#but again. here you go.

[kozzax]

When they were young, Leo always claimed he and Donnie were twins.

Donnie brushed him off every time.

"Go away Leo. We aren't twins," he'd say, affectionately annoyed, before returning to his books and his projects. A deterrent of sorts, a statement meant to send his brother away so that he could continue with his projects alone.

And for years, this is how it went.

And then, when they were around ten or eleven, as Leo was pestering Donnie in his lab, the mechanism that Donnie had been working on broke. Leo tried to pull the twin card, to convince Donnie to step away for a bit and hang out with his beloved brothers, and-- and Donnie had already been having a bad day. His nerves were fried. His senses were blaring at him. His shell was too thin and soft to play their games, anyways. So he did as he always did, on these days. He sent his brother away.

"We aren't twins, Leo! We aren't even the same species of turtle!! We CAN'T be real twins! Leave me ALONE!"

And for once, Leo left without an obnoxious quip. For once, Leo was silent. And Donnie turned back to his project.

When Raph barged into his room half an hour later, he was startled by the intrusion. He was even more startled by the anger.

"Donnie. What did you say to Leo."

"Go away, Raph, I'm busy!"

"Donatello. What did you say to Leo. Raph's serious."

"I don't quite understand the upset. I just told him we aren't twins, and we're different species, and to leave me alone. Nothing more than usual. Why are you mad?"

"Donnie!"

"What!!"

At this point, Donnie turned in his chair to face the doorway, giving Raph an unimpressed glare.

"Why would you say that?"

"I merely spoke with him the same way I always do! This is how we work, Raph, you know that! Now leave me alone so I can fix this piece of junk," He turned back to his work, pulling his goggles down to look closer at the wiring.

"No. Dee, you really upset him this time."

"He's fine, Raph. He's just annoyed that I'm too busy to play frivolous games with him at the moment."

"Dee, he's crying."

"Raph, you know I struggle to identify when you're lying, I would appreciate it if you didn't-"

"Raph's not lying. Mikey's with him right now. He's crying."

There was a beat of silence, as this sank in. Donnie froze in place, unmoving until Raph turned his chair around to face him once more.

"...oh. I- oh, no."

"Fix it."

He pushed his goggles away from his eyes, holding onto his arms and avoiding his brother's gaze.

"Raph, I- I'm not good with... feelings. I don't know how to fix this one."

"You broke his heart. You fix it. Apologize."

"He won't believe an apology, not if it's really that bad-"

"Fix it."

"I- okay! Okay. I'll fix it. I'll figure it out."

"Good. I'm going to do damage control. Don't follow. Leo doesn't want to talk to you right now."

For once, the lab felt too quiet.

--

The aftermath of their fight was hard for everybody in the lair. Leo refused to even look at Donnie for longer than necessary, and Donnie retreated into his lab for far more hours every day than he had ever done before.

Attempts to get the two to reconcile continually went poorly.

Splinter paired them up in a training exercise, and was met with one of their worst performances since they were barely old enough to walk.

Raph put together a Jupiter Jim marathon that neither accepted the invite to, each citing the other's presence as their reason not to come.

Mikey did his best to drag either of them to sit down with the other, putting on the Dr. Delicate Touch persona and doing everything he could.

Even April, when she came over to see the rest of the family, would only ever be met with three turtles at a time.

None of it worked.

There was something broken between the two of them, now. Something that, to the rest of their family, seemed unfixable.

A day passed, and then two, and then a week, and a month, and-- nothing.

--

And then their birthday came around. A month and a week after the fight.

Donnie snuck into Leo's room long before the rest of their family could awake, an oddly-shaped present in his arms.

"'Nardo, wake up. I need to talk to you."

It took a moment for Leo to wake up enough to register who's voice was there, but when he did, he rolled over and pulled a pillow over the side of his head once more.

"Go away Donatello. I don't want to talk to you."

"But-- it's important. Really important."

"What, like the fact that I don't want to see your stupid face? Go away."

"Leonardo, please."

His brother turned over once more, opening his eyes and giving Donnie a glare.

"What. What could possibly be this important."

"It's our birthday."

