#i may ramble more about this

[little-mouse-gardens]

random au thoughts i have while playing video games part 1.

Some Stardew Valley Rise au future Donatello and Farmer reader thoughts I had while playing Stardew Valley.

gonna make a part to of some fluff headcanons soon!

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imagining future Donatello working as a mechanic in town while working part-time at the local library and museum. he enjoys his work, the peace Pelican Town brings him. loving the joy he finds in his hobbies and his work there.

he has won the fall fair competition for best invention at least ten times in a row (and he is incredibly smug about it)

farmer reader has recently gotten settled into their farm. happily tending to their crops and the plants they keep in the greenhouse they repaired. happily giving each of the cows, goats, chickens and ducks their morning/afternoon cuddles after breakfast.

they come into town to get ingredients to make some nice blueberry muffins for lunch or to go to the local library for some good books to read by the fire at the end of a long day with their trusty fluffy companion by their side.

eventually, right after they accidentally break their tractor, they decide to pay a visit to the local mechanic. Donatello.

when they visit Donnie is in the middle of working on a more advanced telescope to go stargazing with.

when he looks up he spots reader looking at the inventions displayed around his shop. watching the way their eyes sparkle as they gaze at the details he's put into his work or how they murmur to themselves about how incredible the craftsmanship is.

he doesn't know why, nor does he admit it at first, but he can't help but feel this fluttering in his heart. this warmth blooming within his chest he can't quite place.

he brushes it off for now and just calls reader over to take a look at the part that got broken off their tractor.

reader greets him with a warm friendly smile (even more friendly than the ones the people of Pelican town would give oh my god-) as they sit the part on the counter. shyly rubbing the back of their neck as they explain the situation.

the whole time he is fixing the part, reader is watching and listening to everything he has to say. watching the way his hands skillfully shaped the metal and how he rambled happily about the condition the part was despite the damage.

it makes reader smile. a softer smile. one of admiration.

even when the part is finished, reader sticks around for a little while longer. asking If he'd like any help moving some things around or asking questions about all the inventions he's made.

normally this would annoy him. After all, he has to work. he has to make sure things get done properly. yet this time...he isn't. In fact, he welcomes it.

eventually reader has to leave, but that doesn't stop them from visiting him each day.

every time they always bring him things fresh from their farm. a basket of fresh veggies from their garden, a knitted scarf they made themselves and dyed purple, homemade jams & meals for him etc.

Donnie is flustered at first but of course, returns the favor. giving readers farm new sprinklers that help with watering and keeping their plants healthy, and a belt that has multiple pockets that can keep their tools organized-heck he even makes a device that reader can use to call him to get them out of the mine.

with each gift. with each visit. each conversation-that fluttering only grows stronger within his heart.

until one night it hits him.

he's in love.

it all makes sense to him now. how they both would shy from each other's gaze when their hands brushed together. how their faces would flush when Donnie would carry Reader out of the mines to Harvey in town, the way they would glance at each other softly while they sat on readers front porch watching the sunset-

yep. yep. yep-hes in love.

and his brain is absolutely spinning at the idea of being able to...confess his feelings to reader.

the next morning, or rather around lunchtime-reader finds a lovely written letter from Donnie. asking them to come meet him in the mountains near the train station at around seven or eight.

reader of course, can't help but feel their own heart racing when they finish reading and it. managing to finish all their work by the time they make their way over to the designated meeting spot.

