#v: 2003

[lifeofaninstigator]

✓ (Alfons doesn't know how he feels about the fact that he's attracted to Ed, but he is) (-experimentalfma)

Send ✓if your muse is secretly attracted to mine

"I like Alfons too, but given the situation, I'm not sure what kind of future we could have together."

[leisi-lilacdreams]

"don, let's pretend to whisper to each other and act like we're talking about them" "oh? why?" "to mess with them" "say no more"

menaces, the both of them

[lifeofaninstigator]

Ed laughed a little at that. "Sure. It's a good idea to start off with the basics anyway." He didn't want to overwhelm Alfons with too much at once. He was just grateful Alfons was entertaining the idea of helping him. The last thing Ed wanted to do was chase him off by dumping too much information all at once. He took a drink of his coffee, trying to figure out where to start. Showing Alfons the arrays was once thing, but explaining them and how they worked was another. Ed thought back on how his early alchemy books explained basic transmutations.

They would need to start from scratch with this. Ed remembered when him and Alphonse used to pour through the books when they were little and how interesting everything was. He would need to teach Alfons from the beginning. He had never had to teach someone before and he had to keep reminding himself to take it slow no matter how tempting it was to skip parts and explain everything at once.

"Yeah, if you change the array it changes what kind of transmutation you're doing. Think of the array as a blueprint for what you want to make. It's a way to channel your energy and to pull energy from the ground to make the outcome of what you want." Ed pointed to the array. "If I moved some of these lines, I'd end up with something different. But the outer circle has to stay that shape in order for it to work. The circle is important. It helps with how the energy flows in order to complete the transmutation."

He listened to Alfons' question. "In alchemy you're pulling energy from the ground and combining it with your own. The array would be the closest thing to a catalyst since it helps to channel that energy to make what you want. When you use the array, you're also visualizing what you want to do. Usually the array is put on the ground, but there are alchemists that have arrays either tattooed on their bodies or their gloves. Another important thing is that you also need to have the materials there already. If you want to transmute something into metal, you have to have the materials there in the right amount. You can't make something metal out of wood, for example. That's the law of equivalent exchange and something all alchemists understand."

Ed wanted to teach him Amestrian? Alfons glanced down at the incomprehensible text scribbled across the page. There was so much written in this language he knew nothing about, not even how it sounded or was pronounced. There was no way that he'd be able to understand something presumably written in significant depth if the language was one more thing that he'd be learning from scratch, but if he took the time to try, it offered the opportunity to unlock a new form of knowledge that would be otherwise inaccessible. That alone piqued his interest. Though his smile was a bit quizzical as he wondered the practicality of it, curiosity won out, and he nodded. "Let's start with what you were already going to show me tonight, but maybe we can try once I have a better idea of what I'm looking at."

But at least Ed seemed to have some understanding that what he was saying sounded so difficult to believe. There wouldn't be any misunderstanding that Alfons was still skeptical. Misinterpreting that could lead to some conflict later on, but that he was still willing to try seemed to be an acceptable middle ground between the two of them.

Though there was still that lingering topic of the war, a topic they rarely addressed. But Ed was right that it felt like everything was crumbling down around them, and it had for some time. And things weren't getting any better. It wasn't a topic he was eager to broach, but it wasn't something they could ignore. He did care deeply about his homeland and hoped that his work on the rocket could help to advance science, but he didn't want to be involved in the war and didn't want his work to be either, so he would have understood Ed's anxiety over being dragged into it. Though of course he didn't have the context that Ed had already been involved in his own military before coming here.

But that could be the focus of another conversation. Right now, they needed to focus on the arrays. He stared at the one he'd pointed to as Ed explained what it did and how it worked, but no matter how intently he looked at it, the system was still a complete mystery to him. He traced the line Ed had directed his attention to with his finger, as if that would make it clearer. "So if you change this, the figure would become something else?"

He stared down at it intently for a moment longer then raised his eyes up to meet Ed's, brow slightly furrowed as he tried to make sense of it. "So what's the catalyst? Do you put his paper on top of and that somehow directs the energy from something else? There has to be something else that initiates the reaction."

[forgetful-nerd]

It's their mission to Indoctrinate every Leo they come across.

[takakyuns]

Buck Tick from Fool's Mate Vol. 257 (March 2003)

[moonyflesh]

the vibe i want to bring to the function:

he serves cunt every time and he knows it.

[sweeneydino]

Krell ship.

[v-albion]

Guess who arrived at the cabin! @tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

Go Cabin 14: Kraang Corps!

Masterpost

Hoo boy lots of tags below

True Colors by me

Fear’s Embrace by @karonkar

Covert AU by@chessman-protocol

Hold Every Memory by @languajix

Ghost of the Past by @wandering-ghost

Starry Tmnt by @just-another-tired-gay-artist

It’s a Complicated Equation by @leilanising-vault-of-knowledge

Tmnt: Second Shot Crew by @twignotstick

[alexandriaellisart]

stupid cupid p 2

[hellishgayliath]

@heckitall HECKY I DID YOUR DTYIS!!! :DDD IM YOUR CO DIRECTOR FOR THIS COMIC HOW COULD I NOT DRAW OUR BOYS AT SOME POINT :D

Also people should go read Heck's comic Same as it Never Will Be, it is amazing and Heck is a really great story teller and artist :3 <3

[bichelangelo]

Raphie twirl :)

[lifeofaninstigator]

For Alfons (-experimentalfma)

Drop me a character name and I’ll reveal my muse’s heart...

