#you get to know a lot more about someone's oc when that oc is in trouble or in pain or afraid

[diamondsinterlude]

𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐝

chapter one

pairing: Sammie Moore x OC (Robin Welkins)

word count — 2,345

summary — 𝘚𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘨𝘰. 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 1933 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 1932.

warnings — period appropriate racism, violence, trauma, use of N-word, angst, depression, ptsd, talks of sex, (idk if I’ll write smut yet but if a chapter includes it there will be a warning) pro has spell or grammar errors

authors note — please bare with me I’m not the best writer. There isn’t a lot of preacher boy/sammie fanfics and the idea just came to me one day! Please give me your thoughts, I take constructive criticism (don’t be mean please) reblog if you like it!

“You will taste the sweet taste of death, we will make beautiful music together.”

Sammie wakes up feeling like there isn’t enough breath in his lungs. These dreams are taking over his brain. The dreams about that night, the night that went from the best of his life to the worst.

Keep thinking about how in the span of a day his life completely changed. Hell all the people in the towns life had changed. He didn’t have his cousins no more. They were basically his big brothers, both being there for him in different ways despite being older than him.

Stack pushing him to do his music not just cause of the profit he would make off Sammie but because he knew the boy loved music. Convincing Smoke to give Sammie their dad’s guitar, even if the one who played it before him was evil. He knew Sammie had something special even before he opened his mouth and sung for him in that car. Smoke was an asshole especially for hitting him in the nose with that gun. But Sammie knew after all they went through that he just wanted him to have a better life than the brothers. Not just being happy but being safe most importantly. Making him think the opening night would be his last time preforming. Pushed him to not go to Chicago cause of what they experienced down there.

The people of the town didn’t have the Chows grocery stores to go to anymore, so they probably had to go to Mr. Cartwright’s store instead. Expensive ass groceries that he knows most of the black folks in town can’t even afford. Little Lisa didn’t have her parents anymore.

They didn’t have Annie for those who didn’t believe her practice was of the devil and her work helped. No remedies to help when you were sick, no lady with sweet eyes that understood that you didn’t have all the money to pay her back yet because you still had to feed your kids. Nobody to change that bottle of milk at her and Smokes babies grave anymore.

Therese had to give birth to her baby without her husband being there. All she had was her sister and her mom there. She thinks if only she hadn’t told her husband to just take the job offer Stack had for him. But she was thinking about their baby. Nobody blamed her for telling Cornbread to do it but she blamed herself.

Pearline’s husband had been asking around if anyone seen her. He thought she left him, not even knowing she went to the juke that night. Maybe if he wasn’t fucking a prostitute on the other side of town he would’ve know where she went. Her sister came down to clarksdale with her husband and kids to get her things from her house. It’s not like the bastard would treat the things she left behind good. Better someone that loved her take them. They don’t have a body to bury for the funeral.

Mary was never seen again. Her husband was going to make a trip down to Clarksdale in the couple weeks after she never came home that day. Only to be found in pieces in his own home by a family member of his when they hadn’t seen him or Mary for a while. They say it look like he was mauled an animal.

Delta Slim wasn’t playing his harmonica at the train station no more. Or even at that other juke any more. He taught Sammie that the blues was something sacred to black folks and to know the blues you have to also feel it. It’s also a way to connect back with our past and work through that hurt. He knows all about hurt now.

When the police went to the old mill to look for the group of men that had went there the morning the day before to handle the new owners of the mill. But their bodies were scattered on the outside of the building. Not knowing who murdered them.

Of course because of the murders and disappearances tensions were high in town. Those with skin pale as paper and European features believing that black people in town did it. Blaming random black people for the murder of their family members. While the black people in the town realize that getting justice for their missing family members would give them the same fate as them they realized the only thing they could do was grieve.

Maybe it was a good thing Sammie left. imagine what would happen if certain people knew he was at the juke joint the night before and was the only one around after.

Sammie doesn’t think he could stay there anyways after leaving that church. He knows his mother would open the door for him, he just knew his father would close the door before she could tell him he could come in. It’s hard to keep faith after seeing what he saw that night and the dreams he has every other night makes him think about it all over again. When he wakes up from the dreams he almost always wakes up just before Remmick bites him. Still feeling that sting in his scar from the initial scratch. With that feeling he gets up and starts getting ready for work.

It took a while to get settled in Chicago for Sammie. Working odd jobs before working at a steel mill 30 minutes from where he lived at always taking multiple buses to work. Did he make a lot of money? No not at all but he made enough to pay his room he was renting out.

He stayed with a family of 5 in a Chicago apartment. Well not even a room really an old folding bed in a room he had to share with the families oldest son. Bobby, 12 years old not the best company coming when your coming home from a late night shift and you have a kid ranting to you about how he’s sick of being a babysitter, he thinks his mom is pregnant again because she was being more grouchy today(she was having a bad day) or that he’s tired of thing in this small ass apartment.

‘You and me, too kid.’ Sammie always thought. But usually when Bobby would go on his tangents, he would hope him acting sleep would get him to stop talking…he wouldn’t. He wish he could afford his own place even though the James family were nice people..mostly.

Sammie doesn’t think Mr.James likes him very much. But living with five other people is a lot. He should be used to it though with him and his many siblings living with him and his parents in their small house back at home. He had hoped he would be abled to afford his own place but with how much he was making he would have to work for years before seeing a pay increase.

So he gets up every morning at 5. No later than 5:20 though. if he’s not in the bathroom washing up before Doris from down the hall gets there, she takes 30-40 minutes in the bathroom. he will be completely off schedule, And if he’s completely off schedule he’s late for the bus if he’s late for the bus he’s late for work most likely.

After getting up for the day and thankfully beating Doris to the bathroom Mrs.James is usually awake by then. Making coffee and toast for both of them, she’s an early morning riser. Only quiet she can get with three kids and another on the way, she found out just the other day. She doesn’t mind Sammie being up with her because he’s usually quiet too this early.

“I guess Bobby was right this time around.” Sammie said with a look of surprise after she had told him during their morning routine. After he finished eating and drinking his coffee he would head to the bus stop up the street to catch the bus coming at 5:45 am.

Waiting for the bus the humidity was already making you sweat. With people standing at the stop with him fanning their selves. While it is hot especially for almost 6 in the morning, to Sammie he knows these people will always take Chicago summer heat over Mississippi heat any day. The south in the summer is always a lot.

Getting on the bus and taking his seat in the very back row after getting on he usually always just leans against the window before getting off at the stop he knows he needs to get off at before walking to the other.

One or two stops into the bus ride a sound has him pulling his head up from the window. A beautiful sound. Looking up he looks around the bus trying to figure out where that sound is coming from. After two seconds he finds what’s making it or who is making that sound. He sees a woman with brown skin and brown hair slicked in a bun looking ready for work.

Can’t make out what’s she’s humming but she sounds nice. The little bit of humming draws his attention while bringing comfort. Almost like she knew he was studying her while she was looking out the window she turns looking around the bus before locking eyes on him. They stare at each other for a second before he looks away. Feeling a little embarrassed for getting caught staring at her so hard she could feel it. But she keeps looking at him while he tries to turn back to the window in his seat acting like he couldn’t see her.

‘Cmon Sammie just three more stops before you have to get off.’ He said to himself in his head.

The bus stopped at another stop again with people getting on the bus. as people are finding their seats she gives hers up to a older woman walking further into the bus and sits in the first open seat she finds. which happens to be next to him.

As the bus movies again she stares at the side of his face. Now she was the one who started to study him.

“Were you watching me a couple minutes ago?” She wasn’t mad about it he could tell by her tone just asking a question.

“Yes ma’am I was, only because I heard you.”

“You heard me, huh?”

“Yeah, sounded nice”

“Nice? I wasn’t even singing lyrics”

“Doesn’t mean you didn’t sound nice.” A smile comes up and off his face before you could see it if you weren’t looking at him. But she saw it.

“Was I loud?” She says turning her head to the side to try and see his face fully to gage his reaction. But he still has his head turned against the window

“No ma’am I think it’s just when you hear something on a quiet bus you usually look for who’s making the sound.” Sammie shrugs

The woman nods her head before responding again

“What’s your name?” She fully turns to him in her seat, her knee hitting his in her turn. Pulling her hand out for him to shake with a smile on her face.

“Preacher Boy.” He responded staying in his same position but nodding his head to her.

“Well Preacher Boy last time I checked it was poor manners to not look at someone in the eyes when they greet you with a hand shake.”

With this Sammie turns to look at her fully. She was even prettier up close, could see her pretty wide brown eyes and full lips. For the few seconds looking at her he noticed how her brown eyes widened a bit at his face. With this she could fully see the scar left on him from that night. Not feeling the best when people stare at his scar too long he gives her hand a nice shake quick before turning back to the window.

Realizing she made him uncomfortable with her stare. the lady with no name so far tries to make him comfortable again.

