#(and also i think the fandom is more splintered than it used to be)

[daughterofhecata]

hallo fellow ddf mensch! gibt es eine tumblr community für ddf? mögen wir dieses community-dings? benutzen wir das? liebe und kirschkuchen - neenee :)

Hallo!

...ich habe leider keine Ahnung! Ich habe immer noch nicht durchblickt, wie dieses community-dings funktioniert (und es ehrlich gesagt auch nicht versucht 🙈) und kann dir leider nicht sagen, ob da jemand schon mal was erstellt hat.

Also gebe ich die Frage einfach mal weiter - sound off, falls es so eine Community gibt?

[aleksiej]

does rottmnt donnie dislike touch?

i have rewatched all of rottmnt and am ending this debacle once and for all (at least for me lol)

based on the two seasons, the movie and the comics (tho the comics don't really bring anything to this conversation) i think i have the answer to one of the more controversial topics in this fandom

(no, it's not the yuichi vs usagi debate, usagi obviously wins that no sweat)

so, does donnie dislike touch?

in the series, he is shown being fairly touchy with his siblings throughout the series, with some exceptions i will try to list now, tho not with proper episode names as i am not looking them up, sorry not sorry:

pilot episode, captured by draxum in a cacoon with mikey he's visibly uncomfortable and tries to get away

mikey's solo mission, he doesn't look at any of the and in response to a hug he pats mikey's head with a metal arm from his battle shell.

glued together, he's showing visible discomfort at being forced into close (touching) proximity of his brothers, tho that discomfort is somewhat elevated when they do a second go-round after the sticky foam ball got crushed

that time splinter caught everyone in a trap hanging in the lair (i think it's the forest survival episode?), he's, again, uncomfortable and the first to find a solution to their entrapment, be it on his phone

there's probably more, but that's what i remember from the series and spread out on about 60 episodes it's noticeable, but not a deciding factor, especially since donnie's also seen being fine with touch. now, the movie offers us even more of a look into donnie's relationship with touch. this list will include every instance presented i can think of, in no particular order.

during leo and raph's fight after they lost the key, donnie jumps on raph's back in an attempt to stop him from advancing in the fight, as mikey tries to shield leo. it's a very quick decision and doesn't seem to particularly trouble donnie.

after the kraang come through the portal and the turtles escape-pod out, mikey's panicking and grabbing cj, also causing him distress. donnie grabs mikey under his arms like a plushie and is shown to carry him until leo gets back with a panic attack and news of raph, upon which leo starts at cj with a fight in mind and donnie and mikey keep him away. again, no distress is coming off of donnie, no more than the regular situation call for (although he gets more logic-minded and quiet as the movie goes on with only small donnie moments breaking it up, which seems to be how he reacts to stress, but that'll be in another fever post)

he's touching mikey sometimes during the subway battle, but it's most likely he either didn't notice or didn't care, considering everything else happening in that fight (ps the kraang train is my favorite villainous entity in the franchise, give me more of the kraang train and i will give you my soul)

he's shown very visibly having sensory issues (very relatable) throughout the whole movie because of the kraang. not necessarily to do with touch, oh except for the part when he had to get EATEN BY THE TECHNODROME THROUGH HIS BARELY TOUCHED AT ALL SOFT SHELL which is shown to be a sensory nightmare and awful to touch and yes, i had night terrors if that, thank you very much.

at the very end, they all hug with no visible problems except for the fact that they are on staten island. that is to say, there's one important scene still, it happens before the end, but i wanted to have space to gush about it so here we go.

the famous scene of raph grabbing donnie and mikey flying through the air, yelling "don't worry donnie, it's not a hug, it's a rescue". probably the most important thing said in accordance to donnie's relationship with touch.

in my personal opinion, donnie doesn't mask (i mean look at his behavior) or if he does, he does it, rarely in public and even rarer with just his brothers. so every one of the hamato clan knows at least the most important of donnie's boundaries, especially related to the autism, as it's handled well within their family structure (both donnie's and mikey's autism is) . so, if raph calls out to him to warn about the hug he's giving donnie and treats it like a potential bad thing, there are really only two conclusions we can get to.

one, donnie doesn't like/hates physical contact. disputed by just about everything else in the show, except for the listed above exceptions.

two, donnie being open to touch or not is conditional. and considering the mentioned exceptions and raph's rescue from the movie, there's one similarity we can notice between them.

the touch affecting donnie is happening without his consent and without a form of escape.

(except for when donnie's hugged by mikey in his solo mission episode, but considering he's already kind of detached, i'm assuming he's just not up to it and so he uses his robotic extra arms to give comfort instead of ignoring his little brother which aww)

that's the uncomfortable part, the unpredictability and lack of a way to detach himself. aka, donnie's just like me for real. lmao.

donnie probably doesn't mind touch and welcomes it, but needs to be in control of the process and be able to leave if he gets overwhelmed. and his family knows that, hence raph's words in the movie that led so many people astray...

this might just be another evidence of how well donnie is written as an autistic character, both with his low empathy not being demonized and not preventing him from creating bonds (tho sometimes making it difficult) and the fact that the most common opinion of autistic people (that they hate touch, which is something a psychiatrist brought up as evidence of me not being autistic) doesn't apply to everyone.

as a summary, rottmnt donnie is probably the best version of donnie right now and he doesn't hate touching, he just has to touch on his own terms. extremely valid, extremely relatable.

[imagionationstation]

Whats your opinion of the Rise community’s impression of 2012 splinter? For me I think he’s a very nice guy just unprepared like bro just got shoved four children

Uh this was random

I just want to make a note of something:

I’ve spent so long trying to come up with a response to this because I can think of some people who are pretty deep in the RISE fandom who are like “2012Splints ain’t that bad tho”. So addressing the entire fandom is actually more difficult than it sounds concerning Splinter.

So instead of addressing the entire community, which would put many people in boxes that they don’t fit in, I’m going to use this Ask to make a statement about the whole Rise VS 2012 debate.

So my firm opinion that I will give is this:

You cannot forgive Rise Splinter without forgiving 2012 Splinter.

And for the 2012 Fandom:

You cannot understand 2012 Splinter without understanding Rise.

You cannot say that you honestly grasp the extent of one trauma/depression without acknowledging the existence of the other. Both Splinters have similar building blocks of trauma (forcefully separated from someone who they love dearly, forced to fight for their lives for who knows how many weeks/months, forced to live/adapt to a body that’s not their own, and forced care for helpless mutant children on top of it all) but their ways of dealing with it are different ONLY because of their different upbringings.

Their traumas are the same but their history is different. (No, you can’t use the ‘well one is a struggling immigrant and the other isn’t’, because Yoshi literally grew up in Japan. He only moved to New York because that’s what Shen wanted. So he has more connection to his origins than Lou has. But that really is beside the point.)

Anyone can have the argument that they feel that one Splinter is the ‘lesser evil’ in this scenario. There are some pretty good debates for both sides, but you cannot claim to have any sort of proof that one Splinter loves his sons more than the other.

You can’t. It’s ignorant and untrue. And I stand by that.

After all, they both kept and raised four mutant children.

And I know that’s a pretty obvious piece of lore, but I don’t think most people truly realize just how monumental that is.

It’s hard enough to raise one child, and harder still two, but four mutant infants? All on your own while trying to manage a new body with no outside help of any kind- and dealing with the fact that their entire infant hood would be a guessing game of do I have any idea if this would hurt/kill the turtle side of them? Not to mention the patience it would take raising children with super strength and amazing abilities that most parents don’t have to deal with?

Four children- all with different mental capacities, all with the different dreams and desires, all the different wants and hates, all the different fears and struggles and tantrums, and you have to learn how to understand and raise all of those personalities (because toddlers absolutely have MASSIVE personalities) all at once.

All of the variables that came into raising them, all those reasons that would make life beyond difficult, all the temptation not to, and these men pilled with trauma and grief still looked at the tiny freaks of nature and went: Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be their dad.

Just like there are many different love languages, there are also many different ways of showing your love. RISE Splinter did it in the big ways while often neglecting the small, and 2012 Splinter did it in the small ways well often neglecting the big.

One man does not have worse trauma than the other.

One man does not have more love for his children.

You will never be able to convince me that you truly understand what 2012 has gone through but still hate him, if you cannot acknowledge that there might be a reason for you to hate Rise too.

If you cannot comprehend understanding/forgiving 2012 then I really don’t think you truly understand/forgive Rise either.

So, yeah. That’s my hot take, ig.

[destinationtoast]

*waves shyly* Hello!! First off, I absolutely adore all of your stats and get excited when you post new ones -- thank you so much for all that you do!

