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pinkslaystation · 1 year ago

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Tulips or Roses?

John Price x reader

In which you find John's old diary detailing his love for you his teammate and you begin to question his love for you. Word Count: 3.6k -> blurb - rose meets tulips

Being a civilian to a soldier was hard enough.

And it was even harder when your husband was a commander for one of the most skillful task force. So it wasn't unusual for him to be gone for long periods of time.

So on a random Friday evening, anticipating his arrival in the coming week, vacuuming the floors, cleaning the windows, you found yourself at the door of John's study, with was decorated with a glass name plate, with the words 'Study' accompanied with a painted heart created from blue and pink fingerprints from you and your husband.

John was never the man to tell you off if you entered his study, instead he encouraged it. He's beckoned you to bring him his evening tea to him, to give him a massage, sometimes when you wanted him, he'd allow you to help him under the desk, if you get what I mean. (speaking from experience ;>)

As you stepped into his room, you noticed the ceilings adorned with sizable white cobwebs, cringing at the apparent neglect of his study. When was the last time someone had even been here?

Sweeping his desk, wiping away the dust, you find a box underneath beside his chair, which prompted you to lifting it up and placing on top of the desk. Man, you underestimated it's weight. You struggled to lift a small but heavy moving box, and it caused a few books and papers to fall out.

You cursed at your clumsiness, picking up the loose sheets, until you fingers caught the spine of a red vintage-like book, which had the word 'diary' written on the front. You didn't take too much notice, skimming through the pages until you caught your name being mentioned a phew times.

You giggle, it's a diary probably with John confessing his love to you numerous time! You know you probably shouldn't look through it, I mean privacy exists, but you just can't help it.

So you look through some of the infrequent entries, the oldest dating back to 10 years back, and the most recent one being nearly 4 years, when you and John had first met.

30th February 2010

Suffering in Afghanistan, the lads and I are stuck in the safe house for a week now. Rose is here too, I should ask her if she's okay.

Ahhh you remember this story. When the Task Force was stuck in the city of Kandahar, in the safe house. You also remember John's team, whom you are well-acquainted with, Soap, Ghost, Gaz, Roach, Rose?

You skip through the boring entries, most of which are just John documenting his work-out plan and the places him and his team had visited.

5th July 2016

Gaz's going on and on about his lass. Someone tell him to talk to her at least, he doesn't even know her name! I keep bringing it up but he keeps mentioning when I'll talk to Rose.

You chuckled, assuming the chick was Gaz's current wife. But the last part caught your attention, Rose again? You remember John telling you that she'd retired, went back north to settle with her family now, so you don't think much of it, I mean they are team mates.

19th June 2017

Saw a cute kid and her mama, wishing I had kids, without this lifestyle. Rose wants a son but I don't particularly mind. Soap overheard our conversation and spammed me lols on Whatsapp, but I thought lol meant little old lady? I am a man though.

You raise your eyebrow at another mention of Rose, why doesn't he care if Rose wanted a son? You didn't realise how close your husband was to her.

2nd December 2018

Christmas this month with my boys. Rose invited me over for a smoke. Ghost rolls his eyes when I mentioned it to him, says I need to man up and make a move.

You squinted your eyes, rereading the entry, and hesitantly skipping to the next one.

7th April 2019

Drinks with my men (and Rose haha, she doesn't like being part of the men). It's her birthday and she wants to tell us something. She's got her red lips again. I'm excited, Soap kept nudging me the entire ride, that cheeky bugger.

Then immediately below it, an update: She's seeing someone.

You're slowly piecing the puzzle, though you don't want to assume anything.

21st August 2019

She came into my room crying, seems like it's not going well, good for me. I hope she's okay and she realises there's better fish in the sea. She hugged me, she smells like roses, I love floral scents. I tried leaning in, she says I'm like an older brother to her.

Your heart breaks a bit, sniffing at your freshly washed hair, which smelt like ... like roses.

You thought floral scents were YOUR thing.

You continued, to the next entry which was marked the date you remember meeting John for the first time at the pub. You force a smile, hoping the entry would lighten your mood.

30th November 2020

In the pub and bored. Rose brought her lad... they're back together. What does she see in him? Soap urges me to find someone else but my heart is set on someone, for a long time. Won't change. He keeps gesturing to a girl on the other end of the counter, she's pretty, but like a tulip. Not like a rose. Not like my Rose.

You grip at the notebook and you try your hardest not to rip the papers out of the book and set his entire study on fire.

You remember this day, when you were dragged to the pub by your friends after being dumped by your ex for another girl. You sat at one end of the counter, with tears in your eyes but one look at that buff Englishman on the other end and your mood flipped instantaneously, 180 degrees.

"Kelsey, look at that guy, Mr Army over there." You beckon towards John's direction, to your friend., slightly tipsy after a peg of beer.

Your friend looks at you with a raised eyebrow, then turns to the guy whose piqued your interest, "You should go for it." She encourages you.

So you get yourself 2 drinks and approach the guy, more confident that usual due to your alcoholic state. A beer would do.

"Hi, this seat empty?" You smile at him innocently.

All this time you had recalled a look of fondness towards you, when he'd first locked eyes with you. You remember bragging about how it had been love at first sight for the both of you, but thinking back, a feeling of doubt starts bubbling inside you.

"It's reserve- you know what. Take a seat."

You remember sitting next to him, passing him a drink, and telling him your name, "...and you are?" you question, although you see him wincing. At first you thought it was just an army thing, so guarded that even the slightest of movements would make him twitch.

But now you're questioning whether he really wanted to engage into a conversation with you.

The following hours, as you painfully recall, was filled with you talking about yourself and occasionally asking him after his life, though he gives you one word answers and frequent nods.

But that was just because he'd just come home from a mission right?

"...and he just broke up with me out of the blue! Like was my 12,000 followers on TikTok not good enough for you?" You chuckle, attempting to crack a joke. He smiles confused, and you note he's probably too old to understand what TikTok was.

"Sounds like an asshole, love." He replies.

"Hmm, he was...I- I just don't know what he'd leave me for her...like I gave you my everything, I was always with you through thick and thin and what, that wasn't enough for you?" You trail off, the effects of the 2nd beer hitting you.

"I understand dove, you just give 'em everything and they just find someone else. What does he have that I don't?" He spaces out, his eyes falling on his teammates sitting at a different table. You follow his gaze, smiling slightly when you lock eyes with one of his smirking subordinates, whom you know know as Soap.

"Those people, they're your team?" You question.

His eyes aren't on you though as he responds, "That mohawk, that's Soap, Ghost next to him, tough as steel but soft at heart, Gaz on the opposite, funny lad, Roach, good ol' Roach..."

You look at the woman to the right of 'Roach', taking in her beauty. Though she's sitting down, you can tell she's taller that you by least 4 inches, with a blonde pixie haircut and painted with a dark smokey eye. A deep smirk is plastered onto her plump ruby red lips as she looks at John Price finally talking to a woman that isn't her. She raises a hand, waving to the both of you, which is almost instantaneously reciprocated by John.