“I’m sorry for staring so hard that wasn’t nice of me.” She winces

“It’s okay”

“It’s obviously not so I’m gonna apologize.”

Still turned his way she says “At least you’re still handsome with that scar on your face.”

This makes Sammie turn back to her with raised eyebrows. She looks back at him with a smile. Her smile had her lips turn up and pushed her cheeks up making her eyes a little smaller. He snorts then gives her a smile back.

Leaning back in the seat, feeling more comfortable with talking to her again “So you think I’m handsome.

“ Don’t get cocky now!” She says after giggling, looking at him with an smile that was bigger than the last smile..

“ You on your way to work also?”

“Yeah I’m covering for my friend, came down with a fever. Don’t think this heat and having an old white woman bitch about how you didn’t clean her couch good enough is good for making her feel better.”

“Makes sense”

They talk for a while, enjoying the conversation between each other. He liked talking to her, she had this pretty voice where you would’ve thought she would start singing at any second. He’s sure she could sing just on how she sounded humming when he originally heard her. She brought up his voice saying he sounded like a much older man, than he looked.

“How old are ya? He asked

“Didn’t your mother teach you to never ask a lady her age?” She replies with a raised brow.

“Just answer the question.”

“Fine I’m turning 21 this year.”

“So am I, like you said we are the same age. With me being 20 right now, I’ll have to voice of a grown man. Because that’s what I am”

“You just have a baby face though!”

“So do you.”

After the conversation goes on for a while longer she looks out the window. “ Oh this is my stop coming up.” She says while gathering her stuff up before pausing raising her hand again.

“ it was nice meeting you preacher boy, I hope I’ll see you around!” This time he shakes her raised hand with a slower handshake almost like he wants it to last. Much better than the quick one he gave her before.

“It was nice meeting you too.” He admires her beauty one last time before the bus comes to a stop and she grabs her bag once more and starts to get off the bus with the two other people getting off.

As she’s getting off Sammie realizes something

“Hey-“ when he goes to say something, she takes her foot off the bus and starts walking in the opposite direction of the bus.

He forgot to ask her for her name..

author’s note — thank you @dangerslutx for helping me with some ideas with writing this! see you next chapter! It’s not letting me tag everyone so let me know if I just didn’t spell your name right. I’m gonna try to figure the issue out. Also let me know if you wanna join the taglist. 🫶🏽

divided by strangergraphics-archive

taglist:

@massiv3tr33p3rsona @heyyimmisunderstood @notmilescaton @whysoceerious @ber-21 @cosmicautomatonshark @lollIxzzz @thesolenicole

[rori-is-writing]

Tell Me It Gets Easier

⟪ ⟨ Ch 1: Sorry To Bother You ⟩ ⟫

A The Pitt AU Fic.

Multi-Part | Explicit | Dr. Robby x OC | 1,323 words ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ Summary: Robby’s secret telepathic neighbor keeps interrupting him every time he thinks a little too hard about offing himself. But in the process, finds herself drawn to him in a way she never would have expected.  ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ Tags: Age Gap (20+ years), Female OC, Suicidal Ideation, Telepathy

Read on AO3 | The Pitt Masterlist

[ A/N: The only downside to writing in this fandom is there aren't a lot of fantasy adjacent fics or AUs out there. So I guess I had to write my own. ]

Why am I here?

Daisy paused in her aggressive chopping and glanced at the wall where she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, her neighbor currently sat on the other side—contemplating killing himself…again. 

Christ. This was the third time this month. 

She waited, hoping perhaps it was just one of those passing thoughts that rarely ever came to anything. Like when someone would look over the railing of a balcony or bridge and randomly think I wonder what would happen if I jumped? Of course most people rarely ever acted on those sorts of thoughts. In fact, they were usually so disturbed by the shocking suddenness of them that they would go out of their way to pretend it had never happened at all. 

Unfortunately for her though, this was not one of those. 

I can’t keep going on like this. I can’t lose another one.

Suddenly—in her mind’s eye—she saw a glimpse of a too-small face, covered in blood and staring sightlessly up at the ceiling as the sound of a flatlined heart monitor droned on in the background. 

Daisy wished this were the first time she were seeing the death of a child in someone’s head but unfortunately she’d long since grown numb to it. After a lifetime of hearing and seeing the thoughts and memories of others—the good, the bad, and the most truly heinous and soul-crushing—it was a miracle she hadn’t gone crazy before the age of twelve. 

With a sigh, she laid her knife flat on the cutting board and made her way towards her front door. Dinner could wait. 

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

“Hi there, sorry to bother you,” Daisy said, not sorry at all as her neighbor opened his door to blink suspiciously at her. 

Robby was just as scruffy and exhausted looking as he always was. Though that made sense considering he was an E.R. doctor. Or so she had gleaned from his mind that first day she’d moved into the apartment next to his. 

Her again, he thought. Wasn’t she just here last week?

She had, yes. After he’d spent far too long staring at the bottle of Percocet he kept in the back of his medicine cabinet—something leftover from some surgery he’d undergone several years before—and had swiftly appeared at his doorstep to offer him ‘home-warming’ cookies like they hadn’t been neighbors for the last two and a half years. 

“You wouldn’t happen to have seen my cat roaming around have you?” Daisy asked him with her best concerned Cat Mom face. ���Mumble. He’s an orange tabby. Fat. Adorable. Loves attention and snacks.” 

This was, in fact, a lie—not about the attention or snacks of course, her cat loved nothing more than to beg for treats and chin scritches—but that Mumble was very much safe and sound. In fact, as of five minutes ago, he was still napping away the evening in his favorite spot—the basket of clean laundry she always told herself she’d get around to folding before giving up when she inevitably fished out her last wrinkled blouse of the week…before starting the cycle all over again. 

But her neighbor didn’t need to know that. 

“Oh,” Robby said, surprised. He paused, actually searching his memory for a glimpse of an orange tail or ears hiding behind a bush on his walk home from work. Poor thing. She almost felt bad about deceiving him. 

Almost. 

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Daisy continued, knowing damn well he was. “But I just worry about him is all…” 

“I’m sorry,” he said, sounding genuinely contrite. “I can’t say I have.” 

She pasted on her best ‘I’m so disappointed but trying to hide it’ face before nodding. “Yes, of course. I won’t bother you any more. Just wanted to check if you’d seen him. I’m sure he’ll turn up though.” 

As she moved back she couldn’t help but reach out with her mind, brushing against his just to make sure he would be okay for the remainder of the night. 

Most minds had a ‘taste’. A feeling that was distinctly, wholly their own. Her mother’s tasted like sunscreen and cheap wine on the beach—her favorite place to vacation every summer with her husband before Daisy had been born. Her father’s tasted like newspaper and wood shavings—his refuge in their old shed where he liked to wile away his weekends building furniture for no one in particular. 

But Robby’s mind, his tasted like blood and antiseptic. Old leather and new scalpels straight out of the packaging. The bitterness of loss and the sweetness of friendship. A physician’s mind through and through. His vocation was not simply his job, but his life. He hated and loved it in equal measure, not matter how much it broke him some days. 

He would be fine, for now at least. Until the darkness called him once more and she was there to distract him again. 

Same time next week? She thought with no small amount of dark humor. 

“Sorry I couldn’t help,” Robby murmured awkwardly. 

Daisy smiled as she backed toward her own door. 

“You already have.”

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Daisy remembered the first time she realized she was hearing thoughts instead of spoken words. 

She had only been a toddler then—just a couple of months shy of her fourth birthday. Still wholly innocent and sweet—unburdened by the knowledge of what she was just yet. Speech had come to her early. Her parents had marveled over the rapid and exciting development of their only child, so far ahead of her peers in her age range. 

Of course, it was only later that it would become clear that this had more to do with Daisy’s ability to hear every word and thought—spoken or otherwise—rather than their daughter being some sort of wunderkind genius as they had initially assumed. But those were revelations for later. 

“She already knows her letters!” Daisy’s mother had boasted to her friend. “Her doctor is so impressed!”

The friend, a bottle-blonde with a perpetually frazzled air about her, smiled in reply. Her lips had been closed. She never spoke. And yet…Daisy had heard her words regardless. 

Letters my ass. She has to be exaggerating. Addy didn’t know her letters until she went to Kindergarten! 

Daisy had blinked up at the woman. 

“Bad word.” She said. 

The woman smiled down at her, confused. “What’s that sweetie?” 

“Bad word,” Daisy repeated, a little more forcefully. 

“What bad word sweetheart?” Her mother asked, equally puzzled by this strange turn in the conversation. 

“Can’t say,” Daisy said. “Bad.” 

Her mother had, of course, drilled into her the importance of never using ‘bad words’ after she’d repeated a few her father had ‘said’ very loudly once. But this was different. This was a guest using them. And so…so rudely! 

What the fuck is she on about?

