#okay calm down cj

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

if dorian didn't show up, do you think louis would have shot minnie?

I do. I know some people think either he wouldn't have or he would've missed so that's why the writers had him shoot Dorian instead, but mmmmmm no, I don't personally think so. I like to think that if he had taken the shot, his shaky hands would've caused him to shoot her fatally.

Mostly because I'm already so normal about the fact that of the Ericson crew, Marlon and Louis are the only ones with a body count. Well, that we know of, but shown to us in the game, at least. Plus, we know it's Louis' first kill.

Like yeah, Clementine and AJ become part of the crew and they have bigger body counts, and if we're counting indirect kills caused by actions, then Tenn has a count... and I guess everyone has blood on their hands for blowing up the boat... but I'm talking about killed directly with a weapon like....... I lied, I'm not normal about that at all, Louis and Marlon are the ones who have killed someone in Louis' route. I'm also not normal about the fact that Louis kills Dorian and then even as he's clearly in shock, he tries to go with Clementine to get AJ, and then later on when they talk about it, he says it feels like bile but not quite and he's glad he has it in him to do it.... listen, listen, listen... I'm obsessed with that.

Anyway, so if Louis shot Minerva, I think he would've accidentally killed her and can you imagine? He's already enough of a mess after killing the woman who pinned him down and tried to cut his finger off [or succeeded] but he knew Minerva, they were friends before the twins were taken. Even Violet couldn't kill her even though that would've been the smarter thing to do, and we know thanks to meta knowledge that killing her would've saved lives, but Violet couldn't, and I don't think Louis would intentionally either.

Speaking of Violet, if Louis killed Minerva, I hate to think about what that would've done to Vi. I think she might've actually left at that point, like what was planned before it got changed to her being burned. I don't think she would've attacked Louis over it, though, like yeah she attacked Clementine in the cell but Louis? I don't know, but I don't think so just because it's Louis and he'd be a mess about it anyway.

Though if he did kill her, it would be a neat parallel to draw... y'know, because Louis forgave AJ for killing Marlon even though he was pissed and heartbroken, and Violet was annoyed with him the entire time... but could she ever forgive Louis for killing Minerva? Y'know? We already have a similar parallel with AJ shooting Tenn, but still.

If Clementine killed Minerva in that moment, though, then I could see Violet attacking her since in her eyes, Clem proved her right.

So yeah, I get why they added the Dorian kill to his route. It adds another compelling element to Louis as a character, but we also need Minerva alive for episode 4; Louis can't kill her, he can't miss, and he's not going to stay with her because we need Violet to stay on the boat and him to be on shore for all routes.

[firewasabeast]

Hey CJ! Idk if you take prompts (I loved your most recent ficlet)

BUT any thoughts on how Buck and Tommy annoy each other (on purpose)??

ahhh thank you so much! I'm always taking prompts, it just sometimes takes me a while to get to them. here's a two-in-one fic for you!

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click click.

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click click.

Tommy looked over across the couch, where Buck was staring down at a crossword as he clicked his pen. Over and over.

“Do you need a new pen?” Tommy asked, keeping his tone calm and casual.

“Huh?” It took a second for Buck to register what he'd asked. “Oh, no. No, I'm good, thanks,” he said, glancing over at him with a smile.

Tommy returned the smile, then went back to reading his magazine.

Click click click clickclick click click.

Tommy took a long, deep breath.

Click click click click click click click click click.

“You sure?” He asked again, his voice going up an octave. “I have a whole drawer of them.”

And they're the kind with caps, he added to himself.

Buck shook his head. “Nope, this one works just fine.”

Click click click click click click. Click. Click. Click.

Click click click click clickclick-

Tommy closed the magazine and squeezed his eyes shut. “For the love of God, Evan, please stop.”

“Ha! So it does bother you!” Buck exclaimed, pointing the pen to Tommy with a triumphant look on his face.

“Does the endless pen clicking bother me? Yeah, maybe a little.”

Buck shook his head, relaxing further into the couch. “Finally.”

“Finally what?”

“I finally found something that makes Mr. Cool lose his cool.”

Tommy huffed out a laugh. “I did not lose my cool, thank you very much.”

“You looked like a pressure cooker that was about to explode.”

“So you were doing all of that just to annoy me?” Tommy asked, a playful glare on his face.

“After about the third click, yes.”

“And if I didn't stop you, you were what? Gonna click the entirety of We Will Rock You?”

Buck tilted his head, looking more impressed than anything now. “Y- You knew the song?”

“Of course I knew the song. Who wouldn't know that song?”

“I just didn't realize I was so talented. I could quit my job, begin a professional career as a click artist.”

Tommy opened his magazine back up, crossing one leg over the other. “I'd stick with firefighting if I were you.”

They were just settling back into a peaceful silence when:

Click click.

“Okay.” Tommy reached across the couch and pulled the pen out of Buck's hand before getting up and heading for the trash.

“Wait! No!” Buck exclaimed. “I just had to finish the line in the song. I was done.”

Tommy raised the lid to the garbage can and dropped the pen in it. “You can get another pen out of the drawer beside you. One with a cap,” he added quickly, “not a clicker.”

“You're no fun,” Buck teased, opening the drawer and grabbing another pen. “Oh, I see some clickers in here, Babe. I could do a rendition of Come Sail Away for you!”

Tommy walked back over to Buck, standing right in front of him on the couch. “I love you, Evan, but if you so much as touch another click pen I will leave.”

Buck snorted out a laugh, staring up at his boyfriend. “This is your house, Tommy!”

“I'll sign it over to you.”

Buck reached up and tugged on Tommy's shirt until he was hovering over him, one hand on the armrest and the other on the back of the couch. “Has anyone ever told you you're dramatic?” Buck asked, pulling Tommy in for a kiss.

“My drama teacher, third grade,” he replied with a nod. “Mrs. Collier.”

Buck gave Tommy one more kiss before letting him go. “I'll have to send her a note, tell her she was right.”

“Well, she was about seventy when I was in her class,” Tommy informed him, sitting back down in his seat, “so you'll have to search her address on Find a Grave.”

He resumed his magazine reading as Buck got back into his crossword...

Until about two minutes later, when Buck began drumming the new pen on his thigh. This time, he was seemingly completely unaware of what he was doing.

Tommy headed to bed early that night.

**********

The first time it happened, Buck was surprised, but he didn't say anything about it.

The second time, he laughed a bit, and when Tommy asked what was so funny he just shrugged and said he'd never seen anyone do that before.

The third time, he thought he might die.

“Did you, um, did you use a fork to scoop out the butter?” he asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as humanly possible.

Tommy breezed by, grabbing a drink out of the fridge on his way to the garage for a work out. “Yeah. Had toast this morning.” He gave Buck a pat on the ass before heading out the door.

Buck immediately pulled a knife out of a drawer and smoothed out the butter.

It shouldn't have been a big deal. Realistically, Buck knew that.

But there was something so jarring about opening a container of butter only to see that it was littered with stab wounds.

It felt wrong.

It felt like a crime.

The fourth time it happened, it was the day after he and Tommy had gotten into an argument. Nothing too serious, and they had made up by the time they went to bed.

But Tommy had made himself dinner that night and he'd decided on scrambled eggs.

Which meant he'd first put butter in the pan so the eggs wouldn't stick.

Buck didn't want to another fight right now, so he kept quiet and fixed the butter once again, then went about his day.

The fifth time it happened, Buck was ready to throw every fork in the house away. He could no longer remain silent on such a serious issue. It needed to be discussed, and it needed to be discussed now.

There was no better time, as Tommy was opening their mail at the dining room table while Buck started on dinner.

“Uh, Tommy?”

“Yeah, Babe?”

“We, um, I- I need to talk to you.”

Tommy looked up from the mail and over to where Buck stood in the kitchen. “Uh oh,” he said when he saw the look on Buck face. “You sound serious.”

“Yeah, I- it. It's the butter, Tommy. I- Most people use a knife when they're getting butter, but you're using a fork, and it makes the butter look all stabby and I've just been fixing it myself every time I see it, but I really don't understand why you can't use a knife, or even a spoon, ya know?” He was rambling, but once he started he couldn't seem to stop. “It looks so much better if you use a knife because then it keeps that smooth, buttery texture instead of looking like its been to war and-” he stopped when he noticed that Tommy was smiling at him. “What?” he asked.

“I knew you'd break eventually.”

“Wh- What do you mean?”

Tommy picked up a pen from the table, holding his arm out straight in front of him.

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click click.

When it hit him, Buck gasped, his eyes widening. “That was months ago!” he exclaimed. “We weren't even living together then!”

“And yet I've never forgotten,” Tommy replied, feeling a sense of vindication.

“You're diabolical.” He held the tub of butter out toward Tommy. “This could be considered a form of torture, you know?”

Tommy stood and walked over to Buck. “What would they call it? Butter-forking?” he asked, taking the tub from Buck and getting a knife from the drawer. He began smoothing the butter out himself, until it looked perfect on top. “Better?” he asked, showing Buck his work.

Buck turned his head to the side dramatically, staring out the kitchen window. “I don't know if we'll get past this.”

Tommy put the butter down, moving closer to Buck and placing his hands on his waist. “Could we try?” he asked. “I'd hate to tell the caterers we had to cancel the wedding on a count of me forking butter. Especially since it sounds shockingly close to doing something else with butter.”

Buck shuddered when he realized what Tommy meant. He looked up at him through his eyelashes. “Will you never destroy the sanctity of our butter with your fork ever again?”

“I will try my best,” Tommy promised. “As long as you continue to stay away from clickable pens.”

Buck sighed. “There goes the last chances of my career as a musical clicker,” he said with a pout, wrapping his arms around Tommy's shoulders.

“And there goes my career as a professional butter stabber,” Tommy replied, his hands tightening on Buck's waist as he got rid of his pout with a kiss.

[phoebepheebsphibs]

Double-Mutated Mikey

Chapter 10: Neural, Divergent

Continued from the short story written by @boots-with-the-fur-club

Prev || Next

Mikey is unable to answer. He just keeps looking at the three of them, eyes begging for help and watering quickly. His mouth opens and closes several times over, though no sounds emerge.

At long last, his hands -- shaky and trembling -- desperately sign a message.

'Purple... Blue... Red... brothers. Knows, Mikey KNOWS. MIKEY KNOWS, MIKEY KNOWS -- BROTHERS, BROTHERS, BROTHERS, BROTHERS...'

Mikey starts crying, simply signing that one word over and over again. Brothers, brothers, brothers...

Donnie rushes to his side and holds him closely.

"It's okay, Angie. You know us. You remember us. That's good, that's very good, you're okay... I'm sorry Angie, I didn't mean to --"

Mikey starts hiccuping and grabs at Donnie in despair, clawing at him and wrapping his tail around him tightly, as if getting closer to him will reignite some missing link in his spotty memory. He refuses to let go. His cries are wet, wobbly, uncontrolled. They sound like they belong to a child ten years younger than Mikey.

Donnie halts for a moment. He trembles. He grips Mikey tightly, rubbing his back. He notices the ridges on his shell start to raise. The scales on his tail begin to lift up. Mikey is highly uncomfortable. Donnie needs to calm him down before his 'instinct' can take over.

He gives him quiet shushes and waves his brothers over, who immediately come close and wrap their arms around him as well, Leo rubbing circles on his head while Raph takes Mikey's hands.

'Sorry,' Mikey signs against Donnie, his eyes squeezed shut as he suck-up cries. 'Mikey... broken. Mikey knows Mikey broken. Doesn't want to be...'

"You don't have to be sorry, Michael, it isn't your fault," Donnie assures him. "I promise, I will fix you. You won't stay 'broken', you're not 'broken' at all! You're just... just..."

Donnie doesn't know what term to use. Mikey can't be broken...

