#i might revisit this one later and make some changes to it since i really simply needed to give myself some sort of outlet

[delicris]

The Loving of an Art and the Art of Loving

Take a black pen and draw on my body, almost as if tattooing me, but not quite there yet, no, not really. Take a black pen and draw on my body, leave forever behind yourself and let the tip float over my skin. Take a black pen and draw on my body, don't let the thought wander off, find the sacred place and out let it spill. Take a black pen and draw on my body, then snatch the cap and close it and leave my lying there with burning skin. Take a back pen and draw on my body, for maybe, once you stop, you will let your fingers carve out red ink.

[citrus-moonlight]

Danger Starts the Sharp Incline

Fandom: MCU - Age of Ultron, Black Panther Pairing: Demon!Klaue x Fem Scientist Reader Chapters: 1 of 1 Word count: 4.5K Rating: Explicit

Summary: At your scientific organization the study of demon energy output has become no less mundane than it would at any other research facility. That is until you find yourself trapped with the demon who has recently shifted in your thoughts from an idle curiosity to a distraction.

Warnings: Explicit Rating!, No Age Specified, PWP, One Shot, Smut, Let Me Be Clear: This Is Absolute Filth, Monster Fucking, Demon Fucking, Could be viewed as Dubcon, Implied Mind Manipulation, But to be clear reader is Into It, Pet Names, Touch Starved Demon, Oral Sex (Fem Receiving), Vaginal Fingering, Big Hands I Know You're the One, Unprotected PIV, Size Kink, Squirting, A Lot of Demon Cum, Like A Lot, Cum Marking, Creampie, Breeding Kink, Multiple Orgasms (both), Overstimulation, Possessiveness

A/N: Once again, this was supposed to be a quick little smutty thing that ended up getting very, very away from me. This honestly could have been even longer (it was over 5.5k and counting at one point!), but I managed to reign myself in, lol. I almost feel like I have enough for a part two, so who knows, perhaps I'll revisit this AU one day in the future!

This was inspired by the first bit of this absolutely incredible demon/scientist blurb* by @biscuitdragonwithastick, which you should definitely read first (thank you for the ok to go ahead with this!). It fully dug its claws (pun intended?) into my brain and refused let me go. I couldn't stop thinking about a Demon!Klaue AU, and thanks to some lovely encouragement, this is the result!

Please, please mind the tags, my dears, and thank you for reading!

*Demon's name has been changed here to fit the AU

Dividers by the lovely @saradika-graphics ❤️

UPDATING TO ADD PLEASE GO CHECK OUT THIS DEMON!KLAUE FANART BY MY INCREDIBLE LOVELY TALENTED FRIEND, truly I have not stopped screaming! 😍🥹💕

Work title is from "All Mine" by Portishead

AO3 Link

Make no mistake You shan't escape Tethered and tied There's nowhere to hide from me All mine You have to be

Klaw’s reaction continues to be noted by the higher-ups, and eventually it’s decided that they want to conduct an experiment, using you.

The next time you’re scheduled on the cleaning rotation they want to take the opportunity to determine if there’s a measurable difference in output and chemical composition - before and after you’ve been in the room with him.

“Just consider what it might mean to the future of energy research”, they’d said. “It could lead to the discovery of a demon-sensitive pheromone additive that boosts energy output across the board.”

Although you flush at the outward acknowledgement of what’s been happening, you can’t deny that it intrigues you.

Especially since you had started dreaming about him.

Since you’d stopped being able to control how wet you got when you observed him.

Since the self-consciousness you’d felt at the sidelong glances of your colleagues had started feeling like something else. 

Something like pride.

* * * * * *

Two days later you’re scheduled for the night shift alone, with not much else to do but make the occasional note in the shift log and wait for the alarm that indicates the mare’s collection tank is full. So you wait. 

And watch.

For the first time you have a chance to really just look at him, and you’re finding it difficult to pay attention to the instruments that you should be monitoring. Your eyes instead are continually drawn back to the observation window and the thick mop of black curls that falls across his forehead where his horns emerge, sharp features are framed by the scruff of a dark beard, and an intriguing mix of tattoos, brands and scars play across the planes and curves of his body.

Although his muscles aren’t as chiseled as many of the demons you've observed in this facility his shoulders and arms are thick, and you unconsciously lick your lips as your eyes follow the dark hair that covers his broad chest and abdomen down to where it meets the wiry hair at the base of his cock.

A slick warmth has been slowly pooling between your thighs since you settled into your chair at the beginning of the shift, but as you watch the bored pumping of his hips fall into a smoother, swaying rhythm, that warmth ignites.

Widening his stance, hooved feet brace on the floor as he pulls out further before thrusting back in, letting you watch his cock slide slowly back into the machine’s opening, burying himself with a jutting roll of his hips, over and over. Almost teasing. 

Almost taunting.

This could be you.

It’s only when Klaw drags his hands along the metal “body” of the mare that you notice it: The claws of the first three fingers of his right hand seem to be…gone? 

With a flicker of concern you flip a switch on the console, using the camera to zoom in. 

Ok, no, they’re not gone per se, but they’re definitely shorter, nearly down to the quick. Was it an accident? Did they break in a fervor as he fucked the contraption? 

Frowning at the screen your mind turns over the possibilities, but before you can think to add the peculiarity to your notes your thoughts fizzle away when you glance back up to the observation window and see that he’s watching you.

As soon as your eyes meet his the tease in his movements falls away and he’s bottoming out hard against the opening in a rough, stuttered rhythm as his eyes cloud over, and you know from past observation that he’s nearing the edge.

Your inner muscles clench and the ache that’s been building since you walked in here swells and overlaps with a flaring jealousy when Klaw shudders and growls, filling the receptacle with another thick load of his seed.

You don’t even realize that you stood up until you feel the cool glass of the observation window beneath your palms, your breath fogging the surface as you press yourself against the barrier.

There’s still a slow, uneven cadence to the demon’s thrusts following his climax, but his gaze swiftly sharpens on you again when one of your hands drifts idly across your stomach, then lower, fingers brushing over the top button of your pants-

-and then you jump when a shrill sound interrupts you, nearly growling at the surge of frustration.

The alarm is piercing and incessant and won’t stop until you enter the demon’s room, so you return to the control panel to activate the sigil that will keep him contained while you clean and recalibrate the machine - tests having shown that a laser projection of the correct wavelength of light is just as effective as a physical binding.

Once you’re through the airlock you quickly set to working through the checklist, unhooking the mechanism that feeds into tanks in the floor and connecting it to a fresh one. You move on to cleaning the unfeeling hole that the demon fucks into day in and day out, your breath going shallow at the jealousy that continues to singe your nerves. 

His gaze stays entirely focused on you as you move around, cock swaying heavily in front of  broad thighs - still hard, always hard - the still leaking head so dark it’s nearly purple. 

The slick between your thighs has only increased since you started to work, fairly certain that you’ve soaked through your panties at this point, and when you have to pass closer to his “cage” he leans forward, nearly pressing himself against the barrier as he follows your path.

Inhaling deeply his cock twitches, more cum dripping from the tip as he ruts at the air, and you can't help but wonder if he’s picking up your frustrated arousal.

“Hurry up.” you chide yourself. “Stop getting distracted. Just finish your shit and get out.”

Kneeling down behind the machine you open the access panel and flip through the menus until you find the one that will complete the calibration, and while you’re focused on watching it cycle you don’t notice the outer door open from the hall into the observation room. 

The intern who enters must not see you where you’re kneeling on the floor, and evidently thinking that the trap has been left on in error he flips the switch to deactivate it.

When the light from the beaming sigil goes dark you pop up in alarm, the face of the intern frozen in an almost comedic grimace of horror when he finally registers that you’re staring back at him from the wrong side of the glass. 

The man reaches for the switch again but Klaw’s reflexes are faster, and before the trap can be reactivated the demon rushes the door. Slamming his shoulder against it he jams it so thoroughly they'll need to bring in special equipment to get it open again, but at this time of night it'll be hours, if you’re lucky, before a crew gets here.

Then he rounds on you.

With an oddly warm sense of detachment you think that you should feel fear as you watch the slow grin spread across his face, but the only thing you feel is a surge of hot, aching desire. 

He rumbles something you don’t understand, though the rough texture of his words is still intoxicating, and before you realize what you’re doing you’re walking towards him, pulling your shirt over your head as you move. 

Because right now you find that you want - need - to bare yourself for him, the sensation of it intense that your skin feels like it’s going to scald if you don’t get your clothes off now, and your shoes, pants and underwear quickly join the discarded pile on the floor.

Stopping in front of him you reach back to unclasp your bra, but your arms pause mid-way when Klaw’s hand reaches out, your breath hitching when he hooks a large, clawed finger beneath your chin, tilting your head up so that your eyes meet his.

You’d always assumed that his eyes were black, but this close you realize that they’re actually an impossibly deep blue, a blue that only resides along the penumbra of light and shadow where the last rays of sun reach into the depths of the ocean

You stand mesmerized as his hand dips lower, leaving behind a trail of gooseflesh as a claw trails gently down the delicate skin of your neck and chest, and then with a flick of his wrist the last scrap of fabric covering you gives way, exposing your breasts to the cool air.  

You’ve barely shrugged off the ruined garment when suddenly you’re being picked up - so, so easily - and placed on a table, swiftly reminded of how much larger and stronger he is than you, and once again dimly aware that you should feel fear, or dread, or some instinct telling you to run.

Not of the shiver of anticipation that leaves your breath hitching in your chest. 

Definitely not the wild need blooming in your core as sharp teeth ghost along the place where your blood thrums, his breath hot and his skin hotter.

His mouth continues its path downward, pausing to lick at the soft swell of your breasts, taking a moment to pull and pluck at your nipples with his lips. A pleased growl vibrates against your skin when you lean back onto your hands with a moan, arching into the swirl of his tongue around your pebbled flesh. 

It’s not long, though, before he can no longer ignore the way this increases the heated musk between your thighs, leaving behind a wet trail of saliva as his mouth travels down, seeking the place where you’re already dripping for him.

