#but he doesn't deserve to DIE about it

[cumplane-forever]

imagine, shen qingqiu is found out to be a 'body stealer' and a special peak lord meeting is called to deal with the news. yqy explains the situation and very desperately wants shen yuan banished from the sect(he's not thinking straight and is also one thought away from yeeting xuan su off the mountain) liu qingge is wrestling between his inner sense of justice and feelings for sqq(because he was told that sy couldn't tell them he replaced shen jiu so is it really a betrayal etc etc) so while every other peak lord processes this information, shang qinghua pulls out a detailed chart on how exactly cang qiong sect will function without its an ding peak lord. it will be exactly like when he defected to mbj except this time he won't come back. so cang qiong sect can go to ruin<3

it doesn't matter if the peak lords were considering letting him stay or not! shang qinghua is now explaining how the demon realm has much better working conditions and pay than his current job, and yes, he does have to stand by whatever soul is in sqq's body. poor yqy, hit with the double whammy of losing both the love of his life and his secretary :( (bonus points if sqh's bullshitted explanation accidentally implies that cumplane are soulmates)

[baejax-the-great]

Really have to assume that anyone saying hector didn't deserve to die the way he did didn't actually read the Iliad

[gayofthefae]

Girl, I'm so sorry, but if you he really was gonna tell her he loved her before Argyle interrupted them, I would not want somebody to say to me

"I guess, I just, I don't know, I guess I just wanted to say that I love you."

You guess you love me? What, you don't know? Be sure then come back to me.

[moonfurthetemmie]

ok so hear me out actually. i have an idea for how nightmare could actually stop Petruccio and Gonzalo

through a series of very unusual events, Petruccio (and only Petruccio) is captured and taken to JR.

Gonzalo spends several days frantically searching for him, and eventually he runs into the Meme Squad. They think he's a little off, but when he tells them he's looking for a dear friend of his who went missing they're like "oh. that'll do it" and just accept it.

Then he tells them that Petruccio is a corrupt and they all go "oooooh. uh...do you perhaps know if people wearing gold pins with the letters 'JR' had anything to do with your friend's disappearance"

"...what do you know."

they point him to JR and tell him about Dream.

Gonzalo wastes no time in tracking this mother fucker down and attacks him. With the element of surprise and Dream severely underestimating how violent and murderous a radiant could be, Gonzalo pins him down and manages to get Petruccio's location out of Dream.

Dream isn't fatally injured, but boy did he get a rough and painful wake-up call. Gonzalo leaves him, with the vague threat of a fate worse than death if he finds out Petruccio is dead.

Petruccio's alive and mostly well. He was freaking the fuck out these past few days but aside from that and being treated like a rabid animal in confinement, he's fine.

Gonzalo breaks him out. Big hugs and apologies and shit. They find the Meme Squad again to thank the three for their help.

They end up hanging out with the Meme Squad for a while, and the pair decides that they quite like these three.

Nightmare, thinking that it's mostly common knowledge and that they'll find out anyways if they hang out long enough, mentions his and Dream's destiny bond. Upon prompting he explains what that is and is like "you were probably going to hear about it anyways, sooo"

And Gonzalo and Petruccio go "...ah. that's...an issue."

Nightmare: ...Why?

Gonzalo, tapping his chin: Well...We like you. We like you a lot. You're fun.

Gonzalo: Dream, however, needs to go.

Nightmare: Nightmare: uh

Petruccio: ...You said he's trying to kill you, though. That must mean he's working on a way to break that bond.

Nightmare: Uh?

Gonzalo, grinning: Oh, I think I have a wonderful idea.

And they leave before the Meme Squad can properly process any of that.

Gonzalo and Petruccio drop Francisco off at JR and tell him to offer help in breaking Dream and Nightmare's destiny bond. They explain everything he needs to know, but tell him that if he tries to betray them they'll know and he better fucking not.

he decides he doesn't want to find out what they'll do to him if he does, so he quietly does as he's told.

Dream finds something strange about this, but when asked Francisco's face becomes Afraid and Regretful for a split second. And then he smiles and shrugs and says "I just thought I'd see if I could help."

Something about Francisco also reminds Dream very much of Petruccio and Gonzalo, but he can't place what. it's the magic tracker they put on him btw. dream can sense it. it's faint enough though that anyone who isn't them won't know what it is.

fast forward and Gonzalo and Petruccio get a message from Francisco saying that the soul bond has been severed, and Dream is now dedicating most of his resources to finding and catching Nightmare.