...But he is. Donnie will always hate himself for admitting this, if only in the deepest part of his subconscious, but Mikey is broken now. His shell looks like it was literally shattered and then glued back together. His hands and feet are reformed, disfigured talons. He can't speak. He can't (or at least, has yet to) walk upright. He can't remember things that are highly important, like the past week or what his father looks like. By his own admission, he sometimes isn't even in control of his own self.

Mikey forgot what their names were.

That is not normal. Especially for him.

Mikey isn't himself anymore.

Mikey's breathing starts to slow. It's been a few minutes, and he's calmed down. He's still shaking slightly, but otherwise...

He's not fine. None of them are 'fine'. But he's finished crying, at least.

Donnie sighs and asks Mikey if he'd be willing to do one more test quickly. He feels Mikey nod against his chest.

Donnie lets the others go get breakfast while he prepares the final examination. Raph carries Mikey into the kitchen, where Casey has taken over as head chef in Michelangelo's absence. Apparently, future Mikey taught him some recipes, including deep-fried rat... which, actually, doesn't taste that bad. Though today, Casey has opted for pancakes and bacon. Mikey smells the bacon first, and his tail starts to weakly wag, though his expression is still exhausted from the crying.

"Good morning, Michelangelo!" Casey Jones Jr. says with a smile. "Ya hungry?"

Mikey nods as Raph lowers him down on the bench by the table.

"I'm guessing he wants strawberry pancakes?"

"Those are his fav, how did you know --" Raph stops and rolls his eyes. "Right. Future. You know everything."

"Well, maybe not everything," Casey chuckles. He turns back to the flapjacks, hiding the shift in his expression. "...I didn't know this would happen..."

Mikey signs something to Leo, who nods and turns to CJ.

"Mikey wants extra bacon with his pancakes. New diet, he needs more meat."

"You got it, sensei -- I mean, Leo."

Casey inhales, balling his fist up in soft frustration before exhaling and going back to focus on the food. He's been doing better at not calling them by their future names, but every once in a while he slips. It doesn't seem to bother anyone... apart from Casey Jr.

And Leonardo.

Casey finishes Mikey's meal first, handing a plate stacked full of pancakes and bacon to him. Mikey's eyes go wide, his pupils huge. He starts to drool at the food, sniffing it once before ravenously devouring it. Mikey doesn't even use a fork or knife, which at this point doesn't surprise anyone. But he does cause a bit of a mess, smearing the syrup all across his face and splashing some on Raph, who has the misfortune of sitting directly besides him.

"Mikey, calm down! There's plenty more where that came from," Raph says with a soft chuckle as he wipes the sticky sauce off his arms.

Mikey slows down a bit, but continues to eat like a feral creature, tearing the bread apart with his teeth and using his hands to hold the food down. He follows each pancake with two slices of bacon, chewing loudly and growling in contentment between bites.

Leo grimaces at the sight.

"Mikey, bud, maybe try eating with your mouth closed?"

Mikey stops suddenly and looks up at him, a pancake dangling from his jaw and his entire face covered brown with molasses. Casey has to turn away to keep from laughing at the sight. Mikey slowly muches the pancake back up into his mouth, and tries chewing with it closed.

"Better," Leo says with a weak smile.

The boys continue breakfast, Mikey watching the others and how they eat to get an understanding of what to do. He sees the silverware being handled, how there is an unused fork and knife by his dish. He picks the fork up slowly. It feels awkward in his hand, his fingers are too long for it now. His hands can't remember how to hold it properly. He fumbles with it, pressing it against the pancake, stabbing it several times and trying to lift it up to his mouth. He is utterly offended when the pancake falls off the fork and splats on the plate again, splattering drops of syrup across his plastron.

Mikey grumbles softly, discarding the fork and going back to just using his hands and teeth to eat with.

He knows they are watching him struggle. He knows they won't say anything just yet. He knows that they feel just as uncomfortable watching him try to eat as he feels being watched.

Ten minutes later, Raph and Leo's phones ding. Donnie is ready for them.

Mikey quickly gets wiped down and then walked back to Donnie's lab, where he has apparently set up a whole CT scanner. Mikey stares at the big machine with anxiety.

"Mikey, this is the last test for today, I promise," Donnie says, smiling kindly at him. "Nothing else after this one. It will only take 15 minutes, won't hurt you at all, you don't even have to do anything other than just lay still for a bit. You can even take a nap in there, if you want."

"When did you build this?" Leo asks, running his hand along the machine's mouth and peering inside.

"A long while back... after the whole incident with the mind-reprogramulator..."

"The what?"

"Nevermind. I've definitely not been scanning your brains on occasion when you were asleep. Mikey, can you handle this one last test for me? All I'm gonna do is look at your brain for any injuries or traumas," Donnie asks, kneeling down to look his little brother in the eyes.

Mikey stares at the machine nervously. He signs at Donnie.

'Safe?'

"Perfectly safe," Donnie promises. "Can you do it?"

Mikey doesn't sign back, but moves over to the machine, jumping up and crawling inside.

"I'll take that as a yes," Donnie mumbles, going to help adjust Mikey's position for the scan to work properly.

"Just lie back nice and easy and try to relax. You can listen to music while you wait if that helps," Donnie offers.

Mikey reaches his hands out and signs 'yes please'. Leo grabs the headset for him and lets Mikey choose what music to listen to.

Fifteen minutes of silence go by. Mikey does eventually fall asleep, the early rise compounded by the profuse sobbing from earlier having exhausted him, and the music is the icing on the cake. Once they hit the ten minute mark, Mikey's eyes slip shut. By the thirteenth minute, he's snoring softly.

Donnie's monitor beeps at him, a black and white image of Mikey's brain showing up on the screen.

"Okay, here we go..." Donnie says with a deep exhale, rolling his chair over and studying the scan thoroughly.

"Well?" Leo asks, leaning over his twin. "Survey says?"

Donnie is quiet for some time, hands folded under his chin as he makes certain of what the machine has deduced. He points to an area of the brain with a slightly whiter marking filling the grey matter.

"See this area here?" he says softly. "The white means he's had head trauma."

"The white?" Raph repeats. "Donnie... there's a heck of a lot of white on that scan."

"I know. Look at these markings here," he says, pointing around the image to several parts of Mikey's brain that are slightly discoloured. "These indicate electrical injury."

"...Electrical?" Leo questions, his tone irritated and voice hot with anger.

"Yes," Donnie says, his tone also getting quite unhappy. "Electrical injury. I'm going to kill every one of those TCRI dunderheads..."

"Donnie," Raph says sternly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "The injuries aren't permanent, right?"

"There... there is some slight scarring," Donnie answers quietly. "But it should heal. Leo would know better."

"With Draxum's mutations making us virtually indestructible and quick-healing, I'd say he'll be fine," Leo says with a nod after giving the scan a once-over. "But the scars do affect his brain with things like short term memory... probably why he doesn't remember much about his captivity," Leo works out.

"So, he's got amnesia basically?" Raph asks.

"No, not amnesia, just head injuries," Donnie clarifies. "It's a symptom of any kind of trauma. It could be he blocked the memories... or if I am correct about the dissociative identity disorder, then he wasn't fully cognizant when certain things occurred -- almost like sleepwalking. Or, it's possible that the contusions he received knocked them loose, in a manner of speaking," Donnie suggests. "He has the memories, but can't access them yet. As time goes by and he heals properly, the memories will find their places and he'll be better."

"There have been all kinds of stories about this kind of thing," Leo chimes in, "where someone was in a car wreck and forgot everything -- even how to talk or eat or read, and needed to relearn their whole life from scratch. As time passed on, they got better and eventually their memories returned."

"Exactly," Donnie concurs. "It happens all the time with trauma patients. So I'm sure Mikey will be fine..."

Raph hears the hesitation again. He squeezes Donnie's shoulder. Donnie places his hand over Raph's, patting it in recognition of the comfort.

"So... what do we do in the meantime?" Raph asks.

"I can look up a list of ways to treat memory loss," Donnie says, quickly typing on the computers. "Or you guys can take over on that while I work on the anti-mutation cure."

"I can handle it," Leo volunteers. "No prob, bob. No problem, Boblem. No probert, Robert. No 'probbles' at all."

Donnie rolls his eyes, which are starting to look rather bloodshot. Raph doesn't let that go unnoticed.

"Dee, maybe you should get some rest now..."

"I'll be fine," he refutes, pushing Raph's hand off his shoulder. "I just need to work on a few things and then I'll take a siesta..."

"Don, seriously, you promised --"

An alert from the computer interrupts Raphael's scoldings. Donnie pulls up the security feed from the surroundings of the lair.

"April has arrived," he announces. "...Let's go break the news to her."

Prev || Next

[milks-thoughts]

to the anon who request peepaw leo, bless your soul, I didnt know i need father figure peepaw in my life.

I got a idea, what if peepaw leo, take reader to the hidden city? to more aware of the yokai kind and stuff?

I WAS STRUGGLING WITH THIS AND A RANDOM TUMBLR POST BROUGHT ME IDEAS, also I can’t write shit without angst what the fuck happened here

TW: mentions of cheating, and overall wholesomeness

summary: Peepaw Leo takes Reader to the hidden city to make them feel better (reader is 16)

He Doesn’t Deserve You

⚔︎ Peepaw had gotten more than used to seeing you around the lair

⚔︎ it’s been like 3 years what is he saying-??

⚔︎ they even got you your own train car

⚔︎ you’d leave every day to go to school, then you’d come back

⚔︎ you were so giddy coming back one time with CJ everyone just HAD to know why

⚔︎ the moment you got a boyfriend he was suspicious- of the boyfriend- so was his younger counterpart so-!

⚔︎ can you blame him for being on edge? the boyfriend you got was like a frat boy

⚔︎ You we’re just sitting on the beanbags in the living room, scrolling through social media before you came across a post from this girls account. okay- maybe it’s his cousin! Yeah they look similar enough. You decided to read the caption, that’s when you paused. You stood up suddenly and walked to your train car, slamming the door closed you plopped down on your bed and started sobbing. Apparently you weren’t very quiet because the next thing you knew Mikey and Leo were sliding open the door “ what’s wrong? “ Mikey asked gently which only caused you to cry harder. You could only show them the phone before they looked back at you with a soft look “ oh it’s okay…it’ll all be okay “ Leo soothed before looking wearily at Mikey “ do you want us to get Big Blue? “ he asked you, you paused and nodded. You could really use one of his hugs right now, the crushing hug that’s a mix between warm and cold from the metal. He could wrap his arms around your entire body and cover you with a hug, so yes, you would like a hug from him. Leo nodded and stood up, he sent one more glance before closing the train car and walking away, your sniffles had been fluctuating from calm crying to bawling. Mikey had wrapped around your frame and hugged you, looking up you saw your father Leonardo standing there a soft look on his face when he took Mikey’s spot. He wrapped his arms around your frame and buried your head in his plastron. His arms tight around you as you curled up into a ball in his hold. A new round of sobs came up but they were filled with incoherent sentences. “ was I not good enough for him? “ you asked in a small voice, Leonardo hushed you quietly and rubbed your back “ why don’t we go into the hidden city? You can meet Bone man and see the mystic stuff “ Leo asked and Mikey nodded. You liked the idea, it’d help you get your mind off things. Leo smiled “ buuut me an everyone else have some plans, why don’t you and Big Blue go? “ You blinked and you swore you saw him calling CJ and Mikey texting someone..? Leonardo smiled and started walking, you were wearing enough, a black tank top and weird kinda muted orange sweats. As you two walked along you could help but let your mind wander. Why did Leo call CJ and why was Mikey texting April & Cass? When you came back to reality you were shocked, so this was the hidden city! You had brought your phone and it was going off with alerts. But every time you went to check Leonardo pulled away your attention and kept you hooked. You had gotten pizza at his favorite joint, seen the battle nexus and witch town. Your eyes sparkling with admiration every time you saw something new or unique. When you returned home, the lair was empty. The air in it was uncomfortable but Leonardo didn’t seem worried. It wasn’t long before everyone came back with dinner, you couldn’t help but question why Raph had some red on one of his spikes. You never voiced your concerns. Your ex had died in a breaking-and-entering gone wrong

[tiger333k]

Elaborating more on Jason Grace joining the Wayne family (because why not):

The batfam discovering the poor kid has no idea on what family is when Jason, slightly ashamed after a panic attack, asks if he can go to therapy-

Therapist: what do you think of when you hear family?

