#I love that he says first turtle fully knowing and accepting of the fact that he’s gonna get showered in a bunch more

[nicoscheer]

Via turnered_on

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The last clip is of Aviation (second time he’s played it on this tour)

argirisliosis The one and only @mileskane brought his "One Man Band" show in Athens last night and everyone in that room went crazy for him ⚡️(as they should)

Inhaler

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

First Time (18+)

Bayverse!Donatello x reader

A/N: Damn, I think this is my longest one ever. Big time Donnie love!💜

---------------

Donatello is more than a little nervous about the thought of having sex with you, not trusting his own abilities, but with some reassurance and guidance from you, he rises to the occasion.

Warnings: A more angsty build up that I had planned, unprotected sex, Donnie having his first time with you💜

-----------------

To say that Donatello was an amazing boyfriend, wasn’t enough to do him justice. He was fantastic! The sweetest and most genuine guy you had ever met. He was attentive and treated you well. Sure, he might be a mutant turtle that lived in the sewer, yet he was the best boyfriend you had ever had. Whether that spoke of your former poor taste in guys, or just the general low bar for human men you did not know. But you knew for a fact that Donatello was one of the best things that had ever happened in your life.

Donatello would say the exact same thing about you. You were not just the best thing that had ever happened to him, but a dream come true. Before meeting you, he had never actually believed that he would get to experience something so good. Just as he had accepted his fate as a lonely mutant turtle that would spend his days alone in hiding with his brothers, you came along and changed his life for good.

The friendship the two of you shared was just what you needed. You may not fully understand everything Donnie had going on inside his lab, but you listened nonetheless, finally giving a much needed ear to his thoughts and inventions. He in turn provided you with a safe space to go to, whenever your life became a little too much.

During those years of friendship you and Donnie grew close in ways none of you had experienced before. Not even his brothers could read him as well as you did, and you in turn had never thought that anyone would understand you as well as Donnie did. So therefore it was only expected that stronger feelings would blossom.

When you and Donnie started dating, it felt natural. Just like your first kiss. It just came naturally to the two of you. No grad gestures and no confusion. Both you and Donnie knew what it meant, and you were just happy to be with someone that understood you so well.

But if there was one thing that didn’t come as naturally to you and Donnie, it was sex. Actually, it didn’t come naturally to Donnie. You didn’t blame him. The poor guy had lived most of his life, convincing himself that sex would never be something he would get to experience. So when you and Donnie started dating and kissing, and the first thought of sex came up, Donnie started overthinking. You were a human that had had sexual experiences with other humans before, and he was a mutant turtle who had his hand as the closest thing to a former sexual partner.

It didn’t mean that Donatello didn’t want sex, because oh boy, did he want to! He was just nervous. Really nervous. It was almost nerve racking to believe that he could actually have sex, let alone with someone as beautiful as you. And you understood. You really did. You took the time to sit with him and talk it through, making sure he felt heard and comfortable, especially talking about a subject like that. What did he feel? What did he fear? What was he excited about?

Other than the general confusion and trauma that came from accepting your fate of loneliness, you learned that Donatello feared not the action of sex itself, but how he would act. More specifically, he was nervous and overthinking, because he did not know what to do. Where should he put his hands? What was he supposed to say? And the thought that haunted him the most; if he didn’t do good, would you leave him? All very valid fears for a mutant turtle, who did not even dare to dream of being with a human.

You took Donnie’s hands in yours and told him it was okay. He was allowed to be nervous and overthink, and he was allowed to not know what to do. You told him that you loved him, and you wouldn’t leave him if he didn’t make you feel good the first time, nor the time after that. Humans too would be nervous before their first time, and it was very normal not to be satisfied the first time.

And after that conversation, you and Donnie slowly started preparing for your first time together. With Donnie being a totally different species than you, he started preparing you for what you could expect. He told you where his cloaca was located and how it worked, along with other parts of the turtle anatomy you may or may not have known already. You in turn did the same. You told him where humans liked to be touched and answered his questions about human anatomy. And it calmed Donnie down. It calmed him down enough, to the point he dared to ask if he could touch your breast.

The make out session that came from that, was one unlike any you ever had had with Donatello. With his hands groping your breast, you were at a shock of naturally good your sweet tech boyfriend was at this. You had expected him to be more unsure, but you soon learned that when he had the confidence he could do anything. Making you moan against his lips while he played with your nipples, this guy did not know what talent he possessed.

This unlocked a new area of your relationship, that you and Donatello carefully explored. Make out sessions became more common, with hands exploring and building up the courage, going a little further each time, until one night Donnie told you he wanted to try.

“Are you sure?”, you asked. You were sitting in his room, you in his lap with your arms around his neck, still breathing heavily after the heated kiss the two of you had just shared. One of his hands was in the back of your neck, playing with your hair, while the other rested on your ass, squishing you through your pants.

“I’m sure”, Donnie answered, watching you through hooded eyes. The hand on the back of your neck crept to the side of your face, letting Donnie’s thumb glide across the corner of your mouth. “I really want to try”.

You nodded your head, biting your lip with a smile, before letting Donnie close the space between you once more. Your lips dancing together as your tongues slowly found each other, letting a small moan escape you, as you felt the vibrating churr being in Donnie’s chest. You had heard that sound quite a few times now, and each time you loved it more and more.

Your hands moved from Donnie’s neck, and down to the top of his plastron, enjoying the feeling of his vibrating chest through your fingers. You moved your lips to his chin, making your to his neck, feeling the hand on your ass pull you closer. Donnie’s breathing was heavy, his chest moving as he felt you work your lips around his neck.

Donnie’s hands found your waist, dipping under your shirt to feel the warmth of your smooth skin against his rough palms. You took this as a sign, removing your lips from Donnie’s neck to take off your shirt. This made Donnie move his hands to your breast, palming them through your bra as you reached back to unhook it. The breathy curse that left Donnie’s mouth once your bra was off, went straight to your core, making you clench around empty air. And Donnie could smell it. The scent of your arousal was strong, making him slightly dizzy.

Donnie nuzzled his head against your neck, pressing kisses against your skin like you had done to him, enjoying every sound that left your mouth and the feeling of your hands on his shoulders. His hands moved from your breast to your pants, where he tried to undo them, only to grow frustrated at the small buttons in his big fingers.

“Want me to take them off?”, you asked, gliding a hand up his neck.

“Please”, Donnie answered, bringing your hips close to him once more.

Donatello watched, with his head resting on your shoulder, through the valley between your breasts, as you undid your pants. Once you got them past your waits he helped you, sliding them off of your legs before throwing them somewhere in his room, leaving you in nothing but underwear on his lap.

“Shit”, he moaned, his heart raising once more as yet another wave of your arousal hit his nose, stronger than before. He hooked his thumbs into the straps of your underwear, his eyes finding yours to ask for permission. Breathless you nodded, lifting your hips to make it easy for him to pull your damp underwear down your legs.

The sight of you naked on Donnie’s lap was enough to make him moan. Your cheeks were already getting pink, and your pupils were just as blown out as his. The best way Donatello could describe the sight in front of him was; hot. So fucking hot.

He kneeled your hips, biting his lips before he asked; “Can I… Will you show me… Will you let me finger you?”

Once again, Donnie’s words went straight between your legs. The way he looked at you and the way he spoke. Needy and so ready to try. You loved every second of it.

“Of course you can”, you answered him, before bringing him in for another needy kiss. You took one of his hands in yours, guiding it down between your legs, helping one of his fingers glide through your folds, letting him feel the wetness that had built up. Donnie shivered, letting a whimper against your lips. You couldn’t help but chuckle, pulling from his lips, finding his reaction adorable.

“You feel that?”, you asked him, letting his finger glide through once more. Donnie nodded, letting out a small shuttering yes. “That’s all because of you, Donnie”. Your boyfriend cursed once more, his face showing frustration and absolute bliss.

You moved his thumb to your clit, guiding him on how to circle his finger around your small bundle of nerves.

“Like this?”, Donnie asked, watching your facial expression as he worked his fingers on you.

“Yes”, you breathed out, arching your back enjoying the feeling of his thick thumb on you. “Just like that, Donnie”.

Donatello bite his lip, watching your face closely, while remembering the things you had told him about the human body. How humans liked to be touched. How you liked to be touched. And with that thought in mind he wrapped his other arm around your waist, holding you close and still, while his index finger glided through your folds once more, before finding your entrance. He slowly pushed his finger in, sighing in delight at how tight you felt around his finger. You moaned, leaning your head back, happy that Donnie had wrapped his hand around to stabilize you.

“Fuck, Donnie”, you moaned, feeling how his finger went further in.

“Is it good?”, he asked, brows knotting together, biting his lips as he felt the familiar feeling from his cloaca, threatening to let dick drop.

“Yes, Donnie”, you moaned, your legs shaking against his. “Please, move them Donnie. Like this”. You held up your hand, showing your boyfriend how to move his fingers inside you. Donnie nodded, doing just as you showed him, moving his fingers in and out of you while his thumb rolled against your clit. You moaned, dropping your head against Donnie’s shoulder. He moved his fingers faster, feeling you move and shake against him, every moan from your mouth sounding like sweet music in his ears. He continued like this, feeling you tighten around his finger, your climax inching closer and closer until you came around his fingers with a loud moan.

When Donnie removed his fingers from your used cunt, he could not resist the urge to bring them to his mouth, sucking them off in front of you. The look in your eyes and the way you smelled told him everything he needed to know. You enjoyed it. All of it. He brought your lips back to his, your tongues finding each other. You moaned at the slight taste of you in his mouth.

Donnie pulled from the kiss, resting his forehead against yours, listening to your heavy breathing, feeling it against his face. “Can I do it?”

“Do what, Donnie?”, you asked, your hands smoothing over his shoulders and biceps.

“Can I fuck you?”

You nodded, too stunned to speak. Once again, you had not expected Donatello to be so straight forward, having thought he would be way more shy.

Donnie took your lips in for another kiss while he slowly laid you down on your back. Once your back was flat against the mattress, he started moving his clothed crotch against you, moaning against your lips as he felt himself getting closer to his drop. You whimpered against his lip, almost begging him to take his pants off. Finally he sat up and undid his pants in full view of you. He pulled his pants off along with his boxers, before climbing back on top of you, feeling your legs close around him the best they could, bringing his cloaca to meet your wet center.

“Can I drop into you?”, Donnie asked, his lips ligering against yours, his hands moving from your hips, up your sides to your shoulder, bringing you closer to him.

“Yes, Donnie”, you moaned, buckling your hips against his, causing him to moan, feeling himself tipping on the edge before finally dropping down in front of your entrance. To his surprise, you were the one to move your hand down between the two of you, taking his cock in your hand moving it to your opening before pushing it in closely.

Donatello moaned, his head falling down beside yours, your cunt hugging him tightly as he sunk further in. You kissed the side of his face, whispering sweet nothing as he sunk in as far as he could. He stayed there for a moment, letting you and himself adjust to the feeling of him inside of you. You were a tight fit for him, but he couldn’t deny it felt good.

“Donnie, please move”, you moaned, moving your hips under him. Donnie wrapped an arm under your shoulder so he could bring you even closer to you, resting his forehead against yours once more as he slowly began to move, moaning and cursing in delight over the feeling.

His thrusts started out slow and soft, until you told him it was okay to go harder and faster, to which Donnie obliged. He cursed, one of his hands grabbing on to the bedding beside your head, enjoying this knew feeling around his cock.

“Fuck”, he breathed into your ear, causing tingles to erupt in your stomach. “It feels good, (Y/N). Fucking good”.

Your hand found his face, stroking his cheek making him look you in the eye. The sigh was enough to make both of you shiver.

“Wanna go faster?”, you asked him. Donnie nodded, his lips slightly agasp. “Go as fast as you want to. Fuck me as fast as you want, Donnie”.

And that was all your boyfriend needed. Every trace of nervousness Donnie had showed you during your first conversation about sex disappeared, leaving behind what you could only describe as a feast for the eyes. Donnie was concentrated, his brows frowning, his pupils wide as his muscles flexed before he let loose against you. You gasped and moaned loud, grabbing onto Donnie’s shoulders as he thrusted faster and harder into you. He was rougher than you had thought he would be, but you found it to be a pleasant surprise.

But then Donnie did something you never saw coming for his first time. He took one of your legs, hooking it over his arm before thrust into you even deeper than before. This new angle caused you to arch your back in ecstasy, as he continuously hit the sweet spot inside of you. It didn’t take long like this, before you felt that familiar feeling in your stomach as you clung closer around Donnie.

“Donnie!”, you moaned out, your pitch higher than he ever had heard it before, making him growl in delight. “Donnie, I’m close!”

Donnie did not answer you. Instead he dipped his head down to your neck, where he started nipping at your skin, his hips working against you like a piston. He wanted you to cum around him, washing away every fear he ever had about not making you feel good. And you knew. You knew your boyfriend, and you knew what he was thinking. And as he started groaning and biting your earlobe, you couldn’t hold back anymore, almost screaming his name as you came for him once more.

Donnie moved both hands down to your hips, holding you still as he started chasing his own high, helping you ride out your own in the meantime. As he moaned louder and louder as he got close, his thrust became more and more erratic. Finally he came, pushing himself all the way into you as he shot out his white ropes, letting out a moan better than porn star you ever heard.

Once down from his high, Donnie pulled out of you, before slumping down next to you, sweaty and out of breath, his dick still out in the open.

He looked at you, his eyes tired yet full of love, making you feel warm in so many ways. “Was it good?”

“Are you crazy?”, you asked, smiling brighter than any stare Donnie had seen. “It was amazing, Donnie!”

Donnie chuckled, wrapping an arm around you to pull you close against his plastron, giving you a kiss before resting his forehead against yours once more, a smirk spreading on his pretty lips. “Does that mean you’re up for another around after a quick nap?”

[koopaspiderofdarkness]

Thoughts on TMNT: Mutant Mayhem

Without spoilers, I feel the need to say that to anyone considering the film just as a warning it does contain flashing lights, scenes that may trigger ementophobia, and severe body horror. Spoilers below:

I don't usually write my thoughts on films but I saw mutant mayhem today and I have MANY THOUGHTS and no one to talk to about them so here are some of my thoughts on the movie:

I really liked that Donatello wasn't portrayed as a super genius like he is in a lot of the other iterations, he is my favorite turtle and I don't dislike this characterization, but I do think that making him a more realistically nerdy kid helped him feel more like a normal teenager. (though I really did not like his interest in attack on titan like kid that's fascist propaganda get outta there!)

I loved how ugly all the baby mutants look and I mean this in the most affectionate way possible, baby superfly my beloved.

The shell cracking scene was BRUTAL, in fact the whole movie was kind of brutal like Splinter kills a man on screen I am very surprised that the age rating isn't higher, and it probably should have been anyway because it did seem like they were going for a darker tone at some points.

Speaking of, maybe I just missed some things but I feel like some scenes were cut or some context was left out because when the turtles leave TCRI with Splinter he says he is taking them home, but in the next scene we see them he's going with the turtles to stop superfly? Maybe I misheard or he was saying it as a joke but I was a little confused.

Speaking of, I really enjoyed the music and voices but was it just me or was it hard to make out what the turtles were saying sometimes?

The scene where the mutants accept the turtles also felt a bit oddly paced, and the mutated version of superfly confused me a bit because of the zoo animals mutated on him, though from what I read I guess when he fell through that building there was a zoo underneath? I don't remember them saying that though.