Gonzalo and Petruccio crack their knuckles and start setting something up.

they're basically planning on making a big show of trying to quickly and forcefully making him a vessel for Yighraru. They're not even sure how well it'll go, but either they'll get the perfect revenge, or he will have a gruesome, painful death, or he'll be left a mere shell of his former self from the trauma. All of which is a win for them!

Either way. They set up a little stage somewhere. Dream vanishes for a few days around when they start setting that up. And then they day arrives, and the whole team comes. Bella hides off-stage. Antonio, Bea, and Lodo hide in the audience and wait for their cue. They're all in costume. They won't be recognized.

Gonzalo and Petruccio made absolutely sure that the Meme Squad would be nearby when they started.

Dream is tied up and dragged onstage. He's pretty beat-up. A crowd quickly forms, but the stage isn't easily accessible unless you frequently hop/vault/climb over 3-4 foot objects, so they mostly just murmur nervously. it helps that Gonzalo and Petruccio's faces have been on the news and no one is too eager to fuck with a corrupt and a clearly deranged and exceptionally pissed radiant.

They have their speech about how Dream was teeechnically right about Petruccio, but Gonzalo's just as bad if not worse. Also Petruccio was like this while he was still the positive spirit. They basically just poke huge holes into Dream's deep-seated beliefs about positivity and negativity while laughing at him. Publicly. There's probably at least one camera that they planted so that it'd get on the news at some point, in case no one filmed the thing themselves. It'd be no fun if there was no video recordings of their show!

Petruccio and Gonzalo realized pretty quickly after meetings him that, despite being reasonably upset about Dream's bullshit, Nightmare still really cares about him.

So, as expected, when the Squad rolls up to the show Nightmare goes "HEY WHAT THE FUCK??" and runs over to try and help Dream, Cross and Error in tow.

Antonio, the strongest, catches Cross and physically restrains her.

Lodo grabs Error and holds her arms behind her back, trying to ignore how badly Error's freaking out about being touched at all.

Bea just holds her arm out. Nightmare skids to a stop to avoid getting sliced by her fucking CLAWS and she grabs him from behind, pinning one of his arms to his body, and putting the blades on her gloves right under his chin.

Antonio and Bea mumble apologies. Lodo, not that Error can see it, slowly nods. she is also very sorry for this.

Petruccio and Gonzalo act surprised, and then go "aww, did you want to help him? After all these years of him hunting you down for the crime of being born a certain way, you don't want to watch him die? How heroic! You could learn something from him, Angel boy. A shame you won't have the chance to."

they pick on Dream some more about how fucking Nightmare just tried to come save him.

After a few moments of this Petruccio yanks Dream's head up by his hair and Gonzalo presses the blade of his dagger against his neck-

Nightmare "manages" to break free of Bea's hold, summons his spear, and jumps onto the stage, only to be grabbed by oddly familiar blue strings and yoinked mid-air. When he stops rolling he finds himself wrapped up in strings like the worst kind of mummy, almost entirely unable to move, and Bella steps onto the stage.

She kicks him (rather gently, but he still yelps) and goes "Don't you know it's rude to disrupt a theater production? Now look at you. So much for a hero."

She joins Petruccio and Gonzalo, and they start the 'real' show.

the crowd does not like the real show but they can't find it in them to turn away. Even Bea's straining to hear as much as she can.

but unbeknowst to everyone except Cross and Error, Nightmare has ooonnee little trick up his sleeve.

or more specifically. a pocketknife in his boot.

the eldritch magic being displayed and the way Dream's starting to freak out as his magic slowly turns blue isn't distracting the crowd so much that they don't notice as Nightmare trying to inchworm away and try to grab the knife. He can bend his spine and his knees and shit, he just can't move anything else. so he's just. awkwardly trying to contort his body so he can get that LITTLE FUCKING KNIFE and trying not to swear and draw attention to himself.

he manages to get it. freezes and looks back at the three trying to summon something. starts trying to cut the strings without cutting himself too badly. He gets one arm free, than the other, then his legs. As he's doing this he's trying to think of some way he can get Dream out of this. There's no way in hell he can take all three of them in a fight, and he's sure their lackeys that grabbed him and his friends are going to help bring him down. He's going to need something better than his spear, but what?

as he scrambles to his feet and looks around frantically, he is quite surprised to see the perfect weapon.

