#turtle paced

[goodqueenaly]

Also, I don’t even think you can say that Barristan was really Rhaegar’s friend? Barristan served Rhaegar, fought with and for Rhaegar, admired Rhaegar, and believed Rhaegar should and would be a great king - but even Barristan admitted to himself that “[t]he Prince of Dragonstone had never trusted him [i.e. Barristan] as he had trusted Arthur Dayne”. It does not appear that Rhaegar brought Barristan with him at any point to “abduct” Lyanna, much less to guard her at the tower of joy, nor trusted him with any plans he, Rhaegar, had or may have had to depose King Aerys. Barristan Selmy was, in other words, no more and no less than a very loyal knight of the Kingsguard, but not one of those men publicly recognized (by both Barristan-as-Arstan and Yandel) as “dear to the prince”, like Myles Mooton, Richard Lonmouth, Jon Connington (and even that friendship I think may have been somewhat limited), and especially Arthur Dayne.

Consequently, I don’t think Robert would have seen Barristan as so much Rhaegar’s special friend that he, Barristan, needed to be made an example of, so to speak, in the new regime. For Jon Connington, and by extension the Connington family, his clear personal closeness to Rhaegar meant that Robert was not inclined to restore the House’s lands following the war (and Jon’s exile). Conversely, as @turtle-paced rightly notes, there were very good reasons to keep Barristan in his Kingsguard role, and very few reasons not to (the opinion of Roose Bolton notwithstanding).

So given that Barristan was Rhaegar's friend do you find it a little surprising that Robert made him the Lord Commander of his Kingsguard? Robert was much less generous to House Targaryens closest supporters like the Darry's and Conningtons.

Not really, not to me.

First up, Ser Barristan's a knight of pretty much impeccable reputation. He and Jaime (Jaime!) were the only two of their order to think through Aerys' actions and go "you know what? that shit is not what a king should do", even if Barristan's consideration was limited and late. Where Aerys' word is law, there's no such thing as an illegal order - navigating this situation was completely on the individual members of the Kingsguard. By contrast, most people in Westeros, Robert included, would well understand why Barristan would feel duty-bound to remain with Aerys (and by extension Rhaegar) to such a late date. Barristan's wavering is not a deal-breaker. Hell, to a lot of people in universe (and in contrast to the likely social mores of the readers), the fact that Barristan had doubts about swapping sides speaks well of him. Those doubts meant he took his oaths seriously.

Second up, keeping Barristan on is a great look for Robert. Look here, everyone, Ser Barristan thinks that Robert's worth swearing to! The symbolic legitimisation of Robert's claim is important.

Third is the sheer skill and institutional knowledge. Ser Barristan is good at his job. He's not the swordsman Jaime is, but he's also no slouch. Plus protecting a king isn't just swordplay. As Jaime discovers once he gets back to King's Landing in ASoS, there's a people management component there. We also see in AGoT that Barristan is a part of the Small Council, and one of a whopping two people with the spine to say to Robert's face that assassinating a teenage girl is a bad thing to do. (Limited! Late! Still better than most!)

All in all, though, it's pretty clear to me that the case for keeping Ser Barristan in the Kingsguard and promoting him to Lord Commander of that Kingsguard is considerably stronger than the case for penalising him for having been cordial with Rhaegar.

[sariphantom]

I bet Leo's telling one of his dumb fish jokes to Nemo over here 🤣

[onionninjasstuff]

this is part one! | next

[tangledinink]

:000 happy one year of i'm sorry, teenage mutant what now?

[starry-eyer]

ghost does not play about jon

serious question tho: what is ghost doing on his lonesome to keep his own litter mates so cautious around him? why is nymeria so wary? tbh i just know ghost is a true menace

[musicalmoritz]

Got so excited at Hisoka and Illumi’s first interaction that I had to annotate it (first time I have ever marked up a manga)

[this-is-turtles]

Okay but I need yall to know that I couldn’t physically stop myself from coloring this absolutely adorable sketch by @sha-biest of her Golden Future Raph with his hands full of the tiny turtle tots once i got permission of course

just look!!! how cute!! i love!!!

ik im new to the whole fandom, but if by chance you see this and you havent seen sha’s art, i highly encourage you to go give her love and support!!

