#glad i finally put it into words

[sillyandquest]

Haven't mentioned that Mutant Mashup AU in a while, might as well bring something up that I've been stewing over for ever since I saw this YouTube video by skulltrot.

It's a really good analysis on Leo and why he does the things he does in the movie. It even explains a few minor details you might've missed during a first watch, as well as a few other details that are mentioned in the series.

After watching this video I've seen Rise Leo not as an overconfident teen whose goofy for personal amusement, but an insecure kid who covers up that fact by telling jokes.

I'll explain more on Blue's character in the Au under the cut so you don't have to read it if you don't want to, but just as a reminder.

2012 gang's nicknames are:

Leo = DaVinci

Raph = Sanzio

Donnie = Niccolo

Mikey = Simoni

Splinter = Yoshi

April = May

Casey has the same name.

Rise fam's nicknames are:

Raph = Red

Donnie = Purple

Leo = Blue

Mikey = Orange

Splinter = Lou

Casey = Cass

April has the same name.

Now for Blue's character. I'm gonna focus on his insecurities here, as well as a bringing up his relationship with his brothers and cousins.

In the Au, Blue lives with his brothers and lives a few tunnels away from his cousins so there's plenty of interaction between them all. However, that also means that Blue picks up on his family's talents quickly and feels very insecure by the time the Au begins. Similar to canon, Blue doesn't tell anyone about his insecurities, using jokes to hide what's going on beneath the surface. It's hard for Blue to be vulnerable, even in front of his family. This was partially influenced by this father and uncle's relationship with each other, as well as how they treat Blue himself.

Yoshi and Lou absolutely care for Blue and don't want to see him hurt, it's just that they have so many other turtles to look after that sometimes Blue gets overlooked. He's not the only one either, Purple, Sanzio, Niccolo, even Simoni get overlooked from time to time. It also doesn't help that Blue's father has a habit of ignoring his issues through TV and other distractions. That meant Blue didn't get as much emotional availability from Lou as he should've growing up. Leading to Blue's lack of communication with his father, it just feels awkward at this point because Blue doesn't know if his dad will take his issues seriously.

Yoshi was a little different as he saw Blue growing up to be just like Lou and was worried Blue would turn out that way. That's why despite both sharing a similar sense of humor and getting along well, Yoshi was harder on Blue than the rest of his nephews. That led to Blue feeling like his insecurities were a weakness he needed to fix and feeling uncomfortable bringing them up to Yoshi.

Blue also doesn't like to bring his insecurities up to his brothers.

Blue noticed Red taking care of the family alongside DaVinci when their Dad and Uncle would fight. He understood, even at a young age, that something was wrong and that Red and DaVinci were stressed out over it. That's partly why Blue doesn't want to tell Red about his issues. He feels like Red already has enough on his plate and doesn't want to add more or feel like another burden his older brother needs to shoulder. Red and Blue do still tease and prank each other, as siblings do, but when it comes to internal issues that need to be addressed, Blue hesitates.

Purple is a different story because emotions are hard for him to get right. He tries, but Blue doesn't want to make his twin feel awkward or uncomfortable if he can help it. Even if Purple can understand being overlooked sometimes by the adults in their life, Blue doesn't feel the need to explain if it means an awkward infodump.

Orange is the closest to understanding Blue but isn't fully aware of the extent of his older bros issues. Blue is fully aware of Orange wanting to help and Dr. Delicate Touch his way into solving the problem, but Blue doesn't like how pushy Orange can be. Orange has a lot of energy with a passion comparable to his cousin Sanzio, but that eagerness to help isn't what Blue wants. Especially when he wants to protect Orange and not burden him with his issues, similar to Red.

