know, but let’s be real, Harry is probably friends with most of the people here.

“Hey guys, the party’s getting boring, let’s go!” the guy says in delight as he rubs his palms together. “Trix is sick, she cannot join us now we need another person.”

“Louis, how about Harry’s girlfriend?” Niall speaks up as he grabs Y/N by the arms and pushes her forward, toward this Louis guy. The seemingly older boy stares at the girl then his friend Harry, his eyes full of doubt.

“This is your girlfriend, Harold?”

“No!” Harry and Y/N deny at the same time.

“Okay then...” Louis squints his eyes and looks at Niall who secretly gives him a nod to confirm Harry’s and Y/N’s non-existent romantic relationship, as a result receives a death glare from Harry.

“Alright so now there are six of you, perfect, let’s go!” Louis says and turns to leave but Y/N’s hesitation stops him.

“Wait, go where?!” Is everybody here high or something? She thinks to herself.

“Wait for us in the car, I’ll explain it to her,” Harry tells his two friends, who agree and walk away to leave him behind with his bewildered flatmate. 

“Harry, what’s going on?”

“Nothing, it’s just a fun Halloween tradition our group came up with for Halloween.”

“Oh my God!” Y/N covers her mouth to hold back a loud gasp as she gazes at him with cow eyes. “Are...Are you in a cult?!”

“What?” Harry laughs quietly. He has a love/hate relationship with Y/N’s worst assumptions whenever she freaks out. “No, Y/N, we’re not.”

The answer makes Y/N sigh in relief and Harry can only think about how much he wants to kiss her because she looks so cute under this lighting. Still he has to shake off that thought, now is the least appropriate.

“Last year Niall suggested that it would be fun to do something scary on Halloween, so he came up with the idea that one person would dare the rest of us to do a challenge and the winner or winners would receive a prize from the host. Last year Niall made us do a scavenger hunt in a cemetery. This year it’s Louis’ turn to come up with the challenge. Don’t worry, love, it’s all safe.”

“What is the challenge this year?”

“I don’t know, you have to get to the destination to find out.”

“Then how do you know it’s safe?!”

“It is! Trust me,” Harry chuckles and reaches out to grab her hand. “I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you. You’ve got to trust me.”

His voice sounds so soothing, it makes her wonder if he really does care about her or he just wants her participation in this because they’re missing one member, either way, it works. She cannot say no when he’s giving her that look and holding her hand so gently.

Eventually, Y/N nods her head, receiving a smile from her flatmate in return.

“If I die tonight, I’ll become a ghost and haunt you for the rest of your life.”

Her warning leaves a grin on his face. “Good. You’re already dressed like a ghost.”

“You must think you’re funny but you’re not.” Y/N glares at him as they head to the front door. 

She’s too worried about this game with his group of friends to notice that he’s still holding her hand. Harry, on the other note, is well aware of that, still he’s very much enjoying it, and he just can’t wait to show her the real fun of Halloween.

PART 2

[welllpthisishappening]

Listen. Life is stressful. The Rangers finally play hockey again tonight. All-Star weekend was basically just a never-ending stream of me having feelings about hockey players and kids and it can only be expected that I translate all those feelings into words about Matthew Jones playing his first organized hockey game. Obviously. 

He’d always had equipment.

Emma was certain there were more sticks in their apartment than the equipment room at the Garden and they went through a whole phase when he was two and a half where he resolutely refused to take Killian’s helmet off. The chin strap always fell down to his chest.

It was absurd.

She had, at least, forty-seven pictures of it on her phone. Ruby might have had fifty-seven. Because Matt had grown up wearing hockey equipment and none of it had ever particularly fit, but that was all changing and Emma couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the idea of him playing a game.

“It’s not really a game, Swan,” Killian had promised, several weeks and a mountain of paperwork earlier. “It’s…just kind of gliding around the ice while holding onto a stick. Honestly, the refs have to redirect the kids to make sure they don’t collide into the boards.”

She hadn’t entirely appreciated the use of the word collide in that sentence.

Or the idea that Matt was going to glide anywhere. His balance on the ice was already kind of offensive, all things considered. Emma really hated being the only one who ever wobbled slightly.

“Mom!”

Emma snapped her head around, eyebrows flying into her hairline and he already had gloves on. She should not have been surprised.

“Kid,” she sighed, shaking her head with something that absolutely was not frustration. “What did we say about just grabbing stuff off the walls? This is not the Garden.”

“Kris lets me!”

“I know, but this is a real-life store with real-life stuff that we really have to buy. We’re not just yanking on gloves.”

Matt scowled, a twist of lips and scrunch of his nose that was a little weird to see on his face when Emma was so used to feeling it on her face and they were behind schedule. Always. And indefinitely.

It wasn’t the season yet, technically, but there was a pre involved and that meant events and plans and games and there’d been plenty of lip twisting when Matt realized Killian wasn’t going to be the one to take him shopping for equipment.

Only a few hours removed from his first-ever hockey game. Kind of.

The refs absolutely were not going to have to direct him away from the boards.

“Nuh uh,” Emma muttered. “No faces. It’s not going to work.”

He made the face harder. Or something. Emma refused to be responsible for the lack of structure in her sentence. She was having several different moments at once – some kind of mom thing and the passage of time and a Garden of Dreams event in two days that Mulan inexplicably couldn’t photograph and her spine kind of felt like it was being twisted in two, but that probably had something to do with another kid at home who resolutely refused to sleep through the night.

Still.

They needed to find a stick.

“You know you can’t actually use a real stick,” Emma said, taking another step forward to tug the hat further down Matt’s head when it threatened to fall onto the floor.

His jaw dropped. “What?”

“It’s got to be the right size, Mattie. You knew that. Dad told you that this morning.”

She was kind of worried his face was going to get stuck like that. Legitimately, not even in an old wives, having some kind of mom moment way. “Yeah,” Matt grumbled, twisting on the balls of his feet and he did that all the time, like he was trying to dig the blades of his skates into ice that wasn’t actually there.

He always wanted to be on the ice.

“It’ll be easier to score.”

That got a slightly different twist of lips out of him – a full-blown smile that never failed to make Emma’s heart sputter and she almost forgot about the state of her ankles. “I’m going to score. Like Dad.”

“I know you are, kid.”

“Can I get two sticks?”

“What would you need two sticks for?”

Matt looked at her – straight faced and far too serious and Emma had to bite the inside of her lip to stop herself from making some kind of spectacle in a sports equipment store a few blocks away from the Garden. “I shoot hard, Mom.”

She laughed. She couldn’t help it.

“Oh, of course, of course. You planning on taking a lot of slap shots, then?”

He shrugged and the hat was a lost cause. Emma could dimly make out the shadow of a store worker lurking somewhere between the t-shirt racks next to her, probably wondering when to make his move or ask Matt to take off the gloves they were absolutely going to have to buy.

“Dad and I practiced.”

Eventually, Emma was sure, it would stop – whatever her entire soul did at the idea that her husband and her kid practiced slap shots from the blue line or wristers from the far face-off circle, but part of her was positive it wouldn’t and the other part of her hoped it never did and they were going to be cutting it very close to puck drop. They’d had skate in Tarrytown that morning.

“You’ve got to go backhand then,” Emma said, crouching down without thinking much about it and her back didn’t entirely appreciate it. Killian would have lost his mind.

Matt jumped up, arms around her neck and face buried in the crook of her shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he chanted, shouting the words into her ear. They were definitely causing a spectacle. “Screen the goalie!”

“Exactly.”

She leaned back, doing her best to keep her balance, even when the wasn’t ice involved, and pressed a kiss to her kid’s cheek – only to have that same kid look vaguely scandalized by it. “Mom,” Matt groaned. “You can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“‘Cuz! It’s…I’ve got to be ready!”

“For the game?”

“Yeah,” he said, an impressive impression of Killian several hours before puck drop and Emma was only a little worried how she was gong to survive the rest of the day.

“Right, right. I’m sorry, Mattie. Let’s not get distracted. You going to get those gloves?”

“And skates!”

“You have skates already.”

The store worker had found his moment. “Excuse me, were you two looking for new skates?”

Emma clicked her tongue, eyes falling shut because she’d already lost a battle she wasn’t all that intent on fighting and new skates a few hours before a game were a disaster waiting to happen. “Yeah,” Matt shouted, jumping back again. “Like my dad’s!”

“Your dad skate a lot?”

“He is now.”

The worker hummed, lower lip gusted out slightly when he nodded and Emma pinched the bridge of her nose. She hadn’t opened her eyes yet. “That so?” the guy asked, his name was probably Todd or something. “He play some kind of pick-up league?”

Matt’s eyes widened, looking as if he were preparing to drop the gloves Emma still wasn’t sure fit right. “No,” he snapped. “At practice! They’ve got a game tomorrow!”

Todd – God, Emma hoped his name wasn’t Todd – nodded again, and Matt gaped at her, seemingly stunned that every single person in the entire world was not intrinsically aware that he believed Killian Jones to be the greatest hockey player in the history of modern sports.

“Tell you what, Mattie,” she said. “We’ll get new skates, but you can’t wear ‘em today, ok? You’re going to hurt your feet. So you wear the old ones today, then you can try out the new ones when you go to practice with Dad later in the week. Deal?”