Daisy gasped. 

“Bad word!” She yelled, pointing an accusing chubby finger at the woman. 

Her mother’s friend frowned. I didn’t say that out loud did I? No, of course not…but then why…?

And that’s when it had all clicked into place. 

The afternoon had only spiraled from there. Daisy had swiftly been sent to her room for being rude to her mother’s guest but it hadn’t mattered. Like always, she could hear them speaking through the walls, as if they were right there in the room with her. 

I don’t understand what’s wrong with her today. I can’t believe she would embarrass me like that!

What a weird kid. 

I bet she’s just overtired. She just needs a nap. 

Maybe she’s possessed? No, that doesn’t make sense. Demons aren’t real…unless…? 

And so on and so forth until the woman left. 

She never came to visit again. 

Not that it had mattered to Daisy. All that mattered from then on was that she knew. Knew what she was.

Weird. 

Unnatural. 

A freak. 

Next Chapter | Tell Me It Gets Easier Masterlist

Thanks for reading! 🩵

If you would like to be added (or removed) to this or future tag lists, please let me know!

Tag List: @wisps-writes-fic

[chil-aglia]

𝐃𝐨 𝐈 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐦? |ROTTMNT| (Male OC)

[Two Minds, One Verdict]

Be sure to read the tags on my Ao3 so you guys know what you’re getting yourselves into.

Art above is done by me. But PLEASE feel free to make your own art and idk tag me in it or something. Please I’m begging for fanart for this chapter and series in general. On my knees—

Warnings: honestly not much other than the usual angst

And of course, a quick thank you to my awesome beta readers @cimmerian1275 +@bootyshakerrr9000 who helped me out a lot with this chapter! Very talented and please, go give them a follow, like their work, etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Caden had felt immensely awkward since Leo came back. The two barely spoke as much as Caden thought they might have when Leo handed him back control of his body.

Leo looked like he had a lot on his mind when he spotted the crease between his eyes, and Caden wished he was able to see into his head on purpose, but it seemed sharing memories was not something that either of the two could control.

They were still learning as they went with this situation. But at the same time it's like they didn’t need to know more. Already having that intuitive gist of how to handle things. How they can share the body, what they could probably do.

Leo didn’t want to announce it right away, but he had felt something intimately familiar when Tova had first arrived at the base. Something that Leo knew all too well. 

Ninpo.

But it wasn’t from him. Caden had been the one to possess it. And while it was for a split second and Caden hadn’t seemed to notice what he did, Leo had a good front row view. And when he’s had Ninpo for years, only recently unable to use it, Leo knew that what he felt then was Ninpo.

He wasn’t quite sure if Caden had his own mystic powers or if that burst of energy was Leo’s. It did feel familiar to what Leo would feel when he had used his Ninpo before. But it was also different, in a strange and unidentifiable way?

Perhaps Leo is overthinking it.

He paced, brooding, caught in thoughts Caden couldn’t hear while the young slider walked around the base. Making sure to steer clear of any potential trouble like the last group.

Caden shuddered slightly, holding Tova close to his plastron as he recalled what Leo did to those bullies that decided to approach him. Caden was positive that if Leo hadn’t realised where he was, who he was around, he probably would’ve broken that guy's arm with the way he was bending it back.

Leo can be seriously scary. Caden had only just realised it, saw only a smidge of what Leo could potentially do to someone if he got ticked off. 

And he did it for him.

That was more shocking to Caden than he realised. He believed that Leo hated his guts, thought he was nothing more than a burden, someone that was in the way of his job of being a leader.

And yet, he protected him from his own people, his own Resistance. Caden called out to him and he actually responded to it. 

It confused the slider, unsure what to feel or think about that. Leo hadn’t said anything about that moment, either he was embarrassed or didn’t think it was important enough to even discuss it.

Whether that was a good thing or not was left open for one’s imagination.

Caden shifted Tova a little in his grasp, sighing and muttering out into the open space when the tense silence was beginning to feel suffocating, “You know… when those guys showed up…” He paused, shaking his head.

Leo quietly gazed down at him.

Caden kept going after a short moment, voice quiet, “You could’ve ignored it. Let them rough me up.”

“I didn’t—” Leo started, then cut himself off, teeth gritted. “You called out for me.”

“So?” Caden challenged, voice sharp but tired. “I didn’t think—I didn’t know you’d actually come.”

Leo didn’t respond at first. Then, “...I didn’t think I would either.”

That hit harder than it should have. Caden blinked, eyes narrowing. “Then why did you?”

Leo looked at him, taken by surprise by such a blunt question that he wasn’t too sure how to respond. “Because someone tried to hurt your body. Our body. And I—” He hesitated, fingers twitching at his sides, “I don’t know. I just moved.”

There was a beat of silence between them, until Caden scoffed. “You nearly dislocated that guy’s arm, Leo.”

“He deserved it.”

“Yeah, maybe. Still doesn’t explain why. You don't do things without reason.”

Leo faltered at the comment, opening and then closing his mouth, sighing as he lightly placed his palm against his temple. Caden had him there. Why did he do it? He should've had a reason. One that wasn’t just, ‘he deserved it’.

“I don’t know why I did it.” Leo finally said, quieter now. His voice dropped, like he wasn’t sure if he wanted Caden to hear. “I just... saw someone go after you and I reacted. Instinct, maybe.”

Caden tilted his head. “Instinct to protect me?”

Leo looked away.

Caden didn’t push further. He just sat there for a moment, slowly petting Tova in the real world, the small Krang pup nestled against his chest with a soft chuff. His thoughts swirled, but for once, they weren’t quite as loud. The tension in his shoulders eased just a little, until he sensed someone approaching.

Footsteps tapping from across the corridor. Light, but deliberate.

He didn’t look up until he heard her voice.

“Hey there, Slider.” Maya said gently.

Caden blinked, snapping out of his thoughts as he turned toward her. Maya gave a small wave, the edge of a smile on her face as she stopped a few feet away.

“Oh. Hey…?” He said, trying to sound casual, but his voice still carried a wobbly undertone.

“I’ve been looking for you.” She said, arms folded. “Well, not like looking, looking. Just noticed you’ve been, y’know… broody and lurking in dark corners. Which, not gonna lie, kind of fits the vibe.”

Caden raised an eyebrow. “I do not lurk.”

“You totally lurk.” She said with a small but noticeably playful smirk edging in on her voice, stepping closer. “But it’s okay. I won’t tell.”

He snorted despite himself, a half-smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I guess some of the Resistance members haven’t exactly given me a warm welcome.”

Maya shrugged, leaning casually against the nearby support beam. “They’re giving you trouble? Idiots. You think just because you’re different, they get to act like you’re a threat? That’s not how a rebellion works. We’re supposed to protect each other, not punch down others.”

Caden glanced at her, surprised at the fierceness in her tone.

“Are you always this passionate?”

“Only when I care.” Maya nudged her shoulder toward him. “And you’ve got a cute creature in your arms. So you’re worth defending.”

Tova chirped in approval, puffing up proudly in Caden’s arms like they knew they were being complimented.

“Traitor.” Caden muttered to Tova with a small smirk growing, then added more sincerely to Maya, “Thanks. Seriously. It’s been… weird.”

“I bet.” She said, eyes softening as she looked at him more closely. “You look tired.”

He laughed, short and a little bitter. “That obvious, huh?”

Maya tilted her head, brushing her hair behind one ear. “It’s okay not to have it all together.“

“Yeah…” Caden murmured, looking down at Tova. “It’s not easy. Still figuring out uh, everything.”

“I think you’re doing fine.” She said gently. “From what I’ve seen? You’re not just surviving. You’re adapting. That’s more than most people can say.”

Caden blinked, a warmth he hadn’t expected nor prepared to feel creeping up into his chest. No one had said that to him before. Not like that. Not without conditions.

He looked up at her, hesitating. “Why are you being nice to me?”

Maya smiled. “Because someone has to be. And honestly? I think you need a friend.”

Caden’s mouth parted slightly. He didn’t know what to say to that. A friend. The word felt unfamiliar. Foreign. And yet… comforting.

“I…”

Before he could form the words, a loud voice cut through the corridor behind him.

“Ah, there you are!”

Both Caden and Maya turned to see Mikey walking over, his cape fluttering behind him briefly before stopping next to Caden, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder with a small, strained smile.

“Sorry to interrupt you two, but I need you to come with me.” He gazed at Caden who blinked at him, puzzled, as Tova let out a whine of confusion.

“For what?” Caden inquired, his eyes somewhat narrowing loosely as Mikey glanced between him and then to Maya.

Rubbing his neck anxiously, “Ah, well… it’s a bit of a secret thing actually… uh…” He stumbled slightly over his words, not wanting to potentially hurt Maya’s feelings, but she seemed to already understand that it was between them and not for her ears.