Secondly, a friend and I have been discussing fandom longevity lately, and I wondered if you have thoughts? Subjectively, it seems to us that new fandoms tend to have more quick bursts of fandom activity when a new season/movie/book/etc comes out that fades quickly with time, whereas older established fandoms have more staying power. I'm curious if you have any insight about whether this is objectively true in most cases or not, and as to whether or not the type of canon source material matters (eg show-based fandoms vs book-based fandoms). I hope you're having a great day <3

Hi there, and thanks! :D This is a great question, and one I have been having a bunch of conversations about lately.

I share this subjective experience -- it sure seems like the attention span of fans and lifespan of fandoms is shorter than it used to be, when I think of how quickly people stop talking about a bunch of newer movies and TV shows these days. And then I see some of the older fandoms like Harry Potter still producing a ton of new fanworks, and I think, "Wow, maybe new fandoms just don't have the staying power of older ones." At the same time, I also question how objectively true/simple that story is for a few reasons, including:

Memory bias: When we look back on the past, the fandoms we remember most are usually the ones that lasted a long time. So our estimates of past fandom longevity may be overly generous.

Changes to fandom size: Maybe any changes to fandom lifespan are mostly due to some other change, like fandom size... Attention is more splintered these days than it used to be across more streaming services/etc, and I think there are more, smaller fandoms than there used to be. Maybe if a fandom doesn't get really huge, it's just not likely to last that long.

For TV fandoms -- changes to canon release schedule: most TV shows used to have seasons that lasted most of the year, so they had a lot more reason to stay in the public mind longer. Now many seasons are shorter and sometimes drop all at once. Perhaps if we compared popular TV procedurals with 22 episodes/season from now vs. ~a decade ago, we'd see similar patterns of fandom activity?

I've been thinking about ways to try to gather quantitative data about the changes, and testing out a few methods. A few ideas I've had:

Look at the Tumblr official lists of top fandoms and see whether the top fandoms tend to leave the top 20 rankings faster now than they used to. (The Tumblr rankings go all the way back to 2013 on a yearly basis, at least -- I'm not sure how long they've been releasing the weekly lists; those may have started later.)

Look at AO3 fandom activity after new canon infusions - how quickly does activity drop off after a new movie/book/video game release, or after a TV season ends? How has the rate of activity dropoff changed over the years? (And how much of that seems to be explained by other factors, like fandom size?)

See how quickly AO3 authors/creators tend to migrate to new fandoms, and how that's changed over time - many authors tend to be active in multiple fandoms, so we'd have to define what it means to migrate to a new fandom, but I think we could do so in a way that would allow us to look for changes.

Look at Tumblr, Twitter/X, and/or Reddit activlty after new canon infusions - same as AO3, but on a platform where people are posting shorter content and there's more of a discussion. (This data would be harder to collect, though.)

I'd love to also hear other ideas. I think I'm going to need some volunteers to help gather data if I do any of the above, though... Readers, if you'd be interested in helping to gather data for an hour or more to help investigate this question, please reply/DM and let me know! And/or join the new fandom-data-projects community.

Also if any readers know of anyone else who has looked into this/similar questions, I'd love to hear about it!

[decepti-thots]

while i'm talking about Whirl, one thing i've been meaning to talk about for ages just in a 'i am aware some people may not actually know this, and it hardly gets mentioned in fandom' is that Whirl in Interiors talking about briefly trying to change his name when he was a flight instructor at the flight academy is a reference to a passage in Bullets, which is in retrospect very obviously him:

Jetstream had taught him to recognize his inherent worthlessness. In front of the other cadets he'd always been supportive, but in private he would berate him for showing off and for getting ideas above his station. “You think you're something special?” he used to say. “You think you’re better than the rest, better than me, just because you can turn a few tricks? On a good day - on your best day - I’d say you were unremarkable.” Rotorstorm’s only response to Jetstream’s verbal abuse was to make jokes. If you can make light of the situation, he'd think, it can’t be as bad as it seems. Over time, Jetstream’s verbal abuse... evolved. On one occasion, Rotorstorm was pushed against a wall. On another, he was punched to the floor. Before long, he was on the receiving end of sustained and entirely unprovoked beatings. The worst day of Rotorstorm’s life - worse than the day war was declared; worse than the day of the Simanzi Massacre - was the day the IAA installed a Cryogenic Regeneration Chamber. He couldn't remember what he’d done to deserve that night's battering, but as he lay on the floor of the aircraft hangar, his torso freshly pummeled, his spinal strut bent at a right angle and his face reduced to a shallow bowl of oil and splinters, he saw something he would never forget: Jetstream was standing over him, fists clenched and head cocked, coolly appraising his options. And the look of exhilaration on his face as he wondered where to place the next punch had been terrifying. Rotorstorm had passed out before Jetstream had finished shoveling him into the CR Chamber, and had woken up the next day without a single scratch on his body. Jetstream had left overnight; he moved to a training facility in another province and later changed his name. Since then, Rotorstorm had seen him only once: he'd been sitting in the front row when Rotorstorm had been awarded the Novic Medal for Outstanding Valor, and he’d been clapping and cheering more loudly than anyone else.

and this is a really fascinating thing to consider for me because if you just describe the whole thing briefly in the abstract, it's gonna likely sound like one of two things:

whirl tried to turn over a new leaf with a new name, and it worked for a time but ultimately he couldn't and went back to his old life

whirl tried to turn over a new leaf with a new name, but he couldn't and was just as much of an aggro wildcard as ever so gave up

but this is... kind of not either of those, including the last one? whirl IS acting like the violent, bitter, unpredictable asshole we come to meet in MTMTE and know he was during the war, to an extent, but he's also clearly succesfully keeping up something of a facade of really inhabiting that 'not Whirl, nope, i'm a Normal Flight Instructor' in public. it's only to rotorstorm he's not, seemingly. (and even then, the way rotorstorm describes him here is... really cold and deliberate in a way that feels kind of different to what we see later.)

obviously it's. i mean it's SO deeply unpleasant, very effectively communicated in terms of how awful and traumatising that kind of thing is btw a+ but also Jesus Fucking Christ, but it also suggests to me a very specific experience Whirl is having in this period of his life that isn't quite either of those obvious choices. pokes at it. god. what the fuck is going through your head you terrible helicopter you.

[shadows-shells]

On the topic of sibling dynamics. Like with Leo and Mikey, I noticed Donnie gets away with doing things that annoy Raph, vs. say if Mikey and Leo did those things, he would argue with them. But Donnie, he doesn’t argue. Like how Leo is much nicer to Mikey, and Mikey is nicer to Leo, while he purposely antagonizes Raph and Don, especially Raph. I used to believe he didn’t like Raph with how much he antagonized him, but I see why he does it, but I still feel bad for Raph, lol. I empathize with him being a middle child myself. My youngest brother got away with everything. If I dared lash out at him, I was the one to blame. So Raph is in a tough spot, especially during season 4. Mikey taking Leo’s side like that while being dismissive of Raph and Don’s feelings had to hurt, and Leo got help for his anger, while Raph got a lecture. At that point, Don was the only one Raph had in his corner since he was getting the same treatment. Remember when Mikey set the battle shell onto the lair? Who did Splinter blame? Don, even though it was Mikey’s fault. I am not bashing, btw. I am just saying Mikey gets away with a lot because he’s the youngest. Sorry for this long essay of an ask lol.

Haha my friend lots of loaded statements in here to unpack!

i think for me personally, ultimately i choose to engage with 2k3 in the manner that their biggest enemies are the Shredder/their own character flaws, and their familial relationships are their emotional rock and not a source of pain (which is very different from how i engage with some of my other fandoms).

eg placing more weight on the show portraying that Leo floated into caretaking/leadership as a turtle simply because he loves his family and that is how he expresses his love, that he clearly trusts and loves each brother and his father throughout the show and thinking of them gives him comfort...instead of reading a pattern of unfair blame and over-responsibility, from that one single time Splinter blamed him for not stopping his brothers from coming to the Battle Nexus. 

i strongly suspect that one can read any manner of conflict and pain into any of the brothers in any incarnation, depending on their own history. 

After all - no familial relationship is perfect, and those imperfections can be read as proof of deeper pain and conflict. 

i've seen ppl say 2k3 Don is neglected and overworked and lonely, or that 2k3 Mikey is overlooked and dismissed and lonely, too. Combined with the ones for Raph and Leo - we could alr say that the entire 2k3 family is full of lonely neglected ostracised brothers..but ultimately that's not the direction i prefer to take for 2k3. 

(im an eldest child but consider myself estranged from my sibling)

i don't read malice or resentment in Mikey's relationship with Raph and Don from that interaction. Raph softened toward S4 Leo after Mikey's speech in later episodes - he thought about what Mikey said, and agreed. iirc it was Don in earlyS4 who still remained fairly detached from Leo. 

also 'Splinter neglected Raphael's struggles with anger and dismissed his feelings' is a stance im not prepared to take. 