The ages of the characters was also a confusing point, Splinter explains that he and the turtles are different ages because he was mutated when he was older and they were mutated when they were young, but we see all the other mutants as babies in Baxter's lab so how come they are different ages? The only thought I have would be maybe they age differently depending on how their animal counterpart ages but I really have no idea.

I don't know how I feel about Leo's crush on April but I do think it was handled better than Donnie's crush in the 2012 version of TMNT, and I like that it wasn't the main focus of their relationship.

I feel like some of the mutants should have been used more? I don't remember a whole lot about Leatherhead, Ray Filet, and Genghis, there's a big cast of characters so it isn't too big a problem, but it was noticeable.

I really love the found family aspect of the film though, it's cool seeing the mutants be a lot more humanized than the other series, and I thought the Scumbug and Splinter relationship was a welcome surprise. (Though it's also a little unfortunate cause she was kind of a baddie and I don't want to be in a polycule with Splinter /hj)

I really liked this version of Splinter though I thought his design was very cute and I thought the difference between him and Superfly in terms of how they reacted to more or less the same predicament made them really good foils to one another.

I need to get my grubby little hands on the model for Superfly's final form oh my god not enough people are talking about that thing and I don't know whether I adore it or absolutely hate it because it taps into a very specific fear that I have of designs like that but I also love it because of that like he is SO horrific and I need to fully understand everything going on in that design right now.

I really loved the art style, I thought it was a bit strange at first but after I got used to it I love just how much fun the shapes are in this movie!

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the ending; I'm not entirely sure what message I am supposed to take away from it. Upon first viewing it seemed like the movie was communicating that the reason the turtles became liked was because they saved people, and that was the only reason they would ever be accepted- and April supports that fact at the beginning of the movie too. They're teenagers, and I think it is incredibly unfair that they would have to save the entire city just to be treated like kids instead of monsters, and it's even stranger because the only reason the public's opinion of them changes is because they are fighting a "bad" mutant. Which- maybe it's better that they see Superfly as bad instead of every mutant but I still think there's something kind of strange about that ordeal, I mean if any new mutants showed up will humans assume they're "good" like the turtles, or will they think they are "bad" like Superfly? Are the turtles and the others only accepted because they got rid of a "bad" member of their kind? I feel like that has some odd implications, though I guess I'm not supposed to think about it that much. But after thinking on it more, maybe it's moreso supposed to be about how instead of wanting to destroy the world, they tried to work to change and improve it, and that's what got them accepted, being "good" despite the circumstances. I feel like the latter is the more intended message, but I can see how the former could still be interpreted as well, I suppose it depends on how you look at it.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie, I didn't like it more than Rise's film, which is my favorite TMNT movie, but I think it is a close second! I'm excited to see where Mutant Mayhem goes from here!

[nani-nonny]

Ooooooh, I have another curiosity about your old men.

How would they react to someone being romantically interested in them? Who would be flabbergasted? Who would reject wholesale? And who would be so dumbass-headed and dense that they wouldn't even notice until the potential S/O shouted in their face that they were FLIRTING GOOD DAMMIT, WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ME

Oh! I don’t think I’ve gotten a question like this? Maybe? I think there was a question if they would have a past lover/partner, idk I’ll have to check

Anyways!

Reunion would react one of two ways: either be flattered and flirts back without any intention of dating or shifts the topic swiftly to avoid any further discussion. He’s a silly ol’ guy who’s too old to bother with dating (that’s his excuse anyway)

DMD would flat out reject it. He’s got a lot on his plate as a stand-in parental-figure to the present-turtles and Casey Jr, and as the ongoing Battle Nexus champ. (That’s also his excuse but it’s more valid than Reunion’s.) Although, in reality, it’s more he wants to focus on his mental health. He knows that because of his mentality, he won’t be able to be the partner someone else needs and deserves.

LCD would be disgusted that the other person is into him. He’d be so rude as to leave immediately after saying “No”. Heavy judging from him, solely due to the fact that he’s the infamous mass-murderer of the Hidden City. Why would you want to date him? He’s not mentally stable enough for a relationship, and is fully aware that a significant other in his life would only hurt them in the end. He doesn’t exactly plan on putting effort into healing his mental scars any time soon, so that adds another no-no to his long list of no’s. He also doesn’t have much heart left in him to love, which he is also aware of.

WDS is the dum-dummy head that won’t realize someone is romantically interested. His head is too far in the “clouds” aka in his mystic wonderland with his ghosty siblings lol. His thoughts are full of his babies (the teens don’t like that nickname for themselves) that he needs to protect. F!Mikey would be the first to realize that someone is romantically interested in F!Leo but wouldn’t bother to tell hehe. But by the time F!Leo finally realizes, or the interested person tells him, he’d be too embarrassed to accept because his siblings are quite “alive” in his mystic core lol.

Bonus: (honestly at this point he should be included with the peepaws lol)

(A)PAF is too paternally infatuated with his baby to care about someone being romantically interested. And he has CJ practically glued to his hip, so that also distracts him. The interested person would have to spell it out to him, then to CJ to relay the message again lol. Hell, relay the message to the baby too, because nothing is getting me through those tinted glasses.

[chiliiscereal]

May I offer a prompt of how the turtles would be with a mom friendTM? you know the type I mean? like.... I think they might benefit from that kind of friend in the group lol (also I love your stories, your such a cool writer keep up the awesome work!)

Rottmnt headcanon: mom friend TM

And thanks so much!

Mom friends are severely underrated XD

——

-Okay these boys need a mom friend badly

-but that’s where you come in!

-as the mom friend you keep them safe in many ways

Donnie💜

-starting with this guy, he never really wanted a mom friend

-when April first brought you over he was cold

-didn’t even bother talking to you

-you were determined to befriend him, even though he left whenever you tried to talk to him

-you became comfortable with the turtles quickly and the others accepted your mom friend nature

-not Donnie though

-he didn’t hate you, sure, but you were too much

-you were too overbearing and too nervous for his safety!

-you’d make him wear a helmet when he used his jet pack 

-you made him put on SUNSCREEN whenever he went outside

-you told him to be careful when rewiring a project even!

-it’s like you wanted to ruin his bad boy image

-he hated it and wanted you to stop being so smothering

-…

-…until he realized that attention and moral support comes with the smothering

-the moment he realizes that he’s all for it

-he’s no longer hiding his inventions from you so you won’t bug him, but he’s seeking you out for your advice and praise

“Hey so I made this and… I don’t know…”

“Wow you built that? It’s awesome!” 

“Really? I mean, I know, I just wanted to show you that it was.”

-praise ain’t something this boy has

-have you SEEN how his brothers react to his ideas?

-he needs this

-with praise comes affection

-I’m talking homemade snacks and questions that his brothers never ask

-you’re there if he needs a cup of coffee or if he hasn’t eaten in a while or taken a nap

-“don, it’s been two days since you slept go to bed.”

-“*hissssss*”

-“I’ll make a cup of coffee for you after...?”

-“*hisses but less intense*”

-you may be good at making snacks and everything

-very good in facts

-but the questions are probably his favorite part

“Woah what’s that supposed to do?”

“Well it’s a device that’s meant to fix all the broken McDonald’s ice cream machines.”

“That’s amazing! What did you use to build it? How does it work?”

-you’re actually trying to learn about his work!

-you’re trying to learn about him!

-he loves it

-and he loves that you’re careful to

-it’s a nice change from his brothers

-you’re someone he can depend on

-doesn’t matter if it’s missions or just being a good friend

-and I mean it when I say depend

-you’re there when he needs help rewiring something or just to simply talk about his dumb dumb brothers

-honestly April isn’t even mad that Donnie stole one of her best friends

-she knows he needs this

-Donnie fully learned to trust you after the purple dragons mishap

-you told him they were untrustworthy but his heart was dead set on that satin jacket

-when he came back to the lair, late at night, with no satin jacket and a handful of his missing tech, he found you raising an eyebrow at him from where you had sat to wait for him

-he knew from then on to trust you and your opinions, even though his often got in the way

-you can often be found sitting on Donnies bed while he works, offering your company and comments

-Normally no one else is allowed in while he works but that’s just because they don’t have anything positive to provide

 Raph❤️ 

-Raph IS the mom friend

-your mom friend energy and his mom friend energy just work together so well together

-I’m talking planning missions together, figuring new ways to trick his brothers into being responsible, cleaning the dishes, and even making snacks together

-“so the mission is tomorrow right?”

-“yep! Should we bring apples with peanut butter or pretzels with hummus?”

-“well Donnie doesn’t like peanut butter, but Mikey does, so both?”

-“awesome! And you’ve got the water covered?”

-“dude I even have caprisuns packed so we’re ready!”

-the others find it to be too much with the two of you but Raph really appreciates the help

-especially during the pizza puff episode

-oh that part nearly set you on fire with worry

-Raph had never seen you that worked up

-you had a fan for Leo, a bowl for Mikey, and a bag of fruit snacks for Donnie

-Raph has to activate his supreme mom friend energy to get you to stop hovering over them

-that meant literally dragging you away from them so they could figure things out on their own

-he’s seen you be a mom friend to them all the time

-but never once for him

-you two were like... co mom friends working together to stop the younger irresponsible three

-until Raph got separated in the sewer

-oh man you were torn with worry

-you nearly destoryed the place looking for him

-and finding him all savage like that... ack that was enough to practically shatter your heart in two

-once he stopped trying to barbecue villains and destroy his brothers you took him to the lair and helped him calm down

-you even turned on a movie for the two of you so he could relax

-it was nice to have your best friend and partner in stopping crime back

-Raph of course was embarrassed because it’s HIS job to help everyone, not the other way around

-after much assurance you had him convinced that you didn’t mind

-he was grateful to have you and your help

-he just wished you didn’t worry quite so much

Leo 💙:

-this boy is soaking it all up from the start

-someone to compliment him?

-someone to help him out?

-someone to admire his achievements?

-oh he’s all for it

-he’s showing off skateboard stunts, he’s doing flips, and he’s randomly pulling you to him and creating a portal

-usually you end up somewhere sketchy but sometimes it works out

-you always have to be ready though

-one minute you’re walking to the projector room and the next you’re in New Jersey with a sheepish looking red slider

-his only problem is now he has to be more careful with skateboard tricks

-he’s fine with a helmet but when it comes to you hovering next to him while he’s going down the skate ramp...

-eh he’s not so fond of that

-praise?

-sure

-home made gifts and cards?

-always appreciated

-but you constantly trying to protect him from things he knew how to do?

-no

-just no

-now he only feels like he can skate if you’re not there or if he goes to a skate park without telling you

-you figure out quickly and still worry that he’ll mess up a flip

-doesn’t matter if you’re watching or not

-you’re the mom friend

-your job is to worry

-you promised that you’d stop worrying about him if he can back

-you didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable in his own home!

-he agreed and you did your best to keep your promise

-...

-until he actually messed up a flip

-you don’t know WHAT he landed on but it must have been sharp because there was a LOT of blood

-maybe you thought there was a lot because you were so worried but still

-you hadn’t even been in the room but you heard his shout (and crash) and you came running

-oh he was lucky you carried gauze and everything in your bag because other wise they’d have to go buy some

-you chewed him out while patching him up, much to his displeasure

-you’re both sweet and sour about it

-“I’m fine! Look, nothing’s broken!”

-“I TOLD you that you could get hurt! I TOLD you it wasn’t safe! Why did you not listen- I’m sorry does that hurt? I’m sorry!”

-“yeah it does hurt-.”

-“than you should have listened to me!!”

-for a while he’s bitter that you were just waiting for him to mess up

-clearly you thought he was just a big clutz to you

-but after a while of him avoiding you and pouting you brought it up again

-“I’m not just waiting for you to fail you know. I just want you to be okay.”

-“that’s not what it feels like! You clearly don’t trust me!”

-“life happens, Leo! Doesn’t matter how skilled you are! You’re an amazing skater but sometimes mistakes are made!”

-ha that changed his tune quickly

-“you think I’m an amazing and skilled skater?

-you just rolled your eyes and left, not saying anything about his comment

-didn’t matter

-this boy is all smiles for the rest of the day

Mikey🧡:

-he was on board from the very start

-he’s got cuddles, piggy back rides, and his own art fan/critic

-lots of baking and cooking together

-maybe even drawing if he’s lucky

-only problem?

-you don’t trust him to go out on his own

-even if it’s just to grab a video game from the store or pick up pizza

-“I’m just going down the block!”

-“what if someone sees you?”

-“I’ll be careful!”

-“just let me go with you.”

-“no! I can do this on my own!”

-you’re always offering to give him a ride or tag along just because you don’t want anything to happen to him

-that means, of course, sneaking out

-not for a long time, just enough to get some air

-but that also means you’re staying up late waiting for him to come back

-he’s your buddy!

-you can’t let anything happen to him!

-he didn’t know about it until he found you cashed out on the couch with the lamp still on

-normally you gave him an excuse about why you were still up, such as a late night snack or a movie

-but your phone and the tv were both off

-he decided to think nothing of it until he noticed that you were grumpier in the mornings

-he didn’t want his actions to affect you so he started coming back earlier

-even texting you and telling you he was fine

-you two talked and set up a deal

-he could go out by himself and you wouldn’t stay up late waiting for him as long as you had his location on your phone

-it was easier for both you from then on

[miyagifangkai]

Young!Johnny Headcanons

Tagged: @bobbybrownmybeloved

Taglist: @vntgkenz

@bb-skyrunner

Request: Can I request a young Johnny Lawrence x Reader but the reader has a very similar personality to Moon headcanons?

Warnings: Not really any, maybe some cussing, threw in some jokes about zodiac signs. I mean, c’mon, it’s Johnny Lawrence so he’s totally clueless about everything.

!!!This is all meant to be cutesy and funny!!!

A/N: Hey there!! Thank you for the request! I hope you enjoy reading it. THIS IS MY FIRST TRY AT HEADCANONS SO PLEASE GO EASY ON ME I TRIED LOL!!! 💕

Also I know VERY BASIC stuff about chakras and zodiac stuff so I don’t go too into detail about things it’s just cutesy fun between reader and Johnny

•Johnny is verrrrry confused about it all at first like literally noooo clue

• Even though apprehensive at first he still accepts that you’re allowed to do your own thing.

-But he quickly learns curiosity killed the cat

•Every time you try to explain spirituality to him he fights the urge to not let his eyes glaze over

-Fun fact: you can tell he’s bored

•But trying to be a supportive boyfriend he forces himself to engage

•He secretly likes learning about it but he’d be caught dead before anyone else found out

•Johnny is a truuuuueee himbo; questioning almost everything you explain

•Sometimes you find it extremely adorable when he gets curious or questions

•But there’s other times when he’s a tad bit aggravating but you love him anyways

•Like the time you tried to teach him how to meditate

“So, I sit like this?”

“Yes, Johnny. Like me.”

“I have to cross my legs like that? You’re like a fricken pretzel!”

You laugh, “Stop complaining. Just do criss cross applesauce”

Johnny sighs and crosses his legs. He sits in silence for a total of maybe five seconds until, “Can we talk?”

“Johnny, this is a time of silence. We need to balance everything, just breathe, okay?” You rub his arm.

“Ugh, fine. But why?”

“To balance yourself. Get a peace of mind.”

“I haven’t had a peace of mind since I was born, Y/N”

You definitely gave him a disappointed look

•“Babe, what does it mean when you’re a lion?”