Matt considered that for a moment – like he had any real choice in the matter – nodding brusquely, another Killian-like movement that was messing with Emma’s mind. “Ok.”

“Ok.”

They got two sticks. There wasn’t really much choice in that either, and Emma didn’t have to do much convincing to get Matt to pose with all his equipment, sending texts to half a dozen different numbers and several group messages.

It took Killian less than three minutes to text back.

He’s going to wreck ‘em all, love.

That’s the parental support we’re looking for, obviously.

He get two sticks out of you?

How did you know that?

Give me some credit. Also you’re an equipment pushover and Kristoff told me he already asked him earlier this week.

It doesn’t count when you’ve got insider information.

I’m simply using my resources when available. Tell him we’re going into film now. I’ll leave early if I have to.

Don’t tell Arthur that.

Arthur can deal. I’ll be there for first shift.

And she wasn’t really surprised that there was no mom’ing before he went into the locker room – Matt making faces and holding his stick over his shoulder, a move Emma was fairly certain she’d seen Will do a few weeks before – but it still made her heart twist uncomfortably and the heels that echoed in the hallway were almost expected.

“He’s going to score twenty-two goals,” Ruby said, no trace of sarcasm in her voice.

Mary Margaret laughed softly, Leo on her hip and slight bags under her eyes. They’d made a sign. “Twenty-two seems kind of high, don’t you think?”

“Twenty,” Emma corrected. Her voice caught. That was ridiculous. She was totally going to blame the no sleeping thing. “So he could match Killian.”

“Oh, that’s super dumb,” Ruby muttered. She sniffled.

Leo appeared to have fallen asleep.

Emma nodded. “Yeah, it is. You didn’t tell him, right?”

“They’re not here yet.”

“What?”

“It’s fine, Em,” Mary Margaret promised. “A’s on some kind of warpath claiming seats and I think she and some mom from the East side were getting ready to stare at each other until one of them just turned to stone.”

“Regina’s giving lessons,” Ruby added with a smile, and she was doing an awful job of pretending she wasn’t crying too. “Also, Roland and Henry are just draping themselves across seats. It’s absurd.”

Emma scoffed, a breath of air and nerves and she wasn’t really worried about Matt playing, but this was the first time it was ever going to be official and—

“Are we late?”

She snapped her head up, another absurd sound because Killian looked genuinely terrified and both Will and Robin were very clearly out of breath behind him. Emma shook her head. “How did you get here so fast?”

“Cap, like…willed the driver her with his mind,” Will muttered, leaning against the nearest wall with his arm wrapped around his middle. “God, I think I’m dying.”

“You’re not dying,” Robin promised. “But also not lying. We were pretty positive he was going to get out and walk on the Cross Bronx at one point.”

Emma couldn’t stop blinking. “That sounds really dangerous.”

“I didn’t actually do it, Swan,” Killian muttered, fingers finding hers almost as soon as he stepped in her space. “Are there seats? Is that a sign, Lucas?”

Ruby nodded. “Yes and yes. You going to be embarrassing all game?”

“Yes, absolutely.”

“Ah, well at least your honest about it.”

Strictly speaking, they were all pretty embarrassing. There was shouting and cheering as soon as the team wobbled out onto the ice while other parents cast cautious glances their direction – Roland and Henry standing on seats at that point with their arms thrust up and Ariel got some pretty good air on her jumps as soon as she saw Dylan, standing next to Matt on the blue line.

They were on the same line.

Killian squeezed Emma’s hand. He’d never actually let go.

“He guarantee a goal?”

Emma grinned. “Just wait.”

And the reaction was almost as good as she expected it to be, in that it was ten-thousand times better than she expected it to be, Killian’s gasp audible even over all their ridiculous cheering because Matt turned, moving towards the face-off circle with a twenty plastered across his back and gloves that, finally, fit and—

“Oh, damn,” Killian breathed, a hitch in his voice that made Emma bite her lip.

Mary Margaret took a picture.

“His idea,” Emma whispered. “I think he had to challenge some other kid for it. But he told said other kid, in no uncertain terms, that’s my number and well, that was that.”

“That was that, huh?”

“That was that.”

Killian exhaled, a quick kiss pressed to Emma’s temple and it only took three shifts for Matt to score. On a pass from Dylan. Backhand.

They didn’t play a full game – they were little kids and it wasn’t really a game, no final score or stats or plus-minus, but Emma knew Matt didn’t care about any of that and she was almost prepared for the blur that sprinted out of the locker room several hours later.

“Mom! Dad! Mom! Dad! Mo-dad-mom! Mom! Mom!”

“Articulate kid,” Ruby laughed, winking at Emma as soon as Matt launched himself at Killian. He grunted, stumbling back slightly, but his arm worked around their kid and there were far too many limbs already wrapped around Killian for falling to be any kind of legitimate threat.

“Slow down, kid,” Killian muttered. “Where’s your equipment?”

“In the room. Dad, Dad, Dad, did you see!”

“The goal?” Matt nodded, a quick jerk of his head that was more dangerous than any of his limbs. “The quickest wrists I’ve ever seen.”

Matt beamed. There was no other word for it. And Emma’s heart might have exploded. God, she hoped not.

She hoped Todd from the sports equipment store worked on commission. They bought so much equipment.

They weren’t going to have to move so could Peggy could get her own room, just so they could store all of Matt’s hockey sticks.

“And,” Killian added. “Looked pretty great in that uniform. But, hey, how come you weren’t smiling in that picture Mom took?”

Matt blinked, confusion settling on his features for a second before he twisted in Killian’s hold and—“You guys always have tough faces in your pictures. I thought that’s what I had to do.”

“Oh my God,” Emma mumbled, leaning back against Ruby. She hooked her chin over her shoulder, another sniffle and more smiles and Leo had slept through the whole game.

Killian nodded, holding Matt tighter against his chest. “Yeah, kid, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do.”

[zoetekohana]

I finally watched “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” and I wrote down all my reactions:

Here it goes... COWABUNGA MY TURTLE DUDES.

Ooooh I love the use of ninja throwing stars for the Paramount stars.

I’m also digging the music.

TURTLE FORMATION

Omg, Mickey, no squirrel formation. (I don’t want to see those creepy squirrels from the 2012 series.)

Honestly, even though the plot of the 2014 film wasn’t great (hopefully this one will be better), they had the personalities down to a tee, and it’s great to see that’s still the case.

The way they depict the sibling relationship between Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mickey is so awesome to watch. Not to forget: the fact that they actually act like teenagers is such a plus.

Case in point: Donnie repeatedly telling Raph to “do it do it do it do it do it [the shellskateboarding thing]”. I love it.

Hahahaah, Kevin the pizza guy. Such a nice Kevin Eastmann cameo!

Donnie: “When I say Knicks you say Go.” I’m reminded of the failed “When I say Vol you say Tron.” speech. But at least the bros got it right.

Vern The Falcon? Oh no....

Hahaha, shooting the little spit balls at Vern and then mimicking his falcon. See, such teenagers.

APRIL IS CALLING DONNIE.

I REPEAT APRIL IS CALLING DONNIE.

Yes, I ship them. Shush.

Also, that blonde wig + glasses look really good on Megan Fox? 

Baxter Stockmann... He’d go with a FLY FORMATION.

Donnie to April: “Do you need us there?”  Awwww.

April to Donnie: “That birthday present that you made for me?” AWWW.

Yes, April, explain Baxter the difference between geek and nerd.

Omg, Baxter, that laugh.

Ofc there needs to be some Megan Fox fanservice... /eyeroll (She was pretty badass going undercover, but still that was unnecessary.)

HAHAHA I LOVE THE DONNIE SMILEY FACE ON HER WATCH WHEN THE DOWNLOAD OF THE FILES IS COMPLETE!

Oh no, the pizza slice on the basketball court....

Poor Mikey, he just want to “LIVE UP THERRRREEE. Up there where flowers bloom.” (And now I have that South Park song stuck in my head.) 

Also, a Transformers reference, really?

Wait;;; How are the copied files on April’s watch being deleted? She downloaded them? She wasn’t streaming them....

But good on her for discovering that Baxter is working with Shredder (where did that hunch come from though?) and that he + the Foot Clan plan on breaking him out when he’s being transferred.

Casey Jones as a law enforcer? That’s new? 

Ngl, I don’t really like that detail. It doesn’t suit him.

BEBOP AND ROCKSTEADY!!!!! :D

It’s not a Michael Bay production without car explosions. /eyeroll (again)

Also, NYC believes that Vern stopped the Shredder. Why didn’t the NY police ask him to accompany this super important transfer?

Hahaha, that tmnt theme’d honk. I LOVE.

Great updates on the Turtle Shell, Donnie.

Raph when taking out the last of three foot bikers: “That’s how I roll. That’s how you roll.”

Why didn’t Raph stay on the bike? He could cover more ground that way.

Soooo, Baxter knows of the Turtles. 

I love how personalised the Turtle Shell is.

Hi there, Krang! 

So, lemme get this straight: Krang needs the three teleport devices he sent to Earth to join them into an arch capacitor to teleport the Technodrome to Earth to conquer it. But he was able to teleport Shredder to where he was. Something does not add up there... 

So many plotholes.