I don't think Raphael getting too rough one time with an equally-skilled brother (and there is no trust or respect lost there afterwards with them making up) is the same as literally drawing a live blade (the very same blade you used for killing and the blood feud with the Shredder) AND landing a hit on your own parent - especially in a Japanese family, and for someone of Leo's skill and general control. 

There was just no bigger taboo for Leo commit, either as a son or as a martial artist. 

Leo was simply out of control, gone much farther away from his natural emotional baseline, and dangerous in a way Raphael never even got close to. 

Raphael expresses himself directly and honestly pretty consistently, and he's the one who cries the most - he deals with his emotions far better than Leo was managing to in earlyS4. 

People keep saying 2k3 Raphael is angry all the time and so violent/dangerous etc but i just don't agree. He's a lot more level-headed, thoughtful and selfaware than some fans claim.

"Mikey gets away with a lot" -> i think there can be smth to be said for this (esp with that FF episode in which basically Mikey gets a makeup test for chuunin despite apparently 'skipping a whole month of strength training sessions' right before the exam)...but ultimately, with how Mikey is consistently shown to be pulling his weight in fights and how his brothers still trust him with their lives? 

im reading that episode as a one-time thing and a product of FF's lighter less-gritty-realistic tone: that the whole family is coming together to give an ultimately-deserving Mikey a lil helping nudge - rather than actually taking it seriously as toxic favoritism 😂 

That it is meant as a cute quirk of the family like 'oh everyone is a lil bit softer on the heart of the team' than 'youngest sib gets away unfairly with things just coz they're the youngest', LOL. 

(Imagine Leo or Raph or Don skipping a whole month of strength training? Portrayed in the more serious tone of S1-5? Leo would (rightfully) be stripped of leadership. Raph and Don would've been grounded at the very least for their own safety. But i don't think favoritism is the point FF is trying to make, and im choosing to not read it that way haha)

That said - i empathise how hard it can be to see bad-faith takes in the fandom (or even just takes we don't agree with), especially when it hits on painful personal history. i've just stopped engaging with those takes i dun even think abt them at all lmao life is too short for that 😂 

Thanks for the ask!

[vampwritesstuff]

Tricky Feelings

I’ve been on a Leo kick lately, so have a fun lil self indulgent oneshot I made for him lol. If y’all end up liking this, then check out my multi-fandom masterlist which is pinned on my blog! Also- I totally didn’t hide a song reference in here at some point 😅 giving y’all a mini challenge to find it lmao

Type: Oneshot

Pairing: Leonardo x Reader

TMNT Version: 2012, because it’s lowkey my fav version lol

Requested?: Not a request

CW: angst to fluff, comfort, mentions of body shaming (body type is unspecified), AFAB reader, brief mention of blood and being cut by a Shuriken on the cheek, playful teasing from Raph, Mikey and Donnie.

Word Count: 2.4k

You were sitting in the lair, curled up into yourself as Master Splinter comforted you. “I’m so stupid, Master Splinter.. why did I even think that he would actually like me?” You sobbed into the shoulder of the only father figure you’ve ever had. “Y/n, boys are.. dumb. That boy couldn’t see how amazing you are, and therefore, has missed out on such an incredible girl.” Splinter told you, patting your shoulder.

You and April had known the turtles and their master for months. Both you and April were training to be kunoichi under Splinter’s guidance, but you seemed to be more in tune with it than your best friend was.

Originally, you had come down here to take out some frustration by sparring with Raphael, however, he and the other boys were out on a mission when you arrived. So you settled for a therapy session with Splinter, to make up for it. You sniffed and wiped away the tears from your eyes, “Thanks, Master Splinter, I really needed that.” He gave a nod, “If you’d like, we can train to take your mind off of it.” He suggested, and you snorted but gave a nod, you could use the distraction from your emotions. Of course, Splinter wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to train you.

When the four turtles returned, they found you and Splinter in the dojo, training. They watched with impressed expressions as you focused on dodging the Shuriken that Splinter was aiming at you, per your request that he train you on evading and expecting attacks. He had a feeling that it had to do with what had happened prior to you visiting the lair, but you hadn’t told him what exactly had happened.

Once Splinter had run out of Shuriken to throw, he ended the session, also having noticed his sons’ return home. You nodded and both bowed to each other. “Dude! That was awesome!” Mikey shouted finally as he bounded over to you, making movements and sounds that mimicked what you had been doing. “Oh! Dude, Y/n, your cheek is bleeding.” He said casually, and everyone turned their heads to you, even Splinter was surprised to see that Mikey was right. “Oh, guess I didn’t notice..” you hummed, wiping away the blood but your cheek continued to bleed.

“Y/n, I’m sorry, I did not realize that I actually hurt you.” Splinter spoke as he walked to you with Raph, Leo and Donnie following behind him. They must’ve been telling him how the mission went. “It’s okay, Master Splinter, it happens. Besides, I hardly feel it.” You hummed, but Donnie was already leading you off to his lab so he could patch up your cheek. Once you were out of sight, Leo turned to his dad.

“So what was Y/n doing here, anyways?” The leader in blue asked, Splinter shrugged, “That is not for me to tell, my son.” And with that, Splinter disappeared into his room. Leo gave an exasperated sigh but decided to check on you and Donnie.

However, he stopped when he saw that Raph and Mikey were standing outside the door, seemingly listening in on the conversation going on. Before he could ask, Raph turned and shushed Leo, grabbing him and telling him to just listen.

“That guy doesn’t deserve your time of day, Y/n, you shouldn’t worry about him.” Came Donnie’s voice, “But, I liked him Donnie, and I really thought he liked me back.” Your response was muffled, almost as if you had your face buried in your hands, trying to keep the tears from flowing again, Leo felt his heart drop at the mention of a guy. “So you’re gonna let one bad date with a guy affect your view on dating?” Donnie’s voice questioned again.

Inside the lab, you were sat on the table as Donnie disinfected the cut. “No, well.. maybe, I dunno.” You sighed, “Donnie, you weren’t there… he made fun of my body, said extremely mean things and even threw his drink on me.. how do I not let that affect me?” You questioned, only looking up to see a stunned Donnie and three other very angry looking turtle brothers, even Mikey looked pissed. “Uh, how much did you three hear of that?” You asked, nervously clearing your throat.

“Enough.” Raph said as he stomped up to you, you shrunk back as you thought he was gonna blow up on you. Instead though, you felt him pull you into a tight hug, and eventually three other pairs of arms joined his. “Y/n. You’re worth so much more than that guy can see.” Came Leo’s voice, you teared up again. “I swear, when I find that guy I’m gonna shove my foot so far up his-“ you smacked Raph on the head, “No you will not. But, you guys are right, I’ve got all I need right here.”

Eventually you all separated from the hug and had found yourselves watching Space Heroes in the living area of the lair, you were sat next to Leo.

If Leo was being truthful, his heart was pounding at the feeling of you being so close, his heart had squeezed painfully when he’d heard you had gone on a date with another human guy. In all honesty, Leo had a huge crush on you, and his brothers knew it. Raph looked behind him at the two of you and gave his brother a ‘Get em, tiger’ kind of wink, but Leo just shook his head at Raphael. Of all his brothers, Raph was the one who gave Leo the most shit about trying to use Karai as a distraction from his feelings for you. Leo felt bad for being kind of relieved that your date didn’t go well, of course he was angry that you were told those things by that guy, but maybe it was a chance he could use to prove that he was a good choice for you.

Leo heard you yawn next to him, and without thinking he pulled you against him and laid your head on his shoulder. He felt you stiffen for a split second before you relaxed into him and began to fall asleep. Leo looked down at you and his gaze softened at the sight of you with your eyes closed and your head laying on him, your arms wrapped around him in a hug. He was distracted though by the sounds of Raph and Mikey giggling.

He looked at his two brothers and was horrified to see that they were mocking him and you, Raph pretending to be you while Mikey acted as Leo. Then they started making kissy noises, and that’s when Donnie lost it and began to laugh loudly. Rolling his eyes, Leo stood with you in his arms, carefully to not wake you up, however you were already awake and had witnessed his brother’s teasing. In the heat of the moment, you turned Leo’s face to look at you and gave him a quick peck to the lips, laughing at his expression when you pulled away.

You laughed even harder, however, at the reaction of his brothers, they were gagging and freaking out. “OH MY GOD, LEO’S GOT COOTIES!!” Was all you heard from Mikey as Leo took you back to his room, now he definitely needed to know how you truly felt about him.

You let out a small ‘oof’ as Leonardo unceremoniously dropped you onto his mattress, “Hey, what was that for?” You asked sitting up, only to see a flustered and fidgety Leo. This was not something you saw often and you really only remembered him acting this way with Karai when she first came around. “Leo?” You asked cautiously, as if you were attempting to get a stray to eat from your hand.

