#Bamboozle donnie

[godsfaultycreations]

Bamboozle Donnie be like

:]

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[apritellointeractive]

Chapter 2: Alternate Routes

Hey y’all!

Doing another post where I detail the potential alternate routes this story could have taken for Chapter Two! As I stated in the post for Chapter One, reading this post is NOT REQUIRED for the enjoyment of the story. This is just a fun selection of what-ifs you can entertain yourself on. These what-ifs are also “half-baked” in the sense that I didn’t have any concrete plans for them. Just rough ideas of where I could take the story if a certain option won.

End of Chapter 1: If you recall the end of Chapter 1, you were deciding what the cave looked like and what goodies April would find! Unfortunately, I cannot detail the second option with the mysterious chest (the option that tied with Option Three), as there is an element in that option that will now show up in Chapter Three. HOWEVER, I can detail that Option One would have established the cave as one of the entrances to the official Foot Clans base! So Donnie and April would have been forced to really hit the ground running to escape their enemy! So it’s a good thing the other two options ended up tied lol.

Part One: This one also ended in a tie and had to be decided by a tie-breaker, but the option that lost was the option to avoid the path and trek through the forest. And you, my dear readers, thwarted my first attempt to injure Donnie this chapter! If you had decided to go off the beaten path, Donnie and April would be navigating down a particularly rough patch of the mountain with a lot of sharp boulders. At some point, Donnie and April would have been attacked (by either a stray Foot Clan soldier or a wild animal, I hadn’t decided at the time), and Donnie would have taken a tumble and injured the back of his shell. This would have affected the conversation the two had later that evening—Donnie would not give April his backstory, but you would still learn about April’s less-than-stellar life back home. The story would just be a lot more self-deprecating and tearful. 

Part Two: This was another attempt to maim Donnie that y’all thwarted. If April had thrown the rock, it would have temporarily distracted the Foot goons, but they would have eventually noticed the two attempting to sneak away. If the second option won, April would have ignored Donnie’s attempts to escalate the situation and charged at the Foot soldiers. Both of these options would have resulted in an injured Donnie, but they would have been able to escape in the end. A similar convo would have taken place as detailed in Part One.

Part Three: I feel like these three options were kind of obvious. If Donnie had asked, "Why were you cold to Prince Raph?” you would not have gotten Donnie’s backstory and I would have jumped to April explaining why she acted the way she did during her visit. If our knight had asked, "Why do you not care what your father thinks?," the result would have been similar to the previous question, but instead the focus would have started on April’s treatment back home. 

Part Four: This was just an option for a perspective switch. The story would have proceeded the same regardless. 

Part Five: For this poll, the first two options were pretty similar. If Donnie didn’t ask April what was wrong, then April would have kept sobbing until she stopped, and then the uncomfortable silence would have prompted her to explain herself. If our knight suggested that April should get some sleep, April’s backstory would have been completely bypassed for the chapter at this point. 

Part Six: Since this part involves the setup of Chapter 3, I will leave this poll alone for now.

[tizeline]

(new post cuz the original one didn't show up in the dashboard for some reason ughhh)

Okay so I just hit TEN THOUSAND FOLLOWERS!? HUH!?!? Where the FUCK did you guys come from?? Who are you people!? This is actually insane I love you guys so much I'm asbhfajkjfda 💕💕✨✨😭😭 Anyway, obviously we need to do something to celebrate this special occasion, so here's another DTIYS! (and also a ctiys if you prefer that)

Context for this - remember when I talked about how, after Leo and Donnie start properly hanging out in the Tiz Sep AU, Leo gets into human fashion? Except his taste in human fashion is absolutely atrocious?? Yeeaahh so here we have Donnie and April taking Leo out to get some human clothes and they are both absolutely bamboozled over the clothes that Leo picks out for himself (he's trying okay </3)

Extra info + rules:

No deadline, do this whenever you want to!

Feel free to take artistic liberties, redraw this however you want, and especially-

FEEL FREE TO CHANGE LEO'S OUTFIT!! The only rules here is that it's gotta be ridiculous, ugly, cringefail, or otherwise be a crime against fashion. But I'd love for you guys to come up with your own outfits for Leo :D

Use whatever art-medium you want!

But absolutely NO AI software! If you do I will banish you to the prison dimension for all eternity don't even fucking try bitch I stg 🔪

I don't have a specific tag for this, just @ me so I can see your art!