The demon's hands nearly wrap entirely around your thighs yet his touch is almost cautious as he presses you open, mesmerized by the way you unfold for him like the petals of a flower, slick and shining.

HIs eyes are heavy lidded as thick fingers begin to tease through your folds, toying with your clit, surprising you with how softly he rolls it between thumb and forefinger, a grin curving the corner of his mouth when your hips buck into his touch.

Noting your reaction he repeats the motion, gently pinching and rolling the sensitive bud until your mouth drops open and your breath is coming in sharp gasps, his dark eyes staying fixed between your legs as thick fingers coax a warm, honeyed orgasm from you, leaving you keening and startled by the slow intensity of it.

You’ve barely caught your breath when you feel his mouth suddenly envelop your mound, lapping eagerly at your release as you whine and writhe beneath his tongue, overwhelmed at the stimulation.

It’s too much, all of this is too much, but as he continues licking and suckling at your sensitive flesh you find that you’re no longer fighting it, the hum of bliss that hadn’t yet faded already building to a fresh swell, and when his lips capture your clit with a sudden fluttering pressure your body stiffens as your second orgasm flares through you, sharper and brighter than the first. 

When he finally releases you he speaks again, but through the haze of afterglow it takes a moment for it to register that this time you think that you understand him, the word seeming to appear within your mind at the same time that you hear it from his glistening lips.

“Sweet.” 

With a start you look down at him and he pauses, head tilting, curiosity knitting his heavy brows. 

Not moving his eyes from yours, his voice is a low, tentative purr when he speaks again.

“Would your sweet cunt like..more?”

Holy fuck. You can understand him.

Your thoughts spin as the shock works its way through you, the analytical part of your mind attempting to parse what the fuck is happening. Is it the increased time in his proximity? The physical contact? Whatever the mechanism, you can suddenly hear- or perhaps more accurately feel - his words, somewhere deep in your conscience.

A firm nod, then, in answer to his question, a responding pull of his lips into a slow, pleased grin.

Dipping his head Klaw licks a broad, wet stripe up your cleft, and then he’s devouring you, slavering hungrily against your sex, drool mixing with your arousal as his lips and tongue work your aching bundle of nerves until you’re gasping shallow breaths, every muscle strung taught as you hover on the edge once more.

Seeking for an anchor your hands find his curved horns, warm and leathery beneath your scrabbling fingers, and then with a rasping cry you’re coming in long, surging waves, your entire body trembling as your hips chase every flutter of pleasure on the tip of his tongue. 

Dimly you think that he must be satisfied now, that you must be satisfied, yet it seems as though with every climax you only hunger more intensely for the next. 

Once your hands release his horns and fall limp at your sides Klaw straightens up, and then wrapping his hand around his cock he starts roughly stroking himself. 

Almost without thinking your legs fall open, shaky arms pulling your knees back to expose yourself to him, knowing he can see how your soaked cunt still clenches through the last waves of your orgasm, and it’s only a few more strokes before he’s coming with a rough jerk of his hips and you gasp at the heat, thick ropes of cum streaking across your slick folds and the insides of your thighs.  

Still breathing hard, the pumping of his fist gradually slows, a hand drifting along the curve of your inner thigh as his focus comes back to you. Gathering some of the sticky mess he left between your legs he drags it through your folds, and then suddenly a thick finger is sliding into you.

Even as you gasp at the intrusion you begin to understand that he had actually done it on purpose: Biting down those claws himself because, it seems, he had been thinking about this.

The realization that it was for you leaves your entire body humming, and as your hips cant up to meet the slow, almost teasing thrusts, there’s only one word that swells and ripens in your mind, uncertain whether it’s your word or his even as it falls from your lips.

“More.”

A knowing glint flashes in his eyes at your soft plea, and almost immediately you feel a second finger slipping against you. Just teasing his fingertips at your entrance at first he lets your juices slick them before pressing into you, both fingers together nearly as thick as a human cock.

You moan as he continues to slide them in and out of you, and just as you begin to sink into the ache of it, you moan low in your throat when suddenly he’s adding a third.

The heady pressure of him working three fingers into your already stretched hole is overwhelming, and you’re unsure whether you want to throw yourself towards the sensation or resist it, your body arching into him, yet tensing and pulling away at the same time.

But then he’s pressing you down onto the table, his hand nearly spanning the width of your chest to hold you in place as his fingers continue nudging deeper.

“Where are you going, little one? Going to have to take it if you want my cock." 

As if to emphasize his words he drags his erection against the inside of your thigh with a grunted sigh, a fresh streak of precum adding to the mess that he’s already left on you.

Because of course you do, and he knows it, has known it since you stopped being able to look away from his hunched form as he fucked into his mechanical mate, a warm curiosity growing into a distracting need.

And you know that he could have taken you at any time, could have forced himself into you as soon as your clothes were a forgotten pile on the floor. But instead, he’s been preparing you to take him properly, making you come until the only thing you know is his mouth and his fingers and you’re soft and trembling and ravenous.

“God yes.” You spread your legs wide again, giving him an obscene view of where his fingers are sinking into you, slick sounds filling the room as they pump faster now.

“There you go.” He croons above you. “Made for this, hmm?" 

Any attempt at a response trails into a choked cry when he finds that soft, needy spot deep inside you, a fresh, pulsing heat spreading through your already exhausted body as he takes you apart once more. Still pinned beneath his hand you’re unable to do anything but allow it to wash through you, shaking and whimpering as he continues to drag firm, curling strokes against your clenching walls.

Leaning down Klaw presses his face into your heaving chest, and your nipples tighten and ache as he licks languorously between your breasts, his huffed breath is hot against your skin.

As your senses filter back in your hands slowly begin to move, exploring the corded muscles of his neck and shoulders, trembling fingers tugging and sliding through his hair, and then up and over his horns again.

Letting your eyes slip closed you take in the ridged curve of them, a velvety pleasure blooming in your chest when he inhales sharply, cock throbbing against your thigh when your fingers wrap around the base of them.

Finally pulling his fingers out of you he tugs you up, turning around and repositioning you so that you’re straddling his broad hips as best you can. Strong hands support you, encouraging you to slide your slick folds along his shaft, a giddy sort of panic stuttering in your chest at the sudden awareness of the size of him where he twitches between your thighs.

Desperate whines that may as well be prayers slide from your throat when he lifts you higher and you feel the thick, bulbous head of his cock nudging against your entrance, the only words falling from your lips a whispered litany of “Oh my god oh my god oh my god."

“I’m not your God, little one,” he growls softly, words distorted as if you're hearing them through a sediment of granite and blood. "But you will worship me."

“Yes. Yes..Oh fuck, please.” 

Beneath your lilting plea you dimly hear gritted curses and words of encouragement as you circle your hips, your arousal making a slick mess of his cock.

You can't help how eagerly your hips rock down, seeking more, so lost in the sensations that you're unprepared when a hard press of your hips matches his upward thrust, and the thick head of his cock suddenly ruts up into you, and when he slips past the tight ring of muscle the feral sound from deep in your chest nearly matches his.

Panting open mouthed you hold him there before rising up, slowly, slowly, letting him slip out of you before sinking down to take him back in. You feel weightless beneath the obsidian glint in his eyes as he watches you repeat the motion again, and again, his arms helping you move as you start to shake from the effort of riding just the head of his cock.

Even now there’s something warm and urgent drawing your hand lower, and you’re unable to help feeling pleased when his eyes go heavy as his gaze follows your fingers down to where they press against your clit.

“So..needy.” he rumbles. “Better than I imagined.”

“You..imagined?” You pant, attempting to sound coy, but your words are thick with lust as you continue to roll your hips, forcing yourself down further down his length. 

Your movements are becoming less controlled now, and when your fingers slip and brush against his shaft you whimper at how fucking big he feels where he's stretching you open, and how much of him is still outside of you.

You can feel every slick ridge and vein beneath your hand, and as you slide it along his length the muscles of his thighs tense and flex beneath you, his breathing going rough as your messy strokes continue.

“Look at you taking my cock,” Klaw grits, the demon’s hips beginning to stutter up in short, sharp thrusts. “Such a good little pet.” 

His words trail into a low growl that vibrates through your body as you feel a hard throb beneath your hand, and then heat.

You gasp, continuing to writhe as he spills into you, coating your inner walls with his thick seed, and almost you feel as though you could come again just from the heat of it.

Fuck, you need more of that.

Need it deeper.

Even as the pulsing beneath your fingers slows he doesn't stop moving, finally coming inside of you seeming only to have tipped his need to fevered desire. Holding you in place he thrusts up harder, dislodging your hand, and you can feel his spend leaking out of you, dripping down the insides of your thighs and slicking his still hard cock as he continues to drive deeper, no longer letting you set the pace. 

“This is what you wanted, wasn’t it?” He taunts, voice still a rough half-whisper after his orgasm. “Could feel it when you watched me. Wanted me to fill your little cunt, hmm?”

“Yes.” You let out a growled sob, jealous anger surging through you. ”That..thing, doesn’t fucking deserve it.”

A flame crackles in Klaw’s eyes at your heated words, and you wonder with a jolt of awareness whether he hasn’t been just as desperate for this as you have, longing for you as he remained trapped in the torment of a cold, unfeeling machine. Driven purely by instinct, chasing his release over and over again but never being truly satisfied.

The sudden realization that you could give that to him floods you with almost as much pleasure as the agony of being filled with his cock.

You’ve barely processed the thought when you suddenly find yourself with your back once again pressed against the cool metal of the table, Klaw only pulling out of you briefly before thrusting back in, harder.

He continues a slow, controlled rhythm, both of you panting hard as you feel yourself softening around him, becoming more pliant as your body relents to every stroke until with a final arching rock of his hips your cunt is completely stretched and full, everything so impossibly tight that you can’t even clench around him.

He's never felt anything quite like you, the achingly tight grip of your pussy leaving him nearly breathless as he holds himself as deep as he can, huffing and grunting like a bull while he watches you writhe and spasm beneath him.