[brookreads]

I really want to get back to reading for fun.

Over the years of being on/watching BookTube, Bookstagram, and BookTok I’ve really started to put pressure on my self to try and be the type of person who has like ten books in their monthly wrap up.

But that’s just not me.

I found myself picking books up only to put them down if I didn’t feel like I was reading them fast enough.

I then realized that

1) I wasn’t finishing anything

2) I wasn’t reading any of the books I really wanted to because they were all to huge and would take me to long.(As if there is a deadline.)

I kept telling myself ‘oh you’re just in a slump, you’ll get back to reading the way you used to eventually.’

Then I thought about it. I’d made reading out to be a job. I took the fun out if it and then made myself not want to do it anymore.

However the past couple of days I’ve come to the realization that I do still love reading and want to read. I just need to stop putting pressure on myself. This isn’t a contest there’s no prize for who can read the most.

Who cares if I take a month to read a 200pg book?

Who cares if I don’t read anything at all?

It doesn’t matter. I just need to find the joy in it again.

[goodqueenaly]

I do, though, think there are some specific parallels the author wants us as readers to recognize between Lyanna and Sansa, beyond the generalized thematic points. For example, Sansa's "glorious day ... magical day" with Joffrey in AGOT - a day when a Stark maiden and the prince she believed she loved rode away from their guards - certainly recalls Lyanna's escape with Rhaegar at the dawn of 282 AC, with both escapades of course ending in tragedy. Sansa's run to Cersei in an attempt to avoid being taken away from Joffrey mirrors Lyanna's run to Rhaegar, similarly desperate to avoid her marriage to Robert. Harry Hardyng is very clearly meant to be a latter-day Robert himself - a handsome and martial but spoiled and selfish Vale-raised aristocrat engaged to a Stark (or Stark in hiding) maiden but with a growing collection of extramarital children. Moreover, Sansa's story in TWOW, especially early in the novel, may feature Shadrich the Mad Mouse as a sort of play or twist on the history of Lyanna and the Knight of the Laughing Tree - a small knight with a weirwood-colored sigil not out to disguise the identity of a Stark maiden but to reveal a disguised maiden as a Stark. These are just a few examples, but I think it's fair to say GRRM wants to draw specific parallels between Lyanna and both of her nieces.

Do you think Sansa is connected to the winter rose and lyanna? As in do you think there are meaningful parallels going on ?

I don't think there are intentional parallels between Sansa and Lyanna. Ned flat up says a) that Arya reminds him of Lyanna and b) Arya and Sansa are very different people. Ergo, Sansa and Lyanna are unlikely to have been similar in personality.

But that doesn't mean there isn't anything useful in comparing the two anyway. The intersection of patriarchy, feudalism, and the desire for romantic love obviously features in both their stories. Because the author's built a solid world and explored these themes consistently, there's more to his work and his characters than he might initially have intended. That's the merit of the gardening approach - it grows.

[tonguetiedraven]

Yukio and Saburota Todou, an Ongoing Drama

Part Five of my Critically Reading Yukio series. Good news! You can now read the other four parts (and this fifth part!) On ao3! Check it out here. I highly recommend reading them all in order if you haven't. I'm going over the full series and start from chapter two, because there is a lot it's easy to miss or misinterpret Yukio's actions.

(The excitement I feel at not having to hunt down and link all those tumblr parts xD)

Part four covered Yukio's reaction to the trial and started on Yukio's relationship with True Cross itself, manipulative and abusive organization that it is.

We closed off with a scene of Yukio talking with Shura in chapter 15, wherein he discovered that Shura had realized Mephisto was plotting and had helped him reveal Rin so that Rin could use his flames publicly.

We're picking up right where we left off with Shura commenting that she's worried about Yukio. That he's the one that represses his emotions and that people who do that easily succumb to demons.

This is never particularly well explained in the anime, so I'll take a moment to expand on that point. This point.

Exorcist work requires you to face and confront a lot of demons. That's obvious, but it also means that you are interacting with a lot of demons and demons are manipulative and feed off emotions to at least some extent, and they exploit stress, resentment, and anger.

If you are a person who is highly stressed, exhausted, emotionally ungrounded, and pessimistic, you are not going to be well suited to the high volume of demonic interaction that exorcism requires. (You're not going to be well suited to a lot of things. Mental health is far harder to maintain when you are exhausted, stressed, and not living healthily.)