You don't have to follow me to participate (it's not like I'm gonna check anyway)

CTIYS version (just the lineart) as well as the original drawing but without the text is availible under the cut:

[ezgurple]

Never thought to ask them but how big are your turtles? Sorry if you already posted about it lol, it's just that in most fandom depictions they show them as tall or big when that was almost never the case. The only turtle who could ever be considered big is Rise Raph but he doesn't really count since he's an alligator snapping turtle. I was bamboozled when I discovered that all the 2003 turtles are 5'2", or that 2012 Donnie who I always imagined as super tall is obly 5'6".

lol yes iii think its funny watching 2003 turtls cuz they looked so strong & then seeing them stand next to april or casey thry VERY small. i have posted about this im pretty suree but lol my blog is a mess so whoops! but my turtles aren’t that tall imo, i guess only when compared to the other tmnt iterations cuz the rest r usually shorter heh the only tall one ig is my donnie

these r the only pics i have. but i am also just now remembering that this don is actually 6’2 i think, but bro is getting shorter from slouching all the time 🦐 hes our shrimp turtle boy

[somerandomdudelmao]

I had assumed this arc would be called "The Little Things" because of cute little moments in the future that they had despite all the bad, like the rain in part 1. Turns out it's called "The Little Things" because the little things Donnie was hiding have been adding up and are killing him. I was bamboozled 🥲🥲🥲

[justmaiidraws]

When your man crush pretty much leaves you for your weeb anime brother…

(He’s not even upset at that point, he’s just bamboozled that it was donnie...)

[wav48k]

would anyone be interested in my gay fucking spreadsheet... it has a very large amount of sourced mcr pics arranged by date (work in progress, not very professional. but its fun) and also a section with like a hundred old interviews. did you know one time frank got interviewed by some random fucking tumblr user and they talked about donnie darko? now you will. theres finally enough stuff in there that i think its worth handing out for people who want to see :)

[cokoweee]

The whole angel Kendra thing is making me feel things. Not ever bastard things. Scenario things.

Like Donnie finding a fallen angel just- THERE. and his ass would be so bamboozled. He'd go into study mode then flustered mode then idk wtf your talking about I'm a serious scientist not some perv blushing like an idiot mode-

-sbf🐍

I CANT STOP BRAIN

[poppysinpebbles]

Rise! Leo: I have an idea! Other Dee, hand me a gun.

Bayverse Donnie: When have I EVER had a gun?!?

Rise! Leo: *Flabbergasted, bamboozled*...*realization* well that's one difference between you and my Dee.

Other Bayverse turtles: Wtf?!

[whattraintracks]

Thoughts from "Reality Check" and "Across the Universe"

Ah yes, the fun filler episodes before "Same As It—PSYCH! You've been bamboozled!! Because Mikey and Raph seemed like they were having a good time, but, also, they almost died? Multiple times??

I know Mikey calls them the teenage mutant super turtles, but they seemed older? I don't know, they had adult vibes. Maybe that was just because they seemed so cold to Mikey. Gosh, how devastating it must have been for Mike to be face to face with these distortions of his brothers, his oldest and only playmates, except these versions don't know him and aren't even willing to engage with him.

Pfft, he looked so disappointed when alternate Casey said, "violence is rarely the answer." Not even bummed, more offended like, 'Dude, I can't believe you just said that. I thought we were friends.'

On a happier note, he'd be thrilled to know there's a universe with a statue of him. Wait, actually, since he's a battle nexus champ, he has a statue at the nexus, doesn't he? Good for him.

My working theory is that the Time Scepter sent the turtles somewhere related to their recent environment/what was on their mind. The turtles get hit with that beam, and it goes, hmm, what are you thinking about? Superheroes? Fast bikes? Yeah, I can work with that. Intrigued to know what Donny was working on that led to SAINW. Leo goes to Usagi's universe, right? Haha, bet he was thinking about his crush while practicing with his katana. Bonus points if he was using the sword Usagi got him for Christmas.

I don't know if the phase shift was painful (a la Across the Spiderverse). It didn't seem to be, but it must have been terrifying, especially when it happened while Raph was trying to operate a massive vehicle.

Holy heck, Raph was straight-up blackmailed by a couple adults into competing in a death race. And then had to be the adult a few times to get him and Falcon out of mortal peril and say, 'Hey, maybe let's not leave our fellow competitors to die.' Yeesh.

Now I'm just. Imagining Raph retelling everything that went down with the Planet Racers. He's focusing on how wicked the race was and raving about the specs on the bike, and then someone—probably Splinter or April—says softly but also very concerned, 'Sweetie, that wasn't a good situation. You could've gotten really hurt. Those adults shouldn't have treated you like that.' And he's all, 'Yeah, uhuh, sure, and did I tell you about the GIANT WORM!' Because, initially, he thinks they're overreacting, but as he sits with it and cracks open his emotions about the whole situation, he realises, um yeah, that was kind of terrifying, and they wouldn't take no for an answer, and all I wanted to do was get home but they wouldn't let me and. . . yeah, I probably,,, should've expected this reaction to a Raph-centric episode

[gunnerkriggcritical]

Feel free to not answer this if you don’t want to or are uncomfortable but what would be a way for Tony to become sympathetic in your eyes? If you wrote Gunnerkrigg court what would you do with Tony?

I'm gonna try and put this into words as best I can, but it's difficult. I hope this makes sense.

Honestly, nobody crucify me for this, but... I think Tony is inherently sympathetic the way he is now? Like, all the basic ingredients to Tony's story make up someone I could very easily feel sorry for. I would not have an inherent problem with being asked to see him in shades of grey. I freely admit that he's been through a lot of pain in his life. It's just the execution that leaves me unhappy.