Donnie's words were quiet and stilted, practiced several times over until they were just right. Before his brother could turn back around, he gestured towards the large item next to him.

"I made us a gift. Happy birthday us."

"We don't have to share a birthday anymore, since we're not twins--"

"Happy birthday us."

And when Donnie unwrapped his gift-- nothing really made much more sense, despite his wishes. It was an oddly-shaped piece of tech, rounded and almost as big as he was, with straps connecting to the edges.

"What is that. How is that worth waking me up, when I don't even want to see you right now?"

It wasn't until Donnie turned it over that the gift began to make more sense. It was a faint blue-ish green, with three lighter circles running down its back in somewhat shaky paint. A mirror of Leo's shell.

Confusion spread across Leo's face as Donnie secured the shell on his own back, before looking up at Leo again.

"Now we're the same. We're real twins, 'cause we have the same shell, see? We're-- we're real twins, Leo."

There was a beat of silence, as the two stared at each other in the dark of night, before Leo reached over and pulled his brother into a hug. For once, Donnie didn't't deny it.

"This doesn't fix anything. You owe me like, big time."

"I know."

"In that case-- I missed you, Donnie."

"I missed you too Nardo."

--

It took time for them to heal again. For the awkward energy that filled the lair to dissipate and return to it's usual air. But eventually, eventually, Leo and Donnie grew back into their usual banter. Sometimes, it seemed as though the experience had brought them even closer than before.

The shell he'd made to mimic his twin's would become Donnie's first ever battle shell. Every iteration afterwards, as he grew out of them over time, would grow further from its original purpose. By the time they were solidly in their teens there was little hint that it was ever meant to be an imitation of Leo's.

That first shell is kept in Leo's room, though. Sat atop a shelf, and gifted to him when Donnie grew out of it, as a reminder that the change in shells didn't mean that they weren't still twins. Real twins. No matter what science had to say about it.

[riacte]

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dog Meshi.

[gibbearish]

love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking

[coddda]

I wish we could have met in some other way.

Lawlight Week Day 2: Soulmates

If you saw me repost and re-edit this several times uh No you didn't </3

Still frames/Individual gifs:

If you know what every frame is from you get a free cookie. by the way

[krysmcscience]

Call this the Whoopsie AU (it's barely an AU)

I mean. Narinder never explicitly SAID the Lamb would stay dead... :3c He probably should have been more specific. >:3c

Part Two:

Well. The Lamb tried, but...sorry, Nari, the crown hates you now. Shouldn't have been so quick to lend it out, I guess. :D

Aaaand Part Three:

'Isn't he just adorable?' -The Lamb, probably, while their followers smile and nod and internally scream at the brand new hellcat they now have to share living space with...

Anyway, nothing says 'Dead To Me' like following a person around to loudly remind them of how dead they are to you. Right? Right. Narinder's got this all figured out. <:]

[o0kawaii0o]

Spring's Harvest!

[butyouaremymess]

LNC: Penelope Bridgerton (inspo) / [Colin version]

[hailsatanacab]

Family Dinners - dpxdc

"Holy shit, you're Bruce Wayne!" Danny gaped, jabbing a finger at the man sitting at the head of the table.

The bustling dining room goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.

"Danny, who did you think was going to be here?" Tim asks, disbelief plain in his voice and Danny feels his face flush red.

"Sorry, I, uh, I guess I just never put it together. Tim Drake-Wayne. Wayne Manor. It, uh, makes sense now." He laughs sheepishly and scrubs at his neck before slumping back down into his chair.

"Well," Tim says with an indulgent sigh, "at least I know you're not just friends with me for my connections."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I just never thought about it, I guess."

Danny sinks lower as everyone around him laughs. Come to dinner, he said, the food is the best, he said, ignore the family, he said. Danny really wishes he'd listened to Tim and just ignored them—almost as much as he's regretting accepting the offer in the first place—but... he's having dinner with Batman.

Ancients, that's so weird!

The last time he saw Batman was in the future and, suffice it to say, it was not going well. There hadn't really been time for family dinners there.

Wait. Family dinners?

He peers around the table, openly gawking at everyone as it all clicks into place.

