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cherry-writes-yanderes · 1 year

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Bloodstained

cw: MINORS DNI, dead dove do not eat, gender neutral reader, yandere, noncon/dubcon thigh riding, blood kink, mask kink, light knifeplay, fuck or die lite™️, soft dirty talk, blood, mentions of murder, the reader is brutally stabbed, backstabbing (lol you’ll get it), physical assault, death threats, threat of wound fucking, horny Ghostie

Remember to like & reblog if you enjoy my work~ <3

word count: 1,939

The mist seemed a lot thicker than you remembered.

A constant reminder that you were indeed in the dark, as well as in danger. Especially after some asshole decided to make an offering to thicken it. You’d kill that bastard yourself if you could; but you can’t. You are a survivor, a mouse in the classic game. You couldn’t spill blood other than your own even if you wanted to.

Speaking of a cat and mouse game, you definitely felt like a mouse now. Especially when the cat was right across the dingy hallway, grasping another of your vermin brethren by the throat: Ace.

The man coughed as The Ghost Face held him high against the wall, holding his knife up against the man’s throat. The blade was as long as your forearm, glinting in the crude, broken down lighting of the old manufacturing building you were all thrust into for a trial.

A loud boom sounded through the building; a sacrifice had been completed. The hooks were cruel, and you unfortunately couldn’t get there in time to save your other friend.

You slowly peeked through the crack of the red wardrobe you were currently hiding in, your heartbeat loud in your ears as you heard Ace cough again, you supposed that it meant that Ghostface’s grip was now tighter on the poor man’s throat.

“Where. Are. They?” You heard the masked man’s muffled voice. His breathing was labored; chasing survivors around to murder them was obviously a tiring game. But you knew that the bastard enjoyed it. The last time you were against him he took a crude and bloody photo of you as a “keepsake”, according to him.

“W-Who?!” Ace croaked loudly, his legs kicking out in a weak attempt to try and fight off the black-clad killer.

“(Y/N), you stupid fuck!!” The Ghostface roars as he slams Ace against the wall, making the man nearly crack his skull on the dirty cement. Ace groans, choking and sputtering as he tries to get his bearings again after that attack that clearly made him dizzy. He knew that Ghostface was obsessed with you, stopping at nothing to get near you in every single trial you two were in together. The killer’s never been this angry though, and he was scared that he would get killed early from this crazy fucker. He knew that there was only one way to get out of this, and in the end, it was every man for himself.

You swallow hard has Ace slowly raises a bloody finger, pointing directly at the closet you’ve nestled yourself into.

“No...”

Your heart drops into your shoes, the killer slowly turning to face the closet as well. You hear him chuckle as he drops the squirming and injured man, letting him scramble up off of the floor and watch with wide eyes.

His boots sound heavy as they get closer to you, your eyes wide and your heart leaping out of your chest. You knew he was toying with you, there was no way that he ever wanted to go slow at anything. You were supposed to be scared.

The double doors swung open before you could even blink, and without thinking you tried to scamper away as if you even had a chance against him. You screamed as the killer grabbed at you, wrapping his arms around your waist and throwing you to the ground, knocking the wind out of you.

“Aw now, don’t run off now sweetpea, we’re just gettin’ started!!” Danny laughs as he sits on top of you to stop you from wiggling.

“NO!!!!” You scream out as you see Ace run off, tears streaming down your cheeks at the prospect of being alone with the lunatic that meant you harm. You wiggle harder, managing to break free from under Ghostface for but a fleeting moment before you feel something roughly pierce your shoulder blade... something sharp.

You scream as Ghostface’s knife pierces you, white-hot pain coursing through your body as you feel ribs crack and blood gush from the wound. You can hear him cooing loudly at you over your screaming, but you couldn’t fully understand what was being said. If you were being honest with yourself, you really didn’t care.

“Aww now, hush!!~ It’s gonna be fine! You’re gonna die anyways!” Danny laughs like it’s the funniest joke ever. He swiftly pulls the knife from your back, listening closely to your whimpering and crying.

He flips you over and you can hear him breathing heavily as he grabs your arms and blood gushes from your shoulder blade. “Y’know what, you sweet little thing? I wanna play just a little…” He chuckles, muffled by the mask as well as the blood rushing through your ears. “Ju-Just a little, I promise! That blood is... it’s fuckin’ hot...” He swallows, his mask getting closer to your face the more he speaks.

“Unluckily for you, though-” He grunts as he lays you flat and hovers over you, suddenly grabbing your neck and squeezing. “You won’t be seeing my handsome face... This time around anyway~” He jokes as you cough and kick hard; a feeble attempt to escape again. You can feel your own sticky blood pooling on the floor from your open wound, and it made your heart beat even faster and your adrenaline flow, your body practically moving on its own.