What I have a problem with is chapters like "Annie and the Fire," and especially "The Mind Cage." They're about as subtle as a brick in asking Annie, and especially the reader, to forgive Tony because he's been through a lot. No matter how many times we're told Tony's actions aren't excused by his pain, it doesn't disguise the transparent fact that the comic is asking us to excuse his actions and feel really, really bad for him. It reads like the author getting mad at us for interpreting his story "incorrectly," which really raises the reader's hackles, and for good reason.

I find it difficult to think of how I'd fix this - I'm sure people smarter than me have articulated it way better in the past. Let's begin with "Annie and the Fire." I don't have a problem with the reader being shown why Tony did everything that he did - and that he deeply regrets it - but I would probably remove the framing device where Donnie is purposefully showing Annie the conversation. I would rather have Annie somehow slipping her blinker stone into her dad's clothes or something and eavesdropping on him that way. Having Donnie specifically choose to show Annie "the other side" of Tony feels too much like apologism, no matter how much Donnie (and the author) try to convince us otherwise. And the idea of Donnie specifically trying to show this abused child that her dad isn't so bad after all leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, too, especially since Donnie was previously like, one of the sole reasonable adults in the entire comic, lol.

I would just erase "The Mind Cage." Like, entirely. No more "Mind Cage" period. That chapter is such a cringeworthy blunder in the comic's history. It is so obviously calculated to address reader backlash against Tony and the comic simply doesn't need it. On top of that, I would remove like, almost every reference to Tony's mind cage situation, I think. The concept that he can't talk to more than one person at once is so goddamn silly and poorly thought-out, and I say this as an autistic person with severe social anxiety myself. I will say that I do understand where Tom was coming from and what he was trying to do, I just think it was very poorly executed and comes across as so weird and borderline offensive to neurodivergent experiences. It's a no from me. Take it out.

At most, imply Tony's social difficulties through his actions. Rewrite the arc where Kat forgives him - don't just have it happening instantly and offscreen, which is so jarring and almost sickening after years of her being Annie's staunchest defender. And for god's sake don't have Annie expressing that she doesn't care what her dad does and will love him no matter what, frame this as an unambiguously good and cool thing, and have Jones, the impartial observer character, judge that this situation is fine actually.

Related note: "Get Lost" needs rewrites, too. Tony is simply not charming enough in that chapter to make us believe that Surma, and Kat, and everyone else, would be bamboozled by how cool and funny he is. He's just some dude. He's so bland, and so is his and Surma's romance. It's simply not believable. That chapter needs to be a slam dunk - it's pulling a lot of weight to convince the readers of a lot of things at once, and it's simply not working.

I think there is a fundamental problem that needs to be addressed before we deal with any of this: the comic is being written by an author that dislikes its main character and sees her as a spoiled child who deserves harsh punishment for her actions. This is in direct conflict with his readers, who have interpreted the story thus far as being about an abused and neglected kid who doesn't deserve any of the stuff that's happened to her, even if she's been cheating on her schoolwork and acting out a little. I believe Tom sees Tony's actions as at least a little justified because of this. If this wasn't the case, I think he would be more capable of writing the story in a way that readers would be more able to connect with and understand, rather than reacting with revulsion and confusion because, to us, he's depicting an abused child getting constantly knocked back down by her cruel father. Tom's biases are showing very clearly through his work, and he is not treating his story with the nuance it deserves, not anymore. I don't think there's any way to "fix" this, other than Tom having a come-to-Jesus moment, which is just not likely at this point, sad to say.

This obviously doesn't cover it all, not even close. It's just some rambling thoughts from me, and I hope they made at least a little sense. Thanks for this ask.

[godsfaultycreations]

Mikey Entry #1!!

It was kinda hard trying to figure out what to do or call this au, but it has been decided!!!

Welcome to the start of the Bamboozle AU :)

Next

[dandylovesturtles]

anyway chapter 14 of IMBI will probably be Heavily Delayed while I work on my big bang fic + I'm about to go on vacation, and so you guys don't forget about me (don't don't don't don't) here's the WIP opening of chapter 14 (could change, may not, depends on how I feel later)

also I'm sorry to everyone who thought Leo is already back in his body I DIDN'T MEAN TO BAMBOOZLE YOU

spoilers of course. don't click the read more if you'd rather wait for the entire chapter to be out

He got bits and pieces.

…

“...eo? Can… hear me?”

“...not fading, just… really out of it.”

“Okay, Donnie, can you-”

…

“...got him.”

“Good thing he doesn’t weigh anything like this, huh?”

“Michael, are you insinuating I couldn’t normally-”

…

“...really gonna walk down this mountain in the dark?”

“Would you rather stay in the cave?”

“At least we have the moon. Once a Krang hound chased me into the old subway tunnels and I was lost for…”

…

“...until by death the soul is torn.”

“I’m genuinely surprised Raph of all people managed to remember all that.”