"And her?" You ask, head nudging towards the woman.

"Her...That's Rose. You should meet her, you would like her, but who doesn't..." His chuckle fades out and you at how his attention was fully directed to her. A sinking feeling told you that you should have backed off from the married man, but it disappeared when John pointed out her partner, with gritted teeth.

Your hands are gripping the pages at this point, as you recall memories from the diary from his point of view.

You turn the page to the next entry, dreading the words.

19th December 2020

Thought me and Rose would go back to the pub for another drink for the holidays, but she's going back to his place. Seems they're taking the next steps with meeting the families.

Soap's annoyed at how I'm 'ghosting' the girl I met at the pub, I'm once again unfamiliar with the lingo, I'm not Simon?? She's nice but, not sure I see anything further than a friendship. Gaz and him are picking out an outfit for me, she wants to meet up for bowling apparently. I just want to be with Rose...

Clenching your fist, you shut the diary and toss it aside, feeling all kinds of emotions. Upset that John had never truly looked at you the way you'd looked at him. The way he never wanted you, like you wanted him.

Every time you'd seen him online on Whatsapp, but still hadn't opened your messages, he was ghosting you? Sure after a while of being friends, his behaviour gradually changed, accompanied with rapid texts, but you felt like this relationship was built on lies.

Did he even want to go bowling with you that day? Did you win because he purposely let you, because he was bored and wanted to go home, be with Rose instead? When he asked you to be his girlfriend, did he ask you with Rose in mind?

The ding of the oven stopped your trail of thoughts, so many questions swirling around your head. You walk out of the study, slamming the door behind you, the combined mess of dust and cobwebs remaining untouched.

The glass name plate falls to the ground, the edge shattering, with shards of clear glass laying dangerously on the wooden floor.

A couple of hours go by and the doorknob rattles at 8:45 P.M. on the dot. John was never late when he had to come home to you.

He reaches base at 7:30, drives exacting an hour to your shared home, after making a quick pit stop at the florists within 10 minutes to give you a freshly scented bouquet of red roses.

Roses. So that's why he'd give them you every time...

He makes sure to leave him 5 minutes of spare time, which was designated to flipping open a small metal notebook you'd gifted him, and writing his thoughts down. And once those 5 minutes were up, he places the notepad back into his jacket pocket and practically runs towards the front door.

"Dove, I'm home!" He exclaimed, gently placing his belonging on the floor, before walking into the living floor, where you sat on the sofa with your legs and arms crossed. (MY BITCH POSE IS NASTY)

"Sweetheart, you didn't run up to me at the door, you alright love?" He sits next to you, his calloused and freshly bruised arms rubbing your knee.

The silence was deafening and you couldn't find it in yourself to look at him after all you've read.

He takes it as a cue to continue, "I got you some roses, baby. Your favourite-"

"When did I say they were my favourite?"

John blinks at the interruption, "I mean, you don't like them? It's tradition to bring the same red roses for you every time I'm back..."

"And when did I say I liked them? Are they my favourite? Or are they her favourite?" You shift towards him, anger evident in your voice.

"Her? Who? Sweetheart, what's going on?"

"I mean, come on man, you like floral shit that much that now you're making me wear it?"

"You...don't like floral scents? Did you want tulips instead, baby?"

Your eyebrows are furrowed in annoyance by his confusion.

"It doesn't matter if I wanted tulips, John, it's the fact that YOU like roses. In fact you've like Roses this entire time! Don't act like you like tulips 'cos you don't- to be honest I don't think you ever have!" You rant, handing running through your hair.

"I mean I like both honey, roses are just, um, prettier?" He sounds like he's asking you rather than telling you.

"Of course roses are prettier to you- that's all that you're fucking used to you. It's always roses, roses, roses. You're so obsessed with fucking roses, you never gave tulips a bloody chance!"

"Are we still talking about flowers-"

"And when you do give tulips a chance, you're still thinking about roses- how red they are, how pretty they are, how they need to be watered every 5 fucking minutes, even then there's already someone to water those damn. Red. Roses."

"I- I mean I like tulips too, baby-"

"No. You don't. No, you don't. Tulips are just the safest options for you, cos someone already plucked out those fucking roses. Cos roses don't want you."

You're standing up now, and John's attempts to speak are futile with every sentence you shout.

"No. In fact, roses has never wanted you, roses look better with someone else, and ol' poor John has no more roses, so he goes and waters some unwanted tulips instead!"

John stands up, towering over your shaking frame, his hands come up to stroke your biceps, but he's pushed away.

"I mean, did John ever even like tulips? Or was he faking it cos he never got roses? Was tulips just the safe option? Does John still want roses after all the years tulips have been there for him?"

You left out a pained cry, you didn't even notice the tears leaking out of your eyes.

"Does John even like tulips? Does John even love tulips?"

His hands wipe your tears away, and he brings you into his chest, and you don't attempt to push him away this time.

"Does you even love me, John?" You break down into his arms, letting him carrying you into the bedroom, where he places you gently on the bed, while you hiccup through your uneven sobs. He smells the stench of wine through your shaking breath, whilst stroking your hair, and you slowly fall into a deep slumber with your head pressed against his still uniform-clad chest.

The clock hits midnight and John gets up, trying not to wake you up, grabbing his sweats from the drawer and walking to the bathroom across the hall, in order to not wake you up, from what looked like a well-needed rest.

As he trudges out of the bedroom and through the corridor, the reflection of the broken glass catches his eyes and he squints in the darkness, squatting down to pick a small shard. As he lifts the remains of the nameplate, hooking it back to the door, he steps over the mess into the study to retrieve a dust pan and brush.

Flicking the lights on, he's met with what looks like a scene from the reality TV show - Hoarders. So starts cleaning quickly, picking up the duster and bunching up the paperwork from the floor, the pot of pens that had seemed to be knocked down, the diary he'd used to write in...hold on-

Picking up the diary, John flicks through the entries, the book naturally opening to the last open slide.

He begins reading the last entry.

19th December 2020

Thought me and Rose would go back to the pub for another drink for the holidays, but she's going back to his place. Seems they're taking the next steps with meeting the families.

Soap's annoyed at how I'm 'ghosting' the girl I met at the pub....

"Oh...my tulip, I've never loved roses as much as I loved you." He mumbles to himself, whilst simultaneously cringing at his previously written words, immediately throwing the book back on the floor.

It's past breakfast when you wake up, throat and eyes painfully dry from last night's crying session, forcing yourself to drag yourself to the bathroom. You've forgotten that John had come home last night, as your met with a familiar empty bed.

After brushing your teeth and washing your face, you walk downstairs, being face to face with the naked back of Captain John Price.