As you struggle, you hear him softly grunt, as if he didn’t wanna mention what was wrong in that moment. You finally realize, and it’s horrid. In his efforts to cage you in and trap you under him, he had put his knee in between your legs, causing your sudden movements to rub against him. Was he... turned on by this?! What a fucking pervert... You stop in your attempts to move after that realization, opting to try moving your legs up to kick him in any way. That only made it worse, his breathing getting labored as he just watched you eerily with that goddamned mask.

“Hey!!!” He shouted suddenly, slamming your body onto the cold floor and bringing you back up again, holding you close to him. “Who fuckin’ said you could stop?” He asked deeply, his voice deep and smooth but sinister at the same time. The rubber of the mask touched your nose as he stared you down, your body shaking under such a dangerous gaze. He sighs, grabbing your hips as he sits you right on his thigh. You felt even more like a mouse, but now you were in the cat’s jaws.

“Move your hips, baby...” You hear him order, his breath heavy with anticipation. You don’t comply for a moment, staring him down in defiance. “Don’t make me fuck that bloody hole in your back instead, you little bitch.” Danny growls as he reaches around you to poke a finger in your gushing wound to make you squeal, which you do.

This time, you comply, knowing that him getting angrier would lead to a worse fate than this. You slowly move your hips over his toned thigh, your warmth rubbing against the fabric of his bloodstained pants as well as your clothing. Your cheeks were hot, and you had to admit that the friction felt good. But with someone who planned to kill you? Maybe he wouldn’t if you gave him what he wanted...

“That’s it, sweetness... Mm, you’re so warm...” He huffs desperately, his hands gripping your hips hard as he helps you along, pushing you down as he moves his leg for a better angle. “Yeah, that’s it... Good ‘lil baby...” He praises again and again as you ride him, a gentle whimper from the building pleasure escaping your throat without permission. You can feel your body reacting harshly to everything that has happened, truly obvious from the stain that has appeared on The Ghost’s pants. It all happened so fast, your brain was fuzzy. His hips started to hump against you, begging for some kind of attention in the place he needed you most.

You could hear generators being completed and the lights getting brighter. The other survivors were probably wondering where you were, and your heart stung from the thought that they might just leave without you.

Danny watched as you tried to quickly get yourself off, smiling under the mask at how funny this situation was to him. He never thought you would be this obedient... But he liked it. The killer knew that he should have done this sooner if you were going to be this good of a fucktoy!~ Leather gloves grabbed at your cheeks, squishing them and making your moans muffle just a bit as he forced you to grind on him faster. His index finger forces itself into your mouth, rubbing your tongue with vigor as he continues to move you. A twinge of blood from your wound coats your taste buds, and your warmth throbs from how good it tasted. “L-Look, sweetcheeks- mmh- I’m okay with not cumming this time... Just this once, y’hear?? But- shit, you gotta move just a teensy bit faster if you wanna get off by the time this is over!” Ghostface cackles hoarsely, gripping your hips harder still. You moan in response, panic flooding your being with a sense of primal urgency to not only cum, but to get out alive.

You suddenly hear the door alarm; the others had finished with the gens, but still no one was coming for you. You can hear them opening the giant door to escape. Your sense of panic grows, making your hips twitch with both desire and fear. “D’aww.. they’re leavin’ without you, honeybun... so sad!~” Danny croons playfully, groaning softly still as you continue to move on top of him. Your brain freezes over, the fear skyrocketing and making everything more... pleasurable? You weren’t sure how that could happen, but you let out a louder moan as you look down to see the Ghostface’s built thigh under you, rubbing on your precious parts with lust. You moan again, unable to contain the fact that your brain is beginning to melt into nothing with pleasure, your hips finally moving on their own.

Your moans get louder and louder, the indication that you were getting close spurring Ghostface on to grip you tighter, his leg moving in sync with your body to help you along. “That’s it! Cum for me, darling~” The killer calls. Your breaths get heavy, cheeks warm as the feeling building in your tummy finally snaps at his command. Your back arches as you cry out, your broken screams accompanied by the laughter of a psychopath.

“What a good baby!!~ You made me so proud!~” He coos, nuzzling his mask on your cheek as you come down from your high, your legs shaking and your hips twitching. He gushes over you, showing you the stain you left on his pants as well as yours, giving your cheeks a pinch with his leather gloves. You can barely feel anything as Ghostface picks you up, and you wonder if he’s just going to hang you on a hook and fuck you there until the Entity came to claim you. If you were being honest with yourself, you would rather that have happened.

Instead, he drops you right at the gate: wide open and welcoming you through to the other side. As a goodbye until your next trial, Ghostface jabs his finger into your wound, cruelly twisting as you writhe and scream on the ground. He cackles wildly, kicking you right in the gut to get you through the door.

“’Til next time~”

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tastesoftamriel · 10 months

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The issue I see with the ESO Dark Heart of Skyrim depiction of Reachfolk is primarily the division between "ethnic/indigenous" stereotypes, e.g. living in "tribes" in the middle of buttfuck nowhere and being hostile to outsiders, and the "civilised" Reachfolk who are depicted as far smarter because they live within the relatively safe confines of Markarth with taverns and banking services and other city crap that are the benchmarks of modernity and Tamrielic civility.