“Honey, that means you’re a leo.”

“A leo? Bad ass!”

•“Wanna know the mascot for a Cancer?”

“Bullshit, no way! One is called a Cancer?”

“Sure is; guess.”

“Hmm.. I dunno? A turtle?”

“Ha! Close. A crab!”

“So their sign is literally called Cancer and to make things worse they have crabs?”

You crack up, “You’re horrible!”

•“There’s seven chakras?”

“Yes.”

“How the hell do you keep up there’s like 100 zodiacs!”

“Wanna know them?”

Johnny looks at you with curiosity but also knowing he’s about to open a can of worms, “Fine. Let me get some food first, alright? I need some brain food.”

•Seeing Johnny seriously struggle to understand what the hell a chakra is

“Hold up there’s a damn chakra for your throat?”

“Yes! It represents communication. Ya know, kinda feeds the heart chakra?”

You can practically see the gears turning in his head, “Feeds…the…heart–”

“Yep, the heart chakra.”

“I think I’m starting to hate this,” Johnny smiles.

“Nah, you’re just too grounded! Let your mind roam free.”

•Since you told Johnny about the heart chakra he now uses it as a pickup line even though the line is sooooo wrong

“Hey, babe,” he says with a shit eating grin

“Oh no, what?”

“YOU feed my heart chakra.”

You cover your face to hide your blush, “That was literally the worst thing I have ever heard, Lawrence!”

•He starts to get familiar with meditating; him even joining you every now and then and actually staying quiet, well, sometimes

“Oh! Are we meditating?”

“Yes, honey.”

“Cool!” He quickly sits down and crosses his legs and starts humming, “Oooohhhmmmm.”

You look at him and squint your eyes, “You seriously don’t have to do that”

“OH! Sorry.”

•Johnny fully accepting your ‘quirkiness’ and starting to learn more and more while parading you around school asking you what zodiac sign you thought everybody was

“Him? Totally a scorpio.”

Johnny's eyes widened, “Really? You think?”

You look at him, “I know!”

Johnny quietly gasps, “Ya know what? I wouldn’t put it past you. You definitely know some things.”

“You’re too cute,” you give him a quick kiss

•You explaining soul mates to him leaving him feeling like a new world has opened up to him

“So they’re bonded for life?”

“I mean, that’s pretty much how it works.”

His jaw drops, “That’s a long time.”

“Listen, a soul mate doesn’t have to be a significant other. It can be a best friend.”

“Oh, so like Dutch?”

You chuckle, “Sure! Like Dutch!”

Johnny holds your hand and lightly squeezes it, “You’re my soul mate.”

“I think you’re mine too,” you say genuinely

“No. I know you are,” Johnny leans down and gives you a passionate kiss

•After a while he became extremely sweet about every new thing you taught him , you love how he always wants to learn and grow with you.

[arrowjaeger]

Basic TMNT Headcanons (2012)

because i think we need more tmnt headcanons that aren’t solely revolving around how they would be as a boyfriend…

Leonardo

• he/him

• bi guy in denial

• doesn’t fully understand what LGBTQIA+ is but supports it

• is the oldest of his brothers

• definitely has all the first born traits

• goody-two-shoes, tattletale, annoyingly nice etc.

• has seen every episode of space heroes 37 times

• is maybe a little too protective over his comic book collection

• like he wouldn’t even let his brothers talk about it

• pretends he’s edgier than he is

• is listed as “Fearless” Raph’s phone

• often wrongly deemed as Splinter’s favorite

• listens to one direction

• unknowingly listens to music about gay men and vibes to it not realizing he relates to it

• always makes his bed in the morning

• probably does yoga at 6 am in the dojo

• will only watch sci fi

• plays adventure games like Zelda or Tomb Raider

• makes the best tea

• is mostly vegan

• a poser when it comes to skateboarding

• has separation anxiety

• teachers pet when it comes to learning ninjitsu

• thinks he has the best smile

• probably has dimples

• would rather be cold than hot

• being cold blooded that leads to issues

• relates to Linkin Park’s “What I’ve Done” on a spiritual level

• cannot sing

• like he cannot carry a tune whatsoever

• if the ninja turtles came out with a christmas album, Leo would be stuck playing the triangle

• he’d try to sing backup but Donnie would turn his mic off

Raphael

• he/him

• kinda homophobic but he doesn’t realize it/kinda just internalized homophobia

• second oldest

• is sour that he isn’t the tallest

• secretly likes frank sinatra music

• most protective brother but he’d never admit it

• honestly he’s just a big teddy bear

• is determined to make himself look good in grey sweatpants

• doesn’t know how to play his drum set but likes the vibe it gives his room

• wishes he could learn how to play the guitar but he doesn’t have enough fingers

• is listed as “hulk” in Mikey’s phone

• is probably still learning how to read

• problem child (tm)

• dry scoops protein powder

• always adds 30lbs when he tells you how much he can bench press

• likes action movies as much as he says he likes horror

• he hates horror

• rages when he plays Fortnite or Apex

• he also plays Twisted Metal

• does clap push ups to show off

• has amazing thighs

• surprisingly the best driver out of all of them when he tries

Donatello

• he/they

• baby he’s bi bi bi

• likes April and Casey both but hasn’t realized it yet

• third oldest

• middle child (tm)

• complains about being the middle child but no one hears him cuz he is *cough* the middle child

• has a concerning obsession with star wars

• hopeless romantic

• has like 12,000 date ideas but is too scared of rejection to ask anyone out

• 70% brains, 30% coffee

• corrects others grammar (sometimes he just mutters the corrections under his breath)

• gives the BEST gifts

• super insecure about the way he looks

• hates his hands and wishes they were smaller so he could work on his tech easier

• love language is definitely words of affirmation

• listens to too much dubstep music

• he definitely listens to vocaloid

• read all of the harry potter books in a week

• he is nearsighted and he didn’t even realize people could see things that were so far away-

• wore April’s glasses once and was blown away with how much he could see that he asked if he could keep them

• she let him have them (seeing as she either wears contacts or just accepts the fact that she can’t see) and he popped the lenses out making his own customized spectacles

• he only wears them sometimes but usually has them on him

• wants to wear a bi flag colored mask in june

• is obsessed with hoodies

• is listed as “Donato” in Leo’s phone

• anxiety and depression

• maybe a little ocd

• probably helps tutor kids online

• enjoys Alfred Hitchcock and Twilight Zone

• really doesn’t feel like he has time for games but when he does he sticks to the classics like Tetris or Kablooey

• occasionally plays Overwatch because April plays it

• is basically the therapist of the group

• gives the best advice unless it comes to relationships

• knows all the LGBTQIA+ labels

• if you talk to him about how you are feeling about sexuality or gender he with diagnose you

• memorizes spotify ads

• lip syncs to them whenever they play

Michelangelo

• he/they

• doesn’t use labels but identifies strongly with pansexuality

• go with the flow kinda dude

• doesn’t care about labels

• supportive as fuck-

• youngest out of his brothers

• used to like being called “baby brother” but after being called it for 15 years he started getting sick of it

• *fs 180 ollies into your dms*

• brain empty unless it comes to skateboarding moves, then he knows all the terminology

• probably a pro at Tony Hawk 3 for the PS1

• secretly is an amazing graffiti artist

• has teamed up with Casey to make amazing pieces more than once

• definitely makes tiktoks and everyone just thinks he is a guy in costume or is a cgi creation

• has an insane amount of followers

• is OBSESSED with Jojo Siwa

• would wear high tops if his feet would fit into them

• probably has a JoJo Siwa scooter with matching knee and elbow pads

• has “High Top Shoes” on repeat in his brain 24/7

• ADHD

• is listed as “Baby Bro” in Donnie’s phone and he hates it

• honestly an amazing cook when he tries to be

• laughs at hate comments

• Splinter’s actual favorite

• only watches cartoons or Nickelodeon sit coms

• relates to Cat Valentine

• sucker for minecraft

• he found a cat village and built his house right next to it

• screams whenever he sees a baby zombie

• they run so fast

• gives the best relationship advice

[1plus1kiyoomi]

Chapter 5: 3-day Free Trial Day 2

[prev] [next]

[masterlist] [kia’s slambook]

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Day 2

Sakusa doesn’t want to. He honestly doesn’t want to take Kia to the doctors. But he doesn’t want you to get mad as well. He wants you back. And if it means taking Kia to get vaccinated, he’ll do it. He hates hospitals or clinics.

Kia walks in front of Kiyoomi as they head to the pediatrician’s clinic. You chose a clinic with a doctor who only accepted clients with appointments. It was for Kiyoomi’s convenience.

Kia hasn’t talked to Kiyoomi since they got home yesterday. She’s still upset with him but Kiyoomi sees it as a child’s tantrum only. He thinks she’ll be fine if he lets her be.

They arrive at the clinic and they press the doorbell. The door opens and a nurse greets them, “good morning, Mr. Sakusa, right?” The nurse asks and Kiyoomi nods. “Doctor Yosano is waiting for you. Come in.”

The two enter the clinic and the female doctor greets Kia first, then Kiyoomi. They get seated and he hands the booklet to her. At the corner of his eyes, he sees Kia getting anxious. The fear in Kia’s eyes saddens Kiyoomi for reasons he can’t explain.

“Wanna sit on my lap?” He asks her and she nods. She settles on his lap, facing outwards.

“She has to take 3 vaccines today,” Doctor Yosano as she scans through Kia’s booklet. “She has missed one last month.”

“Thwee?” Kia mutters, looking at the doctor in fear. Kiyoomi feels trembling so he wraps an arm around her instinctively. He didn’t even think about it.

Dr. Yosano takes three syringes and needles, and three small bottles of vaccine out of her drawer. Kia stares at the needles, her trembling not easing. “Can I get a flut shot, first?” Kiyoomi speaks. The doctor nods and assembles the first shot.

Kiyoomi rolls his sleeve up, Kia looking up at him in awe and confusion. As soon as the needle gets in Kiyoomi’s skin, Kia stops trembling. Kiyoomi finishes and he pats Kia’s head. “It doesn’t hurt.”

“It doesn’t?” Kia asks and Kiyoomi shakes his head softly. She stares Doctor Yosano and reacher her arm out to her. Kiyoomi covers her eyes with his hand, then presses her head closer to his chest. The needle finally pricks into her arm and she starts crying.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Doctor Yosano says repeatedly as she puts a cotton and plaster over the area she injected in. “Now the other arm.”

Kiyoomi turns Kia so her left arm is facing the doctor. Kia’s face is buried on his chest as she cries in pain and fear. Kiyoomi caresses the back of her head, hoping it can minimize the pain.

He isn’t aware of what he’s doing. A switch in his body turned on and he went protect Kia mode. He wants Kia to be fully vaccinated and away from any disease but her cries are hurting him too.

After the second vaccine, Kia’s cry starts to get louder. She wraps an arm around Kiyoomi’s neck and cries on his shoulder. He looks at Doctor Yosano and she is smiling at them. “Kia, look at me.”

Kia looks at Kiyoomi and he smiles at her reassuringly. She stops crying as she sees his smile. He wipes the tears on her cheeks away and tucks the strands of hair on her face on the back of her ears. “One last shot and we will go home. We can buy ice cream on our way back.”

That trick always worked when he was a child. Ice cream. Ice cream can quiet any child.

Kia stares at his face, her hands on his cheeks. “Ice cweam?” Kiyoomi nods and Kia willingly went to Doctor Yosano for her third shot. She doesn’t cry this time. After getting her shot, she goes back to Kiyoomi’s lap and proudly shows her injected leg.

“You did good, Kia,” Kiyoomi compliments her, placing her back on his lap. “Thank you, doctor. If she needs to do anything else, please contact my wife.”

“I will, Mr. Sakusa.”

He pays for the fees and leaves the clinic with Kia still in his arms. She has fallen asleep on his shoulder and he can’t wake her after what she’s been through. He stops on his tracks after he realizes what he had said.

‘Did I just call (y/n) my wife?’

————

One last night without you. After this night, you will be here. He will have less Kia problems and he can finally focus back on his practice.

“Can you tell me a bed time story?” Kia asks Kiyoomi as she tucks herself in bed. Kiyoomi looks her at before turning off the lights in her room. She sees this as a sign of rejection and covers her body to sleep.

Kia feels the other side of the bed dip and her face is enlightened with excitement. Kiyoomi takes a deep breath in before starting to speak.

“Once upon a time,” he starts and Kia is looking up at him in anticipation. “There was a prince who lived alone in a tall tower.”

“Kyo, is the prince tall?” Kia randomly questions. Sakusa looks down at her and raises an eyebrow. “Mama said that the prince has to be tall for the princess to be in love with him.”

“Your mother told you that?” Kia nods and moves closer to Kiyoomi. ‘Did she only date me in high school because I was tall?’ He doesn’t mind it and continues the story. “Anyway... One day the prince meets a clumsy princess.”

“Mama said the princess is beautiful,” Kia stops him again and he humms.

“Yes. The princess is very beautiful,” Kiyoomi agrees, imagining your face in his mind. He continues the story of how the princess and prince fell in love with each other, and midway, he hears soft snores on his chest.

He checks and Kia is sleeping soundly on his chest. He places a hand on the back of her hand, petting her.

Suddenly, he remembers Kia calling Atsumu papa. There is a tug in his chest again that he can’t explain.

Facts:

Kia is scared of doctors, not injections.

It was Kia’s first time eating ice cream and chocolate. She didn’t like the ice cream because it got sticky when it melted.

The flu shot Sakusa got was his second flu shot of the year. He’s worried it might affect his health.

Note: Is the taglist working? I’m new to posting so I don’t know how it works hehehe and I would love to interact with you so feel free to comment or send asks

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Taglist:  @elianetsantana aoi-turtle ptv-hades  aquzairus a-applepi  justoneofthefangirls arianna-r13 morenabambinii chaelysian loser-keiji mxngy ne-kuroo n1fangirlsblog d-efend missalicebaskerville marvelousbakugou

[aeempress]

Apritello Express Evidences, part 1

Greetings, Apritello enthusiasts and attention! Here comes a loong post is written by totally nerd. You've been warned. Here we go.

The thing is that Apritello is a double-edged sword. The series shows us established friendship of these two, give us a lot of content with them. We can see development of relationship through interaction between the characters, their reaction about the situations they are put in. We can sense their synergy and bound through the show.

Donnie and April have incredible chemistry, and both options, brotp and otp seems fine to me.

But let me tell you why I ship them.

Apritello is the kind of pairings, which consists of small details, hints, that's hidden, but if you're sharp and attentive one, you will notice that. Apritello has a strong foundation: the best friends trope.

And from the very beginning, it works as planned.

When I start watching show, I could say that April and Donnie are best friends. It is worth noting that April is like an older sister to the other brothers, more of a sisterly figure than a friend, but with Donnie she behaves somewhat differently, namely, as best friend. Obviously, she sets him apart from his brothers, although girl tries to pay attention to all of them equally. And Donnie behaves as well.

Dee's battle shell designs for April needs as well as his. His shell transform into comfy spot for taking ride for April. Special and only for her. Because his bros are not supposed to use it (at least, he carries no one on his back), Donnie carries them by his techno-bó or his limbs.

This tiny detail shows his special treatment to her. April is a very, very special occasion to D. Don does care about her comfort, he accept the way she is. Donatello does not try to prevent her from participating in their affairs because he respects her decisions and is pleased that April can be shoulder to shoulder with him.

