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waheelawhisperer · 2 years

Note

On the topic of RWBY, and particularly Ironwood: it was my opinion that with Ozpin's secret still fresh in their minds, the police state Atlas fell into under Ironwood's control, and the secret commandos that reports only to him that arrested them, Team RWBY was fully justified in not trusting Ironwood even if he divulged excellent and honest information about a perfectly sound plan. However, I feel the failure in writing was that they never expressed that - Ruby just 'has a feeling'. Thoughts?

Yes, I do in fact have many thoughts on this one, and they've been a long time coming. I'd have gotten this post out sooner, but I had to rewatch Volumes 6 and 7 beforehand and take notes, and that took me forever. Buckle up, because this is going to be a long one.

To respond to the ask directly, I'll be honest: I don't think the writing failed to express that. The characters express their motivations behind the choice at multiple points throughout the Volume, and the narrative throws up red flags over and over again.

Let's start off by recapping the situation at the end of Volume 6:

Team RWBY's trust in authority figures has been severely shaken by the time they get to Atlas. In Volume 5, the following events occurred - Yang learned that Raven (someone who Tai has built up as a complicated but ultimately good person when talking about her) was a coward who was willing to hide behind her to avoid fighting back against Salem; Leonardo Lionheart sold the group out to Salem; Yang specifically mentioned "no more lies and half-truths" when she agreed to follow Ozpin. In Volume 6, the group learned that Ozpin was in fact continuing to tell them lies and half-truths (for justifiable reasons, from his perspective) and Qrow fell off the wagon and started actively hindering the group by forcing them to carry his dead weight. Then they had to deal with Cordovin being stupid and obstructive while Ozpin straight-up dipped and Qrow tried to give up. Every significant authority figure Team RWBY has encountered since the Fall of Beacon except for Maria Calavera and Saphron/Terra has let them down in some way at this point. Is it any wonder they're reluctant to trust Ironwood initially, even without seeing what's actually going on in Atlas?

Then the group actually arrives. Immediately, Weiss and Qrow, the two people most familiar with Atlas, note that something is wrong:

Ruby: Weiss, what is it?

Weiss: The Atlas air fleet... I knew all of our ships were called back, but...

Qrow: They're set up like they're expecting an attack...

(Volume 6, Episode 13).

Right away, before the group ever sets foot in Atlas, the show is sending us a warning: this is not right. This continues in Volume 7's first episode, which throws sign after sign that something is wrong in Atlas at us. Weiss mentions almost immediately that she's "never seen [Atlas's] forces deployed so aggressively before. If we land in a stolen ship, there's no way the security team will let us anywhere near Ironwood. They might even take [Weiss] back to [her] father." Weiss, the native Atlesian, the one who knows this Kingdom the best, tells Maria to put some distance between them and the fleet. Maria, who is also familiar with Atlas because that's where she got her cybernetic eyes, agrees without hesitation. Every character here that knows anything about Atlas except for possibly Blake has made it clear that something is wrong, that this situation makes them nervous... and then once the group descends to Mantle, the show starts absolutely bombarding us with evidence that the group was right to be wary.

As soon as we reach Mantle, Ironwood hits us with a propaganda broadcast with some serious 1984 vibes. Ruby and Yang are clearly worried by this and point out that Ironwood looks tired. Qrow questions what Ironwood's been doing. By this point, the group is visibly concerned about Ironwood's leadership of his Kingdom, and justifiably so. The fleet is deployed in unusual fashion, something is specifically up with Ironwood, and multiple characters familiar with how Atlas normally operates have raised concerns about their first impressions.

Then we touch down in Mantle and see android soldiers in the streets. The civilians aren't happy about this, as the below exchange demonstrates:

Civilian 1: Ugh, not these again.

Civilian 2: Why can't they just leave us be?

In this same scene, we also see Mantas deployed directly over Mantle (where they can't intercept threats before they reach the city, but can conveniently remind the people of Mantle how powerful Atlas is. Don't worry, General Ironwood will protect you... until you step out of line) and a pair of children throwing rocks at a surveillance drone. Our first impression is that the people are... less than enamored with their Kingdom's military. None of the people we see, none of them, act like the presence of Atlesian forces is in any way reassuring.

Weiss agrees. In her words, "this isn't right. None of this is right," (Volume 7, Episode 1). Again, Weiss is the person who grew up in this Kingdom. She lived in Atlas for 17 years. If any member of the group knows what the Kingdom is "supposed" to be like, it's her.

Yang proposes that they ditch the ship, and Qrow (who, again, has worked with Ironwood for years and is a generally well-traveled Huntsman who knows what Atlas was like prior to the Fall of Beacon), agrees. According to Qrow, they need to "get lost in Mantle and buy [themselves] some time" (Volume 7, Episode 1). He's worried about what's going on too, and is advocating for scouting out the situation before making any major decisions.

Weiss still has faith in Winter, right up until Winter decides to join Ironwood in the propaganda broadcast studio. The very first thing she says is this: "Failure to cooperate with Atlas military personnel is a punishable offense. If your sector is under lockdown…" (Volume 7, Episode 1).

That's it. That's the part of the broadcast that we get to hear. There's no attempt at reassurance. There's no attempt to spread unity or convince the people of Mantle that they'll be safe. There is only "comply or you will be punished", which is very part and parcel of Winter's leadership style overall, but that's probably the subject of another post in and of itself. The message Mantle is getting from Winter, and by extension Atlas, in this broadcast is simple: "do as you're told, or I will hurt you".

I'm not 100% sure what Winter means when she mentions sectors of the city being under lockdown, because that's never actually explored as far as I can recall, but just by reading the text and considering the context, we can tell that Atlas is exerting some form of direct, repressive military and/or governmental authority over specific parts of Mantle for whatever reason.

Next up comes this little exchange:

Qrow: No offense, Weiss. I'm not sure that's a good idea anymore.

Weiss: There's obviously something very wrong. If we can just talk to her, then we--

Qrow: Look, I'm not even sure we should be talking to Ironwood until we know exactly what's going on with Mantle.

At this point, Qrow is deeply concerned. He's the most experienced member of the group, the one who's traveled all across Remnant, and the one who knows Ironwood the best, and he says maybe they shouldn't even be talking to Ironwood. Weiss reiterates that something is very wrong in the Kingdom. Again, these are the two who have the best idea of what Atlas is supposed to be like under normal circumstances. I know I keep belaboring that point, but I literally saw a post on r/rwbycritics yesterday that insisted that the group had "no real reason" for mistrusting Ironwood and another one that argued that the Yellow Trailer was bad because Junior and the Malachite twins weren't as important to the plot as Adam, so I kind of have to beat the audience over the head with my points to make sure they get through to the lowest common critical denominator.

For the record, it's Qrow who's making the initial choice to not trust Ironwood, not Team RWBY, even though they're the ones who get all the blame for it. Qrow is the one who says they need to get lost in Mantle to buy time to figure out what's going on, and he's also the one to flat-out raise the possibility that maybe Ironwood shouldn't be trusted at all. The others are wary, but Weiss focuses on contacting Winter, and the rest of the group hasn't taken a particularly strong stance at this point.

As Maria leads the protagonists through the street, we get some interesting background details that are easy to miss on first watch (I certainly did). There are Atlesian Knights stationed throughout the streets, and we see the following headlines on a news board:

"Missing Journalist Found Slain"

"Election Imminent Mantle Hometown Hero vs Atlesian Tycoon"

"Embargo: The Right Call? Pressure and Criticism Continues to Mount on Council"

"Outer Wall Damaged Resources Stalled"

This tells us right here that the people are not happy with their government, that someone is killing members of the press, that there's an election coming up that will be important later, and that the city of Mantle is vulnerable and not getting the resources it needs to shore up its defenses. Honestly, I don't blame anyone for missing this, because it's very easy to overlook unless you're specifically paying attention to the details, but it provides important context regarding the situation in Mantle.

Jaune notices the increased military presence too:

Jaune: Is this many soldiers normal?

Weiss: No. At least, I didn't think so.

Again, the show (via Weiss) is making it as clear as possible that Something Is Wrong in Mantle.

Next up, Yang gets her picture taken by a surveillance drone, because getting up in your citizens' faces and taking their pictures without their consent is the sign of a free and open society, and we continue moving through the city, noting as we do that the propaganda reels are still broadcasting. The other members of the group start voicing their opinions at this point.

Maria: You have to remember, the Kingdom had just lost the Great War. The people of Mantle needed a sign of a brighter future, and that sign was Atlas. After all, a home in the clouds is as bright as it gets.

Nora: Unless you're the one having to look up at it.

Blake: This whole city, it just seems awful.

While Maria's talking about a city in the sky, the people on the ground see trucks moving through the streets, carrying dirty, disheveled, dispirited miners in their beds. Maria's words bring to mind the aesthetics of Mantle in comparison to the bright city in the sky: dirty, grungy, polluted, industrial, miserable. Mantle is very gray, very dark, very brown, unlike the clean, white, light blue, futuristic Atlas. Blake and Nora are unimpressed with the ideal, given that they're looking around them at the people it left behind.

After a brief altercation with a pair of drunks, who, once again, make the point that Mantle is not in a great spot right now, and also racist, we arrive at Pietro's pharmacy. The pharmacy, like everything else in Mantle, is not in great repair, as Yang points out. Pietro starts giving the protagonists the lowdown on Ironwood, establishing both that the Fall of Beacon changed Ironwood, made him paranoid, and that the Council is so scared it'll agree to anything he wants. Taken together, this is not a good sign: one paranoid man who has already been established as prone to solving problems with military force is in control of a Kingdom and the checks and balances that would normally restrain him are not functioning as intended.

An alarm interrupts the conversation, and we follow Team RWBY and company outside, where Oscar observes that "the city defenses aren't doing much", which Nora says "doesn't surprise [her]" (Volume 7, Episode 1). We see a group of Sabyrs attack a squad of Knights, taking them apart without any sign of difficulty, because Atlas's hardware is consistently garbage and its doctrine is consistently stupid. The same pack of Grimm gets dismantled by the heroes and then Penny, but our touching reunion is cut short when another alarm goes off elsewhere in the city and Penny flies off to deal with that.

Meanwhile, the group makes the mistake of relaxing and immediately gets jumped by the Ace-Ops, who were conspicuously absent when people were actually in danger, but are absolutely on top of things when arresting people who did something useful. Keep in mind that during this arrest, the Ace-Ops ambushed the protagonists without so much as a warning or a request to stand down. As a result, the protagonists have no clue what the hell is happening. Oscar asks "What's going on?!" (Volume 7, Episode 1), while Qrow points out that he's "a licensed Huntsman! Just helped save everyone?" (Volume 7, Episode 1). Pietro wonders what the Ace-Ops are "even doing down here in Mantle" (Volume 7, Episode 1), to which Clover responds that they "heard a report of an unauthorized ship making an unauthorized landing, followed by an unauthorized use of weapons by unlicensed Huntsmen" (Volume 7, Episode 1).

Let's go over what this sequence of events tells us about Atlas and its attitude towards Mantle, shall we? First, Grimm attacks in Mantle are so frequent that they happen twice within a few minutes of screentime, and the city's defenses are such a joke that a pack of Sabyrs can penetrate deep enough into the city to reach an area that took the group several in-universe minutes to walk to. The Atlesian Knights are so useless at their stated job that they get stomped by basic mook Grimm so weak that fucking Jaune kills two of them with minimal effort, but hey, at least they're good at reminding the citizens of Mantle who's really in charge. The Mantas and battleships deployed above Mantle do not take part in the engagement in any way and make no effort to prevent the Sabyrs from reaching the city to begin with. What they do accomplish, if they accomplish anything at all, is intimidating the populace.

According to Forest (the protestor in Volume 7, Episode 2), the Ace-Ops are "the elite-of-elite military Huntsmen and Ironwood's personal attack dogs" (Volume 7, Episode 2), and having an encounter with them means "Ironwood must really have a bone to pick with [the protagonists]" (Volume 7, Episode 2). Despite this, despite their status as elite Huntsmen, the Ace-Ops do not engage the invading Grimm at any point on screen during this sequence of events, but they are right there to capture the people who actually do the moment the threat is gone. Again, these Huntsmen are not keeping Mantle safe, and usually aren't even there to defend a city under regular threat from the Grimm. They are, however, able to locate and apprehend the protagonist group with little difficulty, which tells us a lot about where Ironwood's priorities are.

The "use of unauthorized weaponry" thing is also very telling to me, because this is a world where humanity lives under a constant existential threat and thus the ability to own a weapon and defend oneself from the Grimm seems like something people on Remnant should be fundamentally entitled to, but evidently not in Atlas. Nope, in this Kingdom, you need government permission to protect yourself from giant monsters that want to eat your face. Maybe it's because I live in Texas, where gun culture is pervasive, but this restriction definitely feels... off... to me. Remnant isn't the real world, where I fully support stricter gun control, because in the real world I'm not likely to be eaten by a Hulked out grizzly bear while walking from the bus stop to my office while the cops who are supposed to stop it from ripping my head off are too busy arresting the guy who shot it before it could kill me for not having a concealed carry permit. It makes sense for people to be armed in Remnant in a way that isn't necessary in the real world because the people of Remnant face real and pervasive threats that don't exist in reality, and Atlas arresting the protagonists for having weapons is a sign of executive overreach if that's truly the driving force behind their arrest, rather than the unauthorized airship landing in Mantle. Whether it is or not, it's still presented as part of the justification, which means the problems I mentioned still apply.

In fairness to Ironwood's supporters, the show goes to great lengths to present him as an ally, a good guy, despite all the red flags he's been throwing up since his very first appearance. A key accomplishment of the writing, necessary for the ultimate resolution of Volume 7, is making it seem like Ironwood is doing his best to do the right thing, that all the problems we've seen are temporary rather than systemic, that the initial bad impressions were the result of a miscommunication rather than a fundamental ideological opposition.

Let's go back for a bit, all the way to Volumes 2 and 3, where Ironwood demonstrates that his solution to everything is military force. We see him wrest control of the Vytal Festival's security away from Ozpin by going behind his back, but Ironwood's conviction regarding his own rectitude is set against Ozpin's negligence, his failure to anticipate the threat and respond appropriately. One does too much, the other does too little, and neither is 100% in the right.

In Volume 3, when Ironwood's equipment is compromised, we see him personally protect the students and civilians evacuating from the Amity Colosseum, attempt to retake his flagship, and then fight on the front lines in Vale. Yes, Cinder exploited his mistakes and attitudes and blind spots to cause the current crisis, the narrative says, but look at him! He's fighting bravely to protect the vulnerable! Qrow says he knows Ironwood would never deliberately do something like this! He's a good guy!

Once we get to Volume 4, we're already getting hints of where Ironwood's paranoia and authoritarian tendencies will lead him. Jacques calls him out on his embargo and points out that Ironwood is a friend with whom he has a close working relationship, thus tying Ironwood to the bad things the SDC does, but we're encouraged to ignore that because it's being directed at a heroic character by a villain who we already know abuses one of the four main protagonists. Like, at this point in the story, we're obviously going to pick Ironwood over Jacques, given that Jacques is the villain of Weiss's Volume 4 storyline and Klein and Ironwood are her main allies. It's very easy to overlook the implications of Ironwood's behavior when the thing in the forefront of our minds is "get Weiss away from her abuser".

In Volume 6, Cordovin gives us a glimpse of the arrogance that characterizes Atlesian society, but before we have the chance to cement the hypothesis that it's endemic to the Atlesian military, Maria defuses it by proposing that Cordovin holds her post because Atlas wants to get rid of her. This changes the story's presentation of Cordovin's attitude: instead of her views being pervasive, Cordovin's just a prick that even the other Atlesians can't stand, especially when contrasted with the warmer and more generous Ironwood. Ultimately, Cordovin proves to be courageous and heroic and not so bad after all in the Volume 6 finale, when she finishes off the Leviathan and goes against protocol to let the heroes travel to Atlas. It makes Atlas seem like a Kingdom that's a bit blunt and arrogant and hidebound, but ultimately well-meaning and leaves us inclined to give Atlas the benefit of the doubt once the story takes us there.

Let's head back to Volume 7 proper, because the story continues showing us the warning signs and then sweeping them under the rug by providing harmless alternative explanations for them before we even meet Ironwood. When Forest is in the police airship, he introduces the Happy Huntresses and their fight for better conditions in Mantle, their attempts to mitigate the damage done by the class divide and exacerbated by Ironwood's policies, but then the soldiers flying the aircraft point out that what he actually did was throw a brick at their ship. This changes our perspective of Forest from someone unjustly arrested for fighting back against a tyrannical government to a bonehead who is justifiably being punished for attempting to damage government property. It's no accident that the show does this, reframes the Atlas/Mantle conflict, right before we see Ironwood.

Once we actually arrive at Atlas Academy, the writing immediately humanizes Ironwood, and by extension Atlas as a whole: Winter insists that the cuffs be removed, Ironwood apologizes for their initial arrest, and Yang is really the only one who bothers trying to hold Atlas accountable for it, because Yang's tolerance for bullshit from sketchy authority figures is the lowest of the main group's at this point. Ironwood just kind of laughs off the group's theft of an airship (Winter is less inclined to do so, but she still frames her concern in terms of Weiss's physical safety more than anything else), he returns the Relic of Knowledge, and he brings them into his inner circle. Ironwood has demonstrably reached out to trust others with his secret knowledge (Winter, Penny, the Ace-Ops) and has even acknowledged that the group is justified in thinking he's not very trustworthy right now*. He tells them his plan, agrees with the group's assessment of the negative impacts of his actions, and then reveals new information that offers a justification for his policies and promises to defend all of Remnant. It's meant to convince the viewer that he's a well-meaning leader making difficult choices that create temporary hardship while he works toward a permanent solution and hide the way that Atlas fundamentally doesn't give a shit about Mantle or its struggles. Judging by the reaction of certain segments of the fanbase, it, uh... worked.

*As an aside, I always find it funny when people act like not trusting Ironwood is some kind of horrific sin, like Team RWBY should have accepted his authority unquestioningly, when even the man himself admits that he can see why they wouldn't, but whatever.

The narrative continues trying to convince us that ha ha, this was just a wacky misunderstanding, when the Ace-Ops get properly introduced and immediately rush to apologize. Suddenly, they're cute and funny and sincere rather than threatening, gushing over the protagonists and participating in the same type of slapstick comedy as the other heroic characters. The Ace-Ops become mentors over the next few episodes, rather than antagonists, alternately supporting and lightly hazing the protagonists while training them and working with them on routine Huntsman missions or the Amity project. The training montage shows the kids growing closer to the Ace-Ops, and it's clear by the end of the Volume that both groups genuinely care about one another, otherwise their ultimate opposition wouldn't have cut everyone involved so deeply.