Rin is a character who looks on the bright side of life (yes I'm singing that and if you did too, kudos! That song really applies, funnily enough.)

He isn't too emotionally burdened by his negative emotions or the bad things that has happened. They're essentially out of sight and out of mind for him most of the time. He's coming to terms with everything that happened and keeps his chin up. He doesn't repress most of his emotions, and he's quick to look on the bright side, often unrealistically. And to be a good exorcist, he needs to.

Rin is not the smartest in our cast of characters (he's in the lowest class of our main group) but he's also one of the harder to manipulate because of those facts. He doesn't fall too easily to the alluring words and manipulations of his enemies. He believes in his friends and he believes in trying his hardest. He might not (likely won't) get what the bigger strategies are or understand all the layers of what's going on with the Demon Kings and Assiah and Gehenna, but he's dependable and grounded.

That is, he is until the current arc. I'm writing this when chapter 156 is the latest chapter, and at this point, Rin is repressing his emotions and it's worrying.

Yukio on the other hand... Yukio, for about half of the manga, is fairly healthy and not exactly rested, but he doesn't give off the appearance of exhaustion. He is also very much repressing his emotions. He doesn't let himself mourn his father or really feel his anger about all the things that have gone wrong and the ways he's been wronged and required to do so much. He does not want to be the emotional and weak cry baby he once was, so he tries to go as hard in the opposite direction as he can, and it will lead to problems.

Also bear the above in mind for any character. Fighting demons and being an exorcist when you're emotionally and physically compromised leads to problems. This will ring true for more than just Yukio.

Moving on! This moment in chapter 15.

Yukio basically shrugs Shura's warning off. Entirely understandable as he doesn't respect her and she doesn't respect him and she hasn't given him a reason thus far to take any advice or wisdom she might be offering. She is not, thus far, a safe place or person for him.

She encourages him to be honest with her (meaning to release his pent up frustrations and grief and anger over all the bullshit of the last months, honestly the last eight years since he got pulled into all this exorcism nonsense) so Yukio roasts her. This was probably because it felt good, and it distracted from the conversation they'd been having.

Rin watches from his candles and gets frustrated that he could barely hit one or two and they're talking and joking and messing with each other, and neither one of them have still missed a single target on the highest level.

He looses hold of his flames with his frustrations.

And obviously that doesn't go over well, even when Rin tries to put it off as him finally managing his flames somewhat because he didn't burn them or their underwear! Progress!

Obviously that doesn't go over. Also, that's pair two of Yukio's glasses gone. Both have been destroyed by Rin at this point, but there will be some other causes.

Now we get a little reveal that Shura was trying to help him loosen up and it sort of works. He got to relieve a bit of stress with the practice and probably with telling her that he doesn't like her.

The chapter ends with them getting an assignment and taking Rin's clothes to leave the training area.

Chapter 16 opens with a scene of a kid getting abducted by some weird gas masked figure and the trio appearing at North True Cross which s the poor part of True Cross. It is a BIG town. Not just the Academy.

Yukio's vibe through this entire opening is tired and frustrated baby sitter. He is frowning through this entire interaction.

Shura is complaining and also giving off tired vibes, and Rin is almost feral with his excitement and not matching the general vibe of the others, lol.

We are pausing real quick for this panel

Because that trembling guy in the lower right corner is an important part of this story, and quite frankly, it isn't only Yukio he manipulates (or tries to manipulate) it is, dear reader, you too.

Saburota Todou. An officer for True Cross who is Warden of the Deep Keep. Those are basically the vaults. All the items we don't talk about and don't know about are contained/hidden there. Dangerous things. Things like the Left Eye of the Impure King.

I will tell you now, this man is a liar. As a liar, we have to be careful of everything he says. There are a lot of manipulative and lying individuals in this manga, and he is a big one. They will all seldom tell the entire truth and they will all seldom tell an entire lie. They like to mix them. It makes both harder to tell apart.

Long story short: someone stole the eye, they (exorcists) pursued the masked person who abducted a kid as a shield. He then knocked a lot of the exorcists and civilians down and out with the infectious miasma in the eye. No one knows how the masked man got in the super secret and protected part of the Tokyo branch.