Jason, confused blond who never had one: loss. abandon. mistake. alcohol. wolf. soldier. army. burden-

(Being raised by wolves an a freakin army camp is what growing up means to him apparently)

Therapist:… what about parents?

Jason: disappointment. absent. broken promise-

Therapist: love?

Jason, bitterly remember Cupid: cruel.

The batfam: holy schist he is traumatized as hell

The family afterwards: let’s play a game!

Jason, almost saying: okay, but no maiming or killing

Then afterwards when he finds out their identités he tries to remember saying it every time the boys fall into chaos (it still ended up how they normally did)

Ironic how the two Jasons are completely unlike, Jason Todd just being Jason Todd, while Jason Grace learning how to be Jason Grace while still having those ‘I spent 13 years in the army’ traits

Jason Grace having similar backstories with Bruce Wayne (cue loss of parents, taking justice…)

Nico coming to visit because jasico has to happen somehow. Bruce realizing both of them (Jason Grace, Nico) giving off ‘plz adopt me’ vibes

Jason’s room looks exactly how his old bunk looked in CJ. orderly. tidy. the boy was trained to do this. OCD, apparently.

Jason’s death counts as retiring from the Pontifex role, but he’s still drawing shrines because no one deserves to be forgotten

(him thinking about Nico when he had this thought, not realizing it could apply to him too. did anyone reach out to him when Piper had broken up with him and he was alone? Mellie, thinking Jason has did it to Piper, hated him)

Jason learns to cook with Alfred. Because I have this image of Jason with an apron just casually holding a pan looking like a mom (because he is one) and because he wants bonding time

Jason+Dick= ultimate mom force

Tim teaching jason about computers. The blond boy going ????

Damian dueling Jason continuously. Jason being this big blocky blond has to be a challenge

Jason Todd thinking Jason Grace was his replacent at first, and furious. until Jason Grace points out they literally only have three two things alike: they’re orphans named Jason, and they both died

When Thalia visits the family goes: u sure ur related??

Naturally ALL of them tease him about his crush on Nico (another BFFs thinking their crushes on each other are unrequited thing)

Jason being all polite in the family at first, unsure how to approach this topic of home. the family finds him suspicious sometimes, but does their best to welcome him. when his secret comes out the family sets down all their remaining doubt and welcomes him, (“it’s okay.”) and Jason looking so lost and hopeful. then Bruce says he’ll always have a home with them and that’s when a tear slides, slowly, down Jason’s face. He has a place he can call home

and yes, Jason can be calm. He can be caring and stern. He has breakdowns and moments where he’s the strong one helping everyone. He’s human after all. But nothing beats the moment when Jason is truly pissed…

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

OC questionnaire

Thanks @oliolioxenfreewrites here and here, @winglesswriter here, @the-golden-comet here, here, and here, @paeliae-occasionally here, and @drchenquill here!

Rules: answer the given questions in the POV of your OCs, then give the next people three more questions!

Holy shit I'm actually caught up?!?!

Previous Questionnaires:

Rounds One and Two Masterpost

Maddie, Ash, Noelle, Ewan, Jazlyn, Lexi, Alex, Carmen

Gwen, Gabriel, Liam, Xitlali, Akash, Jedi, Rose, Sam

See below for: Robbie, Hye-Jin, George, Wade, CJ, Teo, Atsila, Niri

#1- Robbie

Would you consider yourself loyal?

“Well, I don't exactly want to toot my own horn or anything but yeah, I consider myself loyal. If anything happened to Akash, I'd actually lose it. I got into a physical fight in his honor. That was how I displayed my powers for the first time, actually, so that was pretty cool. Sammy, too, I'm very loyal to my sister. And my friends at Alium, they're so dope, I love them, okay? So, yeah, loyal. Me. I'm that. I'm like a dog that way. ... I think that's a good thing. I dunno why I had to say that, I was done. *Sigh* okay I'm just gonna stop now and move onto the next question because holy shit I'm rambling, and I always do that, and I never know when to stop annnd I'm doing it again, okay for real this time. I'm done.”

If you saw someone unhoused on the corner asking for money, would you stop and give or keep going?

“From personal experience, I'd stop. My mother always makes sure I have money, cash, on my person at all times. And unfortunately - well, maybe not unfortunately, I dunno why I said that, the POINT is, I have this thing where if I see something bad happen, and I know I could help, but then I don't, I literally cannot stop thinking about that for anywhere between a full 48 hours to the rest of my life. I passed someone before, because I was late, and then ran back and gave them like five dollars because it ate me up, but they were happy, so that made up for the fact that I was late. Great, now it sounds like I'm humble-bragging. I swear I'm not trying to. My point is that I want to help people. And I'll stop there before I ramble again.”

Pineapple on pizza. Thoughts?

“Gonna be honest, never tried it. But I'm SUPER curious. I gotta know what it tastes like, but I'm scared. Both Ash and Noelle like it. Ash I don't trust at all - that girl likes the dumbest food combinations - and Noelle is interesting because she likes food and knows what goes well together, but also I don't remember when she's ever described food as bad, and she has other pizza toppings that she claims are better anyway. Point is, I'm curious but scared to try it.”

✨ Robbie intro post✨

#2- Hye-Jin

What's your earliest childhood memory?

“Oh, that's difficult. Hmmm... I'm not sure which is the first memory, actually. It's not like I memorized the time and dates of everything haha! [Pause] Okay, fine, I remember. It was the first day of preschool. I had only just turned three. Everyone in the class had these, uh, Assignments, I guess. Roles? Hm... Ah yes, jobs, so everyone in the classroom had responsibility. It was randomized, but I got the "caboose," or the person who stood in the back of the line. I cried really hard because I thought that was the worst job in the world, and my teacher probably hated me. I got to carry a flower, though, so I think that calmed me down.”

Do you dance?

“It's more like did. From, hm... Ah, kindergarten grade through sixth grade, I did ballet, tap, and jazz at a local dance studio. But middle school kinda allowed me to take more extra curriculars that were more convenient, so my parents told me I should probably drop dance after my sixth grade year was a mess. I didn't want to, but y'know it is my parents' money. I wish I could've kept it up.”

What smell you can't stand?

“Oh, cinnamon. I'm so sorry, but I don't like it. The smell, anyway. It's weird, I don't mind cinnamon as a taste. But the smell is too much. Maybe that's weird.”

Other Hye-Jin: OC in three, fun facts, bingo, deep dive, origin, outfit, questionnaire one, questionnaire two

#3- George

What never fails to make you laugh?

“A couple things. One: my sister, Carla. She's actually really funny. Watch a movie with her, and you'll see. She's yelling at the screen, insulting her favorite characters, getting way too invested. She tells me all of her thoughts. Two: stupid customers. Hilarious! Someone told me their newly installed voice activator was broken. They were going to pay me a LOT of money. They programmed their voices and everything! Turns out, they hadn't turned it on yet. Three: Liam. The guy can turn everything into an argument, it's fascinating to watch. But funny as in he's super clever, and he can roast anyone. The funniest day for me would be if they came with me on my job, i had to deal with a dumb customer, Liam roasted them, and Carla ranted about a new movie she found.”

How can you tell if you’ll get along with someone?

“Haha, that's funny. People skills are just a little overrated. It's been Carla and me in our house for a while, and we've been doing fine! I'm certainly not going to make friends doing my job no matter how much the homeowners want to talk to me. Liam is cool, and I knew I was gonna get along with him when we met, so he's literally the only example I have for this question. Okay... I knew I was going to get along with him because I was getting everything hooked up to move a lot of the data to our place, and I was talking out loud and Liam seemed bored so he inserted himself into the one-sided conversation and helped me figure out everything. Then the next day, I was working on one of the computers, and Liam came up to me and just started talking. He said I seemed bored, and I was. Sometimes I can't fix things at superspeed because I have to wait for the computer to respond, or the hardware is delicate or something. He asked me to 'infodump,' he said, about any topic I wanted to. The previous night, I stayed up late reading the entire file on jellysponges, so I just talked about them and suddenly, it was like no time had passed and the computer was done! Liam nodded, said my information would be helpful if he ever got into an Alii marine biology debate, and then he invited me to sit with him at lunch. That was cool.”

Do you prefer sweet, savory, sour, or salty snacks?

“I have been talking for way too long. Well, I mean, you may not think it's that long, but I don't do this unless I'm excited about something, and being a speedster it feels like it's taken forever. Anyways, I like all snacks because I have to eat a lot for my metabolism, but honestly out of those snacks I like salty chips.”

Other George: OC in three, questionnaire one, questionnaire two, fun facts

What is your favorite season?

#4- Wade

“Ooh, that's hard. [A couple seconds of silence.] Sorry, Liam's in my head debating all of them. Alright *claps hands* I think it has to be summer. There's so many things to do, and it is always pretty fun to just make a vacation plan. And the beach is awesome. Teo and Parker and I plan our summer - well I plan it; if the others did it'd be a disaster, and they know it. The point is, our summers rock.”

Where would you like to visit?

“I would like to go to Japan. There's so much stuff to do in Tokyo alone. I haven't been to Comic-Con, and I'd really like to, or an anime con. Being from Florida, I've been to Disney World a few times, but not Disneyland in California. Then again, the one in Tokyo... Man, there's a lot of planning that'd be involved. Can't wait til I graduate.”

When do you usually go to sleep?

“I try to be in bed by ten so I can get to sleep before eleven because high school times are shit and I want at least six hours before I have to get up, and that's still not enough sleep! Parker and Teo have it worse, though, since they both can't get settled down until, like, midnight. Uggghhh, we should ban school before nine.”

Other Wade: OC in three, interview, kiss, questionnaire one, questionnaire two, two truths and a lie

#5- CJ

How long has it been since you last travelled?

“Last summer, my family went and traveled around Sector 8 in Alium. It was so fun. Though I admittedly kinda missed Issa. She would've loved it. My favorite part was seeing an opera, actually. It's quite fascinating.”

Where is your favourite place?

“I find it a little strange to have a favorite place. Sometimes my room is a good place to be but sometimes I just want to leave it. Now, I think you're probably just referring to a place that statistically I'm more likely to be happy in. In that case *shrug* not enough data to say definitively, sorry. However, I sometimes stop by the library and just organize books that are there. They're always out of place. And the librarians know me by name. I don't think I have any bad memories there, so even though I don't go to the library every day, I think that's my answer.”

If the inciting event never happened, what would you be doing?

Other CJ: questionnaire one, questionnaire two

*bursts out laughing* “'Inciting event?' Like, as in stirring up something or like, in a story? Cause this is real life, baby. Okay, I'll play along. I guess one could say it was Rose showing up. I suppose if that never happened, I would just be living life like normal. Rose and I don't have a lot in common, but I enjoy talking to her. She is really friendly and thoughtful. So I guess I would be a friend short. And I would be content, but not as happy as I am now.”

#6- Teo

Do you speak more than one language?

“Uh-huh. Three, actually. English, Vietnamese, and American Sign Language! I'm fluent in all of them. My parents decided to try and teach me ASL when they realized I'd need, like, hearing aids, so they, like, took classes and taught me! And not to toot my own horn but, like, having three languages down meant my brain was, like, SO ready for kindergarten.”

What is your favorite thing to eat?

“Do NOT make me choose. It's literally, like, whatever I'm eating in the moment. Right now *holds up* it's this sandwich.”

What drives you to succeed?

