#Donnie doesn’t understand why shes so mad at them I mean it knows it’s weird but come on it’s not that bad

[animationismycomfort]

guys what if and hear me out instead of Donnie having a crush on April they just have a weird fascination with humans

[dandylovesturtles]

Please tell me something about the Shape of Water AU I'm very curious

this is just the doc title for my "100 Feet and a World Away" AU! I have the lore post linked in my pinned.

tldr: the boys get kidnapped young and raised in a lab by humans who aren't aware they have human level intelligence, and they try to escape.

I posted a bit about Donnie (aka Turtle Four) eating french fries awhile ago but here, have the rest of the scene too:

April unwraps something. The smell assaults his nose - greasy meat, cheese, that red vegetable he’s seen sometimes - and he slips into the water and swims over, popping out just shy of the fence.

“I’m sorry, are you eating during our escape planning meeting?”

“Don’t start with me,” she says, holding up a hand. “I had to work through breakfast to catch up on my homework for my morning classes, then work through lunch to catch up on my homework for my afternoon classes, and then I worked through dinner to catch up on everything else.” She takes a bite, chews, swallows. “This is the first chance I’ve had to eat all day.”

“Huff! Fine. But did you have to bring something with so much…” he flails his hands, “smell?”

“It’s just a burger. What, you never had a burger before?”

He stares at her. She catches his eye, and then lowers her gaze.

“Right. Stupid question.”

“Sometimes the humans bring those. The burgers, you said? They eat them around noon.” He thinks of it with distaste. He can remember exactly which of the humans tend to chew with their mouths open, or talk with food in their mouths. It makes him feel slimy when he watches. 

“We call that “lunch”,” April says. She looks at the burger, then back at Four. It’s with an expression he doesn’t understand, but he’s noticed from her more and more. “Do you want to try it?”

He hesitates. He doesn’t know if he wants to or not. The smell is overwhelming, and he isn’t sure how it will taste. How it will feel, in his mouth.

No one ever offers him food, though.

“...I’m perfectly fine with my nutrition blocks,” he finally says.

“Oh come on, Donnie, that’s not food.”

“It is. It gives me all the vitamins and minerals I need. And…” He stumbles over what he wants to say. He hates when he does that, but he doesn’t know the words for what he’s trying to convey. He wishes he had a bigger vocabulary. He wishes he were allowed to read.

Wishes get him nowhere. He has to focus on the task at hand. Only, April doesn’t seem to want to continue with their escape planning unless he makes a decision about the burger.

“...And?” she prompts, startling him.

“...I don’t know… some food… feels weird,” he finally says.

“Feels weird?”

“In my mouth.”

For a moment she just stares at him. He guesses he must have said something weird. Humans must not care about how food feels in their mouth. Maybe that’s just a turtle thing.

Or maybe his brothers don’t think that way either. Maybe it’s just a Four thing.

But then April’s eyes go a little wider, and she says, “Ooooh. You have texture issues, huh?”

“Texture?”

“Yeah. How the food feels. Some people get really bothered by it; guess you do, too.”

Oh. So it’s not just a Four thing. There’s a whole name for it. He learned something new! How exciting!

“Yes!” he declares. He feels more confident about it now. “I have texture issues!”

She laughs at that. It’s not a mean laugh. He’s not sure why what he said was funny, though, but before he can ask she’s tearing off a small piece of the meat on the side of the burger she didn’t bite.

“Here. Just try it.” She slips it through the gaps in the chain-link, where he can get to it. “If it feels bad, you can just spit it out. I won’t be mad.”

She’s always telling him that. That she won’t be mad. He doesn’t know why; he’s never seen her get mad, at least not at him. But she always tells him that anyway.

It makes him feel better, somehow, even though that’s illogical.

He takes the meat gingerly in his fingers and looks at it. It doesn’t look particularly appetizing. The smell is a lot, but not so bad now that he’s getting used to it. He likes meat - not that he’s had it much. Maybe it will be fine.

He puts it in his mouth and immediately knows it isn’t. He doesn’t like the way the meat falls apart. He can’t describe it, he just knows it’s wrong.

He spits it out. April said she wouldn’t be mad.

“No good, huh?” she asks. She doesn’t sound mad.

“No. It was bad, actually.”

“Hmm, alright…” She glances around, then grabs the sack and pulls out something else: a small container of something thin and golden brown. “Wanna try a french fry?”

“A french fry?”

“It’s just a fried potato.” She pulls one of the thin stick-things (french fry) out of the container and pokes it through the fence. “Here!”

He takes it, looking it over suspiciously. It has the same greasy smell as the burger, but it’s not meat, it’s “potato,” so it must have a different texture.

He nibbles the end, and oh.

It’s actually good!

He devours the rest of the fry. She laughs again, and when he looks back at her she’s smiling.

“Alright, so the fries are a winner. Here, have some more!”

She slips a few more through the fence, and then a few more. Four happily eats all the fries she passes him. They taste nothing like the nutrition blocks, they taste better than the nutrition blocks, and they don’t feel bad in his mouth, not even a little.

“When I get out of here,” he says, after downing the last one, “I’ll eat like this every day.”

“Maybe not fries every day. They’re pretty unhealthy.” She shrugs. “But there’s all kinds of other things out there for you to try! We’ll figure out all the foods you like to eat.”

[tmnt22]

Truth or dare Pt.4 (BayverseLeo! x Reader)

Leo came back to the lair right before midnight. He closed the door slowly for it to not make a loud noise, he felt like someone was watching him. He turned to see Raph waiting for him on the couch.

“...?”

“...”

“..what?”

“Oh nothin’.”

Leo proceeds to walk away but:

“..Actually I wanted to talk to you about somethin’.”

Leo rolls his eyes, he knew what was coming next. He turns to face Raph:

“Okay, about what.”

“About Y/N..are you two like a temporary thing or?”

“What? Why-“

“Answer.”

“Well I don’t know, we haven’t had that conversation yet I-... why am I explaining myself to you? Why do you care?”

“Cuz if you guys end up being like a serious thing or whatever, she can expose us to danger if you break up with her or somethin’.”

“She would never do that Raph.”

“How can you be so sure of that? Ya don’t even know her enough to be a serious thing...”

“...But I know her enough to know she’s not dumb, she knows there will be consequences if she exposes us to danger..I mean, why would she? You know?”

“Why do you trust her? What makes you think she won’t get whatever she wants and leave ya after that?”

“Raph you’re starting to make me feel a little paranoid...”

“That’s cuz deep inside, you know I’m right.”

“No Raph. I don’t know why but something tells me to trust her..”

“😒”

“Besides, we’ve known her for more than a year now and she never exposed us. Why would she do it now?”

“I guess...”

Leo proceeds to walk towards his bedroom. Raph stops him by grabbing one of his shoulders.

“Would you leave this family?”

Leo turns again to make eye contact with his brother.

“Never. If me and Y/N end up being something more then she’ll have to be a part of our family because I’m not going anywhere.” Leo smiled.

Raph smirked back.

“Goodnight brotha”

“Goodnight brother”

~The next day~

*Y/N’s walkie talkie sounds*

“Who’s this?”

“The guy without a phone using a walkie talkie to talk to the prettiest girl in New York?”

“Oooh you must be Leonardo the fearless ninja.”

“Listen. I have something planned for us”

“Really? Me too.”

“So Donnie told me there will be a meteor shower tonight-“

“Rooftop of my apartment. 10 pm.”

“Perfect.”

“See ya”

“See ya”

~10:20 pm, the rooftop of your apartment~

Leo was late due to a pointless argument with Raph.

Finally you see him climbing up to where you were.

“I was starting to worry something might have happened to you” You pretended to be mad as you crossed your arms.

“Sorry I’m late, let’s say I had some issues to deal with back at home.” He explained as he unbuckled the belt that held his katanas and left them carefully on the ground. He didn’t need to have them on his back while he was with you.

He sat down next to you and reached your face for a kiss.

“Okay, I’ll forgive you then” you said as you kiss him back.

“You wanna talk about what happened at the lair or?”

“Actually yeah.”

You laid down completely on the ground, he did the same but sideways since he couldn’t lay flat on the ground because of his shell. He rested his head on one of his arms, cupping one of his cheeks with his hand as he began to vent.

You listened closely.

“I just feel like he doesn’t listen to a word I say, no matter if we’re mad at eachother or not. Is like he doesn’t respect me? He doesn’t even try to understand my point of view. Sometimes I feel like he doesn’t trust my decisions, like don’t get me wrong I know he trusts me because we’re brothers. But at the same time he doesn’t trust me. Am I explaining myself?”

“You are yes.”

“Good. And even last night.. maybe I shouldn’t tell you this..”

“What? Don’t do that! You started it now you finish it. Just tell me”

“I just don’t want you to be weird with Raph if I tell you.”

“Whatever you are going to tell me I’ll pretend that you’ve never told me.”

“*sigh* so... Raph was waiting for me when I went home and he asked me questions about us. You know..um, like if we were serious or not and how if we were, you were gonna expose us to danger and all of that-“

“Raph really said that? I thought he trusted me after all this time..”

“Y/N, don’t take this personal, you know he has trust issues with anyone that is new”

“Yeah but it’s been more than a year now-“

“Y/N what he’s afraid of is me leaving them for you or something like that”

“That would never happen. Like I wouldn’t even let you do that.”

“I know, that’s what I told him. He was fine for a second but I guess he went to bed and started overthinking again because as soon as he woke up he was all angry again..I don’t think he believes me and that offends me a little...why does he think so low of me sometimes?”

“I think he’s overthinking it so much that he doesn’t see that you would never do that, he’s thinking about the very low chance of the ‘possibility’ of you doing that and he definitely believes you but he doesn’t trust me so he thinks I’m gonna manipulate you into doing it or something”

“He thinks I’m dumb then.”

You giggled.

But he stared at you all serious. He was seriously worried of his brother thinking he’s dumb.

“He knows you’re not dumb. But he knows you’re too kind sometimes and if you love someone you would do anything for them. He’s trying to warn you in case I had bad intentions and use your good heart to my advantage and take you away from him, you know?”

“And how do I make him understand that I’m not even easy to manipulate.”

“He’ll have to see that, with time.”

“I told him that I trusted you, which doesn’t happen very often.”

“Remember at the beginning when you didn’t trust me?” You laughed.

He smiled quietly listening to your laugh.

“Everytime I was with April in the lair you would be in the background like: “😑”

You laughed again.

“Heyyy, I just thought you didn’t like me. You would hug Mikey or Donnie but you never hugged me, can you blame me?”

“You just had this vibe of the “eldest” you know? You were kind of intimidating at first. I thought you were gonna be like Raph or something. In my mind I was like ‘if I hug him he’s gonna think I’m weird’”

He smiled.

“No I wouldn’t think that?? You wanna know that one moment I thought you were kinda weird?”

“Oh. So you did think I was weird at some point?!”

“Remember when we all came home after patrolling the city that I was so tired that I just went straight into my bed?”

“Oh yeah, yeah! The night I slept over with April and you didn’t even know I was there!”

“Exactly. Well, in the middle of the night I woke up because I was so hungry. I was obviously in underwear and the first thing I find is you being awake inside the pool-“

“APRIL WAS IN THERE TOO OKAY? She just wasn’t there when you were there.”

“I know but at the moment I didn’t know that. So I just find you there. In our pool, being the new one. I swear I just thought ‘the audacity.’”

He began to laugh after you wheezed.

“Oh gosh Leo stop it”

You covered your face with both of your hands. Le cringe.

“And I- ha-HAaaa! I just said ‘oh. didn’t know you were there’ and I went back to my room to put some pants on.”

He laughed out loud mid sentence.

You loved his laugh, his real laugh. He always laughed with a long ‘haaaa’ at the end of every laugh. Everytime. It was hilarious.

“I’m gonna confess you something though.”

“Go ahead”

“Later that night I thought about how hot your legs were, my mind was like ‘he has good legs for a mutant turtle.’”

He smirked.

“I know you turned your head to check my ass out too.”

“Oh nooooo”

You covered your face again as you wheezed.

“Oh yeah. I saw how quickly you turned your head away and again I said to myself ‘the audacity of this woman.’”

“Dishonor on me indeed”

“I mean don’t get me wrong, I was flattered that a girl had to turn her head to give me a second glance-”

“Leo you’re not conscious of your perfect ass-”

“Y/N, look!”

He exclaimed pointing at the sky

“Wow it’s so beautiful, there’s so many stars!”

“And how did I manage to have one next to me right now?”

You both made eye contact.

“You’re the cutest”

“I guess I’m too cheesy today”

“No, don’t say that. I was about to say that your eyes shine just like them”

“...”

“...”

“Ugh” “bleh”

“What did you do to me? I’m cheesy now. I’m starting to sound just like Mikey”

“The audacity.”

“I meant it though.”

“Me too!”

“You know as soon as I started to know you I knew we were gonna get along”

“Oh yeah, same here. As soon as we started saying the same sentences or having the same reactions to almost everything”

“Remember when you defended me randomly when Raph was joking about me only doing ‘boring Leo stuff’?”

“Um...Oh yeah!, when you decided to spend your day off reading ‘on the art of war’?”

“Yes ma’am. When you said ‘at least he knows how to read’ I’ll admit that at that moment I said to myself ‘You know what?, I like this new girl’”

“You know. Now that I think about it, we did become close after that.”

Leo smiles while looking at you and nodding his head yes.

~🎶After dark-Mr.Kitty song suggestion🎶~

“By the way”

“?”

“About what you said before about not knowing what we are...what are we?”

“Oh if my life was easier I would have asked you out already.”

“What makes it difficult?”

You knew exactly what made it difficult but you just wanted to hear him say it with his words.

“Well. First, I don’t want to put you in danger. Second, I don’t want to interfere in your future, like for example, if you want a family... I’m afraid I won’t be able to..you know.. it’s biologically impossible. I trust you and know you well enough but I want to know you even more and trust you even more, I want to make sure you don’t put my family in danger either. Third, a part of me is afraid of what your family would think of me, I don’t want to be the reason why you stop talking to your family. Fourth-“

“Leo. what if we don’t tell people other than your brothers that we’re together?”

“Y/N..the devil never sleeps, my enemies will become yours, they observe us all the time. If they see me a lot with you, they’ll come for you.”

“What if instead of you coming here I go to the lair instead. They can’t track us down there thanks to Donnie.”

“I kinda hate myself for letting go, the fact that I kissed you that day I exposed you to all this sh*t...”

“Never say that again.”

“It’s true. We shouldn’t have done this.”

“But guess what? We did. And I don’t regret any of it because at the end of the day I have someone that understands me like no one else. We’re both the eldest of our siblings, we both are into martial arts and we have to deal with a bunch of responsibilities-”

“You could find a guy that has those qualities, New York is really big-“

“Life already gave me you though.”

“...”

“Can we just try?”

“Y/N if this doesn’t work out is gonna hurt even more.”

“But at least we’ll know we weren’t meant for eachother, that’s better than never knowing what we could have been.”

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to give you a normal life, that kills me...”

“So, what if I go and date other guys? That wouldn’t ‘kill’ you?”

“If you’ll be happy, it wouldn’t.”

“You’re lying.”

“I already have feelings for you Y/N, I just want you to be happy.”

“Well, I have feelings for you too. What do we do then?”

Leo observed how you looked at him, so closely and expectant. He just wanted to kiss you at that moment but it wouldn’t be appropriate.

“I think we both need to think about this through...”

Leo always broke his own heart in order to do what’s right.

“I know you, and you don’t want this..”

“Of course I don’t want this, I want you. But I don’t want to put you in more danger. I want you to be happy and I’m afraid I’m not the right guy to make you as happy as another man could.” His felt how his throat became a knot.

“Leo I’m not letting you do this..”

“Then..don’t let me do this. Because I’m about to do it-“

You pulled him in for a slow passionate kiss, and for the first time in his life he felt how your love feels like. He was hurting though. He already felt guilty of putting you in danger.

He was a ‘listen to your brain’ guy but maybe just this time he would make an exception. The thought of you with another man filled him with jealousy, not the kind of ‘who’s more attractive than’ the kind of not being able to provide you the happiness another man could.

The excuse of ‘let’s just try’ was enough for him to say yes. Even if you weren’t going to be with him forever, he could have you for a little while.

As he kissed you back you shed a tear which made him stop the kiss.

“Y/N?”

“No, don’t stop, I’ll be okay”

You whispered as you kissed him again.

You wanted to stay there forever.

But he stopped the kiss again

“I’m sorry for all this negativity, for overwhelming you-“

“No, you’re right. That’s why it overwhelms me..”

“But you’re also right in something, there’s nothing wrong with trying, but. We will only see eachother at the lair, nowhere else.”

“Yes of course”

The way you said it, the smile after you cried. He had to kiss you again.

Things led to another, the kiss became a makeout session.

As you guys were making out, he stopped abruptly.

“I have an idea” he smirked.

“That face means no good.” You raised an eyebrow with a smile.

He smirked harder.

“You weren’t afraid of heights, right?”

“Uh, no?”

“Awesome. Grab on then.” He said as he got up from the ground and offered you a hand to help you get up from it.

Next, you jumped and wrapped your legs around his waist with the help of your arms around his neck. Immediate sexual tension. You both smirk.

Leo grabs your hips and pulls you in even closer.

“Just had to make sure you don’t fall while I jump around, you know?” He winks.

“Riiight. That’s totally why.”

You rolled your eyes playfully.

He began to sprint and when he got to the edge of the rooftop, jumped.

You squeezed your eyes close due to the sudden adrenaline rush as your hair flew upwards.

Next thing you know, he was climbing up the Chrysler Building.

“Woah, Leo I’m starting to feel light headed”

“You okay? I can stop if you want me to”

“No no, don’t stop here just climb all the way up. I’ll be fine, I can handle it.”

“Promise me Y/N, that you won’t let go of my neck.”

“I promise. just go up, come on.”

As he kept climbing up you felt the need to laugh of the situation. You were so excited to be in the Chrysler but you never thought the sensation was going to be this strong. It made your stomach feel weird.

After 10 minutes he reached one of the eagle heads of the building and laid you down right in front of a metal railing so you could lay your back against it.

As soon as your back hit the metal railing you began to laugh with wide eyes.

Which made him smile widely.

“LEO! I’M ON THE CHRYSLER BUILDING!!!! WOOOOOH *sigh* this is crazy..”

“Pretty cool, right-“

You interrupted him by pulling him into the most passionate kiss you’ve ever gave him.

When you let go, you closely looked at Leo’s face, his eyes always betrayed him. His eyes portrayed a hint of innocence mixed with tiredness. When he smiled, wrinkles formed on the outer corners of his eyes.

“Thank you for taking me up here, capitán.”

You whispered as you squeezed both corners of his lips together, which always made him turn his head away and smile really widely.

He lowkey blushed.

“You know, sometimes I come here to relax. When I want to be alone.”

He said as he sat down right next to you wrapping an arm around your shoulders.

“I thought you would like this spot as much as I do”

“Of course I do! I’m glad I didn’t pass out”

“I know! You would have missed this view.”

You finally got used to sensation of being up there and decided to sit on Leo’s crossed legs, grabbed the belt that held his katanas with one arm and pulled your head and upper torso all the way back, to feel the wind and to see the skyline upside down. To feel alive.

“Hey! Y/N you gotta warn me before doing something like that-.”

He quickly held tight the hand you used to grab his belt, but he interrupted his own self. Mesmerized by the way you smiled, the way the city lights lit the skin of your collarbone, the way the wind messed up your hair. He smiled to himself.

You felt Leo uncross his legs, slowly getting up which made you hang in the air higher. You smiled.

Leo pulled your hips slightly upwards to make you pull yourself up again.

You slowly did so, as your hair went back into place, messy.

When your eyes met his, you both felt a sudden bond. A strong bond. It made you breathe faster.

In both of your minds, the same word popped up.

~ ソウルメイト~

Leo’s eyes light up and he immediately hugs you. You do the same.

“Leo? Did you feel what I-“

You whispered, still skeptical of what just happened.

You just felt him nod his head.

“Leo.”

“Huh?” he whispered with shaky voice.

“The sun’s coming up...”

[novasintheroom]

Ooooo a fresh blog! Heyo there! So, my first request is some head canons, if you write them anyway, for the each of the turtles having a s/o who is usually the purest of beans. Like— she doesn’t get angry, usually shy when meeting new people, very humble, sweet and caring— but for the first time she does it’s like she realizes she’s frustrated and mad about something that happened during the day and it’s the first time she’s expressing it. the turtles notice her come in knowing something is off about her behavior when she’s usually so cheerful. Almost like “Sometimes it just makes me so— it makes me so... so...! Angry!” But she actually gets super surprised with herself realizing she’s actually venting just to say she’s fine in the end after bottling up for so long. The turtles just looking at her and asking if she’s okay 😂 If that makes any sense.. sorry if it doesn’t.

Oooooo my first ask!! I’m so nervous and excited! I think I got the gist of what you’re getting at. Thanks for sending this in, it means a lot to me! <3

Leo

·         Honestly caught off guard when you come in steaming

·         Your calm and sweetness is something he loves and looks forward to – it’s hard being the firm leader in his family when everyone pushes back, so you’re a pleasant break from the arguments and sassy remarks

·         Not today

·         It’s loud in the lair – Raph and Mikey are doing something with a basketball and hula hoop that’s got Raph raging and Mikey screaming, Donnie’s got a power tool going on the truck, and Splinter’s Celine Dion music is blaring to drown it all out while he works on pruning his plants

·         Leo’s up in the concrete rafters with a book, glancing down every other minute to make sure Raph doesn’t kill Mikey

·         He would have completely missed you coming in if Mikey hadn’t thrown the ball toward the entrance

·         You dodge the ball before it hits you, but instead of laughing it off like usual, you throw a dark look at his brothers and beeline toward the dojo.

·         Woah, that’s weird

·         Avoidance of his family = big red flag

·         You didn’t even say hi to him??

·         Hops down and follows, waving off Mikey’s calls to you

·         Finds you in the corner of the dojo, bag thrown to the side and hands smoothing out the sand of his small zen garden

·         Feels a bit awkward honestly

·         Listen, he’s getting better at it, but he’s not the best at feelings

·         Especially girl feelings

·         He knows something’s up though, and he wouldn’t be a good beau if he just let you simmer

·         Spooks you when he asks if you’re okay

·         Darn those ninja skills, how is someone as big as him so silent?

·         You sigh and just say you had a fight with your roommate and that it’s fine, you just needed some quiet before you went to his family

·         Okay, coolcoolcool. He can work with this. He and Raph fight all the time! “What was the fight about?”