D is glad to be at her service.

Yeah, Dee's still playing cool, he has image to perform as tough and coolheaded guy. So Don doesn't show his intentions, interest and feeling to other people (he's tryin', but fails). Because his actions matter. They are always small, hidden, but meaningful.

April, in return, trusts Dee and depends on his tech, even knowing what his inventions are the opposite of success (usually).

Go on. Look at Donnie's facial expressions and body language when April is near.

Donnie seems more relaxed when she's around, happier. His emotional response is always different from his brothers ones.

Oh, and look, he wanted to be first to give her a high three.

They worry about each other. Look at Don. He does worry about her way more than his brothers. Yeah, they all want to protect her, but Donnie is more expressive.

Mayham has no particular sympathy for the brothers: he is afraid of Raph and behaves aggressively, he is indifferent to Leo and Mikey. Mayham immediately takes a liking to April. And then the details come back: he let Donnie touch his neck. The most vulnerable place for any living creation, for a second. Let him to study an important vial without any hesitation. Mayham depends on April trust for Donnie. When everything goes wrong for Don, the little doggie comes to his rescue, just as April would have done. Is the hint transparent enough?

We can see links with "A mystic library", wherе Donnie begins to look for solutions to save April's pet. Yes, this may seem like his next leap, "sit down, I'm smart, and now I'll solve all the problems, watch and learn," but Don says one phrase that opens up the veil of the second plan, what happens behind the scenes. "My illiteral colleagues and I was conducting a mustic research, with a life of the beloved pet, hanging in a bounce".

Strange wording, Donatello. Beloved pet? Not yours, as we can see. I can say, that everything in this sentence is true, but Donnie and Mayham has something more.

Continue. Next episode "Origami tsunami". Interactions are kept to a minimum, as April herself appears for a maximum of 5 minutes in the series itself. But devil is always in the details, dear friends.

When April was attacked and hung up, the only one who excitedly called out to her was Donny. Raph is furious that the thieves have escaped, Leo is frustrated that their plan has failed, and Mikey is worried about the salami.

Yeah, we didn't see his worries about her when she fell, because Donnie is on the mission and must be coolheaded turtle, and second, he's calm because now April life is safe and sound, out of the danger.

Dear passangers, Apritello Express arrives to the next station - episode "War and Pizza".

Bare facts:

1. April has Donnie's number on an emergency call.

2. "Anything for you"

3. Donnie is the reason why Alberto knows April's name.

No one calles April by her name (except for Donnie, while phone call, but Alberto wasn't nearby) it was "Captain O'Neil" by her chief, her badge seems blank. And yeah, you can say, that's just economy of budget, but I assure you: in the first episode we were shown the name of the delivery guy. The animators were not lazy bones and wrore "Stewart" on his badge. So if something isn't there, then it either shouldn't be there, or it really isn't, that's how this show works.

So, the reason explained in the episode. When Al has short circuit, parts of its new code flashed through its mind.

Info about April was in its memory, in its code. Alberto was a lame animatronic, and it seems somewhat outdated. I do really doubt about Alberto is being something smartass machine with complicated AI like Freddy's Pizza's ones. Quite questionable. Donatello fix Al's brain and wrote code, synchronize with his remote control. He put information about Cap O'Neil into animatronic's head. All this pictures are kind of massage: "You was created for birthday celebrations. You are machine, and there concepts of "life" and "birth". Do great party for this birthday kid and April won't be like this". Or, something like that.

So Alberto did - do a memorable party. And he do what his creator programmed him to do, but in his way.

4. In other words, Alberto was a tool to impress April. Don flaunts himself in front of her, stating how he did the upgrade while doing the upgrade, even though April is fully aware of his tech wizard. And his abilities supposed to help Cap O'Neil to finish the birthday party, so she will stay at her job, not fired. All thanks to Donnie and his upgrade Alberto. (Or not)

By the way, Donnie was the last to leave April in ruined "Alberto's". And it's not an isolated case, it is a pattern.

5. They understand each other without words.

First, Donny came at her at the speed of light. Second, she hadn't even finished speaking before Dee was taking Al apart. Third, their chaotic, well-coordinated work? Donnie was a distraction (although he wanted to just take a break from the battle or let Alberto's guard down, while April just knocked him out). Donnie and April are great team, and sometimes the DonniexApril team is much more precise, coordinated, and interdependent than the DonniexBrothers one.

D&A feel each other and anticipate each other's actions, their skills complement each other, creating an incredible synergy of their interaction. They act as a whole, while it's not always possible with his brothers, even though they're family and know each other the way more Donnie know April. And Dee hasn't trained with cap O'Neil.

Donatello didn't show his crush for April. No puppy, loving eyes, no lovey-dovey speeches, no planning schemes (at least, the audience don't see one) . He just want her attention, but stays cool and hidden. D is already her BFF, but still.

The same thing is claimed in 5B episode - Mascot Melee. Donnie has no problems with interaction with idol of his childhood - Atomic Lass. She'd put Leo in a stupor, but Donnie? He playfully challenges her to a dance duel. Yes, he adores this character, who may have become his measure of the attractiveness of others to Donatello, determined his type. But still, he's playing all cool and confident guy, he's really smooth with girls, so you will never see a puppy loving eyes from him. Only two things can betray him at this point: his voice and his body language. Remember, how's soft his voice became for Atomic Lass? Now I want you to remember the scene before, in turtle tank, when April sent guys a meme.

D is the first to respond to the message, despite the fact that Mikey is sitting closest to the screen. And the responding is a little too emotional for this situation, don't you think?

And this face of his. And he comments it. He likes her sense of humour.

The only difference between April and Atomic Lass is that the first one is a real girl who is a friend of their family, practically a member of it; and the other one is just a fictional character. It is easier to say about love for a fictional character, because it brings less problems for a teenager, especially when he is living with three brothers and a father who likes to tease as well. Donatello needs to be careful and outline the area of emotions he could show, so that he does not get hurt.

Now, dear passangers, we are returning to the previous episode, shall we?

Donnie presents to his brothers his precious Turtle tank, but she's gone, and it's really necessary to find out, who has taken her. And the first person to suspect is April.

Something is odd, don't you think? Yeah, Raphael has taken tyre for their "Midnight special", Leo claimed that Donnie's stuff is common, but they are D's beothers. It's natural for family to borrow(stole) stuff of each other. But this trend was not observed in April. She would never steal anything from Donnie, much less steal anything from him.

Actually, there is a good, logical and solid explanation here. April was number 1 in Donatello' suspect list, because he simply told her about Turtle tank. His brothers didn't know he were working at Moon buggy, except Mikey (Orange helps Dee get the vehicle from Repomantis), but they didn't know what exactly Donnie was working for. They didn't know he build the Turtle tank, he kept it a secret, to surprise his brothers. But April knew.

- Alright you! Where's our turtle tank?

- Hi, DONNIE. You have 9 seconds to say, why are you just broke my door.

- Someone's stole Donnie's turtle tank.

- Haha-ow, I see. As your best friend, you naturally suspect me.

- She gets it!

- Oh-ho, don't give me that! You're the only one could taken it!

The only one, because she knew about it.

As Splints said in this episode - "April is not a snitch"

Donatello does trust April and share with her both, sorrows and joys. But we are not shown this directly. We do not see the action itself, we do not see their calls and conversations on the phone late at night, we only see the consequence. We have no choice and take it as a given.

And the way she cooled him down? Fast, efficient, and Donnie seems to used to it. Moreover, she slapped everyone, but still, she throw Don out of window the last. However, why such a large time delay between him, being slapped and him, was throwing out of the window?

And my favourite scene. It was obvious that Donnie had taken the hardest hit (judging by his scream and the way he was putting his knuckles back in place). Don then claims that their inner circle is secure, Mikey tries to make amends for everyone, and April agrees, blowing them a kiss and closing the window. Cute and mean, isn't it? (You're cute! but mean! why do I always go for your type?! - ep. War and Pizza)

Nota bene: Donnie wouldn't apologize to April. Tough, not caring badass boy image, remember? Even to best friends. It's hard to him to express his feelings by using words, he cannot do it in proper way. But he has Mikey, who is so alike inner him. Michelangelo apologizes not only for himself, but for D mostly, because D starts suspected April.

Let's continue: the episode 8B: Hypno Part Deux

• Donnie put "Donnie's blocker" at April's phone to protect her.

It's common thing that your friend install some programs or apps on your device. But you will always ask your friend to do such a favour, and you will always know about what, when and where were installed on your phone.

And April didn't know Donnie had done something with her phone. It was a real surprise for her, to see blocker with "Donnie says no-no-no".

And you know, the interface of his app. The way he tell this current phrase. Donnie could put a huge banner "THE APP YOU WANT DOWNLOAD TO IS A REAL PIECE OF GARBAGE", as usual antiviruses do. But no, voice interface. It makes the app more personal and thoughtful. Because when Don made gifts for his brother, the program was voiced by a computer-generated female voice. Yes, the tank's interface is voiced by Donatello himself, but his voice sounds more like Google than the real Don. And, we talking about HIS BABEY, for a second. Bit still, the point remains.

• Also, Dale.

Dale is nerdy boy in purple, wow, how convenient for making a parallel with certain purple turtle.

But thing is, April doesn't like Dale. He's clingy, remora guy, who has a little obsession with April, even he's not harmful, still, such behaviour freaks girls (and not them only) out. Her classmate is usually tell her what April O'Neil is "his favourite person" and he loves her. There is little that is attractive about this behavior.

So, there is nothing new and unpredictable here that Dale was rejected. Because April didn't, doesn't and won't like him because of his lame personality and strange behaviour. Our girl in yellow do right thing: she clearly sets personal boundaries and does not allow any dubious personalities to invade them. So that's the reason she refuses to go on a date with him at the end. He's weird, obsessed, and she doesn't like him.

Donatello, as far as I concerned from different versions of TMNT, was always a little obsessive with some things. And, you know, putting a blocker inside your best friend's phone seems a little weird, because it's, in simple words, violation of privacy and personal space. And there are people who may regard this as stalking or sorta.

Yeah, for the most part, he gets away with it, not only because April's focus is in a different area, but also because their bond is stronger than April's with anyone else at school.

She has known him for years. Donnie is her best friend. I can't say that it's fine to her when Dee violates her personal space - her phone, but April can accept Donatello's personality in general.

And he does really have good intentions. Donnie installed this blocker, developed by himself only for one reason: to protect personal space April from fishy apps from nowhere, from being hacked and etc. Don knew her too well, how much she depends on stupid apps that will distract her. He also knew well, that he can't be with her 24/7 to fix problems with April's phone, so Dee put a part of himself to prevent any harm in the future.

And again, "Donnie's gifts"'s vibes. Donatello genuinely cared about April, because he wrote, coded, developed, designed, and dubbed it, turned on the database, and installed it all on April's phone. 'cause, you know, writing programs in general is a bit of a hassle, but writing an antivirus is much more difficult, because viruses are changing, and questionable applications are finding ways to bypass. Do you feel how much effort Dee put in for her?

But Donatello didn't mean to fix April, as he tried to do with his brothers. Purple turtle accepts this girl the way she is, and tries his best to play smoothly with April, by adjusting, not being passive aggressive jerk. It's his outstanding way to show his caring nature, soft side.

Remember, small but meaningful actions.

Maybe, Donnie also can foresee that April may be forced to download some suspicious program, but still, it work: he managed to prevent April being hypnotized, even if couldn't be physically with April at the this moment - Dee was working for Repo Mantis, building dog's paradise for Todd. That's why, by the way, Leo and Raph were dragged into this whole situation. Mayham would teleported literally anyone to help his hostess. Donnie just wasn't at the Lair at the moment.

And on this note, we'll take a break for now. Stay tuned, expect parsing of the series, there's a lot to discuss.

Part 2

Part 3

[ray-ray-writings]

Calm During the Storm-Technoblade

This is a platonic!Ranboo x Technoblade, and Philza imagine in the dreamsmp. Fair warning, I don’t think I’ve ever written something that wasn’t an x reader so I hope I do okay. 

TW: Ranboo has a panic attack

Unexpected weather strikes leaving Ranboo stranded out in the open. Techno sees him and goes to him and attempts to calm him down. 

Check out my masterlist here!

Third Person POV

If there was one thing that Philza Minecraft was good at, it was adopting kids and giving them a good home and a place to stay. Above everything, Philza has always looked out for children. Which is why it came to no one’s surprise that when the newest minor on the server felt he had nowhere to go, that Philza offered him a safe place to land. Ranboo accepted immediately, claiming that he never believed in sides but this was a side he could get behind. 

Phil had suggested that Ranboo build a separate house from the one Techno lived in, which Ranboo agreed with. So that was the plan for the day. Gather the materials to build his house and then build the house. Seemed simple enough. There was one issue though. The weather took an unexpected turn while Philza and Techno were out. 

One would think that in the tundra biome, there is no rain. There would only be snow or hail, something Ranboo could freely walk in… Nope. Somehow, someway, there was a downpour happening. It had happened so suddenly that Ranboo wasn’t prepared. He had been outside, about 40 blocks from his hole in the mountain, cutting down trees for wood when the sky released it’s downpour upon the unsuspecting boy. 

Due to the surprising nature of the rain, Ranboo had no protection. No helmet, umbrella, cape, nothing to block the liquid from splashing on him. Ranboo’s skin burned at the drops of water that landed on him. He knew that no one was home. Philza and Techno had gone adventuring for the day so he couldn’t call out to them for help. The half-enderman had no choice but to huddle close to the tree, wrapping his arms around it. 

Ranboo’s breathing began to pick up in pace as he realized that he was trapped. He was unable to teleport anywhere. His home had no roof and he couldn’t build one fast enough to where he would be unarmed in the process. The idea of maybe teleporting to his panic room to calm down and wait out the storm crossed the young boy’s mind, but quickly disappeared as he realized he was 100s of blocks away from it. Too far for Ranboo’s teleporting abilities. Purple magic began swarming the panicked young boy as black dots clouded his vision. Ranboo’s arms tightened around the tree as he began to silently cry.

Technoblade grumbled as he entered his home. The rain had spoiled his adventure with his father and caused him to get all wet, something he did not enjoy. As he began to put away many of the things he had taken on the trip, something outside the window caught his eye. A cloud of purple swarmed around a spruce tree, something that had definitely not been there when he left. Scratching his head, Techno narrowed his eyes to try and make out what was happening. A small gasp escaped his throat as he realized that Ranboo was in the middle of the cloud. “Oh no” Techno murmured to himself before grabbing a random helmet and cloak before rushing out the front door toward the purple magic and the half-enderman trapped inside it. 

Ranboo had no idea what was happening. He could barely hear frantic footsteps approach him as his panic attack fully overwhelmed his body. Ranboo could barely register that something had been placed on his head and then something else had been wrapped around his body. “Come on buddy. I’ve got you,” A deep monotone voice murmured in his ear. For a brief moment, he thought maybe it was one of the voices in his head attempting to trick him, but the sound was too external for Ranboo to believe that for long. 

The two made their way across the open field back to Techno’s house. Techno supported most of the weight of Ranboo as he almost fully leaned himself on the pig-man. The rain was soaking Techno’s skin, but that wasn’t his number one worry at the moment. Techno’s front door had remained open from when Techno left in a rush, making it very easy for Techno to get Ranboo inside. 