He's waiting there of course. this soft but nervous smile on his face. dressed in his best yet comfortable clothes wearing the scarf they gave him and standing next to the telescope he'd been working on since the day he met them.

most of the night is spent gazing at the stars. rambling on about things until they're both smiling brightly.

and when everything goes quiet. they just look at each other beneath the moonlight. this softness in the air…before Donnie takes a deep breath and just says what's on his mind.

holding reader's face in his hands as he confesses how they make his heart soar with their lovely smile. how their laugh makes his cheeks burn and the warmth of their lovely personality brings him a joy he hadn't felt in years he considers them to be his starlight. his other half, his friend, and his inspiration all at the same time.

reader is just floored-yet their heart is soaring at his words.

donatello is, of course, nervous at first-did he mess it up? was it too much? did he over plan this? was it cheesy? gosh he messed up-

it isn't until he sees this soft yet cheerful smile on their face and how their hands squeeze that he relaxes.

reader just slowly tips their sun hat up, gently tracing hearts on his hands as a quick heads up to him before they lean in for a soft kiss. murmuring softly, "If I'm your starlight, then you must be my moon..right?"

he had never wrapped his arms around reader so fast. He is so so happy. They are both laughing. peppering kisses across each other's faces. trying not to cry as they look into each other's eyes.

the telescope he put so much care and work into reflecting both farmer and inventor happily cuddled up side by side. moonlight and starlight shining down upon them.

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

forever obsessed with dynamics between vampires, specifically that of a maker and fledgling, as a way to explore abuse. the creation of a vampire itself can so easily be a literalization of the lasting impacts of trauma and also much more simply the ways a perpetrator might shape their victim’s very identity. the extremes of isolation in the way that the new vampire, in most narratives, must cut all ties to their mortal life, or else go through an elaborate charade to maintain the facade of humanity, while forever still being removed from it. and the sheer dependence and vulnerability of being in an entirely new state of being, wholly uncertain of what it entails, and relying on another person to define… everything.

[livrere-green]

the fact that charles was so gentle and sincere with his answer to edwin's confession is something I could never forget... because that's what love is about, right?

love is in the way charles could never hurt edwin on purpose, is in the way he protects him, in the way he knows when edwin needs to be seen; love is in the choice of every one of his words, in the way he knows that being honest is the only right answer.

there's still forever waiting for them, there's still forever waiting for charles to figure it out, to discover if he loves edwin in a romantic way too, and it doesn't matter if is not romantic in the end, because that it's just a side of the love they share.

i think is so important not to overlook something like that, not to let that pending romance overshadow the fact that they already love each other in every other way.

because in the end, we are talking about two boys that have experienced excruciating pain, that have seen horrifying things during all their existences, and in spite of it, or maybe because of it, are capable of loving each other in a way that's so pure and strong and relentless...

reducing the importance of it to a reciprocated romantic love seems so simplistic and inconsiderate to me.

[mayashesfly]

Suddenly thinking about an AU where Vox erased his memories about Alastor and how that might affect the show's timeline.

Though to be honest I just want to think about how Alastor is going to react and feel about waiting for Vox to eventually find out about his return...

Only to find out in the Overlord meeting that Vox completely forgot about him as he smiled at him and offered his hand with a practiced professional air.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Vox from Voxtek, the Leader of the Vees. Are you new around here?"

In this AU, Episode 2 changes drastically. There was never a "Stayed Gone" segment nor was Sir Pentious sent to the Hazbin Hotel to spy on them. Which means that a lot would've changed in this timeline since the First Redeemed would be mostly out of the picture.

And Vox not giving Alastor the time of day means that if Alastor launched his radio show again, he has to slowly win back his viewership instead of having free advertising in the shape of a tv-headed obsessed fool.

Honestly, with how Vox's obsession on Alastor gives him a reliable source of attention and entertainment, he would be rather upset that the TV Overlord wouldn't give him the time of day. Not only that but he completely forgot about him! New? What do you mean new? He has been an Overlord far longer than he had! He is The Radio Demon. And he dares to ask him if HE is new?

What the hell happened to Vox? Why doesn't he remember him? Is this the reason why Vox never gave him the attention he knew he would give him once he realized he returned? What was he supposed to do now?

His feelings are hurt. His ego was bruised.

Vox was never like this.

And he'll be damned if Vox stays that way.

[robiinurheart33]

Soap knows Ghost is beautiful. He doesn’t need to see his real face to know. It’s in the way he carries himself, his thick British accent, the arrogant quirk of his eyebrow that shifted under his mask. He never had any urge to take a peek at his face under that mask, always respected his boundaries, always stayed fairly within line.