·         Cue explosion

·         “She doesn’t pay her part of the bills on time, and she has her boyfriend over constantly and I can hear them through the walls when they’re screwing because the stupid cheap apartment has stupid cheap thin walls, and she leaves her dishes everywhere even when I ask her to not be a slob, and the landlord is getting after me for her rent when– “

·         W o w

·         He didn’t think you knew any swear words, but the names you’re calling your roommate would make even Raph blush

·         Your rant goes on and on

·         Anytime he tries to suggest a solution you get angry at him like why can’t he just listen omg

·         He shuts up quick

·         Somewhere in the process he sat down and your head moved to his lap while you laid all your problems out

·         By the time you’re finished your chest is heaving and it’s been an hour

·         Leo’s scared to say something in case you go off again lmao

·         He just plays with your hair and hums while you calm down

·         Finally you look at him with wide eyes, “Wow, geez, I didn’t think I was that mad.”

·         He can’t help but laugh, “Me neither.”

·         Your smile is back, though, and that’s the best thing he’s seen all day

·         “You feeling better now?”

·         You say yes, and give him a good hug and kiss as thanks for his patience

·         He asks you to come to him if things start building up again

·         Seriously, start talking to him – I don’t think the poor guy can handle another explosion like that lol

 Raph

·         Raph knows anger

·         Does he know how to deal with it? Ehhh that’s hit-and-miss

·         But he knows it

·         So seeing your tense shoulders, clenched fists, grinding teeth when you walk in – he knows you’re angry

·         It’s a bit off-putting tbh – you’re the calm to his rage, the quiet touch to wind him down when something gets under his skin

·         What happened to make his quiet girl so mad?

·         Did someone say something about your family?

·         Or something about your outfit?

·         Did a skeevy guy try to touch you?

·         Did someone try to kiss you?

·         Okay, now he’s getting mad

·         Decides to take a page from Splinter’s book and pulls you aside to talk

·         “What’s the matter?”

·         You pull at your sleeves, looking anywhere but him

·         You just mumble you’re fine, and that you’re hungry and try to move to the kitchen

·         Nuh-uh, that don’t work with him

·         Catches you by the arm and gives you a look, “Somethin’s bothering you, and you’re gonna tell me what it is.”

·         “And what if I don’t wanna talk about it?”

·         “Tough luck.”

·         Your glare could curdle milk, but you don’t say anything

·         Alright, you wanna play it that way? He’s got three brothers he grew up with; he can get it out of you.

·         Hauls you up and tosses you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and takes you to his workout station

·         Ignores your screams of outrage and the beating fists on his shell

·         They’re like little kitten paw pats; he can’t help but smile at how small you really are

·         When he sets you down in front of a world-weary punching bag, he crosses his arms and waits

·         You’re red faced and snarling. “What are you doing?”

·         He raises a fist, and gives the bag a good punch – “That’s for when Mikey backwashed into my water bottle today.” He throws another punch, “And that’s for Donnie’s stupid snorts waking me up last night,” and another, “and now I’m back on Mikey’s backwash!”

·         He stops the bag’s swaying and gestures for you to take a turn

·         Realization dawns in your eyes. You look at your fist and throw a pathetic punch at it. “That’s…for my fifth plant…dying this week?”

·         He almost laughs, but nods encouragement

·         You punch again. “That’s for whoever stole my lunch out of the fridge at work.”

·         And again. “And for those kids who spit on that homeless guy!”

·         And again. “And for Gina’s face when she made fun of my teeth!”

·         Punch after punch, you let out your anger and frustrations that boiled over today

·         Raph’s impressed – not just with how much crap happened to you, but how long you held it in

·         You’re a lot stronger than he gave you credit for

·         He’s also a bit freaked at seeing the rage in your eyes

·         Is that what others see when he comes at them?

·         Yeesh

·         You feel a lot better after the session, if sheepish for letting so much anger show

·         But he brushes it off, “Hey, you see how I am. It don’t bother me none, sweetheart.”

·         He pinches your butt for good measure as you walk back to the lair and laughs when you punch him in the arm

 Donnie

·         The one that takes the longest to realize something’s up

·         He can’t help it! He’s busy making sure his family is safe and hidden! He’s gotta keep the firewall up-to-date from all the new viruses being put out, check the perimeter lasers so that no one sneaks up on them, change the oil in the Turtle Tank, and why is the computer sparking over here, he needs to ask Raph or Leo to come with him to get new parts at the junkyard, but if he –

·         Bumps into you and is like ‘oh. how’d you get in here’

·         Delighted to see you though! It’s like all his worries suddenly vanished when he realized ‘oh yeah! I have a girlfriend!’ and that’s you!

·         Missed you a lot since it’s been a few days since you could visit

·         Starts showing you all of the progress he’s made on certain things, asks you how school’s going, how was that group project you had, did you get that interview for work?

·         It’s your clipped and short answers that finally makes him take a step back and really see how you’re doing

·         You’ve always been enthusiastic about his inventions, even if you don’t completely understand every technical thing he talks about. He thought you guys were past the awkward conversations too.

·         Clipped answers are a big no-no – it makes him shrink inside, like his words and ideas don’t matter

·         Takes a few seconds to look you over – awkward seconds, ones where you look down and away and not at him

·         “Are you alright? Did…something happen?”

·         You take a few deep breaths, trying to calm yourself, but then the words just start pouring out: “I’m sorry, it’s just, I can’t stop thinking about how my supervisors treated me the past few days. They scheduled me to work a triple shift! Without asking me! And I told them I had a date with you, and a million other things to do, but – “

·         You lay it out for him, apologizing every other minute for just putting this on him out of the blue, that you tried really hard to be happy coming to the lair but your boss just text you that you have another shift tonight instead of getting to hang out with Donnie, and –

·         Donnie sits you both down in a couple of chairs, his hands holding your own as you keep talking and venting

·         Rubs circles into your palm, eyes never straying from your own watery and frustrated ones

·         A breath out of the nose is the end to your rant, and you lean to put your head on his shoulder. “I just hate when people spring things on me! I just wanna stay with you and hand you tools to work on stuff.”

·         His heart warms at this, even if he’s sad at how sucky your job is

·         And it gives him an idea

·         He manages to hack into your work’s scheduling system and put your supervisors or fellow employees in your place for the night

·         Even sends out a text masked as your head boss to whoever he put, letting them know they’re on the job and that you had an emergency

·         You’re torn on this – those people had things they had to do too

·         But Donnie reassures you: “If they’re as bad as you say, then getting more people mad at them might just make them change. If not, we at least get to have our date night, right?”

·         Well, when you put it that way…

·         He gets a big, long smooch for pulling it off and for listening to you

Mikey

·         Listen, this boy is intuitive when it comes to emotions.

·         He kinda has to be with the type of older brothers he has lmao

·         Instantly knows something’s up by the sound of your feet coming down the tunnels – heavy, like you want to stomp them but don’t know how

·         He’s geared up though – his baby girl’s coming!

·         Hops off the couch and has the biggest grin for you when you walk in

·         Doesn’t even falter when he sees the glower on your face

·         Says something stupid to test the waters – “Woah, babe, I’m gonna have to call the cops – I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to be as fine as you are!”

·         Not even a smirk.

·         Okay okay. Obvi you’re not in a happy mood.

·         Man, he was hoping for a little blush at least!

·         Takes that heavy bag off your shoulders you’ve been lugging around all day and corrals you back to the couch

·         Grabs some sodas and a few chocolate bars from his hidden stash in the kitchen

·         He knows you need it more than him right now

·         Sits down and calls out to the lair that “we’re making out on the couch!!” Def keeps his family from coming in and interrupting lol

·         Isn’t even phased when you explode about your day – your coworker had it out for you, your professor told the whole class that your paper was what not to do if you wanted a good grade, etc. etc.

·         Mikey accents your day with “No!” and “He didn’t!” and “What a jerk!”

·         It’s cathartic to hear someone agree with you like that

·         He takes you in his arms when the frustrated tears start falling and you start to wind down

·         “It just makes me so angry, and I hate feeling embarrassed and…”

·         Rubs circles on your back to help calm you, just like his family did to him growing up

·         After a minute you’re better, and back to your sweet, happy self, if still a bit stuffy from the tears and snot

·         You’re surprised and apologize for your emotions, but he stops you

·         “Hey, everyone has their bad days! Sometimes you just gotta let it out, y’know?”

·         You give him a big kiss for being so sweet

·         Makes the day a lot better after that with the soda and candy and some video games

·         He’s a good turt <3

[elichorph]

ok hi i’m back with a second character ...

the member of the yale's elite, they're twenty three and a grad student majoring in film & media studies. they are as amicable as they are histrionic.

stats:

full name: gordon minjun teller nicknames: goose. gordon is for business only age: twenty three  birthday: june 13, 1997 chart: gemini sun / cancer moon / leo rising gender: cis male pronouns: he / him sexuality: bisexual & biromantic height: 6′1 hair color: blue (now blonde) tattoos: none piercings: nose stud (right side), earlobes (always have silver hoops in them)

PINTEREST BOARD 

blackmail:

while the public believes that goose’s family retired and moved to another country, this was actually released as a coverup because they went missing. goose withheld information from the court about their last whereabouts which could have prevented it from becoming a cold case.

he was expelled from high school after vandalizing a statue on campus and his uncle paid the school to go back on their decision.

he lost a third of his inheritance money to a cult he briefly followed in his sophomore year of college while looking for guidance.

backstory:

tw: implied death

right at birth, goose was adopted into the teller family who were pretty well known. his father was a young ceo of an oil company in texas. goose’s family eventually became public figures and tabloid favorites after a long riveting love story between his father and mother, who belonged to opposing business families. it really was a quick rise and fall to fame, starting when it was revealed goose’s adoptive mom, grace, couldn’t have kids, he was in her arms not even a month after and right out of them thirteen years later when she disappeared and the family really was never to be heard of again. 

but as the only adopted child into a family who had to keep their public image up, goose’s dreams of being a fun loving kid were crushed. really, it was strictly gordon - gordon on the tabloids, you’d see his baby face like aw thank god grace got to have a kid of her own <3 he was posted up at galas, listening to his dad speak about oil and shit every weekend and going back to his small private school every monday and it was just the same routine conditioning to keep the image of the teller family spotless and to hopefully get gOrDoN to become the next ceo.

that all kind of went to shit though when goose turned 14. his parents miraculously went missing (don’t ask me what happened i don’t even know) one night when he was tucked into bed. seriously, he woke up one morning and they were gone and suddenly there were police storming the house and he was being questioned and things weren’t routine or safe anymore. in order to still save face for the family though, news was quickly put out that the family went on a private vacation while the investigation went on privately. it was taken to court, people signed nda’s, and all little goose knew was that he his parents were going to a party that night and hadn’t told anybody else and he was too scared to tell anyone. at one point goose became the main suspect and he had to put his freshman year of high school on pause, but he was dismissed months after even though he hadn’t shared the detail that they went to a party. if he had shared it, they literally would’ve been found. eventually, there were no new leads, the case was declared cold, and an official statement was put out that the teller parents “retired” and “moved” to a different country that wouldn’t be disclosed and gOrDoN would be under the care of his uncle.

gordon was like mad though haha. even though he’d gotten his family’s entire inheritance as a fifteen year old and should’ve been happy that he was basically a millionaire, he wasn’t used to things not being in the same routine and actually having to make decisions for himself. newsflash, but goose can’t handle emotions really well and he got angry and well i don’t know if you’ve seen donnie darko where donnie literally put an axe through the statue’s head and spray painted “they made me do it” below the statue? but yeah, that. goose wasn’t slick though, got caught by security, and his uncle paid the school to let it slide and then sent goose to a boarding school in maruland.

he spent the last couple years of high school trying to figure out who he actually was outside of the tabloids and the teller name and image, and eventually got the hang of it by the time he enrolled at yale. he started going by goose instead of gordon, went into film instead of business like his family wanted him to and slowly started to blossom into the weirdo he is today <3 his dad was in the elites so he was able to secure a legacy spot and reluctantly said yes to joining. he was kinda quiet the first year, but now he’s all gungho to do charity events and make people happy and shit like that. 

his sophomore year though he kinda doubted the path he was on and his naive ass got roped up into a cult. anyways, he ended up trusting them a lot and donated 1/3 of his family’s inheritance to the cult and kinda blew it. goose was acting hella weird around this time though, i imagine people around him could kinda sense he wasn’t like alright for a few months. anyways someone ended up giving him an intervention about acting kinda whack and he realized and thankfully was able to leave the cult pretty unscathed. but he is deeply, deeply ashamed about his time in the cult though.

personality:

he is one gigantic deranged baby. like he is baby, but he’s also kind of crazy. if goose feels any normal emotion, it instantly bass boosts and he feels it in full. goose genuinely is so sensitive, he’ll physically flinch if you say something merely mean to him because he was used to growing up so perfect that he really can’t take criticism. however, he’ll do his best to patch things up by saying some incomprehensible joke right there and then. the only exception to this is the tabloids. goose has become so immune to them that he will straight up troll them back on twitter because he just doesn’t give two shits.

he’s incredibly kind. so so so kind (not really gentle though). the type to remember your favorite candy bar and hand one to you on a random tuesday. he’ll remember your name even if you’ve only met once and even if you didn’t give him your name, he’ll look it up somehow just so he knows next time. he loves to make jokes all the time. none of them ever make sense, but they’re funny to him and he won’t apologize for it. and he’s LOUD. you probably can hear his cackles and snorts and dramatic screams even when you’re on the other side of campus. he’s just a kid in a candy store excited to finally enjoy life, especially now that things have seemed to settle down. even though he’ll probably have a whole breakdown and a half the first time the blackmailer mentions his name.

yes, he actually believes he’s being haunted by jfk. goose had a string of dreams about him and witnessed some doors opening and closing on their own around the same time, and he quickly jumped to the conclusion and never thought twice about it. another strange belief that goose has? that he’s friends with a ton of a-listers. even though it’s mainly jessica alba, he won’t hesitate to tweet at extremely famous actors and thank them for getting lunch with him even if they’ve never spoke. multiple management companies have his twitter handle blacklisted. while he currently has blue hair, it’s always quick to change. for how much he dyes it, it’s surprising that it doesn’t feel like hay.  if goose feels a mental breakdown coming or simply is bored or needs attention, his hair color will do a straight 180. he hasn’t had a natural hair color since he enrolled at yale.

things that are very goose: beat up yellow high top converse, getting to know every person in existence, having memes plastered over his wall to make him smile after a long day, wearing fancy cologne to the grocery store because one cashier said he smelled good and he thinks it makes them happy to wear that, throwing a shoe across a crowd at a party, going to sulk in the bathroom or leave the party early when a song plays that brings up bad memories, keeping every movie stub, restaurant punch card, and lost button in a little scrapbook just because he wants to remember the good things in life, thinking the karate kid is the best movie to ever exist despite being five years into a film major.

wanted connections

since he doesn’t have any pre-established connections, here are some ones that could kinda be fun

someone who protects his naive ass <3

an ex or old one sided crush who hurt him so bad lmao. they really wouldn’t have to a lot to do that, but it would be juicy if they did

roommate? maybe? he lived in a really shitty apartment his first few years, maybe they convinced him to move out or moved in

or neighbors? like he will knock on their door 3 times a week with half burnt brownies to offer or because he doesn’t know where his tv remote is and needs help

someone who gave him the intervention about like “you’re acting weird are you okay” that indirectly got him to leave the cult and he feels like he’s forever indebted to them

someone who just despises goose and he doesn’t understand why and tries to make things better even though it just makes things worse

family friends? maybe? when he was in ct and his uncle didn’t let him come home with him during the holidays he would go to their house or something like that

gentle romance <3 maybe. Please

he’s their secret admirer and sends them gifts and flowers and writes them bad poems and recommends them shitty romance films

someone who takes advantage of how naive he is

anything <3 come 2 me or i will dm you or venmo you and force u to plot with me

[huckleberrysclutterbucket]

LOSING CONTROL

Lucas tries to keep his temper under control, but sometimes is just imposible.

Lucas POV

Control, is a small word with a big meaning. My dad used to say after I got in a fight, “If you could control your temper, you wouldn´t be in this situation”. I got sent to the principal´s office several times, I got suspended twice. My dad had business in New York and saw an opportunity to help me start over. And I did. I had everything under control, or so I thought.

First day, I haven´t even reached school, I meet this girl, she walks up to me like she owns the freaking subway and makes a number for her friend. They are both cute. The fisty one is named Maya and the other one Riley. I get to school and enter my new classroom, I was held back a year since I spent most of it in detention or suspended, and to my surprise, both girls are in my class. And to top it all, my history teacher is Riley’s father. 

As soon as Maya recognize my accent, I was doomed. She wouldn’t waste a chance to call me names and make fun of me. Little did she knew, instead of irking me, I loved those names she gave me, Huckleberry, Sundance Kid, Ranger Rick. All western. The girl did her homework, she knew what I liked. It was time for me to find out what she liked and get to her. 

As time passed, we became friends, even Farkle accepted me in his group. Riley was the one who kept us all together, even in the most difficult times, she always had faith in our friendship. I did noticed the moon eyes, she likes me, really likes me, in a romantic way, but I’m not into romantic stuff, so I never really asked her out. I was more intrigued about Maya, she’s more about act first think later, kinda reminds me of myself. Tuff exterior and soft in the inside, like a lobster. I wonder what made her put up all those walls around her. It seems like the only person she lets in is Riley. I really wanted to get to know her.

Everything seemed to be under control, untill Maya asked me to beat up a kid that was bulling Farkle. I worked so hard to keep my temper under control, change my old ways. I told her we shouldn’t use violence, it never ends well. We were in gym class when Billy, my team mate, started bulling Farkle, I lost my temper and pushed Billy, I had him pinned to the wall and was about to trow the first punch when Maya jumped on my back and stopped me. “Lucas, don’t!” “Isn’t this what you wanted Maya?” “No. Thats what he wants, he wants you to be like him” Hearing her anxious words in my ear and feeling her heart beating so fast on my back made me realize that she was scared. I imediately returned to my calmed self and talked some sense into Billy. That was the first time I almost lost control. If it wasn’t for Maya, I would have ended up in a fight again.

Valentines day came, and this girl asked me out, Missy Bradford. She was the most popular girl in our grade. Then something funny happened, Riley got jelous. She looked so cute all mad about it. I had a talk with Farkle about the girls, he knew them better anyways. That’s how I learned that Farkle was inlove with both Riley and Maya, and he wanted to know if I would ask one of them out, so he could ask the other. That was weird, so I asked “And what if I pick the other one?” and he just said “Then I get the first one! how long do you wanna play this game?” Was this a game for him? Ok then. I can play along. 

Maya, had other plans in mind, she asked me out instead, the girl has nerve and wasn’t going to sit around waiting for us to make a choice, and I’m not afraid to admit I kinda like that about her. She told me to pick her up at Riley’s and I was so thrilled to do so, but I was ambushed. Maya set me up to date Riley, luckly Mr Matthews wouldn’t let her go unless Maya and Farkle came too, as long as she was there I didn’t care. The four of us took the subway, I kept stealing glances at Maya  and noticed she kept looking at some older guy a few seats ahead. Suddenly she walked straight to that dude and started talking to him, was she flirting? Riley noticed me staring at Maya and explained to me. Josh Matthews, he was her uncle. And apparently Maya had the biggest crush on him.

Maya sat beside Josh, and after a few words were crossed I could tell he said something that hurt her feelings. He got off the train on the next stop, leaving Maya with sad eyes. I wanted to punch that guy so much. I almost did, but then I remembered I was supposed to be dating Riley. I told her to go sit with Maya and see if she was ok, but Maya pushed Riley back to me. That’s when Riley fell on my lap and kissed me. It lasted just a second, but I stood frozen, it seemed like time had stopped. I just sat there, wondering if anybody else saw that, more like, wondering it Maya saw Riley kissing me. I didn’t tell anyone about it.

No one knew about my conflicted past, untill Zay came along with his big mouth. That month his family moved to New York, and my old childhood friend transfered to this school too. He’s only been here a week and I’ve already got in a fight. All the work I put on having my temper under control goes to hell. His big mouth got him in troube with a senior and I had to get in troube to save his ass, again. I got detention for friday after school. Thanks a lot Zay. To my surprise Maya was there too. She got in trouble but wouldn’t tell me why. I walked her home after detention, I find out her mom works until late and her dad is not around since she was 5, we were in detention together a few times after that. Apparently she doesn’t like to do homework. I must confess I got into a few fights just to get in detention so I could walk her home.

I always sat behind Maya, that way was easier to catch on the details. I still wanted to get to know her. That’s how I noticed all the little drawings on the edge of her notes. She hated science and chemestry, I was her lab partner, it was basically like having no partner at all, she would fall asleep in my hand, literally. But I didn’t mind. I even liked to do all our projects together, more like me doing the project while I watched her sleep or doodle. Sometimes I took her to my house so that she would fall asleep in my bed. How I loved to smell my pillow. The scent of her shampoo lingered for a while after she was gone.

We had a school dance, the semi formal. I was supposed to ask Riley to go to the dance with me, but I never did. I asumed we were all going together as a group. However, Charlie Gardner had other plans, he asked Riley to be his date to the semi formal when I failed to do so, and she said yes just to try to get me jelous. I was kinda not okay with her childish behavior, so I got irritated but then again, Maya didn’t had a date, and I finnaly had a chance to dance with her. And I did. 

At school things were not going great. Not only I had a bunch of homework and projects, but the Art class was about to be canceled. Is the only class Maya actually enjoys. Even when Maya said she was ok with it, and that it was just a class, or just a hobby, I knew her better by then. That class was very important to her, it was her escape from all the stress in her life, I could see that sadness in her eyes and I couldn’t stand it. We did all we could think of to convince the board to keep the arts program at school. And we succeded.

Riley’s and Maya’s friendship used to be the strongest, but now it seemed so fragile, to the point of crazyness. Me and Maya were voted as “best couple” on the yearbook, and when Riley and Farkle noticed, it was like if all hell broke loose. Riley was sinking into depressed Riley wich she called Morotia M Black. Maya tried to bring her back by pretending to be Riley. Farkle was angry too because he wanted to be “taken seriously”. I didn’t understand what was happening back then because I’ve always taken him seriously, but he changed his style and now he wanted to be called Donny Barnes. It seemed to me there was someone else he wanted to impress. Someone in particular that he wanted to notice him or to take him more seriously.

