#or whatever kind of mystic force you believe in

[yeahihyperfixtate]

Hi your writing is so cute, I saw you're taking reqs rn...

could I possibly have a neurodivergent (maybe specifically ADHD) reader x whatever characters you'd like (preferably all of them but your choice pook) thanks!!

♡ —sylus x adhd!reader

content : fluff, downbad sylus, mc!reader has adhd depicted from a specific perspective, sylus heavily fw adhd havers <3, (heavily written on my own personal perspective of adhd) maybe a pt.2

authors note : my first req <3, this is actually fantastic cause i've got adhd myself! im not too confident with the others yet, literally all my drafts rn are all sylus based (im ashamed to say im not familiar with zayne and xaviers character enough to write them,,, yet.)

please do not characterise adhd based on specifically these events, this is what i've personally experienced and found easy to write, (not everyone has the same experiences/behaviour!)

♡ — adhd!reader who repeats the same story to her current associate at least twice, blissfully unaware of the repetition, a common occurrence—she just can't help herself.. the result is always the same, her enthusiasm bubbling over—the familiar response comes like clockwork: “you told me this story yesterday, remember?” her words halt mid-sentence, her excitement deflating faster than it had filled her chest. “right, sorry, i forgot,” she mumbles, forcing a small, apologetic smile. they nod briefly before their attention flickers back to whatever was so captivating on their phone, leaving her silent, a sigh falling from her mouth instead of the words she wanted to share still lingering on her tongue, unspoken and heavy, even if it was a reoccurrence.

“sylus, you won't believe what happened to me today!” you exclaimed, bursting through the door with wide eyes and a glowing excitement that filled the room. “t-there was this cat—it meowed like a duck or something, it was so sooo adorable!” you squeaked, your voice pitching higher with enthusiasm. “but then i had to leave from break,” you sighed, pouting as you flopped dramatically onto the couch.

sylus glanced up from the news article he was reading, keyword—was. a sly smile crept onto his lips, usual mischief twinkling in his eyes. “oh, is that right, sweetie?" he teased, tilting his head with a mock-serious look. "you'll have to bring me along on your next mission so i can witness these mystical, duck-like cats for myself."

"deal," you grinned, your face lighting up as you giggled, completely unaware of how sylus's gaze softened, his eyes lingering on yours with a quiet admiration.. he'd play along every time, as many times as you needed, his heart melting just a little more with every recount. after all, he wasn't just listening to the story; he was basking in the warmth of your presence, content to play the part of your captivated audience forever.

♡ — adhd!reader who’s grown all too familiar with being ignored by others for most of her life, her excited tangents about a new interest for the day often trailing off into an uncomfortable silence, no response waiting at the end. she used to sit there, the realisation sinking in like a heavy stone—you’ve done it again, idiot—the naturally heard words blaring in her mind as if through a megaphone, shame and self-doubt rushing in like a wave. she’d turn back to her laptop, eyes lowered, the once-comforting cafe ambience now feeling like a weight pressing down on her chest, making it harder to turn back to the task she was supposed to be completing, right, the reports..

sylus, ever the gentleman, makes his way to your side with practised ease, opening the door for you, his hand already outstretched to steady you as you carefully step out, mindful of the hovering dress that threatens to catch under your heels. a soft giggle escapes your lips as you playfully speak, “thank you, kind sir,” your voice light with amusement.

smirking, his eyes sparkling in the dim evening light. “anything for you, my sweet,” he replies with a wink, pulling your hand gently onto his arm. you gladly wrap your arms around his bicep, feeling the warmth of his strength under your fingers as you walk together, leaving the valet behind. the fine dining restaurant ahead glows softly in the night, a place you had casually mentioned to him just two nights ago as a date idea.

“but the duality of this bitch,” you huffed, voice full of frustration. “to talk behind my back like i was in the wrong. like, seriously? you cheat on your boyfriend, and then get mad when i don’t want to be friends with you anymore? oh, and i forgot to tell you—my friend, well ex-friend knew about it, she was hiding it from us the whole time!”

your words spilled out in a rush, the weekly gossip pouring faster than you could control. it wasn’t until you hit a pause in your tangent that it hit you—fuck, i did it again. you looked up at him, bracing yourself, searching his face for any sign of annoyance, for that familiar look people often gave you when you rambled too much. but instead, you found his hand gently stroking your bejewelled one—his gifts, of course—while his crimson eyes stayed locked on yours, soft and full of affection. not a trace of irritation.

just as you were about to apologise for going on too long, he beat you to it, his voice calm and sweet, “you’d think the hunters of linkon would act better. i was sorely mistaken.” his lips curled into a soft chuckle, eyes glinting playfully. “so… what did you say to her and your now ex-friend? you didn't finish.”

relief flooded through you. of course—he wanted to hear more. with his gentle smile urging you on, you dove back into the tale, feeling lighter, knowing you could share whatever you wanted to in this world with him without any thought whatsoever.

♡ — adhd!reader who accidentally interrupts her friends and family—she just can’t help it, really, she can’t. it’s the same scenario every time: friends are mid-conversation, talking about someone or something, and before she can stop herself, she’s chiming in too early, cutting them off without meaning to. they pause, giving that familiar look—half-surprised, half-apologetic or whatever it was. “ah, sorry,” she mutters, biting her lip to stay quiet. but it’s so hard. especially when they start talking about that café she just went to yesterday, mentioning the specific drink that was on sale—the very one you ordered. the words are right there, bubbling up in your chest, why was it so hard to keep quiet?

sylus strolls into the kitchen with a sly grin, “i’ve got a surprise for you tonight, kitten.” his arms wrap around you from behind as you focus on whipping up your favourite brownies—ones in the last batch that went mysteriously missing, thanks to the twins no doubt. you giggle, already used to this affectionate routine, as sylus leans in to inhale the scent of your perfume lingering on his shirt, one of his smaller ones that still manages to engulf you completely. “can I get a clue?” you ask, impressively keeping your attention on measuring the cocoa powder, despite his playful distraction.

“you’ll just have to wait and see sweetie,” sylus chuckles, shifting beside you but keeping an arm snugly around your waist, his warmth never leaving your side. “although i should probably tell you t—” sylus’s words were abruptly cut off by your excitement bursting through. “oooh, wait! is it that new cat café I was talking about a few days ago? the one that opens up at night?”

your excitement quickly deflated as you looked up at him, realizing you’d interrupted him—again. a familiar sinking feeling crept in, but before you could even apologise, you caught sylus’s expression. looking down at you, more love in his eyes than you ever thought possible, his smile soft and full of affection. “that’s actually what i’ve planned for us tomorrow, dear,” he smirked, leaning in closer, his face inches from yours. “but like i said, you’ll find out tonight. just make sure to wear that dress i got you.” your heart fluttered at his words, the warmth of his voice and the way he effortlessly brushed off your little interruption. you giggled softly, leaning into his touch as he gently squeezed your waist. “fine, but I’m holding you to that cat café date,” you teased, already imagining the sweet night ahead.

[bethanythebogwitch]

My favorite magic system from a game I haven't actually played is from Mage: the Ascension. It kind of fits as both a hard magic system and a soft magic system at the same time because there are some hard rules, but its mostly very open. To become a mage you have to realize that reality is not what it seems. In MtA, reality is whatever the majority of people believe it is, known as the consensus. The consensus in modern days is pretty uniform everywhere, with small variations based on where you are, but it used to be wildly different based on the cultural beliefs of the local people. A mage is a person who realizes that the consensus isn't true reality and gains to power to act outside of its rules. Any given mage's abilities come from their own personal view of reality, known as their paradigm. A mage's magic can do basically anything, as long as it is accounted for in their paradigm. So a mage who's paradigm includes the classic Aristotelian elements can perform magic based on that, but if their paradigm doesn't include animistic spirits then they can't commune with those spirits even though other mages could based on their own paradigm. The problem with this is that the consensus doesn't like it when you go around breaking its rules and will punish mages by slapping them with an effect called paradox. Paradox can be anything from a spell failing to getting shunted into your own personal pocket universe. Nothing generates paradox like being seen doing magic by sleepers (people who are not mages and still live fully within the consensus). Most mages either only use magic around other mages or, if they need to cast around sleepers, will disguise their magic as a mundane effect. Someone throwing a fireball from their hands will generate major paradox because the consensus is that people can't do that. However if a mage holds a lighter up to a spraycan before casting their fireball, the sleepers can rationalize it as something that exists within the consensus and not as much paradox will be generated.

In the dark ages, magic was part of the consensus and mages could openly rule over the sleepers because everyone believed in magic and therefore magic was part of the consensus. In response to the tyranny of the mages, a group was formed called the League of Reason, who wanted to introduce a new form of magic to the consensus that everyone could use. This form of magic was based on logic and reason and was called science. This led to the ascension war, where the League of reason sought to remove magic and superstition from the consensus and a very loose coalition of mages called the Council of Nine Mystic Traditions want to keep magic in the consensus. And the League of Reason won. A mostly rationalistic, scientific worldview has become the consensus worldwide, forcing the Council into operating underground. The League of Reason has become the Technocracy, a worldwide secret organization ruling the world from the shadows and trying to stamp out magic and any other form of "reality deviants" to keep humanity safe, even if they have to suppress basic human imagination to do so. Notably, the earliest books for the game very much said "Traditions good, Technocracy bad", but later books went for a much more grey approach to the conflict between them, making it clear that both sides really are doing what they think is in humanity's best interest even if their ideas for how to do so are fundamentally incompatible.

What's really interesting is that science and technology really are a form of magic and technocrats are mages, even if the Technocracy would vehemently deny this. Technology is a form of magic that everyone can use because its part of the consensus and science doesn't discover new facts about the world, It creates those facts and applies them to the world. The Technocracy's super-advanced technology creates paradox just as much as magic does because personal anti-gravity suits and mass-produced clones violate the consensus just like throwing around fireballs and conjuring demons does.

Mage: the Ascension is a super fun setting because just about any fantasy or sci-fi trope can exist here. Classic pointy hat and wand wizards can battle cyborgs armed with self-replicating nanotechnology. Anti-authoritarian punks can hack your wallpaper to spy on you because they believe all reality is part of a unified mathematical whole that the internet gives us access to. A group of spacefarers can ride the luminiferous aether to mars only to encounter Aztec shamans who asked the spirits to carry them there thousands of years ago. A powerful mage can create a time loop by convincing their younger self to obtain enlightenment through the power of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Two people can have an argument over whether the guy they just met was an alien from Alpha Centauri or an elf from the Norse nine realms and both of them can be right. Animistic spirit-callers can upload themselves to the internet to combat spirits of malware. And an angry mage might just teleport you into the sun because they believe distance is just an illusion and therefore have the power to make anything go anywhere with a thought. It's a wild ride.

[tinycheesecakedetective]

Potential Swap AU? + Ramblings pt. 1(OLD)

So with Mystic Flour cookie just coming into my life yesterday, I have finally found reprieve from the art and writing block that has beat my ass since the end of finals. Now with this newfound freedom I have found the inspiration to continue here. And fittingly enough, I have another ancient swap idea. Call it cliche, I know.

However, instead of just trading traits, like making Dark Cacao the Beast of Apathy and vice versa, I'd like to take their existing vices and virtues and use that as a springboard. This also means I have to get creative with some of the beasts' personalities, so if anything ends up being inaccurate, I wash my hands clean of it. This is all speculation, after all. I also want to split this into parts so I don't end up overwhelmed with too many paragraphs. With that disclaimer out of the way, let's begin the swappening!

White Lily Cookie: Beast of Discord and Silent Salt Cookie: Ancient Hero of Harmony

Yes I'm going out of order, what of it? They were easy. Too much freedom leads to chaos and anarchy the same way too much order leads to oppression and, well, silence. White Lily has always been free spirited, and was the odd one out of the ancients from the jump. Heck, before the first Beast Yeast update she didn't even have a kingdom(still don't think she should have one.) She's reserved, curious to a fault, and has crippling self worth issues. So what happens if she becomes corrupted? You get Dark Enchantress Cookie.

...No, I'm serious. This is why these two were easy; one of them is kind of canon already.

Dark Enchantress Cookie is essentially the other example of what happens when Solidarity goes too far. White Lily went to find out the secrets of creation for the sake of cookie kind, and when she found out the truth she was reborn and swore to unite all of Earthbread by any means necessary. It didn't matter if she would cause destruction and chaos in her wake, she was going to make it happen. You could argue that DE could also represent Silence, but her preferred method of taking control is destabilization and recruitment, whereas I'm assuming(heavy on the assuming here) Silent Salt's way of control was more complete annihilation and forced subjugation. So if you wanted to make WL a beast, just take her and DE and put them in a blender.

The way I see it, Lily would have no kingdom; rather she'd be a forest guardian, with other cookies acting as rulers instead of her. Leaving her plenty of time to visit other areas as the Virtue of Solidarity, and when becoming a Beast she'd curse the lands she once protected. The forest would become a wasteland of madness, nigh uninhabitable and overrun with all sorts of terrible creatures. Stepping into the area would immediately separate you from whatever group you came with, and staying there too long would drive you to insanity.

Silent Salt, in contrast, would resemble the Cacao Kingdom the most, just having Arthurian Knights as inspiration rather than the Korean influence Dark Cacao had. Fitting considering how many people thought they and DC were connected. I can't say much on their personality, but I would assume that they would be firm and the most organized out of the sin squad. The tactician, if you will. Speaking of chocolate, though.

Dark Cacao Cookie: Beast of Obstinance and Mystic Flour Cookie: Ancient Hero of Prudence

Well, well, well. If it isn't these two again. I'm still buzzing off of the trailer, so let's not hesitate any longer. Obstinate means to stubbornly stick to an opinion, purpose, or direction in spite of reason or persuasion. It's an unmovable object, incapable of change because it believes its way is the only way. We've already seen the negative effects of Dark Cacao's resolution through characters like Dark Choco and Affogato, who have been driven away by him or went to extremes for their goals, as well as the positives with Caramel Arrow and her determination. The first time we saw him he was essentially like this, which rippled outwards and affected everyone. I am not surprised he's the first one to succumb to his respective beast, albeit temporarily.

In this AU, I don't feel that his kingdom would change that much. I feel like his kingdom would just become a full on military fortress, with no one coming in and no one getting out. His army would need to be completely loyal or face punishment, and the outside villages would be in total servitude as slaves. If you can even enter, the atmosphere would be downright oppressive, making it hard for anyone to stand, much less move forward. There are numerous levels to his fortress, each testing your fortitude in various ways, Spire of Order style.