The smell of chocolate pancakes waft towards your nose, as you look around the kitchen, the room garnished with a variety of different flowered bouquets, with so many variations of plants.

Bundles of dahlias and lotuses, orchids and lilies, carnations and irises, roses and tulips.

John turns to your footsteps, smiling at his perfect woman.

"Baby, good mornin'" He greets you, placing a single rose into your hair, and pecking your forehead warmly.

"John, listen about last night-"

"It was the old diary, wasn't it?" he asks.

You nod, ashamed for your abrupt behaviour yesterday. John lifts your chin up, resting his forehead against yours.

"Rose never taught me how to love like you did."

"John, you don-" His pointer finger is pressed against your lips.

"Reading those words from the past, I can see how it may have painted a different picture of my feelings. But let me assure you, my love, that you are the one I adore with all my heart."

Your stroke his face, heart warming to his words.

"Every rose I brought home was a symbol of my love for you, not because it was her favorite, but because it reminded me of the beauty and grace that you bring into my life. And those tulips, they represent the new beginnings and the fresh start that we share together.

My love for you is unwavering and unconditional. You are my tulip, my true love, and I vow to cherish and adore you for all eternity. Please forgive me for any pain or doubt my past words may have caused."

"John..."

He hands you his notepad from from his back pocket, beckoning you to open it.

You look at the first entry.

19th February 2021

I mentioned how I journal sometimes to her, and she bought me a new notepad, it's cute how she calls it a diary. Things are looking good. Bowling's our thing, I let her win because seeing her smile means I've won too. I'm asking her out tonight, Soap cried real tears when I told him.

You turn the page.

20th July 2021

Our 6 month anniversary. Took her to a field of roses and tulips, though nothing compares to her beauty.

The next one.

17th September 2021

I seldom think of Rose, I have my tulip on my mind now. Rose retired, and the team celebrated last night. She hugged me and thanked me for being a good captain. She also acknowledged my previous feelings for her. Man that was uncomfortable, but I reassured her I'm with my tulip now. I love my tulip.

I've always preferred tulips anyway.

And the next.

5th July 2022

Our 500 day anniversary. I want to propose.

17th September 2022

She said yes!! She may be my fiance, but I've already started calling her my wife, not legally yet at least...illegally?

28rd December 2023

We married 30th November. The day we met. Xmas was amazing, I can't see myself with anyone but her. I'm getting deployed tomorrow though.

You look at the most recent entry, dated last night.

16th February 2024

Missed the valentines day with my missus. Hope these roses are enough, though I wanted to get something better. Tulips for my tulip. They ran out haha. Missed my girl, missed her like I've never missed someone before. Soap's right, deployment suck.

Tears welled up in your eyes, not from pain or doubt this time, but from overwhelming joy and love for the man standing before you.

"I'm sorry, John," you whispered, your voice choked with emotion. "I didn't mean to doubt your love."

He smiled, a genuine and heartfelt smile that reached his eyes, pulling you into a warm embrace. "No need for apologies, my tulip. Thank you for teaching me how to love."

And in that moment, amidst the scent of chocolate pancakes and fresh flowers, it felt like you love story was just beginning, filled with trust, forgiveness, and a deep, unwavering love for each other.

That should not have taken me 2 days to complete what in the world. Also if i was tulip, that old diary is going straight into a fire! Barbecue anyone? <3 Quick Notes: I head-cannoned Rose to look like Sergeant Calhoun from Fix-it-Felix lolololol woman crush fr i get u john boy I've decided to start a tag list! -> lemme know you're interested to be tagged in my future posts! tags -> @lilliumrorum

#call of duty #cod #john price #john price x reader #captain john price #john price angst #john price fluff #task force 141 #captain price

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wuzhere75 · 29 days ago

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Fullbody reference of Wolf I figured I would make for Artfight. Extra notes below

-She’s one of my oldest WOF OCs from when my cousin first introduced me to the series around early 2015. She was originally a 50/50 Ice/Nightwing, but now I am considering changing her to have less Nightwing ancestry (like, 1/4 or 1/8).

-She had 90% regular Icewing powers. She can’t resist bright lights quite as well and has slightly better nightvision (and can sort of blend into darkness? At least better than a normal mostly white icewing).

-I originally had her as the daughter of Glacier’s sister and a Nightwing spy who rescued her from Scarlet’s arena. She’s still the daughter of an Icewing noble/high ranking military member and a hybrid they ran off with (IDK the context for this yet).

-Of course she was a part of a group of “next gen” dragonets. I’m still thinking she did that we she was younger, but has fucked off back into the woods since she became an adult.

-Makes candles or something and smells like pine needles. Where’s plad and a beanie in a modern AU.

-I’ve added some aspects of another slightly more recent (2018/19) OC named Acicular. Her design in below

#my art #procreate #digital art #wof #dragon #wings of fire #wof icewing #wof nightwing #oc #2025 #2019 #personal favorite #old art

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the-tmnt-ficfinder · 1 month ago

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Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Family Systems Analysis A college Essay by The-TMNT-Ficfinder

Word count: 5273 | Page Count: 18 pages (Not counting ref or cover)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: A summary

The main family group of the show, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is made up of six different characters, with a seventh one introduced as the story progresses. Starting off, is the father figure, Hamato Yoshi (Also known as Lou Jitsu) or popularly known as Splinter. Originally human, he was mutated into a rat at the same time as when the turtles were mutated, then adopted them as his children.

Following that are the four turtles. Raphael, the biggest brother, muscle man, and leader of the group. He is an Alligator snapping turtle, wears red as his signature color, and has been decided as the oldest (as they don’t know their exact age). Second, is Donatello, the tech guy of the family. He is a softshell turtle and wears purple. Next is Leonardo, who classifies himself as the ‘face-man’ of the group (and later on in the series replaces Raph as leader). He is a red-eared slider, and is the best known, as the blue turtle, the most popular ninja turtle in the series. Leo and Donnie have been decided to be the same age by the fandom and are referred to as ‘twins’. Then Michealangelo, the youngest turtle of the group, and an ornate box shell turtle. Michelangelo wears orange as his color, and is known as the family chef, emotions guy, and boldest of them all. Their adopted human sister, April, is the oldest of the siblings and gets into many shenanigans with them. Lastly, is Baron Draxum, who is the villain who created the serum also known as mutagen that mutated Splinter and the turtles in the first place. Originally, he is a villain who is bent on destroying humanity, but later gets a redemption arc, and is welcomed into the family. The show features two seasons, and one movie. In this essay, I’m going to be focusing on the two seasons, and the direct aftermath of that.