"Everything alright, Danny? Now realising who everyone else is?" Tim asks with a roll of his eyes.

"Uh... something like that..." Danny mumbles as everyone laughs again.

From further down the table, the smallest Wayne scoffs and clicks his tongue.

"I thought you said he was smart, Drake?"

"So, you all do it, too, then?" he asks, ignoring the jibe. Danny's only a little bit jealous as he thinks of how much easier they must have it, how much easier it'd be if his family had been on his side, too. "You all work together?"

"Nah," Dick says from across the table with a brilliant grin. "Tim's the only one that works with Bruce, we all have different jobs. I'm a police officer in Bludhaven."

"Disgusting." Danny blurts out without thinking—because seriously, what kind of self-respecting vigilante would also be a police officer?—before clapping a hand over his mouth. "Sorry."

The whole table laughs again, the loudest being the blonde girl a few spaces down from Dick. Look, Danny wasn't really paying attention to names when they were all paraded in front of him. Dick only gets remembered because his name is a joke.

Come on, Danny, recover!

"That's, uh, not what I meant, though."

"Oh?" Dick asks, cocking his head slightly to the side. Is it Danny's imagination or does his smile tense slightly?

"Yeah, I mean like, you know, in costume. It must make it so much easier to have everyone together like this."

"Costume? What do you mean?"

Yeah, Danny's not imagining it, everyone tenses up at that. It's really only now that he's realising that this probably isn't how he should bring up that he knows about their... night time activities. In fact, he probably shouldn't be bringing it up at all.

"Uuhhh..." Danny looks wildly around the table as he continues making his stupid noise. Think, think, think! There must be a way out of this!

"Danny?" Tim asks, looking concerned.

"Oh, Ancients, this isn't how I wanted it to go at all," he mutters, slipping even further into his chair. He's almost on the floor now and he so, so wishes it could just swallow him up.

His real first meeting with Batman was meant to be cool! He had planned to be Phantom, maybe save them from a tight spot, prove his worth as a mysterious and powerful ally as thanks for the help Batman gave him in the future.

"Danny, what are you talking about?" Tim starts tugging on his sleeve in an attempt to pull him back up from his pit of despair.

Eventually, Danny relents and sits up straighter, hiding his face in his hands and whining all the while.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't expect him to be here and it threw me off so now I look stupid and it's so embarrassing!" he wails, flailing his arms wide. "Why wouldn't you warn me that Batman was your adopted dad, Tim? Couldn't you have let me know?"

"I'm sorry, what? Danny are you alright? There's no way Bruce can be Batman, look at him!"

"Yeah," the blonde girl laughs from the bottom of the table, "look at him! That's a wet noodle of a man! Batman can actually do things, B is incapable of pretty much everything."

"Thank you, Stephanie," Bruce sighs, massaging his forehead.

It's... Those are the first words Danny's heard Batman say since everything went down and it's enough to knock him out of his embarrassment.

It's really good to hear his voice again. Especially now, when it's strong and healthy and full of personality—even if that personality is little more than a tired father right now—far better than how it had been, at the end.

Danny sits up, back straight, and grins. He's got this. He remembers it perfectly. Some people count sheep to fall asleep, Danny repeats his mantra to be certain that he'll never forget it.

"Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon, 42, 63, 28, 1 colon 65 dash 9."

Once again, the whole table falls into silence.

"Holy shit..." breathes the other D name (Duke? Danny's pretty sure he's Signal) from opposite Stephanie. "Isn't that...?"

"The time travelling code." The littlest Wayne says stiffly. "We have met in the future?"

"That's not just the time travelling code, Dami." Dick says, looking between Danny and Bruce. "That's the family time travelling code."

Danny's grin freezes in place.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"1 colon 65 dash 9." Dick explains, still flicking between him and Bruce. "It means you've been adopted into the family and we should all treat you as such, no questions asked."

"Tell you what, I'm about to ask a question." Danny says, dumbstruck. "You just told me it was a code to identify time travellers, not anything about being adopted! What the hell, B?"

Bruce looks about as shellshocked as Danny feels.

"We must have been close," he says finally, after opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water a few times.