The narrative continues building Ironwood up as likeable and well-meaning throughout the next few episodes. When Jaune calls Ironwood out on his treatment of Mantle in Pomp and Circumstance, Ironwood accepts it without argument and even agrees, even when Jaune's worried about the response - "No. No, you're right. Things in Mantle have been... hard to manage lately. I'm not blind to its issues. In fact, that's what I want to talk to you about" (Volume 7, Episode 4). He gives the group their licenses two years early, he acknowledges their concerns and encourages them to take missions to help Mantle, and he's set up in opposition to established villain Jacques Schnee. He even gives an awkward speech that makes him seem a little goofy, and Penny points out that as awkward as it is, it's still an improvement over previous attempts. At this point, the narrative is just screaming that we should be rooting for Ironwood.

Even so, there are a lot of details in the background that tell us that yeah, those red flags we were worried about in The Greatest Kingdom are still there. They didn't go away. Watts mentions that "while cybersecurity has been stepped up in Atlas, as usual, none of the code was updated in Mantle," (Volume 7, Episode 2), while Tyrian calls Mantle "a city with a thousand eyes" (Volume 7, Episode 2) and we see security cameras all around the city. The infrastructure functions well enough to let Atlas keep tabs on Mantle, but nobody's put any effort into protecting that same infrastructure from cyberattacks... even though Atlas was deemed worthy of that effort. Once again, the point of Atlas's so-called defenses is controlling Mantle, rather than protecting it.

On top of that, Atlesian law apparently gives the military the right to commandeer private property. Jacques complains about Ironwood taking over the mine the protagonists clear out in Ace Operatives. Ironwood responds that since the mine is "now the site of a classified military operation, it didn't even require a vote" (Volume 7, Episode 3), a fact that shocks Jacques. This is... a pretty significant application of government power, especially for someone like me, who's used to thinking of things in terms of American government and the powers therein. While the United States government can take private land for public purposes through the process of eminent domain, it must compensate the landowner fairly for the land claimed in this fashion. Jacques was not compensated, and, as far as I can tell, may not have even been formally notified by the government, nor do there appear to be any checks on the military's ability to seize property as long as that seizure can be justified under the "classified operation" umbrella, but the narrative doesn't really give us much time to dwell on that. Instead, it focuses on Jacques's confrontation with Weiss and Ironwood and Team RWBY standing up for her. Once again, the story near-instantly deflects our attention away from the ugly truths behind Atlas's pretty mask.

This is freaking dangerous, honestly. In Atlas, it seems that your property can be confiscated at any time, with no warning or compensation, as long as the military can provide the flimsiest of justifications. Sure, taking the mine had a legitimate purpose, but what's stopping someone with Ironwood's power and authority from just taking other property to harm or punish a rival or dissenter? The middle of Volume 7 makes a big deal about the military's lack of oversight, but I'll get into that later.

Even the missions the protagonists go on reveal cracks in the foundations. Marrow makes fun of the parents down in Mantle for wanting Huntsmen to escort the kids to school, claiming that there's "not actually any danger, but the parents fret, and that attracts Grimm" (Volume 7, Episode 4), but frankly, from what we saw in The Greatest Kingdom, those parents are right to be afraid. Grimm routinely penetrate deep into the city, both through the streets and through other paths, as Elm asks for volunteers to flush a "massive Sabyr" (Volume 7, Episode 4) out of the sewers. If I had a kid in pre-primary school, which I'm assuming is equivalent to preschool in the US based on the appearance of the children Jaune escorts, I'd sure as hell want to make sure they didn't get eaten on the way too!

The decision not to trust Ironwood is controversial even in-universe, and the group discusses it in the third and fourth episodes of the Volume:

Blake: I suddenly don't feel as bad about leaving Oscar behind.

Yang: Can we talk about that again?

Ruby: What about it?

Yang: We're really not gonna tell Ironwood about what happened to Oz? What we learned about Jinn? About Salem?

Ruby: We are. We will. But you saw how things looked when we flew into Atlas.

Blake: The General's heart seems to be in the right place, but that doesn't mean we should trust him yet.

Weiss: We need to play along for a while before we make any major decisions.

Yang: Okay. How did Oscar feel about that?

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

Ruby: Er, probably shouldn't keep running around with an ancient Relic on a keychain… you know?

Oscar: But--

Ruby: I know you'll keep it safe in Atlas.

Oscar: Ruby, hiding things from Ironwood, doesn't that feel like what Ozpin did to us?

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Qrow: Big day for you, huh, kiddo?

Ruby: It's… definitely a lot to take in.

Qrow: Which part? The finally getting to Atlas part, getting your license part, or the not quite disclosing everything to Ironwood part? Or… all of the above?

Ruby: All of the above. I'm trying to do what I think is best, but I really can't tell if what's best is what's right, or if I'm no different from Oz.

Qrow: Ruby, Oz only trusted himself with the whole truth. You're trusting others, but you're making sure they prove themselves first. I think that's a pretty big difference.

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It's clear from these conversations that nobody's really happy about lying to Ironwood. Yang's detractors love to call her a hypocrite for supporting the decision to lie to Ironwood, but she's the first one to raise concerns about it, despite all the valid reasons for the choice, and Ruby reassures her that they will tell Ironwood eventually. Funnily enough, Yang gets so much flak for following Ruby's lead here, but she also gets bagged on for not obeying Ironwood's authority unquestioningly later on in the Volume. I wonder what the difference is here. I really do.

Ruby emphasizes the fact that she doesn't know if this is the right choice, and multiple characters actively draw a parallel between her actions and Ozpin's. The key difference here, as Qrow points out, is that Ruby intends to grant Ironwood full disclosure later on, once she's sure he'll be able to handle the news, whereas Ozpin would've kept his secrets until the end of time, and did play his cards as close to the chest as he could until Ruby used one of Jinn's questions to learn what he was hiding. Ruby does ultimately come clean, trusting Ironwood at the same time as he chooses to trust Robyn and Atlas's Council, so she's not just maliciously deceiving Ironwood the way some people like to claim.

Even later, when Yang and Blake tell Robyn about the Amity project, the divide remains. Here's the conversation where Blake and Yang discuss telling Ironwood:

Yang: Do you… Do you think we should've told Ironwood about Salem, before he put so much on the line for Amity?

Blake: Sounds like you do.

Yang: I trust Ruby, but I think he deserves to know what he's stepping into. We all did.

Yang: You don't agree.

Blake: Look around. The embargo, the military presence, the restrictions on assembly. He's a bit prone to overreacting.

Yang: Yeah, hard to argue with that. Still, he didn't have a lot of good options.

Blake: I'm not sure there are many good options left for any of us anymore. Keeping secrets, taking lives? It makes you wonder how far we're gonna have to go to keep doing the right thing.

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Yang, "the self-righteous hypocrite", remains consistent in her characterization: being upset about lies and lying, about hiding the truth and having it hidden, has been a thing for her since like Volume fucking 2, but people who pay no attention to anything act like this came out of nowhere. Yang's big conflict with Ozpin is about how she feels like she and her friends were manipulated into joining the battle against Salem without ever being told enough to make informed choices, so it's no wonder she's upset about leaving Ironwood in the dark: it's exactly what happened to her!

Blake, meanwhile, spells out exactly why not trusting Ironwood is eminently justifiable. I really don't know how much harder the narrative can hit the audience over the head with this theme, but evidently it needed to find a way to do it harder.

Something really interesting to me is the way the group splits between favoring Ruby's choice and protesting it. The ones who agree with not trusting Ironwood the most have all been in abusive situations: Blake was in a relationship with Adam, Weiss has an abusive father, Nora's mother literally abandoned her to the Grimm, and Qrow was treated like shit by the Branwen Tribe. By contrast, Yang and Ruby had a more normal home life (Taiyang's temporary struggles after Summer's disappearance notwithstanding) and the show hasn't provided any evidence of either of them having romantic relationships of any kind prior to the series, much less abusive ones, while Ren's parents clearly loved him and nothing about the limited details provided regarding Oscar's living situation implies that he was abused in any way. We see Ironwood grow increasingly abusive throughout his decline in Volume 8, and Winter, another person raised in an abusive household, responds to his behavior with the same ingrained reactions she would have used to protect Weiss from Jacques when he tries to shoot Marrow. She's also absolutely freaking terrified when Harriet rats her out. Taken together, I think this is a deliberate choice from the writers. I think the characters who have experienced abuse saw something about Ironwood that made them wary.

So by this point most of the audience is now firmly on Ironwood's side. He's managed to overcome the initial bad impression, despite those niggling little details, so now the narrative introduces sympathetic opposition in the form of Robyn Hill. We've heard of her before, but we don't get to actually meet her until Sparks, when she holds up the truck that Ruby, Penny, Qrow, and Clover are escorting on a supply run. The transcript of their conversation is below:

Ruby: Uh, Uncle Qrow.

Qrow: What's going on? Grimm?

Clover: No. Worse. You two with me. Penny, stay put and keep an eye on our six. We may need an element of surprise.

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

Interesting start to the conversation here. Clover considers Robyn worse than the Grimm and is worried that their encounter might come to blows. This suggests that Robyn is living up to her inspiration and protecting the downtrodden by violent means if necessary and that Clover views her as a more significant threat than your average Grimm or bandit, despite the fact that she's running for a Council seat specifically to better Mantle's lot.

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Penny: Affirmative. I will plan for six possible outcomes.

Robyn: Alright ladies, time to show them our teeth.

Clover: Robyn! Well, if it isn't Mantle's home town hero. Is there a reason you're blocking an official military transport?

Robyn: Clover, I'm so glad you're here. Maybe you can help me understand why this truck that's supposed to be taking construction materials to fix Mantle's outer wall, is on its way to the middle of nowhere? Are you lost?

Clover: It's pretty easy to get turned around out here in the tundra, everything looks the same. Thanks for checking up on us though. We'll be on our way now.

Robyn: I was hoping you'd play it straight with me. What's Ironwood doing with Amity at the old SDC mine?

Clover: Oh, that. Just giving her an annual checkup.

Robyn: The next Vytal Festival isn't anytime soon. Only automated drones and a few select Atlas scientists are allowed out here. And Amity's getting invaluable resources we need in Mantle to protect against Grimm. Seems like more than just a check-up.

Clover: You've been scoping it out.

Robyn: We can't fix the wall without the supplies on these trucks. I think Mantle deserves to know what they're being used for. It doesn't have to be difficult. Just tell me.

Clover: I'm going to have to pass on that.

Robyn: How 'bout you, pipsqueak? Five o' clock shadow? Either of you want to tell me why Mantle's being put at risk for Ironwood's pet project?

Ruby: We're trying to help Mantle. We need--

Clover: That's enough Robyn. As a potential Councilwoman, you should probably focus on the election instead of harassing Huntsmen. Now, it's time to let us pass.

Robyn: I think you've misjudged the situation. One way or another, these supplies are going to get where they're supposed to go - Mantle.

Clover: Then I suggest you do that through the proper legal channels as a Councilwoman. If you get elected.

Robyn: Now where's the fun in that?

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This conversation tells us a lot about Robyn's operational patterns, and they remain consistent throughout both Volumes 7 and 8. First, she initiates dialogue. She gives Clover a chance to just tell her the truth, hoping he'll meet her halfway. When he doesn't, she asks some more pointed questions, hoping to convince him to come clean once he realizes she knows more then he thinks. Clover stonewalls her again, and she starts applying a bit of pressure. By this point in the conversation, she isn't even trying to convince him to hand over the supplies. She's just asking what they're being used for. My reading of this scene is that if Clover had given her a genuine answer, if Clover had taken her hand and told her that yeah, there's a real strategic reason supplies are being diverted from Mantle, she would have accepted it, backed off, and focused on the election... but he doesn't, so now that it's clear that Clover is not going to address her concerns, she moves to force as a last resort. Robyn even reaches out to Ruby and Qrow, trying to get them to offer her an explanation, before deciding that she's going to take the supplies that Mantle desperately needs by force.

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Penny: Robyn Hill. I would like to politely ask that you call off the Huntresses approaching the rear of the truck.

Robyn: Alright. Joanna, May!

Robyn: The Protector of Mantle, huh?

Penny: Let us through, please.

Clover: Robyn. Good luck at the election.

Qrow: That was a close one.

Clover: You're telling me.

Fiona: What now?

Robyn: I want to know why Amity Colosseum is suddenly so important. Whatever it takes.

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Robyn backs down once Penny reveals herself, though I'm not sure if that's because she thinks the odds are against her or because of either the genuine moral conflict or simply the optics of forcing a confrontation with the official Protector of Mantle. Either way, she's still focusing on why Amity Colosseum is a priority, rather than getting the supplies for Mantle no matter what, which implies to me that Robyn is still willing to accept a valid explanation for the Amity project. She's still trying to solve things diplomatically. She's trying to help Mantle and incurring real personal risk in doing so. Contrast her with Jacques, who's only concerned with his personal wealth and is spewing cringeworthy platitudes about how his family "has been weathering the same storm as many of you" (Volume 7, Episode 5), which goes over great with the miners slaving away for his company. We get some interesting headlines during his press conference, which I have transcribed below:

"Missing Journalist Found Slain In Her Midtown Apartment"

"Perimeter Wall Damaged Last Month - Resources and Funding Are Stalled"

"Surface Level Grimm Attacks Increasing - Mantle Protection Agency Advises Staying Indoors"

"Weather Special - How to Keep You and Your Family Safe From Hypothermia and Frostbite"

Ironwood's opponents are still being killed. Mantle's defenses are still crap, and no one in power has bothered changing that. Grimm attacks are increasing, to no one's surprise. The Solitas cold is still dangerous. We're pretty well-insulated with our viewpoint characters up in Atlas, but the show is quietly reminding us that it's not all sunshine and rainbows down in Mantle.

Jacques closes down his facilities and lays off workers, starting a riot, and the next episode opens up with those same rioters arrested and cuffed. Once again, the soldiers aren't doing much to stop the frequent Grimm attacks, but when it comes to turning force against Mantle's populace, there are plenty of troops available. Despite all this, Robyn is still trying to solve things diplomatically. She's not condoning the rioting, even though Mantle is "being denied aid for the hardships [it's] already had to go through" (Volume 7, Episode 6), and asks that her supporters "show [their anger] not in the streets but at the polls today" (Volume 6, Episode 7). Sure, part of this is probably because she thinks she's going to win the Council seat, but she is trying very hard to keep lines of communication open and encourage peaceful solutions as long as doing so is tenable.

After the riot, Nora mentions that Mantle is, y'know, still a problem. Ironwood kind of acknowledges this, but he doesn't actually take steps to solve that problem, which is becoming a common theme with him at this point: someone points out that his policies are hurting Mantle, he agrees and expresses regret for the necessity, he promises that the strain is only temporary, and then he never actually does anything about it. He puts the burden on Robyn to be open to working together when he says "it will only work if she's open too" (Volume 7, Episode 6). Fortunately for Ironwood, the audience is still on his side at this point. We've seen that he's trying, we've seen that Robyn is willing to reach out when she tries to get Clover to give her something, anything, out on the tundra, so we have hope that things will get better, even though we know as viewers that things need to go to shit to progress the narrative... which they do, at the rally, where we see that there are surveillance drones present and not even bothering to not be invasive. Damn things would probably try to follow you into the bathroom if they got the chance. Atlas is always watching you, folks, but it's not to keep you safe...

Post-massacre, Ironwood starts really clamping down. We start the episode off with a measure that should freak the absolute hell out of American viewers specifically, transcribed below:

Ironwood: Citizens of Mantle - Following the most recent Grimm attack, a temporary prohibition of assembly is in place.

Ironwood: There are to be no public gatherings of any kind. Please conduct your business and return to your homes before curfew.

Ironwood: This is for your own safety.

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Ironwood has denied the people of Mantle the right to assemble. Here's why I said it should send up massive red flags for American viewers: assembly is a right explicitly granted in the Bill of Rights, the first ten formal amendments to the United States Constitution. It's part of the First Amendment, as a matter of fact. Here is the text of the amendment for anyone not familiar with it: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

"Congress shall make no law... abridging... the right of the people peaceably to assemble". That's the important part here. While Atlas is not real-world America (it's based partly on America, but is not a 1-to-1 representation), RWBY is made by an American company for a primarily American audience, and I sincerely doubt the writers are unaware of the implications of showing a government infringing upon rights that damn near every American old enough to have taken a government/history class is well aware of. This was a deliberate choice, it has to be, and it shows very clearly that Ironwood is less concerned with protecting Mantle and more concerned with controlling it. Oh, he couches it in terms of protection, but the populace of Mantle doesn't seem to agree with him. The citizens hide and flee from the soldiers, rather than looking toward them for safety and reassurance. Children on the street hide from surveillance drones. And Robyn Hill has finally resorted to violence.

Robyn has no options left. She tried to do things the right way. She tried to do things legally. She tried to work with the people in power. And none of that got her a damn thing. Jacques Schnee is sitting on the Council, and she knows he won't help Mantle. Ironwood won't help Mantle. Councilors Sleet and Camilla won't help Mantle. Three of the four Councilors have neglected Mantle for months at minimum, more likely years. The other one is Jacques Schnee. Robyn is the only one who will do a damn thing for Mantle at this point, and if that means taking on the might of Atlas, so be it.

This leads into the most significant line of dialogue in this entire mid-Volume election storyline: "I want Robyn Hill in custody" (Volume 7, Episode 7). I'll get to the implications of that in a moment, but first I'd like to discuss the way the narrative brings up martial law. I've seen people go after Winter for saying this, and I can sort of get why, but I think blaming her for it ignores the context of the scene. First, Ironwood is literally the highest military authority in the Kingdom and a control freak on top of that. The idea of declaring martial law is not something likely to ever be far from his mind. Winter's answering a direct question by bringing up an alternative that her boss is hardly likely to be ignorant of, and I don't think she's advocating it here. If she was, she would've encouraged it in private, not brought it up in front of the only group of people that has actually consistently gotten Ironwood to back down, that she knows will protest any measure of this nature. I think Winter's raising the possibility of martial law because she doesn't want it placed in effect, because she hopes the protagonists can get through to Ironwood again and moderate his more dangerous tendencies.

It works, kind of. Nora calls Ironwood out. It's a confrontation that's been building since the start of the Volume, and while I really think Nora's stance on Mantle should've gone to Blake, who got absolutely jack shit to do in a story arc where she should've been front and center next to Weiss, it's still the first big moment where the show says "okay, yeah, Ironwood's at serious risk of going from the well-meaning good guy we saw in early Volume 7 to an outright danger to the people he thinks he's protecting". Here's the transcript:

Nora: You're not actually considering that, are you?