The family, and how they function

The family, in season one, goes on a variety of wacky adventures, learns to use their new mystic weapons, and get the hang of their mystic powers. In season one, Baron Draxum is a villain and relentlessly attacks them. In season one, the turtles also are unaware that their father, Splinter, was actually their favorite movie star Lou Jitsu in the past before he was mutated into a rat. Following the events of The Shredders temporal revival (The main bad guy) the turtles beat him a first time, and the show slides into season two. In season two, Baron Draxum gets a redemption arc where instead of fighting the turtles, he reluctantly joins their family, and builds connections with them (and becomes a ‘secondary parent’ to the turtles, as he is the one who mutated them in the first place) The boys discover that their father was Lou Jitsu, and uncover important backstory and lore, leading to them having to fight The Shredder a second time, due to Big Mama, accidentally letting him loose from her Battle Nexus (the same battle nexus Lou Jitsu was kept prisoner in after his actor years, and before he got mutated). In order to defeat the Shredder a second time, they had to connect spiritually with all of the ancestors of the Hamato clan to master their mystic abilities. By the end of season two, despite being victorious in defeating The Shredder, they ended up losing their home in the process, and the life of their long lost many times great grandmother, Hamato Karai. From there, they build their life back up from shambles, which spans the time after season two, until the movie.

Raphael

Raphael, or Raph, is the biggest brother, “the brother who is the biggest,” (Rise of the TMNT, Nickelodeon 2018) the decided oldest, and the self-proclaimed leader of the group. Raph act’s part-time as the oldest brother, with the other half of the time, adopting a very parental role for the sake of his younger siblings. Raph is very harsh on himself, entirely believing that the family is his responsibility when it comes to leadership and keeping them safe. In season one, he is much more fun-loving, and playful with his family. However, as the seasons go on, and the turtles get themselves into dangerous situations, Raph gets stricter and begins to worry. Along with that, Raph has the natural tendency to try and parent his siblings, (due to being parentified by his father) meaning he doesn’t always have the best relationships with them.

Raph’s relationships with his family holds interesting dynamics, as he operates as part time sibling, part time leader, and a part time parent. When it comes to Donnie, Raph values and understands his physical and technological skills, yet hesitates when it comes to his emotional maturity, consistently choosing to skirt around a problem rather than say what’s on his mind to avoid hurting Donnie’s feelings. They work wonderfully together when it comes to combat yet struggle with communication and feedback.

Raph and Leo’s relationship is somewhat strained, as they don’t quite see eye to eye when it comes to making plans. Leo’s perspective is more on the strategic and morally grey side, which is hard for Raph to grasp, as he relies on a much more black-and-white viewpoint. Raph and Leo end up not interacting very frequently, as many of their interactions end with arguing. This is partially due to Raph’s parentification, and Leo’s rebellion against parental figures in general.

Raph and Mikey, despite have a very drastic size difference with Raph being the biggest of the family by quite a bit, and Mikey being smallest (aside from Splinter), have somewhat opposite temperaments when it comes to interacting with people. Raph constantly switches between relying heavily on Mikey to do the breaking of bad news for him, (because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings) and feeling overprotective of his youngest baby brother. Raph will specifically ask for Mikey’s help when it comes to breaking bad news, as he knows Mikey will do it regardless of people’s feelings, taking that burden off his shoulders. Meanwhile, he is very fearful of the idea of Mikey going and doing anything alone, as he is the smallest. He overly relies on him when it comes to vocal situations, while not giving him any room to breathe in physical settings. Almost opposite of how he interacts with Donnie.

With April, who is older than him, come’s a change of pace. As April is an adopted sister (she still has her own family and just comes over to visit) Raph often tries to pull the ‘parent card’ on her, since in his mind, she’s family. April being older, and an only child, never lets that slide, refusing to let Raph parent her. Often when April is around, Raph relaxes, and tends to have more fun, as April fills some of the parenting shoes, and helps keep an eye on the other younger brothers.

Then there’s Splinter, their father. Raph looks up to him greatly and is always wanting to impress him, despite Splinter not playing a very active role in their lives until their later teen years. He also doesn’t want to worry him as he knows his father has been through a lot. As such he keeps all his struggles, and the family struggles to himself. His relationship with Splinter is fairly stable, sitting at a deemed comfortable level of lacking support, yet still being happy to interact at times. Their relationship stayed like this until the end events of season 2, where Splinter takes leadership away from Raph, and gives it to Leo. This is also where Leo’s and Raph’s rocky relationship goes from chilling and joking together, to constant fighting.

Lastly, Baron Draxum. As Raph has a very ‘forgive then forget’ mentality (meaning he intentionally chose to forget a lot of what they went through when the Baron used to attack them) he is rather impartial to Draxum. He neither cares for him, nor does he dislike him. He’s very neutral on the subject of Draxum and mainly interacts with him since Mikey insists on it. Raph doesn’t see Draxum as a parental figure at all, as Raph thinks himself the parental figure.

Donatello

Donatello, or Donnie, is the tech guy of the family, the middle child (shared with Leo) and is said by the show’s creators, to have autism. Donnie has a huge love for fixing and improving things, even his family, and an urge to control everything and anything he can. Donnie has deemed himself the ‘tech guy’ of the family and made that his ‘definitive quality/trait’ or reasoning to be useful to the family. As such, he helped build the lair they live in and all the tech inside. He has what he likes to call his ‘bad boy’ persona, where he pretends, he doesn’t care and acts ‘emotionless, and cool’. As his species is a spiny soft-shell turtle, his temperament leans much closer towards one of spitefulness, and agitation, with a very sensitive outlook on things. This has a pretty big influence on how he reacts to things.

Donnie’s relationship with Raph, is a fairly stable one. As Raph is the leader, and Donnie is the tech and maintenance guy, they understand each other. They know what it takes to keep things running. Donnie is quite willing to work with Raph at most times, as he likes being given instructions to follow. Along with that, Donnie has a very strong need for parental praise, and as Raph acts very similar to a parent at times, Donnie makes an effort to impress him, just as he would his own father.

Donnie’s relationship with Leo is a lot more strained, as he finds his ‘twin’ to be a frustrating individual. While Donnie loves to rely on a system and a support group, Leo doesn’t, which makes him harder for Donnie to understand. Donnie and Leo have a very ‘you can’t hurt my twin, only I can hurt my twin’ mentality. They will push, and fight, and argue with each other, yet the moment anything threatens one of them, they’ll both rise up to fight back. They love to fight, partially to vent frustration, and partially to bond. Similar to how animals in the wild ‘play fight’ with each other.

Out of the brothers, Donnie has the best relationship with Mikey. In Donnie’s eyes, Mikey is like a walking comfort item. Donnie and Mikey have a silent communication style, that relies a lot on body language. Mikey is also ‘on equal footing’ with Donnie, as they are both treated like younger/youngest siblings, and contribute to the family via ‘giving’ something. Donnie gives his tech services, and Mikey gives his emotional support and advice. Donnie can also trust Mikey to tell him the truth, even when it may hurt. Donnie and Mikey together have established a really good sense of trust.