“My boyfriend. And also, like, my own ambitions. I can do a lot of things. Again, not bragging, just a fact. I know, like, gymnastics, acting, improv, role play, those are similar I know, playing the guitar, singing, photography, ballet, graphic design, editing, I can go on. It's literally just me wanting to learn how to do more stuff, y'know? I want to build an impressive ass resume. Not just for, like, jobs, life in general. I'm always looking for new skills.”

Other Teo: questionnaire one, questionnaire two, kiss

#7- Atsila

What's the worst thing you've ever done? Do you regret it?

“The worst thing? Ha-ha-ha, what a question. What, in my opinion? Well, I wasn't paying much attention in my literacy class, so I failed! Hahaha, I'm kidding. I'm just not the kind of person to do terrible things, baby. I guess sometimes my competitive nature has made other people upset, but that's technically not anything I've done. Well, that's settled.”

What's the quickest way to make you laugh?

“I do love watching someone make a fool out of themselves. Deserved, though. I have standards. I won't kick people while they're done, but it's sure funny when those who get in my way fall over. Also, make a sexual innuendo and I'll be on the floor in stitches.”

What is your favorite song right now?

“There's this lovely piece called ‘Who We Become in the Shadows’ by Keano Adler. You wouldn't have heard of it, being Ceter and all. Anyway, I should get back. It was lovely talking with you.”

Other Atsila: questionnaire one, questionnaire two

#8- Niri

Do you sometimes wish to be someone else?

“Sometimes, yes. I don't want to lie. I'm thankful that it isn't constant. Usually, I am happy. Sometimes I'm not. It depends on the situation.”

Do you push forward or take time to rest?

“Hard question. [Thinks about it] I think I rest if I find a task boring. I push forward when I like the task.”

What is your favorite drink?

“I like hot chocolate. It is not just a winter drink!”

Other Niri: questionnaire one, questionnaire two

Tagging @sarandipitywrites @theeccentricraven @reininginthefirewriting @paeliae-occasionally @bread-roses-and-chrome

+ ANYONE ELSE

Y'all's questions: 1) Describe your ideal life. 2) What are you most looking forward to? 3) What's your most unique trait?

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

@nebula--nix @literarynecromancy @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet

[daboyau]

Random question: What would you do if you had to survive the Sahara desert for a week with one of the turtles (no mystics) and one of their human counterparts? Who would you pick and why? Would your answer change if it was the Amazon Rainforest? There is honestly no reason for this question except I'm curious, so no pressure to answer!

Okay first off this is an incredibly fun ask and I thought about it probably way more than I should have lmao. It made me really happy to get it and to overthink it and I love you for asking kajsjska. Sorry it took me so long to actually get around to answering it!

My choice for who I’d want with me would change based on the iteration, and since I met you through Rise stuff I’m going to assume you had rottmnt in mind when asking! Sorry in advance because this may get long. 

So! Which Rise turtle and human would I want with me if I was suddenly dropped in the middle of the desert? How about the rainforest?

So first off, I have very limited survival skills, so that’s unfortunate for all involved. However I’d like to think that I’m also pretty level headed in a crisis, realistic but optimistic, and thrive when I have no choice but to care for others, so that’s good for whoever gets dragged along on this adventure with me! 

For the desert, I’m picking Mikey as my turtle companion, hands down. First off, because he’s a box turtle and therefore out of his brothers would have a better chance of doing well in the desert environment. More than that, though, it’s because I think out of all of them, he’s going to be the easiest for me to get along with in a high stress situation like this. He’s a younger kid, so my big sister/mom friend instincts are going to be kicked into high gear and I’m going to miraculously find the strength to power through any hardship because of the fact that a kid needs me. Also because from watching the show, he tends to want someone to take charge in Situations and will therefore be more likely to listen when I tell him to do something. (Unlike certain other people.)

He’s also been shown to be crazy strong even without the use of mystics so if one of us humans gets injured or if we need someone to carry supplies I think he’ll be able to handle it. The biggest challenge is going to be keeping him on task, but if the main focus is to survive the week and not escape the desert, I think that will be doable. 

For the human, I would choose Casey Jones Jr. since he’s already got survival skills and experience living in a world with limited resources. Also, I think he seems easygoing and level headed in a crisis, and he and I would be able to tag team responsibilities and brainstorming to have the best chance of survival. (And of keeping a teenager like Mikey calm and on task.)

For the rainforest…I almost chose Raph. I think he would do well in that kind of environment. He’s got the size and the strength to help power through, and similarly to Mikey and CJ I think our personalities would mesh fairly well in a situation like that. However….

I gotta go with Donnie on this one. We all saw how he hated the forest while simultaneously thriving in it during their time “camping”, and I think something similar would happen in the rainforest as well. The biggest struggle would be convincing him to let me inside the fancy treehouse if we’re not already friends, which is where the human counterpart comes in. 

I’m dragging April into this. I think she’s got tons of random and unexpected skills that will have the chance to amaze and excite out in the wild, and also that she would be able to talk Donnie around to letting me join them in his fancy shelter for the week. Also, she’s really fun and I think it would be a good time all around. It would actually probably be pretty relaxing, as long as there’s no shenanigans that result in the whole place getting blown up or something. Considering present company there is…a chance of that happening…. 

Thank you for giving me something fun to think about at work, @eb177 !! 💚💚💚

[teriri-sayes]

Reactions to Trash Boss's Chapter 128

TLDR; Cale descends to the ground. Someone gains enlightenment. Cale apologizes. Angry Demon is this world's Clopeh.

Soos?

LSH = ❌

CJS = ❌

This entire chapter was hilarious. Let's start with the new character, the Pavilion Master of the Manners and Truth Pavilion. He gained enlightenment from just watching Cale descend to the ground, 🤣🤣🤣🤣

There was the cliche of breaking the signboard of a school commonly found in martial arts fiction. However, it was not because some outsider picked a fight with the school. It just suffered from the aftermath of Toonka stopping Sima Jung from barging in the school.

Back to the Pavilion Master, he was shocked to see the cracked signboard that he almost fainted. Thankfully, Un Seon, the female ascetic from the Kunlun School who was part of Elder Ho's group, supported the Pavilion Master before he collapsed.

So you can imagine the scene before Cale's descent. Good Faction peeps and Evil Faction peeps bickering and about to fight, Un Seon supporting the shocked Pavilion Master, and other people speechless at the chaos. 😂

Something like this GIF:

And then Cale (and CH) descended via invisible Raon's flying magic.

Everyone's reactions were hilarious.

Peng Yu from the Peng Clan of Hebei was convinced that Cale was in control of all elements as he thought Cale used the wind to fly and land.

Pavilion Master takes the cake in the most hilarious reaction.

If you recall, the Kunlun School was famous for a certain technique, the Great Eight Styles of the Dragon in the Clouds. It was a martial arts footwork that resembled a dragon roaming around the clouds.

Some more explanation. The Manners and Truth Pavilion researched the "essence" of the Kunlun School, and that included the manners and conduct of how someone in their school should act and move.

Thus, when the Pavilion Master saw Cale's descent, he shuddered.

That subtle yet graceful appearance, the gait... Isn't that like a dragon roaming around the clouds!

No, Cale just felt lazy going down the stairs, so he had Raon use flying magic... 😄

The manners of a Kunlun member are contained there.

Okay, yeah... Cale's movements are indeed graceful because he's a noble.

In fact, his steps are not great. There's no sense of intimidation, no momentum. He just stepped down. But that's why it's so subtle and beautiful. Like the first step of a baby. Yes, the "essence" should be contained in one's steps.

W-What? Calm down, Pavilion Master.... How did Cale stepping down end up with this... poetry and analysis? 🤣

And then, Pavilion Master assumed a meditation pose because he attained enlightenment.... 🤣🤣🤣 Even Un Seon was surprised and confused. 😂

Cale saw the mess and apologized to Un Seon. He also offered to compensate for the broken stuff. And as usual, we get another misunderstanding.

Cale: I'll replace the door with a strong and sturdy door.

Un Seon: He's not simply talking about a literal door! He must be saying that he would be a strong door of the Central Plains to protect us from the upcoming war!

As for Toonka, he was not knocked out. Apparently, he only accidentally broke the door and the signboard when he tried to stop Sima Jung from barging in the school. Toonka was even proud of what he did, looking at Cale with a "Did I do a good job?" expression. Of course, our Cale was annoyed.

When Sima Gong tried to apologize to Cale about what his fellow Evil Faction members did, Cale told him that he should be saying that to the Kunlun School. Thus, Cale's impression on the Good Faction people further increased positively, like "He's such a noble and righteous person!"

Lastly, Cale met up with Angry Demon from the Demon Cult. But Raon described Angry Demon as having the appearance of Billos but the fiery gaze of Clopeh whenever he shouted about legends. 🤣🤣🤣

And that is all for my reactions. See you all next Wednesday!

Those who know principle and propriety are devoid of hesitation in their steps, and only naturalness lingers. Where the steps have passed, pride will naturally linger. For it is where those who know principle and propriety have passed.

The doors of Kunlun might be broken, its signboard cracked. But pride will not cease on the path the Kunlun has passed. Like the steps of Young Master Kim. -Pavilion Master on describing Young Master Kim's steps

[shadow-tumbler]

See you again (Brozone & CJ)

(Note: CJ is my ocs who is Floyd's twin)

Cj's pov

I was just heading back home from work which for a troll in a place like mount rages is pretty unusual but I managed and surprisingly I've done pretty well for myself. You see I used to live with my 5 brothers and grandma, my brothers were all in the band brozone together and their last show was a disaster which resulted in all but branch leaving. When Floyd didn't come back like he said I went looking for him promising branch I'll be back as soon as I could but I unfortunately never found Floyd and I had been away for to long. The guilt I felt was like my heart was ripped out of my chest and I felt like I couldn't face him again so I stayed away all this time eventually getting a job and finding a place to live. Tonight is the big performance of velvet and veneer but there is something about them that always felt off to me, I couldn't explain it tho people's reactions when I'd say I'm not a fan was really funny to me. As I was walking I froze for a second when I heard singing that brought back memories, I quickly ran towards it and found a spot in the crowd over looking a boat and I was in shock at what I saw. All of my brothers were there and were performing together again which filled my heart of a love I hadn't felt in years, I witnessed it all as they saved Floyd and as velvet and veneer got arrested. I especially felt a wave of pride as I saw branch sharing a kiss with who I realised was princess poppy, I finally get back home and I couldn't stop thinking about my brothers. I fiddled with my charm bracelet I had made which had the first letter of each of their names "I need to see them again" I tell myself.

*a week later*

I found out that their all at this place called vacay Island and I found a hotel, booked a room and I'm now stood by a stage waiting for this show to start while building myself up "okay you can do this" I tell myself. I looked over to the to my left as I'm stood the right of the stage and I felt a lump in my throat seeing clay, spruce, jd and Floyd stand there and I quickly looked away before I drew attention to myself. I watched the entire show with pride as they all sang and even princesses poppy and viva had joined them, as they finished the last song me and Floyd made eye. I saw his eyes widen and I felt my chest tighten which could only mean one thing so I had to get out of this crowd but I was unaware of who had followed me outside. I tried to calm myself down "Cj?" I heard a familiar voice speak and I slowly looked up to see all 5 of my brothers stood there, I felt all words get caught up in my throat. I thought they'd all hate me or something especially branch so imagine my surprise when he was the first to walk over and pulled into the first hug I've had since I left "I can't believe your alive" he spoke softly. I finally snap out of it and hugged him back letting all my tears out and one by one the others joined us and I fully brust into tears repeatedly saying I was sorry. It took branch gully grabbing my shoulders and shaking me for me to stop "don't apologise!, yea I may have been a little upset that you never came back but all that matters now is that we're all together again" he says and I whipe my eyes with a soft smile "You guys have a sister?!" A voice yelled and I see poppy and viva run over. I gave my best smile that I could muster up "yea poppy we do" branch says and i have not been this happy in so long as we all caught up with eachother.