Zay told the girls about my accident riding a sheep when I was four. On vacation we went to Texas, more like Riley and Maya signed me up to ride a sheep to “overcome my fear of falling from Judy”. I would have appreciated their effort if it wasn’t for the fact that grown men don’t ride sheep, they ride bulls. So accidentally they signed me up to ride a freaking bull named Tumbstone, like if the name didn’t freak me out enough. What the hell were they thinking? Riley was trying to cheer me up, “You can do it Lucas, You’ll do great” but Maya, she knew how scared I was, and she knew why. I could die or get seriously injured. “If you do this, I’ll never speak to you again” she told me. But Pappy Joe was proud of me for doing this, and had already told all the town I was doing it, leaving me no room to back off from it without looking like a coward. Even though I didn’t got hurt and I could only ride the bull for four lousy seconds, it was enough to hurt Maya’s feelings.

That night we made a bonefire, we sat around it and talked, Riley broke up with me finally. She told me that Maya teases me because she’s attracted to me. Zay left with Riley and Farkle to “get ice cream” wile I talked to Maya alone. I asked her myself about it and she denied it. Against my better judgement, I lost control of myself again, I wanted to hear her say it so bad, I push and cornered her, “If you don’t like me, then why do you make fun of me? And why didn’t you wanted me to ride the bull?”  “Because I didn't wanted you to win and get all coincided”. Yeah right... Lamest answer. I knew I was getting close to a confession, so I kept pushing her “Why do you make fun of me?” “Because you’re easy to make fun of” “That’s not it” I walked so close to her, I could almost hear her heartbeat “Because you are a Huckleberry” she was becoming more agitated and kept yelling all this western nicknames at me. I couldn’t take it anymore, so the moment she hahurred in my face, I reached with both hands for her face and I kissed her. It was a soft kiss and it ended too soon but it worked, she stopped. And most importantly, she let her walls down. “Why did you do that?” She asked me. I was dumbstruck... I had kissed her. I didn’t knew what to do next. What should I say? “I’m sorry. I… I didn’t know how to make you stop” Now I was too nervous. I blew it… from all the things I could have said... I apologized? “Don’t have to be sorry. Of course I like you Huckleberry, if you got hurt I don’t know what I woud have done”. I made her say it, and I didn’t felt any better about it.

Back home we were all a wreck. Riley was still upset about me liking Maya, and she started going out with Charlie Gardner. How I hate that guy. Farkle started dating Smackle, and I asked Maya out. We had a smoothie, well my head had a smoothie, my “I delivered a baby horse” line didn’t work on her. I should have known that it wouldn’t. She’s not like other girls, she isn’t looking for a prince or a hero to save the day. I was in real trouble, Riley was so easy to impress, she was happy to hear my cowboy adventures. But Maya made fun of me, I had to work hard if I wanted to impress Maya.

New year came, Riley made a party in her house. Oddly enough, it was Charlie the one who invited me, so irritating, but everything about him was irritating. At the party, Maya and I couldn’t catch a break. We sat alone by the baywindow only to be third wheeled by Riley. Then we were having this moment, at the balcony, it felt so romantic and I was about to lean in for a kiss, when Farkle came running and ruined the moment by announcing “Riley still loves Lucas”. Wait what? Seriously? Then Riley broke up with Charlie. I wasn’t going to break up with Maya. Not a chance.

That’s how we started this weird triangle thing. Maya wouldn’t go out with me anymore since Riley was back in the picture. Their friendship was healing and they didn’t want to hurt each other. We tried to be just friends for a while, but the truth is, we couldn’t. I like Maya way too much.

We started High school and it was full of changes and new challenges. Both girls introduced me as their boyfriend, I could hardly keep up with them both, and to top it all, Riley demanded too much attention. She was naive and gullable, we had to keep an eye on her all the time, I snaped a few times at Riley, Maya tried to stay out, but everytime Riley would ask Maya to scream at me too. It was getting ridiculous. So Maya decided to drop out, she broke up with me and asked me to “go tell Riley that you love her”. I could never say no to her, so I stayed with Riley. When she asked about Maya, I was honest and told her the truth “She’s the one who sent me to you”. She didn’t seemed to mind, she was happy I stay even if that meant loosing Maya. I wasn’t too happy.

I went out with  Riley for a while, untill she moved to London, we never officially broke up, the relationship just froze. Her mom got a very good job offer and her whole family moved. We tried the long distance thing but it was harder than I thought. Specially after I found out that the only reason Maya broke up with me was because Riley’s uncle told her to. Josh and Maya started dating after that. Not that you could call that dating. He was in college and hardly got any time to see her, she spent most of her time alone in Toppanga’s coffee shop reading some novels. I know because, after Riley moved to London, I started going there too to keep her company. We had good times there. 

It was like going back in time, back to when we used to date. But this time she had a boyfriend and I had a girlfriend, only they weren’t here. I spent almost all afternoons with Maya, we became very close friends. Except when Josh was “available”. I really hated that guy, and I could tell he felt threaten by me. One time we had an argument, after that He tried to stop Maya from hanging out with me, as if someone could force Maya to do something. She broke up with him after that. Farkle and Izzy broke up too, and before we knew what was happening we all went our separate ways. Zay and Izzy started a relationship, hanging out on their own. Farkle stopped hanging out with us too. Somehow now that he was single he seemed to be very busy, on his computer or his phone, but always talking to someone. I spent almost all my free time with my football friends, at parties or with Maya. Mostly with Maya. We would have movie nights. It started as a group thing in the livingroom, but since Zay, Farkle and Izzy ditched us most of the times, we stopped inviting them. Now it was just the two of us, laying on my bed, talking and watching movies while we ate junk food untill we fell asleep.

We were watching one of those teen movies, when the typical sex scene began. Maya started a conversation. A sex talk to be exact. “Huckleberry, do you think we should have sex right now? I mean not you and me, but you and Riley, and me and someone else?” “Why now?” “Because, you’ll be 18 very soon, and Riley is only 16, it would be ilegal, and right now is not” “But I’m not in a hurry to have sex. Besides, even if I wanted to, Riley is in London” “But, she’ll be back for the summer, after prom” “Like I said, I’m not in a hurry to have sex,” “But, doesn’t it bothers you to be the only guy in the football team with a V card?” “Does it bothers you?” “No. but is different with guys. I’m sure they must have teased you about it” “Well, they don’t know I’m a virgin. They think I have too much sex actually” “Really? With whom?” How can I explain to her that every guy in the team thinks she’s my girlfriend and they know we hang out in my bedroom, almost daily.

Here it goes... “Remember when we were freshmen and you told everybody you were my girlfriend?” “Yeah, so?” “Well... They also know that you and I hang out in my room most afternoons” “How would they know that?” I reach for my phone in my jeans and give it to her. She looks at me because she knows which picture I have as background, she took it herself. Is her in my bed, wearing just my jersey and I’m shirtless next to her. “This doesn’t prove anything” she says but I tell her to unlock it, she knows my passcode. And I see her questioning face. “What am I supposed to do with this?” “Read” I’ve been ditching my friends to hang out with her and it has been buzzing with stupid ass coments about my sex life all day. Is a group chat with the football team. I already know what it says but I wait for her to read it. “Friar? you in for later?” “We are at Ross house.” “WHERE RU?” “You coming?” “He’s coming all right. In the gf” “He’s Banging the GF?” “They allways banging” “I’m so jelous” “You dog” “Too much sex has to be bad for your game” “Dude, he killed last game!” “Then keep it up” “Is up allright” “hahaha” “LOL” ...

She stops reading the texts and looks at me with horror in her eyes once the realization of what’s going on hits her. “So they think we are having sex? Like right now?” “Yes. Basically.” “oh my god, they think I’m a whore!” “No no no. They think you’re my girlfriend” “Why didn’t you tell them I’m not?!” “Would you rather let them think we have casual sex?”  “No! No wonder no one ever asks me out. I’m sigle and a virgin because of you!” “Would you rather loose your virginity to some idiot who would dump you next week?” “Yes! Damn it. I don’t wanna be a virgin anymore. I’ll even give it up to the next guy that asks me out!”

And right there I lost my temper again. The single thought of someone else touching her drove me mad, “I would never allow that! Everyone knows you’re off limits!” “Why would you do that to me?!” “I didn’t do it by myself you know! You are the one taking intimate pictures, cheering at my games, waiting for me after practice, I drive you everywhere, you wear my letter jacket like a girlfriend would.... You even sit on my lap for christ sake! What do you think it looks like when you spend the night in my bed?! Even my mom gives me freaking condoms because she thinks we’re fucking!” I knew I shouldn’t have said that the moment it came out of my mouth. Me and my goddamn temper. 

I was livid, and Maya was furious at me. “Even your mom thinks I’m a whore! I’m a virgin whore. What are the odds?...”  “You’re not a whore… They think you are my-“ “Don’t you dare say girlfriend, because you know is not real!” “WAKE UP MAYA! Is as real as if we were already fucking!” “SHUT UP! You’re Riley’s boyfriend!” “Pff please… we both know that relationship died way before she even left” “I can’t believe this... How could I be so stupid?” “Why don’t you admit that you like to pretend to be my girlfriend” “No, I don’t!” I had to make her say it “Then why are you here Maya?” “Because you invited me to watch a stupid movie!” “No. Why are you here, with me, in my bedroom?” With every word, I would take a step closer to her, until I cornered her to the wall. “Why spending the night in my bed when you know very well spooning you gives me a raging boner?” “I didn’t know.” “Stop... just stop lying already!” I was angry and I reached the wall, “What do you want me to say? That I want to lure you into having sex with me?” I had her trapped between me and the wall, I slammed my palms to the wall, on each side of her head “No! That you still love me! Because you know damn well that I still do!” I crashed my lips and claimed hers.

For the second time in my life I kissed Maya Hart, only this time I wasn’t gentle, I wasn’t a nervous kid and she wasn’t a scared little girl anymore. We had all this sexual tension and frustration we were eager to let out. She kissed me back with the same lust as me. Having her in my bedroom was just asking for trouble. She wanted sex and I was dying to give her just that. I slid my hands from her back to her waist, then down her  hips, to her ass and held her up, she wrapped her legs on my waist grinding her hips to me, and I was gone. I lost control to my hormones. Next thing I know, I had her on my bed, me on top of her. My hands touching all her curves, Maya’s legs arround me and pulling me down, between her legs, I’m grinding myself to her, enjoing the feeling of that friction and her soft moans. I was about to make the rumors true, already yanking the elastic band of her underwear, but then my mom walked in. She slammed the door and as she walked down the hall I heard her mutter “Just friends my ass”.

I got off of Maya as fast as I could “Fuck! Fucking freaking fuck!”, she was panting. I turned to watch the tv, the movie was over, the music and credits were on. We calmed down a bit, she sat on the bed, and some tears ran down her cheeks as she fixed her clothes. I made her cry. I sat on the bed with her. “I’m sorry, I swear I didn’t planned this” “How could I let this happen? I’m so stupid. What’s gonna happen when Riley comes back and someone tells her that you and I.” “I’ll tell her the truth, and then I’ll break it up, officialy” “She’s gonna hate me” “She knows our thing is over Maya. We haven’t even talked for weeks” “This can’t happen again. Never!” She put her sneakers on and ran away from me, out of my room, and out of the house. My mom was in the kitchen. “Isn’t your girlfriend staying for dinner?” “Not my girfriend mother. And No, we weren’t having sex, we were just making out. If we ever decide to have sex, I’ll wear those damn condoms.” I told her very irritated and ran after Maya.

She was walking down the corner when I caught up with her, and conviced her to get on the car so I could drive her home. I could tell by her red cheeks that she was very embarassed about what was about to happen in my room. “Maya, don’t worry. If it makes you feel better, tomorrow morning I will tell everybody we are both virgins” “I don’t care about that.” “Then what is it?” “We were about to... This is going to kill our friendship” “I’ll deal with Riley when she gets back. But right now, we need to talk about what just happened” “I can’t do this... we have to stop” “Believe me, I tried to stop, but I can’t. I’ve tried for so long, and I’m done holding back” “I can’t” “I’m loosing my mind here Maya, I have these intense feelings for you that you were reciprocating just a few minutes ago” “We can’t be friends anymore Lucas” “We were never just friends Maya, the scene in my room just proved it. You’re just too stuborn to accept that” We stopped movie nights until we could figure our relationship out. Maya was avoiding me at school, with all the finals, and prom everybody was too busy to even notice, and the ones who did, just pinned it for a couple’s argument.

End of term came sooner than expected. And so did a certain brunette. It was the week before prom and I had just asked Maya to be my date. Flowers, ballons, chocolates, the whole thing. I wanted her back in my life. She said yes. I came back home and Riley was at my door. “Riles, hi” “hey! I’m back” “Yes, I can see that... Come in. So what brings you here?” “I came to be your prom date, I meant to surprise you in school but you were gone and I had an interesting chat with some of your friends” “Yeah, we need to talk” “About you screwing my best friend behind my back?” “Oh... so, you heard” “All the fucking school knows. It’s humiliating!” “Yeah... But it isn’t true” “what about all these pictures in your locker?” I had forgoten about all the photos I had in my locker, nothing bad, just some pictures of me and Maya, movie night, parties, after a game, and my favorite where she had my letter jacket on because it was cold that night.. “You went trough my stuff?” “Was it a secret? I kinda had the impression it was public knowledge”

It wasn’t the fact that Riley didn’t believe me, or trusted me, I didn’t cared about that. It was the fact that the lie would ruin Maya’s and Riley’s frindship that made me confess all of it to Riley. “It was all fake Riley, you should know by now, Maya wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. She didn’t even knew about that stupid rumor until recently, and honestly I didn’t care enough to tell people it wasn’t true”. “But why?” “Because I like spending time with her, we have fun together, and it was easy to let the guys think whatever to get them off my back and hers” “Do you love her again?” “I never stopped loving her Riley, but you already knew that.” 

“You look happy together in all those pictures” “Yeah... that’s probably because we are.” “So, how does it work? She pretends to be your girlfirend?” “No Riley, we are not pretending, we just hang out together, like we always have, without labels. At least that was untill last week” “What happened last week?” “I told her about said lie. We had a fight and then I kissed her. But before you jump into conclussions, you should know that she freaked out and ran away from me” “She still loves you” “I know she does” “But she’ll never admit it” “Because she thinks you still love me. She cares more about you than herself” “Was she happy?” “The happiest I’ve ever seen her”. Somehow, even when she was the same Riley, she seemed different, more mature. She wasn’t really mad at me. She just seemed lost in thought. “I go away for a few months and you all wonder like scathered sheep” she joked. Riley excussed herself and left to go find Maya. Baywindow duty, and I’m guessing trying to fix all this mess we were in. I just hope that I didn’t ruined their friendship. Maya would never forgive me otherwise.

Maya called me that same afternoon, saying she couldn’t be my date to prom. She was still going, just not with me. I guessed it had something to do with Riley, but I wasn’t going to go with Riley so, I refused to go.  I was tired of falling into that game. I decided to stop playing it. Prom day came, it was a clouded sky that day, and so was my brain. I decided to show up last minute, I had to see her on her dress. I changed to my formal clothes, my cowboy hat, my rose, and I drove to prom. As soon as I got out of my car, it was pouring rain, I walk down to the door and stoped, right there trough the glass I could see her. She looked beautiful, dancing and spining on the dancefloor, her bouncing golden curls, sorrounded by all her friends, Izzy, Zay, Riley and Farkle, all together again, it seemed so surreal.

As they were dancing, Riley caught my eyes, she was staring at me, watching me with a devilish smile, while Maya was dancing oblivious to us. Then I remember why I liked Riley, she just had to fix everything. From where I was standing outside in the rain, I couldn’t hear a word, but I saw Riley lean into Maya and whisper something to her ear. Maya nodded, and closed her eyes happily. I didn’t loose her from my sight, as Riley took Maya’s hands and led her right in front of me. I was breathless, watching her laugh with her eyes still closed. Riley made eye contact with me and opened the glass door, then whisper something in her ear and left. Maya counted to three outloud and opened her eyes to see me.

“One, two, three.” “Hi” “Hey. You’re here” “Yeah, I wouldn’t miss seeing you in that dress for the world” “You should come in... the storm.” “I don’t mind” “Don’t you wanna come in and dance with us?” “There’s only one person I’m interested in” I gave her the red rose and then I took her hand and pulled her outside. The rain was still falling and she was getting wet. She came near me and hugged me, I put my arms around her as I swayed to the rithm of the music. It was a slow dance. I told her softly to her ear “I missed you so much” and she stopped dancing. I looked at her face as she looked deeply into my eyes and when she was about to speak, I kissed her. Only, this time, after she kissed me back, she didn’t pushed me away. It was so weird, how things turned around. Maya used to be the one who pushed Riley and me together, ever since we met. And now it was Riley the one who finally was pushing Maya towards me. She wouldn’t have me any other way. I told her “I love you, even with that stubborn head of yours”. She laughed and said “I love you, even with that bad temper of yours”.

[thestray]

The 62 2020 Movies Releases I Watched During 2020 Ranked

Like the awkward title says, I’m going to rank (and talk about) all the 2020 movies I watched in 2020. This is not meant as any empirical list of what was best, it’s ranked by what I liked the least to the most, and my main criteria is what kind of impact it had on me and/or how much I enjoyed the experience of watching it.

Little bit about myself, I went to art school for animation, then after art school I went to a community college where I studied screenwriting. Never ended up pursuing either thing professionally, but I still write screenplays in my free time and read screenwriting books and listen to screenwriting podcasts. I'm the type of person that loves special features, seeks out behind the scenes information and director interviews, and watch youtube videos analyzing films. I love film, and thinking about film and talking about film and sharing the films I like, and maybe one day making films of my own, who knows.

Ranking and reviewing 62 movies was a more ambitious and challenging task than I anticipated, I rearranged this list swapping titles back and forth so many times, and then I’d remember a movie I forgot I watched and have to add that and figure out where it ranks. I started this on January 1st and am just now ready to post it on the 17th, I was still switching rankings right up until posting this. Even looking at it now there are some kinda want to switch but I’ve accepted that this is more or less arbitrary, lol. 

The more I learn about film and what goes into creating a movie the more lenient I am about them. It’s not like I’m never critical of films, but I try to consider both the good and the bad of a movie instead of thinking in a binary of films are either amazing or trash. Some of these films aren’t great, but I typically still enjoyed them to some degree. Except Mulan, lol. I’m sorry Mulan. Speaking of Mulan...

62. Mulan

I'm going to try to say something nice about all these movies even if I didn't like them at all. So... I like the cast, and there are some nice visual moments. I actually was looking forward to this movie before reviews started coming out, it has 2 of the martial arts G.O.A.T.s in it, Donnie Yen and Jet Li, and also Jason Lee as the bad guy, so I figured it might at the very least have some decent action, but they were all underutilized. There’s not a single moment in the film where I felt anything at all. I think all these Disney live-action remakes are doing is making a case for how effective animation is for storytelling.

61. Color Out of Space

I heard a lot of good things about this movie, and it’s really cool visually, and I love Nicolas Cage always, but I really couldn’t get into it. I guess my main issue is that it starts off already too campy for any of to the Lovecraftian horror to really hit. It felt like a B-movie with great production value, and maybe that’s what they were going for? I really wanted to like this but I really just did not feel invested in anything going on, did not relate to anyone in the family, so I don’t think I got much out of it besides the cool visuals.

60. Bloodshot

I think the main flaw of this movie is that is that Vin Diesel was a producer on it, and Vin Diesel should be kept away from making creative decisions on movies. How Did This Get Made did a great podcast episode on this movie. It’s absolute nonsense, it has a couple of cool sequences and special effects in it, and Lamorne with a British accent is great, he’s the main redeeming value of this movie.

59. The Midnight Sky

It seems like this movie wants to be Interstellar, it’s structured in a very similar way, but it just didn’t quite have that same emotional punch. It looks very good, it’s well-acted, it has it’s moments.

58. The New Mutants

It's not as much of a trainwreck as people make it out to be in my opinion, I think the cast is good and it has some good character interactions, but it mostly suffers from the fact that it's way too predictable, from the beginning you're way ahead of the characters, and it doesn't help that they're in this confined setting so there's not a lot for them to actually do. But I appreciate the attempt at using mutants to do a horror breakfast club thing, good concept.

57. Vampires vs The Bronx

Vampires as a gentrifiers taking over the hood, great idea. Mero is in it, the brand is brolic. It was a fun set up, but it was neither funny enough or scary enough in my opinion. The vampires die so easily it's like okay whatever. It's like a really long Goosebumps episode.

56. Freaky

I don't think the execution lived up to the great concept, but Vince Vaughan was really great in those sincere moments playing a teenage girl. Horror fans will appreciate the gory kills. I'm not going to spoil anything but I do think there are some narrative issues that keep this from being stronger than it could've been. If you made the killer a creepy janitor at the school or even one of the teachers, then I think that would've created more interesting situations.

55. Eurovision

I love Will Ferrell, I even love some of his flops like Casa De Mi Padre and Kicking and Screaming, and even the House I think had a lot of really funny moments. This was definitely one of the least funny movies he's done to me. I think the director David Dobkin couldn't commit to being silly the way Adam McKay can cause there's a lot of this movie that just has no jokes, and the movie is over 2 hours long which isn't normal for comedies so you spend a lot of time watching unfunny scenes and extended musical numbers.

54. The Wrong Missy

I'm not a big fan of most Happy Madison movies, the jokes are very hit or miss for me. I'm a big fan of Lauren Lapkus though so I watched it to support her, and she plays an absolute psycho in this. It's so over the top it's like this character is not a human being, but I have to admit there are a few moments where she made me laugh pretty loud. I'd never watch this movie again, but maybe I'd look up certain parts on youtube.

53. The Platform

High concept dystopian sci-fi horror. Reminds me of the Cube. It's one of those things that makes you think about what you'd do in the same situation. It's a very on the nose allegory, so by the end of it my only takeaway was "Yeah, it really be like that." 

52. Archenemy

Another high concept movie. Joe Mangienello is good in it, but Glenn Howerton and Paul Scheer are my favorite parts of the movie, it's fun to see comedy actors play bad guys. My main problem with the movie was that I did not find the teen character to be interesting or relatable at all, in fact he can be kind of obnoxious. In his introductory scene he's REALLY bothering this random guy minding his own business, not respecting his boundaries at all. Then the rest of the movie is about him exploiting a homeless man and being really pushy for likes on some app, and he doesn't really have a character arc. Also wasn't a big fan of the animated sequences but I forgive that knowing this was a low budget movie and those sequences were done by a team of just 3 people. 

51. Power

Jamie Foxx is great. I think he makes almost anything he's in watchable to some degree. The idea of this movie is fun but I think the action sequences are kinda underwhelming, but Jamie makes it worth watching in my opinion.

50. Birds of Prey

This movie was all style and absolutely no substance. When your main character doesn't have a solid purpose or goal you're really just watching shit happen, and that can be okay if the shit that's happening is occassionally fun or funny, but it doesn't really make for a memorable story in my opinion.