Next is Donnie and April’s relationship. Out of the whole family, April has the best relationship with Donnie, as Donnie feels like he is able to give to her, and she is able to give to him. A symbiotic relationship. He helps her with homework, and she sneaks him into the school’s computer lab. Donnie is also the most honest with her, as there are no ‘standards’ he feels the need to uphold. He tells her his feelings and explains the reasoning behind them. Donnie can do this with April, and not the others, because both Leo and Raph aren’t as emotionally mature, and Mikey has studied psychology, and is always attempting to help Donnie ‘fix’ his emotional issues. April is the only one who listens for the sake of listening.

Splinter and Donnie’s relationship is pretty rough, as Splinter pays very little attention to him. Donnie likes to obsess over the attention he does get, just to purposefully be sour about it. Donnie keeps a calendar dedicated to keeping track of each time he and Splinter interact, and more than once uses it as a weapon against his father, using it as proof that they don’t spend enough time together. Along with that, Donnie highly craves parental praise, making him easily manipulated into doing almost anything. Hence the lair having the finest technology. He builds to be noticed and creates to earn praise.

Lastly is Baron Draxum, who Donnie secretly admires, not as a parent, but as a potential lab partner. As Donnie is a scientist, just as Draxum is, Donnie is immediately captivated by the Barons abundance of knowledge and is willing to ignore Draxum’s past wrongdoings to work with him. Draxum, recognizing Donnie’s parentlal issues, will toss him praise, which Donnie jumps at even against his own father’s wishes, as Splinter rarely offers the praise and learn what he has to offer. Draxum uses Donnie’s need for approval against him, and Donnie has had enough backlash in his life, that he’s fine going along with it.

Leonardo

Leonardo, or Leo, is the self-proclaimed face man of the group, the strategist, and ‘local comedy guy’. Leo tries to emotionally be everywhere and nowhere all at once, people pleasing to get his way. Leo very much idolizes his favorite movie actors, and rather than turn to his father or siblings for advice, he turns to the logic he learned from comics, and cartoons. Leo picks and chooses who to get along with in the moment, depending on who will get him the most out of a situation. Along with that, he has a savior complex and consistently cuts his way into any and all of his brother’s various plans to ‘bail’ them out and then feel smug about it. As Leo is a red-eared slider, a turtle originating from Mexico, Leo takes a great deal of interest in Mexican culture and consistently speaks Spanish throughout the series. This is good and bad, as it does get him involved in some scandals later on.

Leo’s relationship with Raph swings back and forth from being thick as thieves, to arguing nonstop. Rather than craving parental attention like the bulk of his brothers, Leo chooses to reject it, which connects to how he treats Raph. If Raph acts like his brother, Leo will easily play along and follow his ideas. Yet the moment Raph steps up, and goes into leader/parent role, Leo takes on an attitude of rebellion and follows his own plans. Raph and Leo throughout the series have their good and bad moments, till the end of season two when Leo is given the title of leader by Splinter. This causes both Leo and Raph to excessively butt heads. Especially, as before since Raph held the position of leader, Leo felt no need to compete with him, as he and Raph weren’t on equal footing. But the moment Leo became leader, Raph became his equal, leading to him fighting with him constantly, just as he used to fight with Donnie.

Leo and Donnie have a very competitive relationship. Leo constantly feels the need to be the superior one, or the ‘champion’ of the team, (which of course is his own way of coping with a lack of parental praise) and will try and one-up Donnie. Depending on the situation, Leo either encourages Donnie, or tears him down. Whatever gets him the most praise in the moment. For example, when out with his brothers having fun, he’s more likely to have a positive relationship with Donnie, as they are simply existing. Yet when Splinter is in the room, Leo tears down his ‘twin’, with the hope that he’ll appear better than him. This dynamic changes again, depending on whether said company is friend or foe. Leo will tear down Donnie while in the presence of family and friends, as its beneficial to him. Yet when around enemies, Leo practically sings Donnie’s praise, claiming to have the smartest brother. This is because he loses nothing by claiming that Donnie is a great guy, and gains everything instead. Leo knows that Donnie feeds off praise and will use this to his advantage to get himself bailed out of bad situations.

Leo and Mikey’s relationship is opposite compare to Leo and Donnie. Mikey is competitive towards Leo, like how Leo is competitive with Donnie. Except Leo doesn’t ever compete with Mikey, as in his eyes, there’s no reason. Mikey already wins by being the youngest, and the ‘favorite’ of the family. Leo tends to push Mikey away, annoyed by his younger brother who can’t ‘gain’ him anything in the family dynamics. Out of all of his brothers, Donnie is the biggest threat to being ‘cool’ and not ‘disliked’. Raph is leader, which puts him atop everyone, and Mikey is youngest, which makes him ‘objectively cooler’. Leo’s main issue is that he’s very insecure, and deals with it by fighting, and telling poor jokes.

When it comes to April, as she doesn’t tolerate any of that, refusing to allow Leo to act like a ‘champion’ or ‘better’ than anyone. In fact, when he pulls these stunts, she usually kicks his butt. Around April, Leo will somewhat relax, that burden of being the family ‘champion’ lifted from his shoulders.

With Splinter, Leo’s relationship is strained. Leo idolizes his favorite movie characters, tending to act like them, which puts him at odds with Splinter. As one of Leo’s favorite actors is Lou Jitsu (Splinter before he was mutated, but Leo is unaware of this) he tends to act like him. Splinter, who doesn’t like himself as a person, sees his son acting like he used to when he was younger, and immediately becomes harsh and standoffish. Leo’s and Splinter’s relationship together only becomes even more strained once they figure out Splinter and Lou Jitsu are the same person. Leo becomes very confused as the image of a distant, uncaring father overlaps with the image of his idol.

Lastly, Leo and Draxum have a horrible relationship, as back in Draxum’s evil days, he threw Leo off a roof, and Leo refuses to ever let him forget. While the other brothers somewhat jump at the opportunity to have a ‘secondary’ or ‘new’ parental figure in their lives, Leo is already resentful of parental figures, which leads him to immediately disliking the Baron Draxum. The only parent he wants to be proud of him, is his own father. And even then, Leo is resentful of that too.

Michelangelo

Mikey is the youngest of the family, and along with that, the glue that keeps them together. Overly optimistic and pessimistic all at once, Mikey is a wildcard, and the brashest one of the group. Mikey’s role in the family is to help keep the peace and identify the emotions of his siblings. When it comes to interacting with the family, Mikey has curated ‘personalities’ dedicated to situations, to get the job done. Mikey is an ornate box-shell turtle, which is a turtle species that can fully pull into its shell, which Mikey does both mentally and physically. If things become to overwhelming, he retreats into his delusional ideals, essentially putting himself into a ‘box’.

