#two halves of a whole: twins

[necroticboop]

GARGOYLES : ↳ Types of Soulmates

[kiaxet]

HOW ABOUT THAT @somerandomdudelmao DISASTER TWIN REUNION, HUH

Went a little feral to the tune of 2.2K words of self-indulgence. What else is new?

~~~~~~~

Donnie can't sleep. More accurately, he won't sleep. Not until he's done. He'd never been one to leave a project unfinished; death and resurrection hadn't changed that.

He taps incessantly, repetitively, on a keyboard and screen, the motions long since past inputting data and now only serving to keep him awake. The repetition is soothing, easy, and - counterintuitively - he finds his head drooping forward into sleep-

And he snaps back upright. No. Not until he can confirm Leo is okay.

Leo is behind him, he knows. Breathing. In bed. Asleep. Very much alive. And-

He jumps and whips around as a thud sounds behind him. "What the-"

Leo is on the floor.

Well, that answers the question as to whether his twin is awake.

For a fraction of a second, part of him wavers uncertainly. He loves his idiot twin. The question he hasn't been able to answer is whether his reaction to Leo waking up will fall on love or idiot twin-

"Leo!"

He can hear the exasperation in his voice, and yep, it's the latter. He takes a knee next to Leo and hauls him into his arms, lecturing him all the while, and if he can hear the annoyance in his voice then Leo sure as hell can. Sleep deprivation for the purposes of keeping his brother's soul alight had done nothing for his temper. "I swear to God, all you had to do was make a sound! Why are you such a difficult patient?"

He deposits Leo carefully on the bed - "Sit still!" - and checks him over, running every scan he can think of and making sure his brother's new body really is in good working order, spouting increasingly irritated commentary all the while. Of course the fall didn't hurt him - Leo is tougher than that, and Donnie does better work than that - but he still can't help the rising anxiety in his throat.

This almost didn't happen.

"-stupid, stupid selfless idiot!"

Donnie almost couldn't save him.

"Grrhh-"

Leo nearly died for real. Permanently beyond Donnie's reach. Well and truly gone-

"Do you have any idea how close you were to having nothing left to save?"

And now here Leo is, in perfect health, sitting on Donnie's bed with a big dopey grin on his face as Donnie chokes on his anxiety and damn near shakes himself apart-

Oh for fuck's sake.

"Hey. Are you even listening?"

Leo speaks up for the first time since he's woken up, voice shaky from disuse. "D-Donnie?"

And that is not a goddamn answer to anything Donnie has been saying, because of course it isn't. It's Leo. He's always had his own priorities. "Yeah. No. You're not fucking listening." Donnie heaves a long-suffering sigh, sinking back into the routine comfort that irritation at his twin provides. "At least you're talking." Small favors. "Although I'm surprised you're not throwing your stupid jokes at me." Even smaller favors.

He stops short as Leo's hand closes around his wrist, drawing Donnie's arm to Leo's plastron. "You're real," his brother breathes, looking from Donnie's hand to Donnie himself with tears streaming down his face. "You're real!"

And then, in the space of a thought, Leo's joy breaks, his smile turning desperate. "Are you?"

For a moment, Donnie stares at his twin, wondering at the sudden change in expression. He takes a breath-

And the part of him that had lain dormant for so long after he'd woken up - the part of him that had been screaming for his twin's safety ever since they'd recovered the few scattered embers of Leo's soul - gasps to life, blooming like a time-lapse video of a flower and reaching to the edges of Donnie's soul. Leo had called it their twin sense, and Donnie hadn't had it in him to argue after a while. Whatever it is, it's back, connected to Leo's renewed presence, and-

Donnie's heart floods with emotions. Relief and joy sprout quickly and are nearly swept away in a tide of exhaustionanxietyfearfearfearfearFEAR-

But down beneath it all, steady against the rising wall of terror, is the little blue spark of hope that his brother always carried. His core. The thing that let him continue on in the face of insurmountable odds, and lent that same strength to everyone around him. A ninja's greatest weapon.

It's Leo. It's Leo-

And Donnie can't leave him alone in his fear. Not when there's no need for it. Not when they're safe.

He lets that breath out, and sits next to Leo on the bed. "Mhm. I'm alive. And you're alive. We're safe. The Krang are gone." That's all the news that's fit to print, or at least the most important parts. What else does he have to say?

Oh.

"I'm sorry I..uh…"

He's sorry he what? Died? Left a mess for Leo to deal with? Didn't do enough while he was alive to keep everyone else alive in turn after he was gone? Kept his brother's soul in a fucking mug, because that was the only way he could ensure he wouldn't break it while Leo was still fragile? All of the above?

…yeah, it's all of the above.

He owes Leo one hell of an apology, and he's never been good at any of this, so instead he shrugs haplessly and leans forward, pulling Leo into his arms and hanging on tight.

It's a matter of moments before Leo has him flat on his shell on the bed and is sobbing into his arms. Normally he'd hate seeing his twin cry, but it's proof of life - proof that Leo made it, that his soul is intact enough for him to still be Leo, that he's alive and awake and here - and Donnie will take it.

And if he's squeezing Leo back pretty hard himself, well, that's fine too. Nobody else needs to know.

