#it going to look like a porcupine once they're done

[imaginariumwanderer]

Happy late birthday for @98chao! Here's your complementary blueberry!

[bgech]

What's up besties? I'll tell yah, school. Kickin my ass once agian. Whatever. Double life halfslab have my whole heart, this is way more shippy than I intended, enjoy. 3409 words.

Tw for vomit tho, stay safe <3

--

Sometimes Etho will get skittish and quiet as he sinks into the recesses of the world to sulk or think or do whatever he does when he vanishes.

It seems to be happening now, which is unfortunate because "now" is the middle of a death game.

Etho was fighting off some pillagers and Joel, foolish as he was, thought it'd be funnier if he just sat by and watched. It was funny to Joel ok? Etho is perfectly capable of taking care of a few pillagers and often refuses help if offered in a situation not dissimilar to this. So Joel thought he'd be in the clear with watching his soulbound jump away from most of the arrows and keep on the offensive.

Maybe it was because they were red, maybe it was something else, but even though they never dropped below five hearts -Joel made sure of it- after Etho was done disposing of the pillagers he walked past Joel without a wink of acknowledgement. Immediately Joel stopped his teasing about porcupines and pin cushions to follow Etho into the Relation.

He was too slow up the ladder though, by the time he made it below deck Etho was gone.

It's not the worst thing that can happen, their health isn't going down so he's not in any immediate danger, but even though they have all ten hearts, Etho still got shot. A lot. Healing doesn't pull arrows out of skin, in fact it makes it worse as the arrows are now healed in, granted they're deep enough. Joel can feel the uncomfortable pulling as they're shifted while Etho moves.

He feels a sharp pain on the back of his leg, one that sends him to sit on his bed while it passes. It's not enough to take a heart away so he can't even eat to heal it. Etho's pulling out the arrows somewhere, alone, probably in the dark. Despite his nature to lurk in the deepest shadows and slink away to seep into the void, he hates the dark. Joel knows he hates the dark.

When Etho went with Impulse down into the deep dark he came back with not much enchanted gear and way too many torches. Every square inch of their base was bright as daylight, to the point where Joel couldn't sleep. He asked Etho about it a few days later and got him to confess that he hated dark spots. Still wasn't used to the new spawn patterns of all that go bump in the night.

There was another pain, this one in his shoulder, this one a lot worse. It took a few hearts and when Etho decided that healing was optional, Joel decided to find him. He was going to give him space and time to be alone, etho likes his own company more than anyone else's and is probably the only person Joel knows where it's a better idea to let them isolate. But if etho isn't gonna take care of himself he needs finding.

Now, finding etho is one of those things that doesn't happen. Especially when he vanishes. Etho does not want to be found so he will stay hidden. Joel knows this, everyone knows this. So how is Joel gonna do it? Well he's gonna cheat.

<Smallishbeans> etho's gone

<Grian> that's our problem because...?

<TangoTek> ditched ya?

<Smallishbeans> no, he's gone. like, sunk into the cracks of your server gone.

<ZombieCleo> oh shit!

<Pearlescentmoon> uh oh!!

<Grian> o no, ok, everyone stay put, stay still, joel i'll be right there

He hates to make Grian go all admin mode in the middle of a session but..well even though it's just a game Joel has become quite attached to Etho, and would like him to not be bleeding somewhere in the dark.

Grian does arrive, in all of his purple eyed glory, to ask exactly what had happened to make Etho run off into the night. At which Joel had to look Grian in his many, many eyes and admit that he was being a bit of an asshole while Etho was getting shot, at which Grian just looked..so disappointed. Mostly at Joel, some at himself, but man. A many eyed disappointed stare has a lot more power than the normal, expected, two eye experience.

Joel just feels worse when Grian sighs, rolls his shoulders, and blips away in a flurry of obstructed code and feathers. He decides to just go inside and make sure he has enough bandaids to cover for all the freakin arrow holes Etho is sure to have. So he sits there, twiddling his thumbs until he hears Grian shout something indignant from over the hills and Etho comes skittering in through a window, some arrows still in him.

He freezes briefly when he catches sight of Joel but when Grian's footfalls sound on the deck he scrambles under Joel's bed. Etho's an arctic fox but he's a sewer rat man at his core. He steals, he vanishes, he squeezes into places he Very Much Shouldn't be able to fit in. And, and he lives in the walls, in the basements of the world, so it's no surprise when he chooses to burrow underneath something when push comes to shove.

Grain climbs down the ladder, holding Etho's jacket and looking more out of breath than Joel has seen him during the whole damn game. He tosses the coat at Joel's face, muttering something about fixing his mistakes and Etho being a "slippery little shit when he wants to be". Grian then fucks off to probably fix whatever he broke chasing Etho back home.