But during the mission in Las Almas, where Ghost had so unwaveringly pulled off his mask, Johnny felt like his whole world had been shaken. Maybe it was because Ghost was his whole world Soap had been obsessed ever since. The crooked curve of his nose, his clipped and messy dirty blonde hair, the slight curve of his Cupid’s bow on his upper lip, the jagged scar that had been carved into pale, almost sickly skin. It was all so utterly Simon. Soap felt unhealthily obsessed. Genuinely, he thought that he could not be any more head over heels, and he goes and does this.

It was stupid how eager Soap was to draw his face. It was like he was a puppet on a string, pulled by his untethered compulsiveness. He had to be cautious. He yearned rip off the mask Ghost has just put on again to kiss him stupid in front of everyone. 141, maybe. But not the Los Vaqueros. He does have that sliver of sanity to hold himself back. But god, if that doesn’t just open up a door of opportunities for him behind closed doors. The extra areas of skin that were now not so unreachable was like dangling a candy in front of a child and expecting them to not take it.

Simon is beautiful. Simon is so pretty. Simon is stunning. Pure Bonnie.

Soap wills himself to shut the fuck up and focus on the mission. He wants to see Simon again. Preferably, in a setting with more light. Soap feels like he’s rediscovering ghost all over again, he wants to see his smile, his annoyed expression, his huffs and grunts, everything on his face. Good lord, does he have dimples? Soap thinks he might just die.

The act of seeing ghost’s skin lights something in soap. He doesn’t know what it is, but he feels the impatience and desperation to find out what it is. He grapples and tries to identify it, but like his callsign, it slips away and he’s left with a frustratingly empty feeling he knows only ghost can fill. I’ll find out. I swear, I’ll find it out.

Soap has never been a patient man.

(CLICKS FOR PALESTINE)

[dathen]

Me over here drawing up a red string board to support my headcanon that Sherlock Holmes is Bertie’s blorbo, only to read a couple chapters of one of the novels and finding it’s CANON?? He’s referred to him like three times already?? He keeps trying to channel him like “Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t do this…”? HE “YOU KNOW MY METHODS, APPLY THEM’D” JEEVES????

There are no words for how smugly delighted I am

[meamiiikiii]

vtuber loop !!!

[reverse entry au? the reverse isekai part of it? tangentially related to this post here, and also the last part of this post too]

[quadrantadvisor]

Owl House/Boiling Isles biology headcanons from a fic idea I never wrote:

Witches have a wider range of color vision than humans. A lot of magic puts off infrared light (meaning Luz is missing out on like, half of what spells actually look like).

Humans, however, have a better sense of smell. Witches are better at digesting potentially hazardous materials, but humans have to worry about poisons. Humans are also highly specialized to smell petrichor (via Wikipedia, "able to detect it at concentrations as low as 0.4 parts per billion"), and witches can't smell it at all. (Luz is like, "I miss the rain smells in the human realm so much. On the Boiling Isles the rain just smells like burning :/" and all her friends are like, "what. are you talking about."

Witches don't have an appendix, but they do, coincidentally, also have a random organ that doesn't have much of a purpose and sometimes ruptures and kills you. It's located slightly above the right lung.

Kinda obvious but, ears. Witch ears have a greater curve than human ears and taper into a point. They have some limited mobility, allowing the witch to pinpoint sounds, and they play a part in emotional expression. For a witch, it's not really that strange that human ears are round, it's more that they don't move at all. They're completely stiff, and it makes humans difficult to read. (Luz is lucky she's otherwise very expressive, or else she would come off as nearly emotionless. As it is, sometimes people think she's not being genuine, because her ears don't match the rest of her expression, like when someone smiles without their eyes.)

Humans have slightly denser bones than witches. As a result, humans weigh a bit more on average and put on muscle easier.