Mikey and Raph’s relationship is very back and forth. Mikey ends up acting as Raph’s emotional support more than once, whether it be yelling at someone in Raph’s stead or giving delusional advice. Mikey also kisses up to Raph to get favors from him, such as rights to the last slice of pizza, or being allowed to ride on Raph’s shell, rather than walk. Mikey understands how to get what he wants when it comes to Raph and often plays into his ‘needs to be protected’ youngest sibling role for it. The downside is he gets babied because of this, and is restricted from going out alone, or on solo missions.

Mikey and Donnie have a very dependent relationship. In Mikey’s eyes, they’re actually on the most equal footing. Donnie is the guy who fixes the physical things in the house, and Mikey fixes the mental things in the house. They’re both ‘fixers’. Mikey doesn’t feel the need to impress him, quite like he does with his other brothers. In fact, he and Donnie have a somewhat symbiotic relationship. Mikey helps Donnie with his own emotional issues, and in return, Donnie acts as Mikey’s comfort person, the person he goes to get a hug from.

Mikey’s relationship with Leo is interesting, as Mikey views him as a cooler older brother, while Leo views him as an adorable nuisance. Mikey is constantly trying to compete with Leo, not to prove that he can be better, but to prove he can be just as good as Leo is. While Leo believes he isn’t good enough, Mikey looks up to Leo, and believes he is more than enough, taking inspiration from his confidence. Along with that, as Leo is the only one in the family that doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. Mikey is drawn to that, as he feels like Leo is the only brother he doesn’t have to cater to emotionally.

While Mikey and April have a good relationship together, it doesn’t really extend past goofing around, and having fun together. Mikey doesn’t feel the need to cater to her emotional needs, as she already does that on her own, and instead uses her as the one person he can unabashedly have fun with, without worrying about anything.

Mikey’s and Splinter’s relationship is better than the other brothers, yet worse at the same time. As Mikey is the ‘feelings’ guy of the family, he often justifies Splinter’s behavior, excusing him because he understands that his father had a rough past life before he was mutated (despite not actually knowing what happened), because having to care for four baby mutants would be mentally draining to anyone. As Mikey is the youngest and had the parental role of Raph in his life, he’s not quite as resentful as the others, nor does he chase praise like they do. Though he recognizes the emotional damage they have had in their life, due to upbringing, he chooses to ignore it.

Lastly, Mikey and Baron Draxum’s relationship which leans more on the toxic side. As Mikey had given up on the idea of having a parental figure in his life, immediately latched onto Draxum when he realized he might be his ‘second chance’. Once Draxum had his redemption arc and stopped fighting against the turtles, Mikey found him and began to ‘train’ him to be the parent he never had. If he couldn’t fix his original dad, maybe he could place his faith in a new person instead. One he could personally shape due to being older and having more knowledge.

Splinter

Splinter is known by many names, due to a complicated past. His original name was Hamato Yoshi (last name first, as according to Japanese custom), which he later changed to Lou Jitsu during his rebel actor years. Then finally Splinter, when he was mutated into a rat, to escape his past once more. Splinter, as he has an inherently tragic past, has quite a few mental issues. As a child, he lost both his father and mother and had to live with his grandfather. Following that, during his teen years and into young adult years, he ran away, became Lou Jitsu, and was an actor in action movies. Then, he fell in love with a woman who was helping on set, and planned to propose to her, only to discover she was a Yokai (a mystic species that lives beneath New York in a Hidden City) in disguise, named Big Mama (see image(s) in references). Big Mama kidnapped Lou Jitsu and forced him to fight in her Battle Nexus arena for seven years. Losing hope, he then fully gave up, expecting to die, and was kidnapped by Baron Draxum to be used in experiments. It was there that his DNA was used to mutate the four turtles into mutants, and he was accidentally mutated with a rat. He escaped the lab with the four baby mutants and was out on the streets with nowhere to go, and no shelter in sight. Splinter’s story is a sad one, a story of a man who never got a break, was continually depressed, and used his children as a distraction to keep himself alive.

Splinter’s relationships with his kids are not necessarily the best, due to his own traumatic background. In the earlier years of his kids’ lives, he was much more involved, as being involved in their lives was a great way to stay distracted. Then as they all got older, specifically Raph, the responsibility shifted to him, and Splinter fell into depression. Splinter and Raph originally had a very father-child relationship, and as time went on, their bond grew distant. Splinter began to see Raph as more of the leader, rather than a son. And Raph being Raph, didn’t do anything to change it.

Next, Splinter relationship with Donnie. Splinter used to be more involved in Donnie’s life, then as Donnie got older, and more independent, Splinter began to fall away, just as he did with his other kids. Along with that, Splinter was continuously depressed, and would use external stimuli to give him dopamine, which in this case was watching TV. Donnie, being the tech guy, and desperately wanting his father’s praise, built him a well-working projector to please him, which only fueled Splinter’s depression and addiction. Though Donnie meant well, in the long run, it was harmful.

Splinter ended up gaining a dislike for Leo as Leo got older, and began to idolize Lou Jitsu, a phase of Splinter’s life that he grew to hate. Though Splinter loves his son, he hates himself, which led to him acting somewhat hateful or dismissive towards Leo. Leo in turn made no effort to build their relationship, as he saw no point in trying. In fact, Leo referred to himself as the ‘least favorite’ child, multiple times.

Out of all his sons, Splinter favors Mikey the most, as Mikey is the one who leans on him the least yet is still highly affectionate. Mikey doesn’t expect him to be a parent like the other brothers do, which already takes away a lot of pressure. Though later on, as Mikey becomes closer friends with Draxum, Splinter becomes increasingly jealous, and angry that Draxum is pulling his attention.

Out of all of the kids, April is the one who received the best parenting from Splinter. As April isn’t Splinter’s actual kid, he feels less pressure to parent her, and as such, ends up parenting her more. Splinter has narcissistic tendencies, which in this instance, show up as the willingness to parent other children, but not your own. April and Splinter have a relationship very similar to an uncle and niece.

Lastly, is Splinter and Draxum’s relationship, which is anger fueled, spiteful, and very mean. Splinter, who never forgave Draxum for mutating him, and the overall lab experimenting process, hates him, and hates that he interacts with his sons. Splinter never told his sons exactly what happened in the lab in the past, so they just see him being hateful for what they deem to be ‘no reason’, which doesn’t help his case.