They sit for a while in the quiet, the only sounds being the critters outside in the night.

"He's gone," Joel says to the empty air, "you can come out now, I don't bite" Etho shifts under the bed, his fluffy tail brushing against the back of Joel's ankle making him jump.

"Etho I know you hate the dark, and I know for damn sure you're bleeding all over my nice floors under there"

Etho responds with a very respectable growl.

"I know, I was mean to you, shouldn't have been," he dangles a box of bandaids below the bed frame, "I've got batman bandaids," he sing-songs, "and I'll make you some borscht"

Etho snatches the box and tells him to go away, which he does. If Etho wants privacy, then privacy he shall get. Plus he promised him borscht and like hell Joel is going back on that.

Making borscht is not a skill Joel has honed, but living with etho has made him learn how to make a decent pot. He gets through the whole process before he feels Etho pull out another arrow, this one rips at the skin more than he'd have liked to know and he hears a stifled yelp from the window.

Balancing two bowls of borscht, holding spoons, and climbing down a ladder is hard and he's suddenly very thankful that he built the Relation. Unbeknownst to everyone there's a trap door at ground level, which he uses to enter instead of breaking his neck on the way down.

Now, Etho is not a pitiful man. Though he's wire thin, impressively quiet and often alone, he's a very respectable player. He's profound in redstone, great at building and not half bad at pvp, especially in the forever vaguely mentioned "good ol' days". But looking at him now, it is hard to believe. In nothing but his trousers and mask he's struggling to reach an arrow lodged between his shoulder blades, ears pinned to the side of his head, he's really got the Kicked Puppy look about him.

"Etho," he doesn't startle, just turns to look at Joel with mistrust, backing away with his hands slightly raised, "can I get that for you etho?"

"..you actually made borscht?"

" 'course I did, you can eat it while I, y'know, make you less full of holes?"

"mm, ok, fine"

"Thank you, I'll be gentle I promise"

"You don't need to be gentle Joel, I can take a little pain y'know"

"I know just," he takes a breath, "just let me do this for you Etho, think of it like an apology hm?"

Etho's ears perk up for a moment before swiveling like he's misheard. He glances at all the corners of the room, a perimeter check, before taking the offered bowl and spoon and sitting on Joel's bed. Not his own, because it's been overturned to make a nice little cave for him to sleep in.

He reaches up to lower his mask but hesitates, throwing a glance back at Joel who's getting a cloth saturated with warm water and his ears flick back again.

"I won't look Eth, just enjoy the stew"

Etho turns away, lowering his mask and taking a sip, "it's a soup"

"Right right, my bad, soup it is. I'm gonna get this arrow out now, ok?"

"..ok"

With the help of the warm cloth and proper angling the arrow slides out without much protest. His back twitches at the feeling involuntarily but Etho's still happily eating the borscht and Joel can confirm that it didn't hurt too bad. He thought about making a comment along the lines of "isn't that better than ripping em out" but it'd do more harm than good so he keeps it to himself.

He replaces the arrow with a patch and puts a bandaid on top for good measure. There's a few other spots that Etho missed or just didn't have time to get to so he starts on cleaning away the dried blood and patching up those too. By the time that Etho's back is clean and bandaged he's finished his borscht and his head is bobbing slightly.

"You falling asleep etho?"

"Mmm"

"D'you wanna get in your cave or..?"

"..maybe." He leans back, mask back in place, and knocks his forehead against Joel's ribs, "maybe not..?"

"What's got you so clingy?" He asked as brushes his thumb over etho's forehead, sweeping back unruly bangs, "not that I'm complaining but, you've never been..well like this, I suppose"

"You're not dark"

"I'm not what?"

"It's still dark and..well, you're not" it was now that Joel noticed that etho's hands looked to be dipped in black ink, the space around his eyes having the same treatment, like eyeliner on a rainy day. "Can you stay here till it's bright again?"

"Oh, Etho of course I can, just, ok just give me a moment alright?"

Etho, albeit very reluctantly, lets himself be detangled from Joel, who gets up to change into something to sleep in. He also puts away Etho's empty bowl and his still full one to save for later. He contacts Grian that everything is ok, who then contacts the rest of the server saying the session can continue. By the time he returns Etho has decided that waiting up for him was overrated and inefficient. He's commandeered Joel's blanket to wrap around himself with his head under the pillow. That's right, under it.

The left side of the bed is still free and Etho did say he wanted him to stay, so instead of awkwardly trying to disturb whatever peace etho's found, he just climbs in next to him and opens his book to read. Etho curls around him and comes out from under the pillow to shove his masked face into Joel's side. Joel makes the mistake of glancing down after a paragraph only to make eye contact with Etho's best puppy eyes.