“Donnie, consider this an IOU on a shove late-”

…

“OW! Dang it.”

“April!?”

“I’m okay, just… my dang ankle.”

“Alright, come here.”

“No, Raph, you don’t- …Thanks, big guy.”

…

“...the ranger station.”

“So what’s the plan? We can’t exactly walk-”

…

“-believe you guys talked me into stealing a truck!”

“It’s not stealing if you bring it back.”

“Oh yeah? Which of your uncles taught you that?”

“Actually it was you, Comman-”

…

“Dee?”

“Yeah?”

“I think he’s crying.”

“I know… I can… him shaking…”

…

“Cellphone reception, oh how I missed thee!”

“Oh, that is a lot of missed calls…”

…

“...only motels open this late rent by the hour.”

“Who would only need a motel for an hour?”

“Oh no, I am not explaining-”

…

“-ditch the truck here.”

“You good to walk, April?”

“Yeah, my ankle’s-”

…

“...with me, Casey. Just act natural.”

“I’ll try…?”

…

“I’ve never stayed in a hotel before.”

“Us neither! Unless you count that time we were in Big Mama’s place to-”

…

“-taking Case to hit up the twenty four hour minimart.”

“Bring back… chips and…”

…

“You’re okay, Leo. You’re safe. We gotcha.”

“Did he say something?”

“No, he just chirps someti-”

…

“-gotta call Pops back.”

“Sounds like a job for the oldest brother.”

“Oh no, I’m putting your baby face between me and-”

…

“WHERE ARE YOU!?”

“Um… somewhere just outside Tucson?”

“Oh! You boys are grounded! No TV, no movies, no video games, no-”

…

“...just tell me if Blue is safe.”

“Yeah, he’s… well he’s not doing great but we’ve-”

…

“We’re back!”

“You just missed us getting chewed out by Dad.”

“I’m sure I’ll get to see round two later. What’s the-”

…

“Donnie? Do you wanna get up and stretch or-”

“I’m not putting him down. He hasn’t stopped shaking since-”

…

The feel of hands resting on his shell, the soft click of a phone keyboard, Raph’s snoring echoing through the room…

…

“-say they’re gonna be here soon, and to tell them if-”

…

“I’M AWAKE!”

Leo flailed his arms, rolled over, slid off Donnie’s plastron, and promptly fell through the bed they had apparently been lying on.

[tizeline]

I just wanted to see a Goat man sucked dry and a 13 year old have his world view destroyed! Is that too much to ask?

How many parts are there going to be? I can't wait that long! I'm gonna die!

Oh don't worry, you'll get to see that..... all in due time..... :)

There's going to be a total of 6 parts of the Gearing Up comic (so 2 more parts), but the comic ends right as Team Good Guys finally manages to head off to the surface to confront Draxum and Mikey. Just so ya'll know, while I'm not 100% sure of how I'm gonna tackle the rest of the season 1 finale (plus the first episode of season 2 considering it's all one continous storyline) it's probably not gonna be a proper comic like Cell Talk or Gearing Up. Comics are fun, but also time consuming and a lot of work and I'm a bit impatient when it comes to getting the AU story out so uh.

I'm probably gonna go back to how I did things previously, mostly explaining the story in text with accompanying illustrations cuz I still definitely wanna draw it! (Basically the same format as in this post)

It feels a bit anti-climactic considering all the build-up to the Season Finale Battle has been proper comics but MAN I just don't have the motivation to keep doing this. And I STILL HAVEN'T SHOWED HOW THE BEGINNING OF SEASON ONE PLAYED OUT IN THE AU UGH! Donnie's first encounter with his brother's and all that!! I've been planning to do that for MONTHS and I'm gonna do it as soon as possible I promise!!

Uh wait sorry for rambling haha, point is Drax and Mikey are gonna get real bamboozled don't worry about it! It might just take a little while longer hehe. Just wait 'til Mikey enters his Angsty Teen Arc though he's gonna be a lot to deal with XD

[am-i-soup]

some donnie sketches that i forgot i had + draxum (he has been bamboozled into a parental role)

[blindrapture]

SATURDAY JULY 23RD, 2011 (Goodbye, Swamp Queen)

5:40 AM Man, we passed out. We're still on the rooftop. The colors in the sky are noticeably different. A lot more reds this time. "What did you dream of?" Uh? Like. Seeing a haunted house? There was a ghost that startled me. Why, what did you dream of? "There was a face looking into my dream from behind a wall. Like a snake's face. I could feel it was there, because it didn't feel like it belonged in my head at all." Uh. Okay. Maybe we should get moving early today, then.

5:41 AM Went down the stairs, but the stairs leading further are blocked by a door that won't budge. We've gotta go looking around storage. It's still all.. y'know... boxes and mannequins. But there's more rooms. god I'm yawning

5:42 AM okay we've checked a lot of doors. what are we. looking for? "another way down." I'm just seeing a ton of boxes. some, like, metal pipe scaffolding, stuff that you can build makeshift stores out of. a stack of flyers. NO STEALING! NO ABUSE OF STAFF! VIOLATORS WILL BE PUT INTO STORAGE. huh. well luckily, we just had free samples last night, we didn't steal anything.