Techno helped Ranboo sit down on one of the lavish couches, not caring if it got wet. Ranboo’s breathing was still very erratic and Techno began to panic a little himself. He had never been good at comforting people and calming them down. Normally he was actually a catalyst, causing people to get more and more aggravated. Always poking a metaphoric stick at the bear. He had no idea how to calm someone down. “There, there” He tried, awkwardly patting the boy on the shoulder. Ranboo showed no signs of acknowledging the fact Techno was there and had said something. 

Techno glanced around quickly and was relieved to find his father had caught up and had entered the back door. “Hold tight Ranboo,” Techno muttered to the boy before rushing toward his father. “Woah, slow down bud… What’s with the rush?” Philza asked, confused as to why his son was running at him. “Ranboo’s here. He’s having a panic attack, I don’t know what to do,” Techno admitted, a little bit choked up. Philza’s face immediately turned into determination, “Where is he?” Techno wasted no time, moving out of the way and leading his father back to the panicking boy. 

Philza had no hesitations going to the young boy that was hyperventilating on the couch and kneeled in front of him. “Hey Ranboo,” Phil greeted softly, “Can I touch you?” Ranboo’s eyes flitted around, barely able to make out the outline of a body. The voice was warm and familiar. Ranboo trusted this voice. A nod let Phil know it was okay to rest his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “We need to get you to calm down. Can you take a deep breath for me? Like this?” Philza took a slow deep breath, trying to get Ranboo to mimic him. Ranboo did in fact take a deep breath, not as deep as Phil’s but it was progress. “And out like this,” Philza slowly released the air from his lungs causing Ranboo to do the same. 

Techno watched as the two just took slow and deep breaths together. The purple magic slowly faded from around Ranboo’s body as the half-enderman calmed down. “Good, that’s really good,” Philza complimented as the shakiness left Ranboo’s breath. The black spots faded from Ranboo’s vision allowing him to see that he was no longer outside but rather in Techno’s own home. His heart hammered a little at the sight of the pink-haired man over Philza’s shoulder, but it calmed after Ranboo realized that Techno didn’t look upset. No the half pig looked rather worried for the half enderman. 

“Sorry… Sorry for that.” Ranboo breathed out, not really sure who he was apologizing too. “No. No kiddo, there’s nothing to be sorry for. You’ve done nothing wrong,” Phil comforted with a warm hand on the boy’s shoulder. Ranboo looked at the couch and noticed that the color was darker where he was sitting compared to the couch cushion next to him. “I got the couch wet,” Ranboo whimpered, looking over at Techno to gauge the man’s reaction. Techno simply shrugged, “It will dry… Are you okay?” Ranboo was a little taken back. The Blood God himself was asking how he was doing? Ranboo cleared his throat, “Oh. Um. I’m alright… Thank you. For saving me out there.” Techno only shrugged once more. “I couldn’t leave you like that.” 

Phil stood from his kneel, removing his hand from the boy’s shoulder. “I’m going to go get you some dry clothes okay?” Ranboo nodded at the older man’s words. Philza gave Ranboo a warm smile before leaving the living room. 

It was silent between the two halflings for a moment. As Ranboo took in his surroundings, he noticed there was something on his head and around his shoulders. Things that were definitely not there this morning. A shy hand came to his head and he pulled off the helmet. It was an Enchanted Turtle Shell helmet. Ranboo’s eyes flitted from the helmet to his shoulders where he found a red cape draped across him. He quickly stood from the couch and offered both things back to Techno. “Thank you so much for letting me borrow these. Here, you can have them back.” 

Techno made no move to take them. “Nah, it’s alright. You can have them. I don’t need them. I have this new cape that I made. And I made that helmet for…. For someone that betrayed me… So they can be yours now.” Deciding not to question it any further, Ranboo brought the items close to his chest. “Thank you. That’s very nice of you. I’ll cherish them forever,” Ranboo babbled as he placed the items back on his person. 

A slight glow made its way onto Techno’s face. “It’s whatever,” The pink haired man shrugged once more, trying to make it seem like he didn’t care. It wasn’t very effective. Ranboo smiled shyly as the cape settled on his shoulders once more, “I feel so powerful. Like I could do anything,” The half enderman admitted. Techno’s face broke into a grin as he chuckled, “Yeah, cool capes tend to have that effect on you. You always have had the ability to do anything, but now you believe it and that is magical.” 

There conversation ended once Philza came back into the room with a stack of clothes. “Here you go Ranboo, the bathroom’s just down the hall, first door on the right. Go get dried off and changed and then we can hang out until the rain stops.” Ranboo gave the man a dutiful nod before bouncing down the hallway and into the bathroom. 

Philza and Techno let out a sigh of relief when the door closed. “I really like that kid,” Philza admitted to his son, causing Techno to nod in agreement. “Yeah, he’s alright… Say Dadza, would you be willing to teach me how to calm someone down like you did… Ya know… Just in case.” A bright grin appeared on Philza’s face as he wrapped a loving arm around Techno’s shoulder. “Of course I will, son. Of course I will.” 

There you go! I really hope I did bat anon’s vision justice and you enjoyed it! If you did enjoy it, please be sure to leave a like!

[aerial-jace]

Figuring out cat ages: The Followers of the Sun Trail

So, y’all remember that fic concept I threw out? Yeah, I decided I want to actually write it. But first, I need to figure out some cat ages because if we’re touching on the kithoods of Clear Sky and Gray Wing I need to have some sense of who are their peers and who are their seniors. I’m deciding to throw it out to the internet just in case anyone has thoughts of their own or can smack me with some textual evidence of why I’m wrong. Also, it’s just fun to map out cat ages and relationships, I’m having way more fun than I’ve ever had with this kind of prepwork for some reason.

For reference, let me throw some useful pages from the Warriors wiki: here’s the allegiances for The Sun Trail, and here’s a timeline of events of the whole series. I’m cross-referencing these with my own copies of the DotC books in case anything sounds fishy but by and large I trust the wiki.

For this particular post, I want to trace mostly the ages of the Followers of the Sun Trail, that is to say: Shaded Moss, Rainswept Flower, Tall Shadow, Moon Shadow, Cloud Spots, Dappled Pelt, Turtle Tail, Shattered Ice, Quick Water, Bright Stream, Hawk Swoop, Jackdaw’s Cry, Falling Feather, Clear Sky, Gray Wing, and Jagged Peak. Other than our protagonists we have very little evidence of any of their ages, but I like to think the group skews young adult which for the sake of these being cats I’m defining as around 1 to 2.5 years old. There are certainly older adults as well as younger members of the group, but the vast majority of ages will be in this range.

Future posts will touch on the ages of the rest of The Tribe of Rushing Water at this point in time as well as any parental relationships for cats who would’ve been kits within the timeframe of the story. I’m just going to say it up front, I’m going to just ignore fathers when figuring out families (aside from the one canonical father given I guess) because it’s less of a headache and I like the idea of queens just not being required to disclose parentage.

First off, our protagonists and their siblings!

Gray Wing and Clear Sky are noted to have been kits just last sunny season which the wiki interprets as them having been born in Greenleaf. I don’t particularly like this because that means that at maximum the two are about 8 moons old which... I don’t know it seems kinda young for them. I think a more sensible solution is to have them be around 12 moons/1 year old (we’re rounding down the 12.34 lunations a year for simplicity’s sake). I think it’s pretty reasonable for the journey down the mountains to have taken approximately one moon, with Newleaf just starting by the time they arrive. If Gray Wing and Clear Sky were born within the last moon of Leafbare, that would mean they are under 6 moons old (what the series takes as a benchmark of the transition out of kithood, though that may be a later cultural thing for the clans) for 2 out of the 3 moons of Greenleaf (again, working with simpler whole numbers) and I think that fits.

Now Jagged Peak and Fluttering bird are noted to have been born in the cold season which the wiki interprets as Leafbare and, yeah, no argument there. However, noting the fact that I take the journey to take the last moon of Leafbare, that would make the two a whole 2 MOONS OLD! Holy shit, Jagged Peak is a fucking infant by the start of the journey, just barely having been fully weaned! It’s honestly crazy how Quiet Rain just kind of accepted the fact he was gone and just sent out her son as the only means of protection. I would’ve been going feral in her place trying to get back my child!

Ahem, so that small freakout aside, I wanna talk about Shaded Moss, the leader of the group, next. However, he has a daughter, Rainswept Flower, and I can use her age as a benchmark for determining her father’s age. I like to think, for no particular reason, that she is 1.5 years old and just for the sake of making the numbers look nice I think I’m assigning Shaded Moss an age of 3 years old. That sounds about right.

Talking about the adults of the group, Cloud Spots! I want him to be somewhat older than Shaded Moss, perhaps by a year or two, so that sets our age range at about 4 to 5 years old. Considering the timeline says that the events of Dawn of the Clans take place over about 4 years (though for some reason the Shadowstar’s Life novella is still not included in the timeline and that seems to take place after the last events listed in the DotC era), I think it’s believable that he lived that long and is headed for retirement just as soon as he finishes mentoring his apprentice, Shivering Rose, who appeared in Thunderstar’s Echo.

So, for family relationships we have 2 sibling pairs which I believe while not explicitly stated are meant to be read as being littermates: Tall Shadow & Moon Shadow, and Jackdaw’s Cry & Falling Feather. Considering Tall Shadow is Shaded Moss’s second in command I like to think she’s closer to him in age so perhaps we can go with that upper limit of what I’m counting as young adult and have her and her brother at 2.5 years old. Now, for Jackdaw’s Cry & Falling Feather the best evidence we have is that the allegiances describe them as “young”. This is like... really vague and the fact there is a need to mention it implies to me they’re the youngest in the group, baring Jagged Peak. I think the most interesting choice would be to have them be a season younger than Clear Sky and Gray Wing, putting them at 9 moons old.

Now let’s talk about the love interests, Bright Stream and Turtle Tail! I want them to be older than our protagonists but still young enough that they would’ve spent a significant amount of time together as kits. I want to have them somewhere within the 13-15 moons old range just for the sake of having them be older than Clear Sky and Gray Wing but not by much, not really settled on a particular age. I also like the possibility of Turtle Tail being Dappled Pelt’s littermate so I’ll have her at 13-15 moons old too. We'll see if they remain sisters once I start having to figure out mothers for all the kits that will be running around when the story begins with Gray Wing and Clear Sky’s birth.

And last of the Followers of the Sun Trail I actually have any strong opinions on age about, Hawk Swoop, Jackdaw’s Cry’s mate. I think the best would be to have her be around the same age as Clear Sky and Gray Wing for the same reason I settled on Bright Stream and Turtle Tail’s age, plus the fact she’s not described as young. So she’s going to be at 12 moons old. I don’t think this is a particularly problematic age gap since there’s a whole 2 seasons in between them setting out for the journey and having Acorn Fur and Lightning Tail, time by which they are both within my somewhat arbitrarily designated category of young adult cats. So, yeah.

And to get them out of the way, Shattered Ice and Quick Water. I’ll just throw out the number 21 moons/1.75 years old. I think this range of ages within the spectrum was a bit empty so I’m just plopping them there.

[djinmer4]

Matchmaking for the Greater Evil (4/4)

Jiang Cheng waited four months, two AWOL Cultivation Conferences, one missed visit, and entirely too many unanswered letters before he hopped on Sandu and flew to Qinghe.  Truly, it was a remarkable exercise in patience.  He sent no letter and brought no retinue but even so, the Nie retainers let him in without even an aside glance, directing him to the usual location and letting him navigate the familiar halls sans a single guard.  The same way the Jiang retainers would allow Huaisang to wander Lotus Pier alone.

He paused at the door to Huaisang’s office, the familiar rush of pride filling him.  He was pretty much the only person outside of the Unclean Realm who even knew that Huaisang had an office and that he even used it for its intended purpose.  Unfortunately, the tide of positive emotion ebbed away.  Wanyin had seen, had been allowed to see more than others but it still hadn’t been enough.  Pride souring into the usual feelings of failure, he kicked the door open and shouted, “Just because he was a rat, doesn’t mean you have to turn into a turtle!”

Fuck, that wasn’t how he had meant to start this conversation!  Jiang Cheng felt the heat rush to his face and was sure he was as red as a brick.

Huaisang looked up, dark eyes wide and face slack with confusion.  After a second, he waved his fan to the cushion in front of his desk.  Jiang Cheng gladly slumped to his knees, trying to reorganize his thoughts.  His friend waited patiently while Wanyin tried to remember the speech he had prepared earlier.  Giving up, he at least tried to remember the one he had given his nephew.  “What I meant to say was, it’s okay if you’re mourning him.  He was a bastard-”  Huaisang narrowed his eyes, and he backtracked.  “He was a treacherous snake, but you were friends once.  Even after he killed your brother, he still cared for you.  It’s alright to miss that.”

“I don’t miss him.”

“Are you sure about that?  You did the exact same thing after Mingjue died, holing up in Qinghe and not seeing anyone.”

 “I don’t miss him.  I may have missed Meng Yao a bit, but I don’t miss Jin Guangyao.  And I finished my mourning for Meng Yao a long time ago.”  The older man put down his brush and resumed fanning himself lazily.  “You know, this isn’t how I anticipated this conversation going.”

“What did you expect then?”

He lifted the fan in front of his face, only letting his eyes show above the blades.  “More screaming?”

Jiang Cheng snorted.  “I did most of my screaming in my letters.”

“So I read.  But perhaps you have questions?”

Satisfied that the other wasn’t going to seclude himself any longer, Wanyin relaxed and shifted so that he could sprawl out in front of Sect Leader Nie’s desk.  “I’m not an idiot.  I may not be as smart as you or Wei Wuxian but I heard enough to put things together without needing to have it spelled out.”

The fan lowered and a smile drifted across the other’s face.  “What about Lan Wangji?”

“I’m absolutely smarter than him,” he scoffed.  “I knew that Wei Wuxian was back almost immediately.”

“Of course, of course, forgive my doubt.  But really, not even one question?  What about . . . “ Huaisang’s eyes drifted above their heads to a corner of the room.  “Jin Rulan?”

“I’m pretty sure if you had intended to kill my nephew he’d already be dead by now and I’d be at war with someone else.  Possibly Jin Guangyao.”

Huaisang’s nose wrinkled adorably as he frowned.  “That’s true.  Jin Ling wasn’t even supposed to be there, but no matter what happened he inevitably showed up and you almost always followed.  I felt like tearing my hair out trying to compensate for the two of you.”  He glanced up.  “Wei Wuxian?”

“As if you were going to resurrect a different demonic cultivator to be your investigator.  Wei Wuxian’s a walking force of chaos and your friend, it only makes sense you’d want his help in uncovering the Chief Cultivator’s crimes.”

“I’m not so sure we’re still friends,” he said under his breath.  “Mo Xuanyu?”

“I didn’t remember Mo Xuanyu even existed until Jin Ling reminded me on Dafan Mountain so why the fuck would I care about him?”

“You’re so mean, Jiang-xiong.  Still,” he snapped his fan shut.  “If you’re not here to yell about my underhanded methods or to ask questions, why did you come?”

“Now you really are being an idiot.  I’m here to support you.”

For a few moments, there was silence, broken only by the birds twittering in the garden behind the office.  When Huaisang resumed speaking, his voice was very soft.  “I always knew you had a soft spot for me.”

“Don't act like you haven’t known for years that I’ve been in love with you.”

“I knew.  I expected you to give up a long time ago.  Never did figure out why you never moved on.”