But whatever, I’m still enjoying this. :) 

Donnie and April make such a great team.

But how is she going to get to the TCRI’s mainframe? (Also, how is she going undercover everywhere? Isn’t she recognised as a television reporter?)

Chief: “Manhole covers?”

That was some nice exposition on Jones wanting to become a detective. Like really? It was so odd to tell your superior who’s clearly mad at you that.

The casting for Bebop and Rocksteady is so spot on.

It’s still weird not to have the Shredder vs Splinter backstory. It feels like Splinter is just there now? He’s more important than that. :(

Is that barkeep the Vulture from b99? 

Quickly looked it up, yep, that’s Dean Winters. :D

It’s not a Turtles movie without some Vanilla Ice. ;)

Reporter thing aside... Why go on this important undercover mission on high heels? Everyone can hear you. That’s not stealthy there, April. 

I get that the purple ooze is different (iirc from the 1987 series) - although I’m not a fan of a different kind of mutagen -, but why not mention the green ooze? They have the green mutagen from the previous film that mutated the Turtles and Splinter? Or am I completely remembering the 2014 film wrong?

Also, how did Shredder shoot two darts into two different directions? 

Yes, that gun has two barrels, but he shot both darts practically at the same time?

Also, how are they mutating into a warthog and a rhinoceros without the DNA from those animals? 

The way they transformed, that sequence, was pretty cool, though.

Hmm, so we all have a dormant animal gen. It’s an explanation for not needing the animal DNA, I guess.

YES TO HBIC APRIL O’NEIL!

So Casey wants to be a detective, but then suits up as the Hockey Vigilante we know and love. That really doesn’t make much sense.

April to Casey: “Stacey Moans?”

Stacey’s mom has got it going on.... And now I’ve got that song stuck in my head, haha.

Amell physically makes a good Casey Jones. But I’m sorry to say, he’s so stiff and mainly has two faces: this :| or this :D. I’m not a big fan of this casting. I’m okay with it, but idk.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And Koteas is forever my favourite Casey Jones. 

Casey to the turtles: “Do not eat us humans.” Are we really going with that joke?

I love Mickey’s introduction of the Turtles to Casey. :D

DONNIE’S POSE . <3

Haha, Mikey and Raph keeping Casey out of the huddle.

Leo about Casey: “Raph, grab Friday the 13th.” Great reference.

Casey: “And have the most pretentious names ever.” 

”Is it me you’re looking for?” ♫ Omg, Splinter listening to pop ballads. I love. xD

Of course Donnie could turn the ooze so they could become humans.

Don’t keep secrets from your brothers, Leo. 

Awww, Mickey. The one who wants to be among humans the most. :(

A Turtle Christmas album?? I WANT!

Leo: “There’s only one vote that counts in this family: Mine!” Harsh, bro.

Awww, ofc Donnie loves museums. :)

Casey to Vern: “See you there.” Mikey to Vern: “See you there.” Vern: “He already said that.” That made me laugh more than it should have.

I love how Leo and Donnie are riding the subway like that.

They’re not monsters. :’(

I want to give Mickey a big hug.

Leo to Splinter: “I can’t get them all on the same page, to think with one mind.” Splinter to Leo: “You shouldn’t want them all to think the same. It’s their different points-of-view that makes the team strong. A good leader understands this. A good brother accepts it.” I love this. 

Seriously, the personalities and the interactions are so on point.

Where did Beebs and Rock get a tank???

So many fistbumps in this film, omg.

I forgot to mention this before, but I like that Donnie isn’t as muscle-y as the others. I do like these different personal designs.

Also, Donnie easily jumping to go to the other plane. That was great.

Raph: “What would Vin Diesel do? No regrets, no fear.” Hahahaha.

Whoa, really, shooting from a tank inside a plan? “Dude seriously” is the right reaction.

Also, how is Donnie able to stay inside that open cockpit??? 

Lbr, Donnie is the mvp in this film.

“THIS PIG IS FLYING!” Hahahahahaha.

Raph seeing that turtle. A reference to Spike, maybe? :D

Okay, that entire river sequence was AWESOME!!! 

I wouldn’t change one things about it: from seeing the turtles swim under water, to Raph saving Donnie from the tank missile, to the four of them hiding in their shell (along with that “ploemp” sound effect) when going down the water fall.

Leo (sarcastically): “Thanks, guys. Real time effort.” Wow, way to be a dick there. :/

”Justice comes in all shapes and sizes.” That explains Casey Jones suiting up in his hockey vigilante get-up, I guess. But idk, that little plot could have been written better.

Come on, Vern, you can step up. :)

Oh no, Vern missing the obvious there with the location of the data storage of that hidden camera. hashtag relatable

Leo: “We may be brothers, but we’re not a team.”  That hurts....

But that portal technically isn’t your science, Baxter, it’s Krang’s. The names you mentioned might become footnotes, but so would you.

Donnie gathered all that information rather quickly? Unbelievable quickly?

But again, he’s the mvp!

I love that old video console on Donnie’s wrist.

They’re turtles forever. :)

I really thought Shredder was going to say that Baxter would always the same, aka “a fly on the wall” instead of “a footnote”.

Vern: “When something bad happens, you want to be with the turtles.” That is true.

Haha, oh u Shredder. You betrayed Baxter to have all the glory, but you didn’t consider Krang would betray you?

KRANG DOESN’T SHARE FOOD.

Oh, I noticed that Triceration next to Shredder! :D

Wow, Jade spoke for once. :o

I like the way the police protected the Turtles from being seen by the public.

Raph: “SURF’S UP, NY!”

Again with the heels, O’Neil?

I love that shot with the four turtles standing on the edge of the almost finished Technodrome.

Mikey calling Krang “a chewed up piece of gum” and then Leo continuing with “Bubblicious”, haha.

Mickey: “I’m vertical.”

Mickey is the second mvp this film.

I really really love that Donnie and Mickey get most screentime this film.

Great how Casey tricked Beebs and Rock like that. :)

TEAM EFFORT, BB!

Leo: “We got something nobody else has.” Leo, Donnie and Mickey: “Turtle power!” while Raph: “Garbage truck!” Hahahaha.

But seriously: TURTLE POWER!

Finally, April being a reporter again.

Chief to the turtles: “Last name?”  Hamato immediately came to mind, tbh.

Some Capril flirting. ;)

HEROES IN A HALF SHELL! ♫

I love the comic style in the end credits. 

But see: Splinter’s actor isn’t even mentioned in the special part of the end credits. He deserves better and more.

All in all, despite its flaws (too many expositions or Krang being the main villain with hardly any screentime f.e.), I really enjoyed watching this. It’s so much better than the 2014 one. 

(I do hope for actual one on one friendship between Donnie and Mickey next time, though. I love the turtles most together, but separate friendships I love them the most.) (And on that note: Where was my Raph&Casey romance friendship?)

[rootsfromstars-blog]

Happy Full Moon in Pisces!!

Forecasts on what this full moon means for you based on your sign! Check rising, sun, and moon!

Aries: Dreams! Dreams! Dreams are the focus for you during this period! Because most information is coming to you through dream state, if you choose, you could totally ignore this full moon and feel nothing. If you listen, however, to your gut, heart, and intuition, you’ll comprehend a deeper knowledge of being Aries and understand just how true and powerful your heart is. You could even discover or be offered/offering yourself an opportunity that will adjust your current life direction.

Taurus: New creative goals and visions are abundant! It’s a wonderful time for any creative or solo-directed pursuit, passion, hobby, or activity. Start small by doing things like decorating your home for fall or making a scrapbook of your favorite memories to inspire bigger and more fulfilling creations. You don’t really need criticism for what you’re making right now. You kinda just need to be to give out your best.

Gemini: You may feel kinda adrift at sea during this moon and wonder what on earth is going on around you. Surprisingly, this could be a period where you don’t enjoy many social demands or may simply be flooded with social demands through too many messages and expectations that you wonder when you ever signed up for. This is a moon for challenges to spawn either huge expansion or minimizing if you realize your activities have you overwhelmed. The choice is yours and per individual, but the extremes of Neptune are very obvious to Gemini right now.

Cancer: This moon is great for reaffirming your beliefs, your moral compass, and your love for life. You have lots of kindness coming and lots of kindness to display, which makes this an excellent time to spend in social activities. Your smile is radiant, and your heart wants to let that ethereal feeling of love in, so make opportunities for it!

Leo: This feels almost like your final detox period of the year after the August eclipses. You’re seeing all the sore spots still within you and all you’ve outgrown yet have been uselessly clutching onto, all the past patterns that you need to break. This may be a very emotional moon but only for the sake of clearing these things out. It’s better to be teary than aggressive right now. Don’t be afraid to show weakness and suffer loss because you are creating space to gain.

Virgo: This is a beautiful moon for Virgo! There’s lots of wish fulfillment occurring right now, and much of this is something you can share with another person. The moon is like a bridge between worlds, causing you to feel more than ever that we are all, collectively, staring at the same moon, so to speak. You’re feeling special and enjoy making others feel the same. You may be very emotional, especially when it comes to opening up your true feelings, but your emotions are perfect right now. They’re real, raw, and yet as well-thought and formulated as any Virgo could aspire to be. Trust yourself.