~~~~~~~

Donnie is yelling at him.

Donnie is strong enough to have picked Leo up off the ground, well enough to be on his feet without support, running tests and reading Leo the riot act over his latest boneheaded maneuver - in this case, forgetting he was missing an arm and falling out of bed.

Donnie is yelling at him, because Donnie is here to yell at him.

And Leo is smiling, because he couldn't be happier. He lets the words wash over him, draping over his shoulders like a favorite cozy blanket that he'd lost so many years ago, and he basks in the warmth that is his brother's voice and smiles.

It's enough to interrupt the yelling for a question, though he doesn't really hear it - just keeps smiling, and says Donnie's name, and it's so nice to be able to say it with a smile now, because Donnie is here-

-he is, right? This isn't just a dying hallucination on Leo's part, right?

(It couldn't be- he remembers his death, remembers breathing his last, remembers being trapped- but this-)

He reaches out, taking Donnie's wrist in hand, and pulls his brother closer to him. "You're…real…" It certainly feels real - skin and scales, softer than his own, and his fingers barely fit all the way around the wrist instead of encircling them with room to spare - and he stares down at it, tears rolling down his face as he finally looks back up at his twin. "You're real!"

The Krang show you what you want to see.

The thought strikes him unbidden, turning his joy and relief to ice. It's a well-known fact: a Krang infection can show its host what they want to see, visions of comfort and family and home, and extract intel from the host's reactions. He knows that- he knows that, and-

And he'd died surrounded by Krang- and even if he couldn't see or hear or feel, he knows he'd been held captive-

But it's Donnie- he wants this to be real- he needs this to be real- he wants his twin back so badly he can't think, and the idea that this could be a Krang hallucination is almost too much to bear-

"Are you?" He can hear how choked the words are as they leave his lips, but he needs to know-

And Donnie stops, and sits down next to him, and tells him everything he wants to hear - everything he could've ever wished for. They're alive. They're safe. The Krang are gone. It all sounds too good to be true.

And then Donnie offers him an apology and a sad half-smile, pulling him into a strong hug-

And the ice in Leo's mind shatters in a flood of warmth as his twin sense opens for the first time since Donnie's death. He feels his twin's irritation, and deep-seated exhaustion, and a choking wave of guiltguiltguiltguiltguilt-

And beneath it all, steady and strong as ever, the thrum of unending determination, powered by an unfathomably deep well of love. It's the backbeat to the melody of Leo's life, the point-counterpoint to his own heartbeat- it's something he'd never had to live without until he did, but it's back, rushing in to fill the silence he'd known with the strength to go on and the knowledge that he is loved loved loved, strong and overwhelming and all-encompassing in the way only Donnie can love-

It's something the Krang could never imitate.

This is real. This is all real-

He throws himself against his twin, toppling them both over on the bed as he clings to Donnie, unable to stand even a fraction of an inch of space between them, as though he could push their hearts together through their plastrons, and he cries, sobbing out worry and terror and grief and the slow, crushing exhaustion of a losing battle finally lost. He cries as though the world was ending - and it had, once when the Krang had invaded and again every time he'd lost a member of his family, over and over until he'd sent his last hope through a portal that had cost his littlest brother his life and succumbed to death himself.