Ironwood: What's more important? Establishing communications, unite the world? Or appeasing a few city blocks?

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Ironwood reduces Mantle to "a few city blocks", rather than a city full of living, breathing people that is the main reason Atlas is even possible. The mask is starting to come off. It's getting harder and harder to deny that Atlas only really views Mantle as something to exploit.

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Nora: Don't make it sound trivial when you know it isn't. You keep talking about how we just need a little more time, but you're not the one having to struggle.

Ironwood: We have all had to make sacrifices for the greater good. Mantle has had to bear a lot of the burden, yes, but--

Nora: They're bearing all of it! The longer this waiting game goes on, the harder each day gets for people down there and now you wanna send in more soldiers? You can't just force people to fall in line. If you do that, you'll just be trading all of these problems for the Grimm!

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Thank you, Nora. Mantle is the one suffering. What sacrifices has Atlas made? Who in Atlas is living in fear of constant Grimm attacks? Who in Atlas is losing their jobs? Who in Atlas has been stripped of essential rights, denied at gunpoint? Sure, soldiers have died clearing out Grimm (at the hands of the Geist that hunkered down in the mine, if nothing else), but that pales in comparison to the way Mantle's civilians don't even have a fucking functional wall to keep the Grimm out. Ironwood sacrificed his damn reputation. He sacrificed public opinion. Meanwhile, people in Mantle don't know if they'll survive the trip to work, or if they'll even have a job when they get there.

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Ruby: Please, General Ironwood. Squeezing Mantle this way… That kind of division plays right into Salem's hands.

Ruby: That's why Tyrian is here framing you.

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Ruby's right. Salem's plan specifically hinges upon exploiting Ironwood's character flaws, particularly his stubborn insistence on doing everything himself, in the way he thinks best. Tyrian states that "if General Ironwood comes to his senses and calls upon aid from Vacuo, all may be lost for us" (Volume 6, Episode 9). Salem is deliberately targeting Ironwood, and he's falling right into her trap by fostering division and unrest instead of unity.

Anyway, the reason all this came up in the first place was because of Robyn. According to Ironwood, "Robyn has emboldened our suppliers in Mantle. They're refusing to sell us provisions until the city is adequately repaired. With Robyn redistributing the goods her team has stolen, the Amity Project is completely stalled" (Volume 7, Episode 7). This line is why the insistence that Robyn accomplished nothing by stealing the supplies has always baffled me. Ironwood literally says that Robyn's actions have given Mantle enough of a backbone to stand up to Ironwood and Atlas and enough teeth to make Atlas take its defiance seriously. The connection, to me, was always pretty clear: Robyn takes supplies, Mantle isn't completely and utterly dependent on Atlas and now has leverage to demand better treatment, Mantle demands better treatment. Robyn's vigilante justice got results. r/rwbycritics really likes to whine about how the supplies Atlas needs for the communication tower aren't the same as the supplies Mantle needs to repair the wall, but this absolutely galaxy-brained take ignores the way that the narrative repeatedly points out that the supplies for the Amity Project are being diverted from Mantle (Sparks, Worst Case Scenario) and that the communications tower requires construction materials that have a wide variety of industrial uses (steel, concrete, etc.) in addition to highly specialized parts and equipment. It's not really a stretch to assume that building materials for the structure of a tower could also be used to repair the damn wall, but I guess it's easier to crap on Robyn for defying Ironwood's policies, which the narrative has explicitly pointed out are harmful to Mantle, than think for two seconds.

Now we get to the elephant in the room: "I want Robyn Hill in custody." In custody. That's what he says. Not "under arrest". Not "stopped". Not "brought to trial". In custody. Ironwood wants Robyn under his control, he wants her removed as a threat, and he doesn't give a damn about the law or her rights to get it.

I don't blame anyone for not realizing the implications of his phrasing right away. I certainly didn't. I needed a tumblr post I saw a while back to point it out, just the same way I'm going to now. The key to understanding why Ironwood's words are so insidious comes in the next episode, when Jacques Schnee casually invites her to his victory bash. Robyn shows up alone, with no backup, and none of the Council members except for Ironwood have a problem with it. Ironwood makes no attempt to arrest her, even though she's alone and he has both his personal goon squad and the apprentice goon squad all within 100 feet of him. Robyn, a trained Huntress, walks into a room with three Councilors, none of whom have any training or possibly even Aura, and none of the three bat an eye. They don't see her as a threat.

How is this possible when Ironwood was trying to apprehend her last episode, you may ask? Simple: he never got a warrant. He never tried to formally arrest her. He sent a team of Navy SEALs if Navy SEALs were also cops to black bag her off the street. This was a black operation, so highly classified that Atlas's highest civilian authorities didn't even know about it. Ironwood tried to kidnap his opposition in the middle of the night. There was no warrant. There was no trial. He never formally charged her with a crime. He didn't inform civilian authorities that he was issuing orders to arrest Robyn. He just sent his squad to grab her with no oversight, no accountability, and no concern for due process or the rights of the accused. Between this and the confiscation of the SDC mine for the Amity project, it's obvious that the Atlesian military regularly engages in classified operations without bothering to brief civilian authorities, which is a major red flag because civilian control of the military is meant to reduce the risk of a military coup. It's why the President of the United States is also the official commander-in-chief of the US Armed Forces. There are no such checks and balances on Ironwood.

Robyn gives no fucks about any of that. Oh, she's smart enough to put the pieces together when Ironwood's team tries to nab her and she gets invited to a party not a day later by another Councilor, but she also has testicles the size of her head and knows it's the last chance she has to help Mantle without taking on the entire Atlesian military, so she goes anyway. In addition to having massive genitals, Robyn's also smart and knows how to play politics. Notice how in both Cordially Invited and As Above, So Below, she uses the name "Atlas" instead of "Mantle". That's a deliberate choice. She knows she's the only one in that room who gives a damn about Mantle, so she frames it in terms of the part of the Kingdom the people she's appealing to will care about. It works, sort of. Once the whole scene in the mansion is over, Mantle and Atlas are presenting a united front for once and we get the last bit of hope before the climax of the Volume, but even then, the devil is in the details.

While this whole election plotline is going on, the narrative is still slipping us hints that Atlas is not to be trusted. Pietro points out that "hacking into Mantle's system would be easy. Fortunately, the rest of Atlas is running on an upgraded network" (Volume 7, Episode 7). Once again, Atlas gets the upgrades, Mantle makes do with the scraps. The heating system, which is all that keeps the people of Mantle alive in the Solitas cold, is stuck running on this outdated infrastructure, and nobody has bothered to upgrade it. Remember as well that Tyrian and Watts are successfully framing Ironwood for the murder of his political opposition. For that to work, the people of Mantle have to be so disillusioned with Atlas's rule that Ironwood using force to eliminate his political opponents is believable to people he's supposedly protecting.

Up in Atlas, Ironwood's trying to come up with a response while his robots break up groups of people trying to survive in deadly weather conditions instead of engaging the Grimm drawn by the negativity. Robyn suggests using the air fleet the way it was supposed to be fucking used in the first place, but Ironwood shuts that down when he points out that "if [he] move[s] the fleet, then Atlas is vulnerable. I… I tried to keep the kingdom safe. And now we're losing everything" (Volume 7, Episode 9). Mantle is under attack now. Mantle is vulnerable now. The troops on the ground need support now. Ironwood still refuses to deploy the fleet. His priority is still Atlas. It was always Atlas. It will always be Atlas. Mantle will never be more than an afterthought as long as Ironwood is the sole person in charge. It only ever becomes anything else during the brief moments where he reaches out and starts working alongside people who actually care about Mantle.

The battle itself, as we eventually come to expect from Atlas, is a nightmare. A massive herd of Megoliaths waltzes right into the city and the only thing stopping them are a few soldiers on the battlements and some droids standing in the hole in the wall that still hasn't been repaired. The battleships never engage anything. The battleships aren't even visible during the scenes set in Mantle... but you can sure as hell see them when we cut back to Atlas Academy. We see them right out Ironwood's window. They're still protecting what Ironwood thinks is really important, while the people in Mantle don't even have adequate shelters:

Blake: Head to the nearest shelter!

Yang: Those shelters are gonna fill up soon.

Elm: They're all we've got. We just have to hold off the Grimm.

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Protecting Mantle is a losing battle until Ironwood finally commits to evacuating everyone, and even that doesn't last long. The moment Cinder spooks him, he's ready to abandon Mantle to its fate.

To sum things up, Ironwood only ever helps Mantle when he can do so without working for it, when someone pressures him into it, and he stops doing so as soon as he can. He routinely denies his citizens essential rights, defaults to force as a solution to problems, insists on controlling everything around him, and actively believes that sacrificing his own humanity (and sacrifice in general) is the only way to beat Salem. Taking everything I've talked about into account, it's not surprising that Team RWBY doesn't trust him, nor is it surprising that some members of the audience got lured in by the reassurances the narrative offered to soothe away the fears the state of his Kingdom evokes.

This would've been even longer and maybe even had some pretty pictures, but fucking tumblr posted it before I was ready, so that's just one more reason this platform can eat shit.

#rwby #analysis #james ironwood #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #robyn hill #oscar pine

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angelltheninth · 1 year

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Gosh just imagine a slow burn romance/friendship with the turtles . I’ve been rewatching mystery shows( mostly comfort ones like scooby doo or gravity falls ) but imagine reader trying to track down the turtles going full detective on them only when their do meet ; just chaotic energy like reader and the turtles gotta work together to escape meat sweat or the turtles like playing the cat and mouse game ? Or if you want Angst /comfort turtle meet human and talk about their worries/fears 🐠

Going with angst because I'm evil.

Pairing: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo x Reader

Tags: fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, developing relationship, soothing kisses, hugs

A/N: I'm always up to deliver some hurt and comfort.

Leonardo always puts out an air of bravado and confidence but the truth is that he struggles a lot with self-esteem. Now that he's been made leader his insecurities are only ramping up, his brothers are relying on him now more then ever before. He has to step up and show that he's worthy of them. It's nice that he can finally open up about this to someone and that you're willing to tell him to remember that he can rely on his brothers too, he's not alone in this, and you're here for him too, whenever he needs it.

Donatello doesn't show much emotions to anyone and it was hard for him to open up about his insecurities to you. But you're easy to talk to, you listen to him no mater how long he goes on and you let him lean on your shoulder without trying to touch him immediately. He knows that he can help his family by using his smarts and his tech but he can't help but wonder if that's all there is to him? If he doesn't have that does he bring anything to the table? You think then maybe he should looking into other things he can do. He's very good at solving problems and he is a pretty good listener when he wants to be, he can definitely support his brothers even without his tech.

Raphael struggles with his place in his family now that he is no longer the leader. He's so used to taking care of his brothers and making sure they're all safe. But he's realizing that they don't need him as much anymore. His brothers still care about him, leader or not and they will always rely on him, maybe not in the same way but they will always need him. He can always be there to offer advice and support and comfort. And you'll give the same to him whenever he needs it because god knows he deserved it and many soothing kisses to boot.

Michelangelo has always been the sunshine of the family, the one to make everyone smile and laugh and bring their spirits up when they're down. It's rare for him not to smile but some of the recent events have made that hard. He's still in his shell when you hug him and whisper that he doesn't have to be all smiley all the time. It's okay if he's feeling down and he should let his brothers feel down every once in a while because it's natural, they all have to process their emotions first. And there are a lot of them after the invasion. There will be time to smile and laugh, but there also needs to be time to cry.

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt #rottmnt x reader #rise of the tmnt x reader #tmnt x reader #leonardo x reader #donatello x reader #raphael x reader #michelangelo x reader

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ilovebeingaturtle · 5 months

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Do you have any HC's for the Mondo Geckos of both 2012 and 1987?

EEE okay yeah sure!! This is going to be very disjointed I’m just gonna ramble as things come to my head here goes-

Starting with 87 Mondo and some random headcanons, he absolutely loves bright colours and mismatching clothes. It’s a way for him to really express himself you know? He had to learn to act tough to survive but his neon accessories and hair started as ways of rebellion almost. Once he gets settled, I think Michelangelo lets Mondo rummage around their disguises and take whatever stuff he wants that they don’t use anymore, and then even later on they take him shopping so he gets a whole WARDROBE of tacky clothes to mis and match to his content.

I think Mondo took some time to lighten up to the other turtles like he did with Michelangelo. It probably takes him the longest time to connect with Leonardo, he thinks the leader is too preachy and prissy at first. He might be reformed, but he’s no goody two shoes and I could see some conflict arising from that. Leonardo definitely proves his assumptions wrong though, and Mondo grows to have a lot of respect for him instead.

Him and Raphael have a teasing dynamic, they trade barbs frequently but it’s all in good fun. In the beginning? I could see Raphael being very distrustful of Mondo still, he’d mask it with his sarcasm but Mondo would definitely be able to tell. Raphael thought Michelangelo died because of Mondo, that terrified the turtle, but I think that resentment would be resolved once Raphael sees just how much Mondo cares for Michelangelo too. Mondo adores Michelangelo, so as long as he doesn’t hold a gun to him again, Raphael is more than okay with having someone else looking out for their goofball.

I think Mondo is still very self preservational, not really a hero type, but he’s a sweetheart when it comes down to it. It’s easy for him to maybe make a selfish choice when he has distance to it, but if it’s happening right in front of him his always morals kick in-he’ll do the right thing on impulse every time. Or if Michelangelo asks him to. He still can’t figure out how this guy manages to break his resolve every time...

I think he also likely has a degree of separation anxiety, not that he’d ever admit it. He claims to be a lone wolf but the turtles know he’ll always be nearby or in the area at all times because he doesn’t like the thought of straying too far away from them again. He probably still gets nightmares over being taken away, except nowadays they’re almost worse because he can put faces and personalities to who he might loose. There’s also the fact that he’d grown used to always being around the other criminals and working for Mr X, I think he’d likely feel directionless for a bit. Skateboarding is an escape for him, it’s freeing and he can just let everything else wash away. He can spend hours just skating and getting totally lost in it, whenever he gets overwhelmed or lashes out-the turtles know when he runs off he just needs that alone time with his board first before one of them goes to find him.

Mondo likely doesn’t know how to behave around Splinter at first, his past experience with a parental figure/authority weren’t...exactly pleasant, he’s likely uncharacteristically polite around Splinter because he doesn’t want to risk making him angry or not being allowed to hang with the turtles anymore. Splinter always assures him that’ll never happen though. Splinter probably immediately accepts Mondo as his own, which definitely doesn’t makes the gecko tear up what are you talking about-

I think once Mondo finds out how talented of a driver and motorbike rider April is, he’d think she’s so cool. He’d probably even ask her if they wanted to race at some point, April is a bit distrustful of him still, but warms up to him quick, especially after seeing how her boys have latched onto him. I do think that after the whole Dirk Savage incident Mondo becomes more skittish and distrustful of humans though, to the extent that he doesn’t even really want to be around them anymore. He’s so sick of being used and seen as lesser by them, which is why I actually? Like to imagine he goes to stay with the Punk Frogs for a while after that episode? Imagining their dynamic is just so funny to me, the frogs would be delighted to take him in and Mondo quickly discovers he’d KILL for these silly goobers, they become a little family. I do also like the idea of exploring a potential dynamic he could have with Mona Lisa, but I’ll save talking about those for the fics I’m writing with them.

As for 2012 Mondo, I uh. Honestly don’t like this version very much AHA, he feels too comedic relief-y for me to really connect with him. There’s some potential exploring his dynamic with Xever? But that’s all I got rn, sorry!!!

#my favouritism showed a little there sorry anon AGAJAH #I do also need to rewatch 2012 Mondo’s episode soon tho so maybe I’ll have thoughts then!

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quicksweetdreamer · 2 years

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Leonardo and not trying in fear of failing… or succeeding : an essay by your local psychology student.

It is now 1AM, my family’s asleep and it’s time for my brain to analyse every bit of the characterisation of my dear boy in blue in the ROTTMNT movie. (Which was so good.)

Let’s go!

Most of us have heard of the concept of not trying in fear of failing: basically someone will unconsciously be so afraid of the possibility of failing at something and be so unable to take that possible hit to their fragile self that they won’t (or won’t be able to) put any effort in doing the thing. Because failing at something you never tried to succed at hurts much less than failing at something you put effort in. You see this kind of behavior a lot in students, and they can end up droping school altogether if they don’t strengthen their self and learn that failing is ok, a normal part of everybody’s life and doesn’t mean your intrinsically bad.

Leonardo definitely has some of that; if he doesn’t try to come up with a genius plan for this mission, then if it fails it won’t hurt as much. AND if it succeeds, it will be only because of his instinct, talent and wits and it will boost his ego. Win-Win! (I will add that I don’t think he really consciously realises that he does that, because when there isn’t exterior pressure for him to make a plan, he’s able to make extremely efficient and brilliant plans.)

But there’s another aspect of this behavior that can seem a lot less logical: not trying in fear of succeeding. Yes, this can seem conterintuitive, but there’s logic behind that too.

Say you want to enter this prestigious school, but you need to make it through the selection so you make big efforts and you work hard and you pass the exams and get to the selection and… you get in! Yay! Hurray you!

But… now that you have reached that standard… you must keep up with it. By meeting your goal you have shown you can achieve a higher level of productivity and success than ever before and you might now feel a lot of pressure to maintain this level all the time. That’s a big change in your life. One that will probably be accompanied by other big changes and questions (ex. What’s your new goal now that you’ve achieved this one? If it’s a new school, will you have to move away? Will your friends and family be close?)

And if there’s one thing that’s scary it’s the unknown and change.

Now to come back to our favorite boy in blue, if he starts to come up with plans and they work, then people (and himself) will start to assume he’s always gonna be able to make good plans and come up with startegies and that’s a whole lot more pressure than succeeding at an exam because it comes with heavier responsibilities. Like the life of his team.

Responsibilities his big brother has always carried before. Not him, not really. And he sees how heavy they weight on Raph, how much he worries and as much as he makes fun of his "Raph chasm", Leo knows that if he takes the leadership, he’ll gain all those worries and responsibilities in addition to the pressure of meeting this new standard and it scares him.

So he doesn’t plan, he wings it. He doesn’t listen to the worries he avoids them. He doesn’t try and takes nothing seriously. He’s scared.

And that’s also why he very much needed to learn to rely on his team. Because no leader is perfect, no leader can have foolproof plans 100% of the time and sometimes they fail and sometimes they can’t come up with a plan and need ideas from their team (a good leader should always listen to their team anyway and they made it clear) and sometimes they can’t protect everyone and that’s ok because they’re humans. (Or mutant turtles in some cases… my point still stands.)