Here's the thing about Etho's eyes. They're pretty large in comparison to the rest of his face, maybe it's because of the mask blocking everything else from sight, but fact of the matter is Etho has big, sad eyes and he knows it. He uses it to his advantage at every turn, every moment he can he puts on the Sad Eyes and he'll get what he wants. This is all well and good, except for the fact that Joel doesn't know what he wants.

"What is it?"

Etho whines at him, a very distinctly not human sound.

"Do you want me to read aloud? That it?"

Etho settles back to his previous position, letting his eyes relax into the half closed state they're usually in.

Alright then, he can read out loud. Not well nobody said he was good at it, but it can be done, and if it'll keep Etho calm for the night then who's he to say no?

And though every time he reaches a character name and he has to pronounce it out loud for the first time, failing at least twice, and every time he comes across a word like "grotesque" he has to fight back the urge to say "gro-tes-que", Etho seems to be enjoying himself. How does he know? Well Etho's wrapped himself up in a little burrito roll, every part of him covered, save for his face of course, and the very end of his tail. The end of a tail which is constantly tapping away on the mattress.

As long as he's happy, Joel is happy too.

He gets through a surprising amount of the book before Etho gives it up and closes his eyes. He had been blinking lazily for the past however long, obviously exhausted from whatever run around he did avoiding grian, but trying to stay awake anyway. But now he lay still as a rock, tucked carefully into Joel's side. Joel himself is just as tired so he decides that a nap won't hurt. It's not really a nap now that it's past midnight, it's just sleep, but he has a bit of a sneaking suspicion that the Dark will be making another appearance before the sun rises.

He drifts off easily, how can he not? He's warm and safe and he's got someone curled around him, holding him gently. He doesn't dream, never has, and maybe he never will. It doesn't matter to him.

What does matter is the fact that he's been proven right. He usually likes being proven right because that means he wins, he was correct all along and they were foolish to think otherwise. He does not like being proven right when it's about the dark. They've only been through it once before, etho's first night after the warden shenanigans went down. He had gone under his bed into the cave he'd built, only to wake Joel up when he jolted awake and tried to run. Thing about having a cave for a bed is the escape routes are one way and quite narrow, so in his panic to get out of the dark and away from the warden that he was sure was right there, he ran into just about every corner and wall on his way out.

Needless to say that it hurt and combined with the pain and the noise Joel was awake and at his side fairly quickly. Joel, for all he's worth, is not the greatest at calming people down, he knows this. So in his attempt to stop Etho from suffocating them to death via panic attack, he got them both outside and made etho stare at the sun for a few minutes. It didn't calm him down at all, but the confusion of why he was unceremoniously dragged outside and then forced to look at the big ball of burning gas was enough of a puzzle to get him to breathe again. Maybe the wind and light was what did it, who knows.

It was a big win for everybody involved.

Staring at the sun, while a nice confusion tactic, hurts the eyes and is not actually recommended by anyone of any sorts of smarts. So maybe don't stare at the sun, it'll hurt ur eyes

Anyway, Joel was proven right when at around 3, maybe 4, Etho's subconscious decided that it was no longer a good idea to be asleep. Joel woke up to etho sitting up rather abruptly. In his sleepy haze he didn't realize why and was honestly just annoyed that his pillow had left him.

"Y'aright etho"

He doesn't get an answer, just a wet sounding cough, which is bad for a lot of reasons. Is it blood? Vomit? Just spit stuck in Etho's throat?

"Etho"

He sits up and puts a hand on Etho's shoulder, trying to turn him around to maybe get a better idea of what's wrong. Etho shakes his head and pulls away, coughing into his hand again, sounding worse than before.

"Bucket?"

He nods and coughs again, doubling over as it doesn't stop. Joel gets up from the bed and tries to find a bucket before Etho's willpower loses against whatever is choking him but in all his frantic searching he finds nothing but the empty borscht bowl from earlier. If it's as bad as it sounds the bowl is not going to be nearly enough, he has to find a goddam bucket, or Etho is going to drown in his own misery in front of him and, oh it was staring him right in the face the whole time.

He returns to Etho's side not a moment later and shoves the bucket under him just as Etho's hand moves out of the way and he makes a god awful retching sound. Joel looks away for common courtesy, nobody likes to be looked at when they throw up, but he doesn't move from his post next to Etho. He knows from personal experience that it's good to have something solid to lean on after a long bout of throwing up, and while the wall is there it's probably not very nice to bump into after a go like this.