We will before much longer.

Todou tells us this story and he is laying it on thick. He is trembling and stuttering and acting terrified. To the point that Yukio is wondering if he's fit to be in charge. Silently, and to himself, but he's already on alert.

Yukio starts to suggest he and Shura handle the masked man. They're interrupted by the nervous mom before they can, and she begs them to save her boy. Rin hastily say yeah, he promises that they'll rescue him. Yukio immediately grabs him and shoves his way forward to correct Rin.

He clarifies that they can't promise to save the boy and that she should brace herself for the worse.

Now I'm not here to say which is the right answer. I think there was a middle ground. Regardless, Yukio clarifies his reasoning a second later here.

Now this is an important moment to pause on, not so much for the argument itself because they're both right to an extent, but because it happens right in front of Todou. He sees Yukio struggling to corral Rin and sees Yukio visibly agitated by Rin's words.

And I have to point out that Rin called Yukio a wimp. Over and over again the core fear Yukio has of being the weak cry baby again is poked at by Rin. Yes, Rin likely doesn't know that it is a deep fear of Yukio's, but not knowing about a fear doesn't mean you don't hurt or aggravate the frightened. No more than Yukio not knowing about Rin's lingering guilt of Shirou's death gives him a pass for making it worse in their chapter 2 argument.

Neither brother is communicating clearly with the other. They're both stubborn and they're both bringing good points forward, but they cannot and will not listen to each other.

Todou sees and Todous schemes.

They all start heading down to find the kid and the villain who stole the eye, and Rin is (supposedly) left up top with Shura who is honestly just the worst babysitter. She loses sight of Rin pretty much any time he's in her grasp.

The group small talks and it is just instantly loaded small talk.

Look at the way Todou pokes at Yukio. It's subtle and well done. It's an insult while making it sound like he's complimenting Yukio. You're troubled he says, even though we, the reader, should at this point know that Rin is the one with the troubled background by most standards. Yukio has exceled at his exorcism work and his academic work and is currently popular among his fellow students.

The 'troubled background' can really only be a reference to being the child of Satan. Thus far, Todou is the only person we the reader has seen really talk about Yukio being the child of Satan.

Secondly, he also points out that Yukio is young, and we've already seen that Yukio really dislikes being called young and reminded that he is in fact young.

Kato is wasting no real-estate insetting up tension between these characters.

Yukio returns the observation with his own, and with a subtle side eye. He tells us a small bit about Todou's family, a tit for tat if you will.

Rin shows up at this point and Yukio gets, understandably, mad. Rin is a wild card to have around on a mission. He still doesn't listen to orders and he's already made it clear that he thinks Yukio's goals (retrieving the eye to prevent it from being used dangerously) is the wrong goal and their goal should be the child.

The bird is playing the role of canary in a coal mine. It sings and if it stops singing you've found the misama source. (If a canary stops singing in a coal mine, it's come across some dangerous gas and you need to get out. The birds are early warning signs of danger and basically sacrifices.)

I am dismayed to say I don't think this birdy makes it. They disappear part way through and I think it got left behind ;-;

Yukio lets him hold the bird and by all accounts, they immediately run into the masked guy. The masked guy that one shot from Yukio disintegrates. Yukio confirms that the eye is a fake and this entire thing was a decoy, and Todou choses that moment to reveal himself by kicking Yukio in the back.

He's fallen. He's been corrupted. He's the betrayer and the reason the eye was stolen. He's been pretending to be a coward.

Rin grabs the kid and runs, Toudou sends miasma and a shadowy thing at Rin, Rin flames up, and it makes the miasma on the kid grow dramatically.

Yukio can't respond to that or Rin being attacked because Toudou immediately goes hard after him.

And Todou does not stop talking and he will not stop talking anytime he gets around Yukio from now on.

A lot of readers take everything he says as an accurate assessment of Yukio's thoughts and feelings. It's not questioned and it's believed, even though Yukio himself will voice his own thoughts and opinions on Toudou's words and clarify what is actually happening.

I encourage you, reader, to take everything he says with some salt. He's manipulative, and he's talking a lot about himself and putting his thoughts, emotions, and motivations on Yukio.

This. This is what I find people most tend to put on Yukio.