“Please tell me you meant that.” Was all he said, confusing you. “Meant what, Leo?” You questioned, and you could see him visibly upset. “That kiss. Please.. just tell me that meant something to you, like it did to me.” Leo’s gaze was pointed at the ground, he didn’t want to look up at you and see the pity in your eyes as you rejected him. Your eyes widened.

Truth be told, you had the biggest crush on Leo, like almost as big as Donnie’s crush on April. But when Leo had began to have his little, very obvious, boy crush on Karai you started pushing those feelings way down because you knew you would never be as cool as her. Trying to ignore the squeeze in your chest each time you heard Leo talk about her didn’t help, so you actively began seeking out an old crush from school in the hopes that you could move on and look where that landed you. Then you found out that Karai was his sister, and that changed everything, but things didn’t go back to how they were. You knew that there would be no way that Leo liked you, you were just some random human girl that was saved by them.

You were snapped out of your thoughts as you heard a choked back sob come from the terrapin in front of you. “L- Leo… I,” he stopped you before you could continue. “No, I get it, you were just teasing my brothers…” He mumbled, wiping his tears and attempting to appear unbothered. “That’s not it all, Leonardo!” You snapped, quickly covering your mouth as you and Leo both looked at each other in shock. You hadn’t used his full name since you guys had first met. “What?” Was all he said.

“I didn’t just do that to tease your brothers, or you.” You could feel the word vomit coming up your throat, but you were powerless to stop it and in the moment, you needed to get all of it off your chest. “I like you! I have for over two months now, and I didn’t think you would ever like me back so I started ignoring it and pushing it away, thinking that if I didn’t acknowledge my feelings then they would go away. But then Karai showed up, and all you could do was talk about her and how cool she is and I realized that there was no way you’d ever like me because I could never be like her and-“ Leo cut you off by grabbing your face and pressing his forehead to yours, staring you in the eyes.

You couldn’t tell what he was thinking, you never could. “I like you too, a lot, and when I heard you had gone on that date, I thought I had lost my chance. But, I’m taking it now because I know that you feel the same way.” He had said something else but it fell on deaf ears as you were now hyper-focused on how close he was to you, there were just inches between you both.

Leo felt a shiver run down his body as you whispered his name and moved closer, both of your minds were clouded. Leo couldn’t describe what it felt like when he finally closed the distance and kissed you. He swore that it was probably the most amazing feeling in the world, it was nothing like he had imagined before. His hands rested on either side of you, one of his knees propped against the bed while his other foot was planted on the floor, giving him stability. He didn’t really know what to do with his hands.

You were in a similar situation, eventually your hands had found their way around his neck and were twirling the tails of his blue bandanna around them. You had expected his lips to be rough in texture, and while they kind of were, they weren’t nearly as scale like as you anticipated.

The kiss was hesitant, neither of you fully committing until either of you fully relaxed into the kiss. But once you both had relaxed, your movements became more fluid and Leo moved his hands to your hips. The kiss only lasted for a few moments, but to the both of you it felt like minutes as you pulled away to take deep breaths of air.

Neither of you returned for a second kiss, but instead you kept your foreheads together. Leo found comfort in listening to the soft inhales you took to catch your breath. There was so much Leo wanted to say, but he couldn’t find the words to express how he felt.

“Thank you.” He blurted without thinking, what an odd thing to say after your first kiss with a girl, and Leo was mentally cursing himself for that. “For what?” You asked with a chuckle that made Leo blush, “Well, uh for everything? For not pushing us away, for keeping our secret, and just.. everything thing you’ve done for me and my family. It means so much, especially to me.” You felt your heart swell with happiness, you couldn’t help the smile that spread across your face.

“You guys saved my life, it’s the least I could do.” You told him with a soft voice. Leo moved to sit beside you, and this time he was the one who laid his head on your shoulder. “Will you be my girlfriend?” Leo asked, he was still nervous to ask despite knowing that you would most likely say yes. “Of course, I’d love to be your girlfriend.” Was your answer, and it made Leo’s heart soar with happiness.

He snaked his arms around your waist and easily pulled you into a laying position. You definitely were not used to Leo being this touchy or clingy, however, it was definitely nice to be cuddled up and held close to him. Leo supposed this was what it meant to be touch starved, because oh boy was he now addicted to the fluttery feeling in his stomach that he got each time you gave him a reassuring squeeze.

You lightly traced the scutes of his shell while your head was resting against his plastron. The feeling made Leo’s eyes droop and he began to fall asleep. Thankfully, it was a weekend and you wouldn’t have school in the morning, which meant spending the night at the lair would be okay.

Oh boy, Leo is going to kill his brothers when he finds out that they got hundreds of photos of the both of you sleeping together, cuddled up.

[chairwritexv]

may I request hcs about the rottmnt boys finding a anxious child reader that is a leatherback sea turtle mutant? Leatherback sea turtles are the biggest sea turtles yet have a softshell with spines and no scutes(basically a more aquatic larger calmer softshell turtle) you don't have to do it if you can't or don't want to!

i am so sorry this took so long!! i took a bit of a break from writing for mental health reasons, but i’m going to try and start opening rqs back up again !! also i just did group headcanons for this one bc i’m still getting back into it plus i couldn’t really think of anything for them individually :,,,) i’m so sorry, i hope you still enjoy it !! ♡

tw ❦ hints to reader being orphaned

platonic ❦ romantic

fandom ❦ rottmnt

ɢʀᴏᴜᴘ

i’d like to think they found you before big mama came into play and they found out about the other yokai

so they were all equally shocked and confused

they found you in an alleyway in the city, somehow you’d gotten to new york from the hidden city

you’d been alone most of your life, and you were constantly anxious and scared

it didn’t help that you were now in a very unfamiliar city, with these very weird looking creatures (humans)

however, you did feel a bit safer around the boys as not only were they yokai, they were also turtle yokai (a type you hadn’t seen much of)

also, because you’re a leatherback (A VERY VERY LARGE TURTLE--), none of them realized you were a child until you told them

you grow up to be bigger than raph lmao-

they collectively decide to take you in

donnie’s a little hesitant at first and kinda seems like he doesn’t like you but he gets used to you and starts to care for you

out of all of them mikey is the most excited and understanding

if you have any sensory issues paired with he anxiety he’ll ask donnie to make you some headphones or whatever you need

donnie will also take a quicker liking to you if you suffer from the sensory issues because he Understands

it takes you awhile to get used to your new home

especially seeing as how the boys hid you from splinter for like a week

ok it was more like three days bc these boys can’t lie for shit

splinter wasn’t very accommodating at first, he didn’t really want to have to take care of another turtle (he barely felt like he was taking care of the boys good enough),, but he eventually caved

♡

sometimes leo can be a bit too loud (which can be triggering for some people depending on the anxiety) so you may tend to avoid him at first

he’s sad bc he doesn’t know why you’re avoiding him

but when he realizes it’s bc he’s being too loud he immediately feels super guilty and tries to stop

obviously he can’t completely stop bc it’s part of his personality, but if you hold your finger to your lips i’m a ‘shh’ gesture he realizes he’s being too loud and he quiets down

mikey can sometimes be too loud too but he usually realizes when he is and can stop a bit easier

anyways they all really love you and you for sure found your forever home <3

hope you enjoyed !

i’m not sure who made these dividers but lemme know so i can credit <3

[helpfandom]

Yandere 07 Donatello x Platonic Reader hcs.

I'm going to do one for all of the 07 bois because they deserve love.

On god, I swear to you, all Donatello[s] fall fast in their obsession. Even if its not a human, even if its a fandom or something of the sort. '18,'14,'03, '07, I don't care, they fall fast.

You were so nice to him and he wanted to know more about this nice human who treats people well. He had a heart attack when he found out you were a kid, like, you're a kid, and interacting with people online? Oh no no nononono. You are NOT going to be back online without Donnie finding out.

Donnie monitors your online presence and hacks into things so you stay where he thinks you should. He makes all of your Youtube [or the tmnt equivalent] to be ultra kid friendly material and puts a lot of lego cooking food ASMRs on there for some reason??Got any music apps? He blocks any artists who make explicit music [by his taste]. He monitors all that you, and tries to find out all that he can about you, by using your socials. He is proud that haven't posted anything to private, but since you are a kid, ignorant to the world, he does find out some personal information.

You automatically call the nice person who helped you through fixing your broken appliance whenever there is a problem, so then Donatello hacks into your devices and makes it seem like your appliance is broken so that you have to ask him for help. It makes him feel nice inside to be wanted.

Once Leonardo comes back and forces the turtles to go and patrol New York, Donatello finally sees you for the first time, and he wants to protect you, you look so innocent, so full of life, and he wants to make sure that nothing can happen to that innocence.