So he stays while Etho continues to spit and hack into the bucket and he stays when Etho starts to cry in between heaves of sour smelling, bloody looking gunk. He stays a warm presence at his side as Etho coughs and coughs again, trying to rid himself of the Dark that's crawled inside his lungs and infected his stomach. He's there to catch him when Etho finally, finally finishes and crumples to the side. He lets etho recover for a moment before he gets up to get him a wet rag to wipe his face with. He then takes the bucket outside and burns it. And when he gets back from his impromptu bonfire he'll give etho a cold glass of water and make a show of turning around so he can drink.

"Feeling any better?"

"Mm-mm" Etho shakes his head negative

"I sort of figured," Etho huffed a laugh, "but I am sorry that whatever..that..was happened"

Etho didn't respond, just hummed a little and curled his arms around himself in a loose sort of hug. Joel could only see his eyes but he still looked like a sick dog about to be taken out back. He's still not got a shirt so Joel turns to find him one, that'll make him feel better, right? Not so exposed. A harder task than once thought because Etho likes to squirrel away all of his things into little holes and cubbies and containers all around which leads Joel to just give up and give Etho one of his own. With the height difference he was initially worried about it being much too small, but Etho's all legs and bone anyway, he'll be fine.

He dumps the shirt on Etho's head and settles himself back against the headboard, it is his bed after all.

Concerningly, Etho doesn't move for a few moments, somewhere Else to be sure, but he comes back fast enough that Joel isn't worried about him blipping away again. He stops staring at the back of Etho's head and turns his attention to the ceiling, counting and recounting the grooves of the wood, waiting for Etho to make a decision. A decision that's decided when he feels Etho tentatively lay down next to him, on his side, facing the wall. His hands are curled close to his face, which Joel now notes is uncovered by the normal mask. Instead it's tucked under the blanket, held in place by his hands with his nose exposed.

Etho's ears are back to being relaxed atop his head and his eyes are closed so Joel counts his blessings and settles in for more sleep.

--

I hate how this ends aach but I wanna post it before class is over lmaoo.

Shout out to all the people who stare at the sun during meltdowns, I'm one of u.

[adobe-outdesign]

since you’ve already done nidoking, how about the two nidorans and their evos? your reviews are really cool, and i haven’t really seen someone do em before :) it’s nice to hear opinions on design that doesn’t feel hostile or nitpicky, or overly biased

(Thank you!

Nidoking's review is over here, for anyone curious.)

This might be a Hot Take(TM), but I'm gonna say it anyway: Honestly, I think the Nidoran line should've started out as being non-sexually dimorphic, and then gained the gendered versions at either the second or even third stage. It's just weird that Gen 1 started out with 190 Pokemon and then had to be cut down to 150, and yet this line with a total of six (6) similar Pokemon made it through without any cuts.

And even putting the 'dex cuts aside, I can't help but feel like the entire line being dimophic clutters it a bit. As I'll go into in a moment, none of the designs are bad; it's just more that they're really not that distinct until they fully evolve. Merging them would've also fixed the weird name issue, wherein Nidoran has the same name regardless of gender but the rest of the line has different names for no real reason.

Anyway, Nidoran is nice looking, even if I don't think we really needed both genders. I like the female a bit more than the male, though I'm not sure why. I think it might just be the whiskers--that's just an interesting attribute to give to something that's only vaguely mammalian. Plus the red eyes pop better, and the overall color is pleasant. So as a whole, a pretty nice porcupine rabbit thing.

I like that Nidorina is bipedal while Nidorino is quadrupedal. In a way, I wish they had kept that up with the final evos, with the male staying on all fours, just because it helps make the genders more distinct and overall feel more purposeful.

The designs continue to be solid, gaining more spikes and a more intense body shape. Between the two, I once again find myself liking Nidorina more. In this case, it's because the bipedalness mixed with the stockier anatomy gives it a unique flair for a middle evo, looking neither like its pre-evo or evo. Nidorino looks a bit too much like male Nidoran to be all that distinct. With that said, I think these are my favorite stages out of the line.

Also, I love the shape of Nidorina's ears, and the red eyes really pop against the lighter blue.

Nidoqueen, however, I'm a bit more mixed on. I like that it's still plenty badass looking, having a lot of the classic early kaiju-mon traits, and it's pretty distinctive from Nidoking as well. However, at the same time, it is effectively wearing a bikini thanks to the placement of its markings, which kind of screws up the more neutral sexual dimorphism the line had going for it previously.

And just some other oddities too--like, what happened to the teeth? It had them in both of its previous forms, and the weird toothless maw stands out a lot compared to Nidoking. It's especially bizarre because it did have teeth in the original Red/Blue art, look:

Also, I wish it kept the red eyes. They just popped nicely against the blue and it's a shame to see them go, especially when they further differentiate the genders.