For Mystic Flour, I will be using she/her and they/them interchangeably because they have not yet been confirmed as female(but it is heavily suspected.) According to the wiki, Mystic Flour is heavily inspired by Buddhism, more specifically a deity named Guanyin, who was an all seeing, benevolent being that could alleviate the Earth's sorrows with infinite mercy. Knowing this, I have a few ideas of how they might act in game. Perhaps before they became the cookie personification of the plague, she also had future vision of some kind and was able to see events and disasters before they happened, and knowing this she tried to intervene when they could. Maybe whenever she tried to intervene it didn't help, and that's how she stayed. Like DC, they were definitely the first to turn and resorted to killing everyone to help guide them to eternal peace.

In order for her to be Prudence, I would imagine instead of them simply not caring or killing everyone, she would take a different approach and instead intervene as necessary. Their "kingdom" would be similar to a temple, acting more as a monastery then an actual kingdom. If there was a kingdom it would be somewhat separate, with people making pilgrimages to her area rather than them ruling directly. From there cookies could make requests or advice, and depending on the situation she would intervene as necessary, being careful as to not overstep. Because of her cautiousness I imagine that they would be somewhat resented by some of the commonfolk for not stepping in more and being passive, but those closest to them would revere her for their wisdom and sense of control.

And that's all for now! I've been staring at this post for too long and these two are the ones I was able to present at the moment. If you have any suggestions or just want to say something funny, the ask box is open for anyone. I will be trying to take questions and figure out how the asks work.

[boots-with-the-fur-club]

Chapter 4 of These Are Not Our Masks posted a day early in celebration of @daboyau’s win in their poll!!

@that-0n3-shr00mi3-guy

@iobsesswaytoomuch

@sady-is-secretly-an-alchemist

@dluebirb

@burritello3000

Splinter carefully watches April enter the building. Even after she’s safely made it inside, he waits a few minutes just in case she needed to run.

When she doesn’t, he drives off to the auction house.

He hates the silence. He always has. Being famous meant he could surround himself with whatever and whoever he wanted.

The only thing he wanted was to not be fully alone.

Even when he refused to fight for Big Mama anymore, he had his rat as a companion. Anything to stop himself from having to think about his past and what led him to that point in his life.

He has nothing now.

No friends, no family, not even a pet. It’s just him. Arguably the last person he’d ever want to be left with. It may sound like an exaggeration, but he’d rather face physical or emotional pain from someone else like Big Mama or Draxum than his own wounds that keep reopening.

He thinks about his boys.

They’re all better than him than he was at their age in their own ways. Truly, he knows just how much they love him, which is a big change from how he treated his grandpa.

Then again, the way he brought up the turtles was different too. He may not have always been entirely focused on making sure they handled Hamato weaponry, but there’s no way he’d allow Donatello to continuing crying alone after hurting himself on an invention.

He’d never ignore the big smile on Michelangelo’s face after he’s painted their family with his little hands.

No possibility of him turning his back to Raph and Leo wanting to make their own business together because they knew each other’s strengths well enough to be aware that they’re always a good duo.

Thinking about how Draxum tries to force the dynamic makes his skin crawl.

He promised that he wouldn’t let him turn innocent creatures into war machines and he’s failed.

Honestly, without whatever the mad scientist is using, he doubts he ever could have really turned the turtles into soldiers or weapons.

Obviously they have the physical aspects to absolutely decimate enemies, but Splinter feels there’s something else.

Without being raised with love and kindness, they very much could be brutal and dangerous. It’s even still possible for them to destroy humanity.

But living weapons?

That requires a connection to Draxum other than mystics. He would need undying loyalty that you don’t get from blind rage or a single purpose. That’s why his sons could fight it. It’s how he got through to them.

Draxum doesn’t know it, but he too is on a time limit, just as Splinter is. His sons aren’t going to be told what to do forever.

Splinter finally gets to the auction house and parks before quickly sneaking in. It becomes apparent that someone, or multiple someones, have gotten there first. Doorways are smashed, non Lou Jitsu items are scattered around like garbage, and the regular employees are nowhere to be seen.

There are, however, Foot Ninja everywhere.

He uses his skills to carefully make his way to the very back of the auction house. They usually store older items there. His search only lasts about 15 seconds he hears footsteps and has to duck behind a weapon rack that holds several fan blades.

“I can not believe that Draxum had me come to babysit you! If you can’t get one measly item then you’re a failure and should be kicked out of the clan.” Casey crosses her arms.

“Then why are you still in it?“ Raph grumbles.

Foot Recruit gasps dramatically.

“I only failed as a technicality! How dare you speak to me that way!? I am your superior! You work for me!”

Raph stops walking, grabbing her arm roughly to stop her as well.

“I work for Draxum, not you, and he’s not here right now. I ain’t listenin to bottom rung washouts.”

Foot Recruit attempts to pull her arm out of his tight, and although she won’t admit it, painful grip.

“Excuse me!? I’m a more fearsome warrior than you’ll ever be! I have beaten you before! I will do it again!”

Raph releases her arm only to grab her by the face and lift her up. He squeezes her head painfully in his palm. She grabs and scratches at his arm, kicking her legs as well in a struggle. Splinter holds himself back from doing anything immediately, but readies to help if this goes too far.

“You were lucky before. I was bein nice. Not anymore.” Raph stomps over to an old car, getting the door open before tossing Foot Recruit inside.

He slams the door and Foot Recruit bangs on the window. Raph summons his larger form and places its hands on both ends. The form begins adding pressure, starting to make the car fold.

It takes everything Splinter has for him not to go help her. He knows it’s risky, but if Raph really wanted her dead he would have done it already. Revealing himself now might actually put her in more danger.

As the space in the car around Foot Recruit starts running out, she finally relents.

“You win! You’ve beaten me! You’re the better warrior!”

Raph’s other form goes away. He rips the door open again and tosses Foot Recruit back out.

“That means I call the shots! You look for what Draxum wants and bring it to me when ya find it, go it?”

Foot Recruit nods, trying not to let her quickened breathing be obvious.

“I said somethin, respond.” Raph growls.

“….Understood.”

“Don’t forget. You already wasted all your chances.” He leaves the room.

Foot Recruit’s legs give out from under her, making her collapse onto her knees. She wraps one arm around herself and uses the other to clutch her chest. Her heart is beating a million miles a minute.

He’s been capable of this? The whole time? He’s just been choosing not to maim her? Break her bones? End her life….?

It’s terrifying.

Draxum has three of them acting this way now. Any of them could have done this too? Leo, no, Artemis, has been staring her down a lot. He always has an odd hold on his katanas while he does it, it makes her think now that he’s been imagining using them on her.

Or maybe even using his portals on her.

Splinter turns his head away. He’s sure she wouldn’t want anyone seeing her like this. Despite what just happened, there still is no use trying to convince her to help him. He knows that someone like her has to come to a conclusion by herself.

He sneaks away instead, finally getting to an area with aged books. There’s a box underneath that he recognizes. Opening it up, he sees the scrolls he’s been looking for. He closes the box back up and carefully holds it close.

The key to saving his children is in there. He just needs to find it. Splinter hopes he can in time for April.

After she was dropped off, April headed straight into the building towards the Purple Dragons’ tech area. It occurs to her that they might have actually been there when Donnie arrived and picks up her a pace a bit.

Even if Kendra dogs on her any chance she gets and is a tech supervillain, April still doesn’t want her to get too badly hurt. They have known each other for a while. Most of their lives. It’s hard to forget that, as rough as it may be.

She very carefully enters the room.

Donnie is immediately in her line of sight. He didn’t even attempt hiding himself here. There’s no reason to, she guesses.

April continues inside with as light of steps as she can manage. It isn’t too far in that she sees Kendra tied up like a caterpillar and suspended from the ceiling.

Well, at least she doesn’t look hurt.

Kendra struggles more while staring at April. The tape that’s around her body is also covering her mouth. She’s silently insisting for April to get her down.

April shakes her head and makes a sign for her to stay quiet. Kendra only struggles more.

“I knew you were here the moment you stepped into the building. Take the other nuisance and leave.” Donnie says suddenly, breaking his silence but not turning around.

Both girls turn to look at him.

“Donnie, you gotta come back with me.” April urges.

“That’s not my name, and no I don’t.” He still doesn’t turn around.

April grips her bat tighter.

“Maybe you didn’t understand me! That wasn’t me asking! You are coming with me! And Splinter is going to fix your head!”

Donnie slams the metal he was working on to the ground and bends his head backwards.

“Splinter isn’t going to fix jack, that’s always been my job!”

April nearly freezes at seeing the mask over his face. The pupil she can see clearly is thin, slit, like an animal ready to pounce.

“Well, are you going to fix yourself then!?”

“How about you? Go make a friend that isn’t made of slime and doesn’t have fur or scales you freak!”

Oh, that actually stings.

“I don’t care what people are or aren’t! Especially not you, Donnie! We’re nerdy pals for life, remember?”

“That line reeks of desperation! You constantly hold me back! It makes me sick to be around a loser who can’t even hold a job. I have to come help you with everything because you’re good at nothing! That’s why I didn’t care you were coming up here. I knew you wouldn’t be able to do whatever your goal is. You never can.”

April blinks quickly to avoid any tears from coming. She focuses hard on what Mikey had said. This is Donnie trying to keep her safe. Short term emotional pain is better than long term physical, that’s probably something he’d say.

He only ever approached this level of mean when he-

That’s it!

April rips the tape off Kendra’s mouth.

“It’s about time! Get me down from here!”

“Not before you help me. Where are your headphones?”

“Are you kidding me!? You’re asking for that of all things!?”

“I know what I’m doing! Just tell me already!”

“Ugh, fine! They’re over there!” Kendra gestures with her head.

April starts walking over.

Donnie bends and twists to stand up while still looking at them, slowly approaching Kendra with a hiss in his voice.

“Are you so stupid that you don’t understand I can clearly hear you? I gave you an opportunity to leave with your lives and you didn’t take it.”

“I wanted to leave! It’s just O’Neil!” Kendra shouts.

“Hey, Donnie!”

He turns his head only for April to spray a ketchup packet at him.

“Ketchup!? That’s your plan-!?”

Kendra is interrupted by Donnie letting out the most high pitched scream to ever be heard. April grabs a nearby box cutter and frees Kendra during the freak out that’s happening.

“If you ever use this against him I will personally smash every piece of your tech I find, but Donnie has big issues with the smell and texture.”

“Whatever, I’m leaving! Good luck getting torn apart by your feral brother!” Kendra runs off.

April’s confused by that, she knows fully well Donnie isn’t related to her. Unless….she was trying to be nice after everything he said? It’s doubtful she’ll ever know for sure.

Donnie squirms on the floor like a breakdancing bug. It would be funny if April didn’t feel so bad about it. She holds the headphones she grabbed and takes out her phone, connecting to it.

April kneels down, avoiding flailing limbs as she uses her jacket sleeve to wipe off the ketchup. At the same time, she takes off his goggles and replaces them with the headphones.

His panicked breathing slowly subsides as loud techno music floods his senses. April always keeps a playlist on her phone just for him. Overstimulation really sucks, she knows that firsthand.

She watches his pupils begin to return to normal. No longer slit, but round. His whole body relaxes too.

“A….April….?”

“Donnie!”

“April!”

She turns around in a panic.

“Leo…?”

[marshmallowprotection]

Could se suit fall in love with someone that shares a lot in common with him? Could he fall in love with a girl that dresses in dark clothes and gets angry/snappy easy, who isn't innocent/docile or wears soft colors?

I think I've answered this question a hundred times but I don't mind answering it a hundred times more because people have this misconception that they need to be like the default player character for Saeran or Ray or literally ANYONE in Mystic Messenger to be loved. That is not the case. The characters will always love you for who you are.

The base character you use to interact with them is just there to help you immerse yourself, your immersion doesn't depend upon how close you can get to the way that character acts. If you're similar to the default MC, cool! If you're not, also cool! There is no correct way to be. The goal is to be yourself, because that's how the characters will love you best. It's easy not to believe that when you may not have contextual evidence to say otherwise, but I'm telling you now, You Will Be Loved regardless of your style or what you look like or whatever you're thinking of that might cause you not to be loved.

To be more specific in this situation, he would be happy that you're being true to yourself instead of trying to pretend to be something you're not. He out of anyone understands what it feels like to be forced into a box to gain other people's acceptance, and he doesn't want to go through that ever again, and he wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy because it's a miserable existence. Suit Saeran wouldn't want you to be someone you're not for him. In fact, I should point out that if Ray ever tried to fill your closet with frilly, colorful clothes that didn't match your personality, he'd be upset about it.

Because, again, he knows what that feels like. That would change up your Mint Eye experience quite a bit. "Wow, can you believe you still want Ray back when he tried to force you into a box? I wouldn't dare do that to you... you're just a toy. What point is there in trying to make you something you're not? Just a toy, not a frilly plaything."

In the case of GE Suit Saeran, yeah, he's a lot further along in his journey of coming to terms with what's happened to him in life, and he's just happy you've given him a second chance to make up for his mistakes. He's not thinking about your style. He's thinking about doing his best to show you he loves you and that he wants to get better for himself. Speak your mind, tell him off when he makes a mistake, he wants to be told what's what.

I wouldn't agree with the notion that the default MC is innocent or docile, though, but I understand that you may not mesh well with MC's overall gentle kindness at times? But, damn, default MC does tear into Rika and V non-stop if you pay close enough attention to the callouts.

[reckless-lambert]

Question what do you think of infinite from Sonic forces (don't skip any detail I would like to hear this)

WOAH HELLO!! OK OK OK OK you're in for a ride because I am kinda crazy about this guy.

Right off the bat I wanna say that imo he's not a bad character. Like not in a sense of potential or whatever, I did like him in general.

To try to keep myself on track there will be 3 topics I'll give my opinions on: powers, backstory, character.

POWERS

First of all I don't think that he is a pushover. If we are talking about measuring strength of a character based on their bossfight pretty much all sonic characters up until 06 have bad bossfights that can be finished in seconds so it's not a good measuring point. In terms of lore there are many many many theories to be had, I prefer to look at his encounters from a story standpoint (we don't talk about dying to a flamethrower in 0.5 seconds accident). I think it's safe to assume that Infinite was a capable fighter (hence the title), him being beaten by Shadow doesn't really tell us anything, Shadow is arguably the most powerful character in sonic series so losing to him is to be expected. Infinite was just a very skilled mercenary, what was he supposed to do against teleporting, regenerating, super fast living plasma cannon?!?