Upon seeing you and recognizing you because of your voice, he wants to kidnap you, sorry, take you home, right then and there, but he recognizes that he can't because of the others.

But when he can, ohohohoho, you will be in the sewers in less than 12 hours. He has badly prepared to have you 'home' and had to call Mikey in order to make it livable for you. which leads me to the fact that yes, Mikey did help him, but also 'ratted him out to the rat': "Hey, Sensei, can I bring a human home? Since Donnie got to?" "He did what.?"

Splinter bursts in because,, human. And puts you back on the surface after apologizing to you when he sees that you don't want to be here.

Donnie gets upset, and takes you back, putting you in a different part of the sewers where he watches you during his job, and when he's not busy, visits you.

"Hey... I um. Don't know if I count as a dad, but I want to protect you. Is that weird? anyway, do you recognize me? it's me! Donnie!" "...Why are you so scared?"

[gffa]

The latest ending of Ahsoka really made me realize one of the big problems with Felony's writing and why so much of the Masndo-verse and Felony's modern writing falls flat compared to OWK and Andor. Shock value. A BIG twist cliffhanger that leaves us all mouth open and HYPING up the next episode in hope and filling the forums with discussions in anticipation. Understandably, he can't write what we wrote in our heads for 7 days and top that. 1.

2. But once that shock is gone when the story has moved onto the next big thing, or you watch it again when you know what it pays off in, or watch the whole series or season again, it just doesn't hold up. It's empty. Vapid. Because it's all about the shock. The twist. The discussion. The hype fodder. It's not saying anything or adding anything. OWK and Andor was a lot better at that, without the use of the nostalgia baiting that Felony relies on. 3. It becomes an endless circle of low lows and high highs, while OWK and Andor both slowly built up to the crescendo of discussions and speculations and both have stayed in the fandom consciousness alot longer thanks to that. And because they have something to say, both to the world and to the viewer. While with the Felony and the Fraudrou verses, it's just a constant barrage of oh wow, moving on, what's next? ehh, it's over, let's move on.

I feel like one day I'm going to do a longer analysis on why exactly Filoni's writing feels weak to me (where I try to be more fair than I'm usually feeling about his writing), because I don't think he's without a lot of talent and there's certain things he really does get about Star Wars, but I think so much comes back to that he's a writer who is caught in a difficult position--playing in someone else's sandbox but has to now establish his own new corners of that sandbox and I'm not sure he's strong enough to be a big picture kind of guy when he works better in smaller focus. His work on TCW and Rebels is content that we do come back to again and again for analysis, during my rewatches of both those series, those shows hold up! But I think they're ones where he had stronger guardrails up, and he was forced to stick to things in one place. I think live action has been bad for Filoni's writing because of the way so much is structured, that there are multiple series going on and I feel like his writing doesn't have the patience to actually tell a story in a single space, that's why we get Grogu's story being split between The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, that's why we get Mandalore's story being splintered across Rebels, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and now Ahsoka. We still haven't even seen half of the events that happen in the Mandalore bigger story! And you're right that he and Favreau both lean too hard on the cameos and echoes/rhymes for nostalgia's sake. And those reference points are often extremely fun in the moment! And I'll grant that the Luke episodes are ones I go back to fairly often, because I think there's some really good content in there about what attachment actually means. But I don't think it's that surprising, looking back, how quickly the Favroni shows fell apart for us and how it doesn't feel like they're establishing anything that can support a bunch of books and comics. I suspect that Disney's not allowed to have books/comics/etc. based on Favroni's shows because they want creative control over those characters while they're still actively writing for them, but also I look at the OT and the PT and look how much was built off those movies+TCW as a foundation, I look at how much you're able to still watch those and find new things to analyze, and I just don't feel that with Filoni's writing anymore, not since Rebels, not to that level, anyway. (I'll grant that I've been a lot more excited about the Ahsoka series and what we can say about it/find in analyzing it than I expected, I expected nothing but shitposts like we did with Mandalorian s3, but I've had fun with serious meta in Ahsoka! I was genuinely excited to come on-line after episode 4 and talk about themes and structure and how well Filoni did with that there!) Ultimately, I think Filoni (and Favreau) both have a lot of talent, but I think they're being pushed too hard to make too much too quickly and that it shows that they're making this up as they go along, rather than that they had a vision they've been crafting for years and any kind of idea of where they want the end goal to be. Like, yeah, Lucas wrote some stuff on the fly, he changed his mind about things along the way, but he had an end point in mind for his story, so the echoes/rhymes felt more resonant for me. Favroni don't feel like they have any idea where they're going and so much winds up feeling like shock value and self-reference for nostalgia bad for me instead of something that's Going Somewhere.

[lady-wallace]

Whumptober Day 24: Radiation Poisoning

More Vampire AU today's @whumptober prompt, but it's Giorno whump.

Prompt: 'I never knew daylight could be so violent' Fandom: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5 (Vampire Hunter AU) Character: Giorno

~~~~~~~

Read on Ao3