Humans are imperfect and that’s why they aren’t alone.

They need people to rely on sometimes.

And I’m so glad Leo learned that, because that’s the first step towards being a good leader and the first step away from those fears that hold him down.

(I love this image because Leo looks very happy but also a little scared; he still has so much to learn and it’s all so new for him and of course it’s scary but he’s also with his family and he knows they will support and help him. Thank you animators for such top notch facial expressions.)

#rottmnt #rottmnt movie #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles movie #rottmnt movie spoilers #rottmnt leonardo #rottmnt raph #long post #my post #I love leonardo a normal amount #which his with every fiber of my being like any normal person should #hey it’s been a while since I’ve analysed a characters psyche #the movie has been my muse #it was so good and now I feel even deeper sorrow at the idea we could never get another season….#I SO wish the movie will do good and nick will finally decide to renew it #also it’s almost 2AM and I REALLY need to sleep…#I hope my English isn’t too bad in this post XD

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wolfieenaiisblog · 2 years

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THESE hot men have taken over my life

hello, 9-1-1 these men have taken over my life. hey guys it's me Nai and if you didn't know I'm obsessed with sexy men just kidding. I was just hanging out this week and I was like wow I kind of have a grand master list of who I've been obsessed with so I thought hmm I wonder if someone is interested at all and every man that's taken over my life ever. I wrote down from like the age of six who and what guy I've liked all the way up to now I'm 16 and the list has gotten pretty long so I wrote it down in a notebook. I just want to share some of my memories and my thought process behind the men that I've been obsessed with because once a fangirl always a fangirl.

The first person I remember being obsessed with was around the 2013 era when I was seven years old and a guy that rapped songs on youtube called Mattyb. he was my Justin Bieber. Now when I was younger I used to think Mattyb was cute. I just remembered watching and being like he's so cute and I used to pretend he was my boyfriend and like play imaginary you know with your friends and that's my first memory of having like a crush Maybe like Jack Frost, Peter Pan, Danny Phantom I don't know but I'm not getting into cartoons like I kind of opted that one out because obviously, Aladdin was super hot too okay I told myself not to get into cartoons so I'm gonna go to 2014.

Okay in 2014 a little movie called The aliens in the attic, you probably think I liked Tom Pearson well I do not like Tom Pearson I like Jake Pearson that was the phrase I went through. I remember watching the aliens in the attic and my mom was like why are you rewatching that movie again and I was like I'm in love.

I was also obsessed with the little band called one direction, the boy that never left my heart was harry styles. I loved all their songs I and my sister will always listen to their songs and dance along to them.

I remember watching a show called henry danger where I was obsessed with Jace Norman. I had my eyes set on that blonde guy I was in love with him, but that obsession didn't die down all the way to 2016.

I had my eyes on Finn Wolfhard when I have seen him on stranger things, I love him with my whole heart, and I still have an obsession with him to this day, I watched all the movies he was in, and he had my ten-year-old heart still have it.

And then I was obsessed with Rodrick Heffley, he is so hot and I really like him still. That's when my bad boy phrase kicked in it was around 2017 and you know what else happened in 2017 I had a crush on Dylan O'fucking brein baby. I remembered watching teen wolf with my mother and while my friends crushed on Scott Mcall I was like Stiles.

My weirdest crush was MGk, I regretted liking I still feel embarrassed every time someone mentioned him to me. and fucking Pete Davidson I don't know what the fuck I saw in them but whatever I am so glad that crushed died down cause that was embarrassing for 12-year-old me.

and then Timothee Chalamet walked into my life I still have a crush on him by the way, he will always have my heart. I really liked this man I still have the fattest crush on him to this day, he is like my everything you know.

well you think it stopped there well you are wrong, they are also a lot of men that I liked but I am too lazy to put them all. But anyhoo a show called Outerbanks I was obsessed with JJ Maybank, he is like my other half basically. I remembered watching him and I was like shit I am gonna fall in love with him right.

Then I started watching a show called the society and I was obsessed with a guy who was psychotic and evil, his name was Campbell Eliot, yes I know he was a psychopath but he had a good-looking face alright.

And then I watched a show called heathers, and I vowed to myself don't fall in love, I fell in love with Jason Fucking Dean, yeah that's right another psychopath.

I think we all girls had a phrase where they were obsessed with Leonardo Dicaprio, I binged watched all his movies, Jack Dawson had my fucking heart.

Then I started watching a show called deadly class and I was obsessed with Marcus Lopez's underrated show. You should definitely check it out.

Then I watched a show called "I am not okay with this" as I was watching it, I looked at the screen and that's when I fall in love with Wyatt Oleff, I would rewatch it for almost a whole week cause of how much I loved him and I was waiting for season two. Netflix cancelled the show.

Then I was bored outta my mind and that's when I started simping over billy Loomis I rewatched the show for the second time and I realized how hot he really was.

And then I watched a movie called concrete cowboy starring Caleb Mclaughlin, and I am sitting there like when did he get so fine and that's when the obsession began.

Then one of my friends told me to watch a show called hemlock grove, where I fell in love with Bill Skarsgard I didn't know what he looked like and sounded like in real life out of the clown pennywise so when I watched it I was like omg when did Pennywise get so fine like shit.

and now in 2022, I was obsessed with Fezco from Euphoria, I watched edits of him.

Timothee Chalamet seemed to walk back in my life, where I binged watch all his movies watched edits of him, talking about him 24/7.

Stranger things season 4, Peter Ballard/henry creel/001/ vecna aka Jamie Campbell Bower. I fell in love with him without knowing he was the bad guy, I kinda knew he was but I was ignoring it because I didn't wanna believe that he could be so evil.

Joesph Quinn as Eddie Munson I love him so much sad that he had to die I am still mad at the duffer brothers.

And what do you know Elvis came out, and my austin butler phrase was back in. I watched the movie at least a total of 10 times. I'm obsessed with the guy now like really obsessed with him. Austin Butler is the love of my life literally.

and I have more crushes like Johnny Depp, Drew Starkey, Tom Holland, and more.

I feel like these last few months have just been a rollercoaster with Henry Creel coming into stranger things his real name is Jamie Campbell Bower.

Harry Styles, of course, that never goes away. Timothee Chalamet, these are people I just probably never get over I think Austin Butler is one of them too and it is getting really overwhelming for me I had to write this down not for your sake I know in the beginning I said you guys are interested but I feel like I had to get this off my chest it's gotten out of hand I've seen the Elvis movie for the tenth time. I don't know when this comes out I have seen it. It's only been a few days since I have seen it you know.

Stranger things season four finished, Timothee Chalamet will always be Timothee chalamet, I want the old Rodrick back it's just getting really out of hand. I pledge allegiance to all the men that have taken over my life.

Now I know that there are people I missed so if you want to help me with my grand master list of every person that's taken over my life comment down below or I know sure as hell if you are reading this someone has taken over your life so comment down below who that person is and we can talk about it I can agree and I can disagree we can agree to disagree give this post a like and follow me and I think for all the men that have taken over my life just for their sake I think it's time to skedaddle. thanks for reading this long ass rant

#all of the men i've loved #these men have taken over my life #stranger things #elvis #timothee chalamet #harrystyles #austinbutler #eddie munson #finn wolfhard #bill skarsgard #campbell eliot

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dustedmagazine · 17 days

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Listed: IMustBe Leonardo

IMustBe Leonardo is a Berlin-based songwriter who has been making his oddball songs since around 2016. His latest album, Not To Be Scared of Weekend, is a self-recorded delight, entirely unfettered by commercial considerations — with one song that asks the eternal question, “Why should...you need god…when you have Kim Gordon?” Writing about it, Jennifer Kelly said, “About half the tracks are hand-made rock songs, bolstered by clicky drum tracks and ravaged guitar tones. The other half are the maddest, most surreal campfire songs you ever heard, gently strummed but extremely odd.” Leonardo wrote us one of the nicest — and longest — thank you notes we’ve ever received at Dusted, so of course we asked him for a Listed.

Nina Simone — An Artist's Duty

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What she says in these 51 seconds, the way she asks that question at the end — everything is there.

Typhoon — Sympathetic Magic

This album was released in January 2021. Kyle Morton is a poet and a great songwriter. His notes to the album tell all you need to know: “The songs are about people — the space between them and the ordinary, miraculous things that happen there, as we come into contact, imitate each other, leave our marks, lose touch. Being self and other somehow amounting to the same thing.” He played a solo gig in Berlin, on June 17, 2023. I asked him to play my favorite song, “And So What If You Were Right.” He did it. He said it was the first time he played it in public. That was a gift.

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha — Ballad Of A White Cow

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There is almost only love in this movie, and all that love leads only to suffering. It terrifies me to see how often “doing the right thing” and well-intended lies destroy good people’s lives.

Emma Ruth Rundle — Engine of Hell

This album is a pulsing heart in the shape of a songwriter sitting in front of us, playing piano or classical guitar, and singing her story. “I wanted to be close to the listener and be whispering to you. I wanted to be close on an emotional level. Because I wanted to connect with myself on an emotional level, ” she said about this record. It takes courage to do this. It also takes a little bit of courage to stay in front of her and look at her fragile, invincible grace. Sonny Diperri, who recorded and produced this terrific record, is a great sound engineer and a lucky guy.

Christian Petzold — Undine

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Art is proof that people can find infinite ways to create beauty, as long as they believe they truly need to love. Undine is a work of art. It not only is a truly original, touching movie about love. It is an act of love, made by people who can’t stand living in a society willing to humiliate and lose it.

Vic Chesnutt — At The Cut

Maybe one day our species will ignore what anguish is, and we will not even be allowed to mention the word. Someone will consider this “progress.” I don't see any progress in not feeling moved by what Vic Chesnutt — and every person involved in those sessions — did in this album.

Aki Kaurismaki — Ariel

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I love Kaurismaki's cinema. I’m mentioning Ariel here just because it is probably my favorite... today. (For the record, it contains the best bank robbery scene in the film history.) If I ask myself why I love his movies so much, one reason I can put into words is that all his characters are condemned to the tragic and funny punishment of knowing what truly makes human beings happy. They are such stuff as the Tramp is made on.

This Mortal Coil — Blood

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I put this album in my CD player recently, after several years, and started listening to it with the state of mind of someone who’s going to meet an ex-lover and is scared of not feeling anything. I was wrong. It still asks me the same beautiful question: “Did you really think you knew which kind of songs you like?”

Hirokazu Kore-eda — Shoplifters

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I see Kore-eda as a sort of photo reporter who goes around and, almost by mistake, takes poetic pictures of fragments of happiness that — tomorrow — will not be there anymore. Laws were supposed to be instruments by which people pursued well-being. This movie shows how society rules are sometimes not ready to handle real life. They can end up killing what they should preserve, and it looks like a frighteningly stupid scenario.

New Pollution — Kiss The System

New Pollution is not just a band — it’s a no-filter attitude. They're the most contemporary group I know. I cannot imagine someone attending a New Pollution gig and not getting captured. There is spontaneity and freedom in everything they do — on stage and online. They keep releasing whatever they record (concerts, demos, soundtracks, studio sessions) and mocking all the show business rules. Nowadays musicians — indie ones more than others — are like bank clerks, each one with their daily plans: x hours of social media, x hours emails to labels, x hours emails to magazines... Music seems to be the last thing you should care about — and you're supposed to be a musician! New Pollution they don't care. “Revolution was your spare time,” they sing. I think Patrick Jessop has an instinctive awareness of how ephemeral existence is and I hope he never loses it.

#dusted magazine #listed #imustbe leonardo #nina simone #typhoon #maryam moghaddam #behtash sanaeeha #emma ruth rundle #christian petzold #vic chesnutt #aki kaurismaki #this mortal coil #hirokazu kore eda #new pollution

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briamichellewrites · 1 year

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Brad was extremely proud of his daughter. Awards shows could be stressful but she was handling everything like a champ! While walking down the red carpet, they stopped to do a couple of interviews with reporters. She spoke to the reporters as if they were friends she hadn’t seen in a while. He could imagine how nervous she was, though she didn’t show it. One reporter helped her when her walker got stuck on some power cables. Thank you!

Going up the stairs into the theater was difficult, so she took his arm, while he grabbed her walker. He was amazed by how many people offered to help his daughter because she was disabled. She graciously thanked them. During the show, he looked over at her every once in a while and saw a look of complete happiness. Her eyes lit up in a way they hadn’t for over a year. This was one of her dreams to come true.

She wanted to be there and he had made it happen. Growing up, she never asked for anything from him. Even after realizing who he was. It made him realize how well he had done as a father. She was one of the least spoiled kids anyone could ever know. He introduced her to movie stars like George Clooney, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, and Leonardo DiCaprio but their fame never impressed her. The only time he had seen her freak out was when she met Bon Jovi.

He hoped to raise Shiloh the same way. Besides Cate Blanchett, who was her favorite person that she met? Robin Williams. He had been part of her childhood in his role as the Genie in Aladdin and never in a million years, did she think she would meet him! They talked about her dogs: Bruce and Freddie. He thought she was a joy to talk to and very outgoing.

At some point during the night, she took off her wig and set it aside on the table. Her head was feeling warm, so she had to cool down. She then got up because she had to use the bathroom. He got up with her and walked with her. After making sure she got in, he waited outside. He took out his phone and sent Anna a text to check-in. It was eight in the evening, so she had put Shiloh down for the night and was thinking of going to bed herself. He knew her routine well enough to know where she was.

Shiloh was experiencing new emotions, which often led to her having tantrums. He and Anna were doing their best to help her. Their parents joked that she was just getting a head start on the terrible twos. They heard that toddlers were the hardest age group because they were learning how to manage their emotions.

It was only three years, right? As tired as they were, they didn’t regret anything about having Shiloh. She was learning new things every day and he loved watching her explore her world. It reminded him of Elliot and how curious she was about everything. Speaking of, he checked the time as a woman asked if he was waiting for someone.

“I’m waiting for my daughter. Can you see if she’s okay, please? She has a walker.”

“Yeah, I can do that. What’s her name?”

“Elliot. Thank you.”

Yeah, she was okay. When she came out, he asked what happened. Her walker decided it didn’t agree with the floor. They went back to where they had been sitting. Around midnight, he took her home. Mike had driven to pick them up and they met him outside. After she got into the front seat, they folded up her walker and put it into the back with Brad. They were both tired but so happy they had gone! Was it a dream come true? Yes, it was!

She would remember it forever! They had to return her dress, purse, and wig but they could do that after a good night’s sleep. Mike and Phoenix couldn’t wait to hear all about it! He congratulated her on beating cancer! How did she feel? It was like all of the stress had completely washed away from the past couple of years. She could work on her physical therapy and focus on figuring out her next steps.

She was eighteen years old, so she was officially an adult. It felt weird because she had wanted to be eighteen for years but it didn’t feel much different than seventeen. He reminded her to take it one step at a time. Don’t rush trying to get back to normal. She just fought cancer for two years. Nobody was expecting her to pick up where she left off right away. The first thing she wanted to do was get into her pajamas and sleep! They laughed.

The next day, Phoenix and Mike came over. Because she was doing much better, they started talking about having a baby together. They discussed hiring a surrogate or adoption. Whichever they chose, she would be a part of the process as their honorary daughter. They found her in her kitchen eating lunch while the dogs played in the living room.

How were the Oscars? Amazing! She couldn’t remember all of it! Was it what she thought it would be? Yes, and more! She met Robin Williams, Cate Blanchett, and Emmy Rossum. How was meeting Robin Williams? He was just as wonderful in real life! She had nothing but wonderful things to say about him! They talked about Matt and her dogs. Why did they talk about Matt? Because Robin had done a movie with him back in the nineties.

“Good Will Hunting.”

“Oh, yeah! I forgot about that movie”, Phoenix said.

“I’m pretty sure it won a bunch of awards. That’s my proud Matt Damon fact.”

They laughed. Brad got Shiloh out of her crib. She put her head on his shoulder as they walked down to the kitchen. They were going to let mommy sleep in. Her hair was all over the place. He tried to smooth it out with his hand but it didn’t work. It would have to be combed later. She put her hand on her head. That’s your head. Where’s dada’s head? She put her hand on his head. Good job! She clapped.

After breakfast, they went back upstairs to play. They didn’t have to go anywhere, so they could stay in their pajamas for a while. He set up a toy a little out of her reach because he wanted to see if she would crawl to it. She pointed to it because she wanted it. After getting on her hands and knees, she rocked back and forth. One step at a time. He watched as she finally figured out how to move her legs and crawl across to her toy. Oh my god! She put pointed at him with the toy in her little fist.

Anna got to watch after waking up around eight-thirty. He put her down on the floor and they both encouraged her to crawl to mommy. She smiled and crawled over to her. Anna excitedly picked her up and kissed her little cheek! After six months, she had finally crawled! Shiloh clapped her hands, making them clap too. Yay! Now, they had to baby-proof the house.

After lunch, they told her their news. Oh my god! She couldn’t wait for a mini Mike and Phoenix! Were they thinking about adopting? They weren’t sure yet because they were also looking into hiring a surrogate. She couldn’t do it because she was infertile, though she would love to. They understood. Would she want to be a part of the process? Yeah! She would love that! They thought she would.

With the band taking a break, it seemed like the perfect time to do it. That’s three good things! She didn’t care what happened next because she was too happy! Phoenix jokingly reminded her she had physical therapy the next day. God damn it, she joked back. They laughed.

@zoeykaytesmom @feelingsofaithless @alina-dixon

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therenlover · 3 years

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One Last Night In Madripoor (An 18+ Helmut Zemo/Reader Oneshot)

Synopsis: Baron Helmut Zemo is a lonely, wanted man looking for some fun, you’re a piss-poor bounty hunter in search of a connection before leaving your life of crime behind, and fate has brought you together at a party the likes of which has never been seen before. You only have one night left in Madripoor, so why not take a chance?

Tags: Smut, SoftDom!Zemo, Hook Up, Semi-Public Sex, Drinking, Safe Sex, Explicit Consent, First Meeting, Wall Sex, Blow Jobs, Cunnilingus

Rating: 18+

Warnings: Swearing, Explicit Sexual Content

Word Count: 4200~

This fic has been crossposted under the same title to my AO3!

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Madripoor was a place like nothing you had ever seen.

It wasn’t that the sights were anything special. You could find seedy criminal underbellies lined with neon where the streets ran red with blood anywhere if you looked hard enough. Even the ocean view didn’t do much to set it apart from any other place visually. No, Madripoor’s scenery and architecture weren’t what kept your eyes wide with wonder whenever you found yourself wandering through the winding back-alleys without a purpose. It was the people that kept you around.