Then he starts to fuck you.

He tries to keep his strokes firm and measured at first, but he can’t hold back anymore and it's not long before his chest is heaving, lips curled in a snarl, and it feels as though you're being split open as he pulls you back onto his cock in time to meet every thrust. 

A scarlet thread runs through every cell of your soft animal body, stringing tighter and tighter as pleasure builds to the edge of breaking but then surging higher, a fresh ecstasy building on every peak. 

The tightening grip around your waist signals the absolute loss of his control and when you hiss at the sudden piercing bite of his claws he moves his hands to brace on the table instead, his broad body forcing your legs back towards your shoulders as he leans down over you, driving his cock as deep as he can get into your willing heat until he’s grunting and drooling above you. 

A divine bliss slides through your veins as you lie beneath him, caught between the trammel of his arms, and as you watch his base instinct take over you begin to understand that only fools could believe that lust is a sin. 

And even if it was, even if you were offered perfect grace in this moment, you know with absolute certainty that you would refuse.

An infernal dam is finally swelling to breaking as you surrender to every relentless thrust of his cock, your wailed sobs the only sounds you can make as an impossible pressure ripples through your core, and with a deep throb you suddenly feel a drenching heat as your release washes over his cock and your thighs. 

“There you go.” Klaw growls. “Make a mess for me, little one.” 

This seems to be his final undoing, and as you continue to soak his cock his thrusting goes ragged until with rough groan he’s coming deep inside you, stilling himself to keep the head of his cock pressed against the deepest part of you, making sure that you feel every hot, throbbing pulse of his cum as it fills you.

Keeping himself seated deep he rocks slow grinding thrusts into the slippery mess he’s made of his you, the lust that’s had no real outlet finally finding satisfaction in the way your clenching cunt is milking his cock, in the gentle swell of your belly as he pumps you full of his seed.

You’re a sweaty, twitching mess beneath him, and as much as you wish you could you’re unable to take all of it, can’t help how it spills out around his cock where you’re stretched and sore, how his cum and yours drips down your swollen sex to pool beneath you on the table.

His hands don't stop moving over your body, cupping your breasts, grasping at you hips, sliding over the ripe swell of you where he can feel you filled with his cock and his cum. Vaguely aware of soft grunts mixed with mumbled praise, you don’t register what he’s saying at first through the haze of euphoria.

“Going to be mine.” he rumbles, between languorous strokes. ”My little queen.” 

“Mine.”

* * * * * * *

The room is warm and flickering, silken sheets decadent beneath your fingers, your body thrumming with a heated anticipation that never seems to fade, now.

Rough hands lift your hips as your demon mounts you from behind, a hand placed firmly between your shoulder blades, pressing you down into the mattress.

A panting whine slides from your throat as he spreads you open, the thick head of his cock prodding your entrance, pleased to see you’re still dripping with his seed from the last time he filled you. And he doesn’t like leaving you empty for very long.

“Say it again, little one.” Klaw growls softly, holding himself still. Waiting.

“Yours.” 

You sigh, a smile curling around the word as he pushes into you.

“I’m yours.”

A/N: As ever, thank you for reading! This was definitely a bit outside my comfort zone, but I hope you enjoyed this filthy little foray into monster fuckery. 😊

[williamaltman]

I'm gonna talk more about the episode later (including some positive stuff) but, right now I just want to say I'm really disappointed that apparently there's really not gonna be any retcon/reveal/whatever that Lestat actually wanted to make Claudia/was happy with the idea of having her as a daughter when Louis came with her.

I mean, on this episode they brought a version where Lestat was *even more* against the idea and is completely miserable about it, and, it does seem to be fake for the purposes of the trial, but... Louis then says it's actually closer to the truth?

And even if he's wrong, if this is not supposed to be believed like it seems at first glance (tbh I don't think he even meant that the whole thing was right, more just that Lestat told him it was wrong to turn a child), then this is already meant as the different "wronger" version meant to highlight the previous version as more real. Either way the difference is Lestat being annoyed and mildly reluctant vs Lestat being passionately against it and miserable when having to do it, which is like, a lose lose situation.

What I wanted from the beginning was to see a version where, at the very least, Lestat is happy with the idea when he realizes Louis means for her to be their daughter. Like I've said before, this is very easy to do. All you need to do is have him smile and appear excited or pleased when he says "...a daughter" and goes on to do it. Which is still not even close to the book version where he's the one to come up with the whole idea in the first place, but it would be at least one step closer and overall frame their (Lestat and Claudia) relationship in a more positive light from the beginning.

I'm happy with the crumbs we got on the trial, really, but it's not enough to me if besides reaffirming the narrative of her turning they're (possibly) going even further into Lestat being against it.

I know what people are gonna say, that in season 3 it's gonna be revisited again, with Lestat's reeaal perspective, but I really don't think so. This seems to be the revisiting already. I think it'd be kinda ridiculous to have a third version of the scene, and even if there is, that's not to say it's necessarily gonna be something more akin to what I think it should.

With the fact that they already showed more of the "fight" too, including making Lestat more sympathetic (which is clearly not fake considering the fact that LESTAT LITERALLY WENT OFF SCRIPT to express his guilt over it, how wrong he knows it was and to not let Santiago dismiss it), I think this means that the writers are more intent on their version of things than some people imagine when the idea of revisiting things and showing other POVs comes up.

I know that we most likely will learn of more things Armand might have changed in Louis' memories, but, this one at least is clearly not gonna be one of them. Armand's mind edits would be more focused on Lestat as a lover than something like Claudia's creation, and if anything I think he would be more likely to alter things to make Lestat more willing to break the rules rather than less.

I'm sure we'll hear about how much Lestat loved her, how devastated he was over her death and how he saw himself in her (especially since we already got a bit of that on the trial), but I think her turning is always gonna be "Lestat doesn't want to break the rules or ~have a third~ in his relationship Louis" which imo is such a misrepresentation of him and his dynamic with Claudia. The fact that even after Marius' warnings he didn't give a fuck? That's Lestat. It seems like if anything the writers want to make him *less bad* by not doing that (which is weird considering some of their choices in the opposite direction), by having him being somewhat responsible for a moment, but him not caring because he wanted her so bad and still not regretting it even after everything is so much more important.

Even if they do the "And I cannot say even now that I regret Claudia" it's not gonna ring true to me, because even if he misses her there's not much to regret in the first place when the responsability is like 90% on Louis in the show canon...

This is all water under the bridge in a way since it's mostly just how I've felt since 1x04, but, you know, with the idea of revisiting things and showing different versions I ended up getting some hope of it being changed and now it hasn't. Maybe there's really a third version and this will age like milk, but right now I don't think so.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Scared to Commit to Dream Project

xuliaxuxu asked: I'm an aspiring author who has been writing for a long time but never actually committed to my dream project because it scares me. I've read a lot about structure, good character development and arcs, and how it all works, but I'm still scared of not being able to write a story I'm proud of. Do you have any tips on how to get through the outlining process and first draft without feeling so much pressure on your shoulders? And are the first steps in writing a novel where you have so many ideas but don’t know how to organise them? It’s been a lonely process since I have no writer friends to talk about these specific struggles. Thank you for your lovely work here on tumblr it has been inspiring me a whole lot!

[Ask edited for length]

If it's any reassurance, the fact that you've been teaching yourself about structure and character development puts you ahead of a lot of writers when they first start out. But it's also a bit of a double-edged sword, because that knowledge raises the bar for what you expect to be able to accomplish. And unfortunately, having the knowledge doesn't mean you can instantly apply it perfectly. You still need to practice applying that knowledge before you can get really good at it. It's sort of like this: if you wanted to get really good at hand lettering, you could watch hours and hours of videos about how to do it... you could learn about the different techniques and the lingo, etc., but that doesn't mean you'll be able to do flawless hand lettering the first time you pick up a brush marker. You'll still have to actually practice those techniques for a while to get really good at it. Writing is the exact same way. And that can be frustrating because you know what you want to accomplish, and you have the knowledge to get yourself there, you just don't have the actual skills to actually get there yet.

So, here's what I recommend... keep the dream project on the back-burner for now. You can still work on the pre-planning (because even that qualifies as practice), but in the meantime work on other projects to get the practice in. There's a little bit of sacrifice here because you should find ideas you're excited about, but you have to write them knowing they're not going to be your best work. And that's fine, because writing them doesn't mean you have to share them or publish them. You can write them and keep them on the shelf as a reminder of the work you've done along the way. You can also revisit favorite projects later to revamp them with a more practiced skill set.

Working on something you're excited about and love--but which has the leeway to be not your best work--is the absolute best way to take the pressure off yourself when outlining and getting through the first draft. Once you've done this a few times and you know you're getting the hang of it, you can revisit your dream project, and just the fact that you know what you're doing will take a ton of that pressure off. Another thing that will help once you get to that point is remembering that your outline and first draft don't have to be perfect--and they won't be. Part of the writing process is having the flexibility to change things as you go, to tweak and improve, even into the later drafts. Developmental editing wouldn't exist if your outline and first draft had to be structurally perfect. :)

As far as organizing a lot of ideas, you might find it helpful to find a story planner of some kind. These exist as web sites (Novlr), apps (Fabula), programs (Scrivener), workbooks (Outlining Your Novel Workbook by K.M. Weiland), and you can even find time for download on Etsy. You can probably also find free ones to download if you can't spend any money. If nothing else, get yourself a multi-subject notebook and divide it into sections like plot, characters, world, brainstorm and get all those ideas out into their individual sections. Even that can make a big difference.

Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

LEARN MORE about WQA

SEE MY ask policies

VISIT MY Master List of Top Posts

COFFEE & FEEDBACK COMMISSIONS ko-fi.com/wqa

[steamberrystudio]

I'm finally circling back to finish GS and I'm so excited to be revisiting the game with fresh content! It took me a while to get to Yuu's route after it was released. Thank you for such a wonderful game!