~~~~~~~

Too Close to the Sun

Vampire Hunter AU—Giorno accidently comes into contact with a serum that makes his weaknesses as a dhampir more prevalent.

~~~~~~~

Sounds of crashing could be heard behind the door as Mista put his shoulder to it, trying to force it open.

“It’s probably barred,” Giorno said. “We need to try getting him to calm down before we get him out of there or this could become a very dangerous situation.”

“Because talking went so well earlier,” Fugo snapped.

Giorno clenched his jaw, but couldn’t deny Fugo had a point.

They’d been asked to look into a young dhampir who had taken it upon himself to become a nuisance to the vampire society of Napoli and talk him down before he did anything he would really regret. However, as soon as they had gotten there, he had gone off on some rant about taking down the vampire aristocracy and ran off to the upper story of the house where he had locked himself into one of the rooms.

Mista looked between his companions with a shrug obviously deferring to their opinion.

Fugo huffed. “We need to get in there.”

Giorno stood back, arms folded over his chest. He still would have liked to go with a less violent approach, but it did seem like they wouldn’t get anywhere otherwise.

Mista took out his blunderbuss and pressed it against the lock. “Stay away from the door!” he shouted into the room as he fired.

Parts of the door splintered off and Mista and Fugo gave it a couple firm kicks to open fully.

Giorno rushed inside after them, stopping for a moment in shock at what he saw.

The room was covered in laboratory equipment. Liquids boiling and distilling in tubes and beakers. There were glass shards on the floor as if some equipment had broken.

The dhampir spun around, facing them with a large knife, glowering.

“You’re just the same as all of them!” he snarled. “You’re all on the side of the vampires!”

“That’s not true,” Giorno said, trying to put his hands up calmly, stepping in front of Mista and Fugo who were both carrying weapons at the ready. “It’s a Hunter’s job to be unbiased.”

“Then why are you coming after me?” the dhampir demanded.

“Because we’re worried that you’ll hurt someone who doesn’t deserve your wrath,” Giorno told him. “We just came to talk.”

“Then tell them to put their weapons down!”

Giorno shook his head. “They can’t do that. But you can just talk to me, okay? I’m a dhampir as well. Your name is Marco, right?”

The young man eyed him warily, before his face contorted in rage. “If you are a dhampir then you should understand more than anyone what it’s like, and yet you defend those who oppress us!” He threw an arm toward the beakers. “I have been trying to find a way to make us stronger, so that we at least have a chance to go up against them. Don’t you see, Hunter? The future will be ours. You should join me so we can take down the ones who wish to grind us into the dirt.”

Giorno felt a deep sadness at the desperation on Marco’s face. “I can’t speak for you, Marco, and the life you’ve lived, but the one thing I have learned is that for every bad person in this world there is a good one who is also seeking change. I know it’s hard to see it this way, but flashy displays of violence only hurt a cause like ours. I know it can sometimes seem that there will never be a light at the end of that tunnel but that light isn’t going to be made with an explosion either.”

Marco seemed to contemplate his words for a few moments, before his fists clenched again. “Have you ever thought that you’re just a coward for thinking that way?”

Giorno tried not to let that bite at him, but he could feel Mista and Fugo’s impatience behind him, their unease as the dhampir got more and more agitated. He needed to stop this. He stepped forward.

“Marco, you have two options here. Either come with us quietly or we’ll be forced to take you down to the prison.”

Marco sneered. “You really are just like all of them, aren’t you?! Why don’t you all just go to hell!”

He rushed the Hunters, and grabbed Giorno, flinging him to the side. Giorno crashed into one of the tables tipping over a rack that contained multiple vials of liquid. The vials crashed to the floor with Giorno and shattered. He hissed as glass from one dug into his hand.

“No!” Marco shouted, clenching at his hair, distraught. “No, no NO! That was my serum! That’s all I had!”

He tried to rush for Giorno, grabbing for several of the unbroken vials that rolled around the floor when Fugo and Mista managed to grab hold of him from behind, dragging him backwards as he screamed and fought like a madman.

Giorno pushed himself up, removing the glass from his hand. He had no time to think about what might have been in those vials and now consequently in his body, because Fugo and Mista were struggling to restrain the dhampir who was spewing curses at them.

“You alright, Giorno?” Mista called, barely avoiding a flying fist.

Giorno plucked a couple more shards of glass from his hand. “I’m fine. We need to call the constables.”

“Well, do it quick,” Fugo snapped as he and Mista finally wrestled the dhampir to the ground and started to tie restraints around his wrists and ankles before tying them together.

Giorno tied a handkerchief around his hand as he hurried out of the room and down the stairs. His footsteps clattered uncomfortably loud in his head for some reason—must be the emptiness of the house.

Their carriage driver was waiting outside and Giorno planned to ask him to run to the police station in town.

However, as soon as he stepped from the shade of the house, his body burned as if he had suddenly caught fire.

Giorno let out a shocked scream, staggering backwards as he stared down at his right hand, seeing it red and blistered. His whole arm, up to his neck and that side of his face also felt raw and painful.

The driver leapt off the carriage and hurried over to him.

“Signore Giovanna! Are you alright?”

Giorno gritted his teeth, wincing at how loud the man’s voice was, his heartbeat so much more prominent than it should have been. “I-I’ll be fine. We need you to run for the police now.”

The man looked skeptical, but Fugo burst out the door in a second, staring at Giorno.

“What happened, why did you scream?”

He trailed off as Giorno turned to him and his eyes widened, crouching next to him. “Giorno! You’re face, what…?”

“I’ll go get the police,” the driver promised, seeming satisfied that Fugo would help Giorno now as he hurried off down the street.

“What the hell happened?” Fugo demanded again.

Giorno cringed. “Please, be quiet,” he pleaded. “My head….everything is so loud.”

“Was there some kind of booby trap?”

Giorno shook his head. “Just…the sun. I don’t…I don’t know what happened.”

Fugo took Giorno’s good hand and helped pull him to his feet, allowing Giorno to lean on him as he helped the dhampir back inside. “I’ve only ever seen these kinds of burns on a vampire who got exposed in the sun.”

Giorno nodded, wincing as Fugo sat him down at the base of the stairs in the foyer. “Stay here for now. I’m going to go see what the hell that little bastard put in his ‘serum’.”

Giorno sat there, slumped against the railing as Fugo headed back upstairs. He could hear everything they talked about from where he was.

“What’s in it?”

“I told you,” Marco snapped. “It was meant to make a dhampir more powerful.”

“It doesn’t seem like it worked,” Fugo replied.

“It simply magnifies our senses and abilities.”

“You realize it also magnifies your allergy to sunlight, right?”

Giorno furrowed his brows. The serum was interesting in theory but it did seem rather counterproductive even if it seemed to work the way it was intended, more or less.

“How long does it last?”

“I don’t know, I’ve only done one test run. Not very long.”

Giorno wished his body wasn’t in such agony at the moment. The burns pulled against his clothing—it really hadn’t done much to protect him. Was this what it was like to be a full vampire?

The police showed up and took the dhampir into custody as he continued shouting threats. Then Fugo and Mista hurried to help Giorno up and get him out to the carriage.

“We’ll get the driver to pull it as close as possible,” Mista promised. “In the meantime, take our coats. We’ll use this umbrella too.”

Mista and Fugo settled their coats over Giorno’s head and Mista held the umbrella over him as Fugo helped him to the carriage, shutting all of the windows as soon as he was inside, leaving them all in darkness.

“How bad is it, Giorno?” Mista asked him worriedly.

“I’ll…be okay,” Giorno grunted. He thought, anyway. Every mild bump the carriage went over jostled his body painfully, and his increased audio sensitivity was really starting to make his head pound on top of it.

They repeated the procedure of getting him out of the carriage covered as much as possible. Giorno could still feel the uncomfortable heat on his lower body, but the house was blessedly cool since the maids kept the curtains drawn for the most part with so many supernaturals living in the mansion.

“Infirmary,” Fugo said.

Footsteps sounded and Giorno could see Trish heading down the stairs.

“Oh, you’re all back? I assumed you would still be at the police station. Bucciarati just headed over there.”

“Giorno was injured,” Mista said.

“What?” Trish demanded, hurrying over to them. As soon as she saw Giorno’s face, she gasped. “Did you get burned?”

Giorno cringed and Fugo turned to Trish. “Try to keep your voice low, he’s overly sensitive right now.”

They explained what had happened as Trish followed them to the infirmary.

“Trish there should be some salve on that shelf over there for burns.”

Trish headed over to look and Giorno slumped onto one of the cots as Mista and Fugo helped him take his coat and shirt off.

Giorno hissed, the burns stinging abysmally as they were exposed to the air.

“Here, I found it, oh—Giorno those look awful.”

Trish looked horrified at the sight of the burns. “Was that holy water?”

“The sun,” Giorno said, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose against the headache.

“These are pretty bad,” Fugo murmured. “Hopefully the salve will help a bit but it will probably take a few days for you to recover fully.”

“I’ll let you have some of my blood fresh for extra nutrients,” Mista promised.

Giorno nodded and slumped there on the cot as Fugo started on his face and neck, spreading the salve on thickly and following it with gauze Trish helped to wrap on.

The pain of any pressure at all on the burns made Giorno nauseous and he swayed, trying to resist the urge to pull away from Fugo completely.

“Here,” Trish gently coaxed, sitting down on the cot beside him and helped lower Giorno down until he was lying on his good side with his head in her lap. Giorno stiffened in surprise and Trish flushed slightly, but stood her ground as she turned to Mista. “Could you get him a cool cloth for his head?”

Mista nodded and hurried to fetch the cloth as Fugo continued.

Giorno was tight with pain. The burns were getting worse as they traveled down his arm to his hand and Fugo’s ministrations were quickly becoming agony.

Trish seemed to see how much he was suffering and reached for his good hand, squeezing it gently.

Mista brought the cloth back and Trish placed it over Giorno’s eyes and forehead, giving him something blessedly cool to help ease his headache.

“I just need to wrap your hand now,” Fugo said, carefully twining the bandage around his fingers.

Giorno let out a small sound of relief as Fugo finished and settled his hand carefully down on the bed.

Mista came over with a freshly drawn cup of blood.

“Can you drink?”