And now he's alive. Here, wherever here is, with Donnie. Clinging to his twin, and being held in turn as Donnie gently sits them both up, never letting go as Leo cries himself out.

It takes a while - long enough for Leo's gaze to settle into a stare and his thoughts to settle into a comfortable static. He's alive, Donnie is alive, and he has no fucking idea what else is going on, but he's just going to be okay with that for now.

His thoughts rouse enough to inform him of something wrong - the line of tension Donnie is carrying down his neck and over his shoulders. That won't do. Leo could try to massage it out with one hand, maybe try to get Donnie to talk about it, but Donnie never likes to talk about it, and Leo isn't one for slowly soothing away tension when he can just take an axe to the release valve instead. Plus, it gives him something definite to focus on, instead of…this whole situation. Whatever 'this whole situation' actually is.

Donnie had mentioned his stupid jokes, right?

"H-hey Dee?" His voice wavers from disuse, thick with tears, but he pushes through. "Why did- why did the tree buy a camera?"

"What?" Oh, Donnie is not going to see this coming. Excellent.

"To do a photosynthesis." It's nowhere near the level of pizazz he normally uses for a punchline delivery - he's still too tired and frazzled and clinging to Donnie entirely too hard for that - but that beautiful pause of a terrible joke sinking in tells him it had hit home nonetheless. Donnie moves - he can hear the telltale slap of face meeting palm - and then breaks down into helpless laughter, smacking the back of Leo's shell as the tension Leo had felt in his twin's shoulders abruptly relaxes. Good. It worked.

"This is so fucking stupid," is all Donnie manages as his laughter fades, and he slumps fully against Leo with a murmur. That's...abrupt. Sure, Leo had felt Donnie's exhaustion, but he hadn't realized it'd been that bad. He takes hold of Donnie, gently laying him down on the bed to rest-

Remember what happened last time Donnie fell asleep next to you.

He gasps sharply at the thought - not again NEVER again - and keeps his hand steady as he moves, laying both fingers gently against Donnie's neck and feeling for his pulse. It's easy to find, strong and steady and even, like it had been before the infection had taken Donnie's vitality and then his life.

But he's alive, and healthy, and sleeping. He's okay. And Leo-

Leo moves his hand to the side of his own neck. His pulse is also easy to find, quickened with the adrenaline of an unknown situation and multiple consecutive shocks to his system.

Okay. Take stock. Assess. Figure out a plan from there.

He's alive. Donnie's alive. The Krang are gone. And everything else…is a big fat question mark, with no easy answers and no indication as to where to begin looking for them.

Well.

Uh.