Anyways if we are talking about real encounters (after him getting ruby powers) there are many ways to interpret it (other than just saying that it's bad). Here's my understanding of the events. Sonic gets captured at the start of the game because Infinite just overwhelmed him with quality and numbers. After this the whole war happens (no one talks about Infinite conquering 99.9% of the world), Sonic escapes and encounters Infinite in mystic jungle, this time around we can see that Infinite doesn't have illusions of past villains helping him so it's safe to assume that his powers are actually pretty finite (he can't uphold too many illusions all over the world at once, first time he had them helping because he wasn't using them elsewhere), he still beats Sonic and leaves.

Next time we see him in Metropolis, here we see avatar pretty much matching him with his own bullshit (I have a magical rock that neutralises your magical rock) which is fine by me and Infinite still comes out on top thanks to energy blasts and presumed better fighting skills. Escape to null space can be blamed on phantom ruby prototype again. As to why Infinite didn't use it before I assume Eggman and Infinite invented this ability not that long ago.

For the last encounter, Infinite doesn't have to distribute his illusions all over the world so he uses them in battle, but still has a hard time because numbers advantage is no longer on his side + he probably struggles to control so many entities at once so the quality is diminished drastically. He decides that using an all out attack is a better tactic, but yet again kindergarten logic applies so the sun doesn't explode (rock to rock shenanigans). Despite the sun doing nothing I think it drained Infinite's resources drastically + he was using only the backup power. So in the end avatar and Sonic finally beat weakened Infinite only for him to be transported somewhere and never seen again.

In my opinion we can clearly see that Jackal wasn't defeated by power of friendship or avatar or whatever else people tend to say as some sort of parrots. Infinite was defeated only by his own hubris and his own kind of magic. I think he did alright all things considered. He was pretty powerful and I'm fine with the way things played out. The only thing lacking here is good presentation, people just don't take the plot seriously so it all crumbles, but I don't think that it's fair to say that someone is not powerful because you don't take the stakes of the story seriously. Still can't believe that people call a guy with power to create rockets and lasers out of thin air and change gravity at will "all talk". The only reason our characters are alive is thanks to phantom ruby prototypes and Infinite's weird fondness of main cast (if you are complaining about sega not outright killing sonic or other main characters, Infinite is not the one you should blame + I have some ideas as to why he does that described later).

BACKSTORY

Infinite's initial motivation is fiiiine. As we can see in his prequel comic his main desire is to ruin, he even says that "he is tired of this world" at the end of it. So it's safe to assume that our Jackal doesn't like how things are going and wants to overthrow the current world order. As to why he is that way it's up for debate (more about it later). That desire is what drives him towards Eggman.

After unspecified amount of time "episode Shadow" happens. Shadow presumably kills the whole Jackal squad except Infinite whom he deems unworthy of killing and throughoutly insults him instead (super mean! Shadow wtf!). Infinite in attempt to somehow amend his self image after losing everything he had (all thanks to his ambition and Shadow btw), decides to abandon his old self as if it was a different person (sad to look at) and double down on alliance with Eggman because it's all he has left - professor's promise of greatness, something to cling onto. So that's how we get to forces. Some might say that Infinite doesn't really enact revenge on Shadow in any way, but there're still things to consider: 1. He actively avoids his old identity, so you can say that he avoids Shadow and feelings tied to him in the same way (doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't feel them) 2. Eggman could have done some mental gymnastics with the Jackal. It's pretty easy considering that Shadow is a self proclaimed guardian of this world (he made a promise and all of that) + he works for GUN. So what better way to enact revenge than to ruin all the things your enemy stands for? Bonus points for this objective coinciding with his initial motivation.

Those options are something I thought of, I think they create a rather straight forward narrative + nobody said that those are the only ones.

Anyways I hate how people yet again somehow diled his story down to "Shadow beat him called him ugly and now hes bad". As if killing his whole squad is nothing, like Infinite's character can be interpreted in many ways, but even if you think that he is a cold hearted killing machine - how can he live as a captain and a sole survivor of the squad, it's the end of his mercenary life if captain is the only one standing that means he fucked up real bad it's the ultimate failure, there's no recovering your career after that.

CHARACTER

I saved this one for last because It's almost purely my headcanons and subjective opinions. Anyways as I mentioned above Infinite is not fond of current civilization for some reason. My take is that:

1. He hates united federation for some reason. I think it would be funny if jackal squad were some sort of child soldiers GUN experimented on. Desert is already torn apart by bandits Eggman and feds fighting all over the place, no one will notice random street orphans missing (a lil metal gear revengeance brainrot for ya). But they deserted and became a more evil versions of desert raiders from Archie becoming a nuisance for every party involved: collecting bounties, raiding Eggman's bases and GUN convoys - earning reputation and fame. But jackals' hate for their previous captors is not forgotten and it's also mutual as UF probably wants them dead as soon as possible because they are a living proof of their dark deeds.

2. I think Infinite has problems coping with all the things he was deprived of. His first instinct is hate "how dare they live normal happy lives while I'm fighting for my life every day!" And because all he knows is conflict he thinks that living by jungle rules is the only right way and everyone else is living a lie (that's how I interpret his lyrics). So his desire to ruin the civilisation stems from his idea that jungle rules shall return, and UF citizens should suffer the same way he does. (Spreading misery is fun amiright)

Also I don't think that jackal squad was a family or a friend group, more like a congregation of equaly fucked up individuals who kinda trust each other with tasks, as soon as they deem you a burden they will abandon you. Also imagine the pressure captain of such group would endure. Infinite is not ok. He is partially driven by pride, but also by peer pressure of his fellow child soldiers, being cruel = being strong. As a leader he must be the strongest. That's why his sadism might not be inherent to his character. Also I do think that he was bullied in his unregulated child environment, heterochromia and girly tendencies make him a prime target (CMON PEOPLE dude has the longest hair in the whole franchise and presumably lived in highly militarized environment, there will be problems). I guess he just powered through (it's hard to bully you when you are the strongest).

Anyways coming back to episode Shadow I think Infinite was so scared of not being in control, being pretty much bullied by some stranger. So he did what he always does - search for more power.

Interesting side note here is that Infinite doesn't really have ambition, he doesn't create himself a castle or even a throne (and he is someone with power to create things from thin air, for example it took Zetis 1-2 days to throw together those in idw, he doesn't do it despite having the whole year). He just wants power to not be pushed around and push around others (I IMPLORE you to understand, he is not a nice person, but it doesn't mean that people should just give up on him, my boy needs help).

Also I think episode Shadow warped his brain really hard, like he tries so hard to re-enact his own trauma onto others many many times despite clearly seeing it not working except the first time with avatar. Like we can clearly see that it's all he thinks about, how not deeming someone worthy of killing is the most painful thing he can inflict on them, far more painful than just outright killing the guy. This hinders his critical thinking really hard and it's sad to look at.

Anyways that's pretty much all of my thoughts on this guy (says the guy who thinks about him every day for past 1.5 years, I can mumble on and on, but it will never end if I do), hope you enjoyed!

[shinjisdone]

Reasons for Link(s) To Be A Yandere

In Relation to this request I did (rather the reblog reblog)

Link is hard to pinpoint since he's a vessel for the player. Headcanons Based on the game's worldbuilding/lore, a bit of their mangas and very much lotsa imagination from my side.

(Romantic)

SS! Link: His constant worry for Zelda's safety, unknown of Hyrule below, too naive, seems like a good boy, unexperienced, someone who might long for ACTUAL connection since Fi is a bit too much beep boop master linkkkk

OoT! Link: Very much naive and still childlike when sent into the future, confused by all that is happening and needs an anker of reality (maybe even an escape to simpler, childish times since he doesn't want to face all the actual real horrors, daydreams a lot), BEARS THE BURDEN OF THE WOOORLD, wishes for some kind of positivity/sunshine, you might think he is weird for his age, protective since he doesn't know what this future has in store for him, ALL THAT HE KNEW AND CHERISHED IS GONE NOW

TP! Link: GUY GOT TURNED INTO A WOLF, IMAGINE JUST; YOUR ENTIRE LIFE IS UPSIDE DOWN FROM HUMAN TO BEAST ALL THAT YOU KNOW WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN YOU HAVE TO GET USED TO LIVING THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AS SOMETHING ELSE AND THEN YOU DIE

THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW, YOUR FRIENDS, YOUR FAMILY DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, THEY FEAR YOU AND PRBLY THINK YOU ARE DEAD OR WENT MISSING. AND ON TOP OF THAT YOU ARE EXPECTED TO SAVE THE WORLD

ITS A LOT OF STRESS.

Maybe naive, aware of his strength and ready to protect others, courageous to the point nothing will stop him, maybe bit of a Country pumpkin, soft, so soft he holds animals like babies, internally frustrated and scared? Unsure? NeedING COMFORT AND ASSURANCE? ONLY HAS A FEW LOVED ONES. Needs acceptance.

BotW! Link: My man has SO MUCH LORE. Survivor's guilt? Amnesia? Unsure if he remembers everything correctly? NOT SURE IF HE STILL FEELS THE SAME AFTER LEARNING ABOUT HIS PASSED LOVED ONES? Unexperienced and curious, open and lets himself be amazed by the world, letting all the pain that he doesn't even remember (YET) go and just live the life he couldn't have? A part of him not wanting to go through everything all over again after finding out the truth? Doubting his abilities and believing he'll fail again? Slowly becoming his old, stoic, mute and emotionally closed off self through time? Yes to all the above.

Also talks more at the beginning, eats a lot, happy to help and learn new things. Tries to distract himself from reality.

(Platonic)

LA! Link: You're probly in the island too, just as his imagonation however. A memory of a friend he knows and missed? Cannot EVER see again? Well, you are here, in this mystical, fun island. He can be here with you. Indulges in the dream and pretends its the life he wanted to have with you. Friend, best friend, sibling, whatever, it's you and him now forever. No destiny or Calamity can keep you apart when he is dreaming. Will not listen to the owl. He was forced to grow up when defeating evil but here he can indulge in whimsical, childish games. Fishing, stomping on weird creatures (he finds them funny and names them goombas!) Getting all kinds of funny knick-knacks...all with you. Might shape the dream you to make you into the 'you' he remembers, or worse, desires.

FS! Link: uh-oh four Links is double the trouble. Something might have happened during the Split and each of Link's best and worst characteristics show. Your friend gets agGreSSiVe then overprotective, cheery and kind and then clingy and emotional. Smart and giving advice only to be possesive the next. He struggles to maintain his emotions/doppelgangers and it makes it even worse when he tries to hide his true feelings from you. Each Clone might just spit out a thought/opinion they have of you without thinking that has been residing in Link's heart forever. Each get jealous on who gets to spend more time with you (although they're the same person).

MM! Link: Has the wits and maturity of a grown-up and finds it hard to let himself indulge in anything. Lonely since no one understands him and kids 'his age' are too immature for him so he can't find any friends, any connections. Has immense feeling of duty and responsibility that HE is the hero of everything and everyone. When a Problem arrives, HE must solve it. HE must endanger his life to save others. You must be special to have any connection with him. Longs for a normal life but thats not possible anymore. Zelda unwittingly gave him another terrible fate.

[ascendancy-echoes]

Chapter 34: Starling

Zarya whined loudly and stomped her foot. She fiddled with the necklace in one hand and searched through the containers with her free hand. She picked up a small handful of salted meat that reminded her of jerky. She also found a small jar filled with berries and honey.  After dishing up her food, Zarya sat down across from Flea. She slowly nibbled on her food, pondering all the questions she had for Flea. No one really talked to her about Mystics back home. She knew of them, that most lived in a land across the strait, but she had never really wondered why none ever visited Guardia until very recently. Her parents had spoken quietly about it, but she knew Mystics that looked almost human had moved to Guardia the week before.

She recalled the cat-man and his hurt friend. What had he meant about ‘mean Mystics’? He hadn’t seemed mean at all. Just scared. Thinking about the strange cat-like Mystic, she looked up from her bowl at Flea. He was kind of bossy but Zarya understood adults knew more than her and he was right to be cranky when neither of them had slept well or had much food until now.

Her thoughts wandered to recalling how Flea had looked almost human when they first met. He had colorful hair like her and her parents. His long pointed ears fascinated her and she wished she could have ears that wiggled and moved to show how she felt. She thought about how each morning, Flea would go through the routine of changing his look with magic. Giving him the bracelet seemed to have helped a bit since he didn’t take as long to change his look when he fiddled with it. Still, each time, he looked like a lady, something that confused Zarya given the fact he had been angry with her for calling him a lady.

“Why are you staring at me?” Flea asked. “It’s rude to stare, kid.”

Zarya pondered how to respond. She chewed on her food while she dug through her bag for her cards and pulled them out. She tapped on the pictures, slowly forming the sentence to ask why he looked like a lady if he was saying he wasn’t one. Why did he look like a woman… like her mom? “Flea uses magic to change his look,” she noted aloud. “Change your look? Man like Dad?” Flea stared at Zarya, almost glaring. He couldn’t believe a child could be so audacious as to ask him why he chose to assume the appearances he did. However, he realized despite Zarya’s rudeness, she had a point. Why was he still assuming feminine forms? Had he grown so used to appearing as a woman that he had forgotten to consider anything else? Zarya’s comment had dredged up the feeling he would get from time to time that something must be wrong with him. He wondered if he was broken as a Mystic and broken by human standards as well. “Flea is happy?” “Why would I be happy?” Flea snapped. “I’m starving, exhausted and I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere with you asking me rude questions.” He looked down at the scraps in his bowl. Despite how disgusting cold confit tasted and how much he had always hated pickled carrots, he had managed to eat every bite. He had been that desperate. Leaving the bowl at the table, he muttered, “I’m going to lay down on the bed… Do whatever you want, kid. Just leave me alone til morning.”

Zarya sat there as Flea got up and walked into the small bedroom. Flea collapsed face first into the woolen bed stuffed with straw. He turned his face towards the wall, away from the door and Zarya. The smell of hay reminded Flea of his childhood home. He hated it. He wanted to be in a warm inn room, far from wherever this farm was. He found himself pondering Zarya’s questions and recalled how he could have presented himself as male to Ozzie and Slash when he first met them, like he knew he was deep down. He found himself wondering why he had chosen to appear as a woman when it made him so mad. 

Finally, he realized the reason. Time and time again, he presented himself as a female so they would be forced to see his skills as a shapeshifter and not put him on the frontlines as another male soldier sent to die in the name of Ozzie’s army. Despite the ease in which he had learned to detach himself from the act of killing when needed, he didn’t really want to go out of his way to kill others and did his best to avoid the task.