Thieves, pirates, and miscreants had been taking shelter at the docks since before anyone there could remember. It was a city borne of the underbelly of society, the people nobody sees, but you saw them. You saw them every day when you stood in the main market waiting for an easy bounty. There were faces everywhere; big and small, tall and short, scarred and flawless. No two people in the streets of Madripoor were ever exactly alike. If you needed to remember someone, their unique face was right there waiting in your mind.

After living on the island for almost 6 months, most people were already cataloged neatly in your mind as friend or foe. This man, though, he was new. He was different.

The night was still young. There was some trouble at the Princess Bar that ended with Selby dead and a few murderers loose in the streets with a price on their heads, but you steered clear. Going after the killers meant going up against hundreds if not thousands of trained bounty hunters and assassins and no amount of money was worth dying over now, not while you were so close to freedom. Instead of chasing your doom, you decided to head to your room, get dressed up, and head out to wherever the music was loudest in search of a place to forget about your problems for the night. The thudding sounds of poorly DJ-ed club remixes led you to Leonardo’s Place. That’s where you found him.

You were two drinks in and sticking close to the wall when he stumbled into your line of sight. What initially caught your eye was his dancing. He couldn’t move for shit. What kept your attention, though, was his face.

There was transience to him, like at any moment someone could bump into him and he would disappear without a trace at their touch. Despite that he was gaudy. Everything about his clothing screamed wealth and fine taste from the thread count of his obnoxious purple turtleneck to the shine on his boots. He was strange, a walking contradiction, and one who had never had the pleasure of gracing your presence or screwing you over in the past. In the simplest of terms, he intrigued you. With nothing left to lose you downed the last of your cocktail and made your way to the gap in the crowd where the stranger had staked his claim. It was game time.

“You come here alone?” You asked. Your voice was barely a whisper above the heavy thrumming of the music.

He gave you a long look up and down before answering as if he were trying to size you up. Something about having his gaze linger on your body made your heartbeat soar. “I’m not looking for company,” His accented tone was gruff but left a sliver of room for reconsideration. You took the chance. What could go wrong?

With as much tact and grace as you could muster you let yourself slip a little closer to him. “What, do I look too expensive for you?” you teased, before backing off with a grin, “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m not here for that. My job is a little more… dangerous.” As you danced, the hem of your dress rode up your thigh just enough to reveal the knife holster in your garter belt. It pleased you greatly to see this handsome stranger do a double-take; that meant he was looking at your upper thigh in the first place. “I just liked what I saw in you… do you like what you see in me?”

Somehow, your little joke had endeared him to you, however minutely. Instead of brushing you off the man paused his jerky dancing for a moment to really take you in. Then, he caved. “Would you like a drink?” He asked.

You smirked. “Who would I be if I turned down a free drink from a handsome stranger,”

He met you in the middle as he offered you his hand. “I never promised it would be free,”

So, the two of you found yourselves at the bar, bodies leaned into each other and away from the rest of the sweltering crowd as the bartender slid you your order. The stranger was drinking a brandy straight while you opted for a sidecar. It was enough alcohol that you were starting to feel pretty buzzed, but you still felt in full control of yourself. You took a long sip before speaking. “So, what should I call you?”

It took him a moment to respond but once he did, he seemed sure of himself. “You can call me Helmut, but Baron is fine as well,”

You cocked up an eyebrow. “Is that a nickname?”

“More of a title,”

He took a drink as you gawked. “Like royalty?”

“Not like. I am,”

Your cheeks flushed. The rational part of your mind was so stunned by the ease with which Helmut lied that it seemed to short circuit completely, leaving you very puzzled and more than a little intrigued. “Well, pardon me, Mr. Baron. What’s royalty like you doing in a place like this?”

“There are plenty of reasons a man like me would have business here. A woman as beautiful as you, though… not so much,” he waved his hand in loose gestures as he spoke, “Why risk your life and beauty for this? A life living in the underground where you cannot so much as dream of seeing the stars?”

You finished your drink in one large swig. It burned down your throat but you relished in the pain. “Not all of us are lucky enough to be born in a place where we can see the stars. Funny enough, though, I’m just about to get out,”

“Is that right?”

“I finally saved up enough money from small jobs to buy my way out from under the Power Broker’s thumb,” Something about the way Helmut smiled at you made you feel safe. It was like you could tell him your worst, darkest secrets and not feel an ounce of fear or guilt. “I’m nothing special here, a small-time bounty hunter, and I kept it that way for a reason. I’m not valuable and I don’t know much. If I just pay my dues and keep the money coming until I can get their claws out of my back, I should be free to leave with a freighter tomorrow morning,”

Helmut was quick to respond. “Ah, travel by freighter. It’s terribly dangerous to be a stowaway, you know? Impossible to predict quite what the seas will be like,”

“Well, that’s just a risk I’ll have to take to get out of here and stop… what was it that you said I was doing? Risking my life and beauty?”

The two of you chuckled as Helmut took one last drink to empty his glass. Then, the conversation stilled. Around you people were alive, gyrating to the music as their pulses thumped to the beat, but it was like they weren’t even there. Instead, your whole being was focused on the strange man in front of you who had stolen away your sensibilities with his cool tone and thick accent. He made you feel alive. No, more than alive. Every color was brighter, every sound was sharper, every sip of your drink was crisper. He was a once-in-a-lifetime man, and this was a once-in-a-lifetime night. Oh, to hell with it!

“I like you, Baron,” you purred, pressing yourself close to him. His breath hitched the moment you touched him. He acted as if it had been a very long time since he was last touched like that. “And I think you like me too. In fact, I think you like me enough that we should take this conversation somewhere a little more private. What do you say?”

He didn’t respond. Instead, his gloved hand made its way around your wrist, and in a moment’s time, he was pulling you across the crowded dance floor towards a small, secluded hallway. You assumed that meant yes.

The instant you made it to the shelter of the shadows Helmut was on you like a man starved. One of his hands was quick to explore the skin just above the hem of your dress as the other pressed against the wall, caging you in and holding you as a more than willing hostage to his affections. He didn’t kiss your face, and you weren’t complaining about that, but he did put his mouth to good use sucking a dark bruise into your collarbone. His ministrations only stopped when a high, keening sound escaped your lips.

“You like that, don’t you, meine kleine schlampe?” he growled through gritted teeth. Something about his tone turned your already weak legs to jelly. The second you went limp in his grip, though, he pulled back. Straightening himself out, he offered you a steadying arm. You took it without hesitation. “I’m terribly sorry to be so rude. I assure you that I am not usually the type of man to hook up with someone on a whim, I’ve simply been… indisposed for many years and haven’t had many opportunities for pleasure, especially not with a woman as beautiful as you,”

His compliment was enough to have you blushing like a schoolgirl. You had killed more people than you could reasonably count, and probably fucked even more, but something about the way Helmut looked and sounded and acted made you feel almost innocent to his advances. He was a drug and you needed to get your fix before he disappeared forever.

“Does that mean you think I’m special?” You asked, all doe eyes with an innocent smile. Helmut ate it right up.

“Yes, schatzi. Very special,”

You hitched a leg up, letting your heel dig into his expensive dress pants and drag him closer to you once again. “First your little slut and now your little treasure? Which one is it, Helmut?”

“And so smart,”

“Move, Baron!”

At your insistence, Helmut was on you once again, leaving a trail of hot, wet kisses down your neck as he fiddled with his gloves, yanking them off and shoving them in his back pocket before he continued. “So demanding,” he chided, and yet he continued to lavish you with affection, his hand climbing higher and higher up your thigh. Your back was pressed flush to the wall now, and you were painfully aware of just how warm Helmut was. He smelled like a rich man’s cologne and yet his skin tasted of cheap soap when you leaned in to give him a bruise of his own.

“You love it,” you replied. He let out a husky laugh.

“I suppose I do,” he chuckled, and then his fingers brushed over your core. Your knees buckled. Helmut kept you upright with his body as he continued to taunt you through your underwear, but he seemed more confident now, almost cocky. “My needy schatzi, have you no patience?”

Your response was breathless; a confession.

“Not with you,”

Something about your words lit a fire in Helmut’s eyes. In an instant he had your leg hiked up while he ground his hardened length against your clothed wetness. Your mind went blank. He felt big. A mindless whimper fell from your lips.

“How do you want me?” Helmut asked. As he spoke he ran a light finger down your elevated thigh. You offered up another whimper. “I’ll need you to use your words and tell me what you want or I can’t give it to you,” His tone had you wet enough that you worried you were dripping.

With a gulp, you managed to fumble out the words. “I’ll blow you first if you promise to fuck me,”

That had him grinning like a wolf. “Perhaps you are my little schlampe, so eager to get down on your knees for me…” And you were. Even on shaky legs, you found yourself happily falling to your knees as the Baron fumbled with his fly. It was only then that you found yourself gazing down the hall towards the cacophony of lights and sounds and people maybe 20 feet away from your hiding place in the shadows. As if he could sense your discomfort, Helmut paused. “Are you alright?”

You nodded quickly. “I just forgot we were out in the open for a second,”

“Do you want to stop? If the location is the problem, I would gladly pause so we can find a new hideaway,” he stopped short, looking down and meeting your heavily lidded gaze, “or perhaps the idea of putting on a show excites you?” Your heart jumped out of your chest. Helmut noticed. “Well, if my little schlampe is so keen on putting on a show, she should get a move on,”

That was your cue to get to work. In a swift motion, you finished unzipping his fly and shifted his boxers, letting his lovely cock spring free. It was a pleasant penis and far as they went, average in length but thick with a leaking purple tip at half-mast. Just looking at it made you clamp your legs together.

Slowly, you gave a tentative lick up the underside of his length. He felt heavy on your tongue in the best of ways. Helmut jerked upward, a man possessed. You couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s been a long time, huh?”

“Less talking, more working little schlam-” you cut Helmut off quickly by taking most of his length into his mouth. That seemed to shut him up. His wolf-like grin had dissolved into a slack-jawed mess the second you started to suck him off. Oh, this was going to be fun.

For the most part, the Baron let you set the pace, bobbing your head and taking as much of his length as you comfortably could, but after a short while his hands were buried in your hair as he fought the urge to buck into your throat, hard. With a particularly rough snap of his hips, Helmut pulled away.

“You are an angel from heaven, schatzi,” he groaned, pulling himself slowly from your mouth as you got your first good deep breath in a while, “but a deal is a deal, and it wouldn’t be quite fair if I got to have all the fun, now would it?” Your breath hitched in your throat. Finally time for the main event.

Helmut was surprisingly gentle with you as he offered you a hand and helped you back up, only pausing to wipe a line of dribble off your chin with his thumb. With anyone else, it would have felt wholly humiliating but with Helmut… well, it did things to you you would rather not admit. You quirked up an eyebrow, though, when he got on his knees in turn, mirroring your past position. “What are you doing, Baron?”

“I simply assumed my sweet schatzi would enjoy a reward for taking my cock so well,” his words had you biting your lip as your cheeks flushed, “now be a good girl and take what I give you. I want to hear those pretty noises you made earlier,” With that, his face disappeared under your skirt. He pulled down your panties and… snickered?

“What now?” you groaned, squirming as his hot breath hit your exposed nub.

“You’re sopping wet,” he replied. Out of habit, you moved to shut your legs but found Helmut’s large hand was holding them open. “I do enjoy being sandwiched between your thighs, but you shouldn’t hide yourself from me. Take your pleasure. You’ve earned it,” That was when he began his assault on your folds.

You had been with plenty of partners over the years, all with varying proficiencies when it came to giving pleasure, but no one had ever made you feel quite as good as Helmut did while you gripped his hair and rode his face with reckless abandon. He always hit just the right spot, alternating between sucking on your sensitive clit and running his rough tongue in sloppy circles against it. In no time flat your pleasure was building toward’s its peak as your knees trembled.

“Helmut,” you squeaked, “Helmut I’m gonna cuuuUUOH!”

You were suddenly thrown over the edge of pleasure as the Baron worked you open with his fingers, pressing that spot inside of you just right. It was a revelation. Nothing would ever compare to him and you hadn’t even fucked yet. Once you had regained some semblance of stability he emerged from his place between your thighs, face slick with your juices, wearing the expression of a cat that got the cream.

“You make such lovely sounds for me, schatzi,” Helmut groaned, rising from his place at your feet and reaching into his pocket. While he fumbled for a condom you took the time to actually remove your panties, lifting one shaky leg at a time before balling them up and tossing them on the ground. You could grab them later. Or not! In all honesty, your ruined undies were the last thing on your mind as your watched Helmut roll the condom onto his proud cock, pumping himself a few times. “Now, are you sure you want this?”

You had never felt more sober in your whole life despite the drinks you’d downed earlier.

“God, yes,”

“Wonderful,”

He caged you into his body once again, lining himself up on your slick folds, and then with a pronounced bite against your collarbone, he was entering you. It wasn’t painful or uncomfortable, you just felt full, like a missing piece of your body had been completed. For the first few thrusts, you were too blissed out to really take note of anything around you, but once you tuned back into the world of the living you realized Helmut was talking. Well, babbling was more like it. He seemed to simply be speaking his stream of consciousness into your ear as he pistoned in and out of you like a madman. There was a jilted rhythm to it, but the abnormality kept you on your toes.

“I won’t be letting you go any time soon, schatzi, and definitely not on some dank freighter like a rat from the gutters. No, you will travel with me. Once I help my friends and slip away from the front lines I can take you anywhere your little heart desires. Paris, Vienna, Australia… Mein Gott, what a sweet cunt,”

Any sane woman, after hearing his sex-drunken musings, would have run. They would have heard the wild ramblings of a madman and left after their little fling was done to never see him again. It was only rational. He didn’t even know your real name. Sane women didn’t run away with strangers claiming to be barons they hooked up with in a seedy club selling stolen Van Goghs in a hub of the criminal underworld.

The only thing was, though, that you weren’t a sane woman.

You were a killer, a child left in the streets to live or die who had scraped themselves together and dragged themselves towards life. So what if the idea of some rich mysterious benefactor with a good dick coming in to save the day sounded fantastic? It was fantastic. Like your own personal version of Pretty Woman. Even if he wasn’t as rich as he claimed to be, being poor and getting dicked down by him was better than being poor and alone.

For just a moment, and with no regrets, you let yourself get lost in the fantasy and just let go.

It was as if Helmut could sense a difference.

“Are you close, little schlampe?” He gasped, letting his thrusts take on a faster staccato rhythm.

You could do little more than moan and nod as he pounded you into the wall. That seemed to be enough for him to get the message, though.

“What a good girl,” he purred. His mouth was so close to your ear, his hot breath tickling the sensitive flesh with each heaving breath he took. As he chased his own climax, he brought a hand between your bodies and rubbed tight, wet circles around your clit. It was already sensitive, your body was only barely recovering from your first orgasm, and yet something about the overstimulation was thrilling, like racing towards an impossible dream. With a shout, you came for the second time, melting into Baron Helmut’s arms as he quickly followed.

The two of you stayed there, slumped against the cool wall and still connected by your dripping sexes, for a few moments, breathing heavy. Surprisingly, you were the first to speak.

“Wow,” you breathed, letting a soft laugh escape your lips.

Helmut returned the sentiment. “You were wonderful,” In a strange moment of intimacy, he pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead, but then he pulled out, tying off the full condom and tossing it to the ground as he tucked himself back into his boxers and zipped up his fly.

“Are you just gonna leave that there?” you made a gesture towards his litter.

“They have janitors,”

A burbling laugh escaped from your lips. “That they do,”

Back in the main room of the party, the crowd had only grown larger as the night progressed. Nobody had seen you, nor had they noticed your cries as they danced and drank and made merry under the neon lights. You were, for all intents and purposes, invisible at Helmut’s side. Within and without. There was something exhilarating about knowing he was the only one that truly saw you in a room packed with hundreds. It was like something out of a twisted fairytale.

“So…” you broached the subject gently while you pulled down your dress to protect your modesty, “Did you mean what you said back there about Paris and Vienna, or…”

“Oh, you heard that?”

You snickered. “It was pretty hard not to with you breathing in my ear,”

“I apologize,” he leaned against the wall beside you, shoulder to shoulder in the darkness, “but yes, I meant what I said. I-”

Suddenly, from down the hall, a booming voice interrupted your moment.

“There you are!”

“Goddamnit, Zemo, I thought we told you to stay low not hire an escort,”

There, at the mouth of the hallway, stood two massive men. They were obviously displeased, and though their faces were obscured by the lights you could tell you weren’t the one they were after.

They called him Zemo… where had you heard that name before?

Helmut stepped away from the wall with a shrug. “At least I didn’t cause a scene by forgetting to put my phone on silent,”

The larger of the two men stayed where he was, while the other walked to meet the Baron in the middle.

“I swear to God, man, you’ve gotten ten times more insufferable since I learned you were rich.

The Baron shrugged. “It comes with the territory,”

“But you don’t have to be such a jackass about it,”

You felt it was a good time to chime in.

“Thank you so much for that, Helmut, but I think I should give you guys some privacy,” you said, straightening out your dress and walking deeper into the hallway. There had to be an exit somewhere…

“Wait!” When you turned, you found Helmut rushing to meet you. The men in the background looked shocked and almost smug. “Save your money. Meet me out at the airstrip tomorrow afternoon if you feel like seeing me again. If not, know that the Power Broker doesn’t let go of assets cheap, and you just slept with a man with a million dollar bounty, so buying your freedom isn’t an option. If you want to go without me, you’ll have to hitch a ride on a cargo ship but not as a stowaway. Working for your keep is the best way to stay under the radar. Nobody can touch you once you’r-”

You cut him off by pressing a finger to his lips. “I’ll see you at your private jet, Baron,”

He smirked. “So you will,” With as much gusto as a man could muster, he returned to his companions but not before offering one last goodbye. “Farewell, schatzi, until tomorrow,”

As you leaned up against the wall once more, you watched them go with a twinkle in your eye.

“Who was that?”

“None of your business, James,”

“Guys, what the hell did I just step on?”

“I believe that was my used rubber,”

“ZEMO!”

-------

a/n: I hope you enjoyed the filth! I haven’t written for Zemo before, even though I’ve loved him for years, but he’s definitely going into my main rotation now. If you have any ideas, send them my way! I’d love to fill the void, because there just aren’t very many Zemo x reader fics out there. If you enjoyed this, maybe reblog or leave a comment! I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks again!