He exits stage left. and then quickly enters again and swings a metal folding chair at Gonzalo, Petruccio, and Bella's heads.

with three rather sickening BANGs, the three of them crumple to the ground. Dream slumps to the floor as well, alive but exhausted and in great pain. Everyone stares at the three in silent shock. Nightmare slowly lowers the chair and says, shakily, a little awed himself, "why did they even have this back there?"

Cross and Error wheeze and yell, loud enough for everyone to hear, "What's this?? It's Nightmare with the metal chair!"

the crowd starts laughing too, relieved that Dream is alright, and actually starts. cheering?

nightmare blinks. why are they cheering. what the hell

and then Gonzalo and Petruccio stir. Whether or not Bella survived this I'm not wholly sure, but the two spirits are quite durable.

Nightmare immediately goes "oh FUCK", drops the chair, and drags Dream's half-concious ass off stage.

Antonio, Lodo, and Bea step back and Bea's like "did...did he actually hit them with a metal folding chair?? holy shit."

Lodo signs something about being surprised that Gonzalo and Petruccio didn't account for the 100+ year-old wanted criminal having a back-up weapon and being very resourceful. They really shouldn't have had that chair.

Some people from the crowd get to the stage before Cross and Error do, and help Nightmare get Dream down. Dream's bonds are cut, a portal is made, and they get out.

While Gonzalo and Petruccio still very much want Dream dead and are really pissed about what happened, they're not too keen on fucking with any of them again after the Metal Chair Incident.

Francisco spills the beans to Dream when he gets better, and Dream goes 'oh christ. okay. do you want to stay here we can put you in witness protection and probably get rid of that tracker thing'. there may be gay shit after. maybe. too soon to know

Nightmare's face is once again circulating around the internet, but for once everyone is praising him. and he is still so fucking confused

Unrelated to the last post (joke) do you think an eldritch creature could take advantage of a destiny bond to fuck with DS Nightmare and Dream? because if yes they definitely will need extra help because Nightmare is in no shape to try and stop H!Lear and H!Puck.

The thing’s influence might be too powerful once he gets near the main sources of its power in this dimension (the rings), and when he gets there he suddenly can’t remember what he was trying to stop them from doing and just joins them

[egophiliac]

Sorry, most likely my memory being poor, but I thought Malleus' mom (don't know how to spell her name and too lazy to check how to spell it) was already an adult when Lilia ""proposed""?? Like I was always under the assumption that it was like a one-sided child crush on somebody completely out of your league you tend to have as a kid 💀

I don't think they say how old she was? although it's entirely possible I just misunderstood; my Japanese is...shaky. :') the actual line is "幼い頃に私に求婚したのは偽りか?", which I read as "isn't it true that you proposed to me as a kid?", and took as her being older than him, but not necessarily an adult (like, I was thinking of Lilia as being not quite a preteen and Mel being preteen/young teen). although I don't know if there's a connotation or something I'm missing that implies a bigger age gap, if that makes sense!

(and of course, I might also just be forgetting some other line -- if someone else knows, then please correct me! I need to know which headcanons need adjusting 👀)

BUT YEAH in a canon-y sense, Malleus is 178 and around the third-years developmentally. which makes me think that even though dragons have a way longer lifespan, they go through childhood at about the same rate as most fae (or at least the kind that Lilia is) and just kinda...slow waaaaay down once they hit adulthood. so it makes sense in my brain that he and Meleanor could've basically grown up together!

...it makes it angstier that way, anyway. :)

[cannimumsable]

btw talking about character reactions to bkg dying (i wrote the deku post several hours ago but shh) Aizawa :

The absolute disbelief on his face. And then the widening eyes. Horikoshi really had fun with that close up like my mans was really like nuh uh you are not ignoring Aizawa. The eyebrows? The wrinkles? The absolute panic and despair in this man's eyes? When he sees his student (one of the most promising and one of the best and one of the most reckless) dead on the floor?

And then the anger? The handhold, the grip on that other student that very much should not be here, that should be safe and not in the middle of a warzone with him, the panic and the sweat and the clenched jaw? I'm still and forever going insane

[blluespirit]

ch: zuko and katara setting: post-southern raiders note: very ramble-y and not my best work - mostly vibes but oh well. enjoy! (or don't! im not the boss of u)

Katara realises later that Zuko thought she would kill Yon Rah. He was ready for it, he was waiting for it. She didn't think about the expression on his face once she turned away from first the Southern Raiders commander, and then Yon Rah, but she thinks about it now. Still, he never said anything to her, even when he hung back after she walked away from Yon Rah, trying to resist a temptation to do something, say something - he still didn't say anything.