Exhaustion overtook him as he reached this epiphany. He drifted off into a fitful sleep and didn’t wake up until dawn, when he heard the sound of Zarya singing in a language he had never heard before. Groggy, he lay on the bed. Thanks to the nightmares of being hunted down by Slash and Ozzie, he had slept terribly although maybe more physically comfortably than he had been since arriving wherever he was. The sound of Zarya singing to herself in the main room of the farmhouse reminded him that he wasn’t alone and that he was still stuck with a strange human child. Part of him had hoped she would have wandered off so she wouldn’t slow him down in getting back to Guardia, but he found himself unbothered that she was still there. Suddenly, Zarya appeared at the doorway and said, “Good morning, Flea.” “Get up, eat breakfast,” she added, turning around and walking back towards the hearth. Flea sighed and got up. He saw Zarya stirring something in the pot that had been full of moldy stew. Zarya looked up at him and said something about cleaning dishes. That’s when he saw she had restarted the hearth’s fire and had somehow found a way to clean up the copper pot that hung over it. Clean boiling water bubbled inside it. Zarya resumed singing her strange song and poured a bowlful of some type of grain into the pot. She left the pot to get a spoonful of the honeyed berries she had eaten the day before and added it to the pot. Flea noticed that Zarya had set the table with two bowls and cups of water.

This girl made no sense whatsoever. She acted like a little child over the most trivial things but somehow she was self sufficient enough to know how to clean a cooking pot, start a fire and make porridge. He said nothing and watched her as she stirred and sang for a few minutes.

“No milk,” Zarya remarked as she put a few scoops of the thin porridge into a bowl and offered it to Flea. Seeing him hesitate to take the bowl, she echoed his sentiment from the day before, declaring flatly, “We need to eat if we’re gonna survive and find you some other humans.”

Flea snatched the bowl out of Zarya’s hands and snapped, “You mean find you some other humans. I need to get back to my own kind.”

Even as he said it, he realized there probably wasn’t any going back as ‘Flea the Void Mage’, he’d have to start over as some nameless Mystic and avoid ever being seen by Slash or Ozzie. A prospect that frustrated him as he had grown used to his life under Ozzie’s rule as well as the name Flea. It wasn’t going to be easy to start over.

Zarya added more honeyed berries to her own bowl of porridge and sat down across from Flea. She ate quietly and stared at Flea as she did. Flea kept his eyes on the lumpy concoction in his bowl. Taking a bite, he realized it wasn’t half-bad, but he wasn’t about to praise Zarya for her cooking.

As he begrudgingly ate, Flea found himself thinking more about what Zarya had said the day before and the epiphany he had before he had passed out. Wherever this was, he had yet to see any Mystics. It occurred to him that Slash likely presumed he was dead. There was no need to look like ‘the infamous Void Mage Flea’. Zarya clearly had no idea who he was supposed to be or she would never have asked for his help. She would have run away like any sensible human. 

He could look like anyone or anything he wanted. He was a shapeshifter after all. He closed his eyes and shivered as the cold feeling that always came with shapeshifting washed over his entire body. He thought of the various male forms he had seen and assumed. He still wanted long hair but maybe not too long. He thought of the many styles of clothing he had seen in his travels. He’d need something practical but also comfortable. The coldness lifted and Flea opened his eyes to see Zarya smiling at him.

Zarya beamed and said, “Flea is a man. Flea is wearing a dress!”

“It’s a tunic and kilt… and I have pants, but yeah…” Flea replied. He raised an eyebrow, asking. “I assume it meets your approval?”

“Nice boots.” Zarya smiled brightly. “Pretty skirt. Flea is a pretty man.”

Flea smirked. “Thanks, kid.”

~o~O~o~

After eating as much as they could, Flea grabbed an empty sack and told Zarya to pack up some food for the road. Anything they could carry. Zarya frowned and asked about the farmer. Flea let out an annoyed sigh. 

“Kid, no one has been here in weeks… No one is going to care that we’re taking this food. Sometimes it’s okay to take without asking, got it?”

Zarya wondered what her parents would have done in her place. They were always telling her she needed to ask permission before taking anything. Flea seemed to feel the opposite. Given the circumstances, she decided borrowing some food was okay if it meant she would find her way home to her parents. She let out a whiney sigh and helped Flea pack the dried fruits and salted meats.

Flea led the way out of the farm and to the dirt path that followed along a small fork in the river. The farm must be near a village and maybe they knew what had happened in the farm or how far Guardia was from wherever they were. As the day went on, Flea insisted that they eat as they walked so they would find a village by midday.

Sure enough, by early afternoon, Flea spied a village in the distance. It looked not unlike one he grew up in. However, as he and Zarya neared the village, Flea realized it was quiet like the farm. Crows circled overhead. A vague sense of dread built up in Flea’s gut.

“Stay here, kid,” he said to Zarya. “I think something’s wrong.”

Flea shifted his form to that of a crow and flew up and towards the village. From his vantage point he could see that there was no activity in the village. He flew down for a closer look and found some of the buildings had been on fire while white symbols hastily painted on the doors of the buildings that were still standing. Cautiously, Flea flew down to a broken window and landed on the windowsill. He could hear the sound of flies buzzing and the place looked abandoned. Flying back up, Flea spied what looked like a gravesite just outside the north part of the town. He could see graves, some yet covered. There didn’t appear to be signs of violence in the small village, but something had killed those within its walls. Now the abandoned farm with its shallow graves made sense. A deadly illness must have claimed the farmer and their family and swept through this town. Sure that the town would be a danger to him if he stayed and no humans were around to take Zarya, Flea flew back to Zarya who had settled down on a nearby rock and was playing with a music box that played a jovial tune.

“Bad news kid,” he sighed after returning to his human disguise. “No one’s home in that village. It’s got bad air or something.”

Zarya hummed to her music box, seemingly not acknowledging Flea. She mumbled something about silver points and giggled before looking up at Flea with a quiet and serious expression.

“Find some humans?” she asked.

Flea rolled his eyes at her question. Picking up his sack of food, he snapped, “Will you quit asking me that?! I already promised you I would. You don’t need to keep stating the obvious, kid. Now let’s get going. Hopefully we’ll find another village before dark.”

“Okay.”

~o~O~o~

Three days and two more abandoned and burned down villages later, Flea was at his wits end. Sleeping under the stars was not for him. At least they had food, but that too was beginning to run low. Zarya’s naive optimism was also starting to wear him down. He thought from time to time of just leaving her in the middle of nowhere. If she could cook, she could survive on her own.

But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. For as annoying and strange as she could be at times, Zarya kept showing him kindness and she seemed genuinely curious about him and Mystics in general, occasionally asking oddly vague yet direct questions. He did his best to understand her questions and answer her, letting her curiosity distract him from how miserable he was. Realizing that Zarya knew nothing of the war or Mystics beyond the fact that they weren’t humans, Flea couldn’t help but wonder what sort of sheltered life she had led before they met.

One morning after he had changed his appearance for the day, she asked him to change again. The request Flea off guard. What was wrong with his appearance that she wanted him to waste magic changing again? She hadn’t complained before.

“Flea changes his look, please?” she replied in response to him asking why she wanted him to do such a thing. “Please change his look? I wanna see, please.”

“Okay, but only because you asked nicely,” Flea replied. Honestly he didn’t want to push it because it was still tiring but a part of him had to admit that he was pleased that Zarya thought his power was interesting. He reverted his ears back to their long elvish appearance, made his braid short again and the same traveling clothes as before, although he added some earrings for fun.

“I change now.” Zarya declared with conviction. “Zarya changes her look now.”

“Kid, you can’t shapeshift,” Flea sighed. “You’re a hu-“

Zarya was a human. He was sure of that. Until he met those strange teens who were looking for Glenn, Flea had never seen a human with magical abilities. Even then, they weren’t that talented. Zarya, on the other hand, did something he never expected.

Flea watched as Zarya drew some strange, shadowy lines in the air. The shadows leapt to her hands and Zarya reached up to cover her ears. As she brushed her hair out of the way, her ears became covered in the same shadowy magic and took on a pointed appearance before the shadows dispersed like smoke.

Zarya felt the edge of her ears and grinned. She bounced into place and said, “Ears!”

They weren’t as long as Flea’s but they were indeed pointed now. Flea stood there, completely speechless as Zarya continued to bounce in place. She repeated the symbol and then ran her fingers through her hair, changing the shade. Zarya flapped her hands and made happy-sounding noises, occasionally saying “big ears'' as she hummed and squealed.

“How the hell… did…” was all Flea could manage to say.

“Magic,” Zarya replied with a smile. 

“I can see that, kid… but how the hell did you copy me?” Flea asked.

“Copy,” Zarya echoed. She looked thoughtful for a minute before she picked up a small stick and drew a stick figure with pointed ears, claiming it was a drawing of Flea. Adding an arrow, Zarya drew the same symbol she had traced in the air and repeated in saying his name. Finally, Zarya repeated his name once more as she drew another arrow and another figure.

“Flea… is… magic,” Zarya said slowly. “I see it.”

“You… ‘see’ magic?” Flea asked, gesturing quotes as he said the word ‘see’. He still didn’t get what Zarya meant about him. Of course he had magic. He was a Mystic. Maybe she meant she could read his aura the same way he could see hers if he focused.

Zarya nodded. “I see magic. I see spells.”

“How do you even have magic?” Flea asked, having wondered for a while now. He was prepared to not get an answer given Zarya hadn’t given one before. He tried to remember what those kids had told Glenn. Someone had given it to them or taught them…

“Dad.” Zarya answered after a moment. She spoke in that same odd pattern of speech like she was remembering something someone had told her. “I’m just like mom and dad.”

It was not the most helpful answer as now Flea wondered how her parents had magic. He sighed. 

“So you know fire, healing and now you’re a shapeshifter like me,” Flea noted. He smirked, feeling oddly proud of Zarya for learning how to do his kind of magic. “Any other surprises, you little starling?”

“Starling.”

Met with no answer to his question beyond her echo, Flea said, shifting to have human ears, “Well, I guess we should keep following the road along the river. Everything needs water and we’ll be more likely to find humans if we follow it.”

Zarya wordlessly followed Flea along the riverbank. Flea was still mad about being transported to who-knows-where but he was less mad about Zarya following him than he had been. She had potential. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad to travel with the kid for now. 

[paytato435]

Chapter 11: The Phantom Limb

Content warning: alien gore and violence

Bitter Tea

April's announcement was too good to be true. Leonardo was ever the optimist, but the years sure had a way of trying to change that. April sat across from him at her seat in the war room, which, by this point, now also doubled as Leonardo’s bedroom, dining room, and whatever else he could fit in any given day room. If he wasn’t eating, sleeping, or meeting someone here, he was out. That was fine by him- Casey was too old to be forced to share a room with his old man anyway; he deserved to have his own space. As the leader of the resistance, Leonardo couldn’t afford that luxury. His business was everyone’s business. 

The slider had been stirring a hot cup of water idly, taking in the brief respite (and mourning for the eight hundredth time the loss of tea) when April had entered the room unannounced.

“You really found it?” he asked skeptically.

“I did,” she announced with unwavering certainty. She waved a hand over a panel on the conference table, and purple light constructed a map of the surrounding barrens outside their small bunker. She connected a red line from their base to a pin over a hundred miles southwest.

Leonardo narrowed his eyes. “At least it’s not in the ocean,” he grumbled. “Where’d you hear this?”

“You’re not going to like it…”

“Is it a defector?”

“Worse,” April sighed, sitting down in her chair. “The Bitch is still alive.”

“No.” Leonardo did not want to believe it. There was no way.

“It’s true. She reached out herself,” April shrugged, sliding another panel. The map morphed into a video player. “Trigger warning: tremendous bitch behavior,” April groaned, pressing the play button.

The picture on screen was grainy as all hell, but Leonardo had no trouble recognizing the old and withered face of Big Mama. Her red eyes still glowed with that familiar menace, but they were also sunken, weary, and her entire body grayed with age. In a nearly mummified claw, she held the long lost key to the prison dimension.

“Hello darlings,” she cooed in a wretched whisper. “I’ve never been one to be brief, but I’m sure you can understand my directness when I say this: you need to come to my location within two days, or the key is lost forever.”

“WHAT?” Leonardo interrupted, but April shushed him. She pointed back toward the screen.

The crusty crone continued on without them. “...need your assistance. I require a swift and comfortable evacuation from this location to your base. The key, of course, is your handsome reward!”

Even though he hadn’t eaten anything today, Leonardo felt like he might throw up.

“Of course, you could just come and pick it up and leave me to die,” she swooned. “That would be all too obvious. So instead, I’ve got a weensy wittle fail safe to ensure I’m not backstabbed again by you uncouth wretches.”

Of course she did. Everything was a game with Big Mama; even the end of the world.

“I have a team of spellweavers here that I’ve… ah… convinced to help me disintegrate your little trinket here-” she waved the key around. “-unfortunately, these spells have a cost.” She spun the camera around and showed three yokai who had been sat together in a mystic circle. Their eyes squeezed shut in concentration, they seemed extremely panicked.

“Poor babes didn’t read the fine print of our agreement,” Big Mama giggled. “The trigger for the spell is a kind of dead-man switch, you see. The spell they’ve cast is slowly draining their life force. If you don’t get here in time, and two days is being generous, honestly, not only will the key be destroyed, but they will die as well.”

Big Mama spun the camera back to face her old and horrendous features.

“So what’s it gonna be Baby Blue?” she sneered. “My life, or their funeral? This could be your chance to fix things! I eagerly await your arrival.”

Leonardo leaned over the table. Fuck…he really missed tea.

April waited for him to say something, but when he didn’t, she filled the space.

“It’s… it’s probably too late at this point for the key itself to be useful to us,” she offered. “We don’t even know how to use-”

“We’re going after it,” Leonardo interrupted. “We have to.”

“Leo, it’s not your fault…”

“Of course it’s my fault!” he nearly shouted. “How could it not be? This is a chance to make things right!” 

“Is it?” April asked quietly in a tone that was clearly meant to calm him down. “Or is it bait? She's clearly targeting you. She wants you to go out into the middle of nowhere as soon as possible. It's… it's likely a trap.”

“If it is, then why did you bring it up?” Leonardo challenged her. She must have known how he'd react, right?

April looked back at the video. The screen was frozen on Big Mama's venomous smile.

“I thought you deserved to know,” she answered simply. “And… I wanted to make sure.” She turned her head to face the slider.