The absolute last person Blue would explain his issues to is DaVinci. While Blue looks up to his oldest cousin, he feels inferior in many ways. DaVinci is strong, confident, efficient in battle and projects and air of safety that everyone can feel just by being around him. Blue wants to be like that but feels like he can't, that he's too weak to ever achieve that level of strength. DaVinci is pretty much the object of Blue's insecurities. That's not to say they aren't close, they both love Space Heroes and spa days. They care for each other, it's just that Blue can't help but compare himself to his cousin and other family members.

Sanzio is in a weird place though. While he would absolutely relate to Blue's struggles and maybe even offer some really good advice, Blue just doesn't explain to Zio. Blue is fully aware that Purple and Zio have an agreement between them, not the specifics just that there IS an agreement, and doesn't want to mess up with what they've got going on. Eventually, Blue will learn to lean on Zio after a talk with both him and Purple.

Simoni is similar to Orange in that Blue doesn't want to bog Simon down with his issues. Simon is fully aware that Blue's got some stuff to work out and is super go with the flow about it. He's not gonna pressure Blue into explaining something he's not ready to talk about and is totally cool with providing distractions. Blue appreciates that and spends the most time with Simoni because of it. Blue likes to divert his attention whenever his self criticism, or boredom, become too much.

The only person Blue willingly explains his issues to at the beginning is his cousin Niccolo, even the ugly parts.

Nico is calm, gentle, willing to listen and not give any feedback unless asked for it. Blue doesn't want others to find the solutions for him, he wants to find them on his own. He knows his brothers mean well, but Blue feels weak when he finally gets vulnerable in their presence. Blue wants to feel in control of his issues and Nico understands that. To others, Nico's silent presence might feel like detachment, but he's always listening and that's what Blue wants.

The Hamato's hooman friends are in a funky middle.

The Jones' definitely aren't the ones Blue would go to for insecurity assistance. Him and Cass aren't close enough for Blue to ask her for help, plus I think he'd view her as friend by association. She's a little intense like Orange so that doesn't help her case. Casey may be good at keeping a secret, but that doesn't mean that he's good at keeping a secret from his friends. Blue likes his secrets kept as such. Casey Junior lands in that same boat where Blue doesn't want to burden him anymore than he already is. I mean, kid lost everything and is considered the lone survivor of a doomed future. Maybe Blue might ask if his older self had any self care tips but just very subtly.

The O'Neil's try to get him to open up in their own ways. Blue doesn't go to Kirby or Carol unfortunately because he had a hard time leaning on adults growing up. April definitely encourages him to talk to DaVinci about his issues mean while May asks him to talk to Red. Both do their best but Blue is stubborn and stagnates a lot of the time.

[barblaz-arts]

I am OBSESSED with this animatic. The lyrics fit them so well and the uh whatchumacallit? Storyboard? It's so in character and so cuteeee

Like it's probably enough to tide me over until we get an actual chaggie duet

[mikimeiko]

Our Flag Means Death Season 2 - one gif per episode (with the first gif from their first scene and the last gif from their last scene) | Izzy Hands

[ghostwise]

Matacuervos, ch. 7 - A heavy thing Rated M, 1.6k words - cw: death, canon-typical violence, discussions of trauma, slavery, and child abuse After Rocio murders their target outside El milagro, Zevran and Hamal contend with the fallout, and with an entirely unexpected circumstance. Read update on AO3 - Read from ch. 1 - thank you @rowanthefierce for beta-reading this chapter!

Hamal sprinted down the stairs two steps at a time, leaping over the last of them. He rushed through the front door, out where the air was cold by Antivan standards, but balmy yet for him.

“Zevran!” he called out. Where had he gone?

Hamal nervously rearranged his grip on his bow, looking down the street towards the brothel—but before he could investigate, a soft, pained noise came from behind the cart, and caught his attention. He stepped carefully around the stunned horses, behind the carriage wheels.

“Nadia?”

“¡Maldito mago!”

She was on the ground, partway beneath the carriage, her arms and knees scraped from the fall. Nadia groaned as she lifted a shaking hand to the back of her head. Hamal knelt beside her and gently eased her up. He could see her scalp was sticky with blood, and a lump was already forming under the skin.