49. Wonder Woman 84

The most panned movie of 2020 maybe? It's got flaws for sure and some narrative choices I just can't understand why they made. It has some fun performances though and I ultimately appreciated that our superhero wins not by using her fists but by appealing to goodness. I feel like you rarely see that kind of idealism any more. It may not be realistic but I think that's one of the things fantasy is good for, showing us a way things could be better to strive for. But yeah, the Steve Trevor things was fucking weird, why'd they do that? And neither Steve or Diana seem concerned with about this random guy's fate. I'd probably rate this film higher if they had Steve simply appear out of thin air, I mean why not? It's magic. But I loved Kristen Wig and Pedro Pascal in this. Pedro is performing with his whole body, did he film this after season 1 of the Mandolorian? Maybe being under that helmet for a season made him want to be really expressive. The films overall kinda campy but I didn't necessarily mind that.

48. Peninsula

Sequel to the already classic Train to Busan, this film decides the up the scale, which is what sequels often do, but I think it was a mistake in this instance. This is more of an over the top action movie than a character-driven horror film like the first. There's a climactic Mad Max-esque car chase scene that is almost entirely CGI. I don't think it was a bad movie, it's an okay popcorn flick, but it definitely doesn't live up to the original.

47. The Old Guard

In terms of action I don't think it did anything interesting, but I like how they explored how horrific and heartbreaking it would be to be immortal. Coming to terms with your own mortality is a tough thing to do, but we often don't consider the idea that death is a blessing we take for granted. 

46. Sputnik

A Russian sci-fi thriller about a young doctor being tasked with trying to figure out how to separate an alien parasite from a Cosmonaut that's returned from earth. Good performances, creepy vibe, and lots of interesting questions about ethics. It has a sort of epilogue ending with a reveal I didn't quite understand the significance to the story, but didn't take away from either. Solid.

45. The Invisible Man

Fun sci-fi thriller about toxic abusive relationships and gaslighting. Elizabeth Moss is great in it and my favorite sequences are before her character actually catches on and you have moments where the camera is just focusing on a random place, very creepy and effective.

44. Sonic the Hedgehog

Personally I would've preferred a fully animated film taking place in Sonic's world. I don't know why they always feel like they need to make these movies about human characters and then spend a lot of time having to hide your CG character and having people do comical reactions to them. It feels very played out to me. BUT Jim Carrey is great in this, of course. Jim Carrey is the reason to watch this movie. He makes the movie. And it goes without saying thank God they changed that character design.

43. 2067

What I liked about this dystopian future is that the cause was basically everything. War, famine, ruining the environment, pandemics, just all our collective fuckery has resulted in a world where the human race is on the verge of extinction, plants are extinct, and oxygen is synthetic. Enter time travel, a young man is tasked with traveling into the future to bring back the solution to saving the human race. Very timely obviously. I liked it.

42. Monsters of Man

Some asshole tech bros let some killer robots loose on a remote southeast asian village as a trial run. It has lots of flaws but I give it some leeway because this is the first film of a guy who wrote, directed and was the cinematographer by himself, he didn't have a huge budget or much experience, so it's hard to expect perfection. My biggest criticism is that the film centers a white guy living in this village and some westerner medics, not the actual Asian people of the village. Could've been so much more of interesting commentary about racism and eurocentrism dropping these robots in a village of brown people no one will miss just for practice. That aside though I think it was a solid enough thriller and the robots looked pretty good.

41. Family Romance LLC

An interesting movie about a Japanese entrepreneur who has a business where he'll play whatever role in your life you need. Father, husband, coworker, etc there's a scene where someone even pays him to be scolded in his place by his boss. The main thrust of the film though is him playing the role of a girl's absentee father, pretends to reconnect with her and take her out on the town for activities. It's shot very documentary style, and there are a mixture of first time actors and non-actors. Sometimes there are long awkward conversations that feel just as awkward as real life. I really liked the premise, and the only thing that keeps it from being higher on my list is it doesn't have a strong enough conflict nor does it really have a satisfying conclusion.

40. Over the Moon

Directorial debut of animation legend Glen Keane, I really liked this visually. It was sufficiently enjoyable, but it doesn't have that emotional gut punch that Pixar or Disney films tend to have. But I guess cartoons don't NEED to make you bawl your eyes out to be good. I think there were some missed opportunities narratively, like I guess this is spoilery so just scroll ahead if you don't want to know, but she gains a step brother that she doesn't like and doesn't want to spend time with, once the adventure starts on the Moon they get separated very early on, and don't ge reunited until towards the end, but she somehow now cares about him and considers him her brother. I didn't feel like that was really earned, they should've been together throughout the adventure getting to know each other. But I otherwise liked the story aside from that nitpick. Loved the colors of this movie, almost everything in the moon world is luminescent which provides some nice visuals. Hope to see Glen direct more in the future.

39. The Croods 2

Nothing revolutionary but it has some solid physical comedy and great voice acting. All of Nicolas Cage's overacting is perfect for animation, and I liked Peter Dinklage as Mr. Betterman as well. There's a lot going on thematically but it all works pretty cohesively.

38. #ALIVE

Another Korean zombie thriller. I really liked this because I felt like as far as zombie outbreaks go this is the most realistic scenario. Once you realize what's going on you will just stay in your house rather than risk going outside and fighting zombies. But that poses the problem of a limited supply of food and water. The main thrust of the movie is not how this character survives though it's about him trying to retain his will to live. It's the perfect pandemic isolation allegory.

37. Love and Monsters

It looked kinda corny but I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I like Dylan O'Brien, I love Tom Holland as Peter Parker but I've always felt like Dylan O'Brien would've been a great choice too, he has a good everyman relatable quality. There's also a dog in the movie that I loved. Put a dog in peril in a movie and I will be on the edge of my seat guaranteed. It's a fun movie with some interesting creatures in it and a solid character arc for our main protagonist.

36. Extraction

I love the trend of stunt coordinators directing films. That's the main reason why the John Wick series is so good, and the reason why this also has some very solid action. Nothing crazy here in terms of story or themes, everything is an excuse for Chris Hemsworth to fuck people up and it delivers on that. There's one scene where he slaps around some kids attacking him that I found hilarious as well. Fully welcoming an Extraction 2.

35. Save Yourselves

A couple decides to take a break from social media and get away to a cabin outside the city. While they're disconnected from the world an alien invasion occurs, furry little basketball sized poofs. This movie was pretty funny. I'm a little ambivalent about the ending but I enjoyed these hipsters arguing about what to do about aliens.

34. Bill and Ted Face the Music

A most bodacious movie. Fun gags and a robot that steals the show. It's not as good as the first 2 but I don't think that's any surprise. I think it borrows a little bit too much from the previous films, like the collecting legendary musicians thing, could've done without that. It was a fun movie though, and the daughters really worked.

33. An American Pickle

Seth Rogen playing an orthodox Jew who's been preserved in pickle juice for 100 years and his modern day app developer grandson. I think this may be Seth Rogen's best acting role, as silly as this movie is he's kind of endearing as this character from 100 years aro, and as the grandson he's a lot more understated than he usually is in movies.

32. Tenet

Tenet! Is it controversial that this is not higher up on the list? I really like Nolan's films, actually been a fan since watching his first film Following in a film class. Nolan likes playing with time in his movies so it was inevitable that he'd do something that addresses it very directly eventually. I love the time travel genre and I think this is one of the most ambitious and unique approaches to it to ever done. I actually braved theaters to see this because I did not want to miss the opportunity to see it on the big screen. I did it as safely as possible and booked a reserved seating theater where I knew I wouldn't be sitting by anyone, had a mask, gloves, antibacterial gell on deck, sanitized my seat with wipes, etc, there only 2 other people in the theater all of us sitting way for from each other. Weirdest moviegoing experience I've ever had but glad I saw it on the big screen because the visual spectacle of this is excellent. The reason it's not higher on the list is because as conceptually cool as it is as I did not feel invested. Just on a story level having a character we know very little about pursuing a goal he knows very little about for no clearly defined reason makes it feel like... we're just watching events unfold as opposed to watching a character-driven story. There's a moment at the end that you can tell was meant to be an emotional moment, but I felt nothing. They try to introduce some emotional stakes with the female character, but idk, since it wasn't tied to the inciting incident it felt more like a b-plot than fundamental to the story. So it was a really fun cool looking puzzle, more like watching a cool Rube Goldberg machine, but not something I really thought much about after it was over.

31. Guns Akimbo

I really have been enjoying Daniel Radcliffe's post-Harry Potter career, he'll do some solid dramas he seems to prefer doing fun weird shit like Swiss Army Man, Horns, his role on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, etc. This is in that vein of fun weird shit, a guy who gets guns bolted to his hands and is running around the city in a robe trying to survive essentially a real life video game. A lot of the movies lower on this list had fun concepts but were lacking in execution, but this is one that is just as fun as the idea sounds, even more fun actually, it's funny, the action is good, and there are some great visuals. I found it all around enjoyable.

30. Let Them All Talk

Glen Close as a celebrated author who invites her nephew and 2 estranged best friends on a cruise with her.  It's a very light-hearted movie with some underlying conflicts that the characters are afraid to address head on. Glen Close is great, obviously, she plays this pretentious self-important woman with affectations but is still likable and warm. It's a fairly pleasant almost slice-of-life until the 3rd act where everything comes together. To me it was a movie about communication, saying what you mean, saying what you feel, and those unspoken assumptions of what those around you are thinking or feeling about you. I know I can relate to the idea of wanting an apology from someone who might not even be cognizant of the fact that you feel slighted by them, or vice versa finding out someone's had a long standing problem with you when you thought you were cool. One sided grudges do no one any good.

29. True History of the Kelly Gang

I've heard of Ned Kelly, but I've never seen the Heath Ledge or Mick Jagger movies about him and I don't know much about him other than he's a famous Australian outlaw and something of a folk hero to some. The performances and cinematography if this are great. George MacKay from 1917 is the lead and he's amazing, sometimes vulnerable and soft, other times a madman. It spends a lot of time in his childhood and the child actor who plays Ned is great as well. It's gritty and sometimes surreal in it's imagery. From what I can gather previous films seemed to focus more on what happened with him and his gang, while this movie seems to focuses more on everything in his life that led up to him becoming who he is and forming that gang. Like a 3rd of the movie is spent in his childhood, and once the gang is actually formed things move at a pretty brisk pace, seemingly skimming over the exploits of the gang to the conclusion. The film feels very raw and gritty and very fuck the police which I always appreciate.

28. Lucky Grandma

A stubborn grandma in New York's chinatown gets her fortunte read and is told that she's going to be very lucky and come into a fortune, she then comes into possession of a bunch of money that belongs to a gang and she decides to try to keep it feeling it's owed to her by the universe. A funny crime drama with the unlikeliest of protagonists.

27. Da 5 Bloods

Spike Lee is an icon but he can honestly be a little hit or miss for me. I don't always enjoy every choice he makes, for instance he uses real footage of war attrocities in this, and it's really upsetting to see REAL people, including children, be killed, when you're not expecting that. I understand it's meant to be upsetting, but it does make the movie something I'll probably never rewatch. Spike Lee's films to me can also feel at times heightened to the point that it feels a little cheesy (Miracle At St Anna), and there moments in this that kinda took me out of it to be honest, but overall I enjoyed it. The performances were great, Delroy Lindo in my opinion is one of the most underrated actors of all time, he's just always good no matter what he's in, everyone else in it is good too, but of course I have to mention Chadwick Boseman who was great. At the end of the day it gave me a lot to think about in terms or race, war, America, forgiveness, trauma and so many other things.

26. The Devil All The Time

There's a LOT going on in this movie, maybe a little too much, it's like 2 or 3 movies smashed into one, but... I really liked it, and that's probably because Tom Holland is so good in it.  Really liked Robert Pattinson in it too. I can’t really think of more to say about it say I won’t. Next movie.

25. Bad Education

A true crime movie about school district officiala who stole from the budget of a highschool. Hugh Jackman is great in this. I loved Jackman as Wolverine, but now that he's done with that I'm excited to see him other stuff cause he's always interesting to watch; The Fountain, Prisoners, The Prestige, he's always solid. I enjoyed this, it was done with nuance, it doesn't let them off the hook for what they did but it doesn't paint them as absolute monsters either. I really have to ask myself, if I could get away with stealing money that no one would miss... I don't know, I think I'd not do it out of fear not altruism, lol.

24. My Octopus Teacher

This is a documentary on Netflix about a diver who immerses himself in the world of underwater life and documents the life of an octopus. It's really beautiful, both in terms of visuals and in content. There's not a lot to talk about because it's fairly straightforward, but it was really fascinating to learn about this octopus and see the bond they mutually formed, and again I can't talk about how great this movie looks, it's like you're in a different world. This is something I could put in and mute while I draw just for the ambiance. 

23. Kajillionaire

A quirky dramedy about a family of really obtuse poor scam artists. As absurd as their behaviour is I can totally imagine a trio of weirdos like this living in Los Angeles ( I can say that cause it's my hometown and where I lived most of my life. It's Evan Rachel Wood's best role, I never would've imagined her doing something like this but she's great as "Old Dolio". It's funny, at time sad but not in a hammy melodramatic way, and I feel it had the perfect ending.

22. The Gentleman

Guy Ritchie doing what he does best. It's fun, stylish, witty, has layers and twists and reveals. Everybody's good in it. It doesn't have anything poignant to say, but it's fun to watch the entire time

21. Run

A thriller about a wheelchair bound teen who suspects her mother is drugging her and tries to get to the bottom of it. You can tell this director is a Hitchcock fan because it definitely has that Rear Window vibe but takes it a step further, and in many ways it's even shot and paced like Hitchcock. The lead actress is actually wheelchair bound herself so it really adds to the realism of all the things she does in this film. Oh, and Sarah Paulson is the mom, when is Sarah Paulson ever not good?

20. Horse Girl

Alison Brie is an awkward neurotic woman getting over recent grief and a history of mental illness in her family, she starts to have weird dreams and then notices people from her dreams in real life, starts blacking out and having gaps in time, and starts to believe it's due to alien abduction conspiracy. Is she losing her mind or is it really happening? Alison Brie is really really good in this, and she co-wrote it too, it has a lot of moments where you really feel sorry for her or scared for her and you start to question what's real yourself.

19. Swallow

I  found this movie really fascinating, it's like what if you turned one of those My Strange Addiction episodes on TLC into a movie. It's about this woman who ostensibly, at least from appearances, has the perfect life (at least by societal standards), she came from nothing and is now housewife to a rich successful man, and behaves almost like a Stepford wife. Then develops a compulsion to swallow inedible things, like marbles and batteries and thumbtacks, which is a real condition called pica. Its the kind of movie that gives you a lot to think about but no easy answers.

18. Time to Hunt

A Korean heist thriller set in the near future. A bunch of childhood friends rob the wrong person and have an Anton Chigurh-esque killer sent after them to retrieve the money and kill them. It's a really tense cat and mouse thriller with good performances. The ending seemed to turn a lot of people off based on a lot of youtube comments I read, but I didn't mind it. My only real gripe is that they set this in the near future but aside from some imagery in the beginning it doesn't seem to come into play that much, this all could've taken place in modern day or even the past with no alteration of the story. I think the future setting was more just for some social commentary that maybe went over my head a little bit because I'm not from Korea, but I think if they were going to do near future they could've added some futuristic weapons or something. But that's just nitpicking, while the future setting didn't add to the story much it didn't take away from it either.

17. Tigertail

As I get older one of my worse fears is making decisions that I will regret for the rest of my life, so this movie really hit home as a cautionary tale. It's a kind of quietly devastating movie. There's no huge tragic horrific even, just a huge miscalculation. Decades of your life of work and unhappiness go by and all you can do is wonder what things could've been. I also especially appreciated the cinematography and music of this film.

16. Mother

It's been a while since I hated a character this much, but this titular mother really pissed me off. She's a neglectful mother who only sees her son as a tool, but he sticks by her cause he loves her. It's definitely not a fun movie to watch, but it made me feel a lot and meditate on the idea of love and whether it in itself has innate value.

15. Call

I went into this movie cold, having no idea what it was really about other than that it was a thriller that revolved around a woman getting mysterious calls. I'm glad I had seen no trailers and did not know the gist of the plot becuase it went places I really was not expecting. One of the most fun thrillers I've seen in a while. So, I'm not going to talk about the movie but what I will say is that Jeon Jong-seo, who played the woman in Burning is in this, she was great in Burning and she's great in this. After watching it I googled her to see what else she's been in that I can watch and this is only her 2nd film. Apparently Burning was her first audition EVER and she BOOKED IT! Like, one a million success story right? But she deserves it cause she's great and I look forward to seeing what else she does.

14. Possessor

This was directed by Brandon Cronenberg, the son of David Cronenberg, big shoes to fill, and I think he's going to fill them fine cause this is already a cult classic in my opinion. The visuals in this, which look like they were mainly created with practical and in camera effects. There is some very graphic very realistic violence in this. The movie is about an assassin who works for an organization and uses some type of scientific process to "possess" people to carry out hits. When she's in a body for too long who's in control starts to blur. It's really fucking trippy, like a fucked up Black Mirror episode.

13. Borat 2

Been a fan of Sacha since the old Da Ali G Show days when Borat was just a side character. I'm amazed with out Sacha can stay in character the way he does, especially when later on in the movie he shelters in place with some Qanon conservatives with who knows how long staying in character. Maybe they'll reveal they were paid actors who knows, but whatever I fucking laughed a lot at this movie. There's a black woman in this movie that I hope to god was not an actress cause I loved her and her reactions so much. It was a breath of fresh air to watch something that's just goofy in 2020 because it wasn't a good year for comedy. As much as I love film sometimes I got a little fatigue from watching so many things with very heavy themes, this also had heavy themes it was satirizing, but also chimp pornstar jokes, so..  a fun time.

12. A Sun

A drama about a family's eldest son going to juvenile detention for his involvement in a violent crime. We see how his father, his mother, his brother and his pregnant girlfriend all deal with this. I found it very engaging. My only gripe is that there are some moments of levity where they use this really generic comedy music score it and it really takes you out of the film. No music at all is better than bad generic music. Other than that I really loved it and the ending is great. I really thought this would end up in my top 10 but the following films just had more personal relevance or were more fun to watch.

11. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

R.I.P. Chadwick Boseman, this movie is like an acting showcase for him, he has so many great monologues here, the ending really took the wind out of me. It's also packed with really still relevant commentary on race.

10. Onward

You already expect a Pixar movie to make you cry, but this came from angle I was NOT expecting and I bawled hard at this. This movie was so applicable to my life experience it's like they specifically engineered it to make me personally cry. Honestly there are better movies lower on this list, but movies are just like any other art, when a song touches you on a personal level it doesn't need to have complex instrumentation cause it's how it made you feel that matters.

09. Palm Springs

A comedy released during a pandemic about trying to find stimulation and meaning when every day is the same thing? Ya don't say! Another take on Groundhog Day, which at this point I feel like it's its on genre with the amount of times the concept has been done, but I'm not complaining, I typically enjoy a good time loop movie (or show; Russian Doll). I don't know what else to say besides that it's really funny and Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti are both charming and great in it.

08. Scare Me

This movie was funny, creepy, the performances were great, and it's just really unique and clever. Written, directed, produced, and starring Josh Ruben, who I know primarily does really idiosyncratic "impressions" on instagram. It's 2 people alone in a cabin telling each other scary stories, they don't cut away to the stories you just watch them act it out. 4 people in the cast, one location, and it still manages to be a fun ride of a movie and manages to touch on some good themes in the overall story. I really hope to see Josh Ruben direct more films because I think he's really creative.

07. Ride Your Wave

A romantic comedy about a woman trying to find joy and purpose in her life. I often go into movies very cold, so I didn't know much about what this movie was about, just knew that it was from an animation studio and director that I really respected. It's very beautiful, very grounded, until it's not. Kind of movie that breaks your heart so it can uplift you later.

06. Uncle Frank

I really did not expect a lot from movie, not that I thought it would be bad, I just thought it be your middle of the road movie. It's about a teenage girl who really looks up to her uncle who she learns is a closeted gay man, in an era where that was potentially dangerous to be. They go on a road trip home when his father dies and learn about each other and themselves, it sounds kinda cookie cutter, but it really surprised me. Paul Bettany is so very good in this, and it made me cry. Easy way to get on high on this list is to make me cry lol.

05. Children of the Sea

This film had to be in my top 5 because I'm an animation nerd and this is one of the most beautiful animated films ever. Ever. It's right up there with Akira and the Ghibli catalogue, and the works of Satoshi Kon, and all the Disney movies and everything else. It focuses on details and nuances in a really gorgeous way. The story is VERY ambiguous and gets very metaphysical towards the end, the climax is like watching an acid trip. It's about a girl who meet 2 young boys who have adapted to living underwater, and they form a bond, and then... uh... there's no way I can concisely explain it. The creator has said it's not supposed to be understood logical, instead it's supposed to be felt. There's a lot of symbolism and metaphor, it's very philosophical and explores themes of connection and the cycle of life. It's produced by Studio 4°C, which is my favorite animation studio because they really push the envelope, they're responsible for Mind Game, Tekkonkinkreet, and the recent Mutafukaz, and other, if you've never heard of any of those definitely look them up, they're unlike any anime you've ever watched before. Anyway, beautiful movie and the cryptic plot allows for you to rewatch it multiple times and take different things away from it. I can't wait to own it on blu-ray.

04. 37 Seconds

I saw this very early in the year and love it. It's about a young woman with cerebal palsy who is also an aspiring hentai artist trying to get laid. Her mother who takes care of her like a child smothers her, so it's not only about trying to get laid but trying to have some independence. Firstly the performance of this woman who actually does have cerebral palsy and is a first time actor is so natural and endearing, secondly there are things they portray with an uncomfortable amount of realism and awkwardness that it really draws you in to the nitty gritty of her reality and what it can be like for someone who is wheelchair bound to try to have sexual experiences. I like that there were 2 films this year about characters in wheelchairs that used unknown actresses that face the same things their characters do, it adds to the authenticity of either film. Films like this are why I think diversity in film is not just about doing something for the demographic you're depicting but also giving everyone else not of that demographic new unique stories and perspectives.

03. Soul

I guess spoilers if you haven't seen this because it's easier to talk about why I liked it if I talk specifically about the plot. I wasn't expecting much from this when the initial trailer dropped, it made it seem like it was going to largely take place in this imaginary soul place with these blue things, and for most of the first act it seemed like that's what it was going to be, but when they come back to earth and the story really starts I really started enjoying it. This movie tricks you into thinking the film is about finding or fulfilling your purpose, only to throw a curveball that living life in and of itself is the "purpose", and this movie resonated so much with thoughts that were already on my mind. I relate so much to Joe as a creative person myself with so many unfulfilled dreams, at 36yrs old, having to put many of my goals on the backburner just to survive, and generally having that feeling that I'm still waiting to live life because I'm not fulfilling my "purpose". Sure reaching for goals is great, but I think our culture breeds this idea that happiness is a destination, an accomplishment, a certain amount of recognition, a monetization of your passion. I really loved how the film depicted that there's a dark side to focusing on your passions and how it can become a source of stress and unhappiness. This movie is just about savoring life itself, which people have been expressing through platitudes since forever but this film illustrated it in a way that words fail at, and that's what makes film such a great form of art.

