cw: // death mention // violence // torture //
Aw man I have an idea for a “Leo spends a lot longer in the Prison Dimension” divergence.
The way the Prison Dimension works is that it essentially keeps you alive so long as you haven’t completely broken.
Leo, despite how sure he was that he was going to die, didn’t want to, and that’s all the Prison Dimension needed to keep him “alive” and “resetting” him. His body is kept in the exact same state he was in when he entered the dimension - messed up, but mostly okay.
Also, Leonardo “jokes are how I cope” Hamato eventually uses his newfound “oh I can’t die” status as a way to relentlessly quip at Krang One. Sure, he “dies” many times doing this, but eventually he just treats it like a game. How much does he have to fuck around until he finds out?
The amount varies.
He’s thankful that his (Casey’s-) photo is still intact, though at some point he has to etch the names of the people in it (his family-) into the walls of whatever building rubble he called home.
Sometimes he and Krang One talk. It’s almost nice, at times, having another being there.
Leo doesn’t know what to think of this.
The nice feeling always ends with his “corpse”, anyway.
Leo’s eventually saved, of course, and he’s brought back home and he smiles, smiles, because of course his brothers saved him! Of course he got out! He never gave up, not really, so they didn’t either-
And then he noticed how tall they were. How Mikey had hair, how Raph’s scars had long healed, how Donnie’s tech was more advanced.
Six years, they tell him. Six years.
And Leo looks the same. Just as banged up as ever, still a mess of bruises and cuts that he’s grown so familiar with. (And it does not escape Raph’s eye how dark the ring of bruises around Leo’s neck are-)
And it’s fine! It’s fine. He just needs to play catch up, now. He’s technically six years older too, right? Only his body is sixteen. His wounds will heal, and he will grow up too.
Only that doesn’t happen.
Because here’s the thing about the Prison Dimension: it’s grown fond of Leo. Six years is nothing to it, but Leo was new, different from what normally comes through. Leo was a bright blue light that only grew brighter with time, coming back from where it was almost snuffed out. So, a piece of the Dimension attaches itself to Leo’s soul, living yet not, and he remains as he’s been for the past near decade.
His wounds do not heal. He does not grow.
He exists more than he lives. And in the back of his mind he can hear Krang One screaming.
He wonders if his own screaming was heard back.
1K notes
·
View notes
im so crazy over the tragedy of everything q!bbh does being under a demon pretense even though he's a fallen angel.
do u think he just accepts the demon label because it's easier. do u think he believes it too, and catches himself in his thoughts with "oh, right. im not exactly that". and maybe he believes that he did this to himself? do u think what he did was to protect himself or someone? no matter the fall, he still has so much kindness to give and his brain just isn't wired the way a natural-born demon would be, he can't hold back instincts when time demands it, maybe that's why he fell in the first place.
and when he's finally bad, not good, it's treated like the end of the world, without empathy on why he would act out. do you think this keeps happening? the same scenario, multiple times, every timeline? he has to be used to it. so he has to take it in stride. he's good until he lashes out under extreme pressure, and suddenly he's called demon. and once again he's what heaven made him out to be. what he made himself to be, his brain would ruthlessly provide...
i don't think he wants to be that, though he hides secrets behind secrets of which neither identity is a home... but i don't think he wants to have to change, either. and i don't think that's wrong of him.
...you collapse atlantis ONE TIME and all of a sudden YOU'RE the bad guy and SURE it was FUN but REALLY now,--
112 notes
·
View notes
If someone stopped reading your story, not because of anything wrong you've done, would you be interested to know why? Or would that just be unpleasant?
That would just be unpleasant, anon.
The reality is a lot of people just stop reading for a lot of reasons, and hearing someone's negative feedback isn't really that useful, because I'm writing the story for the people who really love it, and not for the people who got bored or stopped liking the themes etc. And then of course there are folks who just stop because life intervenes, which is normal.
Generally speaking there's a saying which is: If you wouldn't ask that person for personal advice, why are you listening to their criticism. And I tend to apply that pretty aggressively to strangers on the internet tbh!
Part of it is that I take negative critiques very personally, and can spend a really long time feeling like I should change an entire story for one person who's already stopped reading, or like I should be trying to fight to keep that one person's interest instead of like...focusing on all the readers who are actually just enjoying the writing as it is. And changing my writing for the people who aren't finding it interesting enough to keep reading (and/or who don't have time and/or who find it too upsetting etc.) is not going to help anyone!
So yeah, generally speaking telling a person why you've stopped reading a story is like...not really a thing to do (and that's true for most authors).
About the only time I don't mind it is when someone starts reading again after a period of absence where they've been stressed and I get a comment like 'Ah I haven't been around due to life/stress/illness but I'm so happy to be back and reading' lol, which I don't think is what you're referring to!
138 notes
·
View notes