“You’re hurt,” he observed in his meager Antivan, scrambling for the correct words and wishing he had more time to piece the language together. He understood it more than he could speak it, and even that was difficult with Nadia’s rapid-fire and distinct dialect. “Not good! Your head!”

“I’ll be alright!” She waved him off. “Where is Zevran?”

“He… looks for the man. I don’t know.”

Again, Hamal’s gaze drifted in the direction of the brothel, eager for any sight of Zevran. He could not see much from this position, but he could hear a rhythmic sound, like something being struck repeatedly, like metal hitting wet stone. He didn’t have to say what was on both their minds: this wasn’t what they had planned.

“Thank you,” Nadia said softly, leaning against him. She took a shuddering breath. “We should search the carriage. Quick! El carruaje.” She repeated the words, seeing his confused look, and tapped the carriage a few times. “Carruaje.”

A new word to him, though he’d never get the damn r’s right. Hamal did as he was told. He pulled open the carriage door and looked inside. There was no translation for the soft and pitiable sound he made then, but the feeling was something Nadia understood.

“Oh… d’alen.”

He and Nadia looked in on a sleeping child. The little girl was slumped against the back seat of the carriage. She looked to be about eight years old. A sliver of blood trickled from her nose, and her small, pointed ears poked through a mess of dark curls. Besides her, a bag of supplies lay on the floor.

Nadia exclaimed something in frantic Antivan, but Hamal only understood, “Help me!”

“The spell,” Hamal murmured to himself, as he pulled the child carefully out of the carriage. “That bastard used his magic near her. But I think she’s only stunned. She’s breathing.” He looked at Nadia, though she couldn’t understand his Elvhen, so perhaps he was saying it for his own sake: “She’s alright.”

Nadia nodded, sniffling. She roughly wiped at her face, her bloodied hands smearing red diluted tears over her skin.

But it was more the shock than her injury which troubled her now. She hadn’t truly had any doubts about what Zevran and Hamal had told her, but it had all come on so quickly; just this morning she had been carrying on with business as usual. To be embroiled now in a plot against slavers in her very home was overwhelming.

Together, she and Hamal brought the child out of the carriage, and they wrapped her up in Hamal’s cloak.

The girl was safe now. She’d never go to where she was headed, or return to where she’d hailed from.

Outside El milagro, Rocio was hunched over on the ground, her cane now discarded at her side. She did not react as Nadia and Hamal joined them, but Zevran, through his pounding headache, hurried to meet them.

“You’re alright,” Zevran said, relieved. He would have embraced Hamal and kissed him, but he noticed the child in his arms and his breath caught in his throat. “Where did- was that child in the carriage?”

“Yes,” Hamal said. “She’s unconscious, but alive. Nadia is hurt.”

“I am fine,” Nadia said, hearing her name through the stream of Common exchanged between the two men. “The girl is what matters. Maker only knows, if we had not found her tonight…”

Zevran gave her a short nod, taking in the information. This was what their efforts had amounted to. They may have lost their informant. But a child was saved!

“Nadia, you both need a doctor,” Zevran said firmly.

“We need to handle things here first,” Nadia said, aiming a pointed look at the corpse. It was not her first time seeing a dead man, and yet, her stomach turned at the sight of his bashed-in face. She gestured with her hands out. “What’s happened? Who killed him?

Rocio looked up from her perch upon the blood-soaked stones. “I did,” she croaked out. “He deserved it.”

“It complicates things,” Nadia said with a grimace.

“What’s complicated about it? You say he stole that child!”

Nadia blinked at her. For a moment, she pretended she already knew the young woman; pretended she was a coworker or a neighbor she saw often. It was a skill that aided her, in her line of work. Compassion. Exercising it now, she saw pieces of the story in the painful angle of Rocio’s leg, and the fury in her wet eyes. Perhaps a reflection of herself, too, albeit one from decades ago.