There is no reason beyond blind ethnocentrism that this is a division that exists, either in real life or in fantasy (if we allow the latter to truly break the bonds of fiction into something *better*). So-called "primitive" peoples, be that the Azande or Trobrianders, have been subject to ridicule due to their indigenous knowledge, myths, and beliefs as unaligned with our post-enlightenment, postmodernist, scientific worldview. In the eyes of many writers, projecting what is deemed within their worldview to be "good" for their characters is really a detriment when it comes to original worldbuilding.

At the risk of sounding like yet another unhinged Marxist, my final comment concerns the structures of Reach society. The hierarchical structure of Reach clans is not something I'm super familiar with so I may come off as sounding like an idiot here, but bear with me. Why are Reachfolk, with supposedly primitive and unchangeable belief systems, upheld to the societal structures of mainstream Tamrielic groups? Why would they trade with gold, if they traded at all; and if they didn't, someone needs to do some research on the historical basis of global trade, which cough cough involves cooperation and amicable relations between disparate groups over huge distances and periods of time. Why are the Reachfolk exempt from this cycle of amicability? Is it more thrilling to write them as hostile savages, ready to attack anyone who supposedly threatens their way of life?

Yes, they would be thoroughly aware of the dangers of colonisation. But why have city Reachfolk been portrayed as sensible citizens of Tamriel while their brethren in the wilderness are presented as wild, IGNOBLE savages? Where is the justice in portraying indigenous peoples as they truly are and are capable of, rather than re-used Western tropes surrounding the division of self and savage Other?

Once again, this ties into the prominent Western tradition of Othering those who don't follow the tenets of a monotheistic, hegemonic, organised religion, or similarly prescribed worldview. By not including Aedra worship in Reachfolk culture, they are seen as savages and people who should be civilised and brought into the fold of the Divines. There is a pervasive undertone of violence linked to so-called "primitive" groups in TES, and this may just be to make convenient NPC bandits, but also perpetuates a stereotype that deeply harms real-life indigenous and culturally marginalised groups.

This is why careful worldbuilding is so so so important because we can project the world WE want, free from the socionormative biases that taint fantasy writing. Yes it's necessary to draw inspiration from real life, I do it all the time, but there's a point where you say "what if real life isn't that great of an idea to project here?"

I'd like to conclude by saying that I'd like to see this decolonisation of fantasy writing extended to other socially marginalised and misunderstood groups in TES, such as Bosmer, Argonians, giants, minotaurs, and the Bandaari (I could rant about them all day but I have other writing to attend to). We can do so much better not only with our ability to create some truly original fantasy worldbuilding, but also by showing others that by decolonising our own writing, we are becoming more sensitive to the worldview of others and incorporating that in an insightful and respectful manner.

#Rant #Reachfolk #reachmen #The Reach #Tes #The Elder Scrolls #Writing #decolonisation

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lookbluesoup · 1 year

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Hydaelyn in Endwalker

At the risk of looking stupid online I'm going to field my perplexions about Hydaelyn that've been bothering me for months lol This post is... a little Hydaelyn critical. But I do offer that in good faith, I LOVE the character and I'm not trying to just trash her, I'm genuinely interested to hear other perspectives about it. (But please be nice, everyone is entitled to their own take)

Also this is not in response to anyone else's post. I haven't even seen any Hydaelyn posts circulating lately. I'm not vagueing anyone or trying to start drama. Just trying to sort out my own feelings about this character.

So my main takeaway from MSQ was that love is, ultimately, what saves you. That humans (including Ancients!) aren't perfect, and cannot love perfectly, but the shared love of you and others is still what saves you.

And, also, that grief is a part of life. Mistakes are a part of life. Conflict and loss happen, but they need not destroy you. Stand for doing right as best that you can, forgive yourself and keep trying, keep loving - both yourself and others.

There was an incredible amount of emphasis on not judging or hating one's enemies, about accepting the humanity in all of us and coming together, which I really loved.

There was also, of course, a huge rejection of self-sacrifice and martyrdom.

I saw all those themes in the Dark Knight quests a LOT (especially before the English translation changed so many scenes), and I assume Ishikawa was continuing that theme from Shadowbringers onward.

So again! I don't hate Hydaelyn!

But I feel like... at least in the English translation, she is still treated with excessive reverence, like a goddess, by the Scions - even ones it didn't really make sense to after her origin came out, like Y'sthola.

And at least on my first playthrough, while I like Venat a lot and love the drama of the Final Days pushing everyone into points of desperation, to their breaking points, and her decision to sunder the world definitely did ultimately help (help!) make it possible for us to defeat the Endsinger... I dunno.