“I thought . . . I knew you had to have a reason for acting the way you did.  You were too smart not to realize what was going on.  If you didn’t want anything to do with me in that way, I was sure you would have just rejected me outright.  But the fact you never pushed me away beyond those first few years after your brother died made me think that you had a reason you couldn’t say yes.  I was certain of that after you gave me that cloak.”  Jiang Cheng shrugged.  “Admittedly, I didn’t think ten-year revenge murder plot was it, but in hindsight it now makes sense.”

“I knew that cloak was a mistake,” he muttered to himself.  “So what did you think I was waiting for all those years?”

“I thought you were waiting to get married.”

Huaisang gaped at him.  “Wait, what?  You thought I was waiting to get married to accept your courting offers?  Please tell me how that works because that explanation is completely ridiculous.”

“It’s a reasonable conclusion!  We both know you care about your sect more than your reputation suggests and you don’t have an heir yet.  It makes sense that you’d want to focus on getting one before allowing yourself to follow your heart.  It’s what I tried to do after all.”

“So you mean . . . the blacklisting wasn’t on purpose?”

“Why the fuck would you think I did that on purpose?”

“No reason at all!”  He fidgeted with his brush a little then put it back again.  “In any case, I do in fact have an heir already.”

Jiang Cheng frowned.  “Who?  I’d know if you had any children.”

“Not a child.  Nie Zhenzheng, my second-in-command.  Also my cousin.  He’s got three kids already.”

“Isn’t he the one who’s always harping on you to get married?”

“Yes, that one.  He says he went from being a comfortable fourth in line with two healthy cousins and an older brother who were all capable of having children, to second with only a cut-sleeve between him and the throne.  He’s rather desperate to get more buffers between him and the position of Sect Leader, but that’s part of the reason I trust him as second-in-command.”

Wanyin nodded.  It was pretty clear why Huaisang would prefer an heir and vice who wasn’t ambitious but still competent.  “So do you have any other grand, overarching plans that need to be accomplished?”  He reached out to take the older man’s free hand.

“Not . . . really?  I’ve got ideas about how to deal with the Nie Sect’s qi deviation problem that I’m planning on focusing on.  I always knew I would need a goal to pursue after I got my revenge.”  He looked down at their intertwined hands.  “Jiang-xiong, Wanyin, are you sure about what you’re asking?”

“Why not? We like each other, neither of us is planning to get married, you’ve accomplished your goal.  Unless there’s something else I don’t know about?”

“Jiang Cheng,” Huaisang sighed but didn’t pull away.  “What do you want out of this?  There are things, there will always be things I won’t be able to give you because of our positions.  I’ll never be fully honest with you.  Even without having to hide from Jin Guangyao, there are things pertaining to the Nie sect that I will never tell you.  You’ll always come second to that.  I can’t even say I’ll never hurt you because there will probably be times when Qinghe and Yunmeng will clash.  What could I possibly give you that would not be better served elsewhere?”

“I already know all that; I’ve thought about this for years and I’m willing to deal with those things.  I’m not asking you to be completely honest with me or to put me above your sect.  I won’t be completely honest with you either, that’s just what it means when two Sect Leaders get together.  As for not harming each other . . . “ He grimaced and felt heat flood his face.  “At the last Cultivator Conference before everything went down, I called you a ‘witless coward’.  I’d be losing more face than I can stand if I took you to task over that.  I know better and you don’t care much but I know there are times when I hurt you.”

The other hummed a little in agreement.  “You do tend to let your temper get away from you.  But on the other hand, you did apologize later that evening.  You always apologize to me and you don’t even apologize to Jin Ling!”

“Yes, I’m working on that.  But as for what I want . . . A-Sang, what I want is to know more of you.  There are parts of yourself that you won’t share with anyone and there are parts of yourself that you’ll share with people who aren’t me.  But I want to be certain that I know more of you than anyone else.  But this isn’t just about me.  What do you want out of a relationship?”

Eyes wide and mouth slightly pursed like a doll, Huaisang looked so adorably confused that Jiang Cheng couldn’t resist dropping a kiss on the hand in his grasp.  “What I want . . .” he sighed but still didn’t separate their hands.  “The problem is I don’t know what I want.  I never thought about having a relationship.  I had my plan for Jin Guangyao, I had contingencies set-up for Zhenzheng in case I died in the process, and I had goals set up if I survived.  I have my sect, my birds, and my porn.  The possibility of getting a cultivation partner didn’t even occur to me.”

“Ouch, was I really so easily dismissed?”

“That’s not what I meant, just that I never allowed myself that kind of hope.  I can’t tell you what I want because it’s going to take time and a lot of reflection before I even have a clue.”

“I can wait.  Hell, I’ve waited eight years already, what’s a couple more?”

“Even if it turns out that I don’t want you?”

“Does Heaven truly bar the way?”

Huaisang’s eyes drifted and Wanyin knew by memory what he was looking at.  The books they had exchanged, the incense burner filed with the coils Jiang Cheng had sent him.  The large painting of Lotus Pier across from the bookcase and had taken the Nie Sect Leader two entire trips to finish.  The gash in the wall when Jiang Cheng had gotten drunk and had tried to demonstrate how he had taken down a demon to the other man.  The office was filled with mementos of their years of friendship.  Jiang Cheng promised himself that he would make this work.

Huaisang smiled.  It wasn’t the one he used outside of the Unclean Realm, tremulous and ingratiating.  This was warmer and more confident, his eyes seemed to glow and there was no shaking anywhere to be seen.  “No, I don’t think it does.”  And for the first time, Jiang Cheng stopped second-guessing himself and kissed that smile the way he always wanted to.

[fanfic-inator795]

Allow me to ramble for a moment:

So, it’s pretty much a fandom consensus that Splinter/Yoshi/Lou Jitsu has the best story and character arc out of all the RotTMNT characters. ...In fact, given that a lot of the other character arcs were rushed through or cut off, you could argue that Splints is the ONLY one with a fully developed arc with the exception of maaaybe Raph and April but that has to do with Nick, not the actual writing so I digress

We see him start off as a blunt and lazy father who occasionally shows a soft side, to learning that he was once a movie star and seeing how much he truly cares about his sons, to learning that the choices he made ended up being a possibly world-ended mistake and seeing him do all he can to fix it like going after the Foot himself and making more of an effort to train his sons, to finally learning the motivation behind his major choices and completely understanding why he is the way he is. It’s a really great story, and it’s a major reason why he’s one of my favorite characters as well as my favorite Splinter interpretation.

...But if there’s one thing that I really wish we could have gotten more clarity on: His time in the Battle Nexus.

Out of all the things in his backstory, this is the most vague. We don’t know how long he was in the Nexus, nor do we see very many of his battles - and the clips we do see are often glorified by Draxum or Splinter. We also see him have two reactions to the Nexus:

A) He saw it as, essentially, an extension of his stardom days. He saw the Nexus as a means of gaining glory and praise despite being trapped, trying to turn a negative into a positive, and being perfectly fine with having yokai fans who love him for his fighting skills. Examples of this are ‘Turtle-Dega Nights’, the latter half of his match with Leo in ‘Many Unhappy Returns’ (”Heh, still got it~!” + him doing a pose as the audience cheers) and ‘Hidden City’s Most Wanted’, with him being clearly touched by the mural a fan made of him.

and B) He saw it as cruel and pointless fighting, and was absolutely MISERABLE there, to the point where what was once his talent and something he was clearly proud of and enjoyed was something he wanted to turn his back against for good. Examples of this are ‘Goyles, Goyles, Goyles’, his explanation in ‘Many Unhappy Returns’, and Draxum’s claim in ‘Hidden City’s Most Wanted’ that he had become a “shell of a man” after a while despite still being a strong and talented fighter, which we saw ourselves in GGG.

Now, let me make this clear that I do NOT think this is bad writing or the show contradicting itself. Humans are complicated, and we’re allowed to have mixed feelings on things - especially when they involve trauma that has to be compartmentalized in order to survive/not have a complete breakdown.

Much like with Big Mama - who Splinter verbally acknowledges is a terrible person and knows it’s foolish to trust her, yet because of their history, how much he once loved her and how great their ‘pre-kidnapping days’ were, he can’t help but miss her/show a bit of affection towards her, being willing to save her and being unable to completely hate her - Splinter’s mixed feelings towards the Nexus makes sense. It was both a source of pride when he literally had nothing else, as well as a source of shame as the fighting continued for years and years. 

However, at the end of the day... a lot of what I just said was simply implied by the show. 

While it makes sense that it WOULD happen, we don’t really get to see Lou transition from enjoying the glory and challenge of the Nexus to seeing it as cruel and pointless. Was his spirit simply broken down after several years of nonstop fighting or was it one particularly bloody fight that triggered a change of heart? And without actually seeing that transition and only having it be implied, if you’re not thinking about it analytically/in context or simply don’t want to, it very well COULD be written off as bad or contradictory writing.

A major example of this is how many people point to GGG as being a bad or contradictory episode. I don’t agree with this take at all and, honestly, I think a lot of the backlash came from people wanting a longer history between Lou and Draxum (no judgement, I had that headcanon too) because, as far as I’m concerned, Lou agreeing to be taken makes perfect sense to me in context.

Imagine you’re in Lou’s shoes: You’ve been fighting battle after battle for at LEAST ten years if not more. You’re tired and are refusing to fight anymore, meaning you’ve pretty much resigned yourself to two fates. You either change your mind and force yourself to fight on and eventually die at the claws of a yokai, or you keep your vow of non-violence and die alone in a cell. Essentially, no matter which one you pick, your life is over and your ending isn’t exactly going to be a happy one, but at least with the latter you can die with SOME honor (hence the vow of non-violence).

But then these cute lil’ goyles come in and say, “Hey, you wanna come with us to be part of our boss’ weird, unsafe experiments?”. It’s crazy, and will most likely result in a painful death (which you’ve already accepted p much) but honestly, this is the best option - because if you’re dead or stuffed in a jar or whatever, at least you won’t have to fight anymore. It’s only after Lou meets his future sons and finds something (or four someones) that isn’t just his survival and that is worth fighting for does he get his survival instinct back. So yeah, while his nonchalance and flippant reaction to it might have seemed jarring at first, the more you think about it, the more it makes sense.

(Also, remember, while he may have played a hero in his movies, Yoshi was NEVER really a ‘hero’ in a traditional sense until he found his sons, with nearly all of his choices being made due to very human reactions and motivations/needs, none of them being selfless until it was time to save the Turtles)

HOWEVER, again because we didn’t get to see that transition from “Glory-Happy Movie Star Turned Gladiator” to “Jaded and Hollow Warrior with Nothing Left to Live For”, I can understand why some people would miss the reasoning behind the character and story changes just because they were so subtle and didn’t have a ton of time in the forefront, instead just being implied. 

BUUUUT because that shift in Lou’s character is such an important catalysis in both his backstory and the show’s story as a whole, being the thing that leads him to Draxum’s lab in the first place as well as just being another important chunk of Splinter’s character (as well as another element that kinda parallels him with Leo), it really is a shame that this transition was just kinda brushed over as “Oh yeah, being stuck in a death arena decade for a decade would probably mess a person up pretty badly, even if they did like fighting”.

Soooo yeah, tl;dr: I still LOVE Splinter’s story and how we saw his transition throughout the show from “Homer Simpson as a Rat” to “Jackie Chan with a Tragic Backstory” to a truly realized and fleshed out (but still chill, awesome and unique) Hamato Yoshi... but I really REALLY wish that the part of his backstory involving him in the Nexus got a bit more focus and was a bit more fleshed out.

(and yeahhhh, that would lead to this lighthearted show being a bit more angsty, but at the very least it would be interesting angst that has a purpose)

[tanoraqui]

Grave dirt baby... 🥺✨

me, procrastinating my actual fic? no... GRAVE DIRT BABY A-YUAN

HEY TUMBLR FUCKED UP ALL MY BULLET POINTS ON THIS THE SECOND I HIT POST BUT IT’S 4AM SO I’M LEAVING IT UP ANYWAY. STUPID GODDAMN WEBSITE.

Wei Wuxian has been in the Burial Mounds for like 2.5 months out of what he doesn’t yet know will be about 3. He’s not even sure he’s going to survive yet. But he has managed to manifest an evil sword - the evil sword - out of the aether/ambient resentful energy/an attunement set with an unwise touch in the belly of an evil turtle

and he does know that he’s not going to survive if he doesn’t get the power of the Burial Mounds under some sort of control

so he cuts his arm and with blood running down the blade, draws something adjacent to the first demon-summoning flag but as an array in the dirt. He stands in the middle and - keep in mind that he more or less hasn’t slept in 2.5 months - plunges the sword into the center, still coated in his blood, and draws in all the resentful energy of the Burial Mounds

was it supposed to go into the sword? Into himself? Into just the single 4ft diameter array area, a column of bound death? who knows, not Wei Wuxian! it’s pure gut instinct

u know what else works on gut instinct, thought? Fairy tales.

And in a fairy tale, why, clay of the earth plus iron enough for a blade plus still-warm blood to show the way...

There’s an implosion and Wei Wuxian is standing - somehow still standing - in a small crater where the array used to be, and his evil sword is plunged into the belly of a baby

He yanks it out in horrified reflex, and realizes a moment later that the baby seems unfazed by this. If there was even a wound, it closes before his eyes, and the glimpse he had showed something more bloody clay than flesh beneath the skin

the iron sword crumbles as he pulls it away, as though rusted a thousand years. the baby turns its head from the iron shavings that falls on it, but then reaches up for Wei Wuxian with a cheerfully demanding cry

he picks it up, of course. (he’d think he was hallucinating if he wasn’t absolutely and utterly aware that he’s not)

it is, as far as he can tell, with physical and spiritual resentful inspection, an absolutely normal baby

oh, except when he looks really closely. Then he can sense the neutron star–dense knot of resentful energy where a golden core might (but will definitely not have room to) form. Also, it can command the dead, and when he holds it, so can he. He’s not sure if it’s a proximity-based power share or if he’s passing his desires through the baby, but even Wei Wuxian, at about 3 months with no food save the rage of the dead and no rest save the promise of final release, has to stop investigating at some point. He has things to do!

specifically, he has Wens to kill

so instead of the iconic shot of the dark flautist in the moonlight, we get the dark, uh...man singing a very spooky lullaby to his baby in the moonlight. It is still deeply creepy. It’s a making-it-up-as-he-goes tune based on a Yunmengi lullaby that he certainly learned from neither of his foster parents, and the lyrics are along the lines of, “let them remember what they did, sweet little potato, let them remember why they’re dying”

yeah he’s been calling this child “Little Potato” for 2 weeks 

why

is that not how you name a child

sometimes when he’s more annoyed at it, he calls it “Little Radish”, or even less appetizing root vegetables

by the time he walks in, the baby is asleep in his arms and he’s not singing anymore, just letting the dead do his will. This is what Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji see. The subsequent conversation, Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu at their feet, goes like this:

LWJ: Wei Ying. You have a baby.

WWX: Oh, uh...

PLAY DUMB!

WWX: What baby?

NOT THAT DUMB!

WWX: Oh, this baby! Haha yeah. I...found it.

JC: What the fuck

WWX: Yeah, weird, right? Right near the, uh...

LWJ: They said you were in the Burial Mounds

WWX: Yyyyup. Yes that is. I found this baby by the side of the road after I walked out of the Burial Mounds.

JC, briefly too morbidly fascinated to think about either the demonic cultivation they just watched or the fact that he wants to hug his brother like he’s never wanted to hug another being in his life: What did you name it?