Witches can't digest lactose

A high tolerance for most human poisons means that alcohol isn't a popular drug for witches. It technically affects them in a similar way, but their tolerance is such that it's not an effective way to get high. Most of the drugs used recreationally on the Boiling Isles would kill a human instantly.

Witches have a different pulse beat from humans, since their hearts are designed differently to accommodate the bile sac (and grimwalkers' pulses are even more unique, since they have a galdorstone. Rather than the thump of blood valves, Grimwalkers have a sort of magic hum that pulses their circulatory system.)

[radioroxx]

funny thing about aus in which another one of the party joins the loops with siffrin is that, while the others are 10x more likely to mention the loops, i cant imagine any of them would go to siffrin first.

[cjgladback]

I went to my first fiber festival this past weekend! Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival; if I'm still in this state come June next year, I'll probably be back and would love to meet anybody else there. Socializing/hanging out/talking to people without feeling like I was obstructing Real Customers was the one thing I missed, though I didn't really get to any of the free lectures so maybe that's where I could've met some people. Since it was an unknown situation with a lot of people and nearly an hour drive each way, I strategized to make sure I'd go:

First day, I signed up for a couple volunteer shifts. Absolutely a recommended strategy.

Got to be helpful!

They happened to have goodie bags, to help me justify the gas and time (I now have a nice tape measure to replace the one that's been vacationing with a missing sewing kit for a couple years and a lasercut wood two-inch gauge window that might help me with consistency versus my suboptimal practice of just trying to knit perfect squares when swatching in pattern)

I got to learn things about the layout and schedule I wouldn't know to ask when answering questions and acting as a gofer -- especially true working two different locations

And of course, some people were pretty much guaranteed to be happy to see me!

Second day, I signed up for a workshop in the morning so I'd be there and able to shop for anything I needed at the end. Ombre yarn dyeing was the class! It's acid dyes, something I'm several years off from wanting to get into enough to commit to dedicated cookware, full pots of dye powder, etc. The room with the workshop was a barn that had plenty of outlets--but they did not represent plenty of breakers. So there weren't quite enough functional heating elements for the class to have sufficiently cooked our yarn before leaving, and I did need to risk a giant stock pot at home for three batches of four jars, almost-simmering in a water bath for thirty minutes each, of the yarn that hadn't proven it was done (all but the two palest greens). I was a little worried the delay/drawn out heat situation would affect the results but if it did it wasn't much; I got pretty much exactly what I was hoping for with my two color gradient and the single is great too!

The single dye gradient is the color Moss, which did some interesting things with the red portion separating out once they were heated. Every skein has redder blotches, so I'm not bothered about any inconsistency -- if anything it'll help my finished product camouflage stains. Though it was definitely a surprise for me and the other Moss user in the class when our first yarn to have exhausted the dye was the complementary color to what it went in as.

The two color gradient used Rhodamine Red on one end, which was one end of one of our instructor's samples where she chose a cool-green for the other end to show how multi-component dyes mix less predictably than most paint. (It was kinda like shading with markers where you can still see washes of the pink and green in what you squint at and call a grey-brown.) The other end was Cantaloupe, which was one of the maybe three colors she didn't have a sample cut of yarn for. But she described it as the flesh of a perfect ripe cantaloupe and obviously I had to see that, and it sounded like it would be fairly guaranteed to combine nicely with the magenta while being just enough around a bend in the color wheel to be interesting--warm orange versus cool pink. As I said, it turned out pretty much exactly as I was picturing. Not anticipated was how much the jars looked like they were full of some delicious dragonfruit-mango beverage. Were I still a barista I'd be trying to recreate this for my shift drink.

Image descriptions under the cut.

[ID: Five images following fourteen small skeins of sock yarn dyed in individual glass jars, in two gradients. One gradient is six skeins from a medium forest green through a pale creamy pink, the other is eight skeins from a vibrant yellow orange through an even more vibrant magenta. The first photo is inside under fluorescent lights, showing the 32oz glass canning jars with metal lids and rings, full of dye and yarn on a table at the end of the class in which they were filled and heated for a short time.