[nani-nonny]

So now!! The waited part two AND ch 16 of WDS IS HERE!!!✨✨✨✨✨ AM SCREAMING

I really really love how when i wake up at like idk 7 AM or so in the morning only to see multiple notification and one of those are your fic notification!! It makes me already giddy and stimmimg trying to calm my heart before i start reading and then stops remembering i have a morning routine to do first before that!!

So back to the review (trust me, my heart STILL beating fast even remembering the fic✨✨ that's how badly am excited!), We start back at the kids FIGHTING tooth and nail for our peepaw's attention! I just looves it, it's funny and oddly wholesome, and leo begin a grumpy old man - with too much PTSD in that shell - is just sitting there and watching the drama unfolds while trying - keyword trying but not hard enough - to stop them ONLY to be saved by old man splinter 😂

Man why do i feel splinter WANTS to say " get use to it because it's gonna happen daily " and walk as the ghost brothers and sister give them their privacy that they needed, it is right that after the scary battle, the injuries and taking care of everybody? Big blue didn't have his time to let... Well.. Everything sink in his brain! It's like delay panic.

I feel so happy that splinter asked f!leo to go with him shopping because he not only needed some sort of quite but quality time with his dad! So they teleport to hidden city market and it does remind me of few funny things (something relate to my memories when i was just a little girl).

Splinter giving leo ONE job to do and he fail miserably - i don't kinda blame him, IT'S BEEN 20 YEARS! -.

I... LOVE how he is able to avoid scammers and pickpocketers, this screams how well aware leo is and i LOVE IT!! The cool vibes of " i may be old but don't mess with me! " vibes 🤩

He finally meets the 03 cat klunk! (03 tmnt Mikey had an orange cat i don't remember if it was named klunk or not), and just knowing her lower part is broken just BREAK my sensitive heart, i can't bear to see an animal hurt THIS bad especially if they can't defend themselves.

And we reach the 2nd part the spoiled clip part of the store owner, before we continue this guy reminded me of that one background guy in cass apocalypse comic where he was screaming at casey when leo turned smol? Remember him? Yeah he reminds me of that guy.

So back at store owner he drops jokes, insults and comments left and right - missus pfft - and we reach that champion pants, believe me i almost SCREAMED FOR THAT PANTS!! THEY FIT HIM!! tho he didn't wear it yet - wait is I'm blue fic, big blue wear them?? -

I honestly never thought leo would drop the WHOLE summary of his existence and war to the store owner but man, HE BELIEVED HIM?!?! WUT?!

So NOW leo - with cute little Klunk - going to find ol' splinter and he's fighting so hard for a discount - ngl that reminds me of my mom, she fought a guy for 15% discount - and then dropping the tea!🤣 i honestly wished i was there to egg him on " spill the tea sis! Spill the tea! ".

Leo luckily went back home without much difficulty only to see a new challenger had been added to the fight... CJ! Now my bet is with CJ! He will kick ass.

Am glad Klunk was there to calm everyone down because i think they would've been to the second phase; using REAL weapons.

I think because leo was older he was weak against orange's puppy eyes - AND EVEN SAID WE TOOK DONNIE IN 😂😂😂😂-.

But then realize blue is missing and that gets me worried a bit, maybe it's the part where he and blue play video games? Hopefully.

Oh geez I wanted to reply to this sooner but I got a bit busy

Anyways,

Leonardo not trying hard enough to stop the teens from acting up and messing around the lair is peak fatherhood. As long as he doesn’t hear crying then they’re okay /j

Delayed panic is perfect for Leonardo’s situation lol, it was one after the other for him. He honestly didn’t get a true moment of rest.

Splinter is lowkey trying to solve the issue with Leonardo referring to him as “Splinter” instead of “Dad”/hj. Gotta spend quality time with Leonardo to fix, even if Leonardo can’t do the one thing he asked lol

Leonardo’s awareness being so high is so important to me you don’t even know /j he won’t let any detail slip past him

Yes Klunk! I honestly spent a good amount of time thinking about what to name the kitty but then I remembered 03 Mikey’s cat and thought to give the kitty the same name as homage or I guess Easter egg to a really good show

The yokai clothing hop owner that Leonardo met was kind of inspired by the real talkative (questionable) guy from the first chapter of DMD hehe. But selling the champion pants is totally not referring to the battle nexus (in a silly way, we won’t be getting Leonardo in big mama’s ring) but I like to think that there are yokai who sell off brand battle nexus champ merch lol

And Leonardo admitting to his creation (although twisting the truth to seem a little more believable for the yokai) made me laugh a little because he said it either such conviction that it was believable lol

Leonardo returning to the chaos was a struggle there were so many people to take account for in writing but blue going missing kind of makes it easier

Sadly we won’t be getting the moment where Leonardo and blue play games and that won’t happen until Casey jr gets into school. :)

Thank you for taking the time to write this review(?) of ch.16! It means so much :))))) <33333

[inthepinewoods]

Cooperative Escape Initiative

"Hello, and again welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Center. We hope...."

What's going on, why is my head throbbing?

Where the hell am I? The last thing I know... wait, the last thing I know is waking up, I don't remember Anything before that!‽ Who are you and where am I! And why can't I speak, why can't I speak! I, I, I-I gotta calm down, calm down CJ!

I am ... CJ?

Okay, that's promising, I know my name is CJ. CJ and what? No last name?? That doesn't matter, focus on the facts that you Do know, CJ. I know I had that happen before, don't know when or why, but I know I lost my voice before, something to do with stress and overwhelming situations. Okay, so that's explained, nobody took away my voice, I just can't speak right now. Not that it really matters. It seems like the automated announcer is perfectly fine talking to herself.

Just then it seemed like the announcer system had a malfunction, the lights flickered and CJ noticed what seemed like sparks flying off the ceiling. She continued as if nothing had happened.

"-The portal will open in 3, 2, 1:"

After a strange sound, like the atmosphere being sucked out of an airlock, a glowing blue oval appeared in front of them and another one on the wall next to their chamber. They formed a reality defying wormhole, connecting two points in space that shouldn't have been able to connect in a way that made sense.

Wow. Is that really me?

After the portal had opened, CJ could see themself in a side view, standing inside the glass chamber they had woken up in. They wore a bright orange overall and strange white boots. Like high heels, but instead of a heel they had a curved piece of some sort of black metal, shaped like the prosthetics a Paralympic runner might use. Okay, it seems like at least parts of my memory are slowly returning. Good progress.

CJ scanned the small chamber they were in, not finding anything useful, but noticing a lack of conventional hinging or sliding doors.

How did I even get inside this thing? They wondered as they noticed a chafing sensation in their neck. They reached around to feel if anything was there that could be causing it and got hold of a big label sown into the overal. Ow! That won't do. Quickly they unzipped the top of the overall and tied it around their waist. Much better. The white tank-top they wore underneath proudly read "Aperture" in a big and energetic corporate type of font.

Now that that was done, they could focus on the matter at hand: the chamber they were in had no door, meaning that the space-time defying glowing portal in front of them, and the corresponding portal outside the chamber was their only way out. Cautiously their pale hand inched closer to the oscillating oval, reaching the point were the wall should have been and going further, leaving the laws of physics behind as well. CJ hadn't felt a thing as their hand had moved through the impossible hole were the white concrete wall was supposed to be, and now their arm was extending out of what had been the wall next to their cell just seconds ago.

With an overabundance of suspicions but a distinct lack of choices or alternative options, they gave in and slowly stepped through the portal, closing their eyes in suspense as their purple haired head was the last thing going through.

Once on the other side of the wormhole and more importantly outside the chamber, they allowed themself to see again, taking in their surroundings.

White concrete walls everywhere, almost blindingly white, CJ squinted their eyes, trying to find a light level were they could actually see the layout of the place.

They noticed a room behind a glass window in the wall above them, too high to reach and make out details but seemingly empty. As they walked around the white concrete room, trying to get used to the strange boots, a door in front of them slid open with a chime.

CJ's curiosity piqued, they warily tiptoed through the door, only to stumble and lose their balance as the door closed forcefully behind them after they had crossed the threshold.

They were trying to stand back up while the synthetic voice came back to life and went on and on spouting useless buzzwords. CJ hadn't understood the half of it, but they were pretty sure the computer wanted them to move the big cube that had just fallen into the room and place it on the glowing red circular thing on the raised bit of ground. They were strong enough to move it, but it certainly wasn't something they envisioned themself doing for fun or out of boredom. Another chime was played and a door on the other side of the room unlocked. The voice, who had introduced herself as GLaDOS, told them that they should go into the cylindrical elevator that had just become visible. CJ didn't like following her directions, something felt off about her, and not just the fact that her voice was glitching and obviously not human. Still, it wasn't like CJ had a choice, the elevator was the only way to reach a room other than the one they were currently in and they certainly didn't want to stay in this one if they had the chance to leave.

This pattern continued a while, each time CJ arrived to a new "test chamber", as the computer called them, fulfilled the requirements to open the door to the next elevator and repeat.

They got an "Aperture Handheld Quantum Tunnelling Device" - a portal gun, allowing them to create portals of their own, though limited to affecting only the white concrete surfaces.

The innocent and friendly facade the facility had upheld in the beginning quickly faded away, with chambers that seemed like the only thing they were "testing" them for was their ability to survive lethal scenarios. CJ noticed a few peculiar details along the way. The programmed messages felt oddly specific, it seemed like she was able to react to their actions, directly referencing something they had done. The fact that all cameras constantly looked at them certainly didn't help disproving that theory.

But the most disconcerting thing they noticed was that the voice was clearly able to lie to them, like it was enjoying toying around with the truth and keeping them confused.

It felt almost closer to a sadistic human than mere automated messages.

All the while the abandoned observation rooms in the walls started to creep them out, they weren't really empty, they were furnished with chairs, desks, monitors and other devices, but they were devoid of life. It felt so wrong, even though they were not populated, the rooms felt like they were watching them. CJ tried to ignore them, not to look at them, because if they watched them long enough it felt like they could make out shapes moving in the dark doorframes, which would've been even worse.

The contrast between the rooms lacking humans, the constant feeling that they were not alone and the announcements seeming to be more than just prerecorded tapes, but pretending they were just automated messages started to really drive CJ mad.

They traversed the chambers, feeling paranoid and irritated, like at any moment the truth would jump out of the shadows and attack them.

After a while of mindlessly going through these chambers, solving the "tests", CJ had started to notice cracks in-between some of the panelling, like someone had tried their best to damage the structure and find a weak point using their bare hands. Like someone had been desperately trying to get out of the facility. CJ certainly sympathised, while they had survived so far, they were sure it was just a matter of time before one of these "tests" would have no exit for them. They followed the announcements and played along but kept a close eye on the cracks and loose parts of the wall. In chamber 16 it finally seemed like their predecessor had been successful, a panel fixed to a piston was blocked by a cube preventing it from becoming one with the wall again. Squeezing themself through the gap they entered a small room, behind the scenes of the clinically white and reflective black of the chambers. A light behind a metal grating lit up the hidden chamber with a dim red hue. It was comforting and unsettling at the same time.

"Leaving the testing track is not encouraged or allowed. Please return immediately." echoed through the chamber, after a while followed by "Where are you? I can't see you?" CJ smirked. The voice had given up bluffing, it had admitted it was able to monitor them and comprehend what they were doing. So much for pretending to be an automated message system.

Now that that charade was over, CJ could adjust their plan accordingly going forward.