5:43 AM "Dammit. There's nothing. Maybe there's a key in one of the boxes, but there's way too many boxes to just go searching blindly." Yeah, I'd rather we not do that. And what if the key's not even up here but on some security guard downstairs? Or someone who's gone home! "But then what? We're not climbing down this building on the outside. I don't have the grappling hook anymore, y'know!" We might have to try and cross the border ourselves, now that we've had the rest. "And potentially get into a shootout with the new border patrol." Potentially. "sighhhh. okay, yeah."

5:44 AM ..the way back is blocked by a lot of mannequins. "Where did they..?" Is someone in here with us? "Aaaah!" now there's mannequins behind us. "Jordan, it's the mannequins! They're moving by themselves!" I've gathered that now! Stay back! Or, like, talk to us! We don't want to fight! now the ones by the stairs are closer. okay donnie, back-to-back, they move when we're not looking. "No, they're still moving! I can see them!" well then I guess we forced their hand. Stay back!!! For fuck's sake!! We have weapons! .."please kill us." what? "use your weapons. please. kill us." it's a garbled and muffled voice. from within the mannequins. do we. do we have to? ..a mannequin grabbed donnie's gun. dragged the barrel to its own forehead. "kill us."

6:33 AM There were a lot of them. It took about a dozen whacks in the head to kill the first one, and then once one had died, suddenly the doors to the staircase opened up, and all the mannequins from the other storage floors came up asking for a piece. So we worked together, Donnie whacking with her rifle, me with Tiger Stripes. (We were not going to waste the last of our ammo on this. We would have had to switch to whacking shortly in anyway.) And, steadily, we cleared the floors until there was nothing left asking for death. I can't say this was the.. most pleasant experience, but. We made it to the mall proper. The lights are off right now. I guess it's not a 24-hour mall. But that's okay. We're just looking for a Door.

6:35 AM "Score!" rabbit hole? "Crisps! Beef jerky! Fruit! Ready-to-eat food!" oh shit! are there any slim jims? grab what you can! "I'm grabbing plastic bags! You get some drinks!"

6:39 AM What about this hallway here? It looks unnaturally long for what the building's like on the outside. "Gotta be! Let's go!"

6:40 AM End of the longgg hallway. There's a door here. Here we go. On the other side will be another world, or maybe we'll be back on Earth. :D … It's a security office. Two big beady-eyed prawn-men in uniforms, who had previously been watching us steal food via the monitors in front of them, are now turned around, looking right at us. This was not a rabbit hole door.

6:41 AM RUNNING FROM THE LAW

6:42 AM ducking in a clothing store

6:43 AM I think we bamboozled them "jordan…" oh. this is a clothing store. the mannequins are all looking at us. uh. shhhhh! we're not here! you didn't see us! … also, um. do you guys happen to know the way out?

6:44 AM they pointed us to the bathroom across from the clothing store. we're. sneaking. across. looking around for security. trying to be reaaaal quiet with our bags. … OKAY WE'RE IN but this is still just the bathroom. option for male and female. uh. do we each try one? donnie wants us to stick together. okay. let's. eenie meenie miney mo? men's bathroom.

6:45 AM MEDICAL EQUIPMENT, GAGGED CUSTOMERS ON TABLES, BINS FILLED WITH DISCARDED SKIN, EMPTY MANNEQUIN SHELLS WAITING TO BE FILLED WITH MEAT AND SHRIMP-MEN WITH BONESAWS AND BLOOD-SPLATTERED VISORS LOOKING RIGHT AT US

6:46 AM So that was the wrong room. It was the women's restroom that was the rabbit hole. Simple mistake. Now we're stepping out in a T.J. Maxx. The lights are off here too, but at least the exit is right there, leading out to Earth, where it should.

6:48 AM We're here! On Earth!! Outside! In the red sky!

6:50 AM A little looking-around told us we're in a town called Fresno. At first I thought that was an Italian restaurant, but, no, it's a place! In California. And with a T.J. Maxx comes a parking lot, and with a parking lot comes the chance of hotwiring a working car!

6:54 AM SUCCESS WE ARE ON THE MOVE AGAIN EVERYTHING'S COMING UP MILHOUSE

7:15 AM Reached a town called Kernan.

7:20 AM It's all the same, deserted streets, a notable lack of cars except for the occasional broken-down hunk. We've been passing a lot of graffiti, and I've made sure to slow down so I can write it down. "CALIFORNIA DYING OF FEAR" "LISTEN TO THE STOMPING SIRENS: FUCK IT ALL, JUST DANCE" there are a lot of drawings of what I'm pretty sure are Legsteps o_o "MY DADDY'S GOT A GUN, YOU'D BETTER RUN" "DRAW A STAIRWAY FOR MY GOD TO SPITE THE SOFA OF MY FAITH" "WHAT DID DOCTOR CLOUD DISCOVER IN THE GENERA?" "^ Answers." "JORDAN DOOLING WITH THE TRILBY HAT" "JORDAN DOOLING WITH THE TRILBY HAT" "HEY JORDAN WITH THE TRILBY HAT" "WHERE IS JORDAN WITH THE TRILBY HAT" I'm seeing that message in a lot of hands. This has got to be what EAT was talking about. And I see it, I just don't get it. Donnie's grabbing my hand. "We're gonna find out together. I've got your back, and you've got mine." Yeah. :)

7:36 AM With no sign of people anywhere, I think we'd best keep moving. Leave this town. We've gotta look for people.