"What the fuck," Leo whispers to the room at large, as though the walls could answer.

~~~~~~~

(A world away and still very close, a younger pair of twins cling to one another the way a drowning man clings to driftwood: desperately, clutching tight, as though letting go will spell their doom. Neither of them know where the emotions came from, or why; all they know is that each of them are damn glad the other is alive, and they'll do everything they can to make sure that continues to be the case.)

(What the fuck, indeed.)

[bakudekublogblog]

I THOUGHT PEOPLE WERE FUCKING EXAGGERATING WHEN THEY SAID HEROES RISING WAS THE BAKUDEKU MOVIE BUT. NO IT. IT WAS JUST A WHOLE MOVIE??? OF BAKUDEKU??? THE WHOLE FUCKING THING?? HOW THE FUCK DOES ANYONE COME OUT OF THIS THINKING THEY'RE NOT GONNA BE HERO PARTNERS AT THE END OF THIS SERIES WHAT IS ///HAPPENING/// this must have been fucking DEVESTATING for the antis holy SHIT

[raisedbythetv89]

Spike is the spark that brings Buffy’s fire (her ability to love) back

(stone - a notoriously non flammable material)

Buffy’s love is spoken about in relation to fire but even brighter and more intense

she sings of wanting the fire (her ability to love and feel as deeply as she once did) back - where once was a flame so bright it burned her - now there is nothing but black & cold

spike’s love for Buffy is also equated to fire showing how he matches her intensity with which she loves (love the use of the lighting in this shot he literally looks like he’s sitting back to back with his shadow as he wrestles for a moment of just letting Buffy die before ultimately going to help her) also this line is showing how much loving Buffy has cost him the burdens he’s carried, the pain and sacrifices he’s made and endured - “I have come to redefine the terms pain and suffering since falling in love with you” loving Buffy for Spike is painful AND HE STILL LOVES HER AND KEEPS TRYING TO DO AND BE BETTER FOR HER LITERALLY NO MATTER WHAT 😭🤚🏻

but this line from Giles foreshadows the need for Spike to get his soul (the spark) back in order for Buffy to get her fire back - soulless spike’s love is not enough because of the guilt and shame she feels loving a soulless demon

(thank you @spuffylatino for this spike screen grab)

e voila! Their joint hands burst into flames in the moment Buffy can finally say the words “I love you” which she hasn’t told a romantic partner that since Angel - representing Buffy getting her fire back and that she has found someone who not only won’t pull away from the intensity of her love but can match it

hands ablaze and neither pulls away until forced to by the collapsing hellmouth and Buffy gasps in relief because she did it, she got the fire back and now she can tell him with no fear or shame that she loves him before it’s too late

and after she says it she has sort of this “I know that’s pretty obvious given our joint hands are currently ablaze as our twin flame souls intertwine but you deserve to hear it and I wanted to and now CAN say it” look on her face like she’s really fucking proud of him but also herself that this is how far they’ve come both as individuals and a couple

When I say Spike is the best romantic partner for Buffy it’s not because it’s perfect - it’s because after she dates angel and riley she’s an emotionally devastated, vulnerable, heartbroken, abandoned YET AGAIN mess who can barely hold it together and gets more and more closed off each time. But THIS is the impact Spike has on her. Despite all they go through he is a catalyst for the return of her strength, confidence, healing, and emotional vulnerability. I love the overall impact he has on her as well as her on him!! They change each other for the better!! Through their love!!!! THAT’S AMAZING!!

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 132

So it turns out Danny and Billy share a realms guardian. Not like they knew that until they literally got scruffed and taken through a portal- apparently realms paperwork can take years or even centuries so they actually got really lucky with how much their guardian was pushing. 

Apparently the primordial being of Space and the primordial being of Storm is one and the same and has been… well not throwing a fit but also yes throwing a fit at the Observants and other paperwork beings of the Zone. 

So it’s not the worst kidnapping either of them have gone through, apparently they’re getting a checkup and a crash course in realms stuff?? Oh god what do you mean there’s the equivalent of galas in the Zone and they have to go to them??? Sam/Tim help them! 

On the bright sides, way less attacks on Amity now that a primordial being that literally shuffles around entire galaxies just because is hanging around to teach him how to do things. And when Billy gets found out to be ten he can cheerfully say he has permission from his guardian. The one literally letting them get through space so quickly just because they think the league is neat. In an idle wow yep kiddo that is a funky looking cat we aren’t taking home yep, way. 

[epickiya722]

I think about how on TVTropes Sukuna got the "Archnemesis Dad" label.

[thekidsarentalright]

joe said rpf is not only fine but also encouraged

[taamlok]

okay the last time i got the crossroads voices dialogue where the gods plan to turn taash into an archdemon i didn't have taash in my party. this time i did and the intensity with which renny said "if they touch you, death will be the least of their problems" has given me levels of mental illness never before documented in human beings

[mitchmrner]

it’s actually kinda funny how you always notice when mitch isn’t in the lineup because auston is always looking for someone to have that chemistry with but it ends with him just floundering