Side note, I love this 'dex entry. Bad and naughty offspring go in the S P I N E  G A P S to atone for their sins

So overall, all of these are pretty solid designs from the kaiju era of Pokemon, but it just feels like there are a few too many of them and more distinction between them could've been made.

[spectrumscribe]

Hey!! I am in a mood and I would like to ask for some cuddle piles with the rottmnt boys. Ooh maybe like a hurt comfort thing cause one of them got injured or something in one of their fights (love those boys and they're trying their best but they aren't the best fighters out there), and like after they get home and their like bandaged up they end up piling on them (bonus points if you squeeze in some good dad splinter). thanks!!!!

i love hurt/comfort, but i think this ended up a little more fluffy than intended. enjoy anyway, and everyone please remember urban exploration is more dangerous than you’d think it is (even in our universe, lmao).

thanks for the great prompt!

“A twisted ankle, a buttful of quills, and a goose egg to the head are an impressive collection ofinjuries, bro,” Leo says to Raph. He shakes his head. “I don’t know how youmanaged those all at onc- JESUSFFFUCKIN-!Donnie! What the fuck, I wasn’t ready!”

“Sorry, thought you were,” Donnie says in monotone,absolutely unapologetic with hisapology. He drops the quill he’s just yanked out of Leo’s scales into bowlbeside them on the floor. “There. You’re all done, no more whining. Raph, holdstill. It’s your turn.”

Raph whimpers into the pillow he’s face down on. Leo rubshis own injuries sympathetically, glancing at the dozens of quills stuck in Raph’sbackside and thighs. At least Leo got out of things with just eight quillsstabbed into him; Raph went and saton the pissed off mutant porcupine. It happened something like Raph’s footgoing through a rickety floorboard, his ankle twisting in a way it shouldn’t,him falling backwards onto the tenant of the thought-to-be abandoned building, resultingin a panic/pain induced sprint right into an exposed ceiling pipe.

Sometimes, Raph is a relatively decent ninja. And sometimeshe does things like that. They’re all still in need of further training fromtheir father.

“Dude, stop smearing the blood around,” Mikey scolds Leo. Hepulls Leo’s hand away from his forearm, taking a disinfectant cloth to thebleeding divots. After they’re all clean, he delicately tapes a band-aid overeach tiny, if profusely sore wound.

Leo brings his arms close to his face, turning them toexamine each band-aid. Anakin Skywalker, Ashoka Tano, and Obi-Wan Kenobi stareback at him. “The Clone Wars, nice.”

“I’ve been waiting for a reason to break these bad boys out,”Mikey says, holding up the battered cardboard box proudly. He’s only got threeband-aids on his person, since he’d been smart enough to start hightailing itbefore the rest of them finished processing the angry cursing being shouted atthem.

“We should visit that drugstore dumpster again, they hadsome good stuff,” Leo agrees. He starts to stand and winces as Raph makes amuffled scream of pain into his pillow. Donnie and his pliers- the mostmerciless combination possible. “I’m… gonna go grab some tea and painkillers.And ice, for Raph. Anyone got requests for flavors?”

“Orange pekoe!” Mikey says.

“Sugarplum spice,” Donnie says.

“—-!!” is Raph’sanswer, which is a high pitched scream akin to a dog whistle.

“I’ll get you sleepy time tea, Raph,” Leo says, grimacing atRaph’s ongoing treatment. “Also- Donnie, you drinking Christmas tea in themiddle of the year is just plain wrong feeling.”

“A mutant wants what he wants,” Donnie says with a shrug,and yanks another quill out of Raph’s leg. “Oh quit screaming so much, Raph. It’llbe over before you know it.”

“You’re- evil!”

“I resent that remark. I’m chaotic neutral at most.”

“Nah, you’re at least neutral evil right now, Dee,” Mikey says.Donnie’s goggles on his face gleam eerily as he turns a flat look on theiryoungest sibling, which doesn’t help his case. That, and he pulls yet anotherquill out of Raph without even looking.

Leo gladly escapes the scream filled atrium, scurrying offto the kitchen for their tea. The medicine basket is on top of the fridge, too,filled with general medications and vitamins. Leo digs through the pill bottlesand little cardboard boxes while the electric kettle heats up. The extrastrength Tylenol and ibuprofen should be good, right? They’ll need a coupleeach, since their systems eat up calories and medications like the breeze.

Pouring the boiled water into four individual mugs- one ofthem a soup mug with two tea bags for Raph, since he needs bigger portions thanthe rest of them- Leo puts them all onto the beaten up plastic platter he digsout from the back of the floor cupboards. He piles on the pill bottles, too, and turns to leave. A figure is directly in his path and Leo shrieksand leaps away.