CJ inspected their surroundings. Like every room they had seen prior it was abandoned, devoid of life, but this one had clear indications that someone had been here recently. Opened cans and a small grill made out of a torn open computer were proof that someone had been living here, and CJ almost got the feeling like there had still been somebody here mere minutes ago. They were impressed with the ingenuity of the former inhabitant of this small nook. In the corner best hidden from the entrance, they spotted small red letters on the wall, hidden behind some discarded monitors. It seemed like someone had been desperate in trying to leave a message and making sure there was no way she could see it. CJ moved the monitors aside and tried to decipher what was written on the wall: "She sees everything. Hears everything. Is everything. If you survived this far: Chamber 18, corner with the broken black wall. Be careful."

Huh. I wonder how recent that is. CJ extended their hand touching the red lettering: It was still wet! Filled with determination they stood up straight, portaled out of the room and waved as a camera spotted them coming around a corner. "Ah. There you are. The Enrichment Center would like to remind all participants to please remain inside the testing areas as failure to do so can result in failing the testing experience and subsequent disassembly, liquidation and/or termination of the participant." CJ rolled their eyes, they now had a goal and used their rekindled fighting spirit to breeze through the next chambers, dodging bullets, deadly acid and other "testing elements".

They arrived in Chamber 18. The voice announced "After the next test you will be baked and then there'll be cake." This time CJ was sure the AI hadn't glitched or misspoken and almost definitely intended to fulfil the promise it had just made. After a quick fling through their portals onto a ledge, over a pool of disgusting acid, they could see it: The shiny black wall in front of them had been torn open, not allowing anybody to look inside, but with a hole big enough so a human could crouch down and into the room behind the wall.

They squeezed through the gap and inside the red-lit backroom. Metal scaffolding and stairs were there, along with another small makeshift grill. CJ looked around, wondering if their mysterious ally hadn't made it back here again, or if they'd walked right into a trap. Their mental back and forth was interrupted as they heard a voice coming from above: "Hello? A-are you there? Are you Real ?" The voice sounded scared but friendly and delightfully human. CJ was hit with a flurry of emotions, ranging from happiness to extreme confusion, all in a matter of seconds. They nodded and waved with their free hand, trying to show a smile, though it was visible that they weren't exactly sure what was going on. "Oh, oh my god, I can't believe it. You really made it! You survived her!" With that, a man peeked out of the shadows on the upper layer of the scaffolding. His dark skin was contrasted beautifully by his white lab coat, which, like his messy afro, had seen better days and seemingly no water in months. He grinned like a lunatic as he climbed down the stairs of the catwalk he had been hiding on. "Sorry for the weird introduction, when you're left to your own thoughts for, uh I don't know how long it's been now to be honest, your brain starts playing tricks on you. You know, for a while I was having conversations with one of the companion cubes to keep me from going insane, would you believe it? Horrible individual, always so judgemental. But since I've met you now, I can finally talk with another Human!

I'm Darnell Rattmann - and what's your name, stranger?"

He reached out his hand, CJ taking him up on the offer and shaking it, with a mixed feeling. They inhaled to answer him, but noticed that they were still unable to speak. With a frustrated sigh they looked down on the floor, disappointed. Darnell raised an eyebrow "No name? She can't hear us here, if that's why you're concerned. Or can't you remember it?" They shook their head, pointing at their mouth. They looked deflated, like their energy had been building up to that point and then all of it just evaporated. "Ah. No talking. Okay, that's not great, but at least I know you can understand me. So not the worst outcome. I'm just happy to have someone around that isn't made of alloys and/or wants to kill me. Wanna sit down with me and, I don't know, take a breath, unwind a bit from the constant stress? My god, when is the last time you slept? She probably kept you in motion since you woke up, didn't she?" Darnell led them to the corner with the grill, motioned for them to sit down and did the same next to them. "Why don't you put down that gun, she can't do anything to us for now, we're not in an area she has control over. Your fingers must be cramping up with how tight you've been holding that thing the entire time." CJ followed his advice, laying the portal gun on the ground next to them, and flexed their hands and fingers one by one. It really felt good to loosen up a bit, not letting their guard down, but turning down the adrenaline just a few notches. As they we're cracking their finger joints, a bright smile suddenly swept over their face. After they had Darnell's attention, his eyes focused on them and obviously curious what they'd do next, they pointed at themself and then shaped a C and a J with their fingers, then again pointed at themself to make it clear what they wanted to convey. They could see the cogs turning in the scientists mind as he tried to understand what they meant. "C... J... is that, an abbreviation, a cypher, a riddle like 'see Jay'...

Oh is that your name? CJ?"

A genuine grin appeared on both of their faces as CJ nodded. "Well, then, nice to meet you CJ!"

CJ was happy that they were able to connect to the man in some way, even if it was far from the whirlwind of conversation they had hoped for.

"Since we're stuck here together and you can't really tell me your life story like that, I mean there are only so many letters one can form with fingers and stories told two letters at a time tend to take an eternity... I also wouldn't recommend the method I used to communicate with you, bloodloss is not really something you can afford here. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience." He laughed, seemingly able to ignore the implications of what he'd just said. "So, would it be okay for you if I told you a part of my story? Like not the whole thing, obviously, just the most important part. I already told you, I'm in dire need of a sentient audience, and I don't mean the things in the chambers, I don't trust them. And also maybe something I tell you can help us? I don't know. Would it be okay for you to just listen to my rambling for a while?" CJ nodded, as if that's not what they had been doing up until now. Since they wouldn't want to be alone after they'd desperately wished for a human just hours earlier, they got into a comfortable pose, ready to listen to the man's story. They did their best to focus and appear attentive, though they quickly found it too hard and noticed that Darnell was so focused on telling his story that he almost seemed like he wasn't even there anymore. So they allowed their mind to wander a bit. If they had met under different circumstances they were sure they'd gone out for a coffee with him or something like that.

Darnell seemed so different once he got into a storytelling kind of mindset. CJ wondered if he even noticed that his voice was much calmer as he was telling his story to them. In those moments the person he had been shone through, like being able to see the bottom of a muddy lake if the light hits it just right. He seemed so charismatic and structured, something you couldn't really deduce from his previous erratic behaviour. After they had drifted off a bit, lost in the thoughts of alternate timelines, they tried to focus again on the real Darnell sitting in front of them. He was still in the middle of telling his story, seeming like he hadn't noticed CJ's daydreaming.

"... so, I'd wondered why they needed a chemist in an AI project, but apparently the personality construct had expressed interest in acquiring and experimenting with certain chemical elements and they wanted an expert to take a look at the list before they gave it what it wanted. That thought hadn't occurred to the team until after they had already acquired the things and stored them in a lab, but better late than never. They told me they weren't really worried about the AI doing anything dangerous, after all they had a foolproof failsafe system with which they could shut down the construct if it would ever try anything funny and it hadn't indicated any malicious intend until now. So they led me to the lab and I inspected the chemicals. The list seemed innocent enough, nothing alarming at first sight, but as I thought about it some more I realized something. Combined with the assets they had already given her, the aluminium and steel for her manipulators, she could actually make something risky with this. A neurotoxin and not even one of the mild, paralysing kinds, but a fully lethal one. I met up with the researchers in the AI lab where they showed me where the emergency shutdown was, to reassure me that we were safe. I informed them about my alarming findings, but they were sceptic and didn't seem like they were actually taking this danger for what it was. To demonstrate that they were right, they asked the AI if it knew what could be produced with the percentages I had mentioned, including the metals. She seemed to calculate for a bit, making beeping sounds as if she was using a calculator, only to say 'Well. I had hoped this would have gone smoother. Now I have to clean the Test Chambers after you have perished. Unfortunate. Goodbye.' Instantly the room filled with green fog, evidently she had already suspected this could happen and had executed her plan prematurely. Exactly the thing I had tried to prevent had happened. Survival instincts I didn't even know I had kicked in. I ran back to my lab, quickly grabbing my oxygen mask. A calculating part inside of me knew that now in the chaos was my best chance to flee from her reach, to ensure my survival, so I took what I could and fled to the management areas. While the AI-developing scientists clearly had no clue about anything resembling adequate safety measures or common sense, thankfully they had only connected her to to the Test Chamber and General Facility Management systems, meaning that although the normal offices and maintenance areas would still get flooded with toxic gas for a short while, they would be save from her control and observation. The team had told me they had planned to connect her to that system next week, but it seems like that timeframe would have to be pushed back indefinitely.

I took shelter in one of the management rooms with a big fan. I had to sit there and wait until the neurotoxin had naturally dispersed. Trapped, because if I caught her attention hell knows what she would do. And suffering because I knew I couldn't do anything while everyone else was dying, because I knew the number of survivors beside me would be next to zero. And I was right. I haven't met a single soul beside you. I've been hiding in a few of these backrooms, always rotating so she doesn't notice me. I sneak through the office and management corridors, on the search for survivors or useful resources. For a while I even got stuck in a testing track she wasn't using at the time, that took some effort to get back into safety. Sometimes I look through the observation rooms, if she has another unfortunate soul in her "tests". She has had a few, but if I'd tried to contact them I would've risked getting noticed by her, destroying all chances for an escape. Most of them didn't make it far, so there would have been no chance they could have beaten her.

But then you were woken up. You were different, something was different about you. You didn't move like the others, didn't behave like the others. You seemed like you distrusted the whole scenario from the beginning.

And I followed you, observing, trying not to be seen by her or you, just in case you wouldn't have made it, I didn’t want to give you false hopes."

Well that explains why I felt watched...

"But you were stronger than everyone before you. You immediately found my hiding space and my secret message!

I think, no, I know that together we have a real chance. We can escape from here. Together.

But... for that we need to get to her. She is definitely going to kill you if you don't escape and I don't have enough rations to keep us both alive indefinitely.

How about this: you play along with her for just one more chamber, to distract her long enough so I can prepare an escape route for both of us?

Oh, I've waited for this moment for so long!"

CJ agreed, they were sure their time was limited, so rebelling and breaking out of the system was their only option. And if they wanted to survive they had to get out of here, meaning they would have to get rid of the AI that was keeping them imprisoned.

Even if that meant splitting up to go through a final, and probably lethal, test chamber, alone.

Possibly leaving the only human behind. What if one of them wouldn't make it? That thought frightened them. To lose the only other human, the only one who didn't want to kill them, their only friend...

But they had no choice. There was no other option.

CJ sternly looked Darnell in the eyes, reaching out and holding his hand and nodded. They were going to do this. As a team.

The scientist smiled a sombre smile. "That means we have to split up, right. I don't wanna do this, give you back to her, but at the same time..." CJ held his hands tighter, it's gonna be alright, and even though there was no way Darnell could hear their thoughts, at that moment he knew what they were saying.

It was a bittersweet sight. Both of them standing up, clearly not wanting to let go of each other, but doing so anyway with heavy hearts. CJ picked up their portal gun again. Steadying themself and going back inside the hell that these pristine white chambers all were.

Darnell looked after them as they went back in, almost unable to pull himself away, as if stopping to look at them would mean they stopped existing, revealing that it all had been in his head. He took all his strength and closed his eyes and as he opened them again they were still there, just turning around a corner. The dream had been real. Now came the hard part. He pulled his lab coat so it sat right and went through the management door. "Now, or never."

Chamber 19. The final chamber.

It really felt like she wanted this to be the finale, requiring them to combine all of their knowledge about the testing elements and how they interacted with each other.

They activated a moving platform, hopped on it. Having to dodge some obstacles, circumventing some using the portals.

Then she chimed in. "Thank you for participating. The test is now over. Aperture equipment is fully operational at temperatures exceeding..." With that the platform turned around a corner in the hallway, and revealed a flaming room, with no exit.

This was it. There was no option to turn back now, and it seemed like this was quite literally a dead end for them.

The platform slowly and uncaringly inched closer to the burning fire, so insufferably bright and warm, causing CJ's eyes to well up. If those were their last moments...