Giorno nodded and Trish and Mista helped him sit up to drink before laying him down and tucking him into bed.

“I’m afraid that’s all we can do for now,” Fugo said. “I’m going to have to go to the station to make our full report.”

“We’ll keep an eye on him,” Trish assured him.

“Thanks,” Giorno murmured. He felt a little better after drinking the blood, but he was mostly exhausted. “I think the serum is already wearing off. Nothing is as loud as it was before.”

“Good to know,” Fugo said. “I guess next time we corner someone so delusional we need to be more careful not to do it in his lab.”

“Is he really so delusional?” Giorno couldn’t help but ask. “All he really wanted was to be equal. Isn’t that what everyone wants?”

“Most of us aren’t okay with murdering for it,” Fugo pointed out. “What you said to him back there was true—essentially that it’s better to make small changes for good, instead of big changes for bad.”

Trish nodded. “And hopefully in a world without Diavolo in charge, we might have a better chance of those small changes being impactful.”

Giorno smiled slightly. “Yes. You’re all right. Thank you.”

Trish pulled a blanket over his waist. “Get some rest. Let me know if you need anything.”

Giorno let his eyes slip shut as his companions left and dreamed of a brighter future.

[a-really-cool-blog-name]

Thinking about how messed up Splinter's backstory is in rise. Especially his relationship with Big Mama, I feel like we don't acknowledge the fact that Splinter was literally in an abusive relationship enough in this fandom. Like he loved this woman so much that he was willing to spend the rest of his life with her and she turned around and forced him into a literal death fighting ring for ten whole freaking years and at the end of it he was so done with it all that he was willing to accept the proposition of being experimented on as long as he didn't have to fight anything.

How did Big Mama treat him while he was fighting for ten years? Did she still treat him all lovey-dovey as she talks to him in the future using pet names? Was she more violent with him? How much manipulation did Splinter go through?

All of that on top of his whole childhood of constantly being told to sacrifice his life to prevent some old tale he didn't even believe in as well as constantly training, and that's not even talking about the whole situation with his mother.

Not to mention the fact that he was literally mutated into a rat as a Japanese man which is probably the worst thing a Japanese man could be mutated into. Also him needing to shun himself and his newly acquired sons out of society for his and their safety immediately after finally getting out of the death ring after ten years. (Seriously, ten years. That is such a long time, that is 3 years shorter than Mikey's entire life at the start of the series.) And especially the fact that after being in the Battle Nexus for ten years (Seriously, he missed so much, he missed multiple presidents, the Y2K panic, the 9/11 attack, and the fricking turn of the millennia.) he immediately gets thrown into Parenthood (Of FOUR children, might I add.) and having to survive off the streets.

Splinter's definitely not the best parent (pretty neglectful as the got older not going to lie) but looking at all the stuff that's happened to him yeah pretty much explains why he's that way, he's very depressed and probably has PTSD.

Man, I started ranting there. But Splinter is just such an interesting character in Rise, I'd say one of the most interesting takes on his character throughout the TMNT series (don't get me wrong there are plenty of other good ones) and I feel like it's talked about, but rarely truly acknowledged within this fandom.

[dujour13]

Owlcatober 31. Funeral

Fandom: Wrath of the Righteous

Not exactly a funeral but appropriate for today 👻

cw: spooky?

Massive spoilers for the game & secret ending & my sequels Wandering Stars and West Wind.

Also on AO3

Ozone. Chemical solvents. Arcane flame. Metal and lightning. Nothing living in this place, and yet the air felt charged with tension as if holding its breath, suspended in time.

He paused in the corridor to get his bearings. He’d been here before long ago, more than once. Black crusts of demon blood smeared across the floor attested to the last time. Barren walls rippled in the stuttering light of a shattered arcane barrier. Splinters and scorch-marks were all that remained of the door beyond it. Violence wreaked by the fury of Elysium.

To the heart of the laboratory. His rose-gold glow and fresh, floral breeze followed but the darkness behind quickly swallowed them as he passed.

On the ramp leading down, the demonic trap was still active but it could no longer read him. It conjured disjointed, dreamlike tableaux that shifted one into another: beckoning azata under a starry sky; the bowsprit of the Light of Heaven plunging through warm sea-spray; a shady grove of pomegranate and poplar in Kelesh. A slim, horned shadow perched on a rooftop, turning a tender, laughing yellow eye his way. But these surface dreams rapidly gave way to a vision of Golarion flooded with starlight and joy, and finally the sky of his domain clear and unblemished by the darkly burning star.

He kept walking.

The lab stood just as he’d left it: charred husks of demons lying amidst broken glass and spilled chemicals, books just as Nenio discarded them pell-mell on the tables, the projector flickering, the stand where the Lexicon had been placed still illuminated by a bright beam once meant to lure him to it.

Slowly he went around the shelves reading the spines of the books, touching some to absorb their contents, avoiding others, until he came to a mechanism set into the wall. Curious. One they never managed to open. A constant purple light burned in its center. No amount of fiddling seemed to activate it until on impulse he looked straight into it and said, “It’s me.”

And then one of the bookshelves warped into another dimension and opened onto a secret storage room.

His own Elysian glow the only light, within its radius he made out shelf upon shelf of jars, tanks, and oblong metal boxes. He stood breathing the stale air, feeling uncannily afraid of what lay in those containers.

Something flitted past his peripheral vision and he turned sharply, but it was gone. Bone-deep cold and foul moisture clung to him, raising goosebumps even on his divine skin.

Then in the utter silence a whisper as light as a moth wing startled him: “Who is here?”

He peered deeper into the darkness, where a wisp of pale smoke hung between stacked boxes as if hiding itself.

“It’s me,” he said again.

“Oh.” A soft child’s voice, as if from far away. “You grew up.”

He squatted so he was eye-level with it. “Who are you? I can’t remember.”

“You never met us,” the voice sighed. “We only watched and listened. We heard you screaming.”

“You’re a ghost now. Who were you before?”

“I don’t remember. I think I had a momma and papa in a sunny place but maybe I just thought about that to feel warm.”

“You were one of her experiments,” he said, heart rising painfully.

“So were you.”

“Why was I the lucky one?”

“We didn’t think you were lucky. We heard you screaming and screaming. We heard her talking about how you were splitting open and how she had to stop it before it killed the ghost she was trying to sew inside us. That she sewed inside you.”

“She hurt you too, didn’t she?”

“Not long. We died.” It paused. “But you kept screaming.”

All that remained were nightmares pushed to the edges of his consciousness. He didn’t want to remember. It hurt him to think he was not alone. “But you’re still not at peace or you wouldn’t be haunting this place.”

“As long as she lives we will stay. One day she’ll come in here to look for something and we will remind her.”

He said gently, “How about if I do that for you, so you can rest?”

The ghost was silent for a while, a mist drifting across the wall as if trailing a hand on its familiar surface. “All right,” it sighed at last.

He reached out a lightly glowing hand. The mist inched toward it, coyly at first, and then nestling against it, and with his ethereal form he drew the ghost into his arms and cradled it close.

It clung to him, absorbing his warmth. He felt small arms around his neck.

“This should never have happened to us,” he whispered.

“Thank you for coming back.”

“Everything’s all right. Sleep now.”

And with the faintest sigh the mist evaporated in his arms, leaving a rime of frost on the walls as it went.

He stayed squatting on the floor for a few moments, and at last wiped his eyes and stood.

As he exited the storage room he saw her. Hardly a surprise.

“I wonder why you are here,” she said, fixing him with that surgical glare that seemed only to have sharpened since she realized she had succeeded in her experiment.

“There are still things I need to know.” He fixed her right back.

“Then ask.”

“Why did you choose me?”

She flinched very subtly, as she sometimes did when he spoke as if he were only Siavash and not an amalgam of her design. Or her son.

“As you know, you were not the only one I chose, but there were several practical factors that made you a promising subject. You were healthy, a long-lived half-elf with that particular half-breed fissure in your psyche that could be prised open to implant a graft. A stable, average family so that I could easily control variables and keep you safe while I observed your progress. An affinity for chaos that made you a suitable host. And you...” She frowned. “When you collided with my legs in a bookshop in Almas you were carrying a copy of Evocatio Daemonium which I perhaps foolishly took as a sign.”

Desna at work? he wondered. “Why foolishly?”

“When the graft took I ceased searching for a better host, believing in portents and signs like some superstitious Sarkorian. As it turns out, you were too good a host. You absorbed him. You overpowered him. I should have—“

“I won him over. I invited him in. He’s me.”

She smirked humorlessly. “And now, you are an eternal teenager.”

His own smile was not so humorless. “Tell me more about this affinity for chaos.”

“Why?” Always probing.

“There are things I still need to understand,” he repeated vaguely. She already knew about the dark star but perhaps not about this latest development, and although she might willingly help him if he told her, he didn’t want her to have that leverage.

“You know already,” she said. “You discovered on your own that you are div-touched.”

“For some mortals that’s a death sentence. Why not for me?”

“My tests told me little, but they did assure me your soul was stable.”

“You don’t know, in other words. What if my soul isn’t stable after all? What if ascension did something to it?”

She looked at him hard, as if she could see into the structural essence of his stolen divinity. “That is not impossible. Will you allow me to perform a few tests?”

“After what you did? No.”

“If you are referring to the unfortunate series of events with your husband, know that it was not my intention that he try to steal the objects alone. I hoped only to provoke a confrontation with Taurvi so that we could all be rid of her. She is a threat.”

“How about ‘I’m sorry I accidentally condemned your husband to Hell’?”

Her lips tightened. “I did not expect him to be so foolish.”

It wasn’t foolishness. It was love. “And yet it played right into your plan, didn’t it? A nice little experiment to test the full extent of my power. To see what would happen if I... lost control.”

“An unhoped-for opportunity.”

“Well. It sounds like I’m getting neither an apology nor the answers I came for. I have one more thing before I go.”