“I know you're going to go after the key no matter what I say,” she sighed. “And you'd be stubborn and pissed if I never told you.”

“But…?”

“But if you leave us again to do your own thing the remaining members of the resistance will not take it well. You need to choose one over the other: are you their leader, or are you a hero?”

“What do you mean?”

April's face softened. “You can't lead people if you aren't here half the time, Leo. Since Raph died you've taken it upon yourself to do most of the heavy lifting around here; in the base and out in the field. It's inspiring, sure, but we need strategy right now, not just heart. You can't do everything, but I think you'd be a lot more useful to the team if you stayed here and used that big brain of yours to keep us safe, instead of throwing yourself into risky situations with meager rewards.”

“Meager? It's the fucking key! There's no way we can stop the Krang without it!”

“We've been trying to develop the technology for a new key-”

“For years! And it's led to nothing,” Leonardo pointed out. “That relic is over ten thousand years old and it's more advanced technology than even Donatello could even imagine. Mikey can't make heads or tails of the mystics surrounding it.”

“If we keep trying-”

“April, I really appreciate your perspective,” Leonardo sighed, slumping deep into his chair. He cradled his sad cup of water to his plastron, contemplating taking the bitter taste of acceptance. “And I get what you mean. I haven't been around here nearly enough. Hell, that's what Donatello's project was for right? To get us stronger fighters. I need to trust them.”

April nodded, but Leonardo could tell it was a restrained gesture. She knew he hated to talk about the new mutants unless it was absolutely necessary.

“I've failed you all,” he admitted. “I'm putting this whole team in danger.”

“Leo, that's not what I'm saying,” April told him quietly. “You can-”

“I'm putting you in charge.”

“What?”

“I can't do this, April. I can't sit here in this room and watch people die out on the field, and I sure as hell can't let the key slip through my fingers again.”

“So you quit?”

“Does it really sound like I'm quitting, Commander?” He took a sip from his cup. “I know how we got here, I know the mistakes I've made, and I'm owning up to it. I didn't ever deserve this position. Leading my brothers is much different from leading an entire army.”

April gave a sad smile. “I suppose that makes sense. But everyone here loves you Leo. What's Casey going to think? Your brothers?”

“I think they'd be thrilled, honestly,” Leonardo grumbled. “I can't remember the last time I sat down with Mikey and just… talked.” He looked off at nothing in particular across the room. “Of course, fuck whatever Donnie thinks, but I'm sure he'd be happier with you calling the shots. He never listened to me anyway.”

He could tell April wanted to protest, but she'd already done that a million times before. It never got them anywhere. She was right in calling him stubborn.

“Casey… when I get back, were going to be a proper family. It's been so hard the last few months, we don't talk much.”

“You've been too busy.”

“And him too! Can you believe it? He's nearly the same age Mikey was when all this shit started. This November he'll be fifteen. And he's already been out in the field for two years. I thought we had it bad! I used to tell others “can you imagine ending the world when you're only sixteen?” Now he's been shoveling the shit out of the bed I made since he was only twelve. It all adds up, exponentially.”

“And yet he still looks up to you,” April pointed out, smiling.

“He shouldn't,” the slider grumbled again. “I failed him. I've failed everyone in this miserable little camp. We eat rats and leaves and tell each other to be grateful to be alive.”

“This is your out,” April noticed, knitting her eyebrows together. 

Leonardo nodded. “This is the only way out. I'll go it alone if I have to.”

“I can put together a small team for you at the very least,” April offered. “And one of Donnie's runners. It'll get you there in just a few hours.”

“I don't need a team,” Leonardo shook his head. “Just get me Synth.”

“That guy, again? Tell me you're not…?”

“No no! Nothing like that!” Leonardo waved his arms. “That was one time… no. I just want him because he knows her as well as I do. He'd want nothing more than to make sure she stays dead this time.”

April gave him a disapproving look, but didn't push it further. “If you're going to go, you better leave now. The sun will be up in a few hours and you do not want the technodrome on your tail.”

Leonardo groaned but stood up reluctantly. It was going to be a long trip.

The Phantom Limb

It had been impossible to stay focused at the lair once everyone else had woken up. Leo had made fun of them of course, and Raph was also set to clean up the living room as the boys had just left the vacuum sitting all lonely and by itself, so Casey and Mikey had completely given up on exploring their ninpo. At least until they went out for a walk in the evening.

To be perfectly honest, Mikey didn’t know what had come over him; he’d never thought he could be so interested in something as seemingly boring as meditating. He was never one to sit still for very long, but after stretching his legs for a bit, he figured it was not far from the sudden impulse to turn a cartwheel. Casey had described it like a phantom limb, and Mikey was inclined to believe him. Now when he wasn’t exercising his ninpo, it was as if his spirit had been crammed into a car seat for six hours. He didn’t know if Casey felt the same way, but he seemed happy enough to entertain him.

So the boys found an awesome vantage point over the city and took the opportunity to sit outside and appreciate the warm summer breeze. They both sat across from each other, cross-legged on a rooftop. The nightlife of the city buzzed far below them, and Mikey had never felt so at peace. This was what he had been missing; it was as if the universe had woken up and spoken to him for the first time. Or perhaps it was the other way around, he wasn’t sure. In his mind’s eye, he could see the millions of people below him, a rainbow of sights and sounds, all rhythmically dancing in time with the heartbeat of the universe. And he was a part of that universe- and so was Casey, sitting across from him, also relaxed, his rose pink aura bubbling over him like seafoam lapping over sand.

Curious, Mikey tried to reach out and see how far he could 'see' like this. Could he reach the lair? It seemed his vision narrowed as he searched, but he still had some idea of what he was seeing…

The beeping from his chest immediately brought him back. He looked down and saw his emergency signal was going off. Someone was in trouble?

Casey jumped and immediately went to his phone.

"What's going on? Are you all alright?!"

Mikey faintly heard Leo's voice on the other end, he sounded just as confused as they were.

"Hold on, I'll put you on speaker, I'm with Mikey."

"It's Donnie!" April shouted through the speaker. "He’s in trouble!"

"He’s what?!" Leo asked April from the same line. It seemed she knew more than he did. There was a shuffle as April took the phone from Leo.

"Casey, Mikey, meet us at the University, now!" 

“Wait, what's going on?” Mikey asked, concerned.

“Donnie has been attacked!” April repeated, more urgently. “He’s at Eastlaird.”

“Fuck,” Casey mumbled, scrambling to he feet. “We'll be there soon!”

“Hurry!” She pleaded, and then hung up.

"Shit!" Casey bristled, shoving his phone back into his pocket and lowering his mask.

"Today would have been a good day to learn how to fly, huh?" Mikey mumbled, stretching his back.

"Aren't you worried? Let's go!" Casey called back, already running towards the school.

"Of course I'm worried!" Mikey pouted, sprinting to catch up. "It's just frustrating. I thought I was really getting somewhere for a minute there."

"You're doing great!" Casey panted. "But we can figure it out later!" 

Thankfully, they were only a few minutes away from the university.

Casey jumped and swung down to the front of the science building. Mikey vaulted after him.

"Leo, we're here! Do we go inside?" Casey asked through the com in his mask..

"We're a minute away,  just hold on."

It was an agonizing minute, mostly because Mikey could already feel that the building was empty. He did, however, see Raph, April, and Leo running up before Casey could.

"I think they're gone, we have to catch up to them!" Mikey stammered as Leo led them around the outside of the building.

"Gone? But we have his signal!" Raph frowned, confused.

"Let's just get there, fast," Leo brushed it off, looking down at one of Donnie's auxiliary tracking devices. "He's this way."

Everyone followed Leo until they reached the back of the building. There, April pointed out the second floor window Donnie had crashed through.

“Tim said he fell from here.”

But Mikey's sense was right. Donnie was gone.

Leo walked across the small lawn and pulled Donnie's emergency signal from the ground. It looked like it had been smashed into the dirt with quite a bit of force. He disabled it, and then threw it back on the ground angrily.

"What are we supposed to do now?" he shouted, pacing around the yard and looking back up at the window.

Casey picked up Donnie's tracker and scanned it with his phone.

"Based on when the signal went off, they can't have gotten far," he calculated.

"If we split up maybe we could-"

"No. Absolutely not," Leo interrupted. "Whatever's got him we can't face alone. We should stay together. This is dangerous."

"Do you think Donnie put a tracker in himself?" Mikey piped up.

"You mean like the one he put in Raph?" Leo narrowed his eyes.

"Leo, he definitely put one in all of us," Mikey rolled his eyes, thinking back to how they had found Raph after he had been abducted by the Krang. “He’s a terrible liar.”

"When did he do that?” Casey asked with concern.

"Relax Future Boy, it was before you got here,” Leo waved off his concern. “Although who's to say he hasn't put one on you since you wandered off that one time…"

Casey looked over his body as if he could somehow find the subdermal.

"Mikey's got a point though," Leo brought Donnie's tracking device up and flipped through some menus.

"Oof," Leo looked up at Casey. "You've been bugged too."

Mikey noticed Casey’s grimace as Leo pulled up Donnie's tracker.

"So, at least he's fair. I got him,” Leo confirmed. “They're headed northwest."

"Well let's not waste any more time then," Raph punched his hand. "Let's go get him!"

The five bounced out of the University. The chase was on.

-

“Synth is dead. They're all dead, Commander… I'm sorry,” Leonardo's voice broke through the static. “You were right; it was a trap. Big Mama was dead before we got here… she was infected.”

“Donnie's en route to your location, just hold out as long as you can.”

“What? No! Why would… this was my choice! I don't want backup!”

“I didn't send him!” April struggled. “He left on his own.”

“Is he insane? I'm surrounded! How-” the line cut for a few agonizing seconds. Casey and April hung onto every moment. On a nearby monitor, Casey could see his sensei's vitals being monitored. He was fine. Out of breath, a nervous wreck, but at the moment, fine.

“Fuck Donnie!” Leonardo's voice came back in. “When I see him I'm gonna-” he cut back out again. Casey wondered if he'd even meant that to come through.

“I have eyes on the target,” came Donatello's familiar deadpan. “I'm touching down in two minutes.”

“Already?” April whispered. How had he gotten there so fast?

“Landing site is not clear, Donnie,” Leonardo warned.

“It's fine, I'll make it work,” the soft shell huffed. There was the sound of both a nearby and distant explosion from both mics.

“What was that?” April asked urgently.

“Are you fucking insane!?” came Leonardo's voice from the closer explosion side. “What if that hit me?”

“It wouldn't,” came Donatello’s smug response. 

“Landing site is clear.”

-

R.O.N.I.N.

Casey didn’t want to think about it, but he couldn’t help himself. Donnie had, sometime between him arriving and now, placed a tracker inside him. How had he done that? When had he done that? Casey always locked the bedroom door. Casey didn’t sleep in their turtle piles or curl up with everyone on movie night. Had Leo let him in? Would either of them have noticed if he had picked the lock on their carriage door?

The worst part was that Casey had trusted him. He had specifically asked Donnie not to track him after he found out about Raph’s tracker. He’d probably done it after Casey had gotten lost, and while he could kind of understand the concern, it was still messed up. He had promised Casey not to.

That meant Donnie probably knew where Casey had been the last few days. Why hadn’t he brought it up? Surely Donnie was going to confront him at some point, right?

It was a nauseating feeling. He had thought he had covered his tracks, but it also felt like no matter what he did, things were beginning to unravel. He supposed it was only a matter of time. He squeezed the grip of his hockey stick in frustration. He wasn’t ready for that. He really wasn’t ready for that.

As Leo led them across town, Casey noticed that they were approaching a pinned location on his map. He pulled out his phone and checked where they were going, but there were only a handful of places he had pinned, and they weren’t anywhere he had gone to before.

This was a place he had dared not go.

“Leo! Stop!” Everyone immediately halted and turned their heads to him. “We have to slow down. I know where they are.”

“You do?” Casey nodded, and he handed Leo his phone. “I put a tracker on the Sister Krang before she was taken away. That’s exactly where we’re headed.”

“What? She’s here?” Leo looked in the direction they were headed. Just on the edge of town Casey and the others could make out a sparkling white dome in the distance. “I figured they'd ship her to Area 51 or something.”

“It’s a government facility,” Casey nodded. “I haven’t checked it out but…”

“This is really bad,” Raph spoke up. “They probably think he’s an alien or something stupid like that.”

“If we’re going to sneak in there, we’re going to have to be very smart about this,” April pointed out.

“Ugh, why did our smart brother have to get captured!” Mikey groaned, tilting his head to one side. Leo gave him a disapproving look.

“So they probably have a lot of security,” Leo turned to Casey. “Do you have anything that could help us get around that?”

Casey's face lit up. “I do, actually! Could I take the point?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Leo stepped aside and Casey jumped ahead, flipping his mask down and switching over to night vision.

“If you’re paranoid about an enemy you know nothing about, you’re going to give yourself the widest perimeter possible,” Casey explained, steering the group southwest. “Like, the perimeter could be miles wide, with several different layers of detection. We’re likely already being monitored in some capacity.”

“Are you kidding?” Leo asked, surprised.

“It’s fine,” Casey waved him off. “It should be a general surveillance at this distance. They don’t know we’re after them.” Casey pulled out his phone and opened one of future Donatello’s most beloved applications: R.O.N.I.N.

He was going to be honest, Casey didn’t know exactly how it worked, but it had saved his ass many times over, and his sensei’s many more. It was an anti-surveillance program that could detect other security systems within the vicinity and alert the user. It could loop video and replace audio of security footage, allowing the user to sneak into new places unseen and unheard. It could use AI to generate new footage based on existing data, creating especially difficult to notice alterations. It could even trick motion sensors.

This was also the same system that found a map of Mama’s Battle Nexus. With algorithms that wouldn’t be breachable for the next twenty odd years, Donatello’s R.O.N.I.N. application was the most advanced spyware on the planet. And it needed to be- it had saved his family’s lives more times than Casey could count.

R.O.N.I.N. searched for nearby systems, and aside from the local home security systems nearby, there was only one that matched the complexity Casey was looking for. The security was looser than he expected. There were traffic cameras connected to the facility’s system, but of course, they had traveled above those.

“We’re actually clear,” Casey sighed with relief. “R.O.N.I.N. says the facility’s system’s radius is only 3,000 yards, we’re safe until we’re less than a mile away.”

“R.O.N.I.N.?” Leo asked, tilting his head. “What’s that?”

“One of Donnie’s apps. It was named for you, actually,” Casey winked. “Ninja In, Ninja Out, Reversed.”

“Pft,” Leo sputtered. “That’s so dumb.”