02. Sound of Metal

This movie had one of the best trailers of 2020, I couldn't wait to watch this movie. FIrst of all I love RIz Ahmed and think he's an underrated and underutilized actor, he's fucking amazing in this, he needs an Oscar nom FOR SURE. His frustration is so palpable and he feels so natural in this movie. It follows a metal punk drummer who loses his hearing and goes to stay in a deaf community to acclimate. One thing I think is absolutely brilliant about this movie is the sound design. I'm not deaf so I can't speak from any type of experience, but they try to replicate what going deaf sounds like, what the audiologist tests sound like, what hearing aids and cochlear implants sound like, it's very immersive. I almost think of it like a companion piece to Soul, cause I had almost the same take away, it's just coming from it at a different angle.

01. I'm Thinking Of Ending Things

Okay, so I’m going to have a lot to say about this movie.

Maybe a very controversial pick for my number one because so many people absolutely hated this movie, lol. I am biased given that I'm a huge fan of Charlie Kaufman, he's my favorite screenwriter, and his films have only gotten weirder and weirder, so I know to expect the unexpected when going into one of his films. I can understand how this would be an offputting experience if you're expecting the conventions of normal narrative structure. It was surprising and perplexing to me how this film unfolded but I've watched non-narrative and experimental films before so I was intrigued rather than frustrated. You think it's about a woman who is thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend as they head to meet his parents. Once we get to his childhood home things start getting surreal, and that surrealism just escalates to the point where you realize this film is not at all attempting to depict reality and doesn't even have any continuity. This is the most a movie has ever felt like one of my dreams. I don't know how other people dream but this was so much like every weird nightmare I've ever had where I feel trapped in a situation. 

There's a scene where the family is talking about art, the dad says he hates abstract art because it takes no skill, he prefers paintings that look like photographs because that takes real skill, the son asks why make a painting look like a photograph when you can just take a photograph, the woman states she paints pictures of landscapes and tries to imbue them with a sense of interiority, capturing the way she feels, the dad asks how can a landscape be sad if you don't have a person in it looking sad. I felt like this was a bit of meta commentary on the film itself. After I watched this movies I had my own theories, I watched some analysis videos on youtube that confirmed a lot of my ideas and gave me insight on other parts of the film, I watched the film again and formulated more ideas, it's so dense with things to project meaning onto and interpret it. I went on instagram and ended up having lengthy discussions about what the film meant both with people who loved it and hated it. Everybody I spoke with had slightly different interpretations and takeaways. One woman who initially did not like it came away with an appreciation for it after we had a lengthy discussion about it's meaning. 

All of this is why it's my favorite film of the year, not only did I relate to it on a personal level because I'm in a stage of my life where I'm approaching middle ages and afraid I'm going to end up like the guy in this film, but I can't remember the last time a film led to such meaningful conversation about life, death, love, mental health, loneliness, trauma, etc. So like the scene where they're talking about art, I think this movie is neither intended to be abstract or realistic, it's supposed to be imbued with a sense of interiority. I know I sound way pretentious right now, but I just really appreciated Charlie Kaufman for making something unabashedly expressionist and serving it up to mainstream audiences. I really feel like I grow as a person and an artist every time I watch one of his films.

------------------------------------------------

So there ya go. That’s it. That concludes this arbitrary exercise in ranking the movies i saw last year, thank you for wasting your time on this, lol. I think it was a very good year for movies. 

If there was a movie you were expecting to see on the list and it’s missing I just didn’t get to it in 2020, I may do an unranked follow up list of 2020 movies I missed in 2020, maybe.

That’s it.

End of post.

Bye.

[blackevermore]

x Michelangelo x Taz headcanons

[Slight Nsfw: Mention of nudity but that’s it]

x Taz is NOT allowed near any of the weapons despite training and studying the craft of weaponry. When she isn't working on designs she isn't serious and just wants to play with everything. She's secretly repaired everyone's gear (before Donnie had a chance to notice they were broken) but Mikey was the first to notice his favourite pair of nunchucks had different ironwork via the chains. Sometimes it was long and sometimes it was short. Luckily for him, he can work with both, what gave it away that someone was messing with his stuff when the leather strips on the handles were changed from black to teal. 

x "Babe! It's been you the whole time!"

x "Ahhhhh!" [Taz makes a mad dash to get away from being caught]

x When Taz finally comes to her sense and realizes Raph isn't mean big and evil (and it's Donnie or Leo she should watch out for) she starts to spend time with him more and actually talk to him. This lowkey makes Mikey jealous because Raph is just eating it up how Taz is more open with him. When Mikey is jealous he pouts and makes that grumbly voice and Taz always teases him and ask if he is jealous. If he says no she'll cup his cheeks and mush them together until he confesses. No one knows why that works on Mikey but it does.

x Mikey and Taz had both broken a foot from trying to skate down the sewer tunnels, different times, same secret tunnel, rant foot, same trick.

x "Sweetbean we're like totally meant for each other."

x "Mikey this isn't a sign of love, this is a sign of our stupidity."

x "Same thing."

x Karaoke is every other Friday (used to be every Friday but then Donnie smashed the jukebox to piece after Taz screamed out the lyrics to "I will always love you" while he was trying to work). With Donnie's permission, the couple can still have their nights. Sometimes they give fair warning to loud songs and other times they don't. Taz's favourite type of songs to sing are RnB and indie love songs, she'll pull Mikey to the floor and she'll sit across from him and sing to him.

x It is Taz's fault Mikey now wants Hot Cheetos are weird hours of the night. He used to only sneak out for pizza, now he gets Pizza and Cheetos. Or if he is being a lazy ass and Taz is in the state he'll call her up with an excuse of wanting to see her. He gets his snacks and his baby all in one.

x If there is a will there is away. These two risk takers have broken into rooftop pools for late night swims when Mikey isn't human. Leo was on their asses when he found out what they were doing just before dad found out. Taz has never done a backflip in her life, that day she had to do 10 while Mikey had 110. Taz almost wanted to cry from the struggle being real.

x That didn't stop them, now they sneak out when they are sure no one is awake (Donnie is always awake poor baby has insomnia so they bribe him to stay quiet).

x When Taz spends the night in the sewers you can always find her on top of Mikey with the blankets thrown over the both of them. She's like a koala. Since Mikey is cold blooded she doesn't have to worry about getting overly hot and they can stay knocked out in the same position until she wakes up.

x Mega plus for the boys she always makes breakfast for them and their dad, though she's doing it half sleep and sometimes falls right back to sleep when she finishes.

x April already leaves her window unlocked for when the guys want to come over but when Taz comes up state she doesn't even bother getting a heads up on either the whole gang is coming over or just Mikey. April has come home from work late in the night with Mikey raiding her kitchen and Taz asleep on the floor in front of the TV.

x "I didn't know you were coming."

x "Mikey I LIVE here."

x Every turtle as an area to themselves and everyone knows Mikey's area is like the party room but sometimes its the very quiet arts and craft area with a sign that says "DnD". Taz and Mikey do paint theory (or that's what Taz calls it) where they strip down to nothing and sit facing each other and use different colour paints to draw or write on each other. There is nothing sexual about this, it's actually a very serious thing for Mikey to do because of his anxiety with wanting to be "normal". Sometimes Mikey will turn on his human disguise for a session because it makes him feel better but Taz will turn it off and paint on his shell. She knows that he worries a lot about their relationship and the reason they do it naked is so that there is nothing to hide and they have to be open with each other. The disguise is a blessing and a curse.

x "Mikey.....did you just paint a Vincent Van Gogh sun on my boob?" x "No.....yes...."

x Even outside of the session they doodle on each other for fun. Taz falls asleep a lot of the times half way in Mikey's lap when he has down time and I'll hike up her skirt or shorts and draw a mural depending on how long she stays sleep. When she isn't face up, he'll ask her to remove her shirt so he can paint on her back. He once did a shell inspired piece and Taz was worried about messing it up before she could get a picture of it that she walked around the lair without a top holding her chest.

x They post all of Mikey's body art on insta and it's really popular.

x Mikey is honestly the personality of any of their joint media accounts and Taz is happy that other people now get to see how awesome he is.

x Washing the paint off is also fun too because the way it mixes in the water lowkey turns Mikey on.

x Mikey loves taking Taz out on the motorcycle (when Raph finally brings it back) he takes her to all his favourite hideouts off skirts New York. They star gaze and talk about family drama and personal matters. Taz doesn't know how to put some of her feelings into words and Mikey doesn't know how to properly understand his feelings. It makes them feel better afterwards and when its time to go back home they always seem mellower.

x Taz went to a party with April and there were cookies on a snack table she took twelve of them and after the party took them back to Mikey after parol. They sat up in his bed eating them all. After a few minutes, Mikey started getting giggly and Taz was hella sad. Mikey was trying to cheer her up but she just kept crying more. Leo found the two and quickly realized they were high off their ass and called April to ask where the cookies came from. When Donnie and Leo offered to take Taz back to April's Mikey started crying and Raph had to hold him back from trying to pull Taz into a bear hold and keep her there all night.

x Either of them can actually recall the night other than waking up with a headache.

x Mikey have stolen the tank for joyrides even after Donnie locked up the eyes. Mikey developed some really bad human traits such as breaking and entering and hot wiring. Since he doesn't know how to properly drive the tank and nor do Taz she still drives them because she's a bit more responsible.

x They have gotten into so much trouble when they come back.

x "This is so your fault."

x "Shut up Angel."

[fierycosmos]

TMNT: Leo2012xReader - Defense

You were surprised when you came to visit the turtles one day that it was conveniently timed when Karai, also known as Miwa, came to visit and finally meet her biological father. You stared in awe as she strolled through the rotating gates. You backed away, giving the guys a quizzical look, but they kept close to Karai and observed her reactions to the lair. Huffing slightly at how distracted the turtles were, especially Leonardo, you backed off slightly but followed them as the brother announced their presence back home. You were slightly touched as Karai gave Master Splinter a hug, but you were still worried as slightly untrustworthy of her, but smiled slightly for the sake of not making issues with your long-term friends the Hamatos. Briefly, after the hug everything seemed to return to normal for the lair as the boys went back to training, you were a little way away as Master Splinter instructed you to do some katas. You were already quite skilled at boxing and street fighting, but Master Splinter wanted you to gain a more organized way to fight and protect yourself. However, while you were training, you saw how Leonardo was suddenly showing off for Karai as she was the guest viewing how Master Splinter trained his sons and it made you angry, but you couldn’t deny that Leo did look good doing what he did best. The silence was broken when Master Splinter called out, “Yame!” The boys stopped fighting and everyone lined up, except for Karai who was sitting on her knees near her father. “Y/N, would you do the honor of sparring with my daughter?” Master Splinter asked as he gestured to his daughter. You look between the two briefly. “…Of course, sensei.” You hesitantly bowed. Karai got up from her seat and you two stood a few feet away from each other. You bowed together and while doing so you whispered to her, “let’s not intend to kick the crap out of each other, kay?” “All right.” Karai smiled slightly at your remark and you both got into ready positions. Master Splinter announced for you to start and Karai welcomed you to come after her first. At first, you approached with some quick kicks that Master Splinter and Leo have perfected with you. She was easy to block but the power in your kicks was evident as you backed off and she took advantage to charge at you this time. She came close to your cheek with her fist and you knocked her arm with your elbow and tried sweeping your leg underneath her to make her fall, but she flipped back. “You’ve improved.” She complimented as she got back into a ready position. You were a little taken aback by her words but tried your best not to show it on your face as you rotated your shoulder a bit. “As have you.” You nodded and you both started to charge. As Karai went with a technique closer to her adoptive father’s style, more ruthless and intense, you went with diverging her attacks with simple movements and keeping on your toes without stopping to keep up you energy and hopefully wipe Karai out. As you continued to avoid her strikes at you, you could tell Karai was getting a little frustrated. “I still don’t understand your technique.” Karai said mid blow as you grabbed her arm twisted it behind her back and then forced her forward. “That’s the point.” You smirked as your confidence was rising. She got up with ease and then refocused her mind and got back into the fight. You charged once more and got her focus on counter-attacking you as you caught her outstretched leg and pulled it towards you but to the side of your body and was able to jab her in the stomach. Karai knelt on the ground briefly and once again you smirked. “And plot twist, I don’t have a technique. It’s spontaneous.” She stayed down on one knee for longer than you expected until suddenly she got the best of you by pulling you down by the collar of your shirt. While falling, she kneed you in the back and you toppled over onto your stomach, the wind knocked out of you. “Wow, that, that was good.” You grunted as she rubbed your back while getting up on your elbow. “Yame.” Master Splinter saw what he needed to and Karai actually outstretched her hand to help you up. You gave her a wary glance but took it nonetheless. You looked at each other and quickly bowed before turning back to your sensei. “That will all for today.” He excused everyone for the time being, Mikey and Raph went to go run to the couch to play some video games, Donnie went right back into his lab, while Master Splinter kept Leo behind to talk for a bit. Karai and you left the dojo and you two went your separate ways. You headed to the kitchen, feeling uneasy and in a serious mood for some tea. You filled up the kettle and left it on the stove. While it was heating, you picked out your favorite tea from Master Splinter’s various selection in the cabinets. You also got an icepack for where Karai kneed you in the back and you leaned back in your chair as you let the ice pack work its magic. When the kettle was humming the tea was ready, suddenly Karai walked into the kitchen as you got up from your seat. You saw she seemed a bit out of it, maybe shocked by being on the other side of the fight and realizing who her true father was. In order to help her in some way, you decided to start a conversation for her sake. “Hey, I just finished boiling some water, want some tea?” You asked as you got out two cups. “Tea, that would be nice.” Karai sighed as she took a stool across from you to sit at and you brought over a few packets of tea for her to choose from as you poured the cups. She chooses a dragon lily tea bag and you brought her the cup with hot water along with lemon and sugar. “Here.” “Thanks…” Karai gave you a shy glance before she quickly took the cup to her lips, blew on it, and sipped. She was being unusually quiet and it bugged you. “Everything all right?” You asked, Karai hesitated for her next sip, and decided to put her cup down instead. “Did I hit you too hard with that spin kick?” “No, that’s not it…” Karai gave a sad excuse for a smiled as she traced the floral designs on the side of the cup. She then took something out of her pocket that you couldn’t quite get a good look at. “What a weird looking trinket.” Karai’s eyes widened a bit and she placed it a bit away from her on the table and leaned back a bit. “It’s…well…” “…What is it?” You were getting antsy, you hated suspense and you also didn’t know what to expect from someone like Karai. “It’s something I shouldn’t have.” She mumbled as she looked away a bit, leaving one elbow on the counter and taking another, longer sip of her tea. “Is it something of the Foot’s?” You gripped the teacup you were holding a bit tighter. You tried not to sound too bitter, as you have gotten plenty hurt from running into the Foot Clan, not mention getting occasionally beat up by Karai herself and brutalized by the Shredder. “Yes…” She admitted. “Well you should hide it before Raph blows a gasket.” You lean back and blow a bit more on you tea. “It’s too late for that…” She pocketed the trinket again. Your eyebrows furrowed and you could tell that Karai was going through a lot in her head. “What, what do you mean?” Suddenly Karai put down her tea and scooted the wooden chair back from the counter. “I need to go.” She quickly began to make her way towards the exit. Knowing Leonardo would be heartbroken over the issue, you rushed after her. “Go? You just got here.” You whisper yelled, as to not draw too much attention to yourself or Karai. “I don’t belong here. I’m a traitor to my own father.” Karai admitted sadly as she continued to rush towards the subway system. “You’re doing right by leaving the Foot—” “No, Y/N!” Karai turned on you and yelled, though not meaning to yell at you, she was just sad and angry at the world, but especially at Shredder. You stepped back a bit, and thankfully no one heard you as you were little ways down the subway from the lair. She took out the trinket she pocketed. “This is a tracking beacon.” “You brought that HERE?” You snapped. “I KNOW I’m sorry!” Karai yelled back pitifully. “Sorry?” You gawked at her. You were so mad, Leo has been working so hard to try and get you here, for Master Splinter’s sake and maybe even his own, and now Karai was ruining his family’s chances at closure and happiness. “How are you going to explain this to the boys? What about Master Splinter?” “Old habits never die I guess…” This is when you really started to notice how torn up Karai was over the situation as she was at a sudden fork in the road and she didn’t know what to do. You decided to take pity on her. “Look, I’m the only one that knows, right?” She nods and you take a breath as you tighten your fists. “So you still have a chance to make things right.” “How?” She asked hopelessly. “You have to leave.” You state though with some sadness appearing in your voice. “I’ll hate having to seeing Master Splinter’s face but at least he’ll be happy to know you chose to save him rather than hand him over to Shredder.” “You really think he’ll forgive me?” Karai asked hopefully. “Knowing him, yes.” You sigh as you rub your neck awkwardly. Karai looked behind her and then beyond where you were standing between her and the lair. “Okay.” She nodded after a beat. “You have to move now, okay?” You approached her and gripped her hand still holding the tracking device. “Please, don’t let the Foot find us. Shredder has so many resources to move locations if he wanted, Master Splinter doesn’t. This is their home.” “I know, that’s why I don’t want to betray him.” Karai nodded as she locked eyes with you. “At least that’s good to hear.” You give a half smile, she gives you her best half-smile as well. You let go of her hand and she starts to make her way down the subway system. “Thank you, for not trying to strangle me.” Karai says over her shoulder. “Well you’re lucky you were honest about it when I asked.” You smile as she gives a small smile back. “Now go, I’ll cover.” Karai nods and disappears quickly and you sigh in relief when you can’t hear her footsteps anymore. You began walking briskly but carefully back to the turntables that led into the lair and once you saw everything was undisturbed you just plopped onto the ground and lied on your back, rubbing your eyes in frustration. What on earth were you going to do? How could you break this to Master Splinter? To Leo even? Suddenly you heard quick footsteps heading your way and you jolted up and saw Leo rushing to you. “Y/N, are you okay?” He kneeled next to you and placed a hand on your shoulder. He looked at you oddly, you looked like you were dealing with something. He was always good at reading you. “What’s wrong?” “N-Nothing, I’m just tired, it’s been a long day…” You sigh as you stand up without him and began walking towards the kitchen again. Leo decided to follow you there. He saw that there were two teacups sitting on the counter still. You quickly made a move for them and began washing them in the sink quietly. Then he asked the question you pleaded he wouldn’t. “Have you seen Karai?” You winced at the happiness and curiosity in Leo’s voice. You turned off the water and gripped the sink counter with your hands, nails slightly digging into the wood. “I really shouldn’t answer that.” You mumbled. “What?” You turn around but don’t look at him yet. You move some hair out of your face and then meet his eyes and sigh. You squish your eyes close. “…She left.” You finally got out. Leo’s eyes bulged under his mask. “She what? Why didn’t you stop her?” He came up towards you, more so because he was worried than angry. Being closer to you now made you almost cry as you hated seeing how worried he looked and the desperation to make his family complete for his father. Also to have Karai nearby him as they could now be together. Another pull at your heartstrings at that thought. “I couldn’t…she was going to betray us.” You turned your head away from him, still back against the sink and you gripping the counter for dear life. “You forced her to leave, didn’t you?” Leo got closer to you. “You never liked her!” His green hands were in fists now and you were very afraid as you pealed your eyes open. “It’s not that! She had this thing—” “She would never do that to Splinter!” Leo didn’t want to listen to your reasoning, riding it off as an excuse. “Well she was going to!” You snapped. Leo looked shocked a bit but not enough to keep him from pressing the issue. You were so angry and sad, Leo had never snapped at you like this. “She had a tracking device that allowed the Shredder to locate her. I told her to leave before he could find the lair!” Once you got that off your chest you felt a bit more relieved, but then you saw his reaction to the truth and the guilt came rushing back. “She wouldn’t…” He looked down at his feet, his hands no longer clenched as the energy seemed to be wiped from him completely like you punched him in the gut. “I’m telling you she did!” You yelled, why was he suddenly being so thickheaded? “I don’t believe you.” He looked at you hard and you almost growled at him. “Goddammit Leo!” You got off the counter’s edge and that got him to back off of you a bit. “I don’t know what else to tell you!” You have tried to get through to him and obviously, it wasn’t working. You then began storming out of the kitchen. “Find out for yourself I’m gone!” As you were headed out the kitchen you saw the brothers had gathered around in shock, one from never seeing you and Leo fight, and two from hearing the news about Karai’s almost betrayal. You could see Master Splinter from the corner of your eye near the dojo, but you couldn’t stand to see his face as you jumped over the turntables and rushed out of the sewers as fast as you could. You rushed back to your apartment building and decided as soon as you got into your room to head up the fire escape stairwell near your window and sit outside for a bit, as your room was too small for your heated anger burning inside. You got to the top and sat down on the ledge and watched your feet sway as they dangled over the side. You kept wiping your eyes that threatened to let tears fall, thankfully they didn’t because one tear would lead to a breakdown, and you don’t want to cause a commotion for your building. While you were up there, waiting for the sadness and anger to simmer down, you started ripping up leaves that had fallen onto the rooftop. You would do this when you were happy as a mock “he likes me he likes me not” cliche since you didn’t have flowers nearby, but instead, you were just grumbling stuff under your breath. “Stupid boy, stupid turtle, stupid ninja clan war.” You let them fall off the building and you picked up a few more. “Stupid Karai, stupid Shredder, stupid stupid STUPID!” You yelled a bit louder and more coherently, suddenly running out of patience and just took the small pile by your side and crumpled them all up and let them go off the edge as well. You shifted your body so one leg was over the edge and one leg was on the rooftop. Doing so, you leaned forward on your elbows in frustration and took a few long breaths, hoping it would help. You then realized you weren’t angry at anyone but yourself. You should’ve confronted Master Splinter on the issue, or maybe you shouldn’t have talked at all to Karai. Then again, where would that have led to? And you don’t blame Leo for yelling at you, it did hurt of course, but you would’ve been mad too if you were in his situation. Besides, Leo really did like Karai, almost as much as you liked him. I guess you just had to face the fact that their Romeo and Juliet story would have to continue and maybe everything will work out for the best later, maybe not for you, but what mattered was that Leo and his family were happy again and had each other. “Y/N.” A voice broke your concentration from breathing. You immediately knew it was Leo but for once you couldn’t read his tone of voice, but didn’t care and decided not to look at him as you heard him approach. “I don’t want to argue with you anymore, okay?” You switched back to having both legs over the edge so you didn’t have to inkling to check him out from the corner of your eye. “So please, just save it.” You sighed in defeat. Leo stopped shortly, only a foot or two away from where you were sitting. After the pause, he joined you on the ledge almost a foot away and sighed. “We found Karai…” He admitted slowly. You lifted your head up from sulking but didn’t look at him directly. “You were right.” That got you to look at her. “Things got really out of hand after you left.” You rolled your eyes and looked forward again. “You gonna blame me for more things?” You huff as you turn slightly away from his direction. “No, no.” Leo chided as he placed a hand on your shoulder, which you usually greeted warmly but you shrugged him off. “That’s not what I’m saying.” He looked forward again and so did you. “I really should just start by apologizing for yelling at you.” He sighed and looked at his hands in a defeated way. “I had no right to do so.” “…It’s funny, I forgave you right after leaving the lair. I understood where you were coming from.” You sighed, and you could tell that Leo was a little shocked at your statement, but you weren’t through yet. “But at the same time, you’ve never yelled at me like that before. It really hurt.” “And that’s the last thing I wanted to do.” He said honestly as he placed a hand on your leg to get your attention, and you finally looked at him and you could tell he was really upset, but you had to keep yourself from swooning and falling for his beautiful blue eyes  “I don’t want to lose you like Master Splinter just lost Karai.” You were taken out of your head immediately and gasped. “What, what do you mean? Is she—” “No, she’s not dead.” Leo said reassuringly, but he still didn’t seem happy over whatever happened. “But the Shredder got to her, lured us out with a trap she was in and then,” He paused briefly to breathe and you gripped his arm unintentionally. “She, she got mutated into some albino snake creature.” “Oh my god…” You gasped and let go of his arm. You placed your head into your hands and shuddered. “That’s all my fault.” “No, no it’s not!” Leo frantically reassured you. “You set her on the right path, she betrayed the Shredder. The mutation thing was an accident.” You looked up a bit at Leo, eyes starting to get red from tears still not falling and Leo put a hand on your shoulder again, and you didn’t shove him off. “She seemed happy to finally turn the tables on him.” “I still feel awful.” You sighed as you looked down at the space between you and Leo. “You shouldn’t.” He lifted your head up by your chin so you could look at him again and you slightly blushed at his gentleness. “None of this is your fault. You saved my family. Master Splinter was happy that you set Karai on the right path. He always said you had it in you to turn the worst people good.” You blushed more but you smiled at his kindness. You gave him a quick hug, which he accepted immediately. “Wish it was that easy for Shredder to turn over a new leaf.” You joked. “I don’t think he has any leaves to turn over.” Leo chuckled slightly. You smiled too and then you both looked ahead without saying anything for a beat. “So, are we okay now?” He asked nervously. You looked at him a little shocked, thinking the hug explained it all, but he really did look sorry. Another example of Leo being clueless to notions, romantic or not. “I never want to hurt you like I did ever again.” “Yeah, we’re okay.” You smiled and he finally sighs in relief. “I’m sorry you lost your chance at getting your girl.” Leo shot up and blushed red. “W-What do you mean?” He stuttered and you almost laughed at how cute he sounded but it wasn’t at your sake, it was at Karai’s. “I mean, you didn’t get to really be with Karai like you wanted.” You stated the obvious. “What are you talking about?” Leo gaped, and you gave him a funny look like ‘don’t you put on a facade for me.’ “I don’t like Karai.” “Uh, yeah, you do.” You gave a short laugh at his charade. “You usually don’t stop talking about saving her and getting her on our side.” You began to list but then Leo came in quick to respond. “I wanted to do that for Master Splinter, I wanted him to be reunited with his daughter again. That’s it.” Now it was your turn to gape at him. “Really?” “Yeah, besides.” He suddenly grabbed your hand that was resting on your lap. “I thought I lost my girl when you ran away.” You snapped your head up from looking at your hands to his face and your face felt as bright as a firetruck. Leo blushed red too and began stuttering again at your shock. “B-But if you don’t like me like that then I totally get it because we are so different—” “No, no!” You quickly grabbed his hand again that almost slipped away from you and he turned a brighter red too. You took a breath to finally get your feelings off your chest. “I do like you.” You smiled at how dumbfounded Leo looked and you cozied up to his shoulder as you twisted your arms around his arm. “I used to get, well, jealous whenever you talked about Karai. So I assumed you liked her.” “Really?” Leo asked in relative disbelief trying his best to look down at you without making you move from his side, since he was on cloud 9. “Yeah, really.” You smiled into his shoulder. Leo laughed a little in a flabbergasted way and then leaned a little back on the ledge and looked up at the sky. “We really need to work on communicating better with each other.” You almost snorted at how true that was. You decide to get off his shoulder and look at him. “Well, I think we’re on the right track now…” You cooed and he smiled at you dreamily. Subconsciously you leaned in and you saw him blush and follow your lead and suddenly your lips met his in a tender kiss. He raised his hand that wasn’t entangled with yours to cup your cheek and you placed a hand on his plastron. You parted sooner than both of you wanted but you were both in disbelief and were very flustered. “Yeah, I’d say that’s a good start.” Leo breathed out happily. “Me too.” You smiled and quickly pecked his lips again, and letting your forehead touch his. “Oh jeez, not you too!” You both snapped out of your dreamy wonderland world you created with each other and turned around to see three boys barely containing themselves. “Guys?” Leo gaped once more, you followed suit as his three bothers were grinning like idiots, Mikey with his T-phone. “Now we got another Donnie to worry about!” Raph complained. “Yeah, wait!” Donnie gawked at his brother as the two began to tussle as Mikey was laughing. “Ow!” Raph whined as they were fighting. “Gr…” Leo was about to get up and give them a piece of his mind but you pulled him back down to you and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Ignore them…” You sigh, and then get to close to his ear and whispered, “you can mess with them later.” You grinned evilly at him and he smirked in return and returned his forehead to yours. “Whatever you say.”        