VISUAL ATTRACTIVENESS: 💗💗💗💗 (purely aesthetic appreciation of looks)

FRIENDSHIP LEVEL: 💗💗💗💗💗 (how close a friend they consider them)

SEXUAL DESIRE: 💗💗💗 (wanting to have sex with them)

ROMANTIC INTENT: 💗💗 (hoping for a romantic relationship)

💔 Non-existent

💗 Very low

💗💗 A little

💗💗💗 Hopeful

💗💗💗💗 High

💗💗💗💗💗 Maximum

Ed is still confused about his feelings for Alfons. He's not sure where it all fits in, especially since he's demisexual and demiromantic. He's not used to having any type of feelings for someone else so he doesn't know what to do with it.

[scatterbrainedbot]

Hello :D

You're so cool

Anyway have you thought that in your rat sons au Splinter might outlive the boys?

You're very cool :D love your stuff dude

(tw for some blood, light gore, implied overdose (kinda??))

hi copper!!! this is a fantastic question!

so obviously typical irl rats have far shorter lifespans than the average irl tortoise. according to google (yes, be awed by my spectacularly in-depth wealth of research) the average pet rat lives between 2-4 years ish, and the oldest on record lived to be about 7. meanwhile, an African spurred tortoise (Splinter's species) averages more around a 50ish year lifespan in captivity, tho is suspected to possibly exceed 75 or more in the wild.

Now, the mutation does give us a lot of wiggle room for playing with these numbers. For the rat sons boys, id say their natural lifespan probably clocks in at about 45-55 years old? definitely not old by human standards, but not young young either. (though, its also important to note that the boys were exposed to the mutagen just days after being born.)

For Splinter, meanwhile, aging is slightly more complicated. He lived the vast majority of his life as a regular normal African spurred tortoise (well, non-mutated at least. there were perhaps some shenanigans of a more mystical variety going on before he was mutated, but thats a separate matter) He was about 70ish i think? when the boys were born and they were all exposed to the mutagen. so he is already distinctly an old man turtle papa. id guess he'd probably still have another eh lets say 25-30 years after his mutation. he could probably push it a little farther even with some mystic nonsense, but when push comes to shove id say his 'natural' post-mutation lifespan would put his death like a solid decade or two before his sons.

of course, the tricky part of the matter is that theres no way for Splinter to know any of this. theres no way for him to know how the mutation affected them all, or if it even affected them all in the same way. especially since the boys dont show many physical signs of mutation for the first few years, and just kinda look like normal rats, (albeit with a more human sort of intelligence) — what sort of health standard do you hold them to? what if they simply dont show external signs of sickness or old age anymore? how do you actually know if something is wrong?

for a while there Splinter is very worried that one of his babies will just essentially reach the end of their normal rat lifespan, fall and not get up again.

so mostly, he just tries to live in the moment, enjoying whatever time he does have with his little ones, taking each day as a gift <3

still,

that fear

never

really

goes

away.....

[v-thinks-on]

Utena fell to her knees and the rapier dropped from her hand, landing with a clatter on the ground. It wasn’t truly hers anyway.

“Isn’t that better?” the prince said, regarding her with the same sympathy as when he first found her all those years ago.

He held out his hand to Anthy. “It’s time for you to return to your rightful place.”

Utena made no sound of protest. Her eyes remained fixed on the ground.

“No.” It could hardly have come from the demure, obedient Rose Bride.

Anthy took the discarded sword and stepped between the prince and Utena.

[turtle--soup]

I might possibly have managed to swing it so I can focus my thesis partially on TMNT...

The main angle of my thesis is about representation of minority identities (I'm focusing largely on neurodiversity and possibly also queer identities, as these are relevant to me) in comics, and connection between audiences and characters in comics and comic-related media.

I'm thinking of maybe including some discussion of how people in minority groups feel about non-human characters representing them too.

If anybody has any recommendations on documentaries, podcasts, articles, books etc. that might be helpful, please let me know! I'm also on the lookout for any blog posts, forum discussions, social media posts etc. that discuss the above topics, so if you know of anything that you think might be relevant I'd be so grateful if you could give me a shout!

At the moment personally I'm interested especially in discussions about the characters themselves being portrayed as neurodiverse. I know 2012 Mikey was 'confirmed' ADHD on the Nick website back in the day and Rise Donnie was intended to be autistic according to one of the show runners (I need to re-find those references!) but if you've seen (or written!) any deep-dives about any of the characters being potentially neurodiverse that you'd like to share, please please do send me a link or tag me (either @turtle--soup or @hexagonal-nuts) in a reblog!

Also on a less TMNT related side note: if you have any recommendations of comics - especially indie comics - which feature neurodiverse and/or queer characters which you think are worth looking into, I'd love to hear about them too!

Thank you so much for reading any amount of this post! I am absolutely not expecting anything from anyone, but a massive thank you in advance to anyone who has anything at all they want to share with me!

💙💜❤️🧡

[takakyuns]

Buck Tick from Fool's Mate Vol. 263 (September 2003)