“I should probably give you a copy of it at some point,” Casey noted. It was probably too valuable for them to not be using it on a regular basis anyway.

They moved in closer to the facility, and as it came into view, Casey was a little set back by how large it was. It was as large as a football stadium. It wasn’t exactly subtle either, with its bright white shining dome reflecting the city’s lights. It must be a pain to look at during the day.

“How are we supposed to find Donnie in there?” Raph asked as they approached the perimeter. “It’s huge…”

“He’s in there,” Mikey interrupted. “I can see him.”

“You what?” Leo and Raph asked at the same time.

“I can see Donnie’s ninpo. He’s actually relatively close to us.”

“Since when could you do that?” Raph asked, crossing his arms.

“Since today,” Mikey shrugged. “Casey’s been teaching me some things.”

Raph gave Casey a one-eyed, no nonsense look.

“Were you gonna share with the rest of the class?”

Casey picked his nose. “He wanted to know how to fly. Raph doesn’t fly in the future.”

“And what do I do in the future, huh?”

Casey looked away. “Push up daisies, mostly.”

“You little shit!”

“Guys cut it out!” Leo interrupted. “How are we going to get in there?”

“I can set R.O.N.I.N. up to disable their security, but we still have to take out anybody on the way in,” Casey offered, pulling up a map of the facility and sharing it with the guys. “We could sit and learn their rotations, but that’s probably not ideal if we want Donnie out as soon as possible.”

“We need to hurry,” Leo agreed.

“Right. Since Mikey and I have eyes on Donnie, you three-” Casey pointed to Leo, April, and Raph. “Need to make sure you’re with one of us at all times.”

“I’ll stay with you,” Leo directed. “Raph you stick with Mikey and April. I don’t really want us splitting up if we have to though.”

“No, especially if there are more big guys like Aderman,” April agreed. 

“Wait, this is a government facility,” Raph pointed out. “Was he ambushed by humans?”

“One human,” April clarified, making the group turn their heads to gawk at her.

“April, you didn’t explain what Donnie was doing out here,” Leo reminded her, narrowing his eyes with concern.

“We were looking for that herbicide I found over the summer,” she sighed, pressing her hand to her forehead. “It’s all my fault he got captured. I should have gone with him!”

Raph placed a hand on her shoulder, and she turned in to him for a hug. “It’s alright,” he assured her. “We’re gonna get him back.” She mumbled an agreement, and then broke away, taking a breath to steady herself.

“I had a friend let Donnie into the school, and from what he told me as he was running away, Aderman probably heard them sneaking around and took Donnie away. She’s also… not very fond of mutants.”

“Well she definitely won’t be fond of us by the time we’re done here,” Raph grumbled.

Leo looked back down at Casey’s map, and then at the facility.

“Looks like there’s a window up on the third floor I could use to see inside,” he pointed out.

“Whatever I see I can portal to, so I can drop us on the roof and we go in from there.”

Mikey glanced over to Leo and squinted at his back.

“Leo, how do you have two swords again?”

“What?” Leo straightened up immediately, as if he could hide the katanas on his back. “I've had these two for a while now.”

“Donnie broke your last one yesterday! I heard it snap!” Mikey accused.

Leo scratched the back of his head, his face turning redder by the minute. “Well… you see, we're on a really important mission now… Donnie's in trouble-”

“You are so dead when we get home!” Mikey jabbed his finger repeatedly into Leo's plastron. “Dead dead dead dead DEAD!”

“Mikey,” Casey interrupted. “Are there any security personnel by that window?” Casey asked.

Mikey sneered at Leo once more and then looked up through the trees and brush they were currently hidden behind.

“Yeah, there are a couple.”

“So we can take them out or distract them,” Casey concluded. “Taking them out in the short term is safer, but a well done distraction wouldn’t raise any alarms.”

“It’s faster to knock them out, and then there’s less of them on the way out,” Raph argued.

“Thanks for volunteering yourself, big guy,” Leo smiled, elbowing the snapper.

“Hey!”

-

It was surprisingly easy to catch the two unfortunate security guards standing outside the facility’s eastern wall. A quick bonk together of their similarly thick noggins caused them to drop like stones. Raph dragged the men into the bushes, giving Leo the opportunity to portal the team up onto the… uh… dome. Casey almost stepped out onto the surface to follow Mikey and Leo when April pulled him back quickly by the shoulder.

"Are you crazy? It’s too steep, we'll slip and fall!" she whispered. Casey did a double take at the smooth, round surface in front of them. Oh, yeah that probably wasn't a great idea. He watched Leo slide precariously over the lip of the building and out of sight. Mikey neared the edge as well, keeping a lookout. The only thing keeping them from sliding off the rounded surface was the added traction of their bare feet and hands. Casey leaned back. Yeah, falling off the building from this height could have been disastrous. And embarrassing.

A minute later Leo was back and cut them open a new portal, this time inside the facility itself.

"Remember team, stick together," Leo warned. "We get Donnie, we get out. No funny business."

The group nodded in unison. They silently stepped through the portal, and it closed shut behind them.

Casey found himself in what looked to be a personal office space. The floor was covered in commercial carpet squares, and the ceiling was filled by acoustical drop tiles. Leo had strategically positioned them behind a solid row of filing cabinets, but if they moved too much they could be seen through either the exterior or interior windows. The office door was also glass, but at least that gave Mikey a space to peek into the hallway outside from a low angle, and be therefore easier to overlook.

The box turtle took the lead, using his newfound third eye to look out for potential enemies and edge their way towards Donnie's signal. Once Mikey seemed lost by the layout of the labyrinth of cubicles they meandered through, but it was then that Casey would pull out his map and point him in the right direction.

Eventually they came to a stairwell that would lead them up and further into the dome, and now away from any exterior windows. Casey felt the unease of being trapped crawl over his skin, but then remembered that in this time, Leo had his portals. That was a relief and a half, and something the boy was still not used to.

Casey vaguely remembered exploring the crumbled remains of an enclosed stadium once upon a time when he was very small. Master Leonardo had considered it a place they could hide for a time, but in the end passed it over for an underground alternative instead. The facility they were moving in reminded him of that stadium. Tall, curved walls became the ceiling, with high white painted steel beams criss crossing over one another high above them. The floor was filled with polished concrete with a buffed reflection that caught the flood lights mounted on the exterior wall circling the entire facility. 

The interior wall of this hallway was similarly curved, following the shape of the exterior, but instead of steel, it was made of painted white brick. There were a series of doors spaced far out along and around this interior, and Mikey paused at the sight of them as he seemed to look beyond them.

He looked back at Casey, who was squatting just at the top of the stairs. 'Where go?' he signed, pointing to the row of doors.

Casey opened the map again and took the lead, moving them towards what seemed to be marked as the primary testing facility. He was nearly there when a hand grabbed him and pulled him back suddenly. A door swung open behind him, and Mikey threw himself, and directed the others into said room, before closing the door silently and leaving them in the darkness.

"Mikey what-" Casey heard Leo start to ask, but a small movement shut him up. Then they heard the footsteps coming. They passed right by them, and then faded away. Slowly and carefully, Mikey reopened the door and slipped back outside, letting the others behind him trickle out.

Who knew today was the perfect day to fuck around and find out what else he could do with his ninpo?

Casey took the point again and led them to the lab Donnie's tracker seemed to be pointing them towards. The door to the next room was locked, but that never stopped a professional scavenger like Casey Jones. Through years of experience, there wasn't a single lock he could not pick, and today would be no exception. It only took a moment for his bump key to find its place in the lock and jimmy it open with a swift and satisfying click.

In they slipped, one by one. The testing room they had entered was enormous, but it unfortunately lacked the purple soft shell they were looking for. Instead, the five of them came face to face with the tortured wails and horrific sight of what little remained of the pathetic Sister Krang.

They found themselves at the back of a viewing room, one of several that looked out into a large white room filled with half a dozen lab assistants and technicians, who were currently examining the writhing pink alien. The sight of the creature made Casey's knees buckle, but April was there to catch him and hold him in place.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He knew she was here. He had told all of them himself. But seeing her again after only so little time had passed… He stiffened, and found himself looking around for more of them, or for something to go wrong, even though he knew logically that likely would not happen. She was completely and utterly subdued by the facility employees, screaming in horrendous agony. Nothing was getting her out of here as they sawed bits of her off and placed those bits of her pink flesh into plastic bags to be carted off somewhere else. Wherever they cut, her skin grew right back. Another team seemed to be observing her and taking notes, talking back and forth to one another despite the horrific screaming. They did so as if everything here was perfectly ordinary. As if they were carving a Christmas ham. Casey wondered how anyone could find themselves clocking into work and deciding to do this today.

Thankfully, Mikey took the lead again and brought them through a side door to their right, which thankfully led them out of sight of the pathetic creature. The screams however, given their proximity, continued. Casey hoped that Donnie was alright, but his stomach dropped just thinking about what state he could be in when they caught up to him.

The others also seemed spurred on with urgency as they moved quicker now through room after awful room, down and around pointlessly meandering hallways that finally led them to the opposite side of the facility. Casey wasn't sure what Mikey had meant when he said he thought Donnie was "close."

Mikey stopped in front of another door and gestured to Casey and Leo. Donnie’s tracker showed them he was on the other side of this door. But what Mikey signed next caught Casey’s attention:

‘I see two Donnies.’

‘Two?’ Casey asked in confusion. ‘How?’ Mikey shrugged, but Leo confirmed there was only one showing up via his subdermal.

‘How many are inside?’ Casey asked instead. He didn’t have time to wonder how reliable Mikey’s new sight was. He hoped it was just a fluke.

‘Six.’ Okay, that wasn’t so bad. Casey checked the map for any other ways into the room. It looked like there was another observation room around the corner. If Leo got eyes on Donnie, they could pop in and out before Aderman even knew what hit her. Directing the group to the map and then around the corner, Mikey signed there was one person inside the observation room.

Mikey slipped inside and knocked out the single lab tech, but that was about when the team’s luck ran out, because at that moment, another person on the other side of the glass turned and directed a question to the now unconscious man, or rather where he had been standing. Mikey gave a cheeky smile back to the lab tech, before ducking under the interior window and turning to the others.

“Get him and go, Leo!” he whispered frantically, gesturing with his thumb over his head and into the lab. Casey could hear the confused chatter of the staff on the other side of the wall, and the door opening out into the hall they’d just come from. They had less than a minute before this got bad.

Leo peeked over the window and into the lab. Casey thought a ghost had passed over the slider as he grabbed onto the windowsill to ground himself.

"Don!"

-

You Aren't Supposed to Be Here

As soon as Leonardo boarded the small airship, everything went to shit.

Immediately as Donatello signaled they were taking off, Casey and April heard the massive crunch of steel as the ship was forced back down. Reports flashed on the Commander’s screen that Donatello’s ship was critically damaged. April pulled up a feed of the airship's external cameras. Tentacles wrapped tightly around the titanium body, and covered the lenses from several perspectives.

“Shit!” Donatello’s panicked voice came through the comms. In the background of that swear, Casey thought he heard howling from a short distance away.

A pause.

“What are we-” Master Leonardo was interrupted by a sound of shattered glass, and then horrific screaming.

“Don!” Leonardo screamed, and Casey glanced over to their vitals. Donatello’s heart rate skyrocketed. There was more swearing from Leonardo’s com, but he seemed otherwise physically unharmed.

And then… the comms shut off.

“Donnie!” April shrieked, trying to re-establish the connection, but it was clear he had deliberately cut them. What was happening?

Casey gripped the chair back he was leaning over in the war room. Commander O’Neil stood with one arm over his shoulders, squeezing him close and staring at the reports. The cameras on the ship’s exterior revealed the ship was now surrounded by at least thirty hounds, and Casey knew that there were probably even more on the way.

The brothers were grounded in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by enemies, with no way out.

“Leo, Donnie, come in! Guys…” April pleaded. Casey stared at the vitals monitor. He was still there.

“Sensei…”

This wasn’t happening. This could not be happening. There was nothing they could do. Leonardo knew they were waiting on him. He wasn’t just going to leave them, was he? Why had Donatello cut him off from them?

And then, while they could do nothing but sit and witness the end, one last message came through: “Leo’s en route, eta two seconds.”

“What?” April whispered. “That…”

Blue violet light erupted around the room. It shimmered in the same way Casey had seen Master Michelangelo’s ninpo do. Casey and April turned at the same time and, to their amazement, saw exactly what Donatello described. Through a ring of blue violet mystic energy, Leonardo stumbled backwards into the war room, somehow crossing over one hundred miles in just two seconds. On the other side, Casey could see the ship they had just tried to escape with. As the portal closed, he noticed that Donatello was nowhere in sight.

April was the first to react, moving swiftly to catch the slider before he ran into their table. Casey had to jump out of the way of them in the cramped space. Bewildered, and half wondering if this was some kind of mistake or trick, he looked the slider over with a confusing feeling of both horror and relief. Master Leonardo wasn’t supposed to be able to use his ninpo. How was this possible?

As April fussed over the older turtle, Casey glanced back at their monitors. The cameras were dead. Donatello was dead. Leonardo was not. Sliding away the map of the crash site, Casey pulled up a map of their own base. Three flashing blips indicated that Leonardo was well and truly in the room with them. Casey glanced back over to Leonardo, still staring at the space where he had just come from. He hadn’t said anything, even as April peppered him with questions. He just stood there, watching nothing, appearing to have no more will or function than that of a standing oak tree. He was simply lost, his eyes glazed over, lips and teeth set as if he had something else he wanted to say, but no one left to say it to.

After what felt like an eternity, the slider opened the grip of his prosthetic hand, and lowered it to show April what he had brought back with him. Purple satin slid through his fingers and into her trembling hands. When April looked back up into Leonardo’s eyes, Casey suddenly felt like an intruder. They stood in shock, devastated at the loss of someone Casey had thought he had no desire to see or hear from ever again. So he retreated, around the table and out the door.

He faintly heard Leonardo’s apology as he forced himself down the hall. He passed Michelangelo’s room and debated if he should say anything, but thought better of it. He didn’t want to make things worse. Instead, he arrived at and kicked in the door of his own room. The handle bounced off the adjacent wall and swung the panel back viciously, clipping his shoulder as he made his way inside. Swearing from the shock more than the pain, he clawed at the shitty door and slammed it back into place. In a minute he’d hear someone calling his name, to check on him and see if he was alright.

Fuck! No, no he was not alright. He turned and sat with his back against the door. He didn’t know how he was supposed to feel, but he certainly was not grateful. Even when Donatello died he still found a way to bring him immense pain. What a fucking dumbass.