"I decided to recognize my true feelings. I came to hate my family, this organization, and the world!"

As we go through this, we need to be careful who we're listening to. Yukio will spend the next several arcs working through different parts of this and the upcoming statement, but it will never ring quite true. It does not capture who Yukio is or what his motivations and emotions are. (Whenever he stops suppressing them.) He is not Todou. He did not murder his family and try to write it off as enlightenment. He did not steal a valuable and dangerous artifact that caused the death of tens of thousands of people and will go on to cause mass amounts of illness and steal an immensely powerful demon and force it into subjugation.

He is not weak and he was seduced by a demon or the 'light.' And Yukio didn't do all that in front of his daughter and then bring her into a cult.

He lets Yukio up with this statement.

Again, yes and no.

I think we need to pause and reflect on Yukio's relationship with Shirou, complicated and half understood thing that it is. To do that we're going into the past and we're going into it far into the manga future, lol. We're going into chapter 120.

Chapter 120 is post blue night but while Rin is still viewing the past. It takes place shortly before he catches up to the live time. Right before the manga itself started.

It gives us a really important piece of information, and gives us more of a peek into just why Yukio answered the way he did to Shura's earlier question about what makes a good exorcist.

This scene starts with Rin mouthing off and walking off, leaving Shirou annoyed but also hopeful because Rin does make breakfast.

So first and very importantly, "You can hear him?"

Yukio knows that Satan is still around and still attached in some way to Shirou. He knows it's getting bad. So when he told Rin that he knew Satan couldn't get Shirou without Shirou's heart being broken, it was because of this. We don't know how long he's known, but the scene makes it feel like it has been a while.

We see Yukio talking to his father in an adult way, and he's being treated like the kid he still is, mostly dismissed and not made the confident he longs to be. His fears are dismissed and he's told not to worry as Shirou makes it a joke. Shirou doesn't want him to worry because Shirou knows his time is running out and that he's leaving these kids in such a dangerous situation.

Yukio wants to be treated as a capable and professional exorcist. He was raised to be one since he was seven, and he has spent more of his life striving for that goal than not. He is often treated as one when it's convenient -- like when there's a task to be done or a class to watch -- but seldom treated as one when it comes to be trusted with information or with the help he wants to give.

It's a double standard, and over and over again we see that he can never quite escape the perception of being weak and a crybaby to those he most cares about.

I have no doubt that this sort of moment and every moment of trying and failing to get Rin to listen or be cautious for the last months flashes through Yukio's mind as Todou is talking here.

Yukio is visibly shaken, but I don't think it's entirely the accusation that he hates his family. I think more of what he's distraught about is that he didn't anticipate it.

He was caught off guard and up to this point, we've only seen that really happen once. With Neuhaus. Outside of that, frustrated or not, Yukio isn't really taken off guard.

(I'll add in an honorary mention of Rin using his head with Kuro too. xD)

He was caught of guard and compromised, and tricked. Yukio cannot ever afford to be tricked.

Now we the current readers realize this is just blatantly about the Illuminati. Readers at this time didn't. Yukio...

I could see him knowing something about the Illuminati, especially with all the ways Shirou was tied into that from Section Thirteen and the Blue Night, but I also easily see him not knowing it's the Illuminati. I don't think we get too clear an answer either way.

Regardless,

Todou absolutely accomplished his goal.

Yukio is panicked, shaking, upset,

Hearing Todou's words echoing in his head. Do note that Yukio himself is not saying these.

(I also need to point out that he's seeing them smiling and happy while he's scared and crying. Give the boy a hug.)

And it seems to me that this moment

Was learned directly from Shirou. When you are out of control of yourself and your emotions, when you fear succumbing to a demon, harm yourself. Demons cannot stay in those vessels.

He defies the words and defies the emotions, and he defies the meaning in them.

And the job is finished, and it's Yukio bringing the child back to his mother. Not Rin. Rin watches as Yukio takes care of the miasma that his flames worsened.

Rin is visibly mad. He was yelled at during this mission, not entirely deservingly, but the frustrated anger in his gaze feels misplaced with everything that just transpired.

What Rin does not (and honestly will not for most of this manga) see is that Yukio is the commanding officer here. He is the higher rank. He has the right and expectation to give orders and have them followed.