Libra: You may run into issues regarding work, health, and exhaustion. For example, if your job has been hard on you, it’s gonna show. You may be a little too health-oriented and anxious about your physical appearance or body, but most patterns you try to initiate right now will have a weak follow-through because they are posing as distractions to actual emotions you’re facing. To focus on your true feelings, spend the day at the pool and let your mind wander to figure out where you need to be to reconnect.

Scorpio: This is a really fun moon for Scorpio! You’re in your element. You love the mysteriousness and allusiveness perpetrating the air because you can see right through it. It’s a great time to practice divination or give advice. Also a great time for writing or directing videos and similar ventures where you are world-building. You may enjoy just reading some good suspense novels during this moon or doing something spooky on your own like throwing a slumber party where you tell ghost stories. Live a little on the other side, like the first day of Halloween has just begun.

Sagittarius: Like Gemini, you’re also feeling the two extremes of Neptune. You’re either exhausted and just need to slow down and unwind this week OR you can’t stand the idea of sitting at home and need to get out. The overall strategy should be to balance work and relaxation because you actually need both. Family can help and be very grounding. Don’t be haughty in thinking you can do everything alone because you’d probably enjoy a good comedy movie night with loved ones but are likely acting too busy/driven to allow it.

Capricorn: You’re experiencing a lot of cool/weird synchronicities! There’s weird things standing out to you and speaking to you. You may feel like you’re in the Twilight Zone at some point. It’s a really beautiful time for star and cloud gazing, spacing out, slowing down, having long, empty talks with your friends, or walking/driving without direction so that your mind can create space for forward movement. It’s not a moon with a lot of physical presence for you but has a very special feeling.

Aquarius: The focus is on your values. What values connect you to your external world? What do you believe in, who do you love, what do you hold onto, what do you want that you haven’t been able to have? This full moon brings longing but has the power to bring this longing into dreams rooted in reality. So if you’re not dreaming, nothing might happen! Dream. Believe. And feel your life taking shape.

Pisces: I almost don’t need to give you any advice! This is your time and your element in the most perfect sense. What you’re feeling, that’s it. Be all Pisces. If you have other dominant signs, feel your Pisces the most by doing Pisces things. It’s the easiest and most guided space and feelings for you right now.

[superpuppies]

Week 4/22 – 4/28/20

Anti-Virus

So, when this prompt hit, I was re-watching TMNT 2012, I really like that series it just fun, and I instantly knew who I was writing about. I did have to change the word mom to dad in the prompt because the character of Casey doesn’t have a mother at least not that I could recall though I did remember him talking about his dad and little sister. I also did break my no research rule on this one a little bit I wanted to make sure I got the age of legal guardianship right. This was strange for me because I had never written any TMNT fiction before and my two favorite characters are Mickey and Donny and they aren’t who I focus on here. Donny plays a bigger role but it’s not his story. And Micky is almost demoted to Leo statues (Leo is my least favorite turtle; I very much just tolerate his existence).

This got a lot darker than I thought it would, not that I ever thought it was going to be light and cheery but still there were times when I was writing and I thought “oh shit this is uncomfortable” so please keep that in mind. I’ll list some trigger warnings below the summery.  Otherwise I had fun writing this one it just poured out of me in in about a day and a half. There are some moments between the turtles that just make me smile. Does anyone ells think it’s weird that Raph has a pet turtle? That just always struck me as really weird.

Summary : When Donny accidently unveils Casey’s dark secret, he isn’t quite sure how to proceed without hurting his friend or one of his brothers. Can he find a way to help them both without causing anymore harm?

Trigger warnings: child abuse, reference to NonCon & rape, forced fellatio

 This story is a longer one and I wanted it to be easier to find for solo reading, so I have posted it separately. Please click the link out to it or continue on to the next week’s tale.

If you would like to read this and all of 2020′s weekly writing challenge stories click HERE or continue read below for today’s tale.

Dialogue Prompt: “hear that? It’s destiny. She’s calling.”

“No, I’m pretty sure that’s your mom dad yelling for you to take out the trash.”

                 Donnie leaned back in his computer chair and looked over his shoulder at his brothers, Raph and Mikey, reading comics with Casey. They had all come up to Casey’s place after almost an hour of whinnying from Casey about his computer. With an exasperated sigh Donnie had finally caved under the condition that Raph came with him to keep Casey out of his way while he worked. Mikey had simply invited himself along and now the three were huddled together on Casey’s bed reading.  Donnie bit back the smirk as he looked at them.

               They had been quiet for the last hour or so and that quiet had finally peaked Donnie’s curiosity. Raph was sitting with his back against the wall, Mikey leaning against his left shoulder munching on some chips. While Casey was settled between Raph’s legs, his back against Raph’s chest while he held up the comic book for all of them. The three of them looked so comfortable and natural together. Mikey reached out and offered a chip to Raph’s mouth his eyes never leaving the comic book. Raph’s tong snaked out, snagged the chip and retreated also never breaking concentration on the comic book. Donnie’s gaze slid down them as he tried not to laugh, until he realized just how low Raph’s hand was on Casey’s stomach, could it even still be said to be on the stomach anymore? Donnie turned back to the computer, he needed to get this fix and done. So, he didn’t have to think about what might be happening behind him.

               Donnie groaned, what had Casey done to get so many viruses on his computer at once. Part of him just wanted to throw the damned thing out the window. “CASEY!” the whole room jumped at the boom that was Casey’s name. Casey shot off the bed and out the door closing it behind him as he went. The three brothers listened to their friend’s muffled voice as it spoke with quick almost desperate speed to an older male voice.  They went back and forth, finally who they had to assume was Casey’s dad issued a loud and final statement, “Your friends better be gone and the trash out when I get back.” They heard the front door closes and shared a quick glance between each other.

               Casey came back into the room plastering on his classic goofy grin. “We’ve got about ten minutes.”

               “You okay Casey?” Raph scooched forward so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. Mikey perched on his knees behind Raph with wide concerned eyes.

               “Yeah, dad was just pissed because I hadn’t done my chores or told him you guys were coming over.” Casey waved Raph’s concern away turning to Donnie. “So, what’s it looking like Doc?”

               “well…” Donnie looked back at the laptop. “I can’t have it done it ten minutes but if I take it back with me, I might be able to have it done by tomorrow night.”

               “Cool, yeah. Take it.”

               “Okay.” Donnie began shutting everything down and gathering the cords he would need before grabbing his bag.

               “are you sure you’re okay?” Raph asked moving closer to his friend. “That sounded pretty bad.”

               “Na, it’s fine. His bark is way worse than all that, you know.”

Donnie sighed, why couldn’t Casey finish a saying like a normal person.

“are you sure, you know we’ll help if you need us.”

“It’s nothing to worry about. Why are you acting so weird about stuff? I mean I know you guys haven’t had a lot of experience being at friends’ houses but sometimes your friends get yelled at. It’s not that crazy. So, chill…” they all heard the front door open. “Okay, times up. Bye guys.” Casey pushed them all toward the window and fire escape. All three brothers sent up protest at being so man handled toward the window.

“Casey,” Raph started.

“CASEY!” his father boomed from the hall.

“Hear that? It’s destiny. She’s calling me.” Casey posed dramatically.

Raph sighed he clearly wasn’t going to get a real answer out of him now. “No, I’m pretty sure that’s your dad yelling for you to take out the trash.”

Casey grinned wide and goofy. “See ya guys.”

“See ya!”

“Bye, Casey.”

“Later, man.” Raph smiled following his brothers up to the roof.

Mikey and Donnie were already across to the next roof but Raph sank low in the shadows and watched Casey gather a few wrappers off the floor before the door burst open. “Just getting the last of it now.” Casey said waving the wrappers at the furious man in his door way.

“Don’t give me that crap!” the man swung at Casey’s face but Casey managed to side step him and run down the hall.

Raph gripped the edge of the roof somehow unsure what to do. Casey appeared at the front of the building a bag of trash in hand a minute or two later, just as goofy and care free as usual. He paused for a moment after tossing the bag into the dumpster in the alley beneath Raph. Casey looked up almost directly at Raph, who sank back farther into the shadows, and shook out his hair. His right hand brushed lightly over the place Raph’s had rested against him, a smile stretched across his face before turning and heading back inside.

 Raph walked into the lair to Mikey’s loud announcement, “Raph’s, back!” from the sofa. Ice-cream Kitty Meowed a greeting at him as he came to settle on a beanbag chair closest to her.  “where did you go, Bro?” Mikey asked swirling whipped cream onto Ice-cream Kittie’s head.

“I felt like a walk.”

“Oh, that was weird tonight, right?”

“I don’t know,” Raph watched Mikey drop a cherry onto Ice-cream Kitty then another into his mouth. “I don’t have a lot of experience with this stuff, maybe we were luckier than we realized…”

“Where did you disappear too?” Leo cut him off coming to a stop in front of Raph, arms folded over his chest.

The odd contemplative calmness Raph had been feeling flared into rage at the smug look on Leo’s face. “I felt like a walk,” he snapped at his brother.

“So, you just walked off and didn’t tell anyone?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything Leo.”