[hunterdevil-myboy-archive]

No Matter What

This is a rewrite of my first Ducktales drabble. And I love it so much. I would tag more stuff but... I don’t want to spoil stuff. I hope you enjoy!

Donald knew something was wrong the moment he woke up, a sense of dread wrapped around him like a blanket. Fuzzy images of a past nightmare fluttered through his mind before drifting off like the last wisp of a mist.

He turned over to look at his alarm clock, brows furrowing in confusion at the time. It was too early for him to wake up. Sudden beeping filled the air, prompting a memory to the forefront of his mind; Huey needed to be at school in an hour.

Now knowing the purpose of this wake up, he pushed the thin sheets off him and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He moved swiftly, following his morning routine, hoping a shower would clean his unease from his feathers. The warm water helped somewhat to ease his tense shoulders, but he felt it still there tickling at the back of his mind.

After pulling on his sailor uniform, an outfit he prefered to wear over anything else, he made his way to the deck of the houseboat. He expected the expanse of the ocean to greet him, but was mildly disappointed to see the manor’s brick walls. The houseboat sitting motionless in Scrooge McDuck’s pool was still new to him, it seemed.

When Donald went inside, straight to the kitchen, he found the triplets eating breakfast. Two, Louie and Dewey, looked like they were ready to pass out face-first into their eggs -not duck eggs, right? That would be weird- while their oldest brother, Huey, was fully awake.

The red-clad triplet was practically bouncing in his seat. He was always excited about helping at school, whether it was planning an event or showing a new teacher around, which was the current agenda. His eyes sparkled when he saw his uncle approach the table.

“Hi, Uncle Donald,” he called, startling Louie from his drowsy state. The sleepy duckling shot his brother a glare, but Huey chose to ignore it. “Ms. Beakley already made your food.” he gestured to a plate across from him which, to Donald’s surprise and confusion, looked like it was just brought out. How did that woman know?

Donald shot the boy a smile and sat down to eat despite the twisting in his stomach. What was going on with him today? Everything was fine. His boys were happy -especially Dewey now that he was gaining energy and shoveling his food into his mouth. Louie, per Louie-fashion, was on his phone, slowly eating.

It’s just anxiety, he concluded watching his happy boys eat. Nothing to worry about.

The feeling grew ten-fold the closer Launchpad drove to the school. Donald ignored it, figuring it was just caused by the chauffeur's… eccentric driving. But the feeling didn’t subside when Launchpad crashed into the flagpole.

Donald shoved it to the back of his mind as he went into over-protection mode, checking the triplets for any bruises. Assured of the boys’ lack of injuries, he ushered them out of the car and into towards the school.

“Do you need me to stay here, Donny?” Launchpad called after them, a big goofy smile on his face despite the limo’s damage.

“I’ll walk.” Donald called back, too tired to reprimand him on the nickname. He just wanted to get this over with, drop off the boys at school and go back to his job search which, he would sorrowfully add, was fruitless so far.

“Okay,” Launchpad replied, before they stepped inside the building.

“Why do we have to be here so early?” Dewey asked, glancing around the lobby. School wasn’t his favorite place to be. He rather be playing games at Funso’s or exploring the rainforests of Peru. Those places were actually fun, while school was “where creativity comes to die.”

Huey instinctively reached up and pulled out a book from under his cap. He mechanically opened it to a certain page and read, “Woodchuck Guidebook rule number three hundred and sixty-five, ‘Every Woodchuck should be punctual.’”

Dewey stared at him with an unreadable expression before quietly saying, “That didn’t answer my question.”

“My answer was clear, Dewford.” Huey replied, slightly peeved. “What is there to not understand?”

Before Dewey could reply and cause a fight, Louie cut in. “Huey, he doesn’t know what punctual means. None of us know big words like you do.”

Donald opened his beak to input that he did in fact know the meaning of the word, but thought better of it. Sometimes you need to know when it's best to let kids work things out on their own. That was something he learned quickly with the triplets.

“Oh,” Huey slipped his book back into his hat, and smiled apologetically at his siblings. “Punctual means happening at the agreed -er, it means on time.” he snuck a look at Louie’s phone and immediately started leading his family towards the principal’s office, knowing the way like the back of his hand -he had the whole school’s layout memorized.

“I volunteered to show a new teacher around.” Huey then quickly added, “They are replacing Mr. Poe, since they found incriminating evidence in his desk. I wonder if someone put it there.”

Donald glanced at the youngest triplet, his subtle smirk telling him all he needed to know.

“And you couldn’t do this, I don’t know, during first period?” Dewey asked.

“I could have missed first period if I did.” Huey explained, wrapping an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “Would milkshakes after school make you feel better?”

“Are you buying?” the younger duckling asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Of course.” Huey said, then stopped in his tracks. They had arrived in the hallway in front of the principal’s office.

A tall hawk dressed in an expensive-looking suit was leaning back against the door. He looked up from his watch and stared hard at them. His gaze could cut steel, Donald noticed.

But that wasn’t the only thing the uncle noticed. The man towered over them in a way that would make Launchpad seem small in comparison. Something itched at the back of his mind, trying to resurface, but before he could figure it out, the hawk spoke.

“You must be Huey.” he had a russian accent that only added to his intimidating stature. “I am Mr. Petrov, your new teacher.”

Huey smiled wide at the man and greeted him politely. “Hello, Mr. Petrov. Do you wish for me to show you around?” he then, as if remembering his presence, turned to his uncle. “Can I show him around Uncle Donald?”

Donald nodded, despite the alarms going off in the back of his mind. He couldn’t say no to Huey, especially when his eyes had that light in them.

The duckling let out a happy squeal before he took off -at a walking pace, of course- down the hall with the hawk following quietly. The three watched them disappear around a corner, before Donald turned the group around so they could go look for the principal.

Speaking of the principal, the woman, a short and round owl, was walking their way with a parrot beside her. “Hello, Mr. Duck,” she said when she got to them.

“Nice to see you, Ms. Hoover.” Donald said, reaching out to shake her hand. He turned to the parrot beside her. The parrot was a woman wearing a simple dress. She smiled shyly at him and he smiled back.

Ms. Hoover followed his gaze, and smiled wide. “Oh! This is Ms. Quinn, our new teacher-”

The rest of her words fell death on Donald’s ears as the dread and anxiety came back, crashing over him in a ferocious wave. Time seemed to stop around him, thoughts flying around his mind in a frantic whirl. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t move. He was numb.

“-Huey?”

He didn’t know who said it, he couldn’t tell over the buzzing, but the one word pulled him out of the sea of his thoughts. He could breathe. He could move.

And he could think.

Huey. He had to find Huey. It was the only thoughts flying through his mind, repeating over and over in a deafening chorus even as he found himself dashing through the halls. He barely could register two sets of footsteps following him. Huey. He had to find Huey.

Donald bust through the school’s front doors, freezing on the top step before he could take a tumble. He watched, eyes wide, lungs heaving, as a car drove past his spot.

He caught a sickening glimpse of Huey’s frightened eyes, banging against the window, screaming things lost to Donald. And then the car was gone, leaving him with nothing but shaking knees as the adrenaline cleared his system.

He fell to his knees, clutching his arms, tears and sobs escaping him as the bitter cold sunk into him. In that moment, all he wanted was his Huey back. He wanted his son back.

After a few minutes, his mind finally acknowledged the two ducklings at his sides. He looked towards the youngest one. Louie was wiping at his eyes, hoodie pulled over his head, but he kept looking at his damn phone.

The sailor wanted to yell, to scream, to be mad at the boy for being on his phone when Huey was gone. Like Della, a cold voice whispered from the dark side of his mind. He ignored it, and turned his attention to the other boy.

Dewey was sitting on the step, staring at his hands. The sudden drip of water landing on his palm, seemed to surprise the boy as he reached up to touch his wet cheek. He quickly wiped his eyes and let out a pained chuckle.

“I asked him if he was buying me milkshakes.” the boy said, Donald’s heart breaking for him with each word. “And now, we might not see him ever again. I’m the worst brother.”

Donald shoved his own pain to the side as he wrapped an arm around the now sobbing boy, pulling him against his chest. “Dewey, listen to me, you didn’t know. None of us knew,” he said, wishing he could believe it himself. “We will find Huey somehow, I promise.”

“How can we?” Dewey asked, pulling back to stare up at the sailor. “We have nothing. No leads, no evidence, nothing!”

“I took a picture.”

Dewey and Donald both snapped their gazes to the third duck. Louie’s hood was off giving them a good view of his tear-stained cheeks and bloodshot eyes, as he held out his phone to them. Donald carefully took it from him and the two looked down at the screen. The license. Louie had taken a photo of the license.

Donald didn’t know how the boy managed it without the letters and numbers being blurred beyond recognition, but he didn’t care. He pulled the youngest duckling into a hug.

They were going to get Huey back. No matter what.

[kinetic-elaboration]

March 8: Orphan Black 4x05

Tried to do some fic reading this evening but I kept getting distracted and then I got all lost in my thoughts and anyway--bit later than I wish it were.

Today’s episode of Orphan Black continues the streak of excellent episodes this season. I’m also halfway through the season now, so either I was too harsh on it last time or it felt apart damn fast.

This one was obviously primarily about Brightborn, getting more into what exactly this branch of Neolution is doing, or trying to do.

I really loved that Cosima and Alison are getting a chance to be at the forefront of an investigation. I mean, I do like Sarah as leader, but Cosima has spent so much of the show either being the exposition or the victim, and Alison is usually off doing completely different story lines, being the ‘dark suburban comedy’ break from the bleak sci fi. And yet they are two ‘main’ clones! It seems right, and long overdue, that they should get their own primary-plot related story line.

Not that Alison was in that much of this ep in particular, but it is obviously her obsession too, and she was working on it last time. Cosima barely gets to leave her hideaway (or lab last season), so she deserved to carry the A-plot today. And it actually did have to be her, with her science knowledge.

I really liked her outfit also.

Much as Cosima and Donnie are a little awkward together... I did enjoy that they got some clone and clone’s husband bonding time. Also I just love Donnie a lot. I’m not sure precisely what he and Krystal were doing in this ep, or where they’re going with Krystal in general (I sorta suspect they’re not going anywhere, they just like her because she’s fun so they keep adding a little more and a little more to her story), but some of the stuff got so heavy, I needed their comic relief. I needed the Classic Fake Massage Scenario scene.

I’m quite sure that Evie’s story about her magically cured genetic ailment is the explanation for the mouth implant. Advanced, cutting gene therapy? Yeah, that’s what it is. I liked the way they unfurled the story line, though--like in S1, like in any good story with a twist, the complexity comes from what the audience doesn’t know, and the order in which information is revealed.

The rest of the Briighborn plot is... becoming more clear and also... either less interesting or like I’m missing something. Susan Duncan made it sound like what they wanted was just to cure disease, to make healthier people. That’s not so nefarious, as a GOAL. It’s also less interesting than ‘self-directed evolution’ giving people tails. Like they’ve painted the Neolution club nerds as just the small fry but what are the people at the top doing? The same sort of experiments we’re doing in real life...? Like idk I know why germline editing is creepy. It’s also a real thing lol.

I‘m not explaining myself well but I’m just.. dubious that the conspiracy is getting weirder. It seems to be getting more normal. The big thing is obviously the questionably consented-to human experiments, which, yes, classic disturbing mad scientist-y thing to do.I basically understand what they’re going for here too: the discarded rich people embryos go to the “carriers” in their poor-people experiments, those embryos are or become the super weird ones, and a lot of them are deformed or nonviable at birth. That’s gross, obviously. But I can only get so into it because I don’t really...GET... it? Like okay, if they are advanced enough to cure Evie’s genetic illness and create babies who don’t get colic, how do they not know what they’re doing with these other fetuses until they’re born? What else are they trying to do with them?

Finding out another power of Kira’s--that she has some sorta psychic connection to all the clones--reinforces my old theory: they are trying to make her. Which is at least... interesting.

I also sort of get, I think, what the connection is to the clones. Susan Duncan calls them the “perfect baseline for studying the genome” and implies the garish Brightborn experiments are the alternative: a lot of trial and error on individual humans. However, since the clones seem to just be out here living their lives, it’s not clear.. how you get from clones to a better human. As Cosima points out, they changed one (1) thing on them and ended up with a bunch of sick clones. So I wouldn’t call them a ‘perfect’ anything.

Just occurs to me that Kira is their idea of what germline editing does. Sarah has edited genes (...sorta? I guess? or did she not get the edits because she is not infertile? and I know this is a bad question but why was that embryo different?) and when she had a child, that child inherited weird stuff from those edits. I guess.

Either this doesn’t fully make sense OR I am just dumb and not getting it.

Anyway. I vaguely remembered something nefarious about Adele, so I was waiting for that, but I guess I was just remembering Sarah’s paranoia. She was suddenly extremely more watchable (no longer disbarred I guess?, likes hanging out with Kira, makes a genuine attempt to bond with Felix’s family, hates Republicans), and so I was glad that it was fake-out situation. She’s the real deal and that’s nice. No complaints.

I feel some anxiety poking at me and I think that’s a sign I need to sleep. No more incoherent attempts at making sense of this story. I enjoyed the episode, and I’m enjoying the season, that’s what’s important!

[waterstar2016]

“Two Shades of Green” Part 10

If you’re reading this thank you. I know this story might be a little rough in areas but it’s my first. It started as a dream that grew into a fantasy. It feels awesome to finally see the words that have been in my mind for so long.

***Disclaimer I don’t ownTMNT. I just like to dabble in their world with my oc Immogene.***

April and Casey had gone to visit Casey’s parents in a town not far from where Immogene lived in Northern Ontario over the last weekend and had stopped by her’s and Brian’s place to pick her bow up. Earlier that week April had gently told Immogene on the phone that there had been no sign that Brian had been home.

Immogene rolled her eyes and figured she’d take out some of her aggression on the targets. Her ability with her bow was the one thing she had full confidence in. Immogene heard April at her door. She called out “Hey April welcome back, do you have my bow? I want to get some practice in before Master Splinter sees me.” “Sure Gen, Casey has it.” Casey came into the room and tossed Immogene her bow and quiver, “That’s some fine craftsmanship Gen. She’s an awesome weapon.” Immogene held her bow and grasped the shaft lovingly. She’d missed her. Since Brian hated her shooting, so she’d started sneaking away to the towns range once a week while he was out playing darts.

After putting her arm guard on and pulling her hair up, she headed to a stretch of an open tunnel. She had asked Donnie to install a bunch of targets all over the place at different distances. Immogene turned on her music player and put on her favorite band. “Marianna’s Trench” “Fallout” blared through the speakers. She didn’t know, but Splinter and the guys were there watching from the shadows.

She warmed up, shaking her arms, and sat cross-legged on the floor in meditation. Her bow had a good draw on her, and in her experience, she was the only woman that could draw her. Hell..a lot of men couldn’t. She stood up. She thought of her father and gathered herself for the first shot. Immogene closed her eyes after getting the bullseye in her sight…she didn’t need to look now…she could feel it.

‘TWANG’. The sound of the string is singing in her ear, and a second later a thud. She didn’t have to look. Immogene knew she would see her arrow dead centre in that target. Warm up complete. She successfully hits every single target in their respective bullseye. She fired one arrow every 5 seconds, one shot for every breath for a full minute. It was a meditation technique her father had shown her. She closed her eyes remembering his smile and whispers “Hi Daddy did you see me? I love you and miss you so much.”

Master Splinter chuckled, “Well my sons…that was very interesting. Don’t you agree?” The guys just sat on their heels with their eyes wide. Immogene was sweet, kind and would help anyone she could…she was also a total bad ass. There was a collective “Woah.” Raph smirks and whispers “Hell ya Princess.”

Suddenly Immogene is surrounded by the four guys and Master Splinter. They were all hooting and hollering. She blushes furiously and mumbles “Thanks. I didn’t know anyone was watching.” Master Splinter smiled at her “O, my dear I’m sorry, but I wanted to see how you were when you felt you thought were alone.” He smiles again and pulls her into a hug. “You were incredible.” Mikey chimes in at that moment and yells “This calls for a celebration, I call a pizza party.”

The next morning Immogene can be heard yelling and she sounded terrifying. “Well fuck you Brian! I don’t need you anyways, your a little dicked asshole!” She was screaming into the phone and was trying not to cry. He had just dumped her telling her he had found someone prettier and who cared about their body. Unlike Immogene, who had the occasional slice of pizza even when she shouldn’t. It wasn’t that he dumped her that made her cry, she was going to end it anyways. It was the reference to her looks and the fact that he’d been cheating on her instead of just breaking it off. April and Mikey came running and Mikey grabs her into a hug.