Please do not post my works to any other sites, thanks! <3

#oh my god this is filth #Would you believe I wrote my first smut like a week ago?#zemo #baron zemo #helmut zemo #zemo x reader #helmut zemo x reader #baron zemo x reader #marvel #falcon and winter solider series #fatws #bucky barnes #sam wilson #smut #marvel fanfiction

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imagine-turtles · 2 years

Note

Oooookokokokok Let's say one of their friend needs to find a new place to live and they offer to let them stay at the lair for a few months, what's it like to live here? The good stuff, the bad stuff, maybe reader gets a crush or maybe it just stays platonic, how do the boys handle it, how does splinter handles it, etc etc. Yknow, the good stuff :3

Also dude I hope you and your fam are ok!! <3

We’re all good here--just busy! I’m trying out a little change of perspective since you specifically mentioned “reader” so we’ll see how that goes.

LEONARDO

Lays down the law before agreeing to even have you stay with them. He and his brothers have rules, and he’s sure you do too, so he’d rather just make sure the living arrangement is compatible before committing.

Generally, chores are divided up among the family, but Leo is perfectly content to leave you to your own laundry, dishes, etc… so long as you don’t make too much of a mess in someone else’s jurisdiction.

(Offering to pencil yourself into the chore chart is an easy way to gain Leo’s approval, with even more brownie points if you insist after he politely refuses.)

He doesn’t want anyone in your space unless you invite them in, and makes it clear that any problems you have should go directly to him. Hates hearing about issues secondhand, even if it’s for something as little as a new lightbulb. It’s just part of how Leo thinks your living situation should work; offering the respect of keeping him in the loop.

If you’re a decent housemate, and mesh well with Leo’s personality, he’ll definitely develop a crush. He’ll try to convince himself he’s just adjusting to a new person in the house, then that he’s realized it’s possible to have a relationship, then that he likes the idea of a relationship and you just happen to be there. And of course he’s imagining you in that scenario; you’re the only person he’s ever seen in this situation. His brain is just drawing parallels the only way it knows how.

He hears Donnie’s “well, actually” tone so clearly that he decides to never commit to his theory out loud.

He’ll buckle under the weight of his own feelings if you start taking an interest in his interests, the ones he doesn't really share with his brothers.

Leo might tear up if you put in the time, trial, and error to brew tea just how he likes. Even if you don’t quite get it right every time. Or the first twenty times.

RAPHAEL

Less stressed than Leo, but just barely and for completely unrelated reasons.

Reason number one: HATES having people in the lair when he’s taking a shit. This man can destroy a toilet on a level that, considering his mutant status, could literally be classified as a BSL-4. How the hell is he supposed to shit when there’s constantly someone over?

Do not talk to him through the bathroom door unless someone's dying. Don't even acknowledge he's in there. Surefire way to piss him off.

Drags his feet cleaning his room because, duh, he’d rather die than let you just hang out in there. What would you even do, look at his stuff? Absolutely not. His brothers don’t even hang out in his room.

(The exception is if he already has a crush on you--then all he cares about is cleaning his room, despite never actually inviting you in. Might have to take a little initiative.)

Raph might swing back and forth between a ton of interaction and hardly seeing you. He’ll want to make sure you’re doing alright and that you don’t think he’s ignoring you; at the same time he’s afraid you might get tired of hanging out, and needs time to recharge.

He’ll be much more comfortable spending time with you if you let him know you’re perfectly content to just be near him while you each do your own thing. Not much conversation required.

If Raph’s desperately trying to convince himself he’s not into you, having you around the lair just about puts him in an early grave. Having you here--living in his house, with him--just makes the fantasy that much more real. This could be your life. Every day. Together.

DONATELLO

Initially offers to just put you up in an extended-stay hotel, or an apartment, and even floats the idea of having you crash at Vern’s place. It’s not that Donnie doesn’t want you around the lair--you’re welcome, of course--but he already knows it’s going to be a massive headache. Leo and Raph are going to be stressed, he’s going to have to make those repairs he’s been putting off, they’re all going to have to clean, just… ugh.

Not to mention how inconvenient it would be for you to live with them. In a sewer. What if you hurt yourself, or fall ill, or get lost in the pipes? What if you get sick of them, after being forced to spend so much time down in the lair?

He’ll make sure you have access to everything you need in your space, and even help with a few upgrades… eventually. Don’s a busy guy, and he might not find the time to help right away, but a particularly observant houseguest might figure out that trading favors for favors will bump their request to the top of the list. Especially if you at least try to put in a little effort yourself before asking him.

You might notice Donnie doing a lot of staring at you, and when questioned he simply tells you he’s zoning out. The truth of the matter is that he hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to look at many humans up close, and he’s just checking out all the body parts he doesn’t have.

Shuffles you far, far away the second Leo and Raph start to get into it. Having an audience only makes them self-conscious and exacerbates the tension; he’d hate for you to be around all that, or god forbid, try to play mediator.

Donnie knows it’s not unusual to develop a crush on people that you spend a lot of time around, but figures since he’s aware of this he’ll be immune to any proximity-based attraction.

This is not correct. In fact, he might rival Mikey in terms of how quickly he develops a crush once he realizes how easy living with you can be. It’s even worse if you start doing little things, like figuring out how he likes his coffee or texting him at the store to ask if he wants anything.

You'll know he's down bad when he lets you get into his stuff: his lab, his desk, his snacks, his room, his bed--even his computer, after he hides anything incriminating. What's his is yours.

MICHELANGELO

Tidies up as if you’re going to be hanging out exclusively in his room. He doesn’t fully clean it, mind, just kinda sorts everything into piles and makes sure it’s not gross. Howl’s Moving Castle vibes--if you know, you know.

Man shits himself to death at least once a week. Unlike Raph, he'll text you to let you know he's fighting for his life in there. Not afraid to have a conversation through the bathroom door.

Writes a HUGE list of things to do while you’re staying in the lair, makes a playlist of videos to watch, marks places to show you, the whole shebang. You might have to sit him down and explain that you don’t need to be entertained every second of every day.

Perfect opportunity to do a bunch of shit his brothers won’t do with him; not out of malice, simply because they don’t have the time, or the motivation, or the general interest.

Like Raph, he’d benefit from the reassurance that you don’t mind just existing in the same space while you each do your own activity. Otherwise, he may wear himself down being “on” all the time.

Thinks it’s sooo funny to take you out around the sewers and pretend to get lost. Does it just to see what you’ll do, and insists it’s because he’s trying to find out who would be the best partner in a survival situation. Also, he had four hours to kill.

Mikey develops crushes fairly easily, and living with you would only exacerbate an existing crush or spark a new one entirely. The novelty of seeing a human toodle around the lair doing human things (albeit the same shit they do) never gets old.

He’ll take any kind of heat for you if you do the dishes on his turn. Seriously. Clogged toilet, stained furniture, stolen leftovers, scuff marks on Raph’s bike--Mikey will own up to nearly anything for a clean sink.

SPLINTER

Totally hoping their guest hooks up with one of his sons. He’ll outright admit it, too. What better way to get closer to one of the boys and test their ability to live together?

Probably the most relaxed. Doesn’t really worry about the whole thing; he’s old, he’s done enough worrying. Figures Leo will do most of it for him, anyways.

Straight up tells the boys to lock their doors and keep it down if they’re going to be boning their guest. Chose to announce this in the middle of dinner the night before your arrival just to fuck with them. Thinks he’s hilarious.

He is.

#dianounais #tmnt #leonardo #raphael #donatello #michelangelo #tmnt bayverse #tmnt imagines #teenage mutant ninja turtles #splinter

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blueberrypossum · 3 years

Text

A Date Down Under (GN Reader x Leo)

OH MY GOSH IT’S BEEN FOREVER SINCE I’VE POSTED!!

If you guys are wondering where I’ve been I write more on A03 with two original fanfics in the making! But, my tumblr account deserves some love too! This fanfic has been siting in my file for a long while and I originally wanted to post it when I was deep in the ROTTMNT fandom (still love it and miss it man). So, I decided to take out my oc in it and make it a reader fanfic so everyone can enjoy! @bootyyy-shaker9000 I know how much you love Leo so have some of the wonderful boy in blue!!

When Leo asked you if you wanted to celebrate your Friend Anniversary in the Lost City, you couldn’t refuse.

The feelings for the turtle though were getting tougher and tougher to maintain. Leo was always the flirt, and you tried to not let him play with your heartstrings, but now a blush would creep around your face whenever he would fire a one-liner or when he would push the physical contact to the extreme.

You weren't used to so much affection, nor letting the addiction of being touched take over you like a drug.

But you have seen the way Leo fake flirts with others, and just believed that he was just doing the same thing to you, because you were just friends, right?

You were brushing your comb through your hair when your phone started to vibrate on your desk. You brought it up to your ear as you got comfortable in your seat.

“Hello?”

“Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

There were a few knocks on your bedroom window.

“Me.”

You giggled and walked over to the window and pulled back the blinds to see the one and only Leonardo Hamato, a sly grin on his face as he hung up on the phone. You placed your phone into your pocket and unlocked the window to reveal yourself to him.

The blue bandana turtle looked a little taken aback as he took in the sight of his best friend. With the season turning colder, you wore something that suited the chilly wind yet sunny season, the cloth clinging to you gently. What caught him off guard the most was the dazzling smile you presented to him, the pure excitement of seeing him causing his bandana to feel tight around his head.

Leo almost lost his balance as he hopped into your room, sweat growing on him as he tried to find anything else to look at other than you.

“Hey, how's your fever?” He asked, his voice drowned with no confidence, his heart still pounding as he finally glanced over.

You were picking up your bag and you frowned at the question.

“Hum? What fever?”

“Oh, yeah, you just look hot to me,” he replied, pressing a confident smile on his lips as he hoped that you didn’t catch him almost slipping up.

Your cheeks went pink and you playfully slapped his arm.

“Oh hush up and let’s go, we’re burning daylight.”

“That’s not the only thing that’s burning.”

“Oh my gosh, get going, Red Kamon.”

The tall turtle chuckled and pulled out his sword, swiping it around the room until a portal was created. Leo moved to the side and bowed his head towards you.

“After you,” he purred and you rolled your eyes at him and took a step into the portal and was led right at the center of the Hidden City. The colorful and mysterious city was weird to say the least, nothing but weird creations and magic lingered in the air as yokai walked past you. Leo stepped through the portal and was at your side as you both walked over to the city map.

Leo used your shoulder as a rest while you gazed over at the map.

“Where do you want to go, shorty?” He asked as your eyes scanned the different areas and pointed towards the Witch Town.

Your mind seemed clouded from the close contact and you pointed to the spa.

“What about here? Sounds interesting.”

“Can’t do. My idiot and less attractive twin got us turtles banned there,” Leo commented and soon his arm snaked around your neck and was completely over your shoulders, bringing you close enough that you could feel his breath over your cheek.

“What about here?”

“Nope. They banned me there.”

“How did you get banned from a spa?”

“My dashing good looks were just too much for them.”

You let out a gust of air and knew the real reason, Donnie told you the whole funny scenario of Leo needing hair to get into the spa, totally backfired and threw him in jail.

“What places are you not banned from, blue?” You asked, turning over to him with your arms crossed.

He gave you his signature smile and leaned down till you were face to face, his beak just a few inches from your nose.

“Here, just those two places. Your heart? Never.”

“Then what about the Pirate Bazaar?” You mumbled, your heart almost leaping out of your chest as Leo’s eyes widened with excitement.

“Ohhh, I’ve been there! But only for a little bit, let’s go!” He squealed and took your hand and led you through the crowd of animals and other subjects of yokai. His three-fingered hand was cold against your warm one, and you knew Leo and his brothers like closeness to you and April since you were the only warm-blooded creatures; Splinter was too but hugs were hard to get from him. Still, the hand holding made others look over and gush at you two, as if you were a couple.

If only.

He didn’t let go as he took you into lesser crowds, bringing you closer till your arms were touching. You then realized he wasn’t wearing an outfit, but then remembered most of the yokai’s were clothesless as well. His muscles bounced as he walked and you had to do everything to not wrap your fingers around the growing muscle.

STOP STOP STOP THINKING LIKE THIS! HE DOESN’T LIKE YOU LIKE THAT!

His thumb started to brush against yours as he turned to you and you swore you saw a red dash against his cheeks, and it wasn’t his stripes.

“You’ve been friends with me for a whole year! Please, do tell how great it must’ve been to be called my best friend,” he said slyly, wiggling his non-existent eyebrows, causing you to laugh. The joyous melody made Leo weak in the knees.

“You mean, me always having to save your shell from dangerous bad guys, having to endure all your jokes, and then the constant-CONSTANT- marathons of Jipiter Jim and Lou Jitsu to the point all I could do was speak quotes from the movies.”

“Oh yeah, may I remind you that you would text me excited about every movie date? Didn’t someone make their signature hot chocolate just for me when I showed this specific someone their now favorite movie? Ring any bells?” He replied back.

“Pffts, you know what? Your one-liners stink.”

The sword yielding turtle let out a gasp and grasped where his heart would be over his plaston as if he had been shot as he looked down at you.

“My one-liners stink like Raph’s victory stink!”

You laughed and took back his hand and Leo felt his heart flew as your warm hand was gripping onto his cold one. You took the lead and finally made it to the entrance of the pirate grounds. There were booths of stuff that were related to the pirate theme of the area and some were just random selections of things to sell. The smell of seafood and other fried foods drifted into your nose and you led Leo to the entrance.

After getting Lost City Cash at a money machine, you both took a selfie at the front entrance, Leo bringing you close and him having to lean down due to your height.

There was a goblin looking woman in the booth at the entrance and the woman took your money and gave each of you a bracelet to get on rides and such.

“For an extra 20 dollars, you can have a custom pirate outfit that you can switch on and off with ease,” she explained and you and Leo shared the same look, giving the worker a simple nod. She pointed to where single bathrooms were after she got the money.

“Last one there is a rotten turtle egg!”You challenged out as you raced over to the bathroom stalls, the mutant turtle schoffing and charging after you.

With a little bit of magic, you were able to think up your very own pirate outfit with a second band around your wrist so that you could switch it off and on with ease. Leo picked the same outfit he had when he first came to the pirate utopia with Hueso, but didn’t pick an eyepatch this time since he didn’t want to trip in front of you.

You quickly raced out of the changing room after saying thank you to the worker who helped you and looked around, your eyes trying to find the mutant turtle in the crowd. You spotted the long strands of his bandana and felt yourself shudder at how good he looked in a pirate outfit, how the white shirt clung to him and how he had his sword hung against his side instead of over his back. You swallowed the saliva that was swimming in your mouth and quickly dashed over to him, clearing your throat before you spoke in the worst pirate accent.

“My, my, isn’t ye the best booty I’ve ever seen in these vast oceans!”

The red slider turtle quickly turned around but you moved out in front of him.

“Aye, wanna shiver me timbers?” You laughed, throwing another one-liner at him and he turned, his eyes going wide as he almost told you that if you were a pirate, you would be the most beautiful treasure that no man or woman could handle or capture. If you were a pirate he could definitely walk the plank.

“Those jokes are so lame, that they need a peg leg,” he replied, almost hating himself fully for using one of Huesos jokes instead of his own. But you flashed him a smile anyway and motioned him to follow as you made your way through the crowd.

The teenage turtle felt his heart leap after you and gave chase as you made it to the center of the pirate theme park.

Once in the middle, you pulled out the map the woman at the booth gave you and started to read over the activities that you could do.

Leo leaned down close, still a little out of breath, but his confidence had awoken him as he said: “Ya certainly put a shiver in my timber!” he said in a deep pirate accent. You booped his beak away from your face and he blew a raspberry on the index finger.

“So, there is a treasure adventure we can go on, a booth section of stuff to buy, a pirate show of a reenactment of pirate history-Oh! They have timed dances throughout the area! And you can join in!”

“Are you going to join in?”

“Maybe. I could finally dance with someone who doesn’t only do fortnite dances and dabs.”

“Hey, my moves are almost like a work of a pirate ship.”

“Old and needs remodeling?”

“What?! No! Unique and cool.”

You rolled your eyes and wrapped your arm around Leo’s and led him to the show since it was the closest.

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

You stood on the pier as ships and flying creatures dashed by, the glowing lights of the underworld turning into a creamy orange to signify that the day was coming to an end. You leaned your arms over the railing as you scrolled through the photos that had been taken throughout the day. You couldn’t help but smile at seeing your goofy pictures and would scroll past the ones you took specifically of Leo without him knowing.

Speaking of the turtle, he leaned in close to your shoulder as he noticed that your attention was not on him.

“Whatcha lookin at?” He asked, his head slowly getting closer. You felt your body grow warm and quickly turned your phone.

“Bruh,” you giggled and he gave a quiet chuckle and tried to snatch the phone.

“If you’re looking at something, then as your best friend I have a right to see.”

“Fine, hang on.”

You quickly saved the single photos of him into a secret file and moved the phone between them, his head still on your shoulder as he scrolled through the photos, both of you laughing at the one where you fought the pirates and failed.

“What about you? I know you took photos of today for your social,” you commented as you placed your phone into your bag.

Leo took out his phone and hid it out of sight since his home screen was a picture of them together at an abandoned skatepark and he had you in a piggyback ride and he just had to capture the moment. He handed his phone without thinking and started to go through your bag due to boredom.

You scrolled through the photos until you stopped at a specific one. You didn’t remember him telling you to pose for this photo; it was when you had stopped to eat dinner and you happened to watch one of the kids getting a fake pirate hook from a vendor. Your head was supported by your hand as a breeze caused your hair to ripple around your face in an alluring photo. A blush rushes to your face as if you had been hit and soon you started to scroll faster and found more photos of just you; of you waiting in line, in your pirate outfit, several were taken of you during the pirate treasure hunting, when you grabbed a candle from one of the booths in excitement, he even got a cliche photo of you holding his hand while you led him through the crowd.

You felt your heart stop in your ribcage and looked over at the ninja turtle, who was still looking through your bag as if he was hunting for treasure. You didn’t want to snoop, but you couldn’t help but exit out of his camera roll and looked through his folders on the right side; there was a folder for comic books, shopping, epic moments, even a puns list, then found it at the bottom. It was labeled with a first letter of your name and a heart, and with twitching fingers, you opened it. It wasn’t many photos but enough to where you almost dropped his phone into the water below. There were pictures of you whenever you both hung out, and some he probably got from your social.

Holy Hot Soup, he liked you.

“Okay, now you really look like you have a fever,” Leo commented as he reached for his phone, causing you to swallow and quickly turned off the device and handed it back to him.

“But don’t worry, Doctor Neon Leon will help you get all better,” he said in a baby voice and wrapped his arm around you and brought you close.

“Maybe you need some Vitamin ME,” he whispered and you laughed at yet another ridiculous one-liner made by him. He grinned at the sight of you laughing and rested himself against your side, taking in your scent and warmth.

“Maybe I do, where do I get my prescription Aka Kamon?” You asked slyly, a shit eating grin on your face as Leo blushed. Whenever you could, you would fire back a one-liner and was overjoyed to see him be the one to get flustered and a stuttering mess.