“We need to know where you are, what if there was a mission?” Raph dropped his chin against his right shoulder, rolling his eyes at Leo. “This is important, Raph.” As Leo was reeving up into yet another, I’m the leader I’m right speech, Raph watched Mikey sigh, stand and carry Ice-cream Kitty back into the kitchen. There Mikey put away all the toppings and pulled his monster dualling card deck across the counter, settling in for a game with Ice-cream Kitty.  Raph glanced back at Leo, his anger fading as he realized he just didn’t have the energy for Leo today. Standing abruptly Leo jumped back startled. “Look, you maybe our leader but you aren’t our dad, so just stop trying to be.” Raph stomped past Leo, not even sure what he said matched any of what Leo had been going on about.

Closing the door to his room, Raph stroked the sleeping Chompy’s head before dropping onto his bed. He knew it was crazy to think he could still feel Casey’s body heat on his skin but there was part of him that almost did. There was definitely a part of him that missed Casey’s weight against him. He looked down at the hand that had rested on Casey’s stomach and groaned. Flopping down onto his chest, what was wrong with him? Why hadn’t he been able to move when Casey’s father took a swing at him. Why had his hart skipped a beat when he had watched Casey’s hand brush over where his own had rested? Raph bit his pillow with a frustrated groan, something was definitely wrong with him.

Donnie was doing better with Casey’s laptop now that he was in the quiet of his own lab. No longer distracted by his friend and brothers or the knowledge that right behind him Raph was practically groping their friend. How could he do that and with Mikey right beside him. Oh man, had Mikey noticed? Probably not, if he had their probably would have been some sort of scene about it.

Donnie glanced back at the computer screen; his software was still running through everything chasing down all that virus code. Maybe if he could figure out what or where they had all come from, he could convince Casey not to do whatever he had done again. Time for a little snooping. The internet history wasn’t all that surprising bunch of websites for hockey, a few that were clearly school project related, some video sharing websites. Donnie hovered the mouse over one he couldn’t place, finally clicking on it a video window opened with the title ‘teaching a punk to shut up’ under it. With a heavy sense of trepidation Donnie clicked play.

The camera was looking down on a mop of messy black hair as a hand forced the owner up and down a cock. Donnie sighed of course Casey had something like this saved to his computer. “where’s that back talk, now” the voice behind the camera laughed, Donnie froze on his way to close the window, he recognized that voice, he had heard it less than an hour ago. The hand in the hair forced the head back just enough to see the face. Casey glared up at the camera through a swollen left eye and bloody nose. Casey’s father laughed down at him from behind the camera as he pumped his dick in and out of Casey’s swollen, stretched and cracked lips.

Donnie watched in complete horror and fascination; he had never seen Casey so docile despite the fury that burned in those eyes. Casey’s father tightened his grip, pulling Casey tighter against his hips and groaned heavily as he came in Casey’s throat. Finally, releasing his grip, Casey fell back coughing and spitting out all he could. “At least you’re not completely useless, get lost, you little shit.” He kicked Casey’s hip until Casey scrambled away from him. The video ended and links to similar content popped up over the blurred frozen image of Casey’s retreating form.

Donnie’s eyes were locked on the screen. How could this be happening? Why hadn’t they done anything today when they heard Casey getting yelled at? That’s stupid, they didn’t know about this then. How did they not know about this? Why hadn’t Casey told them?  They would have helped him, he has to know that, right? He has too. Donnie closed the window, to keep snooping. There had to be some sort of explanation as to what was going on somewhere in here. There had to be.

Digging through more history he came across a slew of websites on the age limitations of a legal guardian and how to apply for guardianship. Fallowed closely by what was needed for proof of child endangerment and abuse. Donnie swore under his breath, if he was putting this together right Casey was trying to figure out how to become his sister’s guardian but was at least two years away from that happening and that video had been at least a year old already. There had to be something he could do. Opening his own laptop Donnie began researching and digging for more information, switching between the two computers as needed. A pen twirling between his fingers as he reads, pausing to take quick notes from time to time.

Donnie vaguely registered when Mikey called out that Raph was back, too engrossed in his new mission. The sound of Leo starting in on Raph played like familiar music in the background.

Donnie leaned in to the computer screen, he had found what looked like a digital journal, he took notes of some particularly bad beatings and what appeared be the first sexual attack. He felt sick reading it all in detail but was oddly proud of Casey for keeping such meticulous notes, these would certainly be a great help in the case against his father. Apparently, the sexual stuff started a little over a year ago so only just before that video, not that, that was somehow better but at least it didn’t go back farther than that.

Donnie tilted his head at the first mention of himself and his brothers, it was several months after they had met. ‘I dodged him, completely dodged him and managed to get us both out the fire escape and across a few roofs before collapsing in a heap behind some pigeon house. She slept through most of it, a rough landing woke her up but she’s still so little that a quick song had her back to sleep. Hanging around with the guys has definitely made me faster. I’ll have to get Raph to show me some more cool moves. Maybe I can get him to teach me that neck pinch thing.’

Donnie smiled, happy that they had been able to help at least a little bit already. he would have to make a point to show Casey a few more evasive moves. Raph started coming up more and more as Donnie read, though he supposed that wasn’t all that strange they were best friends. Though the focus slowly changed from learning new moves or who / what they found on patrol to what Raph did or how he looked silhouetted against the city. How close Raph would settle next to Casey on colder nights and how much Casey looked forward to those nights in particular.

Donnie stood; he needs to talk to Raph. He was surprised to find the lair so dark as he walked through it but a quick glance at his T-phone cleared that mystery right up. But if it was so late why had no one pestered him to go to bed yet? Maybe someone was still up, he peaked into Mikey’s room. Mikey was out cold, Leo was the same in his room, that only left Raph which might be ideal considering what he had to talk to him about. After no response to the light knock, Donnie eased the door open. “Raph?” Raph was deep asleep, his jaw slack, a trail of drool dribbling onto his pillow. Donnie smirked, reaching in and flicked off the over headlight. He could talk to him tomorrow, he should probably have everything as mapped out as possible for him anyway, might make the news a bit easier to take then just having Donnie saying it to him. Yes, if he had something concrete to show Raph, he might not be so quick to hit him, might. Donnie returned to his lab and started on some simple flow charts.

Raph walked into the kitchen to find Mikey dancing with Ice-cream Kitty as he made breakfast to some of his latest music obsession, Raph was pretty sure he had called it nightcore, booming through the room. “Moring,” he smiled at Raph still dancing, “Breakfast’s almost ready.”

“Where’s Leo?”

“Shower.”

“Donnie?”

“Not in his room.” Mikey danced over to the coffee pot and poured a mug.

“Did he sleep in the lab again?”

“Probably.” Mikey handed Raph the mug.

Raph took the mug and headed for Donni, why didn’t Leo ever ride Donnie about getting some sleep? Why was it his job to make sure Donnie didn’t kill himself with work. Donnie’s head was on the desk top between his and Casey’s laptops. Casey’s was blinking some message at the sleeping turtle. Raph shook his head and shouted Donnie’s name. no response. Coming closer he poked the sleeping turtle’s head, shook him, shouted in his ear, waved coffee sent in his face but the best he got was a grumbling turn of the head. Raph’s left eye twitched. Finally, he kicked Donnie’s chair out from under him, but instead of the dramatic flailing he was hoping for Donnie simply sank to the floor and curled up under his desk. “Fine.” Raph grumbled placing the mug of coffee next to Donnie’s head, the smell would get to him eventually, and walked back out to the kitchen.

“Where’s Donnie?” Leo asked between bites of pancakes.

“Sleeping, why didn’t you make him go to sleep?”

“I thought I wasn’t everyone’s dad.” Leo narrowed his eyes, triumphant.

“that’s never stopped you before.” Raph dropped into his chair.

“Ooohh- snap! Shots fired Kitty.” Mikey laughed feeding Ice-cream Kitty a bite of pancake. Leo frowned and Raph smirked. They all knew Mikey loved them unconditionally but even Mikey was getting fed up with Leo’s attitude recently., that was why he had tagged along last night. He didn’t want to be left alone with Leo when he was like this and they all knew it. Leo, thankfully had enough sense today to keep his mouth shut. Raph and Mikey shared a quick glance and shrug when Leo opted to just eat in silence, before picking up their own forks again.

Donnie crawled out of the lab four hours later, a mug of very cold coffee in his hand. Mikey spotted him first. “It Lives!” Raph took the distraction to kill Mikey in the game they were playing, while Leo looked up from his magazine.

“Where you off to Doctor Doninstine?” Raph chuckled fending off Mikey’s whinnying slaps.

“Coffee.” Donnie grumbled.

“Looks like you have some in your hand.” Leo said putting down his magazine to watch his usually smarter brother try to navigate the lair.

“coffee.” Donnie just grumbled in response again.

“Sorry Don, but the kitchen is closed.” Raph folded his arms over his chest, smirking Down at Mikey, who he had pinned down with a foot on his chest.

Donnie finally turned to look at them with his morning dead eyes. “Coffee.” He growled.

“No.” Raph growled right back. Mikey and Leo shot each other a quick glance.

Donnie bolted for the kitchen. Raph on his heels, Leo and Mikey right behind him. Mikey latched his nun chucks around an overhead pipe, swinging over Raph and Leo to land on Donnie, tackling him to the ground. Raph and Leo dog piling right on top of them as Donnie let out an inhuman screech.