Rin does not have control of his flames -- last chapter had him spending a large portion of it just practicing lighting candles -- and that lack of control and understanding resulted in the miasma worsening.

Rin also does not like to be told what to do and really does not like it being Yukio telling him what to do.

Yukio on the other side of that hates being undermined and not being listened to. At this point, these two don't work ideally together on missions, and it is heightening both their frustrations and their fears and inadequacies. They creating friction and they both have a lot of things unresolved.

This happens mere days after the forest. Neither of them have had a chance to deal with or talk about that (not that we've seen) and they never dealt with any of the Shirou or Rin awakening stuff either. They continue to put off conversations and it results in issues with both of them.

Mephisto, as always, chooses that tense moment to appear. King of Time and Space has the best flare for drama.

I'm skipping most of this conversation because I've assumed everyone reading this knows the overall story. Suffice to say it tells us that the Eye was stolen.

Yukio is given the job to get it. Rin is getting more and more tense through this scene, and they're given one hour to get ready. Yukio leaves with Mephisto, or tries to. He's stopped by Rin.

We're going to most set aside how bizarrely out of line Rin's motivations are here for the task they just had (the implication of 'I'll surpass you' makes all this out to be some kind of contest, extra bizarre when Rin was just the one that pointed out that they should be helping people, but now instead of celebrating the child being saved he's wanting to beat Yukio, and I think we as a fandom need to acknowledge and look more closely at those often passed over and contradicting parts of Rin because it makes him far more interesting and human.)

Instead, I want to look at what this does to Yukio.

At this point, he has far surpassed Rin in most tangible ways. He has a better academic record, a higher rank, more respect among most of their coworkers, and he was the one that finished the mission and aided the child.

But mere moments ago he had felt himself panic and fail the impossible standards he holds himself at. He did not view himself as the winning party in that entire thing.

But Rin did, and Rin is made about it and wanting to beat Yukio.

Yukio...

Grins as he feels settled (at least somewhat) in himself again. Is he suppressing things? You betcha.

I am, unfortunately at my image limit (again) so we're going to end this part here. Todou will be back, and the ensuing drama from that will be much worse.

For now, I leave you with these two brothers who are not communicating efficiently and both about to be in danger of having their heart be weak.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

I do not know if this question has ever been answered, but something that's bothered me for a while is how in the world Mance Rayder replaced "Dornishman's wife" with "Northman's daughter" in a Dance with Dragons. Sure, these phrases both have four syllables, but they're stressed differently (DORnishman's WIFE vs. NORTHman's DAUGH-ter), and "Dornishman's wife" is supposed to rhyme with earlier line of "the Dornishman's taken my life". How did Mance change the "the Dornishman's taken my life" line to rhyme with "Northman's daughter"?

Is this why Theon considered Mance only a passable singer? Anyway, this is likely just an example of the translation convention, in which the Common Tongue of Westeros would have different words in comparison to the English that ASOIAF is written in, and it's possible that the rhymes would work out much better in the Common Tongue. But still, I've been bothered for two years about this.

I'm not sure GRRM really subscribes to the translation convention, at least not nearly as much as Tolkien did with LOTR. I mean, yes, the Common Tongue isn't really English because Terros isn't actually our world, but nevertheless, Reek rhymes with freak and Jeyne rhymes with pain, and Hodor is hold the door, and so on and so forth. You just shouldn't think about it too hard, lol.

Anyway, I don't really see the problem? Yeah, "the Northman's daughter" and "the Dornishman's wife" are stressed differently, but you can make it work! I sang along to Karliene's version and it was fine. I've definitely heard rewrites/parodies that scanned far worse than that. As for the last verse, eh, that's easy.

"Brothers, oh brothers, my days here are done, the Northman's brought me to slaughter, But what does it matter, for all men must die, and I've tasted the Northman's daughter!"

Whether you think that's passable or not, well, it's up to you. 😘

[chil-aglia]

Do I Look Like Him? AU IS NOW OUT

Ao3 version - Do I Look Like Him? - Chapter 1 - Chilaglia - Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018) [Archive of Our Own]

Quotev version - 𝐃𝐨 𝐈 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐦? |ROTTMNT| (Male OC) | Quotev

I did it…I let the voices succumb to me and actually made the book.