“What’s your name?” she asked softly.

“Rocio Ciriani.”

“Rocio. Have you ever taken a man’s life before?”

“No.” The admission came out, low and hoarse. Rocio gazed up at Nadia, then looked at Zevran and Hamal in turn, lingering, finally, on the child. “I haven’t.”

“It’s a heavy thing. At this rate, the city guard will be called, if they aren’t already on their way,” Nadia said evenly. “But a murder at a brothel is nothing they haven’t seen before. It can be explained away. A drunk customer. A jealous lover. A rape.”

“Braska.” Zevran seethed quietly. “And what of the children he was going to buy tonight?”

He crouched over the man, staring into his face with a keen desperation, though the life was gone from him already. “Give me a name,” he urged quietly. “I know who you work with. But where do you meet them? How often? An address. A contact. Anything!”

For Zevran’s part, he was distressed. A few hours ago, his only goal had been to locate an informant, interrogate him, and kill him later; to dispose of the body in a river, or a charnel house. He’d have killed Gloria Amilcar, too, if it hadn’t been for Nadia’s involvement. He thought, also, of what he’d learned tonight about his father’s death. This had ballooned far out of proportion, and try as he did, he could not pinpoint where he’d gone wrong.

Hamal leaned in to speak to him.

“We need to go,” he said gently in the language that they shared, but which was neither of their native tongues. “The city guard won’t care about a shem selling elves to the Crows, but they will care about a dead shem with a Dalish arrow sticking out of him.”

Zevran wrenched the arrow from the man’s broken form. There was sense in his husband’s words, but his head was swimming.

“I’m not going to run,” he said, and he repeated himself in Antivan for Nadia and Rocio’s benefit. “No voy a huir.”

“I’m not asking you to,” Nadia said.

“I won’t run either,” Rocio forced out in her tear-soaked voice. “And I won’t lie to the guard. Everyone should know what has happened! What is the point if nobody knows? We have so much proof!”

“Proof or no, you will go to jail!” Nadia told her. “And still, there will be no guarantee that the guard will care, or do anything to help. What’s the point of that? I have worked this brothel for thirty years. This is how things are. A whore can be replaced.”

“The way things are must change. This is my life.” Rocio, unmoving, let out a hiss of air. “If it makes even a little bit of difference, I have to try.” There was a cold edge to her words.

“Brave girl,” Zevran murmured.

Then there was nothing more to say. There was no convincing a determined Antivan. This, he knew.

Nadia rolled her shoulders, feeling quite lightheaded. Her neck throbbed. She looked up at Zevran and Hamal, these men who had so disrupted El milagro ’s routine.

“To think, you returned without anyone asking you to, and in a single night made a mess of everything.”

Zevran’s eyes flitted to her, hurt. But she looked back at him with the strangest combination of pride and sorrow.

“Thank you,” she said, emphatically. “You came to help us, and you have. You made us aware of horrors that needed to be exposed. Leave Gloria to me; I will help Rocio turn her in. Leave Rocio to her fate, for she chose it. Now take that child with you. And go.”

Zevran rose to his feet. He exchanged a look with his husband before asking, “Where would you have us take her?”

And so the plan for the child was crafted in the mismatched pieces of Common, Antivan, and Elvhen they shared. Stitched together with a potent need for justice and a measure of patience.

In Hamal’s arms, the child slept dreamlessly. The spell had been strong enough to stun a horse and two grown adults, and it would take her time to recover her senses.

[aeolianblues]

Right?

Right??

[theblankest123]

Hey im listening to episode 26 (the bedrock) feom malevolent

Fuck

Christ

Fuck

The acting in his breakdown is so so fucking stellar such a good performance

Just.....holy shit.......... i was so distraught and disapointed at arthur (which yeah is the point) but fuck......im so fucking proud of him now. hes standing back up.