“O sweet cheeks what happened?” “The bastard dumped me, he said while I was gone he’d found someone better.” Immogene snapped out. Raph appeared out of no where looking like he wanted to commit murder. He was also looking like he wanted to throw Mikey off of her…April noticed Raph’s expression and thought to herself “thank god it’s not Leo that she hugged’. “Do ya want me ta take a trip up to your town and beat his ass?” Raph growls. Despite herself she laughs and says “Nah, thanks Raph that ass doesn’t deserve another thought.”

Donatello comes running into the room yelling at the top of his lungs “Immogene, everyone I’ve got to talk to you! O, Gen you ok?” He’d just noticed her wiping tears away. She laughs wondering what invention Donnie has whipped up now. “Yeah Donnie I will be, I just lost some baggage. No loss really, it was shitty baggage. I’m good.” Donatello excitedly gathers everyone around. He had theory and he couldn’t resist seeing if he was right, and he was.

Immogene looked at Donnie and said, “So Donnie what’s up?” He shyly glances at her “Well, don’t be mad but I tested some of your blood.” Raph stands up really quickly and Leo grasps Donnie’s shoulders asking, “Brother I know your weird but what did you test for?” “Well,” stuttered Donnie “When she was hurt…I had to synthesize more blood.” Raph growled and April encouraged Donnie to go on distracting him from his older brother who looked like was ready to explode. “She didn’t have enough left in her to survive…” He continued. “After I had made sure she was going to live with the stuff I made, I put some away…just like I do for you guys…you know just in case.” He pauses and takes a breath “Anyways, after seeing her at the dojo and watching her shoot and…” at that point he glances up at Raph nervously …” noticing her physical appearance…I had a theory so I wanted to look for some genetic markers in her DNA.”

Raph crouches down beside Donnie and pushes Leo aside “Donnie enough science shit spill the beans bro, what did ya find?”

Donnie looks at Immogene and grins. “Gen you’re half Amazon!” Immogene’s head spun. “What do you mean half Amazon? Like the old Amazons of myth? Big muscled, female warriors what the hell?! You mean like Wonder Woman?!” Donnie nodded his head vigorously. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. You see that’s why your shaped the way you are and why you have the talents you do. You just needed our help to discover yourself and bring your natural abilities to the forefront.”

Immogene was floored. Maybe that’s why she felt like a freak her entire life. It would explain so much. “But where did it come from.” My heritage is Polish and Scottish!” Donnie explains that Amazons happen randomly. “The gene is nearly gone in this day and age but every so often the marker can pop up and bingo…woman with Amazonian blood.” Immogene smiles at him. “Thanks, Donnie this explains a lot.” Even though you’re weird for wanting to test my blood I understand why and I thank you. I feel a little less like a freak now.” She gives him a hug under Raphs watchful gaze.

Raphael was frustrated, now that Gen was free of Brian he felt that she was trying to spend even more time with him and he felt even more drawn to her. The other day she had run smack into his chest on the way out of the dojo. Raph had reached down to steady her. She looked up at him and his heart had just about stopped. Her mouth had opened slightly and he wanted to dive in for a kiss. Gritting his teeth he had raised his hands to her shoulders and gently moved her aside. He had started leaving the lair more.

Immogene spent the next few days working on her art. She needed to escape for a bit and the guys were understanding of that. There was so much she needed to re-learn about herself. She also now had time to think of Raph without any guilt. Did he like her too? Refocusing on the sketch in front of her she sighs. She had an art show to get ready for and had just over a month and a half to prepare. The gallery had called her asking to inspect the next set of pieces. Immogene had told them she would be over soon drop it off. She also found that she would be meeting the mysterious benefactor the night of the show.

Immogene felt her feelings for Raph grow. Most of the time he left her confused. One moment he would playfully nudge her while they were working out or grip her shoulder in encouragement when she started a heavier weight. The next, he was skipping movie night and would try to avoid her. Her nerves usually ended up on fire around him. All she had to do was brush up against him and she would grow warm.

The tension was getting too much for Raphael. He wanted her. Maybe Mikey had a point when he’d told him that Gen could have sat beside Leo during movie night, but she had chosen to be near him instead. When her leg at ended up on his after she fell asleep he had almost lost it. Could she really want him that way?

Raphael growled and spit out his toothpick. He needed to talk master Splinter. It was time to get some stuff off his chest that pounding the weights or finding ways to piss of Leo just wasn’t helping anymore. He just couldn’t get Gen off his mind. She thought she was a freak?! She was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid his eyes on.

“Father… I need to talk to ya.” “Raphael my son, of course, you can talk to me. What is it on your mind that is pushing you to turmoil lately? Raphael hesitated and then said “It’s Gen”. Splinter nodded to himself, he had a feeling this was coming. He had seen Raphael struggle with his feelings for Immogene since the moment Raphael carried her into the lair. “My son I think you have feelings for this woman, is this true?” Splinter knew the answer but waited. He could see Raphael struggling with his response. Raphael was unpredictable, hot-tempered and passionate. Splinter knew that Mikey’s teasing of Raph by calling him a violent teddybear was pretty accurate. To most, Raph was scary as shit and he often would try to hide his other side by being mean. But for a select few, like the old lady in Immogene’s apartment or April he would move the moon. Splinter also realized that since Immogene came Raph was mellowing…a little.

He waited patiently while Raphael rolled his shoulders. “Yes Father, when I’m with her all I want to do is protect her. But I know she can defend herself, she’s a damn fine fighter in her own right! I want to cheer her on! Raphael took a breath for the next part. “Father I find myself physically aroused when I think of her and am near her.” Splinter smiled. “Son that is understandable. She is a very attractive woman, and has just discovered a whole new part of herself.” Splinter said he was also glad to hear that snake Brian was out of her life. Raph snorted if he ever saw that little puke, he wouldn’t know what hit him. Splinter continued. “Raphael, you will need to find balance with Immogene. Have you told her your feelings?” “NO. I’m a monster she would never look at me that way…would she?”

His son looked at him with hope in his eyes. “O my son, she’s felt different in her world, and in her own way, she’s not so different from us. Always in the shadows never feeling free enough to show her true colours. She’s been through so much in her life. Raph digested this knowledge. Splinter continued and makes a decision to tell Raphael something “She looks at you, you know? When she thinks your not looking she looks at you and I can see the questions in her eyes.” “Really Father?” “Yes my son, she does.”

Raphael stopped pacing and just stared at his father. Splinter sighs and then added very carefully “Leo also notices her, my son.” Raphael just growls. Splinter continues “But I don’t think he will say anything to her. I see him looking at the two of you and look resigned, but no matter what my son. Remember it’s her choice.” “Yes, Father.” Raph bows and starts to walk away. He had much to think about. “O, Raphael? Splinter calls after him. “Here are some books. I have kept these for all of you to read just in case a situation like this ever came up.”

Raphael looks at his father questioningly. “Books? And reading father, that’s Donnie’s thing.” Splinter smirks and tosses him “The Joy of Sex” video. “My son these are about the human female body and pleasuring one, also on how you can please each other. I know you and your brothers are able to find the occasional Playboy, but that only gives you a limited view. Please understand the words, watch the video and learn. If you have any questions, please come and talk to me or even April. Because of your size, you will need to make sure Immogene can trust you and is prepared for you. Splinter clears his throat and hands Raphael the books. “Good luck my son.”

A couple of days later Immogene was heading to the art gallery. April was going with her, and Leo had asked her to make it a late appointment so Raph and Mikey could follow as a precaution. Leo wanted to go himself, but Casey had told him about a rumor he’d heard at the station that a big robbery was going to take place and wanted his and Donnie’s help.

Shredder watches Immogene take her next shipment of art into the gallery. He’d known she would be going tonight because the curator had called him letting him know, in case he’d wanted to see the new pieces. From the moment he saw her on the article he’d wanted her. He would keep her in his personal slave and she would serve him for the rest of her life. His innermost thoughts were interrupted by a gurgling noise.

“Shredder, please…she was fighting us and I threw the star just to try and stop”… the gurgling increased as Shedder pushes his blades further into the idiot's stomach. He glances back towards where he last saw the woman. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the happy orange fellow and the red-masked devil watching from a nearby rooftop. “Damn Turtles always where they are not supposed to be.” He takes one last glance at the foot who slowly bleeding out on his blades. He couches down and slowly pushes his blades the rest of the way in. “Arrrraug!” He suddenly screams. “I want her and I want her not damaged you fucking fool!” He tears his blades out, flinging blood and gore across the rooftop. “No matter.” he thinks to himself. “The turtles saved her, but they saved her for me, I will get her on the night of her show.” Shredder disappears into the night.

@devilsnevercry1388

[tmnt22]

Truth or dare Pt.4 (BayverseLeo! x Reader)

Truth or dare Pt.4 (BayverseLeo! x Reader)

Leo came back to the lair right before midnight. He closed the door slowly for it to not make a loud noise, he felt like someone was watching him. He turned to see Raph waiting for him on the couch.

“...?”

“...”

“..what?”

“Oh nothin’.”

Leo proceeds to walk away but:

“..Actually I wanted to talk to you about somethin’.”

Leo rolls his eyes, he knew what was coming next. He turns to face Raph:

“Okay, about what.”

“About Y/N..are you two like a temporary thing or?”

“What? Why-“

“Answer.”

“Well I don’t know, we haven’t had that conversation yet I-... why am I explaining myself to you? Why do you care?”

“Cuz if you guys end up being like a serious thing or whatever, she can expose us to danger if you break up with her or somethin’.”

“She would never do that Raph.”

“How can you be so sure of that? Ya don’t even know her enough to be a serious thing...”

“...But I know her enough to know she’s not dumb, she knows there will be consequences if she exposes us to danger..I mean, why would she? You know?”

“Why do you trust her? What makes you think she won’t get whatever she wants and leave ya after that?”

“Raph you’re starting to make me feel a little paranoid...”

“That’s cuz deep inside, you know I’m right.”

“No Raph. I don’t know why but something tells me to trust her..”

“😒”

“Besides, we’ve known her for more than a year now and she never exposed us. Why would she do it now?”

“I guess...”

Leo proceeds to walk towards his bedroom. Raph stops him by grabbing one of his shoulders.

“Would you leave this family?”

Leo turns again to make eye contact with his brother.

“Never. If me and Y/N end up being something more then she’ll have to be a part of our family because I’m not going anywhere.” Leo smiled.

Raph smirked back.

“Goodnight brotha”

“Goodnight brother”

~The next day~

*Y/N’s walkie talkie sounds*

“Who’s this?”

“The guy without a phone using a walkie talkie to talk to the prettiest girl in New York?”

“Oooh you must be Leonardo the fearless ninja.”

“Listen. I have something planned for us”

“Really? Me too.”

“So Donnie told me there will be a meteor shower tonight-“

“Rooftop of my apartment. 10 pm.”

“Perfect.”

“See ya”

“See ya”

~10:20 pm, the rooftop of your apartment~

Leo was late due to a pointless argument with Raph.

Finally you see him climbing up to where you were.

“I was starting to worry something might have happened to you” You pretended to be mad as you crossed your arms.

“Sorry I’m late, let’s say I had some issues to deal with back at home.” He explained as he unbuckled the belt that held his katanas and left them carefully on the ground. He didn’t need to have them on his back while he was with you.

He sat down next to you and reached your face for a kiss.

“Okay, I’ll forgive you then” you said as you kiss him back.

“You wanna talk about what happened at the lair or?”

“Actually yeah.”

You laid down completely on the ground, he did the same but sideways since he couldn’t lay flat on the ground because of his shell. He rested his head on one of his arms, cupping one of his cheeks with his hand as he began to vent.

You listened closely.

“I just feel like he doesn’t listen to a word I say, no matter if we’re mad at eachother or not. Is like he doesn’t respect me? He doesn’t even try to understand my point of view. Sometimes I feel like he doesn’t trust my decisions, like don’t get me wrong I know he trusts me because we’re brothers. But at the same time he doesn’t trust me. Am I explaining myself?”

“You are yes.”

“Good. And even last night.. maybe I shouldn’t tell you this..”

“What? Don’t do that! You started it now you finish it. Just tell me”

“I just don’t want you to be weird with Raph if I tell you.”

“Whatever you are going to tell me I’ll pretend that you’ve never told me.”

“*sigh* so... Raph was waiting for me when I went home and he asked me questions about us. You know..um, like if we were serious or not and how if we were, you were gonna expose us to danger and all of that-“

“Raph really said that? I thought he trusted me after all this time..”

“Y/N, don’t take this personal, you know he has trust issues with anyone that is new”

“Yeah but it’s been more than a year now-“

“Y/N what he’s afraid of is me leaving them for you or something like that”

“That would never happen. Like I wouldn’t even let you do that.”

“I know, that’s what I told him. He was fine for a second but I guess he went to bed and started overthinking again because as soon as he woke up he was all angry again..I don’t think he believes me and that offends me a little...why does he think so low of me sometimes?”

“I think he’s overthinking it so much that he doesn’t see that you would never do that, he’s thinking about the very low chance of the ‘possibility’ of you doing that and he definitely believes you but he doesn’t trust me so he thinks I’m gonna manipulate you into doing it or something”

“He thinks I’m dumb then.”

You giggled.

But he stared at you all serious. He was seriously worried of his brother thinking he’s dumb.

“He knows you’re not dumb. But he knows you’re too kind sometimes and if you love someone you would do anything for them. He’s trying to warn you in case I had bad intentions and use your good heart to my advantage and take you away from him, you know?”

“And how do I make him understand that I’m not even easy to manipulate.”

“He’ll have to see that, with time.”

“I told him that I trusted you, which doesn’t happen very often.”

“Remember at the beginning when you didn’t trust me?” You laughed.

He smiled quietly listening to your laugh.

“Everytime I was with April in the lair you would be in the background like: “😑”

You laughed again.

“Heyyy, I just thought you didn’t like me. You would hug Mikey or Donnie but you never hugged me, can you blame me?”

“You just had this vibe of the “eldest” you know? You were kind of intimidating at first. I thought you were gonna be like Raph or something. In my mind I was like ‘if I hug him he’s gonna think I’m weird’”

He smiled.

“No I wouldn’t think that?? You wanna know that one moment I thought you were kinda weird?”

“Oh. So you did think I was weird at some point?!”

“Remember when we all came home after patrolling the city that I was so tired that I just went straight into my bed?”

“Oh yeah, yeah! The night I slept over with April and you didn’t even know I was there!”

“Exactly. Well, in the middle of the night I woke up because I was so hungry. I was obviously in underwear and the first thing I find is you being awake inside the pool-“

“APRIL WAS IN THERE TOO OKAY? She just wasn’t there when you were there.”

“I know but at the moment I didn’t know that. So I just find you there. In our pool, being the new one. I swear I just thought ‘the audacity.’”

He began to laugh after you wheezed.

“Oh gosh Leo stop it”

You covered your face with both of your hands. Le cringe.

“And I- ha-HAaaa! I just said ‘oh. didn’t know you were there’ and I went back to my room to put some pants on.”

He laughed out loud mid sentence.

You loved his laugh, his real laugh. He always laughed with a long ‘haaaa’ at the end of every laugh. Everytime. It was hilarious.

“I’m gonna confess you something though.”

“Go ahead”

“Later that night I thought about how hot your legs were, my mind was like ‘he has good legs for a mutant turtle.’”

He smirked.

“I know you turned your head to check my ass out too.”

“Oh nooooo”

You covered your face again as you wheezed.

“Oh yeah. I saw how quickly you turned your head away and again I said to myself ‘the audacity of this woman.’”

“Dishonor on me indeed”

“I mean don’t get me wrong, I was flattered that a girl had to turn her head to give me a second glance-”

“Leo you’re not conscious of your perfect ass-”

“Y/N, look!”

He exclaimed pointing at the sky

“Wow it’s so beautiful, there’s so many stars!”

“And how did I manage to have one next to me right now?”

You both made eye contact.

“You’re the cutest”

“I guess I’m too cheesy today”

“No, don’t say that. I was about to say that your eyes shine just like them”

“...”

“...”

“Ugh” “bleh”

“What did you do to me? I’m cheesy now. I’m starting to sound just like Mikey”

“The audacity.”

“I meant it though.”

“Me too!”

“You know as soon as I started to know you I knew we were gonna get along”

“Oh yeah, same here. As soon as we started saying the same sentences or having the same reactions to almost everything”

“Remember when you defended me randomly when Raph was joking about me only doing ‘boring Leo stuff’?”

“Um...Oh yeah!, when you decided to spend your day off reading ‘on the art of war’?”

“Yes ma’am. When you said ‘at least he knows how to read’ I’ll admit that at that moment I said to myself ‘You know what?, I like this new girl’”

“You know. Now that I think about it, we did become close after that.”

Leo smiles while looking at you and nodding his head yes.

~🎶After dark-Mr.Kitty song suggestion🎶~

“By the way”

“?”

“About what you said before about not knowing what we are...what are we?”

“Oh if my life was easier I would have asked you out already.”

“What makes it difficult?”

You knew exactly what made it difficult but you just wanted to hear him say it with his words.

“Well. First, I don’t want to put you in danger. Second, I don’t want to interfere in your future, like for example, if you want a family... I’m afraid I won’t be able to..you know.. it’s biologically impossible. I trust you and know you well enough but I want to know you even more and trust you even more, I want to make sure you don’t put my family in danger either. Third, a part of me is afraid of what your family would think of me, I don’t want to be the reason why you stop talking to your family. Fourth-“

“Leo. what if we don’t tell people other than your brothers that we’re together?”

“Y/N..the devil never sleeps, my enemies will become yours, they observe us all the time. If they see me a lot with you, they’ll come for you.”

“What if instead of you coming here I go to the lair instead. They can’t track us down there thanks to Donnie.”

“I kinda hate myself for letting go, the fact that I kissed you that day I exposed you to all this sh*t...”

“Never say that again.”

“It’s true. We shouldn’t have done this.”

“But guess what? We did. And I don’t regret any of it because at the end of the day I have someone that understands me like no one else. We’re both the eldest of our siblings, we both are into martial arts and we have to deal with a bunch of responsibilities-”

“You could find a guy that has those qualities, New York is really big-“

“Life already gave me you though.”

“...”

“Can we just try?”

“Y/N if this doesn’t work out is gonna hurt even more.”

“But at least we’ll know we weren’t meant for eachother, that’s better than never knowing what we could have been.”

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to give you a normal life, that kills me...”

“So, what if I go and date other guys? That wouldn’t ‘kill’ you?”

“If you’d be happy, it wouldn’t.”

“You’re lying.”

“I already have feelings for you Y/N, I just want you to be happy.”

“Well, I have feelings for you too. What do we do then?”

Leo observed how you looked at him, so closely and expectant. He just wanted to kiss you at that moment but it wouldn’t be appropriate.

“I think we both need to think about this through...”

Leo always broke his own heart in order to do what’s right.

“I know you, and you don’t want this..”

“Of course I don’t want this, I want you. But I don’t want to put you in more danger. I want you to be happy and I’m afraid I’m not the right guy to make you as happy as another man could.” His felt how his throat became a knot.

“Leo I’m not letting you do this..”

“Then..don’t let me do this. Because I’m about to do it-“

You pulled him in for a slow passionate kiss, and for the first time in his life he felt how your love feels like. He was hurting though. He already felt guilty of putting you in danger.

He was a ‘listen to your brain’ guy but maybe just this time he would make an exception. The thought of you with another man filled him with jealousy, not the kind of ‘who’s more attractive than’ the kind of not being able to provide you the happiness another man could.

The excuse of ‘let’s just try’ was enough for him to say yes. Even if you weren’t going to be with him forever, he could have you for a little while.

As he kissed you back you shed a tear which made him stop the kiss.

“Y/N?”

“No, don’t stop, I’ll be okay”

You whispered as you kissed him again.

You wanted to stay there forever.

But he stopped the kiss again

“I’m sorry for all this negativity, for overwhelming you-“

“No, you’re right. That’s why it overwhelms me..”

“But you’re also right in something, there’s nothing wrong with trying, but. We will only see eachother at the lair, nowhere else.”

“Yes of course”

The way you said it, the smile after you cried. He had to kiss you again.

Things led to another, the kiss became a makeout session.

As you guys were making out, he stopped abruptly.

“I have an idea” he smirked.

“That face means no good.” You raised an eyebrow with a smile.

He smirked harder.

“You weren’t afraid of heights, right?”

“Uh, no?”

“Awesome. Grab on then.” He said as he got up from the ground and offered you a hand to help you get up from it.

Next, you jumped and wrapped your legs around his waist with the help of your arms around his neck. Immediate sexual tension. You both smirk.

Leo grabs your hips and pulls you in even closer.

“Just had to make sure you don’t fall while I jump around, you know?” He winks.

“Riiight. That’s totally why.”

You rolled your eyes playfully.

He began to sprint and when he got to the edge of the rooftop, jumped.

You squeezed your eyes close due to the sudden adrenaline rush as your hair flew upwards.

Next thing you know, he was climbing up the Chrysler Building.

“Woah, Leo I’m starting to feel light headed”

“You okay? I can stop if you want me to”

“No no, don’t stop here just climb all the way up. I’ll be fine, I can handle it.”

“Promise me Y/N, that you won’t let go of my neck.”

“I promise. just go up, come on.”

As he kept climbing up you felt the need to laugh of the situation. You were so excited to be in the Chrysler but you never thought the sensation was going to be this strong. It made your stomach feel weird.

After 10 minutes he reached one of the eagle heads of the building and laid you down right in front of a metal railing so you could lay your back against it.

As soon as your back hit the metal railing you began to laugh with wide eyes.

Which made him smile widely.

“LEO! I’M ON THE CHRYSLER BUILDING!!!! WOOOOOH *sigh* this is crazy..”

“Pretty cool, right-“

You interrupted him by pulling him into the most passionate kiss you’ve ever gave him.

When you let go, you closely looked at Leo’s face, his eyes always betrayed him. His eyes portrayed a hint of innocence mixed with tiredness. When he smiled, wrinkles formed on the outer corners of his eyes.

“Thank you for taking me up here, capitán.”

You whispered as you squeezed both corners of his lips together, which always made him turn his head away and smile really widely.

He lowkey blushed.

“You know, sometimes I come here to relax. When I want to be alone.”

He said as he sat down right next to you wrapping an arm around your shoulders.

“I thought you would like this spot as much as I do”

“Of course I do! I’m glad I didn’t pass out”

“I know! You would have missed this view.”

You finally got used to sensation of being up there and decided to sit on Leo’s crossed legs, grabbed the belt that held his katanas with one arm and pulled your head and upper torso all the way back, to feel the wind and to see the skyline upside down. To feel alive.

“Hey! Y/N you gotta warn me before doing something like that-.”