“it’s for your own good.”

“you won’t sleep tonight, Bro.”

“you should have just gotten up earlier.”

Donnie let out another horrifying shriek, the three brothers struggled to restrain him as he flailed about.

“Caffein deprived Donnie is scary!”

“Where does this strength come from?”

“Where is it when we need it?”

“Mikey, wrap him up.”

“I can’t, I can’t reach my chucks without getting off him.” Mikey reached for the chuck he had dropped when landing on Donnie and was almost thrown by his flailing brother.

“Wait, look.” They turned to Raph who was struggling with Donnie’s legs. “look at him.”  They all looked down at Donnie and saw that his berserker state was quickly fading beneath their combined weight. So instead the all just tightened their grip and hunkered down to wait him out. Once he was calm, they dragged him into the Dojo and locked him in for a four-hour training session.

With training finished Leo grabbed Mikey and dragged him up to the surface with him for patrol. Donnie pulled some left overs out of the fridge to finally eat something. He had been uncharacteristically quiet all through training. Everything he had learned through the night and his lack of caffeine, not a good mix, the better part of his mind told him it was best to just say nothing at all, so that’s what he did.

Raph watched Donnie, petting Chompy while he mechanically eats the cold leftover lo main. Raph leaned against the counter sipping on some water after filling a glass. “What were you working on so late?”

Donnie went still remembering he wanted to talk to Raph, he looked up at his brother slowly. “I … I found some stuff on Casey’s computer.”

“Some new crazy techno virus?” Raph chuckled at Donnie’s need to tackle every program thing he came across.

Donnie dropped his eyes to the table, he wished. “No,” it came out as more of a broken whisper then he hoped it would have.

Raph knitted his brows together. “What?” Donnie kept his eyes on the table, he wanted to talk to Raph, needed to. And now he was presented with a prime opportunity to and he had no idea what to say. “Donnie?”

Donnie looked up at Raph’s concerned face. “I’m worried about him, but I don’t know if there is anything we can really do.”

“About what?”

“I … I..”

“About what, Donnie?”

“Maybe I should just show you.” Donnie stood and walked them into the lab. He moved his laptop off a large paper flow chart. “It’s not finished but it’s not a pretty picture.”

Raph ran his eyes over the mapped-out maze of words, taking note of a few key words as he did. ‘start of abuse,’ ‘loss of mother.’ ‘legal age’ ‘sister’ ‘start of sexual abuse’.

“What does this…” Raph’s finger hovered over ‘start of sexual abuse’ unable to finish the question, he felt oddly heavy and cold.

“That’s the first thing I found but it might be worse than I originally thought…” Raph just looked up at him. “I found another video.” Donnie opened a link on his computer, this one had a preview image. Casey’s face was swollen, though not as much as in the first video, he was on his knees in front of a door looking as protective and defiant as he could while clearly so defeated. Come was splattered over his face, his nose bleeding and a bruise forming around his right eye. “I’m not going to play it again.” Donnie told Raph who just nodded, his eyes locked on Casey’s face. Donnie watched his brother closely; he couldn’t think of a time when he had seen Raph take bad news so well.

“Why wouldn’t he tell us?” Raph finally asked.

“I think there are a few reasons for that. The main one being that everything that I’ve been able to piece together right now is Casey is trying to become his sister’s guardian but he isn’t old enough yet. So, until he is, nothing, can happen to his father.”

“What?!”

“If something happens to Casey’s father, both of them will be put into child services where they will most likely be separated.” Donnie put his hand on Raph’s wrist to try and calm his growing rage. “If they are separated, there is a very good chance he will lose her to the system, forever. But if he waits it out a bit longer, he can be her guardian.” Donnie tightened his hold on Raph but was surprised to see him settle again.

“He could lose her?”

“yes.”

“I don’t want him to lose her.”  Raph felt numb and crushed by the idea of losing a sibling. His brothers were everything to him and he was sure Casey felt the same about his sister. He could understand wanting to be hurt over losing them.

Donnie stroked a comforting thumb over Raph’s wrist. “There is something ells you should know.” He took a quick breath. “Casey, is falling for you,” Raph’s chest tightened. “but maybe you already knew that.”

“What?” Raph looked up at Donnie with desperate confusion.

“the way you two were sitting against each other last night…” Donnie trailed off as a deep blush spread across Raph’s face. “Oh,”

Raph tried to ignore the heat on his face and the strange look Donnie was giving him. “why,” His voice was strangled, “Why do you think that he’s …. Um … you know, for me?”

Donnie turned to the computer in order to hide his smile, he still had a hold on Raph’s wrist and his brother’s hart rate was intense. “he’s been, well I think they were originally notes about what was happening but they turned into more of a journal and you come up, a lot. I mean you’re his friend so that in and of itself isn’t all that unusual. But the way he talks about you has changed. You’re not just a friend anymore. You’re more important than that.” Donnie looked back at Raph. “Are you okay?”

Raph looked and felt like he had been hit by the metaphorical bus, frozen, staring blankly ahead. What the hell was his life right now? Had he gotten seriously injured in the last fight and this was one of those weird final brain flash things Donnie had told them about? No, he could feel Donnie’s hand on his wrist. Okay, so this was a thing that was happening. Why couldn’t he think? “Raph?” Donnie stepped closer to him. He should say something, he should respond. “Raph? Are you okay? Take a breath.”

Donnie snagged his rolling chair with his foot and brought it around behind Raph, slowly lowering his brother down on to it. He hadn’t been anywhere near prepared for this reaction. He continued giving soft calming commands for Raph to breathe until, Raph spoke. “it’s a lot.”

Oh, thank goodness, “yeah, it is.” Donnie stood next to Raph watching him process until his hart rate had slowed to a more normal pace. Then he slowly stepped away and pretended to work on something, just to give Raph the space he knew he needed.

About twenty minutes later Raph stood abruptly and started for the door. “where are you going?” Donnie asked watching him.

“I need a walk.”

“Raph,” Raph paused in the door. “Don’t say anything to Casey, he doesn’t know we know.” Raph gave a curt nod and disappeared through the door.

Raph wandered through the sewers, his feet moving seemingly as aimless as his thoughts. Except for the fact that all his thoughts were about Casey. From how his laugh always rang in Raph’s head to the pain he must feel every time he was at home. To what might happen if he tried to keep Casey safe in the lair to how much that stupid catch phrase of his made Raph chuckle. Looking up he wasn’t surprised to find himself almost at Casey’s. Settling into one of the cross tunnels, he wasn’t in the mood for the surface right now and he still needed to get his head right. He let his thoughts over take him again.

Raph came back to the sound of a manhole cover sliding closed above him. Sinking back farther into the shadows, he waited to see who was climbing down the latter. Casey walked past his tunnel and before he had thought about it Raph heard himself calling out to him. “Hey,” Casey jumped, turning around he found Raph already standing behind him.

Raph frowned, Casey was sporting a fresh shiner on his left eye. Raph reached out cradling Casey’s face between his hands. “he hit you after we left.”

Casey froze, he didn’t know how to take Raph’s soft voice, sad eyes, gentle movements or that he knew exactly what had happened. “Wha…”

“I’m,” Raph leaned in, “sorry.” He pressed his lips to Casey’s, soft but persistent.

Raph’s lips met his and Casey’s mind screeched to a holt, his eyes locked on the turtle. The soft reassuring warmth of Raph, the warmth from his hands against Casey’s face. Casey felt something brake in his chest, tears began to stream down his face. His fingers fumbled against Raph’s chest, catching on the edge of his plastron.

Raph rested his forehead against Casey’s wrapping his arms around his crying friend. Casey’s tears were quiet but violent, he shook with the force of them. Raph held him tight, hopeful that the warmth of his arms and his presence was enough to reassure his friend.  They stayed that way, standing int the sewer, clutching to each other for a long time.

Casey’s legs gave out under him, emotional exhaustion over taking him. Raph scooped him up and cradled him against his chest. Seeing Casey finally lose to sleep, Raph started toward the lair.

Donnie had been nervously watching the entrance since Leo and Mikey’s return. They hadn’t run into Raph on their way back nor had they seen Casey tonight. They pestered him for why he wanted to know but of them all he could be the most stubborn when he put his mind to it and after twenty minutes of him not being willing to give them anything, they had left him to his own brooding. He stood a Raph slid through the turnstiles caring Casey against his chest, taking a few quick steps toward them to help. “where did you, what happened?!” Leo stood from his beanbag chair.

Raph shook his head at Donnie who nodded and rushed past them to open Raph’s bed room door. Raph ignored Leo, moving past Donnie. “if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Don.” Raph appreciated how low Donnie had kept his voice and matched it.

Donnie nodded and closed the door behind them. Turning he found his two brothers staring at him eagerly awaiting some sort of explanation.  “It’s okay” he tried to sound reassuring with out going into anything.

“What happened?”

“It’s okay, they just need some time.” Donnie smiled at them, actually believing it might be true.

The end.

[brianwhitedarkdaily-blog]

July 2018 Listening List

I began working on a new project this month that I hope to turn into a book series called Quantum Mystics. As a result, I searched for a lot of music that embodied the chaotic, surreal themes of the scenes I was writing. Some were calming and dreamlike, others were action packed, and still others were weird and psychedelic. I started to create a playlist of songs pulled from the albums I listened to while writing the story. The bands and albums themselves don’t differ much from my normal listening, however, I did spend more time listening to instrumentalists that I have not listened to in a while, and found new gems in some staple favorites.