I was curious what motivated the disclaimer at the beginning of Yuu's route that the player should explore the other Endgame routes first. It does seem (so far) that there are fewer background explanations of other characters and lore compared to what I recall in the other routes. Is it just because this one was written last? (Thinking of how authors of long series tend to stop including all the intro material in later books...)

A few reasons:

Since Yuu's route was added so long after the initial release, I did think that many players wouldn't need or want a re-hash of some of the same content they'd seen in the other endgame routes. There are more EG characters than other groups, so by that point a lot of people would have already played Ari, Caleb,and Magnus. I figured people wouldn't want to see that same process of Morgan waking up, leaving the infirmary, getting the tour, learning her family had been relocated, etc etc. There was also the issue of me just not wanting to write that content a fourth time. It gets boring honestly. I'd already done three takes on it and didn't want to do a fourth. There is also the issue of - even for new players - not wanting the routes to be that repetitive.

Hence, I elected to have a short time skip at the start of his route that would essentially skip over the process of her leaving the infirmary and getting settled in. This allowed the route to have a slightly different flow at the start which I thought would be refreshing for me and for players. But yeah, like you said, without that initial portion that the other routes had, anyone coming in and playing Yuu's route as their *first route* would surely be sitting there like "I feeeeel like I'm missing something."

Outside of all of that it's just the issue that I personally worried that after playing Yuu's route - learning what they learn, knowing what they know, seeing the way things unfold in that route - it would be really difficult for new players to circle back around and play Ari or Caleb's route and be satisfied with how they end. Maybe even Magnus' route as well.

I have a lot of thoughts about the events that would probably follow the end of Ari and Caleb's route. I believe that some form of the organisational changes that happen in Yuu and Magnus *would follow* the events of Ari or Caleb's route. Later. But they don't happen in the game - those routes cover other events and the organisational change situation probably occurs a bit later. So I felt that experiencing Yuu's route first, then going back to the other routes would be a strange experience because you don't see even the beginning of that change in those routes.

In the end, by the time I wrote Yuu's route, it was my 9th story in this setting with this main character. And I needed it to flow differently - and it does.

Yuu's romance happens a bit faster and it flows quite differently in that regard. Where the other LIs tend to be more absent towards the start of the route and show up a lot more later on, Yuu is very present in the start of the route, then is absent more in the middle, then shows up again at the end.

The entire route is structured quite differently because I did write it so much later than the others and didn't want to be repeating the same set up. So I did feel because of all of this stuff, it might make for kind of a weird "first route" for new players. And certainly a weird "first experience with Endgame" since Ari and Caleb in particular explore Morgan having a quite different relationship with Endgame and its council.

[shinakazami1]

TSP ramble: TK and the Narrator's relationship

@stelar-time was thinking about TK and The Narrator so I decided to make a small ramble about one of the ways I see their relationship

TL;DR Narry and TK might actually tolerate each other and have found a common enemy

---

The Narrator seems to look at everything in his Parable as his original creation. TK is no different, as we already have the admission from Davey himself that TK=432. But just like you change the lore of your OCs, the fact the games could be stretched for 10 years does show how much could have been changed in The Narrator's perception.

We meet TK in the form of The Settings Person but the way TK presents himself later - it seems the 432's travel beyond dimension gets him beyond the Narrator's reach too...Which is fair, as we never see the Narrator really interact with the menu- or...does he.

Bumpscosity. One small tiny gag but the implications of it are massive. Like sure - the Narrator and Cookie9 maybe forgot you can mute the Narrator in-menu, but Narry reacts to the level of Bumpscosity you set and has a full achievement for checking all the settings.

Now why would he know only that and not TK's existence? There is that issue of Narry not being omniscient and often showing he doesn't know shit (Broken achievement) but...he made the world of the Parable, possibly. He made all these NPCs and he, in some way, made Stanley, too.

So - why since TSPUD is overall a love letter to both Player and Stanley, let it be to Parable, too? To a representation of the most tormented OC yet? But now - the thing about Memory Zone is that it wasn't meant to be decay. It's what the name says - a sanctuary for memories.

Look *where* it is though. This part isn't in the original Memory Zone. There are reviews that weren't there before and that proves something - that the Narrator purposefully put them. And at the end, at the very end of the road - there it is.

The only room not covered in sand.

And yet somehow - this is the computer TK is in. It could have been any computer at all in the Parable but TK is there, waiting for you patiently, in the room best preserved, with its own light.

For me - the Narrator doesn't hate TK. Even if TK seems to resent him.

The Narrator knows he can't escape. He wants to move on yet - seeing how long he was in the Skip Button, I think he already tried everything. So, when he was waiting for us to return - that was plenty of time to get out of the bounds. To revisit old projects and make new ones.

But look at TK's lines in this part.

Did you read what the developers said?? "Preserve the integrity of the franchise"?! You see, that was the Narrator's problem. He was so obsessed with what people thought of his work. Don't make his mistake. Don't cling to the legacy. Let it burn.

He talks about the Narrator in the past tense. This can be seen as a critique but I think it can also be seen as a warning of something he and the Narrator talked about since the Narrator wanted to let go. He learnt from his mistake.

Why was Narry then so surprised about the broken achievement? He possibly worried about the devs being brought back. About him thinking he got everything in control by making new versions of the endings and already discussing it all behind the camera with TK and then leaving them

But that's just a theory. A shina-way-too-long-once-again-at-2-am-fuck-me-why-do-I-do-this-to-everyone theory.

[authortobenamedlater]

S2 deep dive. The whole season. Bring the scuba gear for this one.

Negatives, positives, overall impressions, speculations about a possible S3 under the cut.

This has been sitting in my drafts for way too long and even though it’s incomplete I’m posting it. I’ll have more later I’m sure I just need it out there before it becomes irrelevant.

The bad:

It’s too short. I have pontificated about short TV seasons and long waits between seasons before so I won’t revisit it.

The fall of Reach felt more like a speed bump than the single most traumatic event in the Human-Covenant War. This is probably related to the It’s Too Short problem.

This one is entirely subjective, but I am here for The Chief & Cortana Show and this season was not The Chief & Cortana Show.

Much of the unfinished business from S1 remained unfinished or was finished lazily. The Reach for Life Project and the weirdness surrounding John’s childhood? Never mentioned. Madrigal? Glassed. Separating John and Cortana? Reduced to a one-minute flashback. This isn’t to say these threads won’t get picked up down the line, but having to potentially wait another two years doesn’t appeal. Again, this goes back to It’s Too Short.

The Spartan-IIIs made little sense. And why were they capturing kids if they can use adults to make Spartans now? Are there enough left to make up a Spartan corps?

Somehow, Makee returned. This isn’t bad in itself, but it’s never explained. The closest we get is Var saying “you live only by my grace.” OK, what grace is that? Did he resurrect her? Convince the prophets to resurrect her?

Speaking of Var, why did he exist? To make way for Thel next season? Why not just have Thel from the start? Especially since deleted dialogue from S1 had that Sangheili who ran out of the cave on Madrigal named as Thel ‘Vadamee.

Jacob Keyes is dead. It’s somewhat canon, but I didn’t want it to happen. I wanted him to live and face his music.

I did not like what they did with Soren this season. The Kessler storyline got draggy. And the way Soren acted at times didn’t really seem in line with the guy in S1 who made a promise to John and kept it even though he could probably have broken it without John ever knowing. Soren also gave the impression in S1 that he didn’t want anything to do with fighting a war and just wanted to hole up on the Rubble with his family. That changed in S2 without any real reason given.

They still can’t figure out Kwan. I liked the direction they were taking her last season, but that all got blown up, literally.

The Spartan-IIIs seemed awfully rushed. We don’t know anything about them, if or how they are augmented, or what.

The good:

Halo’s cast continues to rise above the show’s shortcomings, and the crowning achievement this season is Joseph Morgan’s Ackerson. Morgan manages to make Ackerson the bad guy, but never a bad guy. You love to hate him and want him to realize he’s wrong just in time to make that last-second pivot and then he does.

Laera might not be back for S3 (although hey, somehow Makee returned), but she got some great material this year.

For all its flaws, Halo does have a way of sticking the landing and the final episode of this season delivers. The introduction of the Flood was about as great as I could have asked for. That scene where the no-name bit part gets infected and the ironically happy music is playing while everyone goes about their business? Appropriately horrifying.

I liked Talia’s progression from jumpy regular Marine to confident Spartan-III, even if the show didn’t have enough time to do it well.

Makee and John continue to have a fascinating dynamic.

The back and forth with John and Guilty Spark (I assume) in the last episode was excellent and did a fine job setting the stage for season 3.

The big question: Will we get a third season?

Nothing is guaranteed in the era of streaming shows, but Halo has been P+’s most watched show since it launched. It’s been the third most watched original show in the US across all streaming platforms this year. Basically, no matter how terrible the show is sometimes or how much fan hate it gets, Halo is making money. I can’t see it not getting renewed. If Halo didn’t get renewed, another network might want it, or P+ might do a spinoff (thoughts on that at a later date).

[velvet-games]

intro post

I'll probably add more to/change this later; I've just needed an intro post for a while, and this is what I could think of. you should probably remind me to update it if this section is still here after like six months lol.

name/pronouns/age/gay shit~

honestly you can call me whatever, but I probably won't know you're talking about me unless you use vel/velvet.

prefer they/it; any pronouns are fine.

I'm probably non-binary I guess.

I'm an adult.