WWX: ....

JC, desire to hug intensifying together with exasperation: oh my god

Sometime in the next couple days - after sleeping a bit, maybe - it occurs to Wei Wuxian that his raw instincts were right and things will go very badly for little A-Yuan (his siblings insisted he name it) if anyone finds out that he’s a not-yet-walking, not-yet-talking little neuron star of resentful energy. So he takes the iron shavings that are all that remain of the Stygian Turtle Sword and forges them into a Tiger-shaped Seal. He also carves a bamboo flute, like he’d been thinking about before the whole...baby thing. He loudly proclaims both to be dark and terrible weapons

(it really is helpful. The sword was...kind of A-Yuan’s other parent, after all, in addition to their third partner, the Burial Mounds. Chenqing gives him finer control of whatever stray resentful energy he chooses to pick up, and the Stygian Seal lets him channel A-Yuan’s power at need, even when not touching him. Which is good - a battlefield is no place for a baby)

even if that baby thinks ghosts and ghouls exist to pick him up and rock him or toss him around (babies like to be tossed)

Wei Wuxian puts so many goddamn spirit-repelling charms on that child, and lets it be marked down to the paranoia of a survivor

using whatever resentful energy he picks up is generally more effective, actually. Less strong, but it quickly becomes clear that the way this works does, in fact, involve Wei Wuxian communicating his desires through A-Yuan, or at least A-Yuan has to put up with the loan of power. There’s nothing quite like abruptly losing control of a field of corpses because the baby got abruptly uncooperative with anything that wasn’t barfing

the baby does eat, for the record. As far as Wei Wuxian can tell, he doesn’t actually need to, but once WWX fed him once, when they first left the Mounds, he wanted it all the time

he still takes A-Yuan with him when he can. That is the paranoia of a survivor. A-Yuan is...

“A battlefield is no place for a baby, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says gently, as he sets out from Carp Tower after another stolen visit, another failed attempt to convince Jin Guangshan off his ass. “And you are...so busy. LanlingJin takes in orphans, you know...”

“A-Yuan...he’s my blood,” Wei Wuxian says quietly. He’s never been good at lying to his shijie

Whatwherewhenhowwho, he’d see on her face if he was looking at it. But he isn’t. It’s not shame, though, she can see (it really never is, with Wei Wuxian). Fear of disappointing her, slight resignation...but mostly acceptance. Determination. Something almost like contentment.

(When Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangj first took him back to whatever resembled a base camp - somewhere in Qinghe, probably, or maybe Lanling - he had to let a trained healer look at A-Yuan, physical and spiritual examination, and he held his breath and calculated how many people he’d have to kill to get out of here, how fast he’d have to move to not hurt his brother or any particular friends; thought, oh, he’s mine, in a way he hadn’t before - as a child, a son, not just a very strange weapon - 

“He’s quite healthy,” said the doctor, mildly surprised, bouncing A-Yuan on one knee. A-Yuan gurgled happily. “About three months old?”

the longer Wei Wuxian took to answer, the more disapproving her stare got. But that did make sense)

Then all else can be dealt with later. “You should still leave him here,” Jiang Yanli says firmly. “You need to look after yourself and A-Cheng out there. I can look after A-Yuan.”

It takes a bit under two years to win back the lost and burnt territories, scour the Wens out of every crevice, corner Wen Ruohan in his precious Nightless City and bring it tumbling down. Nobody will know the timing but A-Yuan sleeps through the final battle, smiling at dreams that would make a grown man weep in horror. Somewhere, his father is playing a lullaby

About a week later, Jiang Cheng stalks into Wei Wuxian’s bedroom, which he shares with A-Yuan. One of the first rooms rebuilt in the new Lotus Pier. A-Yuan is there, too, playing with blocks while Wei Wuxian idly drafts talismans

“A-jie said the kid is yours,” he says, crossed arms. “Like, yours-yours. When the fuck did you do that?”

(Wei Wuxian has thought about this, by now; gone over the pros and cons of every possibility, the politics and potentials and maybe even the giddy possibility of telling something like the truth)

(the guiding principle is: he has no interest in drawing on the “Stygian Tiger Seal” ever again. The Sunshot Campaign is over. His loved ones are safe, and he sees no reason why they shouldn’t all live long, happy, normal lives)

(also/though, he will burn Jin Sect, Carp Tower, and all of Lanling to the ground before the new Chief Cultivator should touch his son)

“In Caiyi,” he lies. “Right before I got kicked out. I, uh, snuck out a lot more often than you noticed.”

His brother squints at him suspiciously. But Wei Wuxian can also watch him do the math in his head and reluctantly admit that it works.

“So are you claiming him or what?” he challenges. “’Wei Yuan’? You have a courtesy name - wait, no, you are not naming that kid again. You’re going to make his courtesy name be Carrothead or something.” 

“Should I let you pick it, oh wise and noble shidi - no, shushu?!” Wei Wuxian teases, as A-Yuan gets tired of his blocks and starts climbing up him like a jungle gym

Jiang Cheng sighs like the north wind - gusting long and hard, with just the faintest chill to suggest that the skies will be weeping, soon

But...

Despite some evidence to the contrary, Wei Wuxian is generally fully aware of when he’s about to cross a line that cannot be backtracked over. So he meets Wen Qing in the city, and before going to Lanling, he nips into Lotus Pier and picks up A-Yuan

He might leave A-Yuan with Wen Qing in the city when he goes to Glamour Hall, but Qiongqi Pass happens with a toddler watching silently from Wei Wuxian’s hip. Does Wei Wuxian tell him to look away, bury his face in baba’s shirt, or does he not bother, knowing the sort of song that makes up A-Yuan’s sweet dreams?

The Wens become the second through 51st or so people who learn what A-Yuan is. Wei Wuxian briefly considers trying to hide it, but, honestly, there are dead things everywhere on the Burial Mounds, and despite his genuine efforts, he cannot convince A-Yuan that a fierce corpse is anything but the ideal patty-cake companion. (They’ll play with him for hours! It’s a two-nearly-three-year-old’s dream!)

(he doesn’t want to convince him, not really. The last thing he wants to do ever is give A-Yuan anything to be scared of)

nor could he possibly wish that A-Yuan not be...obviously hale and hearty, running rosy-cheeked and strong around these hills of death that slowly seep the energy from any humans, animals, or even sturdy root crops

“So, uh, this is actually my demon baby,” said Wei Wuxian as they all settled in

“this day has been so weird already, this might as well goddamn happen”, said the Wens collectively

“You created a living child out of dead earth, so I’m going to take that as a yes that you can bring my brother back,” said Wen Qing specifically

“...fuck. I mean, yes. I mean - fuck,” said Wei Wuxian. “I- of course I will.”

(it doesn’t work like that, though)

The 52nd person to find out what A-Yuan is is Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian very much does not tell him. They have a pleasant toy-shopping trip and lunch in town, and then the alarm talisman goes off and Wei Wuxian grabs A-Yuan and Lan Wangji tugs them both onto Bichen and when they arrive, Wen Ning is roaring. Lan Wangji knows what’s important; he takes A-Yuan so Wei Wuxian’s hands are free and he doesn’t have to worry about his son

except Wen Ning, black-eyed with rage, throws Wei Wuxian into a tree hard enough to crack a rib, and even as Lan Wangji raises Bichen, A-Yuan shouts,

“Uncle Ning, stop!”

and Wen Ning stops

(as a rule, Wei Wuxian can’t take over with himself and Chenqing anything A-Yuan is controlling, unless A-Yuan lets him, and vice versa. To eliminate variables, Wei Wuxian had made sure that any reins on Wen Ning were his (Wei Wuxian’s) alone. But in that moment, before Wen Ning came fully back to himself, his reins were swinging free - and they were back within the bounds of the Burial Mounds, where A-Yuan was always strong)

and Lan Wangji puts several pieces together at once and prays to every single god in heaven and every ancestor he’s disappointing right now that this was a miracle of love and a very cute child piercing through a fierce corpse’s mindless rampage. That he simply...hallucinated the burst of resentful energy he just felt from the child in his arms

but he’s absolutely, utterly aware that he didn’t

Wei Wuxian explains, stilted and awkward at the bottom of the hill. Challenging and terrified. Holding on to A-Yuan. 

Lan Wangji promises to keep the secret. 

Wei Wuxian takes Hanguang-jun’s word

Remember, oh, remember, that Wei Wuxian walks A-Yuan back up the hill until A-Yuan gets tired and Wei Wuxian picks him up, on their one-and-a-half–man plank bridge through the dark. Remember remember remember that before he can finish speaking that line, there is light - the clearing is lit with lanterns and secret-keepers 2 through 51, and I suppose 53 now that Wen Ning is awake, are waiting with dinner and warmth and welcome. Reader, remember this.

But then...

Aunt Qing and Uncle Ning had gone, and then, with a terrible expression on his face, so had A-Yuan’s baba. Now his baba’s anger and sadness is so strong that the weight of it makes A-Yuan cry from hundreds of miles away, and he curls into Granny’s arms and sends his baba everything he can. Will everything be okay, then? Will everyone come home; will they be able to smile again?

(oh, A-Yuan...)

(No.)

A-Yuan - Wei Yuan, Little Potato (when he’s good for baba or bad for Aunt Qing) or Little Radish (inverse); one day to be Lan Yuan, Lan Sizhui - was born in the good old fairy tale way of earth and iron and blood. It’s a hard thing for any child to lose even a single parent - in one day, in one minute, A-Yuan loses two of three, as the father of his blood burns away in hand the last shreds of Stygian iron, and promptly loses control of his own resentful energy

(the Tiger Seal does nothing like explode, in this world. It was never more than a prop - but a vital one. the benefit of proving it destroyed would be worth the loss of a parent, if only a second didn’t follow on its heels)

A-Yuan has been a dead thing (or close enough) come to life all his life, and both dead and living have been his friends and family. But he’s never felt the transition the other way: from life to death

It’s no wonder, really, that he can’t remember it afterward. No wonder that even on the land that was the last part of him, he was feverish and barely conscious when Lan Wangji stumbled, bleeding, off of Bichen, and took in his arms. No wonder that he remembered very little at all, including the dead. 

But he would be okay. Under physical and spiritual inspection, he’s a perfectly normal boy. He may not be able to form a golden core (there's something in the way), but there are...workarounds. He’ll grow up in one of the most heavily spiritually warded enclaves in the world, safe and loved as he relearns (mostly in secret) what he can do

(For the sake of this story, and A-Yuan’s survival as something close to canon, let’s say there are some truly dark things in the forbidden section of the Lan Library, that could only be used for nefarious purposes - though, I suppose we already knew that. Let’s say there are talismans that will disguise the very nature of qi, so resentful energy may appear spiritual. Let’s say, Lan Xichen becomes the 53rd to know the truth, because his brother needs help - and it’s Wei Wuxian’s child, okay? It’s just Wei Wuxian’s child, quiet and unsure rather than laughing as he always was. If you were in the inner circle of leaders of the Sunshot Campaign, you have absolutely met this child, probably held him and bounced him on one knee)

(What keeps Lan Xichen up at night isn’t the concealing amulet he helped his brother make, which Lan Yuan wears at all times around his neck. It’s the silence he keeps every time he meets Jiang Wanyin’s eyes over a diplomatic table. If anyone had the right to know Wei Yuan survived... But Sandu Sengshou killed Wei Wuxian, everyone knows that, and now he hunts demonic cultivators - what might his pride drive him to do to his nephew, if he ever learned the truth? (Selfishly, Lan Xichen know that if Lan Wangji lost A-Yuan, even just to living at Lotus Pier, Lan Xichen might lose his brother. That fear ebbs with time passing, but the the longer he hasn’t spoken, the worse it would be to do so...))

They don’t restrict Lan Yuan to the Cloud Recesses, no more than any other novice. For memory of their mother, neither of them could bear that. Jiang Cheng does eventually see him at a conference, and stops dead. Years have passed, but that is an entire goddamn nephew, right there. But - how? No, it can’t be. That’s...everyone knows Lan Wangji hated Wei Wuxian. It’s just...and someone would have told him. The Lans value propriety above all, after all.

Anything that can be done with spiritual cultivation can be done with demonic cultivation, save heal. Lan Sizhui makes up for it with an encyclopedic knowledge of undead and monsters, and a prodigal talent for Inquiry

On their first night hunt, the young juniors face ghosts. Unfortunately, this is when Lan Jingyi learns that he’s terrified of ghosts. He’s hiding behind Lan Sizhui and panic is contagious, and the senior accompanying them is in a different room of the abandoned house, and Lan Sizhui forgets that he’s holding a sword and just shouts, “Stop! Go away!” 

the ghost, of course, obeys

Lan Jingyi peeks out form behind him. “Did- did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” Lan Sizhui admits (except that he’s absolutely sure he did)

There’s another flicker of movement, just the wind blowing ashes but Jingyi whips around with wild eyes. “Can you do it again?”

[friendship. my point is, he’s a demon baby but he has family and friends who love and accept him.]

And one day, some absolute fucking morons are going to bring him back home, where he can never be anything but strong, and threaten his friends and family? And the threat is an army of his old playmates, commanded by an attempt at recreating some combination of Chenqing and the Tiger Seal? He couldn’t manage it in Yi City, but now A-Yuan, Wei Yuan, Lan Sizhui stands on earth that has never stopped being part of him, or maybe he’s never stopped being part of it. If he closed his eyes he could feel every foot on it, living and restless dead. And they’re threatening his baba - who he remembers, as the earth remembers its old partner, even though the blood is changed - and his father Hanguang-jun, and his extended family and friends?

No.

[inkedtae]

winter letter ⇾ knj, jjk.[A]

𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 ⇾ jungkook x reader (f.), namjoon x reader (f.)

𝑔𝑒𝓃𝓇𝑒/𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 ⇾ angst, pg

𝓈𝓊𝓂𝓂𝒶𝓇𝓎 ⇾ three months before your wedding, you get fragments of a letter from an old friend.

𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉 ⇾ 2.1k

𝓌𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 ⇾ a lil swearing

𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇'𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝑒 ⇾ Order up! Give it a good stir; enjoy!

⤑ le playlist

◖collab. for @bangtan-dreamland​’s drinks and drabbles event. find original request here.◗

Crystal snow coats the window pane as it trickles down from gloomy clouds. You wake to find once bare branches and dry roads, heavy and wet with layers of snow. The untreated snow trails fill you with emptiness as the world feels vacant, uninhabited. You’ve been up for hours, watching the sunrise while teacup after teacup nurses your unruly heart. With every inhale and exhale, your lungs only feel further restricted by your rib cage. Bones under flesh, mind over heart, all you feel is pain. 

The six fragments of a letter rest before you on the kitchen table. You drag your gaze away from the frost framed window and read through the paragraphs. You’ve read each horizontally ripped piece a dozen times, trying to fully process the beautifully written sentences. The sender remains anonymous, but you have a good guess on who might be the voice behind this confession. You know his handwriting, know it well enough to be able to deny the obvious possibility that, after two years of silence, the letter carries more than just simple ‘how are you doings.’ With only one more piece left, confirming his identity, you have already gathered that it’s a love letter. 

The first little piece of the letter is dated the day you met Jungkook two years ago. The suspected writer seems to have written it prior to realizing that you’ve already met someone. He seems to be more concerned with the fact that too much time has passed to stay within an arm’s length reach of each other, rather than the presence of someone else in your heart. Rereading the final sentence, you can’t deny hearing your heart whisper his name. 