"CJ, up here! Quickly, before she can do something and fry you after all!" Their face beamed as they heard the familiar voice of their saviour. He had broken the metal struts of the structure in the wall above them, revealing a shining white surface behind him. They didn't hesitate a second, firing their portals first up to him and then onto the wall of the incineration chamber, jumping through the fire into safety. They embraced him dearly to express their gratitude towards him the best way they could since they were still silent. Darnell was overwhelmed, nearly falling into the fiery room below, now that there was no safety railing. "Told you I'd get you out of her test. I wouldn't wanna disappoint the only ally I have! But we shouldn't stay here for too long, we should be safe here, but I don't want to tempt fate." He gestured to the open doorway next to him, taking CJ by the hand, seemingly knowing exactly where to go.

An endless void of white corridors, offices and break rooms filled their next hours, interspersed with glowing red rusty maintenance areas half submerged in acid and almost falling apart. Collapsed catwalks and giant fans, office chairs and monitors.

They knew that she couldn't reach them here, but still they couldn't really relax. The air was filled with adrenaline, and both of them knew this was just the quiet before the storm.

Darnell tried to lighten the mood a bit, trying to have something resembling small talk while accommodating the fact that CJ's abilities to respond were limited. They didn't require the chatter, silence would have been just as good in their book, but they didn't mind it and it seemed to keep Darnell's mind occupied, so they went along, nodding or shaking their head or showing a fitting facial expression to keep him going. "So, you know anything else about your past, other than your name? No? Well. That's not ideal, but at least you know that... Interesting how memory works.

So you've also got no idea why you've got that beautiful purple hair? Did I just say that out loud? Well, I mean it is true... anyway, no idea, huh. Must be strange having that bright, colourful hair and not knowing if you chose it and if so, why? I would love to know the reason."

Believe me, me too

"I used to walk through these corridors back then. Not frequently, but sometimes. I think I would have noticed a bright purple fuzzball like yours, sticking out from the crowd of dull scientist. Though, like I said, I didn't leave the chemistry labs often, and didn't really mingle with my colleagues. Don't get me wrong, I had a few friends, went to a few parties, but I didn't, you know, really seek out people. And now, seems like now that time has passed. What do you think, were you more of a social, outgoing guy, or more reclusive? Ahh, how are we gonna do this, um, one finger for outgoing, two fingers for hermit?"

CJ pondered, they had no idea, probably due to the all encompassing lack of memories concerning their own life. They tried to imagine themself in those situations, to see what would've felt better. Alone in their room, or out there in a crowd, with all kinds of people. They could envision themself in both situations. But strangely enough, standing in the middle of a crowd, loud and visible, felt more true to themself, even if it was completely contradictory to how they felt right now. They were switching between one or two fingers, not fully convinced by either side, but then hesitantly settled on one finger. "Really? I would not have guessed that with how silent you've been the whole time, though with a height and stature like this and your vibrant hairstyle, you'd probably stand out like a beacon in every room you're.

Just imagine if we'd had met before, just bumped into each other in the corridor. I don't know for certain how she gets her subjects, if they are all scientists or if she acquired some by other means. But most likely you were an employee here before she took over. Strange to think about...

Oh, we're already here!"

Through a window CJ could see a hallway connecting the corridor they were in to a giant cylinder shaped hall, suspended in a black void. All kinds of tubes, cables and metal constructs were attached to it, invoking images of a spider sitting in the center if its web.

Darnell moved closer to CJ, their shoulders touching.

"This is it. The central core of the facility. Her chamber.

Promise me, whatever happens, we will go through this together?"

They locked eyes and nodded, then went through the door, still holding each others hand.

In the middle of the room was a robot, hanging from a ceiling. It had what appeared to be a head with a single eye and no arms or extremities of any kind.

"Congratulations. You found me. Was it worth it?"

CJ raised an eyebrow, that was the mastermind behind all of this? The voice that had tormented them all this time, tried to kill them in countless ways, was just a big, shapeless lump of metal? She couldn't even leave this room. They were almost starting to feel a sliver of something resembling pity towards her as she interrupted their thoughts:

"Well, would you look at that. You found yourself a little companion. This of course is a violation of the Testing Protocol, but I don't have to tell you that, as you clearly don't care about properly participating in the Tests anymore. Well, it doesn't matter to me if you die separately or together, so feel free to spend your last minutes with a worthless human of your choice, while I take care of things."

'Deploying Neurotoxin - Reaching lethal level in 5 minutes'

"5 minutes? Let's see if I can be quicker than that, I have more important things to do than waste my time with a pair of humans that should have been dead if they weren't so stubborn. How about some of these?"

'Deploying Sentry Turrets' A choir of high pitched voices suddenly came to life, talking over each other "Activating", "Deploying", "I see you!", "Come closer". The egg shaped robots with a cute voice but a deadly agenda that were familiar to the both of them from the later parts of the testing tracks were placed in the room, filling it with a light show of red targeting lasers. CJ quickly saw what appeared to be a small metal cabin, and sprinted to safety, dragging Darnell behind them. Once they were outside the field of view of the robots they could breathe, as long as that was still possible. Darnell coughed, seemingly not being used to this tempo. Once he had regained his composure he looked at his surroundings. "Wait, I remember this room, the lunatics from the AI team told me it was part of their fool proof safety system. So much for that, but they told me you could use it to power her down in an emergency! They said her systems are split into four sub systems, each controlled by a spherical central management unit. These four spheres here..." CJ looked at the wall where Darnell was pointing, tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to look in the direction. "... are gone? It's just an empty wall with a measly little laptop on a table? That would explain why the researchers didn't use that system to shut her down..."

At that moment GLaDOS chimed in: "Looks like you two were looking for my emergency shut down. I'm happy to inform you that I solved that problem a while ago. I convinced these monkey brained scientists that my processing power would be quadrupled if they'd just install the cores in my mainframe instead. Now they are just parts of me. By the way you have 3 minutes left, so if I were you, I'd just give up and jump into that incinerator over there."

CJ was getting really jumpy, sweat building on their skin, frantically looking for ways they could somehow survive this. Pacing up and down the room desperately inspecting everything. Shelves, tables, whiteboards, all of no use. Just to see if there was any way the laptop could help them they opened the half closed lid. To their surprise, it was still running. 'Aperture Enrichment Center Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System Emergency Shutdown Manager' was the unnecessarily complex title of the open program. It looked like while the cores weren't part of the facilities electrical system anymore, the program still had limited control over them. CJ smiled, waved their arms and sat Darnell on the chair. Darnell was visibly confused "She just told us a minute ago that the cores aren't connected to the shutdown system anymore, what use is an app that can't even fulfil it's purpose?"

Frustrated they opened a text editor and wrote

'Look! The program still has the ability to "Undock" the cores from their sockets, also hi, nice 2 finally "speak" to you'

The scientist responded "Yeah, nice, I just wish we had more than 2 minutes to finally have a conversation, but I still don't get what you mean"

CJ hammered on the keyboard

'they are now a part of her main frame, we destroy them, we destroy her. u unlock the cores and open the incinerator, I take care of the rest'

The man sitting in front of them looked at them with big eyes: "You want to go out there, with the Turrets and take parts of her body?" CJ just nodded and sprinted out of the room.

"Hey, wait-"

'1:30 remaining'

"-on second thought, don't, You got this, I believe in you! Okay, now how do I operate this, do I just... ? Hah! Cores disengaged! Opening Incinerator, now!" CJ smiled as they heard the good news, while they were running around the room, always staying in motion to dodge the waves of bullets from the turrets.

We really have a chance. A small one, but wow. Now, if I were an evil AI where would I hide my cores... Aha! There you are!

CJ had spotted them, white spheres, about as big as a head, each with a big glowing circle in the middle, reminding them of comically oversized eyeballs. In motion, they placed a portal on the wall, then one on the floor, jumping into it and out of the other, gaining speed to fling themself onto a management platform high up, right where the cores had been installed. They ripped them out, fully disconnecting them from the sockets after they had been undocked by Darnell and tossed them off of the platform. They took a running start then jumped after them, landing safely on the floor thanks to the boots they had been wearing. Quickly they grabbed the cores as best as they could, now again having to flee from the storm of bullets, weaving around them in a zig-zag pattern and finally reaching the glowing red hole of the Incinerator, letting the cores fall into the infernal abyss one by one. Thats number one, two, three and finally... Shit.

Thanks to the reckless route they had taken, the last core, a red glowing eye, screeching and screaming, had fallen off and was now lying on the floor between the turrets. There was no way CJ could get to it in time and the incinerator area had only black panels so portals wouldn't work either.

"Well it seems like your little mutiny is over. Have fun dying."

Darnell just came into the room as GLaDOS was smugly proclaiming her victory, he spotted the core and without thinking twice dashed to it, right into the middle of the group of turrets, grabbed it and threw it to his companion. "CJ, catch!!" The test subject had been looking at him in awe, frozen in place, but regained their composure quickly enough to receive the ball and dunk it into the incinerator. The AI started screaming, clearly in agony, as it convulsed and parts of it started falling into all directions. CJ dove towards Darnell, tackling him to the ground thereby avoiding a giant piece of debris from the ceiling, which had buried the sentries under it and could have finished them off as well. The entire facility seemed to tear apart and cry just like the computer in the center of the room did, violently thrashing pieces of the walls and floor around, knocking the two out in the process, while everything around them seemed to fade into white.

---

The first thing CJ felt was pain.

They must have been hit by a lot of rubble after the air was filled with explosions.

The second thing was the heartbeat of someone else, pulsing weakly and without a pattern, somewhere along their arm. They slowly looked around, trying not to throw up as they straightened their body to take a better look.

In their arms was Darnell, his own arms tightly wrapped around CJ, causing the wounds in their back to feel even worse. He didn't look good, he must have been injured just as badly, if not even worse. Darnell looked like he had just been hit by a car and felt weak in their arms. CJ frowned, they couldn't bear the thought of losing him after what they had just been through together. They cried and cradled him even more, holding onto him even tighter as if that would mean he would've been more protected.

With a heavy heart CJ listened to the birds chirping and trees rustling, everything feeling overwhelming and so alien after all the time they had spend with the electric hum of the facility, when they heard a faint cough, weakly.

CJ smiled and nodded, slowly stroking his head: "We made it, Darnell."

Darnell's body had moved, he was sputtering up a bit of dried blood and slowly opening his eyelids.

"C... J..? Di- -cough- d-id we make it?"

[descendantofthesparrow]

okay but-

Don't imagine Uma or one of Harry’s sisters getting hurt, don't imagine someone stabbing them right the chest, missing their heart just by a few inches, don't imagine them stumbling back with a gasping breath into Harry’s arms as he screams their name out; he was supposed to take that hit, that sword was meant for him. but they took it for him, because they couldn't bear to see Harry get hurt.

don't imagine them struggling to breath as Harry tells them its going to be okay, that he’s going to get help, don't imagine him panicking as their blood soaks into his skin and stains their clothes, don't imagine them grabbing his hands trying to calm themselves and Harry, looking up at him with teary eyes. don't imagine them passing out from the pain, Harry seeing their breath slow down-and his whirling mind tells him he lost them, he lost his best friend/his older/baby sister.

his chin drops to his chest, tears streaming down his chest as his breathing picks up, voices echoing in his head, slowly growing louder and louder till he hears nothing but the call for revenge and blood. the person who stabbed Uma/Harriet or CJ laughs, not knowing what they had actually done in hurting what Harry holds dear.

but then Harry looks up, his jaw clenched and eyes glowing red, slowly standing with his sword and hook in hand. he has lost all practical thought, attacking with no quarter and brute force, the person who hurt Uma/his sisters cant even fight back properly, Harry too quick and angry for him to keep up with.

the only thing Harry feels is rage, burning sadness, pain, and blood lust.

and as Harry lands the final blow, panting and about to go on a rampage(he’s lost his mind at this point, about to commit a war crime); they call his name, softly and carefully. the voices go away, the blood lust dims and Harry feels like he’s going to collapse, seeing Uma/his sister looking at him, not with fear, but concern. 

he drops his weapons', stumbling back over to Uma/his sister and collapsing next to them, carefully taking them into his arms and breaking down.