Splinter catches the platter without even blinking- not adrop spilled from the sloshing mugs as he balances it on his coiled tail. Leo’sfather looks up at him, squinting.

“I see your reflexes are improving, blue,” Splinter says tohim.

“Hi, pops,” Leo says, a little breathless.

“Hm, yes, hello. Are you going to keep your injured brotherswaiting? Get off the fridge already.”

Leo grumbles as he hops off the top of the fridge; which is wherehe’d been tensely perched, hand halfway to drawing a sword he’s not carryingright now. “You did that on purpose,” he complains to his sneaky ninja master father.

“I do not know what you are talking about,” Splinter says witha perfectly straight face, though his whiskers are twitching with silent humor.He lifts his tail, boosting the platter up to Leo to take again. “Get me a mugbefore you go, I want the nice grey one for my tea- which, you did not remember to pour me some of.”

“Sorry,” Leo says honestly, opening the top cupboards againand standing on tiptoe to get the requested mug. He doesn’t mind doing so, andhe really needs to remind Raph to stop putting the dishes away like this. Theirfather can’t reach the same shelves as the tallest member of their family.

“Ah, I do not really mind,” Splinter says, taking the mug. “Ijust hate getting the stool to do this myself.”

“Yeah, no, I get that. Jasmine, or…?”

“Jasmine, yes.”

Leo hands his father the box of tea, still balancing theplatter in his other hand. “Can you bring the ice in? I just realized I almost forgotit.”

Splinter shoos him away wordlessly, agreeing. Leo leavesbefore his father changes his mind and makes carrying everything at once into a balancingexercise.

“Okay, pekoe- sugarplum- and sleepy time,” Leo says as hehands out the drinks, setting Raph’s a bit away from him in case he startsthrashing. Donnie puts his aside for when he’s done tending to Raph, while Mikeytakes a happy gulp from his mug. Leo sits down and passes around somepainkillers, too; knocking back a few with a drink from his true blueberry tea.

Splinter arrives towards the end of Raph’s treatment,bringing with him bags of ice and a towel to wrap around them. So it’s notunbearably cold against Raph’s scales, since they get chilled easily. By thatpoint, Raph has mostly stopped screaming, but remains face down on his pillow. Mikeyand Leo are leaning against his side, offering comfort as Donnie steadilyworks.

Leo reaches over and massages Raph’s neck as their fatherlifts the twisted ankle up from its elevating pillow. His brother makes aseries of miserable sounds as his ankle is iced.

“Almost done, Raph, I promise,” Donnie says, and since he’sadded real emotion behind those words, it means he’s slipping out of the zoneand coming back to proper reality. It’s not that their brother is heartless; it’sthat Donnie shuts down emotions when he’s stressed out. Pulling porcupinequills out of your big brother will do that to anyone.

Splinter comes around to sit next to Raph’s head, undoinghis son’s mask and placing ice to the large bump on Raph’s forehead.  “I could give you acupuncture,” Splinteroffers as Raph takes the ice and puts it between him and his pillow. “It willease the pain of you ankle.”

“No, no more needles,”Raph mumbles mournfully into the soon to be damp pillow. Leo pats his brother’sshell while Mikey coos sympathetically. Splinter shrugs, nonplussed, and sipshis tea. His tail curls around Raph’s elbow without a word; a familiar and oldsort of comfort they’ve been given since childhood.

Their father isn’t big on expressions of affection- Donnie issimilar in that, like Mikey is similar to their father in that he sneaks up on people without warning andscares them, little shit he is. But, when they really need their pops, like right now- Splinteris there.

Raph removes his hand from his folded arms and grips theirfather’s tail. Splinter winds the tip around Raph’s knuckles, holding tight as Donniepulls out the needles.

Soon enough, Donnie sits back from his task. “Aaaand done,we’re done. Good job, Raph. Thanks for not kicking me across the room like thattime with the cactus,” Donnie says, stepping away with a full bowl of porcupineneedles and his thoroughly used pliers. Mikey takes his cue to swap positionsand clean up the wounds; letting Donnie take his place against Raph’s side.

Donnie drains his mug of lukewarm tea in one long gulp, and thenslumps bonelessly. Leo belatedly offers a bottle of Tylenol to his brother,seeing as Donnie hasn’t stopped to take care of himself beyond yanking his ownquills out and slapping band-aids on the wounds. Leo had yelped and felt hisstomach do swoops, seeing his brother expressionlessly pull the needles out hisown scales. Donnie’s shell is possibly the onlything that’s soft about him; besides that he can’t resist a sob story, or Leo andMikey’s combined begging eyes.

“I ran out of Star Wars band-aids, so you got a coupleFinding Nemo ones, Raphie,” Mikey says when he’s done his job.