I basically just identify as queer at this point, but I'm like,, vaguely aroace-spec probably? still figuring it out. I'm actually very happy to talk about it more specifically, but I might have to sit you down for an entire day to explain it lol.

what I do/post~

I mostly post fandom stuff, and my original posts include a lot of art + occasional meta. I'm starting write fic too, so that might be a more regular thing in the future :)

other accounts~

@/velvetygames -- explicit nsfw twitter/x account, not very active

@cornerbytes -- old dragon prince account that I will probably revisit when the new season comes out

@/velvet_games -- ao3 account

nsfw~

I post occasional nsfw here (never super explicit; that's saved for my twitter); it'll be tagged #nsft.

fandoms~

current fandom: hazbin hotel

previous fandoms:

hannibal (will always have a very special place in my heart)

arcane (will revisit when the new season comes out)

ofmd (literally so happy this exists; devastated it's not getting a new season)

the dragon prince (will probably revisit when the new season comes out)

good omens

lotr (I also read like 2/3 of the hobbit and will hopefully finish it this summer lmao)

things in media that make me go insane (in a good way)~

friendship

happy endings

cannibalism

(WELL-WRITTEN) romance (THAT RESPECTS THE CHARACTERS AS INDIVIDUALS AS WELL AS WHO THEY ARE IN RELATION TO OTHERS)

surrealism

good visuals (even if everything else is shit; extra points if it's animation)

angst

fake-hating

this one's weird but I love situations where a character is really helpless; I thought I liked whump because I can be borderline sadistic about it sometimes, but whump is really not necessary at all to this concept

religious stuff, mythology, angels specifically for some reason (especially when they're terrifying and/or fallen)

gay people

requests~

you are welcome to send in ideas through comments, DMs, asks, etc., but I can't guarantee I'll draw them. if I don't, it doesn't mean that I don't like your idea; I'm probably just busy or have too many brainworms about a specific thing to draw anything but what's on my mind.

notes~

I randomly get really anxious about feedback on stuff sometimes lol, but I promise I read every single comment/tag and cherish them very deeply <33

also, like/rb spamming is totally fine and welcomed! I know some people don't like it, so I just wanted to make it clear that it's completely cool with me.

mutuals~

for a really long time, this was my pinned post, and it's still true! definitely welcome any interactions from mutuals <3

I do have a problem with randomly ghosting people though; I've been much better with it recently, but please try not to take it personally if I don't respond to DMs quickly. I'm probably just being insane and in my head about it. I'm really sorry.

misc~

this is an account that is purposely removed from my irl stuff; I'm here to have fun and relax on my mostly fandom-oriented blog.

I don't block often since I mostly meet nice people on here, but I am very happy to block accounts that make my experience on this app shitty.

I try to tag triggers when appropriate, but please let me know if you need me to tag anything I haven't.

art for me is just a hobby I use for fun and self-expression, so while I really appreciate concrit, keep in mind that my goal is ultimately to make stuff that makes me happy.

I am also very protective of young artists that get made fun of for being beginners or making unconventional art; you should never assume why someone is making art, and you especially should not assume that they are focused on becoming more skilled or making things that are beautiful to you. if they're not hurting anyone and you're not their target audience, get the fuck out.

I am of the mindset that media is not real, but that your reaction/the things you learn are. liking cannibal media does not make you a cannibal, but seeing bigoted portrayals of minorities can feed your biases (doesn't necessarily mean you can't consume it; does mean its effect on you/others irl should factor into if/how you decide to interact with it).

I'm vaguely fucked in the head. just keep that in mind.

[chere-indolente-plays]

hello there! i was wondering with rotational gameplay, how do you keep track of things like birthdays and aging? i've never really played rotationally but i think it could be something i enjoy. any insight would be appreciated

Hello ! Thank you for so much for your ask ❤️. To be honest I've not been playing much, I'm mostly still in the setting up phase so maybe I'll revisit this later...

But here is what I plan to do so far :

First I play with custom lifespan and mine are very very long (1456 days from birth to death with a year lasting about 18 days on average) which, I hope, will help me feel like I'm not missing out on other sims when playing with one household

This might seem very slow but I can always speed it up later if I get bored or do a timeskip (timeskip are your best friends in historical gameplays)

I have an excel sheet to keep track of everybody's age and birthdays but also their sexual & romantic orientations and other personal details

I have an other excel sheet just for the calendar where I've put down the seasons, as well as all the holidays and other celebrations including birthdays

That being say I made a lot of sims and I won't be playing them all just go with who I feel like playing with, probably focusing on a couple of household most days, so I'm ok with missing some birthdays and such

And now I'm gonna take a minute to explain my unnecessarily complicated time system lol :

(here is what my calendar looks like)

Basically I made it so 4 seasons = 3 years = 1 full calendar cycle of 56 days. This way for me it's like there are mini time jumps between year 1 & year 2 and then between year 2 & year 3. Otherwise it would make no sense seasons wise and that's bothering me more than it should. I also like seasons to last a little so I like the 2 weeks setting.

Since all the ages at which my sims change life stage (except for babies and toddlers) are multiples of 3 (6, 12, 18, 39 and 57) the birthdays will always happen the same calendar day but not all sims age up on every cycle (when they turn 3, 9, 15, 21, 24, 27 etc for example). Obviously this is just how I personally do it (and it's very linked to this being a historical gameplay), everyone has their own method. Back in the day I use to have a TS2 save were I would just play a few days with a family then the next and rotate through 5 households with out any planning at all

[erenmusic]

Revisiting The Life of Pablo and ''Old Kanye'' in 2024

Seeing how Kanye has been acting recently and the quality of his music going down in recent years, especially with the unfinished mess that was Vultures 2 got me to revisit The Life of Pablo (TLOP), Which in my opinion is Kanye's most interesting and creative project to date. It has been a long time and his style has changed a lot since then, so Could TLOP be considered Old Kanye now? Lets see.

The album starts out with the song ''Ultralight Beam'' which sets the Tone for the whole album, giving a feeling of holiness in its sound, and the child's voice at the start praising the lord definitely makes what Kanye's trying to make you feel here very obvious. It is a song to get you ready for what's to come in this album, starting off calm and slow and ending with choir sounds that then lead into some of the best-produced songs ever created in ''Father Stretch My Hands'' parts 1 and 2. My favorite sample from the album comes from an old '70s choir band and it is actually crazy how well Kanye uses these old-timey sounds and makes something that feels brand new and so different from other stuff we got in 2016, it is honestly sad to see how far he's fallen from the peaks on this album. that's not to say that part 1 doesn't have some pretty questionable lines like this one here,

However the songs are still very fun and man is that instrumental good. It can almost get me to forgive any wack line Kanye comes up with.

After the Trip that is both of those songs you make your way to Famous which has one of the best instrumental parts on the whole album.

This part where the Woman singing reminds me of Jazz musicians doing scat and the idea of using unintelligible noises to make stuff sound good is just so cool.(also really reminds me of The Great Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd where the feeling is given to you not with words but with sheer vocals) Bam bam Bilam Bam was stuck in my head for years after listening to this album.

Unfortunately I think after this song the album does go on bit of a slow streak. Feedback is a fun song but I see it as almost like a filler episode, songs like Low Lights and Highlights never really stuck with me and I don't love the skits and freestyles he does on this album so I will skip them for this review except obviously the song that defined kanye for the rest of his career after this album

The song I Love Kanye really shows us what he was going for on this album. Shutting up all the critics, saying and showing us he is better than his old self, he is confident in knowing this new experimental stuff IS really better and he shows us that he is always ahead of the game. After understanding how Kanye saw himself in 2016 now we can see the opposite situation happening today. Kanye with his new albums like Vultures 2 still imagines himself as a pioneer and the unfinished experimental sound does feel similar to how it was in 2016 However the difference this time is that (at least in my opinion I might feel very different on the album in a couple years, maybe I don't appreciate Vultures 2 enough and I will come to love it later on in life.) the songs are simply less creative and he doesn't have the same messaging and just straight passion that went into TLOP. Vultures 2 feels commercial and it feels like Kanye is trying to cling to success while TLOP was a definitive part of Kanye's career while he was already extremely successful, He didn't need to prove himself he could have fun, have bad bars, and also still make great music. Now it just feels like Kanye is taking the piss on every song, Not even trying to make something artsy, and just wants to be shocking so people will still pay attention to him hence the whole tirade about Jewish people. (Maybe it really is the Nox that got to him.)

To get back to the Album at hand, after the halfway point of ''I Love Kanye'' you get great songs like Waves which really holds up in its production and Wolves with even more amazing production, what makes Wolves special I think is that it has some very different messaging about the modern dating life of people, saying that everyone is in danger of being taken advantage even Mary would be at risk being soured in this day and age is what I get from that song, Definitely an interesting perspective and definitely a Kanye perspective on things.

When you get towards the end of the Album there is a bit of a shift in tone, Kanye gets serious again. (except for Facts which is just a diss song against Nike lol) the main two songs I want to focus on at the end of the Album is probably 2 of the best songs on it. Firstly we have to get to No More Parties In LA. Not only does this song have some of the best bars and overall meaningful lyrics on the album it actually sounds so good that the song has not aged a day in my opinion. if Kendrick and Kanye came out with a song on the same level as No More Parties in LA this morning, it would shoot up to Number 1 and kill everything else on the billboard lists.

Lastly and most importantly we get to the Titular and in my opinion the best song on the album Saint Pablo. This song touches on many points and just sounds amazing start to finish, I love the vocals that Sampha does in his verse and especially the Bridges and choruses in between,

he adds a really nice and mellow tone to the song and the lines for example ''wondering where's god in your nightlife'' stick with you.

Overall I love this album very much however there are a couple dud songs in there now that I listened to it again. However even though they are some mid-level songs, man do the Good ones keep the album together. I love the concept, the whole idea of Kanye being unapologetic about being himself, not being afraid to say what he wants and the fact that the songs on here are undeniably super important to Music history since it came out. You can hear the influence this album has on Rap music still and almost every song on here still holds up. unfortunately though at this point I think we can even classify The TLOP era as Old Kanye considering how much he has fallen off since this album.

[yuri-is-online]

Just finished Sinostra's chapter myself.... I gotta say though, was a little underwhelming compared to other chapters.... Honestly the entire thing felt like a one-man show by Ritsu + some sexual tension between Taiga and Romeo whenever they interact lol. MC has never felt more like a spectator than she did in this chapter, I was waiting for her to do absolutely *anything* but she really was just... there lmao. Not even hand-holding this time!