The dawn has risen once more, the new day has come. The cold is slowly thawing, and he is alive. He wanted to die, but once again, through everything, he is alive He saw himself a monster, and yet he is so painfully human. He is a broken mess, but he is back, and he is alive.

God i've missed him, i've missed the curious Arthur with a spark of caring and kindness so much. Welcome back king.

[magnapanther]

FINISHED WORK?? on MY page??? it's far less likely than you'd think. and yet, somehow, here we are. :D

(well, finished enough to post and call "done", i should say. i may yet meddle with some details when i inevitably notice ten more flaws immediately after posting :D)

good old moss knight, such a devout follower of big slug. surely no wandering knight would ever end such a noble creature's life before he had the chance to speak with a certain fellow at a nearby bench! :D

this was essentially just me testing the waters with digital after some time avoiding it, and especially colours/lighting. it's been a while since i actually tried to make something fully fleshed out like this. i don't know, i feel like it could have come out worse :)

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent images I suppose ~

[kathybluecaller]

Finally got around drawing Aioros :D

[pekoeboo]

incredibly belated birthday art, but I finally drew something to celebrate my precious boy Khalan, whose birthday was on Oct. 29th!! 3 years, aaaa!! ;A; I genuinely never thought that he would stick around this long or be such an important character to me after all this time, so I'm very grateful to still be able to say that I love him just as much now - if not MORE so - than when I first created him;;

wanted to showcase both outfits that I tend to see as his "main" look for two distinct parts of his character journey: first being his desert village outfit, referencing the part of his life where he was far more timid and scared of the world around him; where he typically used his long sleeves to "hide" himself in one way or another... a gesture of self-comfort, yes, but also so he could hide his scars.

second is his adventuring outfit, which allows him freedom and protection in combat - something he never dreamed he'd be capable of back when he first started his journey. with this outfit being sleeveless, I felt like it visually showcased how he eventually grew to be a bit more comfortable in his own skin, as he stopped feeling the need to hide his scars anymore;;

anyway. in a lot of ways, he's both someone I project heavily onto, but also aspire to be. he's just so good and pure, despite everything in his life always going wrong somehow. and I love him so much for that :'0

please do not remove caption or repost. also on deviantart

[99probalos]

siddex moments compilation (part 1, 0:36s)

[ritz-writes]

guess who figured out where they live on the ace spectrum!! :D

[sysig]

Hey, it’s not inaccurate! As advertised! (P1 | P2 | P3) (Patreon)

[imaginarypasta]

hmmm kinda want to watch a movie tonight

[emdotcom]

For years, I've been trying to put into words Why I give a single iota about Bendy & the Ink Machine, but it's such a tangled mess that no thread can be seperated -- they're all interwoven in a way that makes it hard to pick them out. The game, overall, makes me miserable, because I can see that there was love put into it, but a lot of it is thrown to the wayside in favor of a story that I think was retroactively improved by the sequel's recontextualizing of it, but is ultimately not worth the price of admission & majorly drops the ball.

It's easy to list things I don't like about it -- the gameplay is sparse, the combat is uninteresting, none of the chapters feel connected, the bugs that assault all my playthroughs & kill my saves are consistent & fill me with dread every time I open the game, the lack of thought in the contents of a chapter (chapter 3's wheel ""puzzle"" & the animatronic Bendy from chapter 4, in specifc, really grind my gears), which speaks to the amateurish & rushed way that the game was crafted -- there's a lot to hate, & it's easy to hate it. But I don't. Despite all that, I am compelled by this game, by what it's trying & failing & trying again to say.

It's really easy to understand why you dislike something. I couldn't have told you much about what I did like, in Ink Machine.

& then, I played Dark Revival. I didn't realize I liked the story of Ink Machine, until I played Dark Revival. It's a better made game, it's just not fucking interesting, to me, because it doesn't have a story worth tuning in to.

[buddy-daddies]

so ep11 huh.....