The next two images are animated gifs. The first gif is two frames showing the finished dye jars sitting in grass, with their yarn and with it removed. The green gradient left only transparent blue color in its jars, and most of the pink to orange gradient's water looks more orange without its yarn, aside from the third and fourth jars from the orange end, which shade toward a neon lilac with the peachy pink yarn removed. The second gif is a view of the inside of the bright green wash bucket, with just the pink-orange yarn in it, then all of them mixed up, all as they were after a soak with the rust-brown water, in the first rinse, and that rinse water alone showing its transparent but still brown tint.

The last two photos show the gradients lined up along a weathered wooden bench on the side of a deck. The first photo has the wet piles of yarn bundled in front of each of their respective jars with remaining dye. The final photo has the clean, dry yarn wound into center-pull balls and still vibrant in the direct sunlight. End ID]

[iwoulddieforienzo]

Something really great about the persona 2 cast is that they all individually fucking SUCK to talk to casually. Every single one of them. They are all infuriating. We have:

Tatsuya, who will stare at you blankly if you try to initiate conversation (IS) and will dip without saying a word afterward (EP)

Batsuya, who will scoff and brush you off/otherwise act dismissive

Eikichi, who might honestly be the best to talk to in the IS crew and that is not saying much, who WILL talk extremely loudly over you (probably not on purpose?) and will not be paying particularly close attention to the conversation beyond whatever he wants to say (gets points for talking about his gf. gets points taken away for constantly talking about his gf)

Lisa, who will automatically assume bad faith and will be rude to you the entire conversation unless you manage to defuse her temper (good luck)

Jun, who is uncommunicative at BEST and requires an encyclopedic knowledge of flowers, metaphor and body language just to get a HINT on what he’s thinking, and who will be extremely polite but completely unhelpful. If you tried asking him what he wants for dinner I guarantee it will be the longest 30 minutes of your life as he goes “oh I have no opinion :) whatever you want. :))” EXCEPT HE DOES HAVE OPINIONS. He has SO MANY OPINIONS. He is Expecting you to be able to pick up on his “obvious” clues. He will be passive aggressive if you don’t. (Jun babygirl you suck so bad I love u)

Maya, who is a delight but will very quickly become grating if you try to talk to her about anything serious as she hits you with the white suburban mom's "how to live a happy, healthy life" lifecoach slogans. You can’t even mention, like, stepping in a puddle or something without her hitting you with the positivity beam.

Yukino is great actually. 10/10. She’s fabulous we love her. Incredible conversationalist, chill and fun and easy to get along with. But she’s from Persona One, she doesn’t Count.

Ulala, who WILL bring up her relationship problems in every conversation within 10 minutes at least once. Any longer and she will start talking about Maya.

Do I even need to explain Baofu. Have you seen him.

And finally, Katsuya, who is a cop and a kiss ass and Very Obvious about these things. Also he can't talk to women. He can barely talk to men. Help Him.

And yet they all work wonderfully as a group. They are so annoying I love them

[lulu-the-bugaboo]

Am I the only one who thinks Luffy could actually handle a seraphim Ace?

I'm sure he would be shaken at first but he would get over it quickly enough

He would probably be more angry about it honestly

And I think this way because of what he told Bonney about the Kuma clones

That he did understand why it pained her to face them but at the end of the day they weren't really her father and she would have to fight if needed

The similarity would definitely bother him but he wouldn't be unable to fight and he would be able to not view the seraphim as his brother

It has already been shown that he has pretty much moved on from his pain so I don't think he would be as vulnerable as some think he would

All of this is my personal view on it of course and I'm open to other interpretations

[alieonya]

ted having no real friends or emotional attachments outside of his brother, and maybe their parents. he has a soft spot for peter, even if it’s in his nature to tease him—but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care or worry about him.

because of that, ted is so protective of peter when he learns that his little brother is being bullied and outcasted, he almost stays up all night just seething over how much he wants to beat the shit out of any shit starter that fucks with his brother.