“I’ll catch up with you later, okay?” She briefly placed a reassuring hand on Caden’s arm, sliding it down gently before walking away, Caden watching her go and he heard Leo mumble under his breath.

“Hm? What?” Caden turns to the older turtle who shrugged his shoulders, “Nothing. Just that… well, she’s getting friendly with you.” He informs what he assumes to be the obvious, giving a subtle grin, crossing his arms over his plastron.

Caden tilted his head, not understanding what he was hinting towards before he was pulled back to reality when Mikey cleared his throat. “Come on. The others are already gathered in the meeting room.” 

Without really saying much else, Mikey tugged at Caden’s arm to follow. The young mutant grunting softly at the pull before he held Tova tighter, “Others? Meeting room? Mikey, what’s going on?” He questions, rising suspicion gnawing away at him.

But the box turtle remained silent, turning corners and venturing further and further away from the busier sections of the Resistance base and into an area he was unfamiliar with.

The air felt tense, and Caden shuddered at the sudden shift of atmosphere. He sent a curious gaze to Leo in their shared mind, and he saw the way he looked anxious the more he slowly realised his surroundings.

“Fuck…”

Caden couldn’t help but swallow nervously, “Leo? What’s going on?” He repeated the question again, as the slider inhaled.

“You’ll be fine if you listen.” He replied, suddenly getting closer to the controls, eyeing darting around as he watched Mikey’s shell.

“We’re heading into a room where we gather all the major heads of individual sectors of the Resistance. We do that when we have to decide on something… big.”

Big? Head leaders?

Caden felt like his head would explode from the new and foreign information, not understanding the situation.

“What kind of decisions? And why am I needed?”

Leo hesitated on answering, biting his lip. “It can range from questioning why we have Tova with us… to your whole existence in general when you were created by Draxum.”

Caden flinched at the comment. 

“Remember, they all think you’re me. So, when they hear news that I’m suddenly a teenage kid again, well, it’s bound to stir up questions.” He informs, sighing in exhaustion as to what was to come, he then straightens himself up when they reach a door.

“Only speak when spoken to, got it? And… just keep an open mind. These meetings can get intense.”

With that said, the door opens, and Mikey offers a quick glance down at Caden before bringing him inside the room.

The moment the door opened, the atmosphere changed again.

It hit Caden like a wave, thick, charged, and suffocating. The room wasn’t particularly large, but the energy inside made it feel ten times smaller. Lit with a dim, golden overhead glow and lined with mismatched seating and scavenged tech, the meeting room had the air of an old war bunker turned strategy chamber. And every pair of eyes in that room turned toward him.

Caden stiffened, subconsciously pulling Tova closer.

He shifted over to see who even was in the room. He felt a bit more at ease to see familiar faces such as the brothers, April and even Draxum.

But then, there were the others he had no recollection of meeting. Some were mutants, some were humans.

Two mutants caught his eye, a large hippo and a small worm. With the worm mutant perched up on the hippos shoulder. 

To the other side was a tall dark-skinned human man, with red glasses and cropped hair. He wore a tattered white lab coat, some sort of yellow armor underneath and grey pants. On his coat was a name tag that read ‘Dr. Stockman’.

Beside him was a tiger yokai, an eyepatch over his right side with a cropped, stub tail and scars over his arms. He wore some kind of battle-like clothing.

On the other end there was a human looking girl, with short brown hair, wearing a nose ring. She stood beside April. 

And lastly there was one other figure. An incredibly tall yokai with wings. Caden had to do a double take on this yokai who reminded him of a dragon from the stories Draxum told him about very briefly during his stasis.

“Thank you for bringing him in.” Donnie sighs, looking towards his brother who nods and leads Caden to stand in the middle, so that he is in front of the new people he’s never met before.

“…what’s going on?” Caden nervously spoke up, causing some to flinch at his voice.

“He doesn’t sound like Master Leonardo.” The tiger lightly growls, huffing in curiosity. “That’s because I’m—“ Caden began only to be shushed by Leo who gripped his shoulder tightly.

Right. They don’t know. And they shouldn’t. Too dangerous.

Caden bit back the comment, going quiet as the dragon yokai looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Before you were summoned, we had a conversation with your brothers here, and Draxum. They have provided us with information about your situation.”

Leo tilted his head in the mindscape, his eyes darting over to his family. “What did they say?” Caden had asked, knowing Leo was just as curious as him.

“When you left that day, to go off and stupidly fight Prime by yourself… there was an accident and you lost consciousness.” The dragon-like figure announced, Caden’s attention drawn to her with curiosity as to what she was saying.

“They found you luckily, brought you back. But given how serious your injuries seemed to be, Master Donatello and Draxum worked together, provided a serum of sorts and injected your body with it. However, the side effects of it was that you became increasingly young again. And that your memories are now jumbled.”

Caden blinked, glancing over to the Hamato family who looked a little on edge. Obviously they were lying about some stuff, not wanting to reveal the actual truth of this whole situation.

“That’s… right.” Caden nods, agreeing with what they believed happened.

This caused some murmurs to echo about. Caden’s skin prickled under the weight of their hushed muttering that followed his agreement; they weren’t loud, but they were sharp, laced with suspicion, curiosity, and more than a little unease. He could feel it bleeding into the room.

Donnie cleared his throat, stepping forward. “Look, we understand this isn’t exactly protocol. But we weren’t about to let Leo—Caden—stay on the battlefield any longer. He would’ve died.” The softshell’s voice was steady, but his hands clasped behind his back betrayed a hint of nervous fidgeting.

“Caden… that’s the name you chose to go by?” The hippo spoke up, curious and surprised as Caden looked over at him, gulping.

“Yes… I feel more comfortable with that name right now. Given the… circumstances.” He cringed internally at himself, he sounded and felt weird about all of this.

How they were judging him. Watching him to see if he would break.

“You’re telling me.” The tiger yokai rumbled, arms crossed tightly across his chest, “That a serum reversed his age, jumbled his memories, and now this kid.” He paused and pointed a clawed finger directly at Caden, “Is all that’s left of our so-called Resistance leader?”

Leo growled in the mindscape, his aura flaring briefly. “I’d like to see him last a week in our position.”

Caden didn’t speak, didn’t rise to the bait. He just stood still, eyes dropping slightly, aware of how small he probably looked to all of them, barely a teen, hugging a Krang pup hound like a stuffed animal.

Tova let out a chirp, catching their attention. “Ugh, and I’m still confused as to why this thing is here.” The tiger adds, growling lightly at Tova who perked up slightly at the growl, narrowing its eyes and trying to return the intimidating snarl back.

“Tova’s not a threat.”

“Tova? You named it?” Dr. Stockman commented in more curiosity than anger. “Fascinating… our leader bonded with a Krang life form.” He mumbled, which caused some more murmuring.

“…who the hell are they, Leo?” Caden had enough of being in the dark of all this. His eyes gazing up to the older slider who let out an exhausted sigh. “The hippo is Hynpo. The worm is his husband Warren. We go way back with them.” He points out, but Caden blinked at the ‘husband’ comment.

How was that even possible for a hippo and a worm?

“That tiger who doesn’t know when to shut his trap is Tiger Claw. He and I don’t get along that well.”

Caden can silently agree that he wasn’t thrilled with this Tiger Claw guy either.

“That’s Sunita beside April. She’s actually a yokai, but she’s wearing a cloaking device to hide her form.”

“She seems nice.” Caden informs, noticing how she awkwardly smiled at something April was saying. “She is. Probably the only ‘normal’ one here out of everyone.” Leo briefly snorts in amusement before shifting his focus.

“That guy there is Baxter Stockboy.”

“His name tag says Stockman.”

“He changed it, but he’ll always be Stockboy to us.” Leo chuckled.

Then focusing his eyes on the dragon yokai, “And that’s Jhasutru. She’s a head medic. Mostly ran the med bay alongside me, but I guess it's all on her now. She’s skilled but blunt. So don’t take any of her harshness to heart.”

Caden nods stiffly, “Anyone else? Or is this everyone?”

Leo sighed, nodding, “There’s two more. But they must’ve been busy. They’re in other bases of the Resistance. In fact most of everyone here is from different bases.”

Caden widened his eyes, “Different bases? There’s more out there?” He inquired, but Leo didn’t verbally respond, especially when their attention collectively focused back on the meeting when Jhasutru stood up, tall and lean.

Up close, she was even more impressive. Towering and elegant, feathered wings shifting with each step like a cloak woven from galaxies. Her sharp gaze fell on Caden with unreadable intensity, wings trailing behind her like ancient banners. Tova squeaked and buried themself further into Caden’s arms.

“You do not remember everything…” She said carefully. “But instincts do not lie.”

Caden’s brow furrowed. “Instincts?”

She nodded once. “When Commander O’Neil and you were cornered, you fought. When you went to protect this…Krang pup in the cafeteria, you used something old—mystic. Something that we believed you lost a few months ago. That’s not something a mind can fake. It’s not a memory. It’s core. Essence.”