There’s no official chapter 1 out just yet. And not sure when it will come out. But hey, you get to see the awesome art made by @cimmerian1275

Blood Runs Thicker Than Water will also come out in a few days. So keep an eye out for that.

Speaking of eyes. Eyes On You will still be updated, and because I’m especially crazy with tossing between now THREE fics. Chapters for all of them are gonna be just a little bit slow in coming out and pretty much coming out at random.

I also have work and personal life to juggle with. So yeah, take that into account too—

[avroditelovesthesun]

Thank you again @dysfunctional-doodle!

The Leo that finally got time to meditate was a nice idea!

[qwertysblues]

bruh what the fuck did they lace in yangvikweek because ever since then i’m over here picking up my pen opening up my WIP drawer out of my own free will

[duckapus]

Had an idea for a crossover.

Arle, along with her constant companion Carbuncle and their friend Amitie, have once again gotten wrapped up in one of the Dark Prince Satan’s schemes to convince her to marry him (something involving messing with the weather around Primp Town to create a winter wonderland, which may or may not have been inspired by a song he heard in Suzuran). And, as usual, it all comes down to a Puyo Puyo Battle between the traveling mage and her wannabe fiance. She wins, also as usual, and makes Satan undo his spell, and she and her friends leave his latest gaudy castle victorious.

As they’re walking back to town, Amitie comments on how this was the first time she’s seen it snow in Primp, since their world doesn’t really have seasons like Ringo’s or Arle’s (and even if it did they're pretty near their planet's equator). This leads to a conversation about Arle’s home, the World of Sorcery, which she and her friends still haven’t managed to return to, even after almost a year and a half. Even Satan, who’s powerful enough to travel freely between worlds, can’t seem to figure out where it is.

While Amitie tries to reassure her that they’ll figure something out someday, a mysterious cloaked figure on the side of the road interrupts, seeming to have appeared out of nowhere, making cryptic statements about how their world has been connected and not bothering to clarify how or to what.

The girls try to question him, only to be ignored, and an ill wind begins to blow. The sky begins to go dark despite it being midday, and they run towards town in hopes of gathering their friends to work out what’s going on and hopefully put a stop to it. The cloaked figure, forgotten in the chaos, vanishes into the darkness.

As the girls run, they find their way blocked by strange shadowy creatures with eerie yellow eyes, though they’re thankfully no match for their magic so it doesn’t slow them down too much. Unfortunately, for every one they defeat at least a dozen more take its place, and they’re eventually overwhelmed and dragged apart, Carbuncle ending up with Amitie instead of Arle in the confusion.

Arle, desperate to reunite with her friends, eventually manages to fight her way out of the horde, finding herself in a ruined Primp Town Square, where everything, even the very ground, is being torn apart by the creatures and a decidedly unnatural dark storm. She continues to fight, but as the world crumbles around her, she knows that this is a battle she can’t win, and eventually she finds herself tumbling down into the abyss…

…and when she next opens her eyes, it’s to an unfamiliar alleyway and a starry night sky.

Yeah long story short, Maleficent and her Counsil of Idiots mistook Amitie for a Princess of Heart because Secret Reincarnation of Literal Sun Goddess, and now all the Puyo characters are scattered across the Worlds and Arle's gonna be teaming up with a lost kid holding a giant key, an angry sailor-turned-wizard with the worst luck in the universe, a clumsy low int./high wiz. knight and a cricket with a magic therapy license to find her weird rabbit thing and two other lost kids and save the universe for the 80th time.

Also Shezo's stuck in the Realm of Darkness with a very lost semi-amnesiac Keyblade Master, a holographic emo girl whose dad is an egg or something, and his very hungry cursed sword that won't shut up about how they're in a world literally made of its favorite food.

Welcome to Kingdom Hearts: Puyo Mix motherfuckers.

[deadtiredghost]

On finding out Leo is the biological eldest.

it starts with:

Leo: BARRY. You had information on out turtle-mamas this whole time and you didn't think to tell us?

Draxum: I dont see what you would even do with said information. They're animals, not mutants or Yokai.

and ends with:

Splinter: oh I'm sorry I mis-aged the tiny turtle mutant babies while I was mutating into a short fat blind rat!

they collectively agree that they never heard this and it never gets brought up again