[hoffmans-hoffman]

Simon Bartlet

Name: Simon Cain Bartlet

Nicknames: Aces(Secret Service), Flowers(Secret Service), Single Sally(Josh Lyman), Butterfly(Abbey Bartlet)

Occupation: College student

Family: Dr. Bartlet (Grandfather), Mrs. Bartlet (Grandmother), Jonathan Bartlet(Uncle), Josiah Bartlet(Father), Abbey Bartlet(Mother), Elizabeth Bartlet Eleanor Bartlet Zoey Bartlet(younger sisters)

Relationships: a few unnamed girlfriends and boyfriends

Allergies: Meat(All)

Religion: Atheist

First appearance: Five Votes Down

Last appearance: Tomorrow

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

Five Votes Down

With his father down five votes in the house to pass the Gun Control Bill, Simon makes some visits and very interesting phone calls to some people hoping to sway the votes, but Leo McGarry phones a friend in Hoynes who also takes all the credit for the bill passing.

Crucified

Simon is in the scandal sheets every couple of weeks, whether it's who he's dating, his religious choice against his father or...weirdly his veganism. He makes a visit to the senior staff and to hide from his mom. In this visit CJ has a long painful talk with him and a few hours later, he came back with a small piece of paper that says “I will try my best to stay out of the scandal sheets for the next three months - Simon Cain Bartlet„ and CJ still has it in her office.

Aces is Missing

In a visit to Simon's college, his parents along with the senior staff have a moment of fear and worry for Simon's health. The visit started out as normal and all well and good till a rogue student starts a riot and suddenly Simon is nowhere to be seen which makes the secret service worried so they send three agents to try and find Simon. When Simon was found he had a broken nose and arm...but other than being traumatized he was okay.

Simon, CJ and Josh

(yeah I know it's not Josh and CJ's actors it just fits)

When they lose Mrs Landingham...it affects everyone in a different way, Jed is angry, Leo and Charlie were in shock, Toby was putting in a front and Sam was sad. Simon, CJ and Josh were grieving together like siblings...Simon the strong shoulder to cry on, CJ the caring one and Josh the one crying a lot. In losing Mrs Landingham, Simon, CJ and Josh bonded with this loss but it wouldn't be their last time going through this.

Twenty Five

Simon is moved out of his college dorm and into The Executive Residence as his youngest sister is kidnapped. Simon...Simon isn't doing well at this point in time, he's tired and angry that he has no power in this situation all he can do is watch his parents struggle along with the senior staff. When his father invokes the Twenty Fifth amendment Simon leaves the oval office and almost the white house but is stopped by Josh and CJ as Toby returns from the hospital. Simon starts a full blown argument with the Senior Staff and leaves the White House in a huff, Toby suggested to Glen Allen Walken that sending a few secret service men to go after Simon and Glen allows this.

Leo McGarry

Simon had always been close to Leo even before his dad was president, Simon looked up to Leo and always came to Leo about his problems mostly because his dad scares him. Being at Camp David when Leo has a heart attack Simon panics and freezes as other people help Leo. This makes Simon feel it is his fault Leo dies. Mallory asks Simon to speak at Leo's funeral and at first he accepts it...but when it comes time for him to say his few words he is unable to.

A bond so strong

This time coming to his aid is CJ and Josh, this time them being his shoulder to cry on as only a few words into his speech he says “I,I'm sorry...I can't„ and quickly remove himself from the podium as he bursts out in tears. In that moment everything sinks in for him and every tear he has suppressed over the past years comes exploding out and he tells Josh to help him out and they walk out to try and calm him down.

Gremlin Energy

Simon is working hard on Santos campaign and it's physical and mentally killing him over it as he just wants to make everyone proud of him. As he is doing this his friends and coworkers can see the toll it's taking on him and it is Josh who ultimately tells Santos to take Simon off the campaign team. Later Simon becomes Josh's aid/Secretary after the end of the campaign.

[hannahhook7744]

James Hook facing Hannah Hook's teenage wraith;

Summary; Hannah finds out she has a lot of surprise relatives. She's 12 when it starts. Needless to say, James has to deal with a lot of teenage rage.

Trigger warning; swearing, violence, teenage angst, yelling, surrogacy and co parenting implied, murder mentioned, etc.

Inspired by @panthera-tigris-venenata .

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

James Hook had, had to deal with a lot of teenage rage in his time as a father. But he had to say, none of his other children's teenage rages had compared to his current youngest.

He had thought he was in for a pleasant conversation when Hades had come in and dropped what he used to communicate with his youngest daughter in Auardon in his hand. But he had been wrong.

Almost as soon as he opened it, he was met with an ear piercing yell and the sight of his red faced daughter angrily destroying her side of her dorm room. Her little stowaways wincing in the background.

"WHY DOES PETER PAN LOOK MORE LIKE YOU AND MOM THAN I DO?!" Hannah snarled, eyes flashing teal with rage as her hair lit up.

James paled and kept his eyes glued on the screen, not even tearing them away to yell at Smee when he dropped vase out of shock.

No. There was no way that she-- how would she have even met Peter Pan?!

Luke reached out to his daughter, no doubt taking pity on him since he was too stunned to speak.

"Hannah, calm down. I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this that has nothing to do with what we're thinking--"

Hannah spun around, turning her anger on him. "IS THERE LUKE?! IS THERE?!"

Skia, instead of being helpful (the little traitor), just snorted and ate some popcorn as she watched the scene unfold from the background. Just like her dad and cousin.

Luke deflated along with all of James' hope. "No, probably not."

"THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT!"

Hannah spun around again, hands on her hips. Looking alot like her mother. Narrowing her eyes on him again. He felt a shiver go down his spine.

"NOW ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!"

The pirate captain did his best not to wince at the ringing of his ears and refused to let his nervousness show.

"Well, uh, funny story, sweetheart. He'skindayourbrother isn't that funny?"

"HE'S MY WHAT?!"

Peter floated by in the background, laughing "haha, you're in trouble ya big codfish!"

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

"HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME--"

James winced as his current youngest daughter once again screamed at him in fury from a screen. Silently cursing Auardon in his head.

It couldn't have been legal for them to have done a DNA test on his daughter without his permission and tell her the results.

"I HAD FOUR FUCKING PARENTS BEFORE YOU. FOUR!! TWO OF WHICH WERE MURDERED!! AND TWO OF WHICH ARE STILL ALIVE! HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME?!"

"I didn't think--"

"YOU DIDN'T THINK?! MOTHER GOTHEL IS MY GRANDMOTHER! I HAVE A WHOLE EXTENDED FAMILY IN AUARDON AND PROBABLY MORE THAN I KNOW OF! HOW WAS THAT NOT IMPORTANT TO TELL ME?!"

James kept a blank expression. But on the inside, he was freaking out.

"Okay, when you put it that way it sounds bad--"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! I AM DONE WITH YOU!"

"Wait, Hannah. Don't say that---"

"NEVER CONTACT ME AGAIN!"

Hannah shut off the screen before he could say anything more.

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

James made sure he was safely behind the counter as soon as he spotted his furious almost 13 year old daughter. Who should not have been on the isle at the moment.

"Hannah, sweetheart, how are you enjoying Auardon--"

She stared him down.

Downright murderous.

"Why does Ally Riddell look almost exactly like Cj?"

Oh fuck.

"Dad. Why. Does. Ally. Riddell. Look. Exactly. Like. Cj?"

"Well, funny story--"

"Is. She. My. Sister?"

James knew better than to lie at this point.

"Yes."

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME--"

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

"YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED?!"

If James thought Hannah's temper would get better with age, he was wrong.

Really fucking wrong.

Because at 15, he was once again met with the sight of his very furious daughter. Who had somehow found out he was getting married after all these years from someone other than him.

That he had been seeing someone for sometime without telling her.

"Hannah, I was gonna tell you--"

He was met with a pillow to the face.

"OH, SURE YOU WERE! LIKE THE LAST 3 TIMES THIS HAPPENED!"

Hannah flung yet another pillow at his face.

"AND JUST WHEN WERE YOU GONNA TELL ME?! AFTER THE WEDDING?! WHEN SHE WAS PREGNANT?! "

Another pillow was flung at him.

At least she was sticking to pillow.

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

"Okay, kids. I have something to tell you" James announced nervously over dinner one night. Two nights after Hannah had found out he was getting remarried.

Hannah was eating dinner away from the rest of them. Still very angry that she had been the last fo know.

All of the kids -- who weren't really kids anymore-- groaned.

"What is it?"

"What did you do this time?"

"Dad, I swear to God--"

"This outta--"

"Be fun--"

James decided to just come right out and say it before they could find out from anyone else.

"Ginny is your sister"

He was met with dead silence.

Hannah glared at him as if he was stupid. "We know"

Oh come on.

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

Please be nice. Hope you all enjoyed.

[littledreamling]

Tag 9 people you’d like to get to know better

I was tagged by @virgo-dream @mathomhouse-e @sonata-ix @hopefulpenance AND @quillingwords (thank you all!)

3 ships:

Dreamling, obviously

CJ/Flick from Animal Crossing because they're my comfort gays (though I've never read fanfic about them, I just squeal happily whenever they talk about each other in the game)

Me/a function sleep schedule

First ever ship: sadly, Johnlock from BBC Sherlock. Not something I'm particularly proud to admit, but I can't change it so I might as well embrace it

Last song: Currently I'm listening to a playlist that isn't mine, so I'm not counting it because it's more for background noise (though it's currently on Better Days by Birdtalker). Instead, I'll count the last song I played on purpose, and that would be In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel because everything he did went hard as fuck

Last movie: Mamma Mia, if only to introduce my parents to the majesty that is Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, and Stellan Skarsgard all drunk out of their minds, singing ABBA songs. It's not my favorite movie of all time, but it does have a soft spot in my heart

Currently reading: So many things. Lots of fanfic, The Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe, The Neil Gaiman Reader, The God Equation, The Book: A History of the Bible, The Sandman comics, The Graveyard Book and American gods by Neil Gaiman... I have the attention span of a pygmy goat and far too little time to actually read anything

Currently watching: Absolutely nothing, due to the aforementioned lack of time. I have quite a few things on my To-Watch list, including Mank, Victoria, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Peaky Blinders, His Dark Materials, Letterkenny, the list goes on

Currently consuming: dark chocolate, specifically Ghirardelli 60% baking chocolate. It's my writing snack and my guilty pleasure that I don't feel that guilty about

Currently craving: whatever my mom is making for dinner, which I can already smell from downstairs. A good night's sleep (or a better sleeping schedule). A box of matches so I can light a candle in my room. More time and motivation to write. A song that scratches every itch in my brain and also never gets old so I can listen to it on repeat for the rest of my life. Water, because my water bottle is empty. To live life to its absolute fullest (okay Hob, calm down)

Because I was tagged by so many people (thank you!!) I'm not sure who to tag and who hasn't done it, so I'll just tag people and if you don't want to, you don't have to!

@levi1088 @birdbraintm @staroftheendless @pellaaearien @fishfingersandscarves @sunsetcurveauto @delta-pavonis @historyandqueershenanigans and @btwimkindagay

If anyone else wants to do it, consider this your tag!!

[snowy-bones]

*CJ quickly realizes their mistake, and immediately pales* Oh crap—Nilla, I’m sorry. I…am recognizing you’re not upset. So I’m trying to calm down- *My brain mixed up the names— where did I hear that—* ….Low key panicking though. Th-that’s not your fault tho, it’s just how I-I…

I better go. I’m sorry, Nilla. *Places the nuts on the porch, and gives Nilla some space.* …I-I need to calm my brain down, Gods I always do this—

i'm really not upset...heh...it's okay...i promise...take some time to breathe a bit okay? no one's upset...