The Family Dynamics

The four turtles land in the four common family categories, as found in Chapter 2 of Family Systems Theory (Anonymous. (n.d.)). Raph, the eldest of the group, falls into the hero category. “This person may be a perfectionist who appears to have managed all of the demands placed on them easily because there are many rewards that come to the member who takes on this role” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Raph takes on a very parental role in the family, and makes himself leader, not because he wanted to originally, but because he felt he had to. The big protector of the family. Donnie falls into the delinquent and/or scapegoat role. “This child may be prone to acting out, doing poorly in school, or using other strategies that are seen as negative, but may play an important role in maintaining the family’s functioning” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Donnie has his ‘bad boy’ persona that he uses to get attention and is constantly aiming towards ‘evil’ or ‘violent’ tendencies. He also manages all the lair’s money, the tech, and everything else, forcing everyone to rely on him. Leo is in the invisible child category, the child “who seeks to remain on the periphery of the family function in order to reduce family tensions by not drawing any attention, positive or negative, to themselves” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Leo only interacts when it befits him, choosing to remain invisible unless he gains something from it. And when he does interact, he acts as a people pleaser, the ‘face-man’ to be on everyone’s good side, so once again, he isn’t picked out of the group. Lastly, Mikey who is the youngest, falls into the clown category “using humor as a strategy to deflect attention to family problems” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Mikey defaults to a very ‘whimsical’ outlook, where he either chooses to have a very delusional outlook on life and people, or a very angry, harsh outlook. Mikey’s coping method relies less on the ‘telling jokes’ part of humor, and more on the ‘having a very silly’ outlook on life method.

The Hamato family had a very negative feedback loop for almost the entirety of the two seasons, where neglect was common. As the turtles grew up, Splinter felt less needed, and as such, would distance himself. The turtles, noticing how their father was distant, pulled back, and stopped asking for help. This perpetuated in a negative feedback loop, where over time, they all stopped interacting all together. During the beginning of season two, and around the last few episodes of season two, the turtles began to reach out to Splinter more frequently, and as such, he began to reach back. Though they still weren’t interacting as frequently as they used to when younger, the feedback loop began to turn to a more positive one.

Lastly, on the Olson’s Circumplex Model (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). We find that their family dynamics are very chaotically enmeshed. They rely very heavily on one another, keeping Raph as the designated ‘leader’ but still running off to do their own thing. They don’t exist separately and instead refer to themselves as ‘we’ more often than ‘I’.

Conclusion

The Hamato’s, (the family featured in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), is a wonderful example of how parental trauma affects children, and how neglect can become a feedback loop if left unaddressed. Due to the trauma Splinter experienced in his younger years, and how restricted he felt during his childhood and into his adulthood, he gave his sons a lot of free reign. This had its pros and cons, as they had a very freeing childhood, where they were allowed to explore and run about as they pleased, yet as they got older, they got into more and more trouble. Along with that, they learned that they didn’t need to rely on their father, as they could provide for themselves.

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Thank you for reading <3

#tmntficfinder #ficfinder #tmnt #rottmnt #rottmnt essay #rottmnt family analysis #rottmnt leo #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt raph #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt splinter #rottmnt april #rottmnt baron draxum #college essay #rottmnt pre invasion

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hkthatgffan · 3 months ago

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The Flamebel Mystery!

Now, I'm sure you all know who this is. That is of course, Flamebel from Gravity Falls Lost Legends. Appearing only in the story "Don't Dimension It," she's become arguably the most iconic and remembered of the alternate Mabel's we see in that story (aside from Anti-Mabel of course).

However, this is NOT Flamebel! You might already know this, but in case you don't or forgot, given how many years it's been (just like I did), then you should know that this Mabel was NEVER referred to as Flamebel at any point within Lost Legends. If you read through DDI, she's never mentioned in name. Of all the alternate Mabel's that helped Mabel defeat Anti-Mabel, she was the only one who didn't have her name be stated in the story.

I looked over LL again and sure enough, nowhere in the DDI is she referred to as Flamebel. But okay, there's a Barnes and Noble edition of Lost Legends where we see the names of all the Mabel's in Dimension MA-B3L. Surely in it there will be a name for her and it would be Flamebel. Well, not every Mabel in that page was given an official name and surprise, surprise...neither was this Mabel...

In fact, she isn't even the same Mabel here! "Flamebel" didn't even exist in this original line art of the page. She was added in later and neither her or the Mabel that used to be there was named.

So, that brings up an interesting question; Where did the name Flamebel come from if it was never her official name?

Having been in the fandom back when lost Legends came out, I do have some theories. And it starts with this fanart that was posted in 2018 by turquoisespace35.

In Turquoise's post, which was made on August 14th, 2018, she refers to this Mabel as "Flamebel." This was the oldest mention of the name that I remember. And given Turquoise back in 2018 was one of the most popular GF fan artists at the time, it's possible her post helped popularize the name, given it got over 3K notes on Tumblr and also likes of that same amount on Instagram, as well as over 300 favourites on Deviantart.

However, in my research, I found some older posts that may have been where the name initially came from. For one, found this now deleted post from a user named korla-the-kenku that was made on August 2nd, 2018. In it, they list their favourite Mabel's and among them, is our mystery fire Mabel under the name of Flamebel.

I did also consider asking Kiki-Kit; the artist who worked on Don't Dimension It, about Flamebel and if she knows how the character came to be and if that was her name at any point, but uh...for obvious reasons...that was out of the question...

But then, I found what was the oldest post I could at least find during my own research, that used the Flamebel name. And it was this piece of fanart that was posted on July 28, 2018 (4 days after Lost Legends came out), that was made by hntrgurl13.

In the post, she refers to this Mabel as Flamebel. But what's more intriguing is the fact that she made this for an ask question and in it, the anon refers to her as "🔥Mabel," which suggests that before this post was made, the name Flamebel was not what she was known as.

Like Turquoise, hntrgurl13 was a pretty active and popular artist in the GF fandom back in 2018 when Lost Legends came out. And while her post of Flamebel only had a little over 650 notes compared to the 3K Turquoise had, her post is the oldest I could find that uses the Flamebel name.

It's possible there are older posts out there or now deleted ones that use the name, but as far as I can tell, hntrgurl13's post was the first one to use it. I did find this post on Reddit of Flamebel art dating to July 27th, 2018. However, given the OP posted it in May 2019, I can't tell if they referred to her as Flamebel then or added the name in based on the fact that was by that point the name she was most referred to as.

I also found this post hntrgurl13 reblogged on the same day in July, from a now deleted user that talks about Flamebel and while the name isn't used, it could be where she got the question asked to her from that made her post the art where she first used the name. I also found this fanart of Flamebel (but not using that name) posted on July 28th too by Pitopishi; the artist who worked on the story Face It in Lost Legends. But uh...for obvious reasons there too...I don't think there's any chance of asking them about Flamebel either (why did both Lost Legends fan artists have to screw up big time?).

My theory therefore is that hntrgurl13 was the one who came up with the Flamebel name while posting that fanart for the ask she got. From there, given her popularity in the fandom at the time, the post got the name to be used more. Eventually, artists like Turquoise used the name in her viral post and that caused it to stick. Plus, with how wholesome and on point of a name it is to the theme of that Mabel, it worked and people probably didn't bother to realize that wasn't her official name.

I did reach out to hntrgurl13 to ask her about it, but she never got back to me. So, I can't say for certain if she made the name up or heard it from someone else, but it seems she was the first or at least oldest remaining person to use the name that I could find a record of.