He quickly held tight the hand you used to grab his belt, but he interrupted his own self. Mesmerized by the way you smiled, the way the city lights lit the skin of your collarbone, the way the wind messed up your hair. He smiled to himself.

You felt Leo uncross his legs, slowly getting up which made you hang in the air higher. You smiled.

Leo pulled your hips slightly upwards to make you pull yourself up again.

You slowly did so, as your hair went back into place, messy.

When your eyes met his, you both felt a sudden bond. A strong bond. It made you breathe faster.

In both of your minds, the same word popped up.

~ ソウルメイト~

Leo’s eyes light up and he immediately hugs you. You do the same.

“Leo? Did you feel what I-“

You whispered, still skeptical of what just happened.

You just felt him nod his head.

“Leo.”

“Huh?” he whispered with shaky voice.

“The sun’s coming up...”

[totallytubulargirl]

Tmnt Loveboat- Chapter 2: Mikey/Harmony

Authors Note: Sorry it took me a while to publish this. I was two pages in and decided to rewrite the whole thing haha. Enjoy. 🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑 Mikey, Raphael, and Harmony all tiptoed into the lair, being as quiet as they could. "Hey guys." Said Donatello, appearing behind them, making them all scream in unison. "Who's that?" He asked pointing to harmony. She turned around and smiled sheepishly. Mikey spoke before she could, "This is Harmony, we saved her." He said quickly, almost tripping over his words. "And so we had to bring her down here." He smiled, trying to be convincing. "We had to or she would've died." Raphael rolled his eyes at Mikey's lame excuse. "She's Mikey's girlfriend." Raph commented. Donatello's eyes widened. "This is HER?" Harmony put her hand on her hip and stuck her leg out. "So you've heard of me huh?" She said, stealing a glance at Mikey, a smile spreading across her face. "I wish someone would've told me about you guys." She walked up to Donnie. "Nice to meet you." She stuck her hand out. "Harmony west." Donnie reluctantly took her hand in his, shaking it slowly. "Donatello." Donnie looked at Raphael and Mikey, waiting for someone to provide an explanation. Raph just avoided eye contact, and Mikey shrugged his shoulders. Suddenly, they heard the door slam, footsteps walking down the hall, and then there was Leo. They all stared at him expectantly. Leo was confused for a split second before realizing there was a human girl in the midst of them, who was not April O'Neil. "Who is this?" His voice low and almost deadly. Raph stood in front of Mikey, interrupting whatever he was about to say. "It was the only way to save her Leo." Said Raph, knowing he could handle Leo's anger, unlike Mikey who would crumble and bend at Leo's will. He hated making any one unhappy. "You weren't there to make the call so we did." Leo glared at Raph, before moving around him to approach harmony. "Harmony west." She said, introducing herself again. Leo didn't shake her hand, instead keeping his katanas ready at his side for the intruder in his home. "Keep her under control." Leo said, not breaking eye contact. Harmonys face twisted. "I can keep myself under control," she snapped her fingers. "Thank you very much!" Even Raphael was shocked at her defiance. Mikey stepped in front of her putting his hands up in defense. "She's cool Leo." He protested. Leo shot a look at Mikey before walking towards his room. He stopped, sheathing his Katanas as he spoke. "I hope she's worth it." Harmony stared at Leo in a weird combination of horror and anger. "Ok wow you're cool!" She blurted into the silence, waving her hands in the air. Everyone watched her, mouth agape, eyes wide open, shock showering their faces. Mikey quickly stuck his arms out, to keep them apart, "Yes sir." Said Michelangelo jokingly. Leo walked away, rolling his eyes. As soon as Leo was out of earshot the turtles erupted. "I can't believe that just happened!" "Did you see her?" "What the hell, that was crazy!" All three brothers spoke at once. Harmony was relieved they weren't mad at her for standing up to him. "You said that was Leonardo?" She asked. "What's his issue?" Mikey smiled, "He just likes being angsty is all." Harmony rolled her eyes. "So can you guys give me the grand tour now?" "Why not?" Said donatello. Mikey threw one arm over harmony, leading the way. She laughed and blushed as Mikey showcased the lair, making jokes wherever he could, his brothers following closely behind. Harmony was so impressed with what Donatello could do with such an outdated space. "Wow Donnie, you connected internet down here too?" Donnie smiled, glad that someone was asking about his technical miracles. He pushed his glasses up his face. "Well," he chuckled. "I actually just hacked into the internet companies mainframe and since there's so many buildings with internet on top of us, it was just a matter of extending the reach." "I don't really know what that means but wow!" She looked around, wondering how many hours Donnie had put into making their home perfect. "Yup," interrupted Mikey. "My bro here is a technical genius." Donnie was blushing at all the flattery and praise he was getting. "It's nothing really." He waved them off. "Obviously some of his smarts have rubbed off on me." Harmony smiled. "Oh yeah?" She asked. "What's the square root of 64?" Mikey stopped to think for a few minutes. "You know that's just not fair." "8 Mikey," said Donatello. "It's 8." Mikey shrugged, "At least I still have my looks." Raphael shoved Mikey. "Says who?" Harmony was enjoying her time with the turtles, "You guys should really have people over more often." She commented. "See, I'm always saying that!" Exclaimed Mikey. "People would love you guys!" Mikey beamed at harmony. "I mean don't you guys think so?" "I've always said so," Mikey turned to look at his brothers. "but they always told me I was crazy." "Just because you found one human that happens to be over the moon with you," interrupted Raphael. "doesn't mean the rest of 'em will" Harmony furrowed her eyebrows. "Ok negative Nancy some of us will!" She looked back and forth between the turtles. "In fact," Mikey could see an idea forming behind those beautiful brown eyes. "Halloween is next week and there's a party I was going to," she waited for them to understand what she was saying, but they all just looked at her, waiting for her to finish her sentence. "You guys should come with me!" They looked at each other, waiting for someone to answer. "I'm down!" Said Mikey "I suppose we could..." Donnie trailed off. "Whatever." Said Raph. Harmony smiled. "So I'll take that as a yes from all 4 of you!" "I don't think Leo will be coming babe." Mikey shrugged. "Sorry he's not the partying type." Harmony pouted. "Well, invite him and see what he says." Mikey felt like he could convince Leo to come. "I hate to say this," she replied. "But I should get going some of us actually work in the morning." She joked. "We'll walk you home!" Offered Mikey. "Go by yourself." Spat raph. "Stay out of trouble." Said donatello, waving goodbye as they walked away. "Be home soon." Mikey yelled back at them, as he shut the door, leaving his brothers behind him, and the world with harmony in front.

[twilightpony4]

Homefront: 33. Needed Me

It just wasn’t sitting right with him. Donnie was spending most of the morning dwelling on the thought. Even with a nice laptop propped up by his stomach and knees as he lay in his bed didn’t take him on an internet escapade as he recalled the message Venus had given him last night. “Mona!” The searching turtle trotted around their home. His first sight was Raphael, who turned around from the couch. It was weird seeing him at this hour in the morning. Usually he’d be up in the earlier hours and continue yawning contagiously until he took a power nap. Strange it was since he’d changed his habits. There was no tired look in his eye, even with such a distance away. Raphael, without a word, threw a thumb out behind him to the left. The seeking turtle bent his torso forward to see where he was directing him to. Sure enough he was right when he saw the lizard girl sitting in the base of the water slide. Without the old tub, the slide was a fun substitute to bathe in (but now they had to take a bath in their swim trunks without a simple curtain for privacy if the girls were to stumble in ((they have to change in one of the empty rooms)).) The turtle’s shoes scuffled against the floor. The lizard lady was almost fully submerged. Her back leaned against the wall with her arms outstretched along the rim. Having the water just below her eyes did not alarm her as she relaxed and held her breath. “Mona,” she heard Donnie’s voice and opened her eyes to see. He advanced towards her, hands shuffling and fiddling with one another as he came closer. “you're decent?” He asked. Yes, the girl was wearing a suit of her own, but she just looked so peaceful that he really didn't want to disturb her. But, he had to. A few bubbles emerged from her about. Mona sat up from the water. The fading sounds of the water slipping down and splashing back into the pool lasted a few seconds. “As decent as it gets.” She shrugged while smiling. Oh, good! She's in a good mood! “What do you want?” “On the phone, Venus told me some things off the record. Normally, I'd let it slide, but now I think this is a little bigger.” His voice was small. He probably didn't want Raphael or a snooping Mikey to overhear their conversation. Mona scooted in closer to him. “Just tell me.” She nearly whispered. The turtle was about to open his mouth, but then stopped. He appeared to be reassessing himself. “I don't know..” His brown eyes drifted off to the pool. What was he going to do? “D?” “‘Cause, what if I'm just overreacting?” He whined, not directly to her but more towards himself. “D?” She sang, very sassily. “But, what if I'm wrong about the overreacting and it actually ends up true? Then-!” He was cut off, but not with words. A lizard hand gripped his wooden necklace. Pulling it abruptly, it completely crooked his glasses as she kept him close. “D, I'm gonna snap your Beats of you don't spit it out!” Her words gritted through her teeth. Donnie didn't notice but he was making quite a scene. If it had gone any further, he probably would have gotten a broader audience. Most likely two broad audiences. With an understanding, she released her grip. Donnie, slowly, lifted his torso up. He kept his hands up in a surrender in order to not further lay alarm the submerged lizard lady. “No need to get hostile!” He half-joked, voice cracking. Mona raised a brow. They spoke ‘speak’ to him before things could really start getting hostile. Nervously, he swallowed a lump in his throat and tried to regain his thought process to explain. His crooked glasses were readjusted just above the slim bridge of his nose. Deep breath. “She said she found a note from the Foot member she apprehended. If I recall her words correctly, she's inclined to find clues of what may be happening over there. As her sister, I came to you to see what your thoughts on it were.” There! Like a bandaid! That wasn't so bad was it? Well, except for that potential choking thing going on, but not too bad. Eagerly, he waited for her answer. She had turned away from him and looked at the slide before her. Her thoughts flowed like the water down the slide until they came to their end in the base, her conclusion. The lizard lady looked him hard in the eye. “We got to get over there.” She spoke evenly, like an affirmative order. Donnie took a relaxing breath and nodded his head in agreement. “If that's what you want.” “Sounds to me, that's what you want too.” “I'm just concerned. Venus’ my best friend and Leo’s my brother. I'd hate for either of them to get hurt.” Her lips curled into a half smile. Shortly, Moma lifted herself out of the pool. Large quantities of water shed down from her legs and spilled on the concrete around her. Splashing water and smacking sounds came from her webbed feet as she moved towards a medium sized drain. Mona took her towel and began wiping herself dry while the rest of the water dropped into the drain below. “That's why we're headed to China.” She cracked a smile as she flipped her hair foreword. With the majority of her body dry, she placed the towel over the top of the back of her head. The majority of her hair could not be contained, but that didn't stop her from twisting it around her head and knotting it up like an Erykah Badu turban. “But, when?” Her question lingered as she leaned against the side of the pool, hands gripped to the edge. “Surely enough, not a lot of planes leave from New York to where we need to go.” Donnie nodded in agreement, repetitively fiddling with his hands. “Venus and Leo were lucky on that one.” The two stood there in thought. How were they going to get there? I mean, like Mona said, how many planes are set to at least fly over such a rural area across the globe? Then, it hit him. He recalled some information he learned from a certain brunette friend. His “Ah ha!” moment sprang a small scare from the mutant girl, who had a hand over her heart to calm it down. “I think I know someone who can help.” It didn't take much to convince Splinter to let them go. Although he was more than unhappy of letting them go topside, after nearly two years of doing so, he would allow them to help their family across seas (besides, we all know that rat could use a lot of alone time). It also didn't take much to convince the family either. Raphael was down because he was finally able to go somewhere and not be sneaky about it (and take people down in his own natural style). Obviously, Mikey was down with everything; he wanted to see a new world, of course help out his family, and look at some fine mushu. Y'all catch my drift? Mikey wanted to see some authentic Chinese mushu…. Still don't get it? Girls, people. He wants to see some cute Chinese girls (why do I bother sometimes?.) At the movement, the teens got to the airport, the same airport they dropped Leo and Venus off at a while ago. Underground, they looked up at every drain grate, looking for one of their allies. It took some trial and error, but you obviously couldn't miss that stupid grin of his that smiled down at the grate. At the right spot, Donnie reached up and pushed the grate aside along with Vern’s indecent help. It was still light outside, so they had to remain stealthy. That didn't help much since Vern was paying particular attention to a drain. “This our ride?” Mikey stood on his toes, bumping people away as his big blue eyes fixed upon the jet before them. Raphael did his best to tolerate his little brother who was literally beginning to climb on his shell to see better. “Yep!” Vern threw a thumb back at it along with a slight turn of the head. “She's all gassed up and ready to go!” The grown man sang. He stepped aside and held his arms out, presenting the machine to them. “All aboard!” All four of the teenage mutants shushed his enthusiasm, rather annoyed that somebody may become suspicious. Becoming aware of the situation, he quieted immediately and caved in on himself. Left, right. Nobody was a around. That was lucky. Learning his mistake, he left the grate to open the jet door as wide as he could. “Come on!” He whispered, rolling his wrist in circles. Donnie stepped up first after scanning the area. It was somewhat dark for the sun began to want to sink in the horizon and Vern assured them that there weren't any camera angles on this side of the craft. It should be safe enough. The nerd made a mad dash and flew up the steps in two leaps, using the most of his leg extension. One by one, each mutant followed procedure until each and every one got on board undetected by outsiders. Swiftly, he shut the door behind him, containing the four teens and himself inside of the aircraft. The jet was small, but not small enough to entertain the crew. It was a sight to see as the children’s eyes bugged out, checking out the features of the jet. It was like a common plane; nothing exciting. Yet again, it was hard to forget that these kids wouldn't have had a previous experience being in the passenger part of it. It felt like they were in a movie or on a tv show. Immediately, Mikey tried to look for the attendant button or the one that drops down the breathing masks. His brothers ridiculed him, calling him childish as he did while they sneakily tried to find it themselves. “What did April tell you?” Raphael stood up straight as he watched Vern lock the main door. “Something about Foot and China.” He grunted until the door shut up tight. The keys in his pocket jingled as he fished for them. “If there's any Foot related crime, I want to be involved in some way so it doesn't seem like I'm pushing the envelope when I say I saved China from the Foot too. It'll be good for my image.” He took the key and pushed it into the keyhole, smirking as he spoke. A little twist and he opened up the cockpit. Hands kept in front of them, the teens shyly peeked in for their large bodies did not allow them to be in their all at once. Besides, they were perfectly content blockading the door, trapping Vern in the pilot’s chair. “I didn't know you could fly a plane! Why were you keeping it from your favorite turtle?” Mikey exclaimed, checking out all the cool buttons he wanted to touch. The man shook his head as he placed his large headset where it needed be. “You're not my favorite turtle.” He answered unapologetically. Kids or not, they rarely treated him like an adult, so it was only fitting that he didn't treat them so sweetly. It was, indeed, a complicated friendship. “None of you, well,” he looked up, tilting his head back until he could see three upside down mutants. “Donnie and Venus are my favorite turtles because they leave me alone.” His head faced forward again. The pilot took hold of the steering and toyed around with it, making sure that it wasn't sticky or anything. “I guess I would be leaving out Mona who's, I guess, my favorite lizard.” He nodded to himself, making sure of what he said was indeed true. The lizard in question pressed forward, almost on top of little Michelangelo. Her arm pressed down on his head, hunkering him down. The turtle pouted as he looked up at the smiling girl. “Salamander turtle, actually.” She clarified. Vern nodded in realization. “Can we get this thing moving already?” Grunts a shuffling sounded behind him as Raphael squeezed his way in the middle of the doorway. His large presence pushed everyone against the wall, but no cares were given as he gazed upon them and then to the pilot. “Leo and V probably need our help and we’re over here playing ‘Who’s my Favorite?’” He complained; his voice turning rigid. “Chill, Raph.” Vern put his hand up to show the heated turtle. Raphael huffed with a laugh. “The Falcon’s on it.” “Falcon?” Mona questioned with a smile. With Raphael nearly suffocating them, she moved herself all the way up on Michelangelo. Once leaning, she now sat on top of his shell, barely hangin on. The little turtle favored the alternative: carry the lizard lady, don't get smashed because of Raph’s large body. “Yeah. Yeah it's… It's what my fans call me, the Falcon.” “What? Why?!” Mikey busted up laughing in a shrill voice. “Because my eyes are always peeled and watching the city, hence I'm a falcon.” Vern nervously explained, using his waving hands to help him speak his mind. “That's what Hawks do!” Raph commented. “Dude! You swarm in on pretty objects, you're a pigeon.” Michelangelo added. Donatello happened to chime in as well. “Or a seagull.” He suggested, kindly. “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!” Mikey started it first and was soon joined in by the laughing teenage crew. “Real mature fellas, really.” He sang, rolling his eyes at the mocking mutants. “How could I get a private jet if I didn’t receive any special favors, huh?” The comment did not hurt them, but they silenced themselves naturally and gradually. He pressed a button. The chain reaction got the engine and motors running. “Fasten your seat belts.” He spoke in a familiar tone. On cue, the mutants disbanded from the door to take a seat. It didn't take too long since it was their first time (well, not Mona’s anyways) to ride a plane and have heard nothing but an awesome ride upwards. “Donatello.” Vern turned, voice calm. He just caught the last mutant, who turned around in curiosity. Even after being made fun of, Vernon had a welcoming smile on his face ( there weren't many of those when the mutants are around). “Wanna learn how to fly a plane?” He asked merrily, knowing fully well that the turtle would take to it. Donnie’s full lips curled into a large smile that grew as big as his eyes. “Boy! I don't know what to say!” He gasped, utterly amazed that he could be offered such a position. “What about ‘yes’?” “Yeah, that should do it.” He gave in as he lifted a leg over the seat of the co-pilot’s chair. Following the pilot’s example, he found the location of the seat belt and threw it across him. Donnie couldn’t shake that giddy smile of his. Vern took notice, smiling as well as he showed him how to begin flight. Meanwhile in the back, the other three mutants tried to find a seat to stick to when they would take off. Michelangelo was so indecisive, he didn’t know where to go. He could sit in the back, which is the best seat to some, while the front seat is also the best (he was going off of what he’s heard from rollercoaster riders). The turtle hastily made the decision to sit in the middle, off to the left side of the plane. Mona, on the other hand, wanted to seat herself in the back. Raphael came down the aisle. He kept his head low, not wanting to show his face as he looked for a seat. With Mona a seat just before the very last, he took the one right behind her, hiding himself. The lizard girl thought his actions were peculiar, but did nothing to look into it. Seconds later, the sound of the engine pumping was silenced by the walls. Mikey was growing more and more exciting as he heard it rev up. This was a moment he had been waiting for a long time. The next thing to sound was a tun coming out of the speakers installed all around the walls. Vern kept the radio on as he got going, letting it play “Needed Me” as he and Donatello prepared the flight. Michelangelo became well immersed, singing the chorus as it came on in the best of his abilities (which really wasn’t the best). Mona laughed as she listened to his performance, but it was hard of hearing. Not because he was a couple seats ahead, but what was going on from behind. Gradually, she noticed that Raphael began breathing violently in her ear. It began to irk her. “Raph, can you breathe any louder?” Her head turned around to look at the aggressive breather. Her judgemental scowl wiped off completely in shock. She tugged at the seat belt some, trying to make enough space between it and herself so she could turn and examine him. “Oh my gosh, what's wrong?” The normally solid turtle was flushed of his green hue. As pale as could be, he clutched at the seat cushions. His chest popped out of the seat from claustrophobia. So much did he want to remove his seatbelt, but alas, he couldn’t for he feared for the worst. “I can't, Oo I can't do this!” He gasped for breath. The lizard lady slumped back down into her seat only to unbuckle herself. She looked out the window, seeing the grassy field roll by slowly as Vern and Donatello got the plane rolling. Mona had to act fast, she thought. In a snug spot, she sat next to Raphael. He felt like he was being pushed against the wall when she did. His violent breathing made her scared. She took him by the hand, pulling it towards her. Hopefully by doing so, he could breath a little easier when she opened him up from his cringing activity. Thankfully, he seemed to calm down a little due to the lesser dramatic breathing, but it wasn’t enough that made either one feel okay about the situation. Instead of panting, he tried to change tactics by taking deeper breaths. As he did, he felt more light-headed than alright. “In the sky with Vern at the wheel! I can't breathe! I can't-!” His distressed words were cut off like no other. In a pinch, his breathing quieted seconds after Mona sucker punched him. He was getting too loud that Mikey could have heard him (that is if he wasn’t busy enough hooping and hollering on his own). It was tough love, but Raphael was more at peace completely out of it. With his hand still enwrapped in hers, she could feel him tensing; his head lolled until it leaned correctly against the window of the private jet. Using her free hand, Mona buckled up next to him in case he decided to wake up and freak out again. There was no need for anybody to know such a big fear of his. “Sorry.” She whispered into his ear. Raphael had no response. “Whoo hoo! This is probably like a Rollercoaster!” Mikey shouted, his hands up high in the air as the jet began to leave the ground. With no wind drag on his face, he had to imagine it was a roller coaster as it left him almost breathless with excitement and adrenaline. Raphael remained quiet in the back with Mona Lisa watching over him. The initial height of the plane reaching flying height took no time as the drive of excitement began to even out thousands of feet in the air. Mona smiled as she watched the young turtle come down from his fun high. When Vern gave the okay, he unfastened his seatbelt. The first thing her did was turn around to look at the excited faces of the mutants behind him. He was disappointed. “Wow, Raph! Missing out on the fun!” Expecting to see giggly, hyped up mutants, he got calm and knocked out. “Yeah, he's um…” She eyed his sleepy expression. “Out cold alright.” It came out passively-nervous. The young turtle’s brow rose, his eyes tracing down. “You holding his hand?” His arm wrapped on to of the headrest; knees bent and pressed into the seat. Mona looked to her occupied hand. Wierd he could see such a small detail at such a distance. “I hate take-offs.” She lied. “Raphael didn’t mind.” Then, she gave him an unknowing shrug. “How can you hate that?” She could only shrug at his unbelieving comment. With the feeble gesture, Mikey shook his head and turned back around. From what she could tell, he lay on his stomach with his legs sticking out from the aisle as his eyes looked upon the passing land below him. “Good evening Kmart shoppers,” Mona and Mikey groaned when the intercom sounded Vern’s voice. They heard him laugh distantly from the walkie-talkie. You could also make out Donnie groaning as well. “we will be arriving in unknown China field in 13 hours.” he announced. “13 hours?!?” Mikey jumped up from his seat and shouted at the speaker. Unbeknownst to him, Vern could hear him loud and clear. “Yeah, I know. I'm the one flying the plane.”