7:52 AM Lots of vultures in the sky again. "Look! On the side of the road! A hitchhiker?" They're looking at us, but I mean, we're a moving car, we're a rare sight. They don't have any bags, or any broken car, or even any visible weapons. It's just some woman in greasy plaid. "...she's walking into the road." Well, roll your window down so we can talk, but I don't plan on stopping. "Hey! Are you okay?" ...she's. still walking out into the road. and when I slowed down, so did she. I think she's planning on "WHAT THE FUCK" SHE OPENED ONE OF OUR BACK PASSENGER DOORS AND JUST CLIMBED IN "EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING" "I have looked into it further." What? donnie "WHAT?" stopping the car. "The graffiti has many copycats by now. I believe some unrelated humans assumed it was some kind of inside joke or quote and are spreading it." donnie "Hey! Hey! Who the fuck are you, get out of our car! I have a gun! You stink like a wet dog!" she is looking at us, or, past us? hard to tell. Are you.. Salmacis? a very mechanical smile. "You remembered." oh THANK FUCK donnie's annoyed but is a lot less alarmed. "Okay, can you not do that kind of thing again?" "You were in a moving vehicle. I was not going to be able to communicate everything in a brief few seconds as you passed by. If you wish to resume driving, we can talk on the way." donnie and I are looking at each other

7:53 AM Donnie's driving now, I'm in the passenger seat so I can talk with EAT. And they've scooted over to the opposite side so they can see me better. Um. Hello, Salmacis! "Disarming greetings." How.. have you been? I like your.. Camper… donnie "it fucking stinks" well I think she's kinda pretty "This was the nearest body on hand. I have been observing, inquiring, learning, as well as some other activities you are best ignorant of." o_o "Understand, I mean that not out of a desire to keep you in the dark. The other activities have involved a lot of killing. You asked." I.. asked how you've been. donnie "you're not gonna get a good answer. it's not a human." "Actually. I have been scared." o__o "I am not used to not knowing something this large. The nature of Rapture. The changes coming to my planet. I am not used to feeling scared." It's a rotten feeling, but if you can get past it, you get a lot of adrenaline! "I am used to adrenaline. Each of my bodies has its own chemical rhythms, and adrenaline is easy to trigger. I am not used to not knowing. This is something of incredible size merging with us. This is not a force of military might, or even a new Fear, I am used to dealing with those. This is…" An entire universe. "..it is?" You, uh. You didn't know that one? "It had occured to me as a possibility. Where did you hear this?" Oh, god. Tiresias, definitely. But there was a guy in New York too, who was the first to tell us. A government guy. "They're holding back from me. The government does not surprise me, but Tiresias? He can normally be trusted. Do you know of his certainty?" Uh! Not necessarily? It could have just been the closest way of explaining it to us at the time. Or. .… sigh. let me just show you the journal.

8:07 AM Got my journal back. "Appreciated." You're.. ...you're welcome, EAT. o: (donnie's tensing up. she's.. dammit, I know.) "I see what you mean. It may have been a lie-to-children. However, it strikes me as close to the truth. This would explain why I cannot enter Xanadu myself." It would? Wait, you can't? "Whenever a Camper enters a Door, it blacks out, and I lose that body entirely. I have never recovered one of these bodies." ...Indisen… "The presence of Indisen on Earth, outside of the Doors, complicates it for me. I would have expected my lost bodies to become the cadavers that they should be and just fall over on the spot. I would have expected all my missing Camper to be corpses in Xanadu. But they are not." Is this also what the Camper Festival is? Because you don't know about that either. And it's a whole bunch of Camper, in Xanadu, doing their thing. "These are all connected, I am positive of that." donnie "This is all fascinating, but, what about the graffiti here in California? Someone's looking for Jordan. And, hell, we're here now. Should we be worried? Threatened? Should we leave?" Yeah, EAT, you're kinda the only reason we're here. ...another smile. o_o <_< >_> … ouo?