“Mgh,” Raph says miserably, unconcerned by the mixed mediabandages. Mikey clambers up onto their biggest brother’s shell, patting itgently.

“You’ll heal up in no time, bro,” Mikey says kindly,sprawling the way he tends to on top of Raph. Somehow, in a way that eludes Leoto this day, he can do it without scratching himself on the sharp spines oftheir sibling.

Raph replies with another,“Mgh.”

“You feel like moving to your bed yet?” Leo asks.

“No,” is Raph’sempathetic answer. Which is fair. If Leohad sat on the porcupine mutant, he probably wouldn’t want to move aroundeither.

“Guess we’ll all lie really still here for a while,” Donnie saystonelessly, not seeming all that upset about that. He’s practically a meltedpuddle of turtle, looking exhausted from treating them all.

Leo glances over at their father, who is still acting as Raph’ssecurity blanket and doesn’t show any inclination about leaving. Leo shrugs,and leans back again to join the cuddle pile on the concrete of their atrium skatepark. If you can’t beat ‘em, or something.

Not the best evening ever, but it definitely could haveended a lot worse than them curled up together like this.

Commission info & Kofi link.

[wowfuckingnerd]

What happens in happytown: A night out part 2

Alright so me, Finn and Wilde grabbed a good table at Cocktails. Nobody mentioned what happened over the phone and I was damn glad. Hopps wasn't here either, bullet dodged. Kinda still wish she was though.

We ordered drinks and sat back, ready to spend the evening drinkin' ourselves stupid. Hell if Nick wasn't here I'd bust a joint or three out, but me and Finn both know better than to smoke weed with Wilde.

The last time he smoked with us, we lost him at costco and some old lady found him, brings him to customer service. They make an announcement, tellin' the customers there's an unaccompanied special needs child at the front of the store. Me and Finn think nothing of it until we check out. 

There's Nick, eating a bagel, got this stupid grin on his face. Kinda droolin' on himself. Waitin' for us. I don't think he recognized us at first but once we got close he rushes up and hugs on Finnick. The manager tells us some shit like "I'm so glad to see that he's got two loving fathers" and sees us out the doNow,  Shit was hilarious but yeah we don't smoke with Nick anymore.

So our drinks get here, the first of many I assure you. Nick starts pullin' all these tiny bottles of Yukon out of his pockets. These things are pretty strong for bein' so little, specially for little mammals like us. 60% alcohol or something, it's nuts. So of course we each slam two of em before our waiter brings our second round. 

By the time he finally brings our drinks all three of us are pretty messed up. Mixing chocolate milk and bacardi, bad idea by the way but it sounded pretty good at the time. Looks the same comin' out as it does goin' in.

Once we get out third round this porcupine that owns the place says we gotta leave when we're done with em. Guess we were singin' too loud or something but they're playin' fuckin journey and you can't even tell me not to sing along. Specially when we been drinkin'.

So we left. Once we're outside we can be as loud as we want, so we started singin' again. I dunno what song Finnick was singin' but he was killin' it. Then he fuckin' snaps.

"Look dudes. We all know change gotta happen soon but we can't hav'  any change til alla little mammals like us rise th'fuck up and pry it from the cold, dead paws of the sssuits that're keepin' us down!"

Here we go. Get him drunk enough and he's ready to start a revolution this shit happens every time.

"Non-violent revolution isssnot an option anymore! We gotta fight! The mammal!"

He chucks an empty bottle at the wall and watched the pieces hit the sidwalk. 

"Like that. All those pieces of glass are the gears in the system dude!"

Oh boy.

Nick decides to change the subject, bless him. 

"Ssso Judy wanned t'come drink with uss. Bad idea though cause she's working."

Yeah he's right. Last thing we need is to be seen with Hopps, or have one of her cop friends arrest all four of us for somethin' stupid and if she was hangin' with us that's exactly how this night would end.

"She was surprised that y'asked Duke. She dunno that you like her yet."

I kinda hope she never finds out but I'm glad she was interested at least. Fuck it, I'm smoke. Nick's nose starts kinda twitchin' when he smells pot, I laugh and let him take the first drag. I dunno what he's gonna do when he starts trainin' to be a cop. Ninety percent of what we do is illegal.

Finnick hits it next. Now lemme tell you the stuff I got is beast. They grow this up in the mountains in Reptaelia, and it will put you on your ass. Last time I had this stuff me and Finn watched Juno probably six times in a row and ate everything in his house.

Once he hits it his eyes just light up. The world was his bitch.

"D'ya really like her Duke?"

"Yeah he does, dude! He got it baaad. He gonna try and move in on your bunny, Nick!"

Nick shrugs.

"We're friends. She'snot my bunny."