Leo flinched at that, and Caden felt it, like something tight coiling in their shared center.

“So…” The hippo mutant spoke up for the first time, voice oddly soft compared to his size, “You��re sayin’ even if he doesn’t know who he is… he might still be the same where it counts?”

“It’s a possibility.” She replied. “But the possibility is not certain.”

Dr. Stockman, pushed his glasses up his nose and muttered, “More like a walking science experiment. Fascinating… unstable, but fascinating.”

April scowled from where she stood beside Sunita. “He’s not an experiment. He’s family.”

Caden turned slightly toward her, startled by the warmth in her voice. It grounded him, even if just for a moment. But it also painted a clearer line between those who defended him and those who were still unsure if he was worth the risk.

“Regardless of how he got here.” Tiger Claw spoke, voice now addressing everyone, “We must decide what role he plays moving forward.”

Caden's grip on Tova tightened. He could feel his pulse thudding in his throat.

Leo’s voice echoed quietly within him, serious and still. “This is it. They’re deciding if they can trust us… or if we’re a liability.”

“What… what kind of role?” Caden asked aloud before he could stop himself.

Silence followed.

Then, Tiger Claw opened his mouth again. “Simple. Either you lead us like the Master Leonardo we remember… or you step aside. Because if you’re not ready to be him again, someone else needs to be.”

That struck something deep in Caden. He didn’t speak for a moment. Neither did Leo. 

It wasn’t just about proving he was still useful, it was about proving he deserved to be here at all.

In fact Leo seemed more peeved than ever, tugging Caden aside and taking over the body, glaring through the eyes of the borrowed mutant.

“Are you seriously questioning if I can still lead?”

His voice was suddenly serious, gaining the focus on everyone who was briefly startled by his change of behaviour. Leo placed Tova down onto the floor, stepping forward with an aura of authority.

“I may be different right now. And my memory isn’t all there…”

He stops at Tiger Claw’s table, slamming his hands down on the surface and leaning forward with a nasty stare.

“But I am not going to be replaced. I am sticking around whether you think I can or not.”

Tiger Claw lowly growls at him, their stares not wavering so easily as the air felt more suffocating. Tension high.

“If any of you are concerned about whether or not I can handle my responsibilities as leader again, given my unique circumstances, then I’ll give you a reason not to worry.”

He turns away, looking back up at Jhasutru, “Observe me. Test my decisions. Watch how I can act. You’ll see I am still me. Just different.” He declares, placing a hand over Cadens plastron.

Caden felt his throat tighten up. Leo was angry, annoyed, peeved, and he has a right to be. But Caden didn’t know if Leo realised what he was saying. What he was promising.

“Leo—“

He was ignored by the slider who glared ahead with determination at the others, who watched him with judgement, taking in what he said into heavy consideration.

“Very well… show us that you are still Master Leonardo. The so-called greatest ninja we’ve seen.” Tiger Claw announces, nodding in agreement as the others do the same.

Leo, who was still in control, smirked at them.

“Just don’t get in the way, unless you have to.”

-----

“Why’d you do that?!”

“I don’t know!”

“Surely you must know! You basically just said to them that I can lead the Resistance!”

Ever since they left the meeting room, Caden was quick to jump onto Leo’s throat, panicked, afraid and pissed off at the older slider.

Leo didn’t quite mean what he said back there. He was thinking of himself, that he knew, and during that moment of showing how determined he was to still lead the Resistance, he had all forgotten that he was in another body. Not his own that was still in Draxum’s lab, healing, possibly one he could never go back to.

Leo immediately knew the mistake he made when he said those things in the meeting room to all those yokai and people. But he couldn’t take it all back, it would look suspicious of him.

“I’m thinking, all right?! Just… shut up for a moment while I think.” Leo snapped down at the younger, inexperienced mutant who glared up at him.

“Thinking huh? Now you’re doing that? Where did that thinking go back there, huh?” He sasses, angrily throwing his hands up in the air and pacing around in a circle within the mindscape.

Caden’s body had been sitting down against Leo’s room, just outside as they couldn’t get themselves in the right mindset to sit by themselves in the dark of the room, not when their minds were racing about Leo's egotistical behaviour earlier.

Leo paced within the shared mindscape, jaw clenched tight as he tried to unravel his own spiral of decisions. Caden’s eyes were still locked on the floor, limbs taut with frustration and confusion.

“You really don’t get it, do you?” Caden finally said aloud, voice low but cutting.

Leo flinched.

“I’m not you.” Caden continued. “I’m not the leader they know. I’m not the one with the training, the years, the experience. I’m just someone who woke up from years of being in stasis. Got you zapped into my head. And now you just told them, people that I’ve never even met, that I could lead them into war.”

Leo’s breath hitched in the mindscape. “I didn’t mean to—”

“But you did!” Caden exploded, voice shaking. “You stood there. You took control. And you spoke like it was you who was gonna do all the work. But that’s me now. I’m the one walking, talking, breathing. I have to face them again. Not you.”

Leo didn't respond immediately. In the silence that followed, the air thickened again with tension, not from the world around them, but from within.

“I didn’t want to feel helpless…” Leo finally admitted. “Not again. Not after everything. I saw them judging you, judging us, and I couldn’t sit back.”

“You saw them judging you.”

Leo tenses, blinking briefly in shock at the sharp comeback. But Caden wasn’t done.

“And now you’ve given them expectations I can’t meet!” Caden snapped. “You think I can just be you? I’m not even sure who I am yet! I’m told I’m you, and it’s messing with me!”

Leo’s shoulders sagged. The weight of what he’d done finally started to sink in.

“I’m sorry.” The words came out begrudgingly, like they were fighting past the wall he always held around his pride, but they were real. “I… I wasn’t thinking.”

He turned to look at Caden fully now, for the first time not with command or critique, but with something painfully human… guilt.

“I’ve lost control of everything. My body. My team. The future I tried so hard to keep together.” Leo muttered, voice low. “And now you’re here, stuck in the middle of that. And it’s not fair. To you. Or me.”

Caden’s expression softened only a fraction, his non-existent brow still furrowed, but the fire in his stance cooled just a little.

“It’s not fair.” He echoed, quieter. “But it’s the reality.”

They stood like that for a moment. Not enemies. Not friends. Just two souls trapped in one body, finally standing still long enough to look each other in the eye.

“You didn’t choose this.” Leo said. “But neither did I. And that sucks.”

Leo went silent after that, the air felt like it was suffocating Caden the more he tried to wrap his head around the situation that Leo put them in. 

He wasn’t even sure if Leo going quiet was to have him cool off or if he was shutting down from the built up tension.

“Great…” Caden muttered under his breath, bitter, “Now I’m the one left in the dark. Again.”

He turns away from the slider, wrapping his arms around his body for some kind of comfort. He remembers the stares, the buzzing stress of what was happening. Their comments. 

Tova, who had been silently sitting in Caden’s lap the whole time in the real world, churred, snuggling itself comfortably and napping away like nothing happened.

“You keep saying it’s our body.” Caden said aloud into the void, his choice echoing faintly. “But then you go ahead and do stuff like that. Decide for me. Talk over me. Prove yourself by using me—“ He pauses, fists clenched. “Without even warning me too.”

No answer from the war veteran.

“Do you get how messed up that is?” Caden turns around to face Leo who had been looking down at the ground. “You want them to believe you’re still their leader? Fine. But you made them think I’m you. That I’m the one who’s ready to lead armies and stand toe-to-toe with literal monsters.” His voice cracked slightly, fear clear.

“Do you understand what you’re asking of me?”

Still, nothing.

The silence stretched, heavy and stubborn and yet loud for Caden who growls, stomping his foot.

“Speak damn it!”

Another silence. The exception of Caden’s heavy panting as it filled the void.

Then finally, softly and tiredly.

“I’m not perfect, Caden.”

Leo’s voice was low. Frayed. Tired in a way that Caden could see what the years of fighting in a war would do to people.

“I’ve never been perfect. I just… people needed me. My family. Friends and innocent lives.”

Leo looked at him, his eyes narrowed and face hardened. “Do you think I wanted to lead a war?” He asked, stepping closer. “Do you think I knew how to handle this when it all started? I messed up. I lost people. I lost me.” His voice dipped further, “I’ve seen what Prime could do. He destroys everything… he even came very close to destroying me.”

A memory of Leo seeing his body for the first time in the lab flashed for a moment, Caden recoiled at the invasion of someone else's memory. 

“And yet, I’m doing all this for a reason. To protect my family. To protect those who cannot do it themselves. So yeah, I get what I announced back there in that meeting was a shitty thing for me to do, but I can’t have the people who I gave my blood, sweat and tears to suddenly just… toss me aside like that, all because they think I shrunk down and see me as something useless.”