-

"Leo move!" Casey shouted at him as the door to the observation room swung open and two militantly dressed security officers found them. Raph stood from his crouch and knocked them out, but now they could hear panicked shouting from the other room.

Leo finally drew his swords, cutting a portal open right underneath himself and Casey. The kid yelped in surprise as they dropped down right in front of an operating table.

“Hold on to him!” Leo said with gritted teeth, and it was then that Casey saw Donnie was strapped to said operating table. His breathing faltered at the sight of the exposed soft shell. He was completely undressed (well, more so than they usually were- no mask, no wrist tech, etc…), his jaw slack, and muscles relaxed. Casey hadn’t seen Donatello this vulnerable ever. Just knowing how uncomfortable Donnie would be in this state when he woke up made Casey avert his eyes awkwardly, but Casey did what Leo told him, reaching over Donnie’s plastron and grabbing tight of him as Leo cut another portal, this time right through the floor under the operating table and dropping them straight out of the facility and into the woods surrounding. But just as soon as they landed, Casey saw movement above him. Someone had followed them through the portal.

“Where do you ugly little fuckers think you’re going?”

Oh, Leo was going to take great offense to that.

---

Prev. Masterpost Next

Notes: Chapter 12 will be the last chapter released this year. 😎

[soul-dwelling-not]

Ignorant ranting about Tales of the TMNT, the latest addition to the Mutant Mayhem iteration of Ninja Turtles, an iteration I never got into, and based on just rushing through parts of the series:

What's the point of stunt casting if all they are going to do is make pigeon noises? The payoff does not help.

If you're going to cast Jackie Chan for the film but not the TV series, or a voice double like James Sei, what is the point of now having him speak vermin? Are you trying to say something meaningful about assimilation, or did you just really not want to cast a Chinese actor and thereby erase Chinese representation in the cast or any

I really hate how much talking this series has: it's animation, focus on animation.

I know this is Titmouse, I know I enjoy recent Beavis and Butthead, but why do the humans have to look so much like Beavis designs? I can appreciate leaning into the Motorcity action and aesthetic--but that show at least knew when to have characters shut up for a minute and let the animation do its job.

We really needed to do stupid "pigeon poop" jokes over and over and over again?

I hate when characters do something foolish for the sake of an unfunny gag: that Leo didn't figure out the gentrified restaurant was indeed not Bishop's lair is a dumb gag.

"You're not paranoid--" I am admittedly entering into that joke out of context, but it didn't work for me: either really lean into April being the one to believe every single conspiracy theory, or just don't have her use that line.

I am so tired of the insult "Nerd!" as a punchline, especially to undermine anything heartfelt Leo says at the end of one arc. Just let a moment of sincerity stand, not every last moment has to be destroyed by, "LOL, you love to hear yourself talk, huh?"

The same nerd insult applies when talking about Don, to keep reducing Don to just "nerd" or just "anime nerd." I should be grateful that this is a step up from Jellystone levels of "LOL, body pillows, shut-ins, friendless losers" representations of animation fans (especially as none of this feels like the animators being self-deprecating: instead of "we are nerds, we can joke about ourselves," it's the same tired level of "nerds are losers, geeks are losers, fans are losers, how pathetic they must be").

Stop making Bishop anti-mutant. Please get back to 2003 Bishop in terms of motivation. I appreciated 2003 Bishop's entire attitude pretty much being, "Mutants? I don't care about mutants! I want aliens!" I would have so preferred that characterization: have her be someone fixated on one task, then have her just get annoyed that, instead of aliens, it's mutants. Think Dandadan levels of trying to one-up which is more engaging, the sci-fi or the mystical.

Also, all of this applies to the Earth Protection Force. Maybe additional stories will surprise me, seeing as it will resonate with an audience that an organization looks at native-born people--and still thinks they are "foreign," "other," someone to get rid of.

Acknowledging that Leo was on a shaggy dog hunt does not change that the story is stretching out the plot for the sake of the streaming era.

Bringing back the proto-Rat King intended for the film as a gangster is kind of boring. Granted, TMNT adaptations keep struggling to make the character work or have some core qualities beyond "sway over rats": Mirage was a force of nature but vague enough that you can read him a number of ways; IDW leans too much into godlike power; 1987 was just a guy; 2003 was just an extension of Bishop; 2012 should work with Combs in the role but still takes too long and keeps abusing the Kraang mutagen as a plot device to get whatever result you want for the sake of the story.

[defnotjarlaxle]

Dragon Heist Shenanigans 11

-the unthinkable happened, TWICE, i was not prepared AT ALL-

My players decided to celebrate surviving the last fights that almost cost them their lives so they prepared a party.

They met on the Eyecatcher, decorated it and got good drinks, meaning to give the crew some much needed downtime.

Jarlaxle decided to surprise them and covered almost every surface on deck in Faerie Fire, completing the look he desired since it would be the first and last time for the adventurers to see the crews actual forms as drow instead of their usual human disguises.

He also made sure Artemis was all cleaned up and dressed nicely, which he hated but whatever.. Artemis used the opportunity to give Cleric some notes he stole from Kimmuriels desk. The content? Kimmuriels "symptoms" and research of his "mysterious sickness"... quite spicy in fact...

Kimmuriel was forced to leave his current project so he could join the fun he didn't have. Cleric really wanted him to be there. Mystic made Cleric think he drank a love potion which he in actuality did not but not knowing that he told Kimmuriel about his feelings. That he loves him. And cares for him. Which made Kimmuriel feel all sorts of ways he didn't know he could. Of course he knew something was up, he had noticed symptoms in himself that led him to believe he was.. feeling things.. after researching it he came to the conclusion it must be affection, love even. Being in denial he tried to explain it as some kind of charm he didn't know yet. But when Cleric told him that he wants him, not because he is powerful and useful, but because he sees him as a person that deserves love.. the realization hit him like a truck. Kimmuriel, now blushing, had to admit it. Had to admit he felt love. For the first time.

-

Meanwhile Mystic talked to Drizzt who brought Brie, his little darling daughter. She hadn't known about his wife Catti-Brie and wanted to know more about the whole "marriage" thing they had going on. Drizzt explained to her that after knowing Catti-Brie for a long time he realized he loved her and didn't want to lose her, ever. Which is why they got married and eventually got little Brie. "All that matters in the decision is how connected you feel to someone, you'll know when the time is right." he told Mystic. Well. Mystic, not understanding the worldly things like marriage because she literally arrived in this plane only a month ago made up her mind.

Having heard Drizzts word Mystic knew what she wanted to do next. No matter the cost or consequences.

She walked up to Jarlaxle, her lover.

And then she asked him to marry her.

Just like that.

When I say he almost fainted that's not even close to how he felt at that moment.

Instead of answering he decides to explain the whole marriage thing to her again.

In the back of his mind he couldn't shake the memories. Memories of male drow being forced into submission by their female counterparts. Not being able to choose for themselves.

Although Jarlaxle knew in his heart that he loves Mystic and even left multiple lovers for her he's still conflicted. A little worried but wondering if he should try something new, seeing Drizzt with his daughter stirred something within him. Mystic would never dream of taking any of his freedoms away from him, he knows. Binding himself to someone would mark Mystic as a target to his enemies immediately. She would become an even bigger weakness to him.

Will he accept, dooming her? Sealing her fate and possibly risking her death at the hands of a foe?

Who knows.. all I know is he will have to think about it for a long, long time.

[plothooksinc]

How do you think Rise Don would act if mystical powers were kinda forced on him? Like he was so resistant to a mystical weapon (which I found surprising though understand with his characterization). If he just kept like...exploding out mysticism he *had* to acknowledge to control, how do you think that would go? (Feel free to take this as a prompt or just a thought experiment.)

I'm honestly not sure how to answer this one, anon 8|a I've been thinking about it for days. Largely I'm not sure what you mean by 'acknowledging' it in order to control it. Because on the surface, Donnie believes in facts and evidence and that means he'd acknowledge it just fine, grapple with fine tuning his control, and then just start using his mysticism much earlier than canon. He'd have a blast. Case closed.

But if you mean more than that, like he needs to know how to manipulate mystic energy, or he can't control it because it's too potent/too much/he's spent too much time trying to resist it and now it's kind of exploded out of him, that's different.

I think... if something happened and he started manifesting power suddenly, powerfully, it really depends very much on the timing in the setting. I'd imagine it would take some kind of extreme stress as a catalyst so he's already not going to be in the right mind set to deal with it.

Any time before Shredder, any drawing of mystical power on his part has been purely accidental and he's mostly relying on his tech, so sudden mystic power would be met with bewilderment, fear of the unknown (it's Donnie why is this happening he didn't predict this), maybe a little relief (guarded, kind of annoyed because he still very much prefers tech) that maybe he can connect with the mystical after all and that means that feeling of not being able to keep up with his brothers is no longer an issue. But then he can't control it. And Donnie likes control. And Donnie insists on control and would fight tooth and nail to gain it, stubborn and sure he can do this, but he's coming at it from entirely the wrong kind of angle because of his mindset and so... things just go pear-shaped super quick. That's a gauntlet of emotion that's maybe a minute long before he starts scrabbling for control and can't get it. And from there you could go in multiple directions:

He was probably already working with ways to dampen mystic/magical power to deal with problems like Draxum, maybe he'd use it on himself. Or maybe he'd accidentally, in the midst of scrabbling for control, manifest a kind of restraint on his own power and accidentally lock his access to the power away for good. Whoops, put a mystic lock on his own mysticism. Thaaat would lead to its own issues.

His brothers would try to help, but none of them really think about how to control their weapons or whatever, they simply do not know enough. Mikey's the closest to being able to help here, the most intuitive. Donnie's power is going haywire, none of them can fix it, Mikey does his best to maybe try and channel it safely/dampen it down from pure instinct with mixed success. Donnie's manifestations are both a danger to himself and the environment, given how they manifest later in the show, so no control is extremely bad. Donnie starts suffering ill effects a la Mikey in the movie, they panic and go to someone they know who might be able to help. Early in the series, that's Big Mama or Draxum. I'd lean more towards Draxum, given he's their creator so surely he knows about this stuff, right? But early in the series, he's not exactly inclined to help them out of the goodness of his own heart.

Either option leads to an interesting plot. But that's early in the series.

(Post Shredder, well, he's activated his Ninpo and is perfectly comfortable with the idea. So it would be an excess of power he couldn't control for whatever reason-- maybe he accidentally tapped into a mystic conduit oorrrr accidentally upgraded himself with alien technology or is just having issues post Technodrome in general-- in this case it's a bit more straightforward because I think Donnie would fetch up on Draxum's doorstep much earlier and Draxum would probably just teach him in tandem with Mikey and, in fact, any or all of them, because it's high time. But that's a story I won't get into now, largely because one of these options is already going into something I'm writing anyway. If you've read NRFTW, you can probably guess which one.)

So yeah, this question is rife with far too many possibilities and dependent on time frames for me, but here's some general thoughts on it. I'd love to hear if anyone has a different take!

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

I'm becoming more invested in the Barbie movie than I expected to be, because I started out feeling like it was kind of low-hanging fruit to do a Barbie satire -- like if you close your eyes and put the Malibu Stacey episode of the Simpsons and the Brady Bunch movie and some Legally Blonde for emotional texture and you shake it all around and let it settle, I felt like you would kind of have the experience of "live-action satire of Barbie and her universe" without the bother of actually watching it? Maybe that's unfair, particularly toward Greta Gerwig, who's a pretty thoughtful writer and someone I should probably not assume will be satisfied with the laziest version of the concept. I admit that.

But in all honesty, what's won me over is seeing bits of Margot Robbie, because every time I'm not looking at Margot Robbie I forget that Margot Robbie is some kind of unearthly force, manifested from the Platonic Realm specifically to be a Goddamn Movie Star, and fully kitted out with eleventy bajillion gigawatts of whatever you call that specific hybrid of acting ability and charisma that makes every single thing she says or does completely effective and believable, and also for some wild-ass cosmic reason, she looks like she was made at the Walt Disney Laboratory of the Conventionally Attractive Sciences. So I feel like there's some kind of mystic reason that Margot Robbie exists in this moment for this role which I am not convinced anyone else who's ever lived could pull off without being at least slightly hokey about it, and who am I to oppose the will of the gods? One ticket to the Barbie movie, please.

[tittyinfinity]

You can show whatever studies and facts you want to a conspiracy theorist, they're not gonna listen because the whole basis of their belief system is that mystical forces are at play to "lie" to everyone, and they believe you've been brainwashed, too.

I'm talking about all kinds of conspiracy theorists. People who deny things from multiple medical & health professionals and go on to try MLM "health" schemes, spiritual healings, unsafe diets/home remedies they found on the internet, etc. Parents who believe that child psychologists are lying in order to restrict their "freedom as a parent." People who believe China and North Korea are a bigger threat to the average USAmerican citizen than the American government itself, and that other countries are monitoring their data more closely than google or the fucking FBI would. The people who believe things like "aliens work with Jewish 'reptilian' people in power to steer the world away from God and bring the end of days" are just about too far gone.

In their eyes, you were tricked into believing lies. They think you're "blind to the REAL truth." So anything you say to them is going to be blown off as you being "brainwashed."

Do what you can to steer people away from conspiracy theories, but don't waste your energy & ruin your mood trying to argue with someone who won't budge.

[boots-with-the-fur-club]

The final chapter of Inverted Confrontation!

@daboyau

“How did you do that!?” Other April shakes Leo violently.

“It’s-! Hard-! To explain-! With you-! Shaking me!” Leo choppily answers.

Dr. Rude stares at Hyde with wide eyes.

“He….he fixed you….? H-He just winged it and you’re fixed!?”

Other April stops shaking Leo.

“What are you yelling for? You should be happy! You did this in the first place!”

Dr. Rude grits his teeth and clenches his fists.

“It’s not…it’s not fair, I was supposed to be the most talented. I was supposed to be the stupid mystic expert! Why couldn’t I know how to fix it before it got this bad!? Why does he just suddenly have an answer after trying once!?”

“You never would have been able to figure it out yourself.” Draxum pipes up.

Dr. Rude’s pupils go small.

“Excuse me?”

“It had to be someone else’s mystic power. If it was you, it would make it worse before you could remove it. It’s not entirely your fault.”

Dr. Rude hardly lets even a second pass before punching Draxum in the face.

Draxum stumbles back both in pain and shock, holding his nose as it starts to bleed.