To me she was still subject to the same arrogance as the rest of the Ancients. Whether her decision paid off or not, she still took into her hands the fate of the entire Star, she still made a decision that would result in millions of deaths.

And if we're going by Hydaelyn's own assertion, that each reincarnation is their own person, not just a missing piece of a whole... then to achieve her goal of a better world, she killed all the remaining Ancients except those three.

She chose to create a world where death and trauma would affect generation after generation - and she can say that it was for the greater good, for the world to survive. But that was essentially the Convocation’s justification too, in creating Zodiark and orchestrating the Rejoinings. Committing genocide to prove that genocide is wrong… is not noble.

The cutscene with her sundering the world, where the people insist they'll return to a world free of sorrow underneath a burning sky, could also NOT be how it actually happened. It had to be representational of her feelings and conclusion. Becoming Hydaelyn took coordination with her followers and planning.

At least in English, idk about the original Japanese, Hythlodaeus's shade describes the time of the Sundering as if the world wasn't in utter ruin at that point. It was beginning to heal, they had restored some natural systems, but the Ancients were short in numbers. At that point, they were done sacrificing their own people, in time they were going to sacrifice other life - plants and animals, to restore those lost brethren.

At the very least, Hythlodaeus's completely different account shows that the two sects of people post-Zodiark were viewing their sacrifice and end goal in completely different ways. Ethics aside, whether the competing goal was achievable or not… we will never know, because Venat stopped it from happening.

But I don't think either recounting has a monopoly on the truth. There was no One Truth, there were just competing needs and perspectives. And though Venat insists that unity is necessary to avert the Endsinger - she perpetuates this division. Azem refused her followers call to help summon Hydaelyn, and I think that's significant.

But I'll also acknowledge that Azem didn't manage to save the Ancients, either.

And you could argue that the Ancients were their own worst enemy. They kind of were.

Hermes was a really, really great caricature of severe, untreated Depression. And he had the powers of a god. His creations were sent to find a specific answer in the world beyond, and like their creator, they didn't have the tools to process hearing an answer other than what they were expecting. They were trapped in their own perspective. He was looking for answers in the stars, instead of in himself. Their own pain and inability to engage with emotion in a healthy way overwhelmed every encounter they had and created the very reality he so feared.

He did not use the proper channels for peer review before sending them out on their mission. Those rules, those checks and balances, that community approach to design, existed to protect the Ancients from their own power, and he deliberately acted in secret. He isolated himself from society, convinced himself his pain was something nobody could understand, made an island of himself and doubled down on his own jaded beliefs.

I don't know what kind of mental health facilities were available to the Ancients - we just don't have that information. But I do know that he was treated with patience and forgiveness by a significant number of colleagues, and his quirks weren't held against him. People did try to help and accommodate him, even if they didn't always understand. He had been promoted to a powerful position. I don't know if it's fair to blame anyone in particular, or even their society, for what happened. Because again... everyone was doing the best they could with what they had.

If anything, the problem was that literally any Ancient could have made a similar mistake in the right situation. They were ALL that powerful. Eventually chaos would happen. Sundered souls can certainly create destruction, but not on the same scale.

I don't personally agree with Hydaelyn's decision not to reach out to the Convocation. I understand being careful, and thinking through what the next step should be before acting. But there's a LOT of "maybes" in this argument:

And ultimately, it's her doing the same thing as Hermes, putting the power of judgement over an entire people in her own hands. She's assuming that she is in a unique position to decide the fate of the entire Star. It's not evil. But it's arrogant. She wasn't special among the Ancients, gifted with some unique wisdom. She was doing the best she could from her own perspective.

Plus... if half your population, and then another half again are about to sacrifice themselves... what have you got to lose by outing Hermes and/or trying to work with the Convocation to avert that loss of life? We don't have all the details, I'm willing to accept that there were circumstances that made it impossible, or at least made Venat decide against trying it. But even so. What did you have to lose leading up to the summoning of Zodiark? There was already panic and destruction at that point.

Hydaelyn sacrificed a lot of people to accomplish her goals. She made a goddess of herself and manipulated people like Minfilia on that basis. She killed so many children and stole so many lives even just by reincarnating Minfilia over and over on the First. She misrepresents the nature of the Ascians to the WoL, keeps secrets, and essentially charges you with being a crusader in her Holy War.

It's Emet- Selch who tries to bridge the gap. Not Hydaelyn. It's him who's willing to consider trying to achieve his goals without bloodshed, if you, the WoL, are strong enough. He says this to himself, out of anyone else's hearing. There's no reason for it to be a lie.

And just before Mt. Gulg, you can see Emet starting to question his beliefs about humanity because of the WoL's accomplishments. Hydaelyn has nothing to do with that. It's all you. And Emet succumbs to his own weaknesses too, so we never get to know what that might have happened if you'd had more time with him. He's not better than her.

But I think it's significant that he's the one who reaches out. Who's willing to consider a compromise at all.