Leo firmly stood in front of Caden, observing him with a stare that had Caden’s head slightly tucking inside into his shell.

“I’ll do anything to protect my family Caden. I just have to learn how to do it with you now.”

An eerie beat of silence weighed heavy on the shoulders of both mutant turtles. Caden’s throat felt dry, as he shook slightly.

“Fine then. Doesn’t seem I have much of a say in this anyway.”

Caden swiftly turned away, walking over to the controls while Leo remained standing away, watching Caden’s retreating form as the young slider took control, the body in the real world having his eyes moving up to get adjusted once more.

His vision felt glossy but he shook his head, taking in a deep, shaky breath. Tova’s soft movement gains his attention as Caden softly strokes the skin of the Krang pup.

Tova chirps at him, unaware of the turmoil he had going on inside his head as the slider let out an exhausted sigh.

Then he perked up at the sound of footsteps approaching him.

He tensed automatically, expecting maybe Donnie with another lecture, or Mikey trying to pull him into another meeting he didn’t want to attend. His gaze lifted, guarded and wary.

But it wasn’t any of them.

It was Maya.

She slowed when she saw him looking, offering a small, strained smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She held herself a little awkwardly, like she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to be here but came anyway.

“Hey there.” She greeted gently, voice light but cautious. “Um… I haven’t seen you since you got dragged away.”

Caden blinked at her, surprised and strangely relieved. He hummed in response, his throat still sore from the tension earlier.

Maya walked closer and eased herself down beside him, her shoulder barely brushing his. She didn’t say anything right away, just glanced down at Tova, who chirped once and then fell quiet again.

“I’m guessing it wasn’t great, whatever happened.” Her voice was tentative, but kind.

Caden let out a scoffing laugh, dry and bitter. “That’s putting it lightly.”

“Want to talk about it?”

He hesitated. Then, finally, his voice came out low, raw. “I don’t know where to start. I don’t even think I understand half of it. There’s just… too much.”

Maya tilted her head, considering his words.

“You don’t have to explain if you're not comfortable.” She said softly then carefully placed a gentle hand on his knee.

Caden blinked at the touch. His eyes flicked to hers.

“But I want you to know this.” She continued, “You’ve got me. As a friend. If you ever need to talk, or sit in silence and just not fall apart alone, I’m here.” Her voice was firmer now, a quiet kind of conviction. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but… I see you. Not as Master Leonardo. Not as a Resistance asset. Just… you.”

That hit him harder than he expected.

Caden stiffened, his throat tightening. No one had said something like that to him before.

“You really don’t see Leo when you look at me?” He asked quietly, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. “Are you believing those rumours of me being Leo but shrunk down and with lost memories?” He inquired, raising a nonexistent brow at her as she shrugged her shoulders.

Maya shrugged with a crooked smile. “I mean, I can definitely see the resemblance. You’ve got that same stubborn crease between your eyes when you get annoyed.”

He reflexively rubbed his brow. “Great.”

“But…” She added, nudging his arm with her elbow, “You feel different. I’ve met Master Leonardo… or well in passing. And you’re not him. Not exactly? You carry things differently. Doesn’t make you less though. Just makes you, you.”

Caden looked away again, heat creeping up his face. He didn’t know what to say to that, so instead he smiled faintly and looked down at Tova again. The pup churred as if sensing his shift in emotion.

But inside the mindscape, Leo was far from calm.

His voice came low, clipped, but urgent.

“Kid, don’t get too close to her. She can’t know about us. About the truth. It’s too risky.”

Caden didn’t answer at first. He just glared over his shoulder toward Leo in the mind’s space, rolling his eyes with enough frustration to make the older turtle grunt in response.

“I know.” He muttered internally, trying not to let the irritation leak onto his face in the real world.

Maya caught his shifting expression and tilted her head. “You okay?”

Caden blinked and forced his shoulders to relax. “Yeah. Just thinking.”

She watched him for a second longer before leaning back against the wall with a sigh. “Yeah. Me too.”

They sat in silence for a beat. Then Maya turned her head, her voice softer.

“Hey. Whatever happens next… just remember you’ve got someone in your corner, okay? Not just your cute little dog.” She smiled as Tova chirped indignantly. “But an actual person too.”

Caden looked at her, really looked, and something deep in him settled. Not completely. Not enough to fix things. But enough to make the silence feel a little safer.

“…Thanks, Maya.” He whispered. And for the first time in a while, he meant it.

Caden was quiet for a long moment after Maya’s words. He stared at the floor, one hand still resting lightly over Tova, the other clenched in his lap.

She was trying. She was kind. But something about it all, the never ending pressure, the lies, the expectations, it was pressing too hard on his chest for her comfort to land properly. 

“I appreciate it…” He said finally, his voice quiet and careful.

Maya glanced sideways at him, noting the stiffness in his shoulders, the way his jaw tightened instead of easing. “But…?”

Caden exhaled. “But I don’t know if it’s enough right now.”

Maya didn’t flinch. She nodded, her smile dimming but not disappearing. “That’s okay.”

He didn’t respond to her short words. Just stared ahead, eyes distant. Tova gave a soft chirp, but even that didn’t pull him out of it this time.

“I should go.” Maya said, standing slowly. “You look like you need space more than anything else.”

Caden blinked up at her, suddenly uncertain if he wanted her to leave after all. But the words didn’t come. They stayed stuck behind his teeth, behind everything else.

“I meant what I said though.” She added. “You’ve got someone in your corner. Even if you don’t believe it yet.”

He gave a shallow nod.

Maya paused a moment longer, like she might say something else but then she turned and walked away, footsteps quiet against the floor.

Once she was gone, Caden sat still in the silence.

“…You’re not going to say anything?” He muttered aloud into the shared void of his mind.

Leo didn’t answer right away.

When he did, his voice was low. Flat.

“Nothing to say.”

Caden scoffed quietly. “Right...”

An eerie, tense stillness took place, the two not knowing what to say at this moment.

It was just two souls, stuck in one body. Both exhausted. Both pretending not to be scared.

Both wondering… what the hell is to come next for them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WE’RE SO BACK

Leo asshole arc continues fr

APOLOGISE FOR ANY GRAMMAR MISTAKES THAT WERE MADE, I TYPE PRETTY FAST AND OFTEN DON’T SEE THEM UNTIL I ACTUALLY PUBLISH THE CHAPTER. THEN I’D TRY AND FIX ANY MISTAKES WHEN I SEE ONE.

Quotev - Do I Look Like Him?

Ao3 - Do I Look Like Him?

First Chapter here

Previous Chapter here

Taglist:

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[maxdibert]

Honestly, almost everything you said is completely wrong but since I’m in a good mood, I’ll answer without too much venom, because I truly think you simply haven’t read the books and you just know these characters through fanfics:

“Not defending Barty because he's a little silly…”

Calling someone “a little silly” when we’re talking about a man Voldemort considered his most loyal follower, someone who killed his own father, let his mother die in Azkaban in his place, who canonically tortured and killed people, who imprisoned a man in a trunk for months and impersonated him while psychologically and physically tormenting children that’s just absurd. Barty Crouch Jr. is canonically a psychopath. He enjoyed inflicting pain. The fact that the rest of your text focuses on downplaying Severus’ trauma and justifying what happened to him while you dismiss Barty’s actual atrocities as “a little silly” says a lot about your bias.

Let’s be honest: you like Barty because of the aesthetic, because he’s shipped with guys, and because in your unicorn-and-sprinkles fanon you’ve turned him into a poor misunderstood twink who was abused by daddy (false), not understood (false), and who wasn’t a psychopath but merely eccentric (also false). Canon Barty was seen as a model student and no one suspected him of being a Death Eater, that’s what made the reveal so shocking. The version of Barty in your fandom simply doesn’t exist.

But anyway, let’s get to the core of it.

“The purpose behind James and Sirius bullying Snape was because he often talked down to people like Lily and other non-purebloods despite being a pureblood himself…”

First of all: Snape wasn’t pureblood. He was a half-blood i mean literally the title of a whole book in the series. The Half-Blood Prince. If you don’t know that, then you're starting from a place of zero credibility.

Second, James Potter explicitly states in canon that he bullied Snape “because he exists.” That’s a quote. At no point does he say it was ideological or political. James starts picking on Snape from day one, literally on the Hogwarts Express. He’s the one who jumps into Snape and Lily’s conversation to insult him unprovoked. At that point, James had no idea who Snape was hanging out with.

Even Sirius, post-Azkaban, admits they never knew Snape had become a Death Eater, only that he hung around with “the wrong crowd.” So where are you getting this justification from? Which fanfic are you quoting? Because the books say the opposite. They show James hexing people in the hallways “just for fun.” They show him stripping Snape in public and humiliating him because “he exists.” They show him using illegal spells on other students. Were those all future Death Eaters too? No — they were just random students James felt entitled to torment.

“He sought power with the Death Eaters and hated that Lily spent more time with Gryffindors and turned that into hate...”