She wants to ask him what he thinks.

That realisation alone is a strange one. She never thought she'd want to seek out Zuko's genuine opinion on anything, let alone something as personal as this. Still, she knows what Aang would say - that violence was and is never an option - but she doesn't fully accept that. Ozai doesn't deserve to rot in some cell somewhere for the threat of escape to linger over everyone's heads. He deserves nothing. Only the darkness of whatever lies beyond.

Maybe Aang isn't entirely wrong, but sparing Yon Rah also didn't feel good, or right, but the thing is, she's not sure killing him would have felt any better. The more she contemplates it, the more she runs in circles around herself.

Maybe there isn't a right answer. Maybe she needed to do it just to do it at all. To see him cower in front of her and beg for his life. To remove the fear of the monster that killed her mother that settled in the back of her mind and settled there like a stone. He is not scary to her anymore. He is nothing at all.

Katara thinks about Zuko and Aang. What does it say about them that one would do almost anything to stop her, and the other would do almost anything to give her what she needed - even if that meant cold-blooded murder? Zuko let her decide on her own terms - even if he thought she'd go a different path. He still accepted that.

She can't discount that he would've helped her do it if she'd asked. He nearly broke the commander's neck on the ship getting answers from him - all for her.

It leaves her breathless in a way she can't describe; more so that he also seems content to leave this wherever Katara wants to leave it. She's sure he'd never mention it again if she wanted it to be that way.

She eventually finds him skulking out the halls of his old holiday house. There's a gaunt, haunted expression on his face that Katara wants to probe, but she backs out at the last second. His eyes soften when they see her - grateful for the distraction.

The light struggles against the drapes, leaving only tendrils of light to soften an old carpet and harden Zuko's expression. She doesn't give pleasantries.

"Do you think I was wrong?"

She expects him to answer quickly, but he hesitates.

"I think he would have deserved it."

Katara bristles. "So you do think I was wrong."

He frowns, takes his time again.

"I think you did the right thing for you. If you'd killed him, it would just be another thing to haunt you."

The fight dies out of her as quickly as it rose. She stares at him and he returns it.

"If I asked you to help me do it, would you have?"

"I - yes." He looks down at his feet, shuffling. "I've never directly killed someone. But I would have helped you."

She doesn't know how to thank him, or if she even should for such a declaration.

It's a shock to her system - as if being plunged into arctic water - that someone would stand by her in such a way. Not judging, simply carving the path. What Katara decided to do at her destination is her decision alone.

"He -" Katara starts, unable to say his name and Zuko's gaze turns sharp, as if he knows what she will say next. "- may have deserved to die, or deserved to live and suffer. The world does not suffer consequences for my action or inaction."

Zuko breathes deeply. She can feel the heat of fire brewing in his exhalation.

"If Aang can't kill Ozai..." her words soften, but the persistence darkness around them weighs them down anyway.

Zuko leans back slightly, just enough so a strand of light burns his face, igniting old scar tissue in a brilliant orange. His eyes turn to the window.

"He's the Avatar," he says. There's a pain in his voice Katara can't help but notice. "He doesn't have the luxury of choice."

[woodchipp]

talking with OMORI fans is really fun. it's amazing how these people will say "it was the woman's fault the man attacked her, the woman shouldn't have made the man angry" and then expect you to take their argument seriously

[thefirstknife]

The thing about the final lore tab is that, besides the fact that I'm devastated in ways I can't put into words, the way Saint was affected by this whole thing is unique.

This is obviously primarily Osiris' trauma that we can't really properly comprehend, but Osiris wasn't fully conscious for most of it. It fell to Saint to wait, and hope, that Osiris would be brought back and that he would wake up. There was no certainty for him there. And even before that, he watched "Osiris" being strange and distant and acting weird but obviously nobody could even begin to speculate that the person he interacted with wasn't Osiris at all, so the trauma went from there, from learning that he lost Sagira, then to the shock of Osiris being kidnapped and then the quest to bring him back and then him being brought back in a coma and then the 9 long months of waiting until he woke up.