(but he rationalizes that there’s no way he could protect pete if he went to jail for kicking some kid’s ass, even if he wants to fight a child as a sign for other kids to stay away from pete)

when pete befriends richie and ruth and ted learns about this, it eases his mind to know he at least has friends, even if the duo are rowdier than pete. he’s kinda proud that pete is the lead in their group, even if it’s coincidental.

when they both die, ted definitely hears about it from the news and pete. he fears for pete’s sake, both physically and emotionally, because those were his first friends that ended up sticking around for the longest time.

then stephanie comes along, and at first ted is most suspicious of her since she indirectly caused pete to get beat up for trying to meet up with her, and she’s “popular” from what pete has said. but he witnesses/hears how well they get along when she comes over, or how they become protective of one another, and ted begins to trust her.

(if anything, he ends up trusting her the MOST out of everyone pete knows because she’s so outspoken and willing to stand up for his little brother, and she’s a bit of a rebel, which ted finds entertaining—this is a shock to steph if she learned how ted felt, but it is appreciated)

to an extent, grace could be considered a friend of pete’s too, especially because at the end of the musical she tells both steph and pete about her homecoming date with jason, despite how much their personalities differ and the possibility of them being friends is slim at first.

ted may not be able to protect pete from everything, or be around him 24/7, but learning he has a safe space in the end and people around him that care. ted is so proud of him, and so grateful that pete won’t be as alone as he is, and that he’s happy.

and ultimately, that’s all ted wants for his little brother. :(

[jounosparticles]

jouno’s eyelashes - a quick analysis

yes im analyzing jouno’s eyelashes. im obsessed with him what can i say.

one thing i’ve noticed throughout my many rereads of jouno’s segments of the manga is that he is actually given eyelashes in a lot of the panels he is present in! often times they’re just thin white lines but they’re definitely there. here are some examples.

now, if we recall back to what harukawa said about eyes a long time ago:

the darker ones eyes are, the more tainted or corrupted a person is. someone who is doing good and/or feeling good may have whiter eyes. to rephrase, one who’s eyes are dark are typically doing something corrupt and/or are in an emotionally bad state. we see this numerous times throughout the manga with many characters, the shade of their eyes changes with their emotion at the time usually.

now what does this have to do with jouno? well, i believe his eyelashes are used to display his intentions since he keeps his eyes closed constantly.

now, there are definitely some exceptions to this. panels where his eyelashes are small could be hard to colour this way, so im looking past a few instances for that purpose.

anyways, i believe looking at his eyelashes in this perspective also hints towards his betrayal of fukuchi, since you can see he has good intent. more on this later.

i'd also like to preface this by reminding you that jouno believed he was in the right with most things he did. he was sure the agency was in the wrong for a long time, times where his lashes were white while dealing with the agency was likely because he believed himself to be doing what is good.

now, starting with his debut in chapter 57, his eyelids are almost completely black as he arrests dazai

his eyelashes appear a bit darker as he torments people i find.

such as shortly after he slices kunikida's notebook and asks tetchou to kill yosano.

one scene i actually want to put a lot of emphasis on here is chapter 78's interaction between jouno and kunikida.

here is his face when he first walks in, he's simply making small talk over how a terrorist attack is awful

we can see his lashes pretty well.

we can also see it well when he's talking about his asian pear. maybe he just really likes them.

however, as the conversation progresses onto tormenting kunikida, his eyelids casually grow darker.

they're not completely black yet, but you can tell he is enjoying bothering kunikida despite his claim of innocence.

after this, you can see his lashes are a little brighter as he announces that yosano is going to be executed.

this makes sense remembering that he is under the belief that yosano is guilty of terrorism and is getting the punishment he believes she deserves.

after this, jouno walks away as kunikida cries out in anger.

his eyelashes are almost completely black here, likely because he is getting nothing but personal enjoyment out of kunikida's grief. he isn't doing good by this and this could definitely be seen as corrupt behaviour.