Orange Mathematics by Frontierer – I had listened to this album once before and simply dismissed it. It was still downloaded on my device and I was scrolling through looking for something different and decided to give it another listen. I think my previous dismissal was due to the fact that this is extremely heavy, jarring music. When this album starts, it feels like a gun going off next to your ear right as you are about to fall asleep. I also believe that the sounds of pick scrapes, screaming, and high pitched, distorted, high E guitar bends manipulates your brain waves and makes you instantly insane. Which, as it so happens, was exactly what I was looking for. As a result, I found a new appreciation for this album and band. Collapse was one of my favorite songs and was what I picked for the playlist.

The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection by Yngwie Malmsteen – If you’ve never heard of Yngwie then you’ve just never heard some of the best classical metal fusion ever created. Yngwie is a master, both musically and technically. His chops have stood up to the test of time and he is still at the top of the list of one of the fastest players of all time. Some may disagree, but I also believe he expresses a true passion for music and his songs are the type that stick in your brain. Black Star an original Malmsteen instrumental classic was the song I chose for the playlist and displays everything that makes Yngwie great.

Conquering Dystopia by Conquering Dystopia – Jeff Loomis has been one of my favorite guitarists since hearing him when he fronted Nevermore. I believe I’ve written about this album before but the dueling guitar of Merrow and Loomis is simply amazing. It manages to groove while being technical, quickly vacillating from screaming solos to toe tapping riffs. This is one of those albums that can immediately change my state of consciousness, which is why I returned to it. Ashes of a Lesser Man and Lachrymose made the playlist.

Plains of Oblivion by Jeff Loomis – Don’t need to say anything more about Loomis’ guitar playing. On this album he displays his harmonic range and brings in some guest singers and players such as Ihsahn but the female vocal lead on Tragedy and Harmony made this song my favorite and made the playlist.

Concrete Gardens by Tony MacAlpine - It had been a long time since I had listened to Tony. I remember the early Shrapnel Record days with Keel, Paul Gilbert, Richie Kotzen and of course Tony with his debut album, Insanity, which was exactly that, insanity on six strings. Well Tony has added two more strings to his insanity and his playing has never been better. Added to his technical wizardry and shredding capabilities are some great riffs which pull you into his every expanding garden of guitar insanity. The King’s Rhapsody was one of my favorites, along with Red Giant. Both were added to the playlist as well as some of the songs from Tony’s earlier albumns such as Autumn Lords (Maximum Security) and Dream Mechanism (Tony MacAlpine).

Lesser Key by Lesser Key – Lesser Key was formed by x-Tool bass player Paul D’Amour and has a similar sound. This is a great album that drags you into its embrace with hypnotic repetition and excellent, occult lyrics. Folding Stairs and Parallels were the two that I added to the Quantum Mystics playlist but all the songs are excellent.

Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards by Joe Satriani – I am a longtime Satriani fan. He is one of the few artists I have seen multiple times in concert and each time was memorable. Aside from being an accomplished shredder and guitar virtuoso, Satriani has some of the “tastiest” rhythms and riffs of any instrumental guitarist I know. He has guitar lines that feel as if they should be sung and I often find myself humming to his groove rhythms as if they were refrains. I’ve not kept up with all the albums he’s been releasing throughout the years, but as I was looking for something different and I was writing about quantum mystics, the album title immediately grabbed my eye. As it turns out Wormhole Wizards is one of the songs I added to the playlist. It has a great funk rhythm typical of Satriani. It draws you in and keeps you for the whole song, adding subtle changes and awesome displays of guitar wizardry in the process. God is Crying, is the other song I added. There are many categories Satriani’s playing could be placed in, but I always put them into either Blues/Funk Fusion that makes you want to move, or slow, dreamy, captivating, awe inspiring music that makes you reflective and emotive. Songs like Circles, I Believe, and God is Crying fall into this latter category. Great album from one of my favorite guitar legends.

Alien Love Secrets by Steve Vai – Vai is another one of my favorites. If you are looking for odd music that can make you cry, dance, cringe, sing or have you asking “what the f*** just happened,” look no further. Vai has it all. Vai is one of the few guitarists that can make you feel like you just listened to a song that had lyrics but that you know didn’t. His guitar sound can be lyrical and at times he’s even made it speak by answering lyrically posed questions. But my favorite thing about Vai is he manages to always be fun and at times comical. If you have ever had the pleasure of watching him play, it is immediately apparent how much he loves music, the guitar, and what he is doing. He gives everything he has, and it comes through in his music. He is the only guitarist I can listen to and find myself actually laughing. I can’t explain how he does it so I’ll put it in the musical mystery category. Ya-Yo Gakk from this album perfectly illustrates his ability to make his guitar sing and laugh.

The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall by Pink Floyd – Pink Floyd is something I find myself listening to when I want to get into a weird, psychedelic, philosophic mood. And I used these two albums to channel that emotion while I was writing because there are quite a few scenes in which the characters are exploring concepts that cannot be properly examined with normal consciousness. Hey You, from the Wall and Breathe, from Dark Side are the two songs that most brought me into this mode of thinking. In this case I didn’t pay any attention to the lyrics but went purely by the state of mind that was evoked while listening to these songs.

Savages and Savages (Instrumental) by The Dali Thundering Concept – Loved their previous album Eyes Wide Opium and this album extends their surreal technical wizardry to new heights. Their use of odd time signatures and the battle between thunderous bass, blazing squealing guitar, and growled vocals, keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next as you are taken on a jarring journey from, The Myth of Happiness to being, Blessed with Boredom, which does everything but bore you. As much as I like Sylvain Conier’s voice and lyrics the instrumental version of this album is awesome allowing you to focus on how truly amazing the guitar playing from Leo Natale is. I was amazed while listening to the lyrical version and then awestruck when listening to the instrumental.

Podcasts:

Didn’t listen to much spoken word this month. Even while driving I wanted to keep Quantum Mystics on my mind and stay on a roll. Music always allows me to retrieve an emotion or an idea, so I spent a lot of my commuting time listening to the playlist and going over the plots, scenes and characters in Quantum Mystics while listening to the playlist. I did listen to one lecture given by Robert Anton Wilson where he discusses his book, Prometheus Rising, covering topics such as neural linguistic programming, the eight neural circuits, and imprinting, in his often comedic but always intriguing way.

That’s it for this month.

Enjoy!

brianwhite@darkrevmedia.com

www.darkrevmedia.com/thedarkdaily

tumblr:  http://brianwhitedarkdaily.tumblr.com/

[twilightpony4]

Ola Americano... Turtle?: 16. I Don’t Like This

Jet black walls were trimmed in a once hot pink color that faded with age. The business’ sign was its name in script that resembled mostly of a Barbie font. Underneath it we're rearrangeable letters that spelled out titles in Portuguese. Finding the place was not so hard, but it was a long trek since they had to find their way through the bustling night near the famous Copacabana. Fortunately, the city was very similar to New York with its architecture, thus they were able to travel the best way they knew how. By rooftop. Settled in a more quiet setting, the mutants lurked around the standoff-ish building. With no windows and no easy access to the place alone, they had to settle for the most practical yet revealing way to see through. The door. It was obvious that it was a business for numerous individuals, both rugged and groomed, came through the front doors. The only problem was that there was a good flow of people coming through. Raphael had pointed out that there was indeed a door that was hidden in the dark due to the absence of light around it.

With the ‘ok’, the red brute took out his sai from its back sheath. With its small tip, he jiggled the doorknob as silently as he could. Donatello listened in closely to hear it unlock and nodded when he got it done. With the sai replaced, Leonardo jumped in to open the door for he had a ready and steady hand. His intentions were to just crack the door open. Fortunately, there was a chain lock that only let it go so far in case they accidentally swung it open. He gave a slow sigh after the fact.

The room was dark with ominous, neon lights that lit up in particular spots. The main scheme was a luscious purple followed by some blue and red hues here and there. With the dancing music, it looked like a hangout until they saw that there was a stage to their right. It was reflective, but extremely black. Most of the lights danced around the floor of the stage. Catching glimpses of the light, some skimpily clad women danced together in rhinestones. Leo slowly closed the door up until there was a sliver of space open. As he turned his head away, his innocent eyes were wide with scarring and fear. “Angel didn’t mention this.” He gulped, still trying to get himself together as he sat down beside the door. It just caught him off guard. Raphael, curious to see what got him riled up, leaned over him to crack the door open again. This time, the rest of the mutant gang wanted to peek in as well. Immediately seeing what was going on, they, too, turned around closely and re-shut the door.