The state of constant anxiety he experienced for almost 2 years total is nervewracking and gutwrenching. I don't think we can fully understand the impact of that on someone. And the best, or worst, thing is that Saint is infinitely patient. He is infinitely emotional and merciful and opts to be the better person and to wait and wait and wait. And hope that it can be fixed.

Except it can't. It can't be fixed. And not only can it not be fixed, but there will never be justice for it. It's impossible. There isn't a way to truly punish Savathun for what she's done. There is no relief or catharsis for Saint. While Osiris can mostly move on, Osiris did not really have to go through what Saint had to go through. Their traumas are different and Saint's is the type that no one can really understand and there is nothing he can do about it.

A younger Saint would've killed Immaru and then Savathun, 100%. But now he can't, because he isn't that person anymore. And yet, the grief and trauma remain and he has no outlet for them and nothing that can be done to enact any sort of justice. So he settles for pure rage, letting himself essentially vent that anger out, but still leave everyone alive. And there's really no true release here. He got a brief satisfaction of killing Savathun over and over, but at the end of the day, she will walk away and nothing will change and there will be no fix.

Which is why he comes back and just cries. As he said, this wasn't for Osiris, it was for him. It was his outlet for anger and nothing else. After that, there's nothing else left to do but cry. No one can really help him carry the burden of what he's gone through and besides: he's a Titan. He's the one carrying other people's burdens. Which just added to the trauma because for so long he's only cared for others, mostly for Osiris, and never really let himself fully grieve or talk about it. Saint never really processed the horrifying ordeal of constant concern for his loved one, then the realisation that his loved one isn't even with him, then the desperate search and then waiting for months and months for the hope that his loved one might wake up. Then Osiris is awake and we're forced to play allies with the person who traumatised both of them in an incomprehensibly terrifying way. Saint had no other way of attempting to make his peace with the situation.

Year of processing grief. I'm in shambles.

[ruvviks]

PLEASE DO NOT TAG AS YOUR OWN OC.

Vincent spends all his life searching for himself, searching for his spot in the world. He lives in the past and what will never be, longing for everything he has missed out on and everything he will never have. It is not until he learns he is dying that he comes to realize he has to live in the present, to enjoy life as it comes.; and despite his confusion, fear, and his regrets, he tries to live the rest of his life to the fullest, knowing very well he is living on borrowed time. OC WEB WEAVE SERIES: VINCENT "V" MAYER.

charles bukowski, pulp // by wiissa0 // loneliness for love; lovelytheband // louise glück, from 'unpainted door' // by biryuza // summer farah, i could die today and live again // tobia photographed by su yang // wake up; run river north // ruhlare // by julykings // lemonade; twin xl // ryan walker photographed by ryan pfluger // mary oliver, from 'marengo' // still not dead; dreamers // by lovelyopalite // by geloy concepcion // lemon drop; raynes // chris abani, ritual is journey // 'die milchstrasse', cover detail // louise glück, averno // i like cars; caroline kole // by cruellesummer // frances molina, o’death

[em-exceeds-change-zearu]

dw about it. he's just like that.

og images under cut:

[sapphic-agent]

Me at Horikoshi right now. What a horrible time to be a fan of Izuku, Tomura, Nana, and basically everyone that isn't Bakugou

[deltarunebt]

Well, we've gotten plenty of Spamton (which is wonderful amazing showstopping incredible-), but for the sake of fairness... What, er, changes Jevil?

When Frisk meets him, he seems genuinely concerned about the King, but judging by the fact that 1) you said he (like Spam when we first meet him) hasn't had a Fourth Wall Moment™️ yet, and 2) he used his spot in the meme to encourage overthrowing the government...

Does Jevil just find a shadow crystal? Or meet that certain Mystery Man? Or does something else happen that sends him down a weird path?

Aha my bias shows a fair bit... admittedly, its also just because I have a better grasp on Chapter 2 than I do chapter 1, though. There's more to work with and that makes it easier to work with!

As for Jevil, no, nothing like that, its actually pretty simply just.. his view of King changes over the course of his adventure with Frisk. Or, I suppose, his opinion of King changes when he gets the reality check that no, King isn't going to make an 'exception' for Frisk and is Super going to Kill Them, and also that King considers Jevil a traitor for siding with Frisk and orders for him to be locked up while he deals with the Lightner and their 'Pet Flower' .<.