“Do you think anything you say can make me feel better? Do you think you’re any better than the Draxum that did this to us? What was different here, huh? You didn’t get your hands on them? You didn’t have their dad to hold over their heads!? That other me looks like a baby deer and you still threw his brother off a building!”

Hyde attempts to hold him back.

“Dr. Rude! That’s enough!”

Draxum wipes away the blood.

“I’m not any better. I didn’t care about them for a long time. I wasn’t the reason that I was able to be around them. It was you, the version of you not raised by me. He saw me and he took pity. He helped me put my life back together after I destroyed it. He did it because he’s good. Better than I ever deserved, and everyone can tell you the same. Maybe you’re right, maybe nothing I can say can make you feel better. I still want you to know that it is my fault, his fault. He put you into a position where you couldn’t keep being kind.”

Dr. Rude stops trying to come after him.

“Great, thanks for telling me I’m ruined.”

“Are you kidding? If I can somehow become a lunch lady after what I did, you can become whatever you want.”

Dr. Rude blinks in surprise.

For the entirety of his younger years, Draxum always told him and his brothers that they could only ever be one thing.

Weapons against humanity.

Draxum’s words were poison, something to forget and never listen to. It was hard to believe he was right even if it was about something good for once.

“Look, I’m still mad at you guys for what you did to me, all the stuff you did to yourselves, and what you did to the people back in your world, but Draxum has a point. You don’t have to keep doing this. Leo found a way to fix what you did. You guys can learn it and do the right thing.” April insists.

“They should have done the right thing before they killed agent 64!” Other April glares at the Dr. Rude and Hyde.

Hyde let’s go of Dr. Rude and glances down.

“He’s not actually dead.”

“Do you think this is funny? I buried him myself!”

“And I unburied him. We never meant to hurt him! That building wasn’t supposed to come down like it did. I…made poor calculations. He’s alive, Ape-…sorry, force of habit….April. He’s in a poof proof cage back at my lab.”

Other April’s eyes widen, filling with tears just a bit.

“You’re lying. I know you are.”

“When did you do that!?” Dr. Rude questions.

“I….I hid it. I didn’t think you or Champion would let me do it.” Hyde materializes a tablet.

From it, a video starts playing of a cage with other Mayhem laying down in it. He’s curled up, back facing the camera.

Other April tears it from his hands.

“I-It has to be a trick. A fake video.”

Hyde holds down a button on the tablet.

“It’s not. It’s a live feed. I connected it with my powers so I could keep an eye on him through dimensions. Talk, he can hear you.”

“Agent 64! It’s April!”

Mayhem hops up in excitement, turning around. This allows Other April to see that parts of him are replaced with purple, mystic tech. His tail wags so hard it’s a blur. He’s smiling so widely.

Other April tears up a lot more and hugs the tablet tightly.

“I’ve missed you so much! Just wait, I’ll be there soon and I’ll get you out of there! We’re going to go home!”

Other Mayhem goes wild and makes all sorts of happy noises.

Hyde smiles softly.

Other April suddenly pulls him into the hug as well, taking him completely off guard.

“I still don’t forgive you, since this was your fault, but….thank you.”

Hyde doesn’t dare hug her back, knowing she’d immediately let go of him if he tried.

“Sooooo….this might be a good time to bring up something. Since you need their mystics to be able to fix all the zombies back home, and they obviously can’t be brought down by anything but us, maybe they can just go good?” Leo suggests.

Other April let’s go of Hyde.

“People aren’t just gonna accept that.”

“Well, they kind of have to? Or else their friends and family are gone forever and they’re going to keep living in terror for just as long?” Leo shrugs with an awkward face.

Other April sighs heavily.

“Fine. I guess you’re right. Maybe I can try to swing that when we get back.”

Dr. Rude crosses his arms and looks away, neither accepting or rejecting the idea.

“We can’t go back yet with the state that Champion is in. They’d eat him alive.” Hyde insists.

“Then we’re going to have to hope everyone else was able to bring him back.”

In the other room, Champion was whimpering like a child who was sick but too young to understand why everything hurt.

“You have to do something! He’s your brother, you gotta know what can help him!” Raph shakes Red’s arm.

Red stares down at Champion, his eyes filling with resolve.

He sits down next to him and slowly leans closer and closer until his chin gently rests in the crook of his neck.

Champion is caught off guard and opens his eyes to see what exactly is going on. They stare at each other for a good few seconds before Champion turns around and clings to him.

“R-Red, I’m scared, s-something’s wrong with me. I-I remember everything I did, but I don’t feel like I did when they happened!”

Red wraps his arms around him, bringing him into his lap and cradling his brother close.

“I know everything is confusing right now, but you’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna help you.”

Champion hides his face in Red’s chest until he moves it to the side enough to look at Splinter.

“You’re….you’re not our dad….”

“No, I’m sorry, but that doesn’t mean I won’t help you too. If he was here, I know he would be.”

Champion reaches his hand out, making a grabby hand motion.

Splinter holds his hand with both of his. He carefully rubs circles into his palm as he always did with Leo when he wasn’t feeling well as a child.

Champion makes a pained expression.

“Are….are you mad at me? At us? Disappointed? Do….do you hate us for trying to take away your real kids?”

“I’m just sorry that this happened to all of you.”

“I…I don’t know why I wanted to do it. It made so much sense before….now I feel like I’m crazy.”

“That’s because you weren’t truly the one who was making the decisions.” Hyde suddenly pipes up.

Everyone looks at the group that just arrived in the room.

Draxum stayed back in order to not make things worse.

“Hyde….? They fixed you? How?” Red questions.

“Leo figured it out. Apparently only someone other than Dr. Rude would be able to do it.”

Champion stares intensely at Hyde like he’s unsure how to react right away to his presence.

Hyde stands there awkwardly, not knowing what else to say under this sort of gaze.

Then, a slight smile grows on Champion’s face.

“What’s with that look, Shelly?”

A chagrin blush spreads across Hyde’s face.

“Leo!! You promised you wouldn’t call me that anymore!” His arms angrily go straight at his sides.

Leo starts laughing hysterically.

“He used to call you Shelly!?”

“I can’t believe I forgot, he used to call him ‘Tello, then it became ‘Telly, and because he’s a shoft shell it ended up as Shelly.” Red explains.

Leo glances at Donnie with a shit eating grin.

“Nardo! Don’t you even think of it! I’m warning you!” Donnie glares at him.

“Chill out, Shel-“

Donnie pulls Leo’s head back by his mask tails hard enough to send him crashing down.

Leo sweeps his legs and forces him down to the ground next to him.

They begin fighting like a cartoon dust cloud is about to appear over them.

Mikey, Raph, April and Splinter try to get them to stop or at least separate.

Champion smiles more at seeing them.

“What were you saying, Hyde?”

Hyde calms down quickly, looking more resigned.

“Dr. Rude has been puppeteering you. He’s been doing it since we were kids.”

Champion’s smile drops, but only slightly.

“I know.”

“You….you what? You know?”

Dr. Rude looks at him in just as much shock as Hyde does.

“What do you mean you know?”

“Obviously when I was younger I didn’t….but once he started doing it to humans, I was aware it was the same thing he did to me.” Champion answers.

“Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you try to stop him!?” Hyde shouts.

“I wasn’t able to feel mad about it. I didn’t think it was a problem. I couldn’t.”

Hyde turns to Dr. Rude.

“You made it so he wasn’t able to tell us.”

“I didn’t! Not on purpose! I swear!”

“How am I supposed to believe you after what you did!?”

“I-I’m sorry! Tell me how I can prove it and I will!”

“We can’t prove intent! Does it even matter if it was accidental? You tried to control me too to hide what you did!”

“Hyde-“

“Not now Red! Just because you forgave him doesn’t mean I did!”

“D-Donnie, please, I only did that to you because I was scared you wouldn’t let me help him! I know I shouldn’t have! I-I kept doing what I thought was good for our family!” Dr. Rude insists.

“What did you ever do for me!? Take away my twin!? Kill Draxum!? You made him do that for you! And it was because of dad!”

“No! It wasn’t because of dad! It’s because he was going to hurt you next!” Dr. Rude screams with closed eyes, trying to stop tears that came anyway.

“What are you talking about?“

Dr. Rude tries to wipe his eyes with the bottom of his palms.

“A-After what he did to dad, he hated that you covered my eyes! H-He thought you’d make the rest of us weak too just like him! I heard him! I didn’t know what I did to Leo would take him away from you! I-I never, ever wanted to hurt you! Y-You’re one of my best friends! I-I love you!” He begins sobbing big, fat tears.

Hyde stands there in shock. He had no idea about any of that.

“I heard it too, back then. What he did to me….it’s going to take time for me to get my head wrapped around it…..it’s messed up. But we wouldn’t have survived otherwise, I think.” Champion comments.

Hyde stares at Dr. Rude. All he can see is his littlest brother. The one who tried to make his own star stickers because he knew Hyde loved them so much. The one who keeps spare unicorns around to surprise Champions with. The one who would let everyone else know if Red needed something because otherwise he’d silently suffer.

Hyde carefully takes Dr. Rude into his arms as he shakes and sobs.

“You don’t have to do any of this anymore. None of us do.”

“We….don’t?” Red looks at him.

“It’s over. We’re going to fix all the humans back in our world. We’re going to keep letting Champion recover. We’re….going to relax for once.”

“I could definitely use some of that.” Champion smiles tiredly.

Leo gently takes the tablet from Other April and types into it.

“Here’s how I managed to fix you. You’ll probably get it after some practice.” He hands it over to Hyde.

“Thank you. Everything you guys did despite what we did to you….we appreciate it.”

“Just make sure not to get into anymore trouble.” Raph instructs.

“We’ll do our best.”

April swipes the tablet this time.

“Wait, one more thing before you guys go. I think a photo might do you some good. Splints, would you mind?”

Splinter quickly understands and moves closer to his alternate sons.

April takes a photo and hands the tablet back to Hyde.

The former villains all look at it with bittersweet fondness.

“Dad always wanted a family photo. Sorry about the whole chasing you and trying to kill you thing.” Champion apologizes.

“Eh, it’s alright. Raph’s wrestling hero kept coming after them and me one time and he still has his posters up.”

“He’s still really talented.” Raph grumbles.

Hyde chuckles quietly and opens up his portal device. The set of them begin to leave through it.

“Bye! Stay safe! Come back if you guys become heroes instead!” Mikey cheerily waves.

Dr. Rude sheepishly waves back before he and Hyde vanish through the portal.

The universe originals all breathe a sigh of relief as it closes behind their alternates.

“I never knew the multiverse and time branches could potentially be this messy.” Donnie huffs.

“Draxum! They’re gone! You can come back!” Mikey calls out.

Draxum walks in.

“I have never been so glad that I did not achieve my lifelong goals.”

Mikey hugs him.

“You got something even better! Family!”

“And I’m not dead. That’s highly important.” He pats Mikey’s head.

“I hope no one ever comes out of another portal with a giant problem for us to solve again. That was exhausting.” Leo complains.

“I think this calls for a nice, relaxing, celebration. I’ll go set up one of my best movies so I can tell you all about the drama on set. Chad was quite the player!” Splinter announces before leaving the room.

The turtles groan, but not out of any real annoyance before everyone follows him out.

It was just nice that they still could listen to him.

[kryptonitecore]

Reread: Spotlight: Sideswipe

Okay, a book with a lot of ups and downs! I enjoyed the focus on the relationship between the twins, especially the difficult nature of it - everyone assumes that Sideswipe’s keenness to get to Earth comes from his concern for his missing brother, but in reality that Sideswipe sees finding Sunstreaker as a way to bolster his own ego: ‘the others think it’s all bout Sunstreaker, and it is. Just not in the way they think’. The idea of forced proximity between the twins and Sunstreaker overshadowing his sibling is engaging, though it does make you wonder why the Autobots thought someone having their brother be a training office was a good idea? I know HR is not a priority, but still…

However, behind this potentially interesting relationship there are a lot of recurring things that I'm not sure about with Furman’s writing. Firstly, poorly defined technology, with the axis cradle making yet another reappearance and still being an incredibly powerful and unhelpfully vague piece of technology, essentially allowing mind control without, for instance, established user requirements, methods, or limitations. The Jhiaxus and Nova plots also have a bit of this, as they also rely on either vague mysticism or technology with little definition. There are quite a few characters used for exposition with very little characterisation, Ultra Magnus and the science team outside of Jetfire getting most of this. 

Another returning thing is the dissonance around how Optimus Prime views Primes in IDW1 Phase 1. However, this book is no longer so early that I think they just had not settled on a tone yet, for example this is published after Megatron: Origin, which portrays Cybertron’s golden age and the Primes as heavily compromised. Nevertheless, Furman sticks to a very idealistic version of the character who enthusiastically idolises the idea of being a Prime, the dialogue throughout his confrontation with Nova makes this very clear - trying to encourage him to be better because ‘you are still a Prime' or angrily accusing him of having ‘sullied a proud lineage of Primes’. In retrospect in particular, this is a bit funny, because that boat has very much sailed. The real kicker is after Nova’s death, when Optimus says he wishes he could mourn, but that ‘the part of you that mattered, the part of you that was a Prime, was lost as soon as you turned away from the light…’. It’s just… Ugh. It’s very much a version of Optimus that believes his own hype.

Sideswipe was in the background for a fair bit of his own Spotlight, but what is there is nice enough, especially his decision to risk his life because ‘I’ve proved whatever I needed to prove… to myself!’. His ending was also more brutal than I expected, but I honestly appreciated it: ‘I think of Sunstreaker… And I find I just don’t care. Maybe I never did. I trigger my orbital jump recall. And don’t look back’. An interesting ending for this book, looking forward to seeing more of these characters in the future.

Similarly, Galvatron revealing htat he deliberately dunkedthe Ark-1 into the Dark Universe to seek ‘Darkness’ is sort of interesting… However, the scene with Nova’s death and the transferral of the Darkness is just strange. Optimus’ reactions are dissonant as he goes form killing someone whom he met seconds ago and who has technically saved his life to wondering whether he should mourn a different person who had actively tried to kill him earlier, despite not having a prior personal relationship (I think)? It’s just a lot of whiplash within the same scene, and again it kind of reinforces the idea that Optimus is such a believer in the Primal hierarchy that he sees Nova’s life as fundamentally more deserving of respect than Galvatron’s.

So, yes, a lot of ups and downs. Sideswipe ended up taking the backseat, but what was there was enjoyable for him, however the book was otherwise limited by the sheer number of other elements which it was juggling. 

Arcee kicking Jhiaxus’ head like a football was, admittedly, funny.