a huge contrast to what i've been saying falls in chapters 71 and 72, the cafe scenes.

you can see the white of his eyelashes in nearly every panel he's in.

what makes this different than when he was bothering kunikida is that bothering the cafe owner was moving his case forward. he believed he was pursuing justice and doing what is right by extracting important information here; as opposed to doing nothing but mentally torturing someone who isn't improving his case. from his perspective, his actions weren't tainted in anyway except possibly approach, but since he was doing what was right his eyelids were painted white.

another example of this is in chapters 60 and 61, when he is fighting the agency for the first time.

and when the agency escapes and he's surprised to find out the pursued terrorist group would have allies in chapter 62.

i found that these three chapters had a lot of small panels where you couldn't really see the detail of his eyes, but generally they were white as he caught the criminals. they were also white as they escaped, since he was likely confused that people were easily supporting the group he perceived as evil.

my last example of this is his eyes being very white as he tortures the bank robbers in the flashback scenes in chapter 92.5.

he believes that he is seeking justice here. the robber gets what they deserve, and his intentions are what he believes in just which explains his eyes being white.

anyways, to summarize this all: jouno's eyelashes colour often displays his morality. his lashes seem to be coloured more white when he is doing what is morally right from his perspective. even if what he is doing is considered brutal by most, his eyes glow white if it is in pursing of justice or good. in contrast, if what he is doing has no overall benefit and he is just distressing someone for purely his own enjoyment, his eyelids often are coloured much darker.

however, as i said above i believe this subtly hinted at jouno's betrayal of fukuchi.

in chapter 92, we can still see by his eyelashes that he has the right intentions when hunting for the agency.

and towards the end of the chapter we see his eyes still have a small white streak, implying his bluff on actually being willing to switch to the other side. at the same time, the thinness of the lash could be so small because he is lying to his superior as well, which i suppose could also be seen as tainted behaviour.

however, after fukuchi's plan is unraveled we see the brightness shine again.

as i stated above, when he isn't doing what he believes is right or is tormenting people for no reason but his own enjoyment, his eyes look black. but if you look at the image below you can see his eyes are partially coloured white, hinting that he was going to do what was right. it is subtle colouring, i assume that is partially due to the fact that his face was rather small on the page. but regardless it is still noticeable.

and what do we know? he did switch up and betray fukuchi shortly after saying this.

with that in mind, there's one scene i deliberately avoided bringing up until now; the scene i believe heavily tries to avoid hinting at jouno's betrayal of fukuchi. im referring to the scene where jouno confronts aya.

as i said, if jouno is acting corrupt towards someone for his own fun, his eyelids are dark, but if he's doing something that he believes is just his lashes remain partially white. i believe that out of context his eyes would likely be black as he torments aya, however since he secretly had good intention they would have actually been white.

however, the readers had yet to know the context of his approach until the end of chapter 93, so they needed to hide the fact that he may have had good intent here.

so harukawa kept his eyes covered (or coloured his face differently) throughout the scene.

the most we see of his face in this whole scene is his side profile, which is small enough to not need to colour his eyelashes in.

i believe this was an intentional choice to keep the readers from guessing that he was doing something he believes is right here.

anyways, to sum up this segment i believe that jouno's eyelashes in chapter 92-92.5 subtly hinted at the fact that he was indeed siding with aya and was preparing to betray fukuchi.

in conclusion, i believe jouno's eyelashes hint at his true intent a lot. they show that he is a good person hiding behind a facade. the shading of his eyelids is a lot more subtle than how most character's eyes look in the manga, which i believe helps add more to jouno's somewhat moral ambiguity. he is an incredibly well-written character and i can't wait to see more of him!