In war you make sacrifices, I get that. But she was not more heroic, somehow, than the Ascians. Both sides were doing terrible things and denying the agency of mortals in order to achieve their ideal world.

So to me... she was not a benevolent incomprehensibly wise mother figure. Much like in real life we go from being kids who trust our moms implicitly, to adults who realize our mother was human and made mistakes, I think we’re supposed to recognize that Hydaelyn didn't do everything right and its our job to carry the future forward for subsequent generations, to learn from what came before, and hope that our own children do the same and forgive us for our own mistakes.

I think its very important to note that the WoL is just as much the Convocation's creation as Hydaelyn's. Without being rejoined as many times as they were, the WoL wouldn’t have survived. She saves you from the Ultima Weapon, Emet-Selch saves you from Elidibus, and its their powers combined that save you and your friends from the Endsinger. You are the legacy of each side’s imperfect love, equally.

WHICH brings me to my point of perplexion. Hydaelyn continues to be venerated. NPCs who know what happened continue to emphasize her side of things. I feel I must be missing something, because to me, the finale of Endwalker essentially shattered any idea that this was a Light vs Dark kind of story. People made choices. People made mistakes. It wasn't good or evil. It was human. We survived in spite of our mistakes because love was more powerful than our imperfections.

The Scions sacrificed themselves one by one just like the Ancients. And got brought back using energy from the Star... not all that different than what the Ascians had planned to do with their own brethren. I just don't see much functional difference there in the sentiments between either side.

I don't think we're supposed to hate Hydaelyn. I don't think she was evil. But I don't think she was better than the Ascians.

So while I don't expect, or want, characters to be condemning her left and right in the narrative, it's still baffling to me that there's such consistent, explicit reverence for her.

#ffxiv #ff14 #hydaelyn #venat #emet-selch #ascians #ancients #meta #shower thoughts #long post #endwalker spoilers #dark knight spoilers #shadowbringers spoilers #text

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fficway · 1 year

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I love how you write Donnie!!! PLEASE GIVE US MORE!!!

Thank you so much! I originally had this idea for a Leo fic, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would work better for Donnie, so here you go!

Synopsis: One of Donnie's inventions ends up on a rampage and you have to think of a creative way to get Donnie to quiet down so that he doesn't reveal where you're hiding.

ROTTMNT Donnie x Reader insert. (No gender specified). Age is irrelevant in this fic and not specified so age them to the show or up, however fits you best.

[This is actually angst before the fluff. I don't usually write angst because I really don't enjoy it but I need more practice writing drama and resolution. It's not like dramatic life or death angst, just heart break before the resolution. I also re-wrote the ending a few times and still don't love it (I think it's a little rushed and cheesy lol) but I hope you all enjoy it at least!]

"Shut up, Donnie"

"Feast ye eyes, brethren, on my newest invention: the Pizza Maker 9000! Patent pending, state of the art, trademark, magnificent pizzas at the ready with a mere touch of a button, and voice activation!" Donnie pulled a cloth from atop of a new machine he had created. The light sparkled off of the neatly polished silver appliance. "Allow me to demonstrate-"

"What's the 9,000 for? Did you try to make 8,999 of these before this one?" Raph questioned from his seat on the couch with his brother's. Leo sitting at his side and Mikey leaning from behind over Raph's shoulder.

"No, the 9,000 stands for the 9,000 possible combinations of pizza this baby can make! Well technically it would be over 7.7 million!" Donnie emphasized proudly, "But 9000 sounded cooler. Now, allow me to-"

"But I thought I was the designated pizza chef!" Mikey whined, "You guys love my pizzas!"

"Yes, Angelo, we did. Up until your adventurous, for lack of a more insensitive word, endeavors you've been concocting lately." Donnie replied flatly.

"What's wrong with Pizza Milkshakes? We all love Pizza, and we all love Milkshakes! Obviously combining them would be delicious! And Pizza noodle soup! And pizza with brussel sprout toppings! And-" Mikey's argument was interrupted by Leo.*

"Everything! Everything is wrong with those combinations!" Mikey pouted at Leo's words.

"However, segway! This Patent Pending Donnie Tech Pizza Maker™ does make delicious pizza combinations!" He pressed a button to turn on the machine so that it would make a pizza in front of their eyes as he continued his speech. "With over 100 types of dough, 1,800 types of cheeses, 43 types of tomatoes, and an infinite possibility of toppings, gentleman, I give you: the perfect pizza." The machine finished with a *ding* and a pizza came out of the front.

"Uuuugh, Hawaiian? Ugh I knew I should have removed pineapple from the ingredients list!" Donnie rubbed his hand over his face in frustration as Leo and Raph laughed at him.

"Ahhh yes, the most rare of unlimited possible pizza combinations: the Hawaiian!" Leo howled with laughter.

"I could've made that." Mikey crossed his arms, still pouting.