"There is someone here in California who claims to know you. I have met him, though it was fleeting. He gave his name as Derek Taylor." Derek?? Really?? O: "You know the name, then." He's!!! I mean, if he's who he says he is... then he's someone I know!! Someone I would want to meet! Then! Where? Where did you meet him? "I met him in San Francisco, though I have no reason to be certain he is still there." Argh! But why? Doesn't he know the first rule of asking someone to meet you somewhere??? "I'm just the messenger on that one. He said to tell you he would either be in San Francisco or Los Angeles." Huh. Okay, that's.. helpful! "I said I would look into it, and I did." smiling again. "This is, as you put it, the overture of our continued friendship." !!! :D ...car swerved. donnie definitely didn't like that. I mean. right. I am.. pleased you are approaching this so respectfully. "We have no reason to obstruct one another. Everything I have seen from you, from both of you, suggests you are an ally. Victoria, do you hear me too?" I think that's you, donnie she said "I'm listening, yes." "You are unsure of whether to trust me. I respect your trepidation; it has worth as a survival instinct. I do not believe I can simply talk my way into your good graces. But, if you two are willing to remain in California for a few days, I will earn your trust through action."

"...there's something you've failed to address." "What's that?" "Why? Why do you, the all-powerful god of whatever, want us to trust you? What are you planning on doing that is going to require our trust? I mean, require, to the point that you can't just do it anyway without us?" "I can learn from you. I have already been learning from humans by observing at a distance. For more years than there are numbers, I have been doing that, I found comfort in it. Normally, when threats come, they are nothing to me, and I can just watch humans die to it. I grew comfortable in that too. But everything has changed and will continue to change, and for once it's something that is a threat to me, to my continued existence. I cannot just keep going by the motions. I need to change my approach. I wish to try." ...donnie is silent. "I am making no effort to attack either of you. Do you acknowledge that?" "I do." "Do you have any more questions for me?" "Yeah. Why does your body stink so bad? You had vultures following you, y'know." "Those vultures were Camper." "What?!" what?! "As long as a body can contain my water, it is a valid vessel. Birds can travel faster than humans and gather information unheeded. As you have demonstrated, they do not arouse suspicion easily." donnie, I just, I fucking love this thing she rolled her eyes "As for the stink, it's probably because this Camper had been dormant in a pile of mud for the last several months." "Well. Thanks for.. getting in our car." "Sarcasm noted. I'm learning what you dislike." "Lesson for the future: Very, very few humans like that." ...........…<__<;;;;;

8:14 AM and, as abruptly as it entered, salmacis opened a door and just fell out of the car. donnie's breathing sighs of relief and I'm just.. hand on the window.... goodbye, swamp queen.…

8:29 AM Town of Madera. We've stopped to get our bearings. Maybe also to air out the car a bit.

8:30 AM "So." ...yeah? "I don't.. get it. But it is here. And it wants to help us. Says it does." It told us that Bones is here. "Bones?" Derek. "Wasn't he.. some friend of yours from Georgia?" My best friend. We stayed at his house, and he wasn't there. I had hoped he wasn't dead. And he's here, in.. one of two cities. "We need to find a road map for California. We need to start checking some buildings. Figure out which city is closer."

8:41 AM trolling around, checking the buildings that might be of help. hotels. government buildings. if we can find a damn Publix or something, those have tons of magazines near the entrance. Donnie's checking out buildings on foot, but I said I'd take the car to look in the other direction. because I.. don't mind.…

8:48 AM there's donnie, shouting and waving for me. I think she's found one.

8:49 AM she did. and we're sitting inside this book store now, looking at the map.

8:52 AM "Right. So. We're actually in a good spot here. San Francisco and Los Angeles are both.. really close." Oh, neat! "However, they are in opposite directions. We can either go 3 hours north and hit San Francisco, or 3 hours south and hit Los Angeles." And so, if he's not in one, it's 6 hours in the other direction. Okay. That doesn't sound too bad. "God, I really hope we didn't go all this way for him to just say 'nice hat' and that's it..."

8:54 AM jesus, okay, yeah, the car does still.. reek. we'll... leave it a bit longer. there's no time limit on all this.

2:22 PM We slept for longer than intended, in the cover of the bookstore, but we kept our stuff with us, and if anyone came by, they weren't interested in our car. So we ate some of our snacks and got on the road again! I'm driving.

4:50 PM "Slow down, do you see that?" It's San Francisco. With a very blatant dome of blue sky above it. Little specks are flying around the sky. "Those must be the Ants. I wish I could make them out from here…" The RAF, or the Anonymous going by the name of the RAF, must have amassed here as well, then. This will probably be another place that cares about money. "Shit."

4:52 PM We were almost considering turning back and trying Los Angeles first when we saw another hitchhiker coming for our car. This one wasn't EAT, though. It's a young woman named Evi who was trying to get to an RAF meetup before her transport got grabbed by "the Morphs."

4:53 PM The Morphs are the bird Fear. I've seen them come out of lightning, Donnie's seen them swirl around and change the landscape, and now apparently Evi's seen them grab whole cars and carry them away.

4:54 PM She's trying to join the California branch of the Anon squad. They're going to stage an attack on the rich people who live in San Francisco and are calling for all volunteers. "Didn't you hear? The billionnaires are partnering up with the Fears and causing the red sky!" I.. don't think that's true. But we'll drive her to this meetup.