Again: false. That literally never happens in the books. Snape is never romantically rejected by Lily because he never confesses any romantic feelings to her. They’re childhood friends. She repeatedly says he’s her best friend. Where are you getting this from? What are you talking about? Have you read the books? Any of them?

“On the Jily side of my head compared to Jegulus and Marlily, I headcanon them getting together in 6th or 7th…”

Your headcanons are bullshit. They’re not real. Canon states James and Lily got together in seventh year. That’s it. Regulus and James wouldn’t have touched each other with a ten-foot pole, and Mary McDonald is less important than a soggy Happy Meal toy. She has no face, no history, no personality, stop projecting your OCs into canon.

“The prank in question being when they hung Snape upside down and flashed everyone…”

You seriously consider stripping someone in public and shoving soap into their throat while they’re hanging upside down to be a “prank”? If I grabbed you off the street because I was bored, shoved a bar of soap down your throat and stripped you naked in front of a crowd, would you consider that a prank or a violent, humiliating assault? Be honest.

“Since we only have Snape’s side of the story years later, we don’t know the full picture…”

You sound exactly like people who hear about a woman being assaulted and say “well, we’ve only heard her side.” Do you understand how problematic that line of reasoning is?

Some things are canon. That James and Sirius were disgustingly rich and privileged? Canon. That Snape was dirt-poor and could barely afford clothes? Canon. That James and Sirius bullied people in groups while Snape was always alone? Canon. That their targets were never other rich kids who could fight back? Canon. That their reason for doing it was boredom? Canon.

You know what’s not canon? All the crap you’ve pulled from your fanfics.

Let’s be clear: this narrative you're spinning is explicitly refuted in the books. When Harry sees Snape’s memories, he’s horrified. That scene exists to shatter his idealized image of James, to show that his father was kind of a jerk. He runs to confront Remus and Sirius, and you know what they do? They admit it happened. They don’t deny it. They even joke about it.

And for the record, in literature, they don’t need to spell everything out for you. If Rowling shows you that James did this kind of thing for no reason, that Sirius found it fun, that Lupin passively enabled it and never once intervened — and that it continued into seventh year — that’s all intentional. That’s there to tell you that the bullying was systematic, ongoing, and cruel. You’re supposed to get it.

“The victim-blaming and abuse-excusing aspects of this are problematic…”

No. What’s problematic is pretending someone stops being a victim just because they later make bad choices. Snape did terrible things but that doesn’t erase the abuse he endured. The Marauders bullied and abused him, full stop. Denying that is victim-blaming.

“This fandom has no canon…”

This fandom has seven canon books. That you refuse to read them is your problem. And no, none of this “relies on headcanon.” You choose to ignore canon and make excuses for a gang of privileged bullies. That’s on you and your classism, frankly.

I hope this reply has been clear and comprehensive. If it’s still not enough, I invite you to check out my metas on Snape and the Marauders I’ve written several, and they break down exactly why takes like yours are not only wrong, but deeply problematic.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, I went on a trip to the dumb side (I was scrolling down the anti Snape tag) and the way people hate Severus not only seems childish and willingly ignorant because 99% of the people are talking about fanon, they hate him because Lily rejected him a million times and he wouldn’t take no for an answer, the irony of these idiots to know nothing about canon but having the courage to brag about their ignorance but the other 1% that calls him an incel feels like a projection, they go on and on how Snape is like guys they’ve known, their hate is blown out of proportion and personal that is hard to take them seriously because again, they have 0 understanding of canon and lastly, I think how they’ve been adopting Barty and Regulus, whitewashing them into poor little boys that were forced to do evil while actively and yet again leaving Severus out of this new trend feels like someone started it and was being petty like ‘see? Even the other nazis were better than Snape’ also they love to be politically incorrect but seriously hating Severus so bad and for non canonical reasons, treating him as the devil incarnate is becoming like a case of mass hysteria because I’ve yet to see someone giving an actual argument against him, not the regurgitation of the same five, six reasons

Golden Trio fans usually hate Severus for being an asshole to the kids (which is fair), while a lot of Voldemort fans hate him basically for being a traitor (also fair, because for them, he was). But Marauders stans don’t actually have any coherent reason. The only thing that really bothers them about Severus is that he was the actual victim of that little gang, and because of him, their favorites are exposed for what they were: a bunch of aggressive, privileged bullies.

Severus is also a problem because he gets in the way of turning Lily into some untouchable saint. If you really look at her choices and priorities, they come off as deeply insensitive and lacking in empathy, considering she ended up marrying a guy she’d seen abuse people for years. And as for James, he’s left looking like a privileged, abusive jerk. And they don’t like that, because for some reason they’ve convinced themselves Lily and James were flawless heroes who should basically be canonized when in reality, they were a hyper-normative, privileged couple who never actually knew what it meant to suffer, and who ended up dead because they thought playing at resistance was a game and because of their own prejudice against the people around them.

Basically, they’ve got nothing in canon to back their headcanons up, because canon makes their faves look like victim-blaming, abuse-excusing, classist assholes. So all they have left is to make up whatever crap they can.

[dykedvonte]

I keep seeing fanarts of ppl's OC's being on the ship, so do you think that if there was 6st crewmember (specifically, another woman) Anya would've been more safe? Like, someone to actually call Jimmy's begaviour out, someone Anya might wanna trust? Is there a possibility something might have changed (even if a little) or it would not have mattered at all?

-💀

I feel like the game would make it part of the commentary on where she would believe and help Anya but still be sort of dismissive? Like the whole “don’t waste time crying and being scared keep going and move on, don’t let him win”. It’s supposed to be positive and reinforcing but sometimes it does more damage in those times of mourning and grief, it feels patronizing, like you don’t understand what you’re going through but they do. Even if they did call out his behavior it’s still on Curly to act and while another voice would help, it’s still 4 against 2 on guys that don’t get it until they have to vs women who always have to.

I don’t mind mouthwashing OCs but I do get a bit bored as they tend to be borderline saviors or like Jimmy aligned. They are either more complicit than Curly or just Jimmy haters for no reason, outside of what the creators know about what he did to Anya. I am never irked by OCs but in a story like mouthwashing you really need to think about what your character adds to the commentary, especially if they are there during the crash. It’s nice to have like characters on Anya’s side more whole heartedly and interesting to see characters who placate Jimmy but sometimes it’s one note.

I can’t and don’t want to police peoples OCs it’s never my intention when I comment on trends I notice, but I do feel like the way people make their OCs interact with these two characters and especially Curly, really show a grave misunderstanding of the narrative and these characters as people vs roles in the story. Still, I know people just make up characters for fun and that’s fine. Great even, but I guys I’m focusing more on OCs that are supposed to have those serious dynamics. My favs tend to be pretty-Tulpar or post-Tulpar au OCs.

The inevitably of the crash is on Jimmy. He did that not because he wasn’t stopped but because all his means to kill Anya were taken. The gun, the axe. Even if Curly did strip him of his co-pilot privileges and try to keep him contained there’s only so many people. An extra body helps but they have jobs they have to do, he’s the only one steering the whole ship and Jimmy would likely have an out: food, bathroom, etc. He’s not new and if he couldn’t crash the ship directly, who’s to say he wouldn’t sabotage something else? A clunker like the Tulpar wouldn’t take much. An extra person helps but it’s just another thing that prolongs what a person like Jimmy is willing to do to shirk responsibility.

It’s more than just needing someone to stand up to him and think that’s what is missing when it comes to inserting a character into the mouthwashing setting.

[seaquestions]

blake lets him keep it. this is a dire lapse in judgement on his part but they're just gonna have to live with it. (ids in alts)

[finalgirlminamurray]

remember when halloween 2018 (or as i like to call it, halloween h40) came out and people were making those flowchart-style diagrams explaining the various halloween timelines? i like when people try to do that for the texas chainsaw massacre series because it is a fool's errand. you cannot divide that series into distinct specific continuities because there aren't any. there's a good argument to be made that every single film in that series takes place in its own completely separate timeline because it so often does not bother to meaningfully connect them beyond the single recurring character of leatherface.

i've mentioned before that tcm2 is my favorite sequel and the only one i actually like and will accept as a canon sequel to the original film, and part of that is because despite the complete 180 in tone it does, it's the only one that bothers at all to be a sequel. i think it's the only one that makes sense as a continuation of the first movie - the only glaring continuity errors are confined to the opening scroll text, which you can take or leave as part of the films' canon. (by this i mean the first movie's opening implies that the sawyers' crimes were discovered after sally's escape, while the second film explicitly says no evidence was found. also it retcons sally's last name to be "hardesty-enright" instead of just making lefty's last name also hardesty, for whatever reason.) there's one newly introduced member of the family but you can infer why he wasn't there in the first movie, and the one who isn't there this time has a good reason to be absent (he's died.) one of the main characters in this movie is a relative of the first film's final girl and his involvement in the plot is explicitly connected to what happened to his niece and nephew. the events of the first movie clearly happened in this universe. low bar, i know.