I love you; I’ve loved you the moment you spilled blueberry yogurt on my white sweater and tried to convince me a bird knocked you over and made you do it.

You can’t believe he still remembers that. It’s not like you have forgotten it, but you just didn’t think he’d remember that day. It wasn’t exactly the first time you’ve met or even saw each other. It was just the first moment the two of you ever exchanged some words.

It was about three months into your first year of university. Late for your philosophers of literature class, you had rushed through the courtyard with your breakfast, a thing of blueberry yogurt, in your hands. Instead of waiting to get into class to enjoy your yogurt, you decided to open it on your way there. This wouldn’t have been such an issue if you didn’t have two books tucked under your arm and your bag falling off your shoulder. Struggling to peel off the lid while juggling so much, you pulled too hard on the flap and spilled the purple tinted yogurt all over someone’s sweater as you round the corner. 

“Shit,” he hissed as he held the hem of his sweater. 

You gasped, bringing a hand to your lips. “Fuck, I’m so sorry.”

A first glance, you didn’t really recognize him. But, as you continued to look between him and the new yogurt stain on his sweater, you started to realize who he was. He was in a couple of your classes, always happening to seat a row in front of you. His wardrobe always mirrored that of a twentieth century poet, but his answers were never that dated. His insights drove the lecture and most times you wondered why he wasn’t the one teaching the class since what he had to say seemed more reasonable and accurate than whatever the professor brought to the table. 

“It-”

“I didn’t mean to do that, I swear! It just… um… it was a bird. Yeah! This stupid bird knocked over my hand,” you lied, avoiding his gaze as you spun this grand tale of how bird are just flying rats and cannot be trusted. “But, you know what? It happened and I’m gonna fix it. I’ll clean it right now, okay? Just stay still,” you said as you dug into your bag for a tissue. You fumbled with your books under your arm and the half empty yogurt container in your hand as you rummaged your free hand around in your bag. 

“I can just-”

“Hold these!” You ordered, shoving your books into his hands. You placed the yogurt container on top of the books then turned back to your bag. “Don’t let the books touch the yogurt,” you muttered as you pulled out more books and shoved them in his hands to hold. 

He sighed, sarcastically replying, “no, because that would just be a disaster.” 

You didn't know he was being sarcastic then. You remember that all you could think in that moment was that you had to clean his cable-knit sweater. It looked so pretty and, from what you saw of his torso, it fit him all too well. It would’ve been a shame to see it ruined. 

Finally finding a tiny pack of tissues, you pulled it out and set your bag down. You tried your best to wipe it all off, but all you ended up doing was rub the yogurt into his sweater, further ruining the fabric. When you ran out of tissues, you finally took a step back to examine your process. Immediately, you noticed that you managed to spread the stain rather than fix it. 

You curled your lips in and hesitantly nodded. “Looks brand new,” you lied before tossing the tissues in the garbage beside you. Meeting his unimpressed eyes, you flashed him a nervous smile and hoped you looked sorry enough to let this all slide. 

“So let me get this straight,” he started. “Some bird happened to see you opening a pack of yogurt and decided to specifically attack you. It knocked over your hand just as you were opening it and made you spill it all over me?” 

The unamused tone of his voice gave you goosebumps. You shifted your weight from foot to foot and nervously asked, “any that’s hard to believe because…?”

His gaze flickered to a glare. You flashed him that anxious smile once more as he began handing  your books back. He took the yogurt pack and tipped it up to you. “I’m taking this as compensation.”

“I suppose that’s fair,” you sighed. “I think it’s important for you to know though that I am not in alliance with the flying rats.”

“You mean the birds?”

“Same thing,” you brushed him off. “I, for one, prefer sea animals.”

“Don’t sea animals sort of fly too since they’re not touching exactly the ground?”

You paused. Shifting your gaze, you tried to rationalize his words. He made a good point, but you were hell bent on making a better one. “Crabs don’t,” you quickly added. “I love crabs and turtles and other ground-touching sea creatures.”

“Turtles sometimes fly if we’re going with your logi-”

“We can go back and forth all day, but the point is I feel for you because I ,too, hate birds and the things they make us do.”

He sighed, narrowing his eyes on you. He licked his lip then offered the yogurt back to you. You looked between him and the food, raising a brow. “I have a class right now and my professor doesn’t allow food,” he explained. 

“But what about your compensation?”

He smirked. “You’re smart. I’m sure you can come up with a way to make it up to me.”

Accepting the yogurt back, you silently thanked him. He only nodded and pulled out a deep blue pen. Opening your Scorates book, he jotted down his name and number on the first page. “Let me know what you come up with,” he smiled. 

You twirl the engagement ring as the memory floods your mind once more. It’s been six years. He’s held onto these feelings for six years, only finally making them known to you three months before your wedding. You sent him an invitation thinking you were inviting an old friend. Now, you know you’ve reopened a chapter he has decided to close two years ago. 

The part that surprises you, however, is the fact that you don’t regret inviting him, even after knowing how he feels. It should fill you with guilt, with distress, but instead it just makes you crave his presence. 

Getting up from your seat, you make your way to the bookshelves in the living. Scouring the shelves, you find the book you’re looking for. You pull out the book on Socrates, flipping to the first page. His name and number stare back at you, and you suddenly have a hankering for blueberry yogurt. 

Two sharp knocks rap against the front door. You snap your head towards it, shutting the book. Looking down the hall to your shared room with Jungkook, you find him still fast asleep. A breath you didn’t realize you were holding escapes you. Quickly, you make your way to the door. An envelope falls from the space between the edge of the door and the frame the moment you open it.

Only your name’s scratched on it in deep blue ink. You take a quick scan up and down the hallway of the apartment, but it remains vacant, not even the wet trail of the winter weather is left behind. You pick up the letter and close the door. 

Tucking the book under your arm, you open the envelope and pull out the last fragment of the letter. His name greets you with a little heart sketched beside it. The notion almost shatters you. You shakily take your seat at the kitchen table, and slide the last piece into place, taping it with the others. 

You sit in Jungkook’s apartment, but you wear Namjoon’s sweater. You have Jungkook’s ring but yearn for Namjoon’s heart. The guilt is starting to creep up on you, prickling your spine with anxious nerves that can’t manage to keep still. 

“Did someone knock on the door?” Jungkook sleepily asks as he shuffles out of your shared room. 

Moving quicker than you ever have in your life, you fold up the taped up letter and shove it in the book. “Huh?”

Jungkook rests his hands on your shoulders, and kisses the top of your head. “Someone at the door?” he repeats, lips against your hair. 

You gulp, slowly melting into his touch. “No.”

He hums, circling around the table to enter the kitchen. “Thought I heard knocking.”

You drum your hands on the table, trying to imitate the knocks left moments ago. He nods his head, flashing you a little smirk. Getting some coffee prepared, he asks, “want some, babe.”

You shake your head and pick up the book, returning it to its place. Turning around, you find Jungkook leaning against the shelf, arms crossed over his chest. 

“Go on.”

“What?”

“Tell me what’s got you pouty.”

“I’m not pouty!”

He smirks, gaze flickering from your wide eyes to your pout. He tongues his cheek, cocking a brow as if silently asking you to try again. He could see right through you, this you know all too well. It’s the reason why you stayed as quiet as you could the moment you heard his raspy, morning voice. And it’s also the reason, you don’t lie now; well, don’t completely lie. 

“Just thinking about an old friend.”

He curls a loose strand of your hair behind your ear and pushes himself off the shelf. Wrapping his hands around your waist, he gently pulls you close. You can’t help but instantly mold into his frame, leaning your head against his firm chest. Namjoon almost slips right out of your mind, only your eyes fall back on the spine of that book. 

But, as Jungkook rests his chin atop your head, you can’t find it in you to reach out for it anymore. Your heart doesn’t yearn for anything more, anything different. The comfort and safety you feel wrapped in Jungkook’s embrace is not something you can easily replace. 

“Wanna talk about it?”

You shake your head, and inhale his scent. Your blueberry cravings disappear as your desire for strawberries takes over. Pulling back a bit, you reach up on your toes and pull Jungkook into a hug, settling your chin over his shoulder. He doesn’t think too much of the position change, making himself comfortable against you as well. 

From bone to flesh, from mind to heart, all you feel is comfort. Winter letters and missed love confessions linger but you know where your loyalties lie. The possibilities of what could’ve and might’ve will always haunt you but the centainities of the here and now are undeniable. Jeon Jungkook is where you belong. And, as you stare at the crystal snow continuing to fall, you pray that’s  where you’ll stay. 

note; please do not leave hate towards me or any other readers. please do not copy, repost, or translate any of my work without my permission. 

[aangislove]

Aang Appreciation

I feel like Aang is such an underrated character in many ways. I know Korra gets a lot of abuse in the fandom and I acknowledge and recognise that as unfair (also, yes, I understand these are fictional characters). But in some ways this is something they share. There is a lot of hate of both these characters because of their strengths and their weaknesses and I want to take some time to talk (again) about Aang and why I love and appreciate him so much.

He starts the show as a goofy, kind, fun loving 12 year old kid who has woken up after being frozen for 100 years. He is unaware of what has happened to the world and his people. He acts like a child because he is. He tries to get Katara to have more fun like a kid, because SHE is. Whether you love him or hate him you have to acknowledge that a 12 year old is still a CHILD and as a child he will make mistakes and he will have somewhat childish struggles. He is still learning and growing. And regardless of whether you think it impacted him or not he suffered a significant trauma with the loss of the other airbenders. Literally, all but one person he knew before were gone and when he finds this out he doesn’t even know that one person is still alive. It’s not just friends and the people he grew up with either. He also lost Gyatso and that man was the closest thing he had to family. I would even consider him Aang’s dad/father figure. And he was gone. He must come to terms with the fact this happened after he left. He carries around this guilt with him because of it.

I feel like that is one of the areas the show was weakest. Aang’s trauma and loss was mostly glossed over. I understand it to a degree but I think some of the Aang hate could be lessened had they developed this more, given it focus in more episodes and maybe stretched it out throughout the show. Because whether you think another character’s trauma was worse or not, this BOY lost those he grew up with, the ones who looked after him and he never really got the time to grieve because he was thrust into this position no Avatar before him had been thrust into and he was thrust into it at the youngest age of any Avatar before him (that we are aware of).

But Aang never gave up. He learned how to bend the other three elements. He might not have mastered them but he learned how to water bend, fire bend and earth bend in one summer. Was he a master? I will let you answer that. But he had a good knowledge and ability in each of these at the end of the show. THAT is something to be proud of. It shows that he wasn’t fucking around or being too childish the whole time. He wasn’t a master of every element but he was competent in them all, and for such a short amount of time that is just incredible in my mind. He also had good control over the Avatar State. 

He made mistakes both as The Avatar and as Aang. Those mistakes are hard to hold against a 12 year old who lost so much. Yes, he was wrong, he should not have lied to Katara and Sokka about their dad. Again, I will repeat, he was in the wrong for that, but he learned from that, he grew. He didn’t do it again. Yes, he shouldn’t have kissed Katara when he did, it was wrong when she had already expressed her confused feelings. He learned from that. He showed instant regret. He didn’t try to guilt her or coerce her into accepting his kiss.

And yeah, he was almost killed in the Avatar State. But Azula took him unaware. He was doing his best but he was still learning. He wasn’t a fully fledged Avatar when that happened.

I 1000000000% do not blame him for the death of his people. He was a child. He was being sent away (or so he thought). Almost everyone was rejecting him. All he wanted was for things to go back to normal. He ran away and there are kids who run away in real life. They feel unwanted, uncared for, or there is so much going on they just need to go. Aang had his whole world turned upside down and he reacted. He was 12. His being there would not have saved a single life. If anything, he would have perished with the other airbenders and then where would the world have been? Down an entire nation.

We see Aang live by his morals and culture. It’s not easy for him. Those around him do not share the same ways of life he grew up with.They eat meat, they weren’t brought up with the pacifist way of life. His vegetarianism is questioned and made fun of at times. He is pressured to do something that goes against everything he believes in (more on this in a bit) and he doesn’t. But no matter what people say to him, no matter how many jokes are made at the expense of what he believes, he never ever turns around and does the same. He doesn’t judge his friends for eating meat. He never tries to stop them. He never pushes his vegetarianism on anyone and contrary to what others think, he never tried to push his belief of not being violent onto people either.

He encouraged Katara to reconsider. He gave his point on it. But he did not physically try to stop or shame her. He gave his blessing for them to take Appa. This, after they tried to take Appa behind Aang’s back, this after he already lost Appa once. He wasn’t angry. He didn’t hold it against them. In fact, he showed remarkable kindness and understanding in the scene and I don’t think that is pointed out enough.

Then we have the ending. We have Aang learning how to win the war without taking a life. The one thing most people dislike. For me, it fit perfectly with the story and his arc specifically, but let’s talk about why it was a good character move for him. For the whole show we see Aang holding onto his beliefs, his way of life. We see how he’s sometimes put in positions where he has to fight, which goes against what he believes. Then we see him meet the Lion Turtle. One thing I love about this that I only realised recently is how incredible it is that he met the LT. Aang, a very spiritual person, got to go on a journey unlike any other before and he got to learn a new (to benders/avatars) element. He did so by going on a spiritual journey to help him find a solution to a problem he was having. Before getting that advice he turned to 4 of his past lives. Depending on how you look at it he did not take their advice (but reflect on this, how many of them actually said he needed to KILL Ozai?)

Roku:   “You must be decisive.”

Kyoshi:  “Only justice will bring peace.”

Kuruk:  “Aang, you must actively shape your own destiny and the destiny of the world.”

Yangchen:  “Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world.”

Notice anything? Three of the four are definitely something you can say Aang took on board. Aang was decisive, he brought Ozai to justice and brought peace to the world by doing so and he did all this in a way that shaped his own destiny but also the destiny of the world, by showing there is another way to do it. He brought a new way. A way that doesn’t continue the cycle of death previously seen in the world. He did so by keeping his spiritual needs and beliefs. He did so in a pacifistic way. He did so in a very Aang way. We saw that Aang had a very different style of fighting from other. He knew how to avoid/doge attacks. He knew how to win without hurting the other person (he had to go on the offensive at times too, I won’t argue that) but Aang at his best in some respects was when Aang was being Aang in a fight. And Aang was being Aang at the end. He followed his heart and conscience and he brought peace to the world.

He did all this in such a short space of time, after finding out about a horrific loss, without losing himself. He stayed the same imperfect, lovable, relatable (for me and I’m sure others), kind, loving and goofy person. He grew up a lot. But his core person was still very much the same because Aang was already a developed person in his own right and he knew himself in a way not many 12 year olds would know themselves, but there sure are some. The key fact is he was imperfect. That made him very real for me. He wasn’t this never fucks up, never makes a mistake, never has a bad day character. But he felt so real to me and that isn’t always true. He also showed us that boys can be soft and loving and kind and still not be absolutely perfect. We get to see a boy grow but remain a boy in the end. And we leave him when he still has more learning and growth to do, which is something really cool in my opinion.

Aang is my favourite character in the Avatar universe for all these reasons and more. He is a character I have passionately felt a connection with since I was a little girl first watching the show and I truly hope that others can learn to at least accept he’s not the bad guy or a totally unrealistic character. But even if not, and you read this, I hope you can see why others would love him.