5:30 PM Well, much like Las Vegas, this place looks quite safe. There are some zombies in the streets, but they're not even hostile, they're just stumbling around. Maybe the Fears are in cahoots here?

5:34 PM The signage around here is rather consistent in calling this Sanctuary Francisco. Evi says that's legit. The name was changed. That keeps it consistent with New Sanctuary. I guess it's good advertising.

5:41 PM She's directed us to a semidetached little house. Donnie had a nap on the way here, but she's awake now. We're gonna go in and see.

5:44 PM There's only a handful of people here. The leader, as pleased as can be to see new volunteers, is a lady named Heaven. There's also a gruff dude named Cody, who cannot keep his eyes off Donnie. There’s three teenagers in Guy Fawkes masks, too. Tiger, Winston, and Jackie. This is about as American a group as it gets.

5:46 PM Hey, Heaven. So you guys are.. with Anonymous? "They're not really called that anymore. They're just Rise Against Fear." Yeah, but. There's already a branch of the military called that. shrug "News to me." Okay. And. Evi told us, on the way over here, that.. the Fears are allied with billionaires? "Oh yes. There's a lot of documentation on this from leading members. I subscribe to the idea that the Fears are actually bribing the rich, as they correctly identified that's the language they'd listen to most, but that when the Fears have completed their plans, they'll just kill them all anyway." Right. That's a reasonable supposition. But do you guys think.. the rich caused the red sky? "100%. It's all the pollution, it's finally caught up with us." ......right. You got beverages here? I am parched!

5:50 PM god they're utterly clueless. oh, uh. hey. tiger, right? "hey." I'm jordan. "hey jordan." how's it. how's it going. "boring." yeah. I get that. "do you want to ditch this place? there's a party going on a couple blocks away." oh. really? are you sure that's, like. okay? "yeah. heaven and cody have a plan they need us for, but that's not gonna be ready for a couple days. I just came here to get my DS." oh fuck, what model? "it's the 3DS! it just came out this year! it's so cool, it's like 3D movies but without the glasses!" ohhhh!!!! dope!!!! "do you have one?" oh god no! I have an old DS. "like a DSi, or a DS Lite, or...?" the. the old one. the first one. "oh..... damn. grandpa gaming." don't you go there! we'll go toe-to-toe, and I can get really rowdy! "haha! so, I'm about to head to the party with jackie and wince. do you want to come with?" yeah! let me just go get donnie, and we'll follow you.

5:53 PM Donnie's talking with that Cody guy. Hey! Hey, Donnie. c: "Hi! Jordan! Let me, um. You're not gonna believe this." What, does he have a 3DS too? "This is Cody. Or, as I knew him, CodeMaster64. He was my ex." Oh! Wow! Damn! "I know!" cody "And you are?" I'm.. DJay32. I mean. I'm Jordan. Donnie and I came all the way from England. "To come here? Did even England hear about us?" Oh! No! No, Anonymous are kinda obscure; I feel like I'm more famous. We came here looking for "Well, who the fuck are you?" I'm! The White Jester. I probably shouldn't have said that. "That... name is familiar. Okay, I'll admit, I've heard the name. Can't place where..." I'm sorry for!! Insulting the RAF. A lot is happening right now. I came to get Donnie. donnie "What's happening?" a party. few blocks away. "..that does sound like fun…" cody "Go on, Don. We'll talk more later."

5:57 PM ON THE WAY TO A PARTY

9:16 PM It was, indeed, a party. Mostly young people who have nothing else to do. The music's a little too bland for my tastes, or, at least, I'm not familiar with most of it, so I found where all the gamers were hanging out and spent time there. :3 Donnie's gonna head back to the house, but I'm gonna stay a little longer.

9:32 PM "FEAR AT THE DOOR!" everyone's freaking out

9:33 PM It's a. It's a zombie. A single zombie.

9:34 PM "HE KILLED THE FEAR!" "THIS GUY'S AWESOME!" Thank you, thank you. -w- I guess I can get used to this crowd. :D

11:10 PM Got back. Heaven's got a cot for me to sleep in. Donnie was waiting for me. We're gonna spoon... .w. This place isn't bad. It's kinda a little piece of the world that was, frozen in time. And if everyone here is helpful, we'll be able to find Bones-- or confirm that he's not here, so we can move on! Maybe even pretty quickly.

11:11 PM I just.. I wish that this place really is, I wish that it isn't too good to be true.

(Attached: “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me for writing this note, but I can’t ever think back to these times without cringing and wanting to cry. I don’t know how I made it out of all this alive, and how I managed to get into the mess in the first place is an even murkier subject. I don’t like spending too much time thinking about it, though, as I don’t want to fall back into that rabbit hole. It's a nonlinear subject, though, as those memories have been written over with words. In the end I, like him, was able to create. Right now it's undecided if I’ll be able to create my way out of this pit, but I am still creating context, meaning to these memories. I doubt I’ll be able to do what he does and create life, create sound, create the very idea of magnificence itself, but at least I’m able to create a reason to live out of the ruins of my spiritual death. At least I'm able to create HCEAT.”)

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