“ Oh, um, well,” he stuttered and mentally kicked himself as he couldn’t think of something to say back and then a question he always wanted an answer to.

“Are you ever going to tell me what those words mean?” He asked.

“Are you ever going to open a book and find out for yourself.”

“Ha! Jokes on you, I don’t know how to read. And also, there are phones now, boomers.”

“Then look it up.”

“JuSt GiVe Me A hInT.”

You released a sigh and gave him a look while he returned to you his huge puppy dog eyes look and placed his hands together as his bottom lip wobbled as if he was trying to get out of trouble.

“Finnnne, but only because it’s our best friend’s day.”

You poked the red stripe against his face and then pointed upward, a smirk growing on your face as he gave a confused one.

“WHAT KIND OF HINT IS THAT??”

“A pretty good one in my opinion.”

The red slider turtle let out a large groan as he crossed his arms, his face growing tight as he tried to think of what the hint meant.

“Are you just calling me stripes but in Japanese?” He said with a groan.

“Leo you insult me, it would be kind of stupid to call you stripes in both English and Japanese.”

He mimicked your talking right as you finished and he received an eye roll as he continued on thinking.

So, it wasn’t the stripes, maybe the color? Or the shape?

“Man, this is hurting my brain, this best friend day sucks.” He said as he stuck his tongue out at you.

“Okay, okay. The two words are a color and a shape. Is that better?”

“Yes. Yes it is.”

You continued to watch as Leo tried to put the pieces together and you wished you could get this on video, but it would be too obvious, so instead you painted it into your mind.

“So, the color is totally red, but the shape I’m lost at. Why did you point at the sky? Is that a clue? Why did you make this so difficult?”

“Because I’m a difficult person.”

“I do like a challenge.”

“One more hint, it’s the shape of something in the sky.”

Leo looked up at the fake Lost City sky and squinted as the fake sun started to set and the moon would start to rise.

“Red Moon?”

“Close. It’s Red Crest.”

The blue bandana turtle searched the horizon for an answer for why you called him that as you looked away due to embarrassment.

“Why?” He simply asked as he looked over; he could always tell when you were nervous, your eyes would always dart around and your left foot would start to shake. You rose to a tallen stance though and looked over at his hands.

“I just find your marks...alluring. In Japanese culture, the red moon is respected due to its power. I just thought you deserved to have a nickname that represented you.”

Leo felt his face go completely red that it could put Raph’s mask to so much shame that it would go bland. All this time he thought you were just calling him something insulting in Japanese, but it was a nickname that you made up for him. Not like Raph’s, Donnie’s, Mikey’s or April’s, it was one you made up for him and only him.

“Stop looking at me before I throw you off this dock so I can live the rest of my life without this embarrassment,” you laughed nervously as your fingers combed through your hair and let out a shaky breath.

Leo started to get his little shakes as he let out a confused laugh.

“All this time I thought you were calling me a stupid turtle or somethin in Japanese, whoa oh boy was I wrong.”

You both looked away from each other and the atmosphere became heavy.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, I still don’t know, you thought, but then you felt his finger poke your elbow and looked over at him, and the soft expression on his face almost made you melt.

“But how can I stop looking at you?”

Your breathing immediately hitched.

“Are you blushing? It’s a good feeling to know that I do it.”

You could only cover your face as you leaned against the railing on your elbows and looked between your fingers at him. You hated being so flustered up, but with Leo dripping with confidence, it made you want to curl into a muttering mess.

Leo watched you with amusement and went to touch you, but then fell back. He remembered how he started the physical touch between you two, holding your hand, always leaning on you, every movie night you would be his cushion. But you two couldn’t kiss, couldn’t cudde too close, he couldn’t tell you he loved you more than just a best friend.

He hated how the day went by so fast and now he wanted to do what he has wanted to do for months. But he couldn’t work up the courage, he had a ton of one-liners to ask you out, to ask if you returned the feelings, even though he was mutant turtle that lived in the sewer and fought enemies that could destroy the whole world and wholly Ōdachi he can’t ask you to be a part of that life.

But, the way you would smile at him and how you always gave him credit for the growth into someone you wanted to be. How you saw something in him that he didn’t even see, and he wanted to keep being whatever you saw.

He just wanted you.

So, he worked up the courage, tried to make the sweat stop rolling down his body, and looked at person he had fallen for

“Y/N.”

You tensed up, you had never heard Leo sound so serious in his life.

“Yeah?”

“With this being.....I mean if I’m wrong. Would you consider this a date-date?” He spilled out, and he wanted to climb into his shell like Mikey and never come out. He let out a gust of air and didn’t look over at you, his fingers messing within each other. It was silent between you, the city life buzzing around them as yokai’s came and went. You wanted to scream out in joy and say yes a hundred times, but you also had to be careful, along with if Leo was being a bubbly mess, you wanted to take advantage of it as long as you could.

Spotting a red and blue flower with a bright yellow center growing on the side of the deck, you wrapped your fingers around it and pulled it from its roots. To Leo’s surprise, you pushed your way under his arm until it was back over your shoulders. The blush on his face was noticeable and with being against his chest you noticed his uneven breaths.

“I do. And I would like more of them, if you want to.” You answered and handed him the flower. He shakenly took the flower in his hand and his confidence came crashing back to him, knowing that the feeling was mutual. As quickly as you gave him the flower he leaned over and placed the flower over your ear. Your eyes widened with surprise and quickly averted them away, a nervous but sweet chuckle escaping your lips. But the Red-eared slider never averted his gaze away from you.

“I would like that too,” he answered back.

You both stood there for a while, your head curled into Leo’s chest as his own head rested on yours. You were used to being close, but this was different, this filled you up with knowing and it made the physical connection much more warmer and scarier. Little lights started to flicker around as the city started to get dark, even with no sun or moon. Leo brought you closer and buried his face into your hair, a long sigh escaping his lips in content, his mind slowing down for once and just taking in this moment.

But the moment went quicker than expected as a low yawn escaped your mouth and the red slider turtle remembered that it was getting late.

“Alright, sleepy head, I think it’s time to raise anchor and set sail for home,” he joked as he lifted himself off of you and then held out his hand. With a roll of your eyes, you gladly took it and let him lead you back to the entrance of the Pirate Bazaar. He could just use his sword, but he wanted to juice out every moment with you.

The hand hold was different in some way, you gripped his hand tighter and when he came to a stop you would use your other hand to lightly touch his biccup before continuing on.

You gave the booth teller their costume bracelets back and walked a few feet ahead before Leo pulled out his sword and created a portal.

He once again bowed his head as he moved to the side.

“After you.”

Through tired eyes she gave him a smirk as she was halfway through the portal.

“Thank you.”

He followed you through the portal and took the step onto your apartment’s fire escape, the flashing lights of New York City spilling over your side as you opened your bedroom window; throwing your bag inside before turning to Leo. You both turned to each other and then quickly averted eye-contact with each other.

“I had a lot of fun today, Leo. Thanks for being a good fri-” you stopped yourself since you didn’t know if you two were still just friends, or more.

He let out a laugh and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah, chief, it was,” Leo said and then let out a groan at the terrible execution.

You knew that you had to make the first move now or else you both would accidentally place yourselves into the “friend zone”.

“Leo, can you bend down a little bit?”

“Why? Tired of being the only short one?”

“You can say that.”

He bent down till he was on your level, a smug smile on his lips. You let out your form of a chuckle as you curved your fingers under his chin. The teenage turtle instantly felt weak in the knees and thought that his legs would give out from under him and became a stuttering mess as you both made eye-contact.

“Um, haha, is it hot or did you know that, uhh,” he mumbled as you tilted his head to the side and placed a small kiss against his red stripe, instantly making his whole body, for once in his life, burning.

Your lips were soft against his skin and he stood there as you leaned away and climbed back into your room.

“Goodnight, Leo,”you mumbled, your hands shaking against the window.

“N-night.”

You closed the window and walked away while Leo stood there, his mind racing a hundred miles an hour. He got a kiss from you, from you. He never felt so much adrenaline rush through his body and all he wanted to do was go back in time so he could’ve moved his lips over.

He took a step towards the window and then took that step back. What should he do? What could he do? Were you both dating now? Or were you two at the very edge of the line of a relationship?

He wanted to call his brothers or April for advice, especially since she would slap some sense into him. His shakes were coming back.

He let out a grunt and rubbed his eyes as he tried to decide what to do. He looked back at the window and saw that you had turned on your lights. He walked up to the window and knocked.

You had just gotten out of the bathroom when you heard the light tap against your window and your heart started to race faster than it already was. You were already shaken up by having enough courage to kiss him but if that was him then what if he didn’t want the kiss?

The knock came again and you took a few deep breaths before you moved the curtain aside and there he was, his face all flustered up as he gave a small wave as she opened the window.

“Yes?” You questioned as you leaned your hands over the window seal. You hoped that the silky night of the sky hid your flustered face.

“I honestly didn’t think this far ahead,” he spilled out as he let out a nervous laugh as he leaned against the window.

You looked up at him and Leo blinked several times in wonderment at the startled expression that crossed your face. Leo took a deep breath and gave you his signature shit-eating grin.

“Knock knock.”

“Wow, you’re doing jokes in the same place now are ya?”

“Just do the joke.”

You giggled and fluttered your eyes mockingly at him.

“Can I who?”

“Who’s there?

“Can I?”

“Can I...Can I kiss you?”

Even though it was a terrible joke, you felt like you could throw up all of your guts for how fast your heart rate was. Kissing him on the cheek was a challenge but at least you didn’t have to worry about his lips against yours. Do turtles have lips? Or beaks?

The word yes slipped out before you had a second thought.

Before you knew it, Leo’s hands were slipping into your own, the tip of your fingers shaking but Leo reinsured you with a stroke of his thumb You looked up at him and was taken aback at how handsome he was, how his stripes glowed in the moonlight and his blue bandana flew behind him as he leaned down.

Oh you were glad he didn’t have his lips puckered or drool hanging out of his mouth like in the cartoons.

Swallowing any other signs of panic that were trying to build in your body as you leaned in.

The city of New York continued on around you both as the kiss ended; it was soft and sweet, not a full one, but it left both of you speechless. You felt as if your stomach was falling apart and Leo thought he could slip off the stairway. He was still holding your hands before you both departed, but with your free hands, you grabbed his face and brought him in once again. The red slider turtle’s eyes went wide as moons as this kiss much more, more than he could ever dream of.

He wrapped his arms around your waist and slightly lifted you up, burying his face into yours under the moonlight. He tangled himself around you as your hands wrapped around his neck and Leo felt his stomach flip at the actions. Your shirt was warm against his chest and he tried to focus in on that instead of the worry of messing this up. He leaned more down as his hand slipped into the back of your neck. Due to the lack of experience, the kiss was sloppy and messy and anxiety swam between the connection between the two of you.

But it was a tender memory of a kiss between the two of you, to remember as your first.

You both finally separated, your chest heaving as you tried to get your feelings under control. His arms were still wrapped around you and your hands had slipped down onto his plaston, the hard material rising and falling under your fingers. Leo felt himself lean back, the shock setting in that he just had his first kiss and it was that deep and romantic and that….

The teen turtle felt his shell bump against the railing and you quickly latched onto him to stop him from falling, a horse laugh coming out of your mouth.

“Guess you can say that you’re falling for me?” You asked, Leo knew now that he had to have a fever for how hot his face felt. He let out a few breathless laughs as he tried to calm himself down, longing and fear still lingering in his heart.

All he could do was pull you into a hug and whisper out, “I just want to stay here and kiss and hold you and Y/N I can't feel my heart.”

He buried himself into your neck as he once again slightly picked you up, hoping that your warm body would calm him down, but the organ in his chest raced on as you hugged him back, your arms barely going around his shell.

“Leo, will you be my boyfriend?”

My boyfriend. My boyfriend. My boyfriend. My boyfriend.

The words rang in his head like chimes as he slightly pulled away to look at her, the harsh blush on her face giving him an ego boost as he grinned at her.

“Being called a boyfriend, eh? Neon Leon already has so many cool names, but boyfriend is probably the best name to be called, especially if it’s only you saying it.”

“Probably? I guess I should just give the boyfriend title to someone else, then.”

“What?! No, no, no. I already called it, I’m your boyfriend capiche? Now come here.” He pulled you into a tight hug and gave you a little spin, a laugh escaping your throat as you held on.

“Leo! We can fall, and my back cannot handle cement like yours!”

#ROTTMNT #rottmnt x reader #rottmnt x leo #rottmnt leo #ROTTMNTXREADER #rottmntleo #rottmnt reader x leo #rottmnt leo x reader #tmnt #rise of the tmnt #Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles

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jaybird-redhood · 3 years

Text

propinquity

wc: 2.2k

pairing: jason todd // gn reader

The first thing you think when you see him for the first time is that he has the cutest smile.

That’s a lie, the first thing you think it that he is so incredibly in shape, and it looks great on him, but the smile thing sounds better in your head.

He's moving into the apartment across from yours a month after you moved into yours. Weird, because the two people in your building closest to your age are 2 and 63, respectively.

You suppose that some wicked twist of fate must’ve brought this upon you for missing your cousin’s birthday party last week, because the guy standing across from you is crazy hot. And looking right at you. And you are in the huge neon Wonder Woman t-shirt that your best friend got for your birthday last year.

Yeah. Karma.

“Nice shirt,” the guy offers, holding in a grin. “You’re really making it work.”

“I-”

“See you around, neighbor.”

And with a shut of a door and an awfully charismatic smirk he’s gone.

The next time you see him is a week later, and this time- luckily, you think- you’re dressed somewhat put together. You run into him while unlocking your door.

"What's got you in a twist?" he asks.

"Um," you start, "I just. Ugh I have so much to do. Like 3 hours of homework, a lecture tomorrow that I cannot skip, and I'm completely out of bread and eggs and can't even you to the store until, like, Thursday at best."

Once you start rambling you can't seem to stop. You slouch against your door. You're not entirely sure why you're telling a stranger all this, but he seems to be listening, so you suppose that’s a good sign

"I get the feeling," he offers, and you look up at him. "I'm majoring in English Lit and my classes are kind of kicking my ass."

You give him a small smile, "Glad to know someone in this building is struggling as much as I am."

"Jason," he says, and he reaches his hand out to you. "My name."

You shake it and tell him yours.

As you both turn back into your respective apartments you think that he maybe isn't as intimidating as you thought.

The next day goes by with a really boring lecture and another 3 hours of work you need to do.

The ride home from uni isn't that long, but it's long enough for you to contemplate all the ways that your life went wrong after moving to Gotham. And, maybe as payback for thinking mean things about the city, rain that you think should belong to a category 3 hurricane starts to whip around your car 10 minutes into your drive.

Your clothes are dripping water in literal puddles by the time you get back to your apartment.

Groaning, you start fishing for your keys in your purse while walking up the last flight of stairs.

When you get to your door you stop. Right in front of it there’s a grocery bag. Picking it up and looking inside you see a loaf of bread and a small carton of milk.

You pick it up smiling.

“Jason?” you ask, knocking on his door.

No response.

You shrug and turn around. Remember to thank him the next time you run into each other; you think.

That next time doesn’t happen to be that long and thank goodness for you.

“You know, we really need to stop meeting like this,” he says to you.

You’re sitting on the floor outside of your door looking rather pathetic, and he’s giving you the most awful smirk you’ve ever seen. (Not that it looks bad on him though. You seem to think that nothing could really look that bad on him)

“I swear I’m usually more put together than this,” you sigh to him. “You moving here jinxed me!”

“Yeah yeah. You’re locked out, aren’t you?”

You give him your best withering I’m going to kill you stare, but it must not be working because he just laughs even harder at you.

“This is completely not my fault it’s just I lost my second set of keys like right when I moved in and then today when I got home, I accidentally left them in my car, but my second set of car keys is in my apartment so now I can’t get them out, stop laughing at me!”

“God you’re a mess,” Jason says- finally finished laughing at you and maybe taking a bit of pity on how disheveled you look. “You couldn’t call anyone to get you in?”

You shake your head.

“My friend is the only other person with a set, but they’re out of town, and our landlord is being a dick and telling me it’s my fault in the first place, so I need to deal with it. I’ve been sitting out here for like an hour.”

“All I’m hearing is that it is your fault and now you’re just moping about it feeling bad about yourself.”

You tilt your head against the door so hard that it makes you wince a bit.

“Ok fine,” he says crossing his arms.

“What?”

“Wait right here.”

He goes into his apartment and comes back out with a skinny metal thing you don’t recognize.

You look at him in confusion and he just motions for you to scoot out of the way as he sticks it in your locks and starts to pick it.

You sigh in relief.

“Thank you thank you thank you. For everything. I swear I will get my life together, so you don’t feel like you have to keep cleaning up my messes.

“I don’t mind,” he says with a small smile, “Take your time.”

And with that he opens the door to your apartment and turns back to his.

“By the way, you should really get better locks. That was way too easy.”

You make a note in your head to get that done sometime. As you’re lying on your couch that night, you’re AirDropped a photo on your phone. Saving it up you see it’s a piece of paper with neat handwriting on it: a phone number and a smiley face, Jason’s name at the bottom.

You smile too and add the number to your contacts.

Over the next few weeks, you and Jason start talking more, both over text and through the various times when you run into each other outside your doors.

Each interaction is better than the next, and you soon start to realize that Jason isn’t just some hot guy with no brains. He’s sweet and charismatic, has a whole wall full of bookshelves, could probably quote any classical novel by heart, has incredibly good taste in music, and best (or worst) of all, would make incredible friend material.

It’s just that as you become closer friends, you start to realize that that might not be all you want.

It’s a stupidly cold Friday morning when he texts you, and you’re covered in blankets and wrapped in sweatshirts in your bed. Movie at my place tonight?

You text back your approval and a quick be there at 6 before getting ready for classes.

The day goes by slower than you hoped.

It might be the anticipation of seeing Jason again, or more likely the hours of lectures you have to sit through, but you’re elated when your final class for the day gets let out.

The hours in between are a blur.

A blur which leads to the two of you sitting on his couch watching Romeo and Juliet together, a blanket thrown over your bodies.

You have the obligatory bowl of popcorn resting on your legs, and every few minutes Jason reaches across your lap to take a handful.

The way you’re laying half on top on him is completely deliberate, as to take as much of his body heat as possible. Your landlord had turned off heating 3 weeks prior to ‘save money’ or some other bullshit.

Jason’s not complaining though.

Once your popcorn bowl is finished and your head is in his lap, he runs his fingers through your hair absentmindedly. It might be the nicest feeling you’ve ever felt.