"Alright, so it made a pizza that we could just order. But how does it taste?" Raph walked up to grab a slice.

"Oooor I could make it! We don't have to order one!" Mikey whined again, his arms flailing in frustration.

"Come and see for yourself. And by 'see' I mean 'taste' of course." Donnie stepped aside for Raph, confident in his invention. "Even though there is pineapple on that pizza, the cheese, sauce, and dough are all chosen to be the best possible combination to compliment the fruit topping."

Leo walked up as well to take a slice. Raph and Leo shrugged at each other with grins before biting into their slices. Hey, free pizza is free pizza!

Donnie and Mikey watched with held breaths for their reactions.

"O-ho-hoooo boy this is some good pizza!" Leo crumbled to his knees with the half eaten sliced raised to the sky as if he was worshiping it. Then he quickly finished off his slice and took two more in his hands.

Raph mumbled through a full mouth, "Great jub Dunnie! Now we'll nuver huve to ordur out again!"

"We haven't ordered out anymore anyway because I've already been making us delicious pizzas!" Mikey yelled in protest.

Donnie stood straighter with his hands proudly on his hips, "Relishing. And I am relishing. And I am still relishing." Mikey huffed at Donnie's smugness.

"Say," Leo paused in his pizza eating to take a breath when a thought occurred to him. "This isn't going to turn evil and attack us later like your other inventions is it?"

"Please, 'Nardo, you place such a ridiculous hypothesis upon me with very little statistics to support your claim." Donnie scoffed, his proud stance not wavering a bit.

"U-huh, yeah, because when have your inventions ever tried to get us killed." Leo rolled his eyes sarcastically to himself as he continued with another slice of pizza.

"Not including Albearto's, S.h.e.l.d.o.n, the defense bed-" Mikey mumbled, listing off a few on his three fingers before Donnie interrupted to correct him.

"The Personal Slumber Defensive Device did not try to kill us, it did exactly as programed and defended the sleeper, a.k.a. Pa-pa."

A noise from the entrance made everyone look over to see you and April entering the lair.

"Hey guys! What's going on?" April asked. It looked like you both had interrupted something.

"I smell pizza but don't see any! Did Raph and Mikey already scarf it down?" You asked half joking.

"No. I refuse to touch something so devoid of artistic flavor and love!" Mikey crossed his arms in a huff.

"Oh no. Mikey used big words like 'devoid.' That means he's upset." You looked at April.

"My guess? It's another one of Donnie's inventions." April looked from you to the three turtles gathered around the machine, solidifying her guess.

"It's the Patent Pending Donnie Tech Pizza Maker 9000™ AKA the PM9000™!" Donnie gestured dramatically to his shiny new machine that was currently making a second pizza of random order for an excited Leo and bouncing Raph.

"That's great! Another invention that will later try to kill us." You chuckled sarcastically.

"That's what I'm saying!" Leo agreed before stuffing his face with a fresh slice from the newest pizza, this one with olives.

"It will do no such thing! It is programmed only to concoct the highest of quality pizzas! Allow me to demonstrate since you guys missed it the first time!" Donnie rushed through the last sentence excited to show you and April his genius.

"Hmmm, I sure am hungry for a pizza!" Donnie annunciation his words clearly with a finger in the air in the center of the room. Everyone stared at him expectantly in silence as nothing happened. You and April shared an impassive glance. A light flashed from the Robot as it started up again, and everyone 'ooh-ed' as it spoke back.

"One Perfect Pizza™ at the ready." It's robotic voice sounded as a mechanical arm stretched out towards Donnie and reconstructed into a conveyor-belt. The third, and newest pizza arrived in front of Donnie, steaming hot. (The pizza too.)

"It will deliver your pizza to you anywhere in the Lair!" Donnie said proudly, taking a slice out of his own pizza now.

"Oh so it responds to us just talking about pizza? What if I say that I'm going to cook a pizza?" Mikey protested. The machine flashed again and a new conveyor-belt transformed in front of Mikey, a new pizza coming his way.

"One Perfect Pizza™ at the ready."

"Is it really going to say "trademark" every time?" April asked.

"Nuh-uh! No way! If you think I'm going to betray the years of hard work I've slaved away in the kitchen learning how to make my perfect pizza, you can think again baby! I'm the Pizza chef around here! It's either me, or another being with a heart that will be making the pizzas for us! A machine can't recreate the love that goes into cooking!" Mikey had slapped away the pizza and was now dramatically spieling. You started to realize that Mikey really was actually offended, and you felt bad for him. You know how much Mikey loves cooking, but you also know how much Donnie loves his inventions, and they both do their crafts as their own way to help their brothers out and do nice things for each other. This was complicated, and you knew this had to be settled between the turtles, so you watched on. Leo and Raph will surely step in if it gets out of hand.

"I don't know, this tastes like love to me!" Leo said between mouthfuls of pizza.

Ok... surely Raph will step in if it gets out of hand.