"No! Not that close!" Danny reels back, taking a deep breath ready to refute it all, but... "Well, I mean, you found me when I first got stuck, and you helped me get better despite being... And then we fought together against the, uh, bad guy, before he, um, he... before you couldn't."

An uncomfortable beat passes while they all pick up on what Danny tried so hard not to say.

"So, you're not from the future, then, you travelled there and came back?" Tim asks, breaking the tension and leaning forward with a glint in his eye.

"Yeah, it was a whole end of the world thing, but don't worry about it," Danny says with a hand wave, "It's all kosher now, won't ever happen."

"What did happen?"

"Seriously, don't worry about it, we cool."

"How long in the future was it?"

"About ten years? You were pretty spry for an old man, B," Danny laughs, wishing they'd get off the topic of what happened and get back to the adoption bit.

Everyone shares degrees of a cautious smile as they relax out of the shock, and Dick—whose grin is the biggest—says, "No wonder you got the family code, you're already riffing on him like one of us. How long were you there for?"

"A week, before I managed to get back to my present and stop him then."

"A week? Jeez, B, that has to set some kind of record, seriously."

"Oh!" Danny says, sitting bolt upright and blinking in surprise before pointing at Dick and bouncing in his seat. "You're Nightwing!"

"What?"

"That's exactly what Nightwing said when Batman told me the code! Makes so much more sense now."

Dick laughs and claps his hands, delighted.

"You were not formally adopted?" The grumpy small one—Dami?—asks, his face pinched.

"I didn't even know I was informally adopted."

"And your parents? Are they alive or dead?"

"Damian, stop—"

"They were dead in the future, but they're alive now." Danny says, looking down. He fiddles with the tablecloth, twisting the fabric around his fingers as he fights down the pang of sadness that he always feels when he thinks of them now. He forces a bright smile on his face and hopes it doesn’t look too strained. "I just, uh, can't talk to them much, anymore."

"Damian," Dick warns, "1 colon 65 dash 9. Treat them as family, no questions asked."

"This is Damian treating him as family, the little turd has no manners." Tim scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he gently bumps shoulders with Danny to knock him out of his funk. Danny can't help but send him a watery smile.

"I have the most exemplary manners, Drake, unlike some people." Damian spits, crossing his arms with a pout. "I was merely ascertaining his status to see how he could possibly fit into the family."

"I know this is all a bit sudden, Danny," Bruce smiles, ignoring Damian and reaching out to lay a warm hand on his arm, "for all of us. But if I felt strongly enough to give you that code after spending a week with you in the future, then you are more than welcome in this family, if you so choose it. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we'd like to get to know you a bit more."

"I know a threat when I hear it, Bruce." Danny snorts. "But, yeah, I get it. I'm sorry this is all so weird, it really wasn't how I wanted to find you again, but... I'm glad I did."

"So are we, Danny." Dick says, with a warm smile. "And formally or not, 1 colon 65 dash 9 means you're family. Welcome to the fun house! No take backs or refunds, sorry. You're stuck with us."

[lotus-pear]

mourning black and the death of ideals

[inkskinned]

the thing is there's like, a point of oversaturation for everything, and it's why so many things get dropped after a few minutes. and we act like millennials or gen z kids "have short attention spans" but... that's not quite it. it's more like - we did like it. you just ruined it.

capitalism sees product A having moderate success, and then everything has to come out with their "own version" of product A (which is often exactly the same). and they dump extreme amounts of money and environmental waste into each horrible simulacrum they trot out each season.

now it's not just tiktokkers making videos; it's that instagram and even fucking tumblr both think you want live feeds and video-first programming. and it helps them, because videos are easier to sneak native ads into. the books coming out all have to have 78 buzzwords in them for SEO, or otherwise they don't get published. they are making a live-action remake of moana. i haven't googled it, but there's probably another marvel or starwars something coming out, no matter when you're reading this post.