Throughout the movie you exchange snide comments about the plot back and forth. You start trying to say funny things whenever you can just to hear how sweet his laugh sounds to your ears.

By the end of the movie, you’re only slightly in tears, or so you tell yourself.

“Are you crying right now?” Jason asks incredulously, wearing a teasing smile.

“It’s not my fault,” you half say half moan, “Leonardo DiCaprio just has that effect on me.”

He just laughs and pulls you upright until you’re sitting on his lap.

His eyes are a shade of blue green that you’ve never seen before, although you could swear their getting greener by the second.

You watch his gaze drop down to your lips before staring you right in the eyes again.

“Can I kiss you?”

“God yes,” you tell him, and kiss him right back.

The next week is somewhat uneventful, even though you and Jason had been meeting each other almost every night, rotating apartments based on whose house was warmer each particular night.

Tonight is your night, and you’ve been waiting the whole day to show him the film you had rented to watch together.

The walk up to your door is easier than usual, and you have a bounce in your step that’s making you feel even more elated than normal taking out your keys to unlock your apartment.

You open your door and your bag drops. The keys clatter when they hit the hardwood, and the silence that follows is deafening.

“You’re bleeding on my carpet,” is the first thing that comes out of your mouth.

There Jason is, bleeding quite profusely, and using your kitchen counter to keep himself vertical. He’s wearing what looks to be a torn half of a domino mask and an extremely hot leather jacket.

(Not that this was the time for noticing his fashion choices, but you filed that thought away for later.)

What really catches your eye though is the huge red bat symbol on his chest, and the red helmet next to it sitting on your counter.

He shifts a little to the side before stumbling through saying, “Um, so, I know this isn’t ideal and I’m really sorry to put you in this situation, but I seriously do not feel like bleeding out tonight and-”

“Oh my god this is great,” you cut him off with. “I thought you were a hit-man!”

“Wait what.”

“Shit no that’s not what I meant- kind of, hang on we should probably stop you from dying before having this conversation.”

You walk over to him to get a better look at his wounds.

“God Jace, you look like death warmed over.”

He just stares at you.

“You have a bunch of stuff in your bathroom, right?”

At least this elicits a reaction. He grimaces in pain but gives you a nod of his head in conformation.

“Ok I’ll be right back, don’t move.”

He gives you a look that says seriously, where would I go.

3 minutes later you’re back with a needle and thread, and some sterilizing spray.

“This should be fine,” you tell him, “I took a first aid class last year with my friends and passed with flying colors according to the nurse.”

“Just try to keep them tight and neat. I trust you,” he says, and your heart pounds just a little harder.

You respond with a nervous laugh but take a deep breath and start working.

An hour and a half later you’re done.

The combination of pain meds, bandages, and a whole lot of stitches eventually led to you and Jason laying in your bed together, both completely exhausted.

He turns his head to face you.

“Could we maybe go back to the hit-man thing?”

“Oh uh. Well I saw a bunch of shirts covered in blood in your laundry in the bathroom, not to mention all the weirdly specific first-aid you had,” you tell him.

“And also the assorted guns and knives you have hidden all over. I guess I just assumed? But the whole Red Hood thing is so much better,” you reassure him.

“You found all my knives?”

You smile up at him.

“I love that that’s thing you chose to focus on.”

“And you’re really not mad that I didn’t tell you about the whole vigilante thing before?” he asks.

“Jay, I had already resigned myself to life forever with some shady hit-man that also happened to be incredibly good looking. Red Hood is ten times better than that. I’m not going to run away from you just because you’re incredibly intimidating and probably could kill me. I see that as an added bonus,” you say, with as much charm as you can muster without yawning.

“Just. Be careful, ok? I’d hate to make this a routine.”

He responds by pulling you closer to his body.

“I promise,” he whispers into your head. “You really to remember to get better locks by the way, breaking in was still way too easy.”

You let out a small laugh and finally you let yourself give into sleep.

#luce writes #jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #jason todd x gender neutral reader #red hood x gender neutral reader #jason todd x y/n #red hood x y/n #jason todd x you #red hood x you #jason todd imagine #red hood imagine #dc imagine #jason todd fanfiction #red hood fanfiction #jason todd #red hood #dc

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turtle-go-brrrr · 3 years

Text

4 times Leonardo was a dork and the time he wasn’t

Heya! I adore the "strong stoic character does something embarrassing or dumb" trope, and Leo has been left behing from that one. Also, my fervent Leo Simp Friend said these were all good ideas and I trust his judgment completely, so it's also for him. Enjoy, you Dork-ass Looser (affectionate) @weird-flex-but-ok

I have one of these "4 times ______ and 1 time ______" stories for each of them, I just got really inspired by him all of a sudden. But they're coming!

There might be a few typos here and there, but I really don't wanna wait any longer to post it :3

Requested: No

Pairing: None, platonic

Word count: 2500 +

Triggers: cursing, injuries, blood, intrusion

Summary: You were always sort of intimidated by the leader in blue, but a series of events shows you he might not be as serious as he wants you to think.

__________________________________________

First time

It took you a while to get along with all of them.

Not because you didn't trust them, or because they made it difficult, and certainly not because they're mutants. You're just not that good with new people, and you tend to shy away. Especially when you have New York's heroes in front of you.

So yeah. It took a while. But soon enough, you warmed up to your new friends, and you had a great time. Mikey was the first who made you feel welcomed, always asking questions about you and insisting you came to the lair in the first place. Donnie followed soon, after you started asking about what he was working on. It took a bit more work to get closer to Raph, but it turns out sarcasm was the way to go.

If only their leader was as approachable.

He never made you feel unsafe or unwelcomed, don’t get me wrong, he just kept a professional distance with you, which started to become quite painful as time went on. You tried not to take it personally, thinking he maybe was as shy as you were.

You had time anyway.

It was early in the evening when you made your way to the lair. For the first time since you met the turtles, you went there alone. You were a little nervous, thinking you might get lost in the maze of tunnels under the city, but figured you could just call someone if anything happened. Lucky for you, you found your way to your friend’s place, but not without hustle.

As you entered, you realized it was uncharacteristically quiet. The only sounds you could here were the faint music and the not so faint curses from Donatello’s lab. The smart decision seemed to be leave him alone, which is exactly what you did.

You haven’t been here long enough to know where to find the others, and as you didn’t exactly felt like staying alone in the living space, you tried finding your way to the dojo, as it was one of the other places you knew well.

Of course, now you got lost. Venturing into the sewers was fine, but walking into your friend's home wasn't, apparently.

You found something else, however. This particular tunnel led to a room you could identify as someone's room. You could see the large bed in the middle of the room, a small table with a bottle of water, a book, and a makeshift alarm. A set of twin swords were hanging on the right wall, just above a small bookshelf.

On your left was another table with a (healthy, you noted) bonsai tree, and next to that was Leonardo, facing a mirror. He had his right arm lifted up to his head, and was looking right to you through the mirror.

He looked absolutely horrified.

What the fuck.

He slowly rubbed his face in his hands, let out a long sigh, and turned to you, more tense than you've ever seen him. He cleared his throat as you pince your lips in a thin line to hold back a smile.

"Hello, Y/N. I... didnt think you'd come in so early."

Despite the badly lit room, you can see him bite the inside of his cheek.

"Yeah, uh, I didnt mean to... interrupt you," you say. Your voice is slightly shaking as it takes all of your willpower not to burst out laughing. And he definitely notices.

"You didn't! I uh, wasn't doing anything anyway. So, tell me- what brings you to the lair?" He asks, avoiding your eyes.

"Oh, Mikey invited me, he said I wasnt allowed to skip on movie night. You know how strong willed he is," you smirks, unable to handle it much longer.

Stiff as a board, you see the corner of his mouth twitching and hear him whisper, "... I wasn't flexing."

Silence.

You snort laugh hard enough to choke on it as you quickly turn around to hold yourself against the wall, the insanity of the situation crashing on you. Leo sat at the foot of his bed, head in his hands, and you could see him shake in repressed laughter once you wiped your tears away.

You sit next to him after finally calming down from the hysteria. He sighs, straightens his back and gives you a side glance.

"I'm not judging."

"You're still laughing, though."

"Yeah, but like, I guess I just wasn't expecting that. Still not judging."

He nods, still smiling. His voice is at least 3 octaves higher when he asks, "Please, don't tell the others."

"And what, give them the privilege of knowing about your little... ritual? Nah, don't worry about it."

_______________________

Second time

The second time your assumptions about the leader were subverted happended only two weeks after the... incident.

You had invited the whole crew to your place for the very first time, and they were all excited to come. You made a copious dinner: a few veggie cakes, chicken wings and a bowl of roasted potatoes. They were supposed to bring the drinks and movies, and April and Casey were in charge of the desert.

A perfect night, it seemed.

And it would have been if they could decide what to watch first without jumping at each other's throats.

"You guys need to grow up."

"Leave me out of thi-"

"Donnie's suggesting Velocipastor of all things and you think we need to grow up? Come on, Y/N, I thought you were better than that."

"Okay, first of all, how dare you. And second, this movie's a masterpie-"

"Yeah, because everyone knows that his supremior intellect means he's the only one who gets to choose a dumb movie. Why won't you guys watch Sharknado?"

"Supremior isn't a word. And it's because unlike you, peasants, I have taste." A devilish smile creeps up Donnie's face. The bastard is doing it on purpose.

"Peasants?!"

"You ugly-ass son of a-"

"Hey! Leave Dad out of this!"

"We could watch Shrek instead?"

You decided to go get some glasses in the kitchen, leaving the children to their stupid fight. Searching through your cupboard, you hear a crashing sound, quickly followed by utter and complete silence.

Oh no.

In insight, leaving them alone was maybe not the best idea. You were reconsidering bringing glasses into the mess as you made your way to the origin of the sound. And what a mess it was.

Your friends were all expressing shock in some way, Casey (surprisingly) being the most dramatic of them all with his hands right in front of his face and his jaw hanging open. They were all looking back and forth between you and another direction near the table.

The really cool bowl that held the delicious potatoes you made was broken on the floor. There was glass and potatoes everywhere, but the biggest shards were in a neat pile, right behind Leonardo, who looked like a deer in headlights.

"... nothing happended."

"I'm... starting to think it's a habit of yours," you say as you watch him not so discretely try to hide the broken pieces behind his foot.

"Look, if you keep putting your foot in there you're gonna hurt yourself. Just, step away a bit, will you?"

"I'm sorry I broke it. Let me help you clean up, I don't want you to cut yourself."

"It's okay! Don't touch it, I'll get a bag," you say as he starts to gather the biggest shards.

Won't even listen for one second, will he?

Raph was already picking up the untouched potatoes to put them in the plates on the table, and April went to the kitchen with you to retrieve the bag and cleaning supplies.

"Ew, Mikey don't eat that."

"Thirty seconds rule, baby."

"It's five seconds, you moron. And it's way over thirty anyway. Spit it out."

The rest of the night went on without further issues, but Leo still looked apologetic during the movie. Which is probably why he was standing before you as his brothers were leaving.

"Thank you for the evening. And I'm... sorry again for the bowl."

"Hey it's okay, man. Don't worry about it. As long as no one gets hurt it's not that big of a deal."

"I'll get you a new one." He doesn't wait for your answer and ruffles your hair before taking off.

"Text me when you guys get home!" You scream into the night, hoping one of them heard you.

______________________

Third time

It's surprisingly easy to mess with Fearless.

You were in the living room, getting your ass beat on Mario Kart by Mikey, when you decided to take a break for your stomach (and ego)’s sake. You made your way to the kitchen, where Leo and Raph were in a heated discussion. Raph looked

“I’m telling you, 4 inches is too small. What do you get from 4 inches ? Nothing. But 10 inches ? It really makes you feel something.”

…

What?

You looked down on the table and saw multiple ingredients lined up on the table, with a long piece of bread on the side.

Oh, sandwiches. Got it.

Leo’s back was facing you, but Raph gave you a knowing glance, one that said ‘do it’. So, you did. Not without a smirk, first.

“Oh, wow, Leo ! I didn’t think you’d be so open about that kind of conversations.” You open the fridge, hoping you can hide your smile behind the door.

“What ? What do you m-” His face falls. Raph starts chuckling next to you and it looks like Leo’s brain is rebooting.

“I mean, I’m not judging. You do you, buddy, I’m happy for you. Just surprised you choose lunch time to talk about it.” And in other circumstances, you’d mean every word. But right now, messing with your friend is too good to pass on.

“No, hold on- I didnt mean- It’s not what you think ! I’m talking about sandwiches !” He tries to show you the ingredients currently on the table, but Raph decides it’s time to join the fun.

“Lying isn’t vey Bushido of you, Honor Boy,” he winks at you and you can’t repress a giggle.

He puts his face in his hands, knowing very well that the both of you ganged up on him but unable to save face. He just smiles, goes back on his chair and hides his head in his arms, hoping you won’t see how embarassed you made him.

“Hey, you like what you like. Have fun with your sandwiches.” You give him an innocent smile, pat him twice on the shoulder, and join Mikey back on the couch with a plate of grapes.

You could hear Raph’s light chuckle from the kitchen.

______________________

Fourth time

Mornings are hard.

And they’re even worse when you spent the whole night sewing an arm back together after a sword gave it a nasty cut. And getting glass shards off of your friend’s shell. And putting a bone back in it’s rightful place after a particularly bad fall.

Yeah. Long night. And a tense one, too.

Because with the physical pain came the chock and residual fears, the anger and blaming. Everyone was stil on guard, and all that tension was exhausting. You barely slept, too worried that one of your friend’s state would degrade if you didn’t keep an eye on them at all times. Which didn’t really help you get the rest you needed.

If you were hoping the morning would be kinder on all of you, you quickly realized that it was a mistake. While, luckily for the turles, the mutagen was already healing their physical wounds, the emotional exhaustion of the previous night was still heavy. Of all of your conscious friends, not one dared break the eerie silence.

It was weird, seeing them like this. But you couldn’t force yourself to say anything, strangely scared of what could happen. You resumed to making breakfast for everyone and bringing clean towels to the still sleeping feverish turtle in the medbay. Splinter and Mikey were at the kitchen table, quietly accepting your offering, when Leo came into the room from the medbay.

He was still half asleep, and in his drowsiness didn’t see the wall he accidentally ran into.

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t see you there.”

Everyone turned to Leo, who it took a solid minute of staring blindly at the wall to realize what just happened.

Donnie was the first to laugh. It didn’t take long for april and Mikey to join, soon followed by Splinter affectionately patting his son’s arm. Leo smiled and shook his head, as their lighthearted laugh was contagious.

The leader in blue was more of a goofball than what you first expected, and you were grateful for it in the fading tensions of the morning.

______________________

One time he wasn't

When someone intrudes your home, especially at 4 am when you were sleeping in the next room, a lot of things go through your head.

Did they take anything?

Yes. Your bag with your wallet, some cash, your credit card, your ID, and a few fidelity cards from various stores. Your laptop. A set of keys. That one blanket Raph made you (probably to carry everything without making too much noise).

Why you?

Why not? Your apartment isn't isolated, but it's not exactly on a main street either. It was probably practical for them.

Were they armed?

Who knows. Maybe. Maybe not. Probably. Statistically, most likely.

What could have happened if you had tried to confront them?

A lot of things. Maybe, if you let them know you were awake and knew what was going on, without necessarily confronting them, it would have been enough to make them run away. Or maybe there were multiple armed people, and they wouldn't hesitate to use force if necessary.

Who knows.

Can the police find this person?

Statistically? No. At least, that's what Casey told you when you asked him. Unless they got really lucky, they won't find anything.

Or at least the stuff they stole?

Again, unlikely. Unless they can trace your laptop back to the guy, or someone can give a physical description and a direction, there's not a lot they can do.

What can you do now?

Call your bank. And your insurance. And your landlord. Let them know what happened and follow their directive, they'll guide you through their procedure and help you soften the blow.

Casey was the first person you called when you woke up this night, and he was at your place within minutes with two other colleagues (the closest he could find). He spent the rest of the night reassuring you, helping you with the phone calls, asking around for witnesses, but nothing.

It's weird, feeling unsafe for the first time in a place you had called Home for years. It's disturbing. You can feel the nausea your anxiety is giving you, and a headache starts to grow at the back of your skull.

You don't really like this feeling.

So when your turtle friends dropped by the next evening without telling you and you welcomed them with a swing of your favorite pan, let's just say reactions were split.

"I can hack into your computer to find its location if you want. Wouldn't be the first time."

"What?"

"What? I mean, I didn't do it for your location last time. I know all about your search history, though."

"We're gonna have a talk about boundaries and privacy once we're done dealing with that," you sigh. You crash down on the couch next to your friend and mindlessly watch him work.

Leo comes up to you and gently nudges your shoulder. "Hey, do you have a toolbox somewhere? We brought locks to put on your door and windows. You know, just in case."

You nod, quiet, and lead him to your room where you keep most of the most useful stuff you own, including but not limited to a toolbox and a first aid kit.

Your movements were almost mechanical as you retrieved the box and handed it to him, and you decided to help him put up the locks to keep your mind occupied.

He was concerned. You looked like you were still in choc, which he could completely understand. Getting robbed is awful in itself, but getting robbed while you're sleeping in the next room? Horrific, in his mind.

He was also furious. He couldn't be there for you. This person had the nerves to go after his friend, and what if you got hurt? He wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

He noticed he was staring when your eyes met his.

"Hey. We're gonna do whatever we can to find them. We're also gonna focus our patrols in your neighborhood for at least a few weeks, until you feel better," he puts a hand on your shoulder. "It's gonna be okay Y/N. Trust me."

You look up to him, and when you look into his eyes, you know he means it. You let your head fall against his plastron as he holds you against him, a silent promise for safety.

"Hey shorty," Raph pulls his head into the crack of the door to address you. "Wanna learn how to fight? I can turn you into a death machine."

You heard the faint "Raph, what the fuck" coming from Mikey who was still in the living room.

You gave a small laugh as you got up, Leo following you closely to the living room.

"Hey! Fighting isn't for everyone. But I could make you a really cool taser, if you want."

"What's with you and tasers?"

"They're efficient."

The bell ringed and April came in holding 4 boxes of pizza, that Mikey assisted her with as soon as she set a foot inside.

You looked around at your friends as April brandished the pizzas like a trophy while Raph and Donnie went back and forth trying to decide who, between man power and electricity, would win in a fight.

And you realized that yes, Leo was right.

It's gonna be okay.

#bayverse tmnt #tmnt #tmnt x reader #tw: injuries #tw: blood #tw: break in #tmnt leonardo #tmnt donatello #tmnt 2k16 #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt raphael #tmnt casey #tmnt april #tmnt splinter #OOOOOOOF #took me a while #hope you like it!

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