Even the Like Dove showed up AFTER mc left, when it was just Taiga and Romeo in the room, and then later again when Romeo barges into Taiga's room - this time mc was there but, just barely lol, the whole focus was on Taiga and Romeo's almost shoot-off, and Taiga's line saying "You really could shoot through my heart"?? And the fact that he sensed Romeo approaching before he even saw him, and so far is the only person who he clearly remembers and freely gives compliments to lol, Lulu is a cute nickname tho.

Regardless, Taiga's strange response to the Like Dove could possibly mean Kaito's explanation about it might not be true after all, since anomalies are still a mystery, wouldn't be strange for false rumors to make the rounds.

And I while I don't hate Ritsu - I appreciate he's a hard worker and tries to make the best of any situation he's put in - I dislike how he really just one-sidedly handled everything in this chapter and only ever explains after they're done lol. The case didn't feel like an investigation at all, Ritsu just pulls some numbers out of the air and acts on them (where is he getting all that data??) and in the end they won against it because it had to prevent a paradox from happening...? lmao idk overall just felt so underwhelming.

Also we never find out what the deal was about the girl in the tower?? Why even mention that detail if they're not gonna do anything with it... An anomaly that was born from the negative emotions gathering in a casino replaces people's memories with a girl in a tower.... My guess is it wanted enough people to "remember" her so she could come into existence? Like Takeru's ghost. I wonder what for though... Will they revisit this or not.....

You could pluck out MC from this chapter and absolutely nothing would change imo because Ritsu was doing everything anyways, only name-dropped mc when mentioning it was an investigation, that's it. While I don't necessarily need her to be the star or a hero, having 0 influence on the chapter is not great writing imo.

Kaito and his silly antics were the highlight for me. And I found it hilarious how him being stripped down and locked up in Romeo's "private office" feels like the setting of any self-indulgent "dark romance" fiction between a rich CEO and helpless debtor who has to cater to the captor's whims lol.

Finally Hotarubi is next, I've been curious about it since I got sorted into it, and want to see more of Haku. I agree he's sus, his dialogue in the prologue if you choose him only highlights the fact. But something about him really compels me

Sorry for the long ask, I have a thousand thoughts twirling around in my mind about TD, it should probably cool down between the entire month that's left before next story update.... but also there's new games coming out next month so hopefully I don't forget about TD completely either lol....

There is no shame in long asks. I'm always impressed at the amount of thoughts my dear anons manage to fit inside the ask box ♡

I also felt like the content was a bit lacking to the point I went and checked Jabberwock's chapter count and was surprised to find it's actually a tad shorter than Sinostra's. I think the main reason it felt so short to me was because I wasn't locked out of progressing this time around, but the case progression also felt much much quicker. If I'm sitting back and evaluating it as a writer, I think that's probably because of the setting being confined to the school and dorm. Sure, a lot happens, but you don't actually go anywhere, unlike in the previous three books.

Our MC has a very laid-back personality, which I don't mind. BUT the game really should allow for the chance for her to work things out on her own, even if she's too afraid of the other characters to verbalize it and keeps them to herself. There are several times in the book when she tries to point out inconsistencies in Ritsu's logic or other evidence she notices, but she's talked over pretty much every single time. It's what made me really hate Ritsu since you did not see that with Ren, Haru, or Towa, but i get that it's sort of tricky when writing more domineering characters to balance not making them overshadow the more laid back ones but still keeping them true to their personalities. I don't think Ritsu would have paid attention to Kaito if MC wasn't there, nor do I think Taiga would have paid attention to Ritsu, but that's just me speculating because the story doesn't clearly communicate it. This book was poorly written, a lot of the problems people have with MC could be fixed with a few additional lines where she's shown wanting to do something but reminding herself she has to play nice with the ghouls otherwise they won't break her curse. Her personality makes sense to me, but her writing does not.

Now. I disagree about the no real moments this chapter but ah. Well. You see. There is something deeply wrong with me so I completely get if this did nothing but disturb you but when Taiga has MC strapped to the torture chair 👉👈

Look I know potentially getting a hicky from a guy that strapped you to a torture chair and just shot you (for the second time) isn't everyone's thing but it is mine I was so well fed this chapter from that alone ( ; ω ; ) AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW HE CALLS HER KITTEN AND EATS THE FUCKING LIKE DOVE??? RAW??? ROMEO ROMEO WHY FOR ART THOU INTERRUPING ROMEO I WANTED TO SEE WHAT HE WAS GONNA DO- forgive me anon I'm afraid I'm most unwell.

Speaking of the Like dove and the memories of the tower. The Tower thing reminds me of rapunzel, especially because she's out alone in the woods, but it feels super out of left field, no? If the anomaly is born from the Casino, which Taiga states "is him," then I wonder if the girl in the tower is representative of something he's forgotten? The chapter places an emphasis on how anomalies can affect memory, so it's not too big of an assumption to make that something must have happened to Taiga to make his memory this bad. As for the like dove... Romeo seems very surprised to see it, almost suggesting he never has before, which can you imagine how funny it would be if it showed up for him and Taiga. They've been friends and business partners for at least two years, I refuse to believe the dove would only just show up now. The image of him just never seeing it because everyone is too polite/afraid of him to point it out is too funny. The dove shows up twice this chapter, both times it sort of read to me like it had been there for a bit before it was noticed and in both cases Taiga reacts to it negatively. Given how paranoid he seems to be, I think it's probably because the idea of him caring/having someone care about him scares him due to the unpredictability of it and the potential for betrayal. He seems to think people only want to use him, so that's probably part of it too. I'm constantly doing way too many lines of copium, so to me the dove seemed triggered by Taiga's interactions with MC but I also see where you're coming with Romeo. Their friendship is much less adversarial than it was implied to be in their little blurbs, and I quite like that a lot. You know even if Taiga seems to think Romeo is always taking away his fun. And what's up with his constant want to eat anomalies, is Romeo not feeding him enough?

Slight correction, Taiga does seem to remember who Haru is, Harry and Lulu are both derivative of their names, so maybe he can only remember people in his year clearly? Or does it also include second years? He sounds very surprised at the concept of a "first year ghoul" in his house so maybe his memories are cutting off everything other than the previous two years...

I also have a bunch more thoughts but I'll cut myself off here ×-× gotta let some of them simmer before I make too much of a fool of myself (I already have)

[blades-fan]

On an old tumblr blog of mine I talked about the concept of a vampire Wes Weston AU.

I’m starting to revisit this AU. There’s a lot of different possibilities for a vampire Wes AU.

For the most part everything is the same. Wes goes to school with Danny. He lives with his twin brother Kyle, his older brother Easton, and their father Walter. Walter still works for Vlad Masters like he does in fanon, and he knows Vlad is Plasmius. Danny’s parents are still ghost hunters and Danny gets turned into Phantom when he goes into the ghost portal.

Here’s where it starts to change from fanon/canon. The ghosts and Phantom don’t show up in this AU for awhile, so no one is Amity Park (except Jack and Maddie) believe ghosts even exist.

Walter is a vampire, and his son’s are Dhampirs. Making Danny 1 of the 3 undead teenagers at Casper High (Easton is in college).

The Weston family just moved to Amity Parks because of Walter’s job, making Wes and Kyle the new kids at school. Right around the time that Wes starts school Danny ends up hospitalized due to some unknown accident. He returns to school a few days later and Wes begins to notice how odd he is.

Thanks to Wes’s enhanced senses he is able to come to the conclusion that Danny isn’t human.

There’s a few options that could happen once Wes finds out. On one hand Wes might try to expose to everyone that Danny is a ghost, so people don’t find out that Wes is a vampire. I imagine that Walter will pull his kids from school and keep them locked up in the house if anyone ever found out or even suspected that his son’s aren’t human.

This would be a good motivation for Wes wanting to expose Danny as compared to his fanon motivation to expose Danny because he wants to be right. No one would suspect that a vampire would expose a ghost to humans.

On the other hand, Wes might try to befriend Danny since he’s also half human and half undead. In that in itself could be a really interesting concept.

[joifee]

Ok ok ok, since you allowed me to ramble in your asks, I have come here as I have a fanfic idea that I cannot stop thinking about for the past two weeks, and I cannot write it yet. Thus I'm left with an idea left in my head and I gotta let it out somewhere.

So it does connect empires s1 and s2. I have an idea that when S2 Scott has gotten his magic eye, he also gets memories of his past life, which was ofc S1 Scott. And as we know, S1 Scott was courting Jimmy, despite the other not really realizing it, and later on in the series there just wasn't time for the courting.

Plus we see, at the end of S1 Scotts pov in the other realm -- in his perfect world -- it's heavily implied that those two are together or at least lived together [There was something queer romantic going on there, and I live for it]. So it made me think, that s1 Scott's pov ending was just the man's wishful thinking before his body just shuts down, and he got reincarnated years and years later as S2 Scott, only getting memories back when he got the magic eye.

Tbf I dont think it even would be that weird for the series, as S2 Sausage himself has memories of S1, so I think it would fit in some way.

I just kind of want Flower Husbands S2 where Scott now has started developing feelings for our neighboring Sherrif, but at the same time, he thinks he's just projecting his feeling onto the man, that isn't the same guy, but only looks at him and kinda behaves like the one he loved.

Funnily enough, if you watched Pix's Empire's ending [Which Im sure you did], he has also said how Tumble Town folks are actually armor stands powered by magic, they just don't really wanna admit it as time goes. So Mezalean King could have made someone similar to Jimmy [his best bud! His first and best Ally!] to try to cope. So. The sheriff isn't Jimmy in the end [at least not from what I've been thinking about atm. It can always change]. But he's just made in the image of a long-dead Codfather </3

okay but this fucking slaps i looooooove the drama when you have the time you might as well revisit it! its a nice, romantic but also sad idea lotas of angst potential BUT omg yessss he is projecting the feelings on the "armor"stand version of jimmy because he does look like esmp 1 jimmy but like its definitly not the same person, considering personality and like the fact he aint a fish anymore so of course he has to think "hey its not the same one" but he cannot help falling in love all over again with like a different version of jimmy but one: its not his jimmy and second maybe he gets over the feelings and like both of them go their own ways nkdbsblbfkjfb yeeeee thats such a good ideaaa thanks for telling me :D wanna makes me spam my ideas to you /or like my fanfic draft

[fools-endearment]

We know Joker's backstory is similar to the commedia dellarte "the columbina, arlecchino and pierrot". But did you know that, just like mickey that has his minnie, the pierrot later on gets his own pierette? So can I have headcanons for Joker (both hunter and survivor) with a pierette (woman or mostly feminine-alligned gender) s/o. Idea bonus: she knew Joker has been a while and she had a crush of him before he ended up crushing over margie. Thanks!