and we are like "hi, this clone of project A completely misses the point of the original. it is soulless and colorless and miserable." and the company nods and says "yes totally. here is a different clone, but special." and we look at clone 2 and we say "nope, this one is still flat and bad, y'all" and they're like "no, totally, we hear you," and then they make another clone but this time it's, like, a joyless prequel. and by the time they've successfully rolled out "clone 89", the market is incredibly oversaturated, and the consumer is blamed because the company isn't turning a profit.

and like - take even something digital like the tumblr "live streaming" function i just mentioned. that has to take up server space and some amount of carbon footprint; just so this brokenass blue hellsite can roll out a feature that literally none of its userbase actually wants. the thing that's the kicker here: even something that doesn't have a physical production plant still impacts the environment.

and it all just feels like it's rolling out of control because like, you watch companies pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into a remake of a remake of something nobody wants anymore and you're like, not able to afford eggs anymore. and you tell the company that really what you want is a good story about survival and they say "okay so you mean a YA white protagonist has some kind of 'spicy' love triangle" and you're like - hey man i think you're misunderstanding the point of storytelling but they've already printed 76 versions of "city of blood and magic" and "queen of diamond rule" and spent literally millions of dollars on the movie "Candy Crush Killer: Coming to Eat You".

it's like being stuck in a room with a clown that keeps telling the same joke over and over but it's worse every time. and that would be fine but he keeps fucking charging you 6.99. and you keep being like "no, i know it made me laugh the first time, but that's because it was different and new" and the clown is just aggressively sitting there saying "well! plenty of people like my jokes! the reason you're bored of this is because maybe there's something wrong with you!"

[socialistexan]

I'm so tired of cis people asking stuff like, "Why would Texas want a list of trans people who legally changed their names?" or "Why would Florida want a list of college students who have seeking gender affirming care? We can't figure it out."

It's eliminationist.

Ken Paxton wants a list of trans people who have changed their name in Texas so he can reverse all of those decisions (and that's the most charitable interpretation). Ron DeSantis wants a list of college students who have sought affirming care so he can force them to detransition.

Oklahoma introduced a bill to forcibly detransition people under the age of 21 (ironically doing what they accuse us of doing, forcing someone to live as the wrong gender). Texas has a new bill that will ban gender affirming care for every Texan of any age and makes it a felony for doctors to provide it. Multiple states either have passed or will pass bills that will ban legal name changes. Some states have slipped in language to anti-drag bills (which are horrific enough on their own) that ban anyone from displaying, presenting, or dressing outside their "biological" gender (one state has language about "DNA gender") in public.

It's about legally and morally mandating trans people out of existence.

Plain and simple. It's about making sure that trans people can not exist. Period. It's not about restrictions, or "think of the children!" It's about eliminating us from public life and then eliminating us from private life so that we have a choice of either die or conform.

When will y'all realize this isn't some wedge issue or a political football that they'll just give up on if they lose an election or two. These are ideologues who are singularly focused. They don't care about the marketplace of ideas. They don't give a shit if they get mocked on lefty Twitter and the late night shows. They only care about one thing: gaining and then wielding power to achieve their goal of eliminating trans people (and then gay people, and then women who don't conform to their gender standards, ect).

If you give them that power they will use it.

[brennan-lee-mother]

Newer Dimension 20 fans might look at Liv attempting to hack Usha’s brain by crushing it just the perfect amount and think “this is completely unhinged and obviously totally unprecedented”, but it is actually no less than the fifth time a PC has done impromptu untrained surgery on another character, the third time on another PC, in D20 history.

So, safe to say it’s practically par for the course at this point.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Kiss Kiss Fallen Tree!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[softinvasions]

DIRECTOR'S NOTE • Nov. 2023

You can't go home. This play has a particular care for and interest in its victims. The resident

inciting event is endless. tragedy is much more concerned with footnotes than it is with gods.

well acquainted with what happens afterward, storytellers claim they can't diverge from what's

written: resist. rage against what must be. tell a story about war without talking

about love. survive its aftermath. fail to find resolution. make this suffering

a home. There's no breaking this chain— fate, as always, gets its way.

Poetry assembled from the program of an Oresteia production. Nov. 2023.

[friendshapedcas]

Let’s play a fun game called am I masquerading as an autistic person and acting how I think someone with autism would act or am I simply learning to unmask