"Yeah, and Donnie's pizzas are cooked faster than yours Mikey, so I say for the Lair pizzas, Donnie's machine is best." Raph was already ordering a third pizza now.

Oh boy...

"Boom! Hahaha! Technology is the future of civilization, there is nothing that can beat it!" Donnie was proud that two of his brothers had liked his invention, and his words were insensitive to Mikey, however, and you winced. You're sure that he doesn't mean to rub it in Mikey's face-

"In you're face Michelangelo!" Donnie laughed while pointing.

-Ok, the universe is apparently going out of it's way to prove you wrong on everything today. You know Donnie doesn't mean to be mean to Mikey, he's just being immature right now. But honestly? This'll help you to convince yourself that he isn't perfect.

You've known the turtles for a while now, and had originally developed a crush on the intelligent and passionate Donatello. However your crush has recently begun to fade. Yeah, you could always just tell him how you feel, and take whatever answer he gives you. You could handle it (you think), and you're positive that Donnie wouldn't treat you differently just because of a one-sided crush. However, you decided there was no benefit in telling him regardless. The reason being was because of said one-sided crush.

You know that it's one sided because Donnie is very forward about himself. He's choosy on what emotions he shares with people, sure, but you've seen how he lights up when talking about his childhood idol and crush Atomic Lass, as well as when he fights villains like Cheery Tomato at Albearto's. He has a type and is not shy in his advances when faced with those caricatures, so you're certain that if he did have an interest in you, you would have noticed by now. Therefore, if confessing to him of a one-sided relationship would make no difference in your friendship, then not confessing to him would ultimately bring the same result, so you've concluded that keeping it to yourself and willing yourself to get over him is the best course of action.

This was a good opportunity to tell yourself "See? He's not perfect! He can have immature moments too! You can get over him!" But your heart chose to make excuses for him. Not to excuse his behavior at Mikey as ok, but to understand that he doesn't mean it that way. At any rate, you decided to step in to mediate now, and tried to stay impartial.

"Donnie, I think you've had the floor to talk about your invention long enough." You approached Mikey and put a hand on his shoulder. "I, for one, would love a home-made Mikey Pizza Special." You smiled at Mikey's gleeful expression. You told yourself that you weren't siding against Donnie as a selfish way to push away from him. This was fair! Donnie had two people on his side, so its only fair that Mikey gets one person on his team!

"One Perfect Pizza™ at the ready." The robot's voice sounded as a pizza was delivered in front of you. Mikey slapped it away again while pointing triumphantly at Donnie.

"At least someone here has a refined palate, knowing exactly who here is the better pizza maker!"

"What is your order?" The Pizza Maker responded to the words its named after.

"How could you choose Mikey over me?" Donnie was looking at you shocked and betrayed. You were sure that it was because of his pride in his inventions.

"I didn't choose anyone over-" You were interrupted by Mikey.

"Maybe because your not-so-perfect pizza machine is so-not-perfect enough to compete with me and my so-perfect artistry!" Mikey issued the challenge to Donnie.

"You're suggesting that art somehow bests science? Oh sweet 'Angelo, if it's a challenge you want, it's a challenge you shall receive!" Donnie and Mikey were quite literally butting heads.

"Somehow, I think I might have made this worse." You mumbled defeatedly.

---

It was decided that Mikey and Donnie('s invention) would go toe-to-toe in a pizza making contest. The judges being you, Splinter, and April. Leo and Raph were not allowed to intervene other than to host the event with a microphone and referee. Splinter and April were chosen as neutral third parties, but you were still unsure why you were a judge considering that you had only asked for Mikey's pizza. You didn't want to chose a better pizza. It was irrelevant! You just wanted a normal pizza made by Mikey to help him feel better. Yet somehow you were roped into not only being a judge, but your vote counted three times as much as Splinter and April's vote!

"Then why add other judges if your votes don't count?" You asked April on your walk back to April's apartment. You were going to be sleeping over at her place anyway, you both had just decided to stop by and see the boys on the way home (which you were now regretting.)

"I have some ideas in mind, but the short of it is? Because you intervened." April poked you with her joking response. She seemed to have some reason to find all of this funny. You on the other hand were dreading what was going to happen tomorrow.

The competition had been postponed to the following day as Donnie declared that he wanted to make some last minute upgrades on his tech. When Mikey had taunted that it was because Donnie knew that his machine would lose, Donnie had laughed off the remark, and replied with his own. Something about proving something and making things right again? You assumed that it was "proving Mikey wrong" and "making [the tech] right again." That's the only combinations that made sense to you.

After April and you had dinner (pizza was off the table since you'll most likely be getting your fill tomorrow), you settled in for the night after a movie.

April was on her phone a few times throughout the movie. You assumed she was texting Sunita.

"Uh, hey! I gotta step out for a quick sec! It'll only be a minute but feel free to crash if you get tired!" April kinda rushed to the door. You sat up, now anxious.