[dustykneed]

Hello! Random whipper snipper! Share a WIP of your work!

ooh, with pleasure. six the musical araleyn fanart? in the year 2k24? more likely than you think xDD

i realize this looks finished, but technically i'm still deciding whether to add a background or not lol. still, for the sake of sharing a proper WIP, here's a line or two from an araleyn brainworm WIP that i started reworking yesterday (mild tw for religious guilt and period-typical internalized homophobia from aragon's pov):

She remembers sharing her bed with Anne at Henry's behest, remembers the nights of tossing and turning and trying not to think about Anne asleep next to her-- remembers waking up to dark hair spilling across her pillow and the press of blood-warm bosoms against her own, softer than sin, as hot as the Devil, remembers lying still as death, mouthing prayers into the heat of Anne's neck like an act of penance.

[turtleblogatlast]

Thinking about the Don Suave scene and what it means in terms of LGBTQ+ representation because my brain does nothing if not torment me with random topics to ramble about on the regular.

Anyway, I just wanted to ramble about why I like the scene but to get it out of the way - the scene can very easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and all of them are valid. I personally see it as Leo having at least some attraction to a man. And the following is an explanation of my own interpretation and thoughts on it and what it means especially for Leo’s portrayal in the grand scheme of things.

Long-winded interpretation under the cut!

Now, to start with, it’s important to me that in the scene Leo looks at Don Suave in the very beginning and then for the entirety of the rest of the time the man is on screen, Leo’s eyes are closed. Yet, in the end, he is still visibly enamored with Don Suave, happily cuddling up to him as he’s being carried away.

You can very easily interpret this as Leo being spellbound and that’s honestly super valid and I believe he likely was at least somewhat in the beginning, but considering how fast he looked away and how he never looked again, I personally think it makes more sense to read it as Leo just finding the man attractive, at least somewhat. (For the record, I personally headcanon Rise Leo as bisexual with a heavy preference for men, but I want to be blunt when I say that any interpretation is valid. Literally any. Ace, pan, gay, bi, none of the above or a mixture of something new literally all of it is more than okay and fair. Hell you could even interpret this entire scene as more romantic attraction than physical and it would still work. Anything goes!! Don’t bother people, guys, really.)

The main reason I take this scene to be at the very least LGBTQ+ adjacent isn’t just because of how it’s portrayed, but because of who Leonardo is. Not in terms of Rise of the TMNT, but in terms of the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™️ franchise.

Leo’s a character who, while changing with each iteration, has still at his core been around for decades upon decades as “the blue one”. One fourth of the team. He’s the one most are going to look at as the Leader, and oftentimes he is the one closest to having the title of Main Character. Not to say the others aren’t just as important, but Leo’s presence in the A plots of basically all TMNT media is often something very main character-esque.

And that’s very, very important to note. Here we have a Main Character of a prolific and decades long-running franchise distributed by a children’s television network. You can play around with his and his brothers’ characters all you like, but there is always going to be challenges to dodge around, especially since this was still in 2018-2019.

For example, you can play around with their designs so long as they’re color coded turtles, but their sexualities? Now that’s tricky.

“But what about Hypno and Warren?” Not main characters and also they’re Rise originals. They have a lot more room to play around with than a character like Leo does. But even talking about main characters in the franchise, you could arguably have an easier time playing around with Donnie or Mikey’s sexualities than Leo or even Raph, as (unfortunately) the former two tend to get more B plots, so they’d likely have had a little more leeway (still not a lot though.)

So, where does this leave us?

It leaves us in a place where outright stating and/or showing undeniable proof of Leo’s attraction to men is very, very difficult. So, workarounds!

Workarounds like the entire Don Suave situation.

To be honest, as left up to interpretation and lowkey and deniable as it is, this whole scene means a lot to me because of who Leo is as a character. It’s just nice when we get so see even the bare bones of representation with characters that have been such a large part of pop culture for decades, y’know? Even if more would be so much nicer, this is better than I thought we’d ever get for these boys.

And, again, literally nothing I’ve said is the only way to interpret it, I’m more than happy when people interpret media on their own honestly, it’s just something I’ve been thinking of lately and I was wondering if others felt the same way.

Whatever you think when you interpret this scene or Rise Leo as a whole, I just thought this would be interesting to think about, even if it was ramble-y, haha.