[ghoulangerlee]

i don't know ive just been thinking about the concept of the new papa being trapped inside the church and the chapter video being a red herring so yknow. have a ficlet or something about it! no name for the new guy yet bc we don't know what he looks like so just think of him as An Entity :)

----

He has been...trapped for a while now, his soul tied to the innermost corner of the church; a dark room with a single window. Sometimes he thinks he can see the sun when it sets, but for the most part, it's dark, all too dark.

He can hear the call of his Father, the Great One Below, a low rumble of stone and fire, words licking at the edges of his conscious as he bides his time, waits; he is patient after all, after having been here for so long, time starts to melt together.

The words make no sense to him, not that he expects that much, not when She had taken away his ability to Understand; it was for his own good, She had promised him, her touch hesitant yet caring, gentle in an almost terrified way as she brushed her thumb across his forehead, her eyes glowing in the low light of his bedroom.

He had been young then, but he still remembers it vividly, her fear thick in the room as she took away another tie to Him. To his Father.

He had felt when She'd made another deal, a twisting feeling in his gut, the heavy disappointment as She had realized that he wouldn't be able to resist Him if She had left him untethered as he was.

It's a shame really, because he probably could have called her Mother if She had given him a chance.

The day She dies, he feels it, deep in his gut, in the same was he feels when His Twin mourns her; the contempt he'd held for Her long gone now that he'd ascended to Papa.

It's also, on the day that She dies, that he feels the binds tying him to this despicable room start to unravel, come apart at the seams, as if someone or something had been working at them, waiting and biding time until Her hold on them had weakened and went away.

His Twin steps into Her place, but no one tells Him that he must use the dormant magic inside of him to keep the Clergy's Mistake tethered to the church.

And so he waits, listens as hard as he can while he lets Him do the work, bringing forth a frenzy in the church, a hush among everyone as the New One is ready to ascend, bringing forth a new era for them with His Twin ushering in and welcoming the new Papa.

He hears it, when the doors start to creak, start to shake at the hinges, a crackle in the air of thick, dark magic that builds and builds and builds as it surrounds him--

His time has finally come.

[millygoose]

Working on something fucked up and evil

[timeskip]

OC thoughts once more but it's so fucked up that Ry and Tempest's thoughts on Storm (their predecessor, the one they took the place of) were decided for them. Like!!! Ry was never given the chance to see Storm as a person because they were programmed to see Storm as a monster!!! Tempest was never able to see Storm as a person because they put them on a pedestal, too strong in their hero worship of what they THINK Storm is!!! And this is designed to tear the twins apart, to force them to go their separate ways because Ry is destined to follow his Fate away from Storm, while Tempest suffers because Ry left them. And they never had a chance to make their own choices. Never ever ever. And Mother Nature did this on purpose because she needs them to never put together the pieces of how she lied to them.

[greysccle]

𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐍: are you going to help? 𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐎: no.

If you dont want a sarcastic answer, dont ask a stupid question. @portcnts

[arobinwithoutbatman]

“  who  did  this  to  you  ?  ”

Well... there went the peace of the entire school... Tim sighed as he pulled the damp tissue away from the developing bruise on his face. Yup. That was gonna swell over night.

"Relax, Matt, it's just a small hiccup in my plan to mess with Peter Smith. Didn't expect him to freak out this bad at a small mention of his parents marital issues."

Is it creepy that he knew that? Oh absolutely, Tim had no delusions about that, but blackmail was useful among the elite especially while they were all still young. For the ones that were richer, who had older names and longer history and broader shoulders, all they had to do was posture and flex a little. They got all the coveted hallmarks of high school popularity.

New Money kids like the Drake twins? Who were smaller and stealthy and dubbed weird? And also hiding the whole vigilante thing? They relied on more subtle methods. Secrets and alliances and blackmail was how they kept their heads above water.

"So I think some part of him knows there's scandal on the horizon for his family. I swear, the only people who think the Smiths are subtle in their constant cheating and backstabbing are the Smiths themselves. And now I've got proof of Peter being a jerk~" The smirk he flashed his Tim was shark sharp. "I had my phone recording in my pocket and already taken photos of this."

[highassho]

im telling yall: they're soulmates... THEY'RE SOULMATES. U LITERALLY CANNOT CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE FJDKJKDFJ

yk i love it when favaro and kaisar take missions with just the two of them like it's always ends up being landmine of favakai moments that i would think about a lot for a while

[iinmortales]

sometimes i think a lot about how leia SHOULDN’T have any memories of padme. leia barely saw padme at all just after she was born. and honestly i just think that speaks to the ways in which leia being force sensitive is very different from the ways luke is. leia’s force sensitivity is much more mental while luke’s is more physical.