“Naw, I’m out.” Raphael shook his head and put his hands up. “Turning around.” A hand stopped him after it snagged him by the hem of his pants. “Stay here.” Leonardo commanded. Raphael scoffed in disbelief. “You’re not serious, Leo.” “I don’t like it at all, but we got to see if he’s in there.” “How?” Donatello chimed in with a shaking voice. Aw, the poor kid. “Time to test how mature you guys can really be.” He said with a newfound confidence. Opening the door some, he tried to scan the dark room. Suddenly, he shut the door. It was almost a slam, which caused the clan to retaliate back at his carelessness. He quieted them with his reasoning. Upon his face, he was severely mortified with widened eyes and a tense posture against the wall. Again? “You know, on second thought, why-don’t-you-two-scope-it-out-first.” His attention was clearly on the two mutant sisters as he spoke breathlessly. Yet another scarring on the honor turtle. “What happened to our fearless leader?” Raphael teased with laughter behind his words. The leader cleaned up his act to roll his eyes. “It’s called ‘respect’.” He snapped back, growling in between.

Pushing past them, Mona tapped them both on the head to stop their bickering. Opening the door, she watched as the boys looked away. Venus just stood by for only one really needed to monitor the scene. The lizard lady sighed out of boredom multiple times. Seeing such a display unsettled her. Ultimately, this was frowned upon where she came up from, but since she also respected that this was how these girls could make some money, she was torn. Sure, some girls enjoyed this work,but she really felt bad for those who had to come to this as a last resort. She could see it on some of the girl’s faces as their expressions gave subtle cues of discomfort. She wished she could intervene on their behalf, but now was not the time. After some minutes, the naked women disappeared and a more modest act began to unfold involving a foreign dancer in traditional cloth. “There’s nothing ‘bad’ going on. You can look.” Mona spoke deadpan to the group. Once again, a little more shyly this time, they all peeked into the room. What they saw was a lot softer. On the stage was a dark skinned, Brazilian woman with short curls. She wore a sky blue rhinestoned brazierre and a long, silky skirt. Her act was belly dancing to Middle Eastern music. The gold accents and chains clinked numerous times as he moved her hips abruptly yet flawlessly. Taking in the show directly was unbelievable. Front row, taking up three seats, were their guys. Cha Ocho, alive, was on one end while another guy sat in the middle. Who could be next to him was none other than the guy they were truly looking for. Dark skinned with a mean mug and a short haircut was the man they were looking for (all thanks to Vincent for sending in a mugshot). Upon being in the front, the dancer paid more attention to them as they sat back and smiled at her. “Yeah, I can hang out with this guy.” Michelangelo slipped out. When he did, there was already a backlash of disapproving looks. He brought his hands up in surrender, but was very calm by closing his eyes and talking smoothly. “I know, I know, ‘Don’t be an idiot’.”

“What’s the plan?” Venus whispered, pulling everybody back out except for Mikey who was too infatuated by what was going on inside. “We bust in and ask Stockman’s friend a couple questions.” Raphael proposed by cracking the knuckles in his fist. A beat down was going to feel good after they did them dirty. “Raph, we can’t go in there.” Leonardo shook his head. “Why the shell not?” Was Leo just being a hypocrite earlier to stay, or what? “Just shake up the place a little bit without anybody catching us.” “No.” He spoke low and firm. “We need more time before the police try to arrive. Its gotta be something a little more subtle than that.” “Someone’s gotta go in.” Donatello reminded. Leonardo understood, but he wasn’t sure how or whom. Meanwhile, Michelangelo was still incognito with his ogling.

“Dang, look at that girl go.” He whispered in amazement. “Mikey!” Donnie whispered harshly. Then, he grabbed him by the shell and pulled him back from the door. “No, for real, she doin’ that belly dancin’ stuff! It’s insane! How her hips do that?” He whispered that last part partially to himself. “Look!” He urged them to see as he pointed. It got the attention of the others. The only one to delay was Leo, who only rolled his eyes and groaned at his childish ways. “Mikey, we don’t wanna…” His voice trailed off just as his eyes once it hit what Michelangelo was talking about. It wasn’t so vulgar of the sorts as the woman dressed in traditionally modern dress and jived with the beat. “wow, that’s pretty cool.” He had to admit as she popped and did a well done shake down. “Her outfit isn't revealing either. She almost looks like a…” Before Michelangelo could finish that thought, his voice trailed off. As if by magic, Venus, Leo, and Donatello all had a similar idea. Slowly, their heads turned towards Mona Lisa. The lizard lady was distracted from their stares for the longest time. Raphael was the first to see what was out of the ordinary as the rest of the group looked on at her. A moment passed until she gave herself a break from the dancing woman. When she looked back, she jumped from their stares. Her hand covered her mouth as she uttered something small.

“Do you need something?” She asked, quite confused and with a raised brow. “You need to go in there, Mona. Pose yourself as a dancer to get his attention.” Leonardo asked of her. The mere thought that he would suggest such a thing surprised her. Then, by the looks on the others’ faces, they were along with it too? Are they serious? “Do I look like a stripper to you?” There was a lot of attitude in her tone. When she asked, her head bounced as she placed her hands on her rocking hip. “You will when you jump on the pole.” The lizard lady glared at the young mutant. He took a step back. “I’m just saying.” “You’ll be fine.” Leo assured. “I’m a mutant.” She fired back. “And human, and you get the upper hand over Venus since she has a shell.” He pointed out. It was true. Mona would have an easier time explaining tail than a giant shell merged to her body if the question arose. “I'm also a minor?” This time, her voice was unsure in a last ditch effort. “But not by that much.” The leader smiled shyly. He was just as unsure as she was. Typical. A sickening feeling in her stomach visited when she took another look inside. Was she really going to do something like that? Putting herself out there like that, all eyes on her, was going to definitely be out of her comfort zone. Then, what was she going to do? Just the sound of the word ‘twerk’ made her cringe and this was a field where it was highlighted. The red clad terrapin took her gently by the arm. He pulled her back away from the door and spoke for her.

“If she doesn’t want to go, she doesn’t need to go.” Raphael argued. It was then Venus had a weird feeling. It started in her face as a current of electricity tickled her nose. The female turtle flared her nostrils briefly, but when it didn’t work, she used her arm to push it down. The feeling subsided some, but it was more comfortable than before. Paying back attention, she saw Donatello reach for Mona Lisa’s hand. Gentle and caring, his pulled it out of Raphael’s grasp. Mona wasn’t the one to be grabbed on, but she was too nervous that she let it happen. Also, who could turn away from those comforting eyes that kept her still?

“Just for a couple minutes so we know where Chapelin and Stockman are.” Donatello encouraged. He gave her hand a slow shake as if it would strengthen his grasp on her. “We’re right behind you.” Then, another hand took her free one. It was Michelangelo this time. She had to admit, behind her concerns, it was pretty cute that  the two youngest were trying to comfort the oldest of the group. “The world depends on this.” Venus spoke from behind Raphael. The combination of large brown and blue eyes followed by her sister’s reasoning was putting her own thoughts into overload. The lizard lady sighed, chewing on her bottom lip afterward. Mona removed her hand from the turtle boys’ grasp. “I’m going through the back.” She turned around bluntly. The lizard with a mission brushed past Raphael whose face contorted into multiple, frustrated scowls towards his team members. However, they were not concerned with him

“Whoa, wait up.” The turtle girl stopped her with a hand to her shoulder. Then, she cocked a brow and looked down on her. Mona’s eyes followed the hand that was outstretched to her. “Sports Bra.” She demanded. Repulsed by what she meant, her sister engulfed her chest in her arms defensively. “Venus!” “Hey, you have to sell it. Deception is the kunoichi’s true power, but those” The turtle girl pointed directly at her chest. “are a woman’s power.” Ugh! D**** social norms! It’ll be harder in the future, but this was a girl who couldn’t wait until a woman didn’t need to be sent out as an object for manipulation. Of course, she was trained for manipulating, but this was one aspect she liked to skip. “Fine.” When she pulled the cuff of her sleeve, the brothers looked away as she wriggled out of the tight contraption. They can tell she was really struggling with her disgruntled grunts. Or was that her being upset that she was actually doing this? “You want a world class stripper?” An unusual amount of confidence and baritone came out of the lizard lady. They were still looking away so they couldn’t see a ‘proud’ yet annoyed Mona Lisa put her arms up in a presenting fashion and walk away. “I’ll give you ‘Kinky Kunoichi’!”

Coming up beside them, the boys relaxed as Venus entered their circle. Mona had disappeared into the back. As promised, Venus looked down at her sister’s sports bra confided in her hand. She stared down on it like some type of trophy to get her sister out of her comfort zone successfully. Upon seeing it, Raphael shook his head and rocked his body. “I don’t like this.” “Just a couple minutes. Besides, Mona is a professional. She’s gonna squeeze information from that guy.” Donnie tried to make him feel somewhat better about the situation. Everyone knew Raphael was just as hard to get out of his comfort zone as the lizard lady. “Right after she gives him a lap dance.” Understandably irritated, the family’s eyes turned to glared at the unapologetic orange masked turtle. Shamelessly, his nose was back in the door and smiling at what he saw. The orange tails of his mask were abruptly pulled on. He forced himself not to utter anything as he was pulled back and up on his knees. Hovering over him, Raphael scowled sternly. “Not helping.” He whispered. Then, he dropped him, in which the bottom rim of his shell dug into his large calves. Pouting, Michelangelo muttered. “Should’ve just let me dress in drag and do the hula.” he offered. Donnie raised his brow in disapproval. “That’s an image no one deserves to see.” He commented. Michelangelo gave him a shrug. “Just trying to help.”