Now, I realize I got no chance at all with Hopps but that makes me feel a little better. Finnick suddenly starts haulin' ass across the street and ducks behind this car. A fuckin cop car.

We both followed him before we saw what he was doing: little bastard whips his junk out and starts paintin' the car's bumper yellow. Fuck if that didn't look fun though.

Nick and me do the same. I dunno what it is about pissin' outside but it's just so damn satisfying for some reason. Nick and Finn are crossin' the streams and laughin' like a bunch of idiots when a cop, presumably the cop that owns this car, shines his flashlight on us.

Her flashlight.

This was Judy's car.

[gogohedgehoglegs]

Rhinebeck Marathon

Rhinebeck Marathon

May 11, 2019

I have to say, this has become one of the races I look forward to the most each year.  This is one of those wonderful small town races- smaller crowd, smaller amount of runners, no dodging around everything.  Made itin the night before, so I could spend some time visit with my parents.  Grabbed the obligatory pre-marathon pizza, and relaxed for the night.  

The drive on race day is only about half an hour, and its all backroads, so nice and quiet, but still have to be on the lookout for deer, porcupines, raccoons, opossums, etc- only thing that didn't make an appearance this year was the porcupines.  Got there with plenty of time, although parking is never an issue here since the race is staged at the Dutchess County fairgrounds(best part about that is the flushing toilets!!!).  Got my bib(i get to be #1 again!!!), and the great tshirts- they're women's cut, a nice design/logo, and they're soooo soft.  Pre race was the usual ritual, and its time to head out into the not too warm, but rather windy, day.

The marathon goes off, and away we go! This is a 2 loop course, which helps to keep you from feeling too all alone- the only really quiet point of this race is the first part of the second loop from the marathoners- you aren't passing the tail end of the half marathon, and you haven't hit the out and back yet.  The wind isn't quite as bad once you get running- its helping to keep me cool, but its also not as bad, with all the tree cover(also means its not too sunny either).

I'm not feeling too bad as we begin- this wasn't my goal race for the spring, even though it is my only marathon- I knew from last year that likely I wouldn't be fully recovered from Lake Waramaug, so really pushing it was out of the question, i'll leave that till the fall.  Lots of rolling hills through here, which makes me happy.  I know that's not considered perfect conditions, but when its the majority of what you run, it feels easier, and less straining then an all flat course.

The first loop is going well, and ive reached the out and back for the first time.  As wel go along, some of the leading men are already coming back(theyre so fast!!), and thankfully, no deer run out into the road this year.  I reach the turnaround, and head back down the hill.  And heres where it gets fun- there's a tree branch.  But am I paying attention? Nope! So for the second race in 2 weeks, ive tripped over a tree branch. Thankfully this time I didn't cut my leg, but instead jammed up my hip real good.  I hobble trying to test it, some of the initial shock and cramping settles some, and I can at least keep running.  I'm trying to figure out if this is going to hold up, but ive got a couple miles to do it, as that's when the first loop ends. I get back into town, head down to whats the end of the halfers, and the start of the second for us.  The timing mat is there, and I'm going to cross it just over 2 hours. I confirm with the volunteers- the time cutoff is 6 hours, so if it gives out, ive got 4 hours to finish the second half.

The start of the second loop is quiet- there's only 100 marathoners or so, so we are pretty spread out by this point.  My hip isn't great, its tight, and its affecting my whole gait.  I decide the plan is to walk through the water stops to give it a chance to calm down, as these water stops are really well spaced.  I keep hobble stepping along, its not getting worse, but its not working itself out either(guess ill be taking a few days off after this!!). To be honest I don't remember tons about the second half- pain has a funny way of doing that.  I don't know about you, but when I'm in pain, even if I can focus on something in short term, that's not what I remember in the long term.  I think I appreciated the fact that this happened on a course I know so well- this is the 4th time in running this race, so I know exactly what happens, and that makes it so much easier to just zone out and foccus on finishing.

Finally hit the out and back, I know its not much farther from here.  This is where the biggest crowds are, and where it feels there's more runners.  On the upside, fueling is going well, and I'm not having any of the cramping that was plaguing me at lake waramaugh, so there's that.  I walk a few points along here, because this hip is starting to be more unhappy than it has been.  And finally the out and back is done, and its just the run back to town.  Up some hills, up some more hills, as we climb back up from Rhinecliff, which is really the low point of the course(its right by the Hudson), and then not much climb back up out before the out and back.  And finally the last road, and straightaway before making the left turn to home.    I keep running through here- at this point I. Just. Want. To. Be. Done.

And then I am!  It's a new personal worst, but that was out of my control today.

Final stats:

4:28:24, 64/100 overall, 20/40 women, 9/11 women 30-39