I apologize if I got some stuff wrong, since I was primarily going off what I know about commedia dell'arte along with Wikipedia. Also, this went a bit longer than multi-character asks normally do, since I really loved this idea, and I might actually revisit this concept in the future if I feel like writing a story for it or get a similar request.

Weeping Clown and Smiley Face with a Pierette S/O (Romantic, Fem-Aligned Reader)

Joker (Weeping Clown)

You two likely met in Hullabaloo, as it would only be a matter of time before the Pierrot and the Pierette were put together for a show.

You two quickly became acquainted and eventually got to the point where you considered yourselves good friends, and he had stolen your heart without even realizing it.

It was a tragedy, truly, that the one who held your heart so tightly for so long was also the one who eventually began to speak to you of his pining for the attention of another person, Hullabaloo’s animal tamer.

Eventually though, those moments of Joker coming to you to sing her praises grew fewer and fewer as you talked more, and instead he seemed to focus more on you.

He would offer to do your makeup for shows or let you do the same for him, not wanting to miss the opportunity to just look at you for a while.

It was during a day that you two decided to relax together that it seemed the dam he had build up to hide his emotions finally crumbled and he confessed to you. He may be a Pierrot, a role known for often failing to win the heart of the Columbina, but you are a Pierette and no Columbina, so you told him how you returned his affections and you two became official.

Very few were surprised by this, as it was a bit more obvious than you both thought. Nonetheless, most of them were pretty happy for you both.

Now that you two are together, he makes it clear he adores you and everything you do. You are the Pierette to his Pierrot, and he wants you to never doubt that he is truly in love with you.

Anyone who he is close to will hear him sing your praises and talk about how much he adores you. If anyone ever tells you about this and you mention it to him though, he’d likely get really flustered and only say that he just likes talking about you to people.

You make this sad clown feel like the happiest man in the world, and he hopes he makes you feel a similar way.

Joker (Smiley Face)

Given the nature of Smiley Face, you two likely met in the Manor when you arrived.

Back in the Hullabaloo days, you and Joker matched as the Pierette and the Pierrot, but now you two contrast as the Pierette, which is a sad clown, and a happy clown.

Even if he has changed, he’s still the Joker who you knew and had taken your heart, and you still adore him. He might not realize this at first, but he’s glad to still be your friend.

As he begins to realize his feelings for you, he also begins to try to make you laugh and smile more. It could be small things, like telling you a joke he had heard, or larger things, like the time he let you use his rocket to try running around with like he usually does. He finds himself enjoying those moments more and more.

The growing mutual affection between the two of you does not go unnoticed by the other major residents. Some respect that it’s not really their business and stay out of it, while others will lightly tease either you or Joker about it on occasion if you don’t mind it.

Joker thinks out his plan for confessing for a while before finally going to see you again. He is unusually quiet when he sees you, and after a few moments, he finally spills what he has been feeling. When you accept his confession and say you feel the same, he is practically ecstatic.

He may not wear his usual makeup anymore, but that won’t stop him from offering to do your makeup or for you to do his. He loves the closeness of the action, and would offer it to you even before his confession.

You may be a Pierette, but good luck playing that role with him around, because he will make it his job to ensure your happiness and that will include pulling out every card he can to see you smiling and laughing.

It brings Joker an abundance of joy to know you two are together, and in a similar fashion to his Survivor counterpart, he hopes you feel the same.

[measureyourlifeincake]

Malevolent E9 (not specifically about that ep but yknow. i havent listened past it so if anything i say is contradicted by anything in later eps, that's why): Been thinking about how Malevolent's story is so defined by the constraints of its creation and the problem-solving used to get around that (I mean, I suppose the same can be said to some degree for nearly any piece of art, but it really jumps out for me here).

The first and most obvious example is Arthur's blindness, with John "acting as his eyes" by describing their surroundings for him (and the audience)—it's (to me at least) clearly contrived as a way to get around the "This Gun In My Right Hand Is Loaded" problem, but it also is kind of the main conceit of the plot, and immediately defines John and Arthur's relationship—Arthur has to rely upon John from the jump, even though he has no real proof of his intentions or trustworthiness. "I have your eyes," John says, a threat as much as it is a fact. All John has to do to harm Arthur is stop talking and watch him blunder around without his help (which he does do eventually, but the threat hanging over his head is, at least initially, enough to convince Arthur to cooperate with him). It's an interesting tool for the audience to understand what is going on at any given point of the story, but also, it has real actual consequences in the story that reverberate through the narrative.

(putting the rest under the cut bc this got Long)

There's also the fact that John and Arthur are constantly recapping what has happened and laying out what all their options and potential consequences of said options are going forward. To me, this (as well as the above) feels like the author's main goal is to make sure the audience is clear on Exactly what is going on At All Times. The episodes only come out once a month, after all, and it could be hard to remember what happened in the last episode if you haven't revisited it since then (also I am just now realizing that this is sort of paralleled with Arthur's month-long coma). There's also the thing about how apparently Patreon supporters can influence where the story goes, and I'm not entirely sure how that works, but it gives Guthrie another incentive to make sure the audience has all the possible options laid out for them.

But, while I do think this is done mainly for the audience's benefit, it does also tell us a lot about Arthur and John's characters/relationship. It says that, despite any differences of opinion or questions of trust they may have—they do view whatever they have together (which I have been told... changes over time, but for right now I'm just talking about their relationship up until where I've listened) as an actual partnership—they want to make sure they are on the same page, or at least understand what the other is thinking. They may disagree on the correct course of action, but Arthur pretty much always tells John what he's doing instead of trying to get one over on him. Also, since they do try to reason out everything they do, and Arthur keeps charging into risky situations ass-first anyway, it tells us that Arthur sees himself as a very intelligent and rational man, when really he just seems to be very good at justifying whatever stupid decisions he might make in the pursuit of Knowledge.

And then there's uh. Women. (I sorta mentioned this in a different post but I can't stop turning it around in my brain)

So it seems that Harlan Guthrie a) has decided to not hire any voice actors and just voice every character himself, and b) doesn't seem to believe himself capable of convincingly voicing a female character (or just doesn't want to. idk).

This doesn't mean that there aren't any women or girls in Malevolent—on the contrary, the podcast is full of them. They are all either old crones or daughters—crazy old women and wraiths and babies and missing girls and missing girls and dead missing girls. They cry, they wheeze, they laugh, they write letters to close friends (but of course, their friends are not there to read the letters), but they can never speak for themselves, in their own voices. They must be dead, or wordless, or both.

They haunt the narrative, and haunt the narrative, and haunt the narrative. They are metaphysically incapable of doing anything else. They can save Arthur's life, help guide his way, but they can never have a simple conversation with him. Obviously Arthur had to be in a coma for just long enough that Amanda/Sarah died before he could talk to her. It couldn't ever have gone any other way—the world doesn't work like that.

And then there's Arthur's daughter. She's dead. It hasn't been explicitly stated yet at the point I'm at (she's mentioned for the first time at the end of E9), but it's pretty obvious. Not only did he mention her name first when he was literally dying, but just. Of course she is. There's no chance she isn't, that maybe Arthur thinks she's dead but really something else has happened to her—all daughters are dead. That's just how it works. (except for that one baby, I suppose. The baby is interesting—I notice they explicitly refer to her as female when I don't think they had a way to know that*. She just Is a girl, she has to be. She needs protecting, therefore she is a Daughter, plain and simple).

And learning that Arthur has (had) a daughter has caused me to look at the rest of the girls in this podcast differently (and is honestly a big reason why I wanted to write this post in the first place.) Those missing-turned-dead girls, the baby, all those young girls haunting the narrative—they're all his daughter, naturally. (not literally but y'know, meta-narratively or whatever) They're not just haunting the narrative, but haunting him specifically.

Anyway, girls haunting horror stories and fridged women and whatever other tropes that keep women from fully participating in stories are nothing new, obviously (and I imagine that Guthrie is very intentional when he invokes those tropes—this whole thing is a big ol' nod to Lovecraft, there's no way this guy is doing horror tropes by accident), but the fact that it seems to be like that mostly because Guthrie just Didn't Want to Hire An Actor makes it way more interesting to me.

I'm sure most (if not all) of this has been discussed in the fandom already, but I haven't read any meta or anything yet and I just wanted to get my thoughts down. Honestly, part of why I made this post is that I feel like I can clearly see what Guthrie was going for in how he built this story (/is building this story) and how it works within the world of the characters, but I'm still trying to puzzle out how I personally feel about the choices he made. (ex: do I appreciate how clear he makes things for the listener or do i feel like my hand is being held to much and i'm not being trusted to understand what's going on? if the latter, is it integrated into the story well enough for me to forgive it?) Writing this has... not actually helped much. I'll let you know if I figure it out.

*Okay I went back to the transcript, and it seems they start using she/her pronouns for the baby as soon as the old woman gives her to them. I assumed that the baby was wearing clothes or swaddled in a blanket the whole time, but I don't think this is ever explicitly stated, so it's possible it could've been clear once John was able to get a close enough look at her. Still, this is very much glossed over. Which, granted, it would be weird if they took a moment in the text to like, look at the baby's genitals, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[boots-with-the-fur-club]

Chapter 10 of the reincarnation au!