Jevil is aware that King is behaving irrationally and is concerned, yes, and he believe at first his job as Jester means he needs to fix it through 'cheering up' King, more or less. Eventually he realizes that that just... isn't going to work. Of course, Spade King isn't just straight up evil, he does believe he's in the right, but just like in base Deltarune, its not something Frisk or Jevil can just change his mind on. And Jevil is especially driven to make things right in that his naïve belief that Frisk will be able to change King's mind leads Lancer to ALSO believe that, which gets Lancer in trouble (same as it does in base Deltarune.)

I've kind of been referencing the song 'The Court Jester' in my head for the mentality turn Jevil has, albeit less... intense than that song sort of implies. Jevil goes from 'kids cartoon idea of what a court jester is supposed to be' to an Actual Court Jester- that is, someone who's job is to bully the King and call him a dunce to keep his ego in check.

Jevil actually doesn't get a fourth-wall moment at all (at least, not within my current outline of things), which arguably means he's more stable than Spamton is here... albeit Spamton's fourth-wall moment doesn't actually fully sink in for him, it's just sort of a Glimpse into something more that triggers a full-scale mental break down because he's kind of been teetering on the edge for awhile. Guy already has a puppet complex, having literal strings attached to him as NEO didn't uh- help, with that.

[waitineedaname]

sqq might be the one famously known for repressing everything but it's kinda crazy to me that binghe spent 3 years in the abyss facing unimaginable amounts of gore and violence and whatnot and we know nothing about that. it's worse when you think sqq is absolutely never touching that topic either so it's never going to be brought up unless binghe accidentally lets something spill over like

sqq: ah it's so hot today! what an awful weather! it feels like I'm melting into a puddle right now, am I?

binghe, distracted by sweaty shizun: no shizun, you would've noticed if you were melting, it's rather painful. speaking from experience

sqq:

binghe: smells bad, too

sqq: hey binghe. what the fuck

SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE 😭 you're absolutely right though, whatever he went through in the abyss must have been absolutely fucked but he just. doesn't talk about it! I also wonder if part of the reason sqq never brings it up is like. because he already knows? I would assume the endless abyss was a pretty significant chunk of pidw, so he probably has some idea of what binghe went through in the abyss and also knows that binghe probably does not want to talk about it. though I suppose that then that could potentially lead to an alternative version of this interaction like

sqq, on the brink of heat stroke and not really thinking about what he's saying: ah, it's so hot today! I feel like I'm melting into a puddle right now! though I suppose you'd know all about that

binghe: w. why does shizun know I got melted once.

sqq:

binghe:

sqq: lucky guess?

[shadystranger]

soulless sam being done with the back and forth dean was having with the guy but once the guy is about to get physical he steps in between him and dean intimidating him do Not try to do that with dean It's so hot i fear

dean was rock hard here

[qoldenskies]

What do the other cc brothers' flashbacks look like? Are they like Donnie's?

sometimes, but also not really. i think depending on the circumstances all four of them are prone to freeze/dissociate, but donnie actually probably does it the least? he'll usually snap out of his shock to start, well. fawning. frantically apologizing or trying to clean up his messes. the others can just kind of go shellshocked for a while, it happens to leo and mikey a lot.

most of what they do freak out/have flashbacks to is the immediate aftermath of CL and the lamp incident (april has trauma from this too, btw!), but also donnie in distress is overall just a trigger for them, because the memories have been marred from the experience they went through post-curse. it's why they're also quickly driven to violence when someone's a threat to him-- anything to get it to stop. the response to him freaking out goes deeper than empathy (which mikey and raph already have a lot of normally) because it's connected to some really loaded, nasty memories. for raph especially his first response is to get to him, to show him that he's here. you can probably guess why.

i do think it'll influence their behavior with each other too. they're noticeably gentler to donnie and they react poorly when they think they've upset him (cc!leo freaking out in the first part of the crossover comic is a good example) but the fact that they have to ease into things like sparring is also an indicator. what used to be a bonding activity for them is really loaded and terrifying. they're afraid of their own strength and what they're capable of. they dont jab at each other as much anymore. they fear raising their voices at each other seriously. it's why mikey breaks down after his argument with leo in ch10.

leo's the best at swallowing things like this back, but if he's caught off guard he cant. there's nothing he hates more than being surprised, and it makes him kind of a nosy control freak nowadays. it's a new trait that manifested from trauma.