At the end of the day, does this all matter? Of course not. I'm not trying to say we shouldn't refer to this Mabel as Flamebel cause even I love the name and think it's super wholesome and on point for her. Alex never bothered giving her a canonical name but the fandom did and she became legendary through it.

But what is funny is how the name became so common place that so many of us, including me, thought it was her canon name and was what was written in Lost Legends itself. I didn't even realize that wasn't the case till a few days ago when someone asked me about where the name originated from and I realized, "Oh...she's never officially been called Flamebel!"

I used to think the Mandela effect wasn't as prominent as it often gets talked about as being. But even I believed for a good while that Flamebel was really this Mabel's name and was in Lost Legends...only to realize that was never the case.

I guess it goes to show; even when you think you know the source of something, you may be wrong. So, always work to make sure what you believe really is based on solid fact. Whether it be something you hear on the news in this divisive world we live in, or just verifying if a character name fans use really is that character's real name.

At the end of the day though...I just hope like we see in this wholesome fanart that mischieflily made for the Epilogue fanzine for Lost Legends, Flamebel finally got to canonically reunite with her Dipper ❤️

And that, was the Mystery of Flamebel; the Lost legends Mabel that Gravity Falls fans named themselves!

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raceweek · 1 year ago

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hello. alexalblondo's rude anon coming here to humbly and politely beg for galex primer because i dont understand their history. george said he lived at alex's family's house at one point? how - weren't they already racing? sorry thank you humble thank you 🙏🙏

hello!!! thanks chris for the referral FKFJDKD

i have overwhelmed my alex and george tags so much that i fear i could never capture all of it but my galex key moment anthology is under the cut!!

karting/early single seaters

Alex thinks they met in 2011 but the footage in georges flip phone says he knew alex back in 2009.

Their first actual interaction (so far as they've told the world) was when alex was world champion with the intrepid karting team and bc he was their reference driver he was asked to help pick the drivers who were quick to replace him when he moved up and he picked george (and charles) so they were then part of that same intrepid driver programme for a while. Interestingly, alex was always at least one year above him bc of their ages and george says the fact they didn't really race directly against each other before 2016 was probably why they became such good friends.

They did a deep dive of their camera rolls from this time on twitch a couple years back and talked about the oldest pictures they have of each other in their camera rolls (1:25:36) which was cute.

2017

2017 is the year george basically lived with alex. They were also sharing a trainer whilst alex was competing in gp2 and george was in gp3. George was doing mercedes sim work at their factory so rented a flat in milton keynes near where alex lived but according to alex that rent was wasted money bc george had more meals at alexs' house than he did that year. Also as detailed in those links, the Great Mountain Biking Incident of 2017 occurred at this time so we have the fun mental image of george literally wheeling alex into a&e on a wheelchair bc that is an actual event that happened.

2018

George and alex both in f2 fighting for the title year wooooo!! They never really fought on track but we did get fun tidbits like when alex pipped george to the win at silverstone bc george had a slow pit stop and giggled about it in parc ferme (5:42) & these post session interviews.

also some incredible photoshoots.

2019

Promotion to f1!!! We started the year at winter testing and this nugget that they have both accepted that they are actually tied together by the strings of fate. They're doing fun media stuff like karting and bullying each other over percentage of apexs hit at the skypad (video). 2019 also the start of the umbrella sharing. They were just together a lot… more skypad analysis!!!

2019 also has MY personal favourite galex moment which was hockenheim 2019 and the 45 minute phone call galex had on the way home after george missed out on scoring what would have been his first point in f1 and only point of the season.

There was also the summer break and enjoying a training camp together, exchanging infections etc. Alex also took george to meet lily for the first time, bc that’s a normal thing to do.

There was also the rookie of the year vid, and the rookie season review vid at the end of the year. Much was happening.

2020

The year started with f1 trying to race during a global pandemic. Fun! On the singular media day before everyone realised just how stupid that was they were being annoying. The lockdowns did give us the twitch streams. George was initially so bad at virtual racing he had to secretly consult alex's brother for help behind alexs back. George was also actively seeking alex out like a missile at any given opportunity and at one point felt necessary to declare that he wasn't alexs boyfriend when someone asked if alex was going to be streaming that day. Anyway my lockdown twitchscapades tag has a post with a playlist of all the streams that haven't been lost or deleted if you want to feel joy and have a spare million hours.

Racing resumed in July with the covid team bubbles and within two races and one qualifying session george was defending alexs honour to sky sports and the world in a truly remarkable fashion.

At the end of the year alex was unemployed....even more tragic than this loss was that alexs career difficulties were so extreme he started ghosting george, which devastated him to the extent he needed to publicly drag him for it.

There was also george asking lily to post alexs n*des on instagram and lily responding with if anyone has them it would be you which was perhaps the last time george had access to his own social media password.

Despite george not liking it they celebrated alexs first podium by going golfing! and reverse! George was also gifted an alex albon signed autograph card for christmas and said that he'll put it somewhere special x

2021

The beginning of 2021 was during lockdown and there was more fun virtual gps except the only two drivers doing it were george and alex so they were just bitching and gossiping and threatening to steal strategies and abu dhabi 2016 each other. Particular shoutout to the time they had a virtual race on valentines day and alex put a suit on for it and george was baffled. Immediately after valentines day was georges birthday which lily used to thank george for letting her borrow his boyfriend from time to time.

Then the season started with george enduring the season alexless and not letting anyone forget about it. Alex was turning up to races after being locked in the simulator until the early hours posting stuff like this on instagram and otherwise stumbling over his words after getting whipped on the ass.

Perhaps the defining moment of the galex 2021 season was george pushing the williams board to sign alex so heavily that they had to actively shut him out of proceedings. Also at this time there was this cute congrats from alexs family and one from alex to georgie about the mercedes seat.

anyway here's some more random 2021 nuggets:

i've seen him topless a few times

george getting alex a good deal on a merc x

yet More golf

the handover

georges driver room

2022

They truly lost every inch of personal space in 2022 like. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. The back signing Hello.

2022 had alex having his appendix out, nearly dying and alexs family updating george whilst alex was in the icu and then when alex returned for the next race in signapore a couple weeks later (insane behaviour) george was like mmm audacious of him to be here.

Elsewhere alex discovered georges photoshoot and was making screensavers about it. Alex also discovered hair dye and george was making instagram stories about it.

other random 2022 nuggets:

george is alexs fave f1 driver excluding himself

this skit williams did of lily finding a huge picture of george in alexs driver room

whatever this image is of lily george and alex

private plane carpool

double date

2023

@onadarklingplain covers the whole year for you much MUCH better than i ever could here!!!!!

and that brings us to present where they're just as weird and freaky with each other as ever!!!

#hopefully it answers at least some of ur questions!!!#i would perfect this but frankly i have spent like. seven hours. on this so im just hitting post. godspeed!#galex #asks #anon #alex albon #george russell

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