"What's going on? Is there trouble? Should I come too?" You questioned her.

"NO! Uh, no! The boys just had a mission alarm go off, but it's just a petty thief! No biggie! Only two of them are going to check it out, all of us aren't needed!" She waved her hand a few times to emphasize that it wasn't a big deal.

"Then why are you going?" You raised an eyebrow.

"Uhhh, be..cause it's at the new shop I work at! I gotta check it out as, you know, an employee and all! Psssh you know how it is!" She crossed her arms casually.

"You got a new job already? Where?" April's phone dinged as you spoke.

"Uh, I'll answer all of that when I get back! Gotta go!" She ran out of the door in a hurry, leaving you swimming with questions. You could see she was acting suspiciously, but you've had a lot of your assumptions proven wrong tonight so you decided to just drop it for now. You'll have her explain what's up tomorrow. Yawning, you settled down after a frankly exhausting day.

---

"There you guys are!" April panted catching up to Raph and Donnie.

"Alright, show me to the scene of the crime stat! I still have to finish my modifications before tomorrow's competition and I don't trust Mikey being back at the Lair so close to my tech without me." Donnie was looking around the empty street as he spoke, "Why did he and Leo get to stay home while I got dragged by Raph out of my lab? If the thief isn't that big of a deal then why not let Leo handle it?" Donnie's brain was still in overdrive since he had been freshly pulled from his lab.

"Donnie, there is no thief. We needed to talk to you and knew you wouldn't listen if you were still in your lab." April explained.

"What? Why? What is there to talk about? If you're going to convince me to go easy on Mikey I will have to decline! He will gain nothing from us going easy on him! And by "us" I do of course mean "me and my tech"." Donnie crossed his arms.

"Donnie, you know who this is about." Raph crossed his arms as well.

April had been the one Donnie confided in when he realized he had begun to have feelings for you so long ago, but out of fear that you would not reciprocate, he pushed those feelings way down. April had been the only one to notice and weasel it out of him. Raph, however, had overheard, and therefore was sworn to secrecy.

Which apparently did not include secrecy from Leo and Mikey because Raph told them within the hour. April, who Donnie had dubbed responsible for the entire "Donnie's Secret Crush in Now a Lair Known Fact " fiasco, agreed to do everything in Donnie's best interest when it came to you. Whether it be keeping you from finding out his feelings for you or helping him to get to spend more time with you. April had been frustrated for months because of Donnie's contradictions. He wanted to spend more time with you yet didn't want you ever finding out how he feels! So the long and short of it was, there would be no end to his ridiculous antics while pining after you.

Donnie had even gone as far as to create secret phrases and code words with April and his brother's so that he could communicate emergency protocols. There was no real use to this because Donnie kept flipping between code "help me get an opportunity for us to be alone," and code "abort! The truth must not be revealed!" And quite Franky, while his family found his rare moments of panicking endearing, they were getting quite sick of it.

So after the events that happened today, Leo, Raph, and April had decided to get Donnie out of the lab, away from his work, to give April the opportunity to convince Donnie to fess up to you. Since Mikey and Donnie are in the middle of a feud, Leo agreed to stay home with Mikey to give them the space Donnie needs to calm down and think rationally. And who knows? Mikey could've ended up using this as a way to rile up Donnie! Emotions were high between the brothers so it was best to play it safe.

"Dee, you saw how you acted today. You know that it's time." April tried to gently persuade Donnie. "You can't keep letting your emotions get the better of you and drag others into your situations. Especially not the person you've got such a crush on."

Donnie sighed. "I know but, but to choose Mikey over me like that! I just feel so frustrated! I can't say anything now! It'll look like an excuse, or a way to cheat the contest, or-"

"Just confess after the contest then." Raph suggested. "Regardless of who wins the pizza contest, it has nothing to do with you. Your feelings are-"

"It has everything to do with me!" Donnie sighed. "If my tech that can be upgraded and evolved beyond human, yokai, and mutant abilities isn't good enough, then how can I think that I am?"

An explosion from a couple blocks over interrupted April and Raph from the rare moment of Donnie being vulnerable and honest.

---

An explosion woke you up. You jumped up and scrambled to the window to look for what was going on. There was a light from the next block over that looked like it was the light of a large fire. You grabbed your weapon and ran down the fire escape to head to the scene.

As you approached you saw Mikey jumping around a couple roof tops. "Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh!" He sounded panicked.

"Mikey! You ok? Where's the others? Did the thief do this?" You had so many questions and Mikey shouted back a rushed answer.

"Thief? What thief? I mean- yeah! A thief totally stole Donnie's tech and messed with its wiring! We need to stop it!"

You got to the scene of the fire finally to see Donnie's Perfect Pizza Maker™ wreaking havoc, shooting flames all over the place and slicing through walls with giant pizza cutting saws and giant kitchen knives.

"How did a thief get to Donnie's tech