“And that is?”

“A reminder.” With that he released the cold wind that whirled in his heart. The long, long years of pain and loneliness. The weeping of children torn from their homes and stripped of their humanity, made into experimental subjects and discarded. Left cold and comfortless to die.

She was blown back among her shelves. Sheaves of notes and shattering jars flew at her like a hailstorm. Frost coated the wing she threw up to shield herself. In a flash of angry, Abyssal light she vanished.

[we-are-not-your-kind]

Hello Rise fandom - I present my version of Venus!! For the past few weeks I've been absolutely obsessed with the lost sisters, so I finally decided to make my own versions of them. Decided to start with Big Mama's Assistant and I'll get around to the other lost sister in a few weeks 🐢 👀

I based Venus largely off her NM and IDW looks with a bit of Jennika thrown in for fun. Tried to stick as close to her canon look as Big Mama's Assistant as possible while giving my own spin to her. This is how imagine her to look once reunited with her family! Feel free to click see more if you'd like just a lil more info on her, or check out my fic where I'm writing my own missing sisters arc we were robbed of where Venus and the other sister will appear 🐢💕💕

So here's a lil more info on Venus...

Venus is ofc the sister raised by Big Mama who became her Assistant. The night of the mutation, Venus got caught up in an explosion in Draxum's lab which led to her getting injured. When Big Mama finds her, she gets the little turtle help but Venus nonetheless becomes a double amputee. And Big Mama is still a little sentimental about Lou - she thinks about how much he loved art because of his mother, and sees the turtle as her own little treasure and so names her after the Venus de Milo. There's much more to her backstory than that but - spoilers! You'll have to check out my fic for more (and I've already spoiled more here than I've revealed on AO3 oops lol). But here's a few more facts about her!

I've decided that the Disaster Twins are actually a trio - surprise! Leo, Donnie, and Venus are the Disaster Triplets because I just find it adorable and she just gives me such middle child energy tbh.

Venus' ninpo is very much tied to her amputation and weapons. She can manifest constructs of her arms, similar to Raph being able to copy himself. But she can also teleport those constructs around and use copies of her kaiken as well, kinda like Leo and his swords. As you can see on her character sheet, her ninpo manifests as flower petals! This is because I really wanted her to take after her grandmother aka Splinter's mom, Atsuko - thus the petals, and also where I got the shape of her eyes.

Also her favorite parent is absolutely Draxum and yes it drives Splinter up a wall, in particular because of how much Venus reminds him of his mother.

I've got so many more notes than just this but I really wanted to share my girl - give her some love if you want and feel free to check out my fic as well! I'll be updating more regularly in June when I have time to actively write. Might get to the other sister's character sheet first, but who knows! 💕💕

[child-of-hurin]

I am actually going to ask these right back at you:

🦀 What is your favorite fanwork you've made this year and why?

🦀 Do you have any fanworks projects for next year? What?

🦀 Did you have any fanworks projects for this year that you ended up giving up on? If so, why?

🦀 Is there a fanwork you made this year that, looking back now, you would have done differently in any way?

🦀 Is there a fanwork you made this year that you wish had gotten more attention?

🦀 Did fandom this year surprise you in any way? Do you have any wishes for next year regarding fandom?

Thank you, that's very sweet! (and lovely to see him again > 🦀🦀🦀🦀)

🦀 What is your favorite fanwork you've made this year and why?

Definitely my Queen's Thief/Turandot AU "Come Dawn", it was truly just so much fun to write and tinker with! I like that Queen's Thief allowed me to play around with the elements of Turandot that I love and that I hate, and I just had so much fun visualizing everything as I wrote it. I also did something ambitious with the prose and tried to emulate a writer I like, that I'm not going to name because I don't want to embarrass myself hahaha. I really liked the process as much as I liked the final product.

🦀 Do you have any fanworks projects for next year? What?

Nothing concrete, I just really want to draw more :/

🦀 Did you have any fanworks projects for this year that you ended up giving up on? If so, why?

A bunch, but top of the list: I wanted to get back to making end-of-year greeting cards to send online friends, like I used to...this has been my "new year" project for 5 years now and I never get around to it ;/ TO BE HONEST, we moved recently into a place that needs a lot of work and between that, regular chores and normal working hours, I haven't had the energy for drawing...makes me really sad

🦀 Is there a fanwork you made this year that, looking back now, you would have done differently in any way?

My Hamiathes's Gift Exchange gift, "A picture's worth" -- I just wish I had had more time to polish it and tinker with it.

I think sometimes you see the problems in your work and you understand they are due to your own limitations as an artist, and that's ok. But sometimes you see imperfections that are in your power to correct and develop, and that's a little harder to accept. It was an ambitious project, I had fun working on it, but I really wish I had had more time. Oh well!

🦀 Did fandom this year surprise you in any way? Do you have any wishes for next year regarding fandom?

Queen's thief-wise, I was pleased to see some fics exploring darker/less visited corners of the canon, which is something I'm always interested in!

More personally, I was surprised by the positive reception of my Tolkien fic "In-Betweens", which was maybe my second favorite thing I wrote this year. I honestly never expect to get much attention for any of my fics in general, & especially for the Tolkien fandom, which is such a splintered fandom where everyone is ultra-specific and picky about their preferred versions. It's also a fic about menstruation, not necessarily a popular topic. 27 kudos is not a lot but it's about 25 more than I expected, so I'm happy about that!

[neonscandal]

This week is Sk8 3rd anniversary.... So for celebrating, can I ask a few things :

-Who are your fav character from this series? Why?

-What are your fav moments from this series? -What are your opinions on this fandom's famous ships : Reki/ Langa, Cherry/ Joe, Adam/ Tadashi?

Season 2 and an OVA are coming (eventually)! Which is more than we can say for other series' so I'm going to remain delusionally hopeful. I think it'd be nice if, instead of announcing long awaited continuations, new seasons dropped like Beyonce albums. Without warning and like an unexpected blessing. Just like this ask so thank you for reaching out!

FAVORITE CHARACTER

Sk8 has a wonderful band of idiots who I adore but Cherry is, by far, my favorite. Most specifically through the interactions he has with Joe because they are just so catty and mean to one another but you just know it belies an affection from their entrenched history together whether you consider them a ship them or not.

I love that Cherry had this rebellious era and continues to do so as a respectable adult while juggling such a disciplined craft and career. Like, that dichotomy is just 😘👌🏾. Goals, honestly. He maintains this split by ensuring that his S persona and his everyday persona remain mutually exclusive similar to how Adam conducts himself. Which, now that I'm thinking about it, might be kind of sad but he is, somewhat, of a man of contrasts.

Like, the way his talents splinter is so interesting. He is a founding member of S wherein he remains a threat, an established and respected calligrapher... plus, I feel like he customized Carla himself. What a nerd! Plus, Cherry is so gender. ✨

THOUGHTS ON SHIPS

Reki & Langa - idiot x idiot, I love it? But also, how silly to show someone something you love so intensely only for that love to envelope them so completely. Both in how they receive your hobby but also in how they just become a part of your life. Plus, Langa sees Reki's strengths that he takes for granted and its so necessary because they both think the sun shines out of each others' ass. Also, I see them as a reincarnation of AshEiji from Banana Fish.

Cherry & Joe - Yes. Was that not evident from above? Yes. They fight like an old (and sassy) married couple and then will have a moment of saccharine sweetness that's just... too much. There's also a hilarious sense of patience Joe must have to adapt to Cherry vs. Kaoru and its more evident because there's who the pair are when they are around others, regardless of who the others are, and then who they are when they're alone. Like, why put on the act, guys? Just kiss already.

Adam & Tadashi - As long as it's consensual, I guess, but I'm sure Tadashi could do better.

Oka & Shadow - Okay, but go with me here. Please thank the chokehold umikochannart had on keeping this ship sailing before they wiped their IG of all evidence.

Adding a few other artists guaranteed to give you the brainrot because I fell down a rabbit hole while looking for umikochann and fan artists deserve so much appreciation for covering the spread when we are awaiting new content so go follow them and join their patreons, buy them a kofi and bark on all their posts because we are not deserving of their labor: angrymorilas, bunbun.ji, @pochiikou and @ratcarney IG.

These artists are my gift to you. As a gift, that means that we should love and appreciate the people whose talents enable us to experience the characters we love even more and be thankful for, however long the stretch, the time that our favorite characters and ships were their muses. And to subsequently not be a prick when their muse changes.

⚠️ Spoiler warning for S1 of SK8 the Infinity anime.

FAVORITE MOMENTS

"Push me, Reki." - needs no explanation.

Reki defending Miya's honor - When you see Miya's backstory, his isolation is really sad and makes him vulnerable to Adam's predation but Reki punched well above his weight to defend Miya and it effectively brought the kid into the fold and I loved that. And that's on the power of friendship. ✨ Reki really subjugated everyone in that friend group and is not appreciated enough for it.

When everyone cockblocked Joe - Not every show needs a beach episode. This one does.

Sia La Luce after hours - the fact that Kaoru, after being bride carried by Joe, broke out of the hospital just to go running back to Joe is just so... beautifully chaotic and unexpected. Add a zest of Jonah Scott murmuring "We're not alone, right, Kaoru?" and I am undone.

When the might of Reki's rain wheels kicked in - Overcame insecurity by utilizing the gift he'd had all along? AGH. So perfect, so proud.

When Reki's laughter melts into that of young Adam's - only because that was really sweet

Not in the show but: sharing this series with my niece and nephew and them loving it just as much as I do. They're pretty young so the Venn Diagram of "Shows I Love" vs "Shows I Can Share With Them As A Discerning Adult" has a pretty narrow overlap. So imagine my surprise when my nephew randomly makes a SK8 joke or observation or when my niece drew fan art of Carla? We also sing and dance and laugh during the intro and outtro so I hope they remember the series affectionately when they're older.