@daboyau

@rottmnt-background-screenshots

Surprisingly, no memory filled dreams happened that night.

The turtles and Splinter woke up mostly peacefully. It was later in the day since they stayed up most of the night.

The time difference was pretty rough but they were trying to handle that as best they could.

Leo portaled in some food and a pot for Mikey to make some breakfast over a fire they made outside. They had grilled fish and some rice, something they’d eat a lot of in their past lives.

Splinter joined them in the nostalgia over the meal. Even though the last time he had it wasn’t actually in a different lifetime, it might as well have been.

So much has changed since then.

He was never really planning on coming back, let alone bringing his sons along. There were too many painful memories he really didn’t want to revisit.

This wasn’t about him though. As much as those memories hurt them, there were a lot more painful memories awaiting his boys.

If he could help him through them then he would.

“What are you all planning on doing now that we are here?”

“I was thinking we should find some museums.” Leo answers.

Everyone stares at him in surprise.

“To see if our stuff is there! Just because we’ve had past lives doesn’t mean I like learning. In fact, if I ever say I actually want to go to a museum that isn’t magic or about Jupiter Jim, assume I’m a clone.”

“That makes a lot more sense.” Donnie deadpans.

“We should go to whatever museum here sent the key to the New York museum. If they had that, they probably have our stuff too. Or at least know where it’s at.” Raph suggests.

“I wonder why the museum sent it in the first place. I know they called it cursed, but what could the key have done?” Mikey questions.

“Guess we’re going to find out. Ikuzo, mis hermanos!” Leo holds up his sword.

“As much as I’d love to encourage your newfound trilingualness, we still have to use disguises. I doubt Japan is any better than New York with dealing with our green complexion.” Donnie makes him lower the sword.

“Blue, come with me to the lair for a bit. I have an idea.” Splinter looks at him.

“You’ve got it!” Leo portals the both of them away.

Eventually they come back, Leo lands dramatically in a brand new outfit.

He wore tabi socks and wooden sandals with blue straps.

His matching blue kimono had a red wrap around his waist and yellow stripes on the sleeves.

His brothers stare in awe.

“Dad made them for all of us!” Leo tosses the kimonos at his brothers.

They quickly get dressed.

Donnie had a purple kimono with black blocks etched all over.

Mikey wore a yellow kimono with orange spots.

Raph got a red kimono some tiger patches sewn on.

“Thanks, pops. I really appreciate it.”

Splinter smiles at him.

“You’re welcome, my son. I will take on my radical teen disguise. I will be just one of the gang.”

“These take care of our lack of clothes, but not the green skin.” Donnie says as he looks at his clothes more.

Leo holds out some wide brimmed straw hats in front of them.

“No, but these do! Now let’s get to that museum before it closes. You can thank me later for finding out which one it was later.“

After completing their disguises, Leo portaled them to near where the museum was.

Luckily for them they came at a time where after waiting about 20 minutes, it was free to enter.

They began looking all over the different exhibits. Seeing the tools and items from 1,000 years ago brought both a sense of familiarity and foreignness.

Sure they had seen it all the time in their memories, but back then they were brand new. Now they could see just how much they aged.

The time they had been alive before was so far behind them.

Slowly, and really without realizing it, they began to drift apart to different areas of the museum.

Raph found himself standing and staring up at a case holding pieces of something. His eyes are drawn back down to the plaque in front of it.

He didn’t need to read it to know what the pieces were of.

His heart ached. Sure it had broken a few times and was always replaced, but something told him that this mask had been the last.

Aoi wasn’t there to get Tora a new one.

She could have bought her own. He knew it wouldn’t be the same. The mask itself was never really what she was attached to.

He feels a gentle bump to his arm and glances downwards.

His eyes widen when he sees Leo holding up a mask that looked very similar to the one that was currently shattered.

“Guess what I found in the gift shop! I had to hold like 50 of these to get to the biggest one in the back.”

Raph kneels down and takes it. He couldn’t help but match the big grin spread across Leo’s face.

For a moment he sees Aoi in his place, holding out that mask for the first time. Their smiles never changed from one life to the other.

“Thanks, Leo.”

“Anytime, imōto-uh, I mean, aniki, I mean-! Ugh, you know what I mean.”

Raph chuckles.

“Doesn’t matter what you call me. Family means family.”

“Speaking of family, any idea where Donnie and Mikey went? I know dad left to go grab us lunch.”

“No idea. Must have found something pretty interesting.”

Mikey and Donnie had found each other as well, in more ways that one.

“…..Donnie?”

“I know, Mikey. I know.”

They looked at the ancient pieces of clothing that slightly matched the kimonos they were currently wearing.

The ones behind the glass were torn, not because of age or time, but clearly from something purposeful.

Kosuke’s clothing had medium sized holes singed into the arms and legs.

The entirety of the back of Tomo’s top was just….gone. The fabric around it seemed torn to shreds.

There were rectangular pieces missing as well in the same areas as Kosuke’s.

“Do you think….we were together when it happened?” Mikey questions despite knowing the answer deep down.

“Yes.” Donnie lies.

Mikey appreciates it.

They decide to meet back up with the others.

The four of them are at the entrance to the museum again soon enough.

Splinter calls to them from outside to tell them that he got the food.

They all leave together and find somewhere to sit down and eat.

The plan after that is to do some sightseeing using the portals.

Whenever Aoi wanted them to go would probably rev up some memories.

The portals mainly landed them in older villages at first.

Each of this towns had some sort of inscription somewhere about warriors that arrived in their time of need.

After Tomo and Aoi got their powers, it didn’t take long for Tora and Kosuke to get them too.

The memories they saw in those villages showed them that.

For Leo and Donnie, there was some kind of pride at seeing Tora and Kosuke….grow.

It was probably more Aoi and Tomo’s feelings though.

It was hard enough surviving childhood with what they had.

Getting to their teen years? A miracle.

Being in their 20s seemed impossible.

They still made it, though.

Raph couldn’t help but be so happy about them all being heroes.

He knew eventually they’d be the great mystic warriors that their dad talked about, but this sort of journey was what he always dreamed of.

He dreamt it less when being a hero meant losing a brother, or brothers.

Still….the looks on their previous lives’ faces was so endearing. They loved helping people.

Despite everything they went through, they somehow managed to keep being kids.

It was nice.

The last place they decided to go to had way more people.

It was also filled with a lot more things than the long abandoned villages. It reminded them a lot of New York.

Bright lights, loud noises, the works.

The group kept taking pictures of themselves indulging in whatever was around.

The food stands, the stores filled with plushies, the high tech advertisements.

Donnie lifted up his phone to take a selfie in front of a Hatsune Miku billboard when he noticed something orange rush by.

“Mikey? Where are you going!?”

“I see Tora!”

Donnie quickly started running after him.

“There is no need to chase a memory! Just ignore it!”

“What if it’s important!?”

“I guarantee it’s not important enough for this! Stop already!”

“I want to know where she’s going!”

“Mikey!”

“Almost-!” He reaches his hand out.

“MIKEY!”

Donnie pulls him back hard enough for his hat to go flying off.

The hat lands in the street in front of him, almost immediately getting crushed flat by a speeding car.

Donnie held Mikey to himself as close as he could.

Mikey stared in shock at the fact that he could have been in the place of that hat.

Donnie breathes heavily and tries not to think about how if he was just a little slower his baby brother would be gone all over again.

…..Again?

Oh god.

The others run over.

“Mikey! Donnie! What happened!?” Raph kneels down to make sure they’re both okay.

“I….I almost ran into the road….” Mikey answers.

“You what!?“ Splinter shouts in a panic.

“I saw Tora-“

“And you just took off!?” Leo interrupts.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time!”

Splinter sees the crowd of people staring at them.

“Boys, we should be getting home now.”

Raph sees this this as well and ushers everyone back through the crowd.

Once they’re out of view enough Leo portals them back to the house.

It’s only then that Mikey leaves Donnie’s hold.

“Okay, so maybe that wasn’t my best idea….but I just wasn’t thinking.”

“I’ll say, that’s the dumbest dumb dumb thing I have ever seen anyone do.” Donnie crosses his arms.

“I’m sorry! I already feel dumb, you don’t have to say it….”

“No! I do have to say it! I tried to stop you! You weren’t just not thinking, you ignored me on purpose!”

“Donnie, I said I was sorry-“

“You never get it! Like when you kept trying to use your magic hands when you knew our ninpo was gone!”

“It worked eventually!”

“Only after we got it back! That’s exactly what I’m talking about! Why do you keep doing things without even giving one second to think about it!?”

“Donnie! Aren’t you going just a little too far!?” Leo gets between them.

Donnie frowns deeply and takes a breath to start up again, but as he sees the tears starting in Mikey’s eyes it dies on his tongue.

“I’m going to bed.” He rushes past everyone to another room.

Mikey tries to follow him but Splinter stops him.

“Orange, I know you want to fix this, but some things need time to settle before you can attempt a repair.”

Mikey sighs heavily.

“But he’s going to sleep angry, we’re never supposed to do that.”

“Sometimes forcing a reconciliation will just create more anger. Don’t worry. Perhaps in the morning Donatello will want to talk.”

Mikey whimpers slightly but nods in understanding.

Leo fixes up their sleeping space and everyone, excluding Donnie, sleeps together in the room.

Or attempts to.

Raph wrapped himself around them all closely, protectively.

Mikey opened his eyes and stares up at the ceiling.

Despite the warmth all around him and the ever comforting rumble of Raph’s snores, he was absolutely restless.

Donnie was missing and it bothered him to no end.

He eventually knows that he will not be getting to sleep unless he does something. So, he carefully slips out of Raph’s hold and sneaks into the room Donnie is sleeping in.

Mikey frowns as he sees him curled up, probably cold.

He quietly walks over to him and lays down next to him. He’s worried that if he touches him he’ll wake up and kick him out of the room.

To his surprise, he gets grabbed and pulled to Donnie’s plastron.

Mikey smiles and snuggles into him.

He’s asleep within minutes.