this could be attributed to this being the only sequel also directed by tobe hooper, although the original film's screenwriter did not return, and him having more of a vested interest in continuing the story of his own work. most of the original film's cast did not return for this one (can't say i blame them), but they work with that pretty well. i do think the film ends in a way that pretty decisively puts the brakes on any possible continuation from there, which could be attributed to hooper not really wanting to do a sequel in the first place and trying not to get asked back for another one. (i agree this was not a film that should ever have had sequels, much less become a full-on franchise. but you can tell that upon having to do it they were just like fuck it, let's have fun. hence the tone.) not that that stopped the studios from valiantly trying again and again to profit off of this title.

which might explain why the later sequels are so particularly weird. they don't really have a lot to go off of, i guess. i think part of the problem is that this is one of the few slasher films where the villain is actually a group of people, not a single recurring killer or identity various killers take up. they do have a silent, masked slasher who can be played by whichever new stunt guy you get for each film, but what about the rest of the family? it's always felt important to me that there isn't anyone outside of this isolated little unit in the first movie, but sequels keep inventing totally new characters out of nowhere with no explanation as to where they've been in previous installments. doesn't matter - we're in a new continuity now. tcm3 does not logically follow in any real way from tcm2 or tcm1. it's not a sequel despite the number in the title. it's a reboot.

(i've kind of come around on tcm4 aka tcm: the next generation. i used to think it was the worst sequel but now i think i get what it's trying to do a little better, although it is a pretty stupid movie in a lot of ways. some people have described tcm2 as a deliberate parody of the first film but i think that applies way better to the next generation, seeing how it follows a lot of the same plot beats but done in a more outlandish and parodic way. also, hey: same screenwriter as the original, returning this time as director.)

then the remake made a shit ton of money and kickstarted a new direction for 2000s horror (great. thanks for that.) and got a prequel that also actually made sense as existing in the same continuity as the film it was a prequel to. (again it probably really helped that they were able to get most of the cast back. no need to invent new family members when you still have all the same people playing them.) then in 2013 we got a sequel that promised to Finally be a Direct sequel to the original movie and...it made no sense as one. they try to pick up right where the original left off but right away there are once again a whole bunch of new characters who definitely weren't there in the first movie suddenly appearing in the house, including a baby whose existence is crucial to the plot.

(i'm sure everyone knows about the bizarre timeline decisions of this one, namely the main character ostensibly having been born in the same year as the events of tcm1 but only being about 18 years old during the main events of texas chainsaw 3d, despite it seeming to take place in the modern day. however there is an explanation for that! originally the film was supposed to take place in the early 90s when a character born in 1973 would have been that age, but studio meddling forced them to reshoot it to be 2013. you might notice that any mention or depiction of the exact year the opening scene takes place seems conveniently obscured in this film, implying that it is yet another alternate timeline where the events of tcm1 occurred sometime in the 1990s. this also serves as further demonstration that 1. studio executives are the dumbest people alive, and 2. people really don't care that much about the first movie. more on that later.)

leatherface 2017 is an attempt at a prequel that also makes little to no sense as a backstory for its titular character; i wouldn't be surprised if it started out as an original screenplay that got retrofitted into a tcm movie. there are no new sawyer relatives invented for this film (i don't think), but it does seem strangely insistent on keeping its leatherface away from the family for as much of the film as possible, making it feel especially like it didn't actually want to be a tcm movie. (the twist of the titular character's identity is clearly meant primarily to be surprising and not to make sense, but i can only say: there's no way that the original film's leatherface grew up apart from his birth family for that long and also used to be a "normal"-by-neurotypical-standards, verbal kid. different continuity.)

then in 2022 we get yet another attempt at No Guys Seriously For Real, This is a Direct Sequel to the First Movie, and i should have known things weren't looking good when it was announced this was actually getting dumped on netflix in february but my expectations plummeted to rock bottom when that teaser came out that thought the most relevant part of the movie to sell to people was a "canceled" joke. jesus. tcm:tng i'm sorry, this is the clear worst sequel. (if it was just that one dumb joke it might not be, but there's so much more that's awful in this movie - whatever.) anyway continuity-wise i guess this isn't completely disconnected, there is clear acknowledgement that the events of the first movie happened, but it's really not relevant to the main plot at all, when you get right down to it. pro tip: if a slasher sequel advertises the return of the original film's final girl, she will most likely not be in the film for more than five minutes. there's some implied backstory about leatherface running away to this neighboring town and being taken in by the lady who runs the orphanage, but honestly this could easily be yet another different continuity where leatherface is the adopted son of a kindly old lady (who still has a confederate flag in her window, jfc, i think this is the first time that imagery has ever been used in this series and it's associated with a character who's supposed to be sympathetic??) who was keeping a lid on his murderous tendencies before she died. points for effort i guess but i don't think it deserves much.

i really don't know why this series in particular is like this. most horror franchises will have their movies clearly follow each other and exist within the same continuity, sometimes with a reboot or two if they've gone on long enough (see: halloween having at least three different timelines, but all clearly branching from the same source.) if it's supposed to be an anthology series, they'll just...say that. i've heard it said that this series works best when viewed as variations on a theme, like the original film's events are an urban legend of sorts being told and retold around the campfire and every version is different because everyone remembers it differently or makes up their own. i do like that and think it makes the franchise make more sense but i know most people watching these movies aren't thinking about it like that, they're thinking of them all as sequels to the same movie, with the remake and its prequel being the only ones clearly existing in their own separate continuity.

it's a little sad to see how no one making official movies in the series seems to really care that much about the ostensible source material. maybe i'm biased because it's the film my brain latched onto the hardest when i started really getting into horror, but i think this movie is so interesting and there's so much there to explore with the little we're given about these characters and their dynamics and what they do and why they do it, and even if you can't really dive into all that in a movie you could at least use what's already there for your sequel and most of them just...don't. like they don't seem to have watched the original movie even before writing a sequel to it, just going off their own vague memories about that one scary movie about a guy with a human skin mask and a chainsaw. i know i shouldn't be expecting any more from a slasher franchise on its 9th installment but...whatever. it is what it is. this was never supposed to be a franchise in the first place. at least i can shout into the void about my thoughts and feelings on here.

(i think i read somewhere that the filmmakers were actually forbidden from referencing cannibalism in the script for texas chainsaw 3d and if that's true...oh boy. talk about missing the point. if you feel like something significant is missing in the later films in this series that's probably part of it.)

[adriartts]

more side character designs now to the tune of the Kil sisters

[miodiodavinci]

i saw that you used to hint at oc stuff on twitter (don't ask me why im digging im looking for zola stuff lmao) why don't you post more about them?

i am simply terrified that if i post oc things online someone will steal the concept and run with it faster and better than i ever could have and then i will be devastated forever and ever

more seriously i have very little to show for any of my oc things (adhd brain making life difficult as per usual awawawawawa) and every time i've shared oc things in the past i've ended up never following up on it and it makes me feel bad and guilty so i've just convinced myself i will Never talk about my ocs until i have something substantial i can put out there

[gu6chan]

fun fact about me i was an avid google+ user back in the day up till its closure and for some unholy reason i had notifications turned on for gmail and got an email for every comment, mention, or post my friends made so now i have a little time capsule sitting in the back of my gmail whenever i open it and it makes me wanna cry whenever i look through the old friends i lost contact with forever after it shut down.... :,)

[designsdefiance]

day 21: lost

it's bad enough being in a new world totally alien to her. to not recognise her sister? agonising. unbearable.

[neverendingparable]

In a less salty way of putting it: interacting with characters is the best way to get to know them and getting to know the chemistry your muses will have.

It's one of the reasons I'm against pre-established relationships, especially with new partners because I can't actually predict how close our muses could be.

Everyone puts a lot of thought (and love) behind their OCs and its rewarding for both parties to work for that lore.

[the-acid-pear]

Why did my cooking dream get hijacked by my brain making a William Afton oc and au what was that about.

[peapod20001]

Birthday you say?! Hm..... by any chance do you have any particularly favorite oc? That you would want to see fanart of? Jk jk..... unless👀👀👀

Lol Shirley is usually my go to when ppl ask what character they should draw. I’ve had them longer than most and they are easier to get for some people than my other characters. Also you can just dress him in literally anything and it works so that’s a bonus lol

Some others I’m more biased towards are Felix and Rory, I think really hard about em lol. Honestly I’d enjoy anything someone makes with any of my ocs especially if it’s a character THEY like cus I enjoy seeing which of my ocs ppl fancy hahahagahaga

[dan-crimes]

The world isn't ready for all my amazing and wonderful takes on media but maybe my OCs will make them understand...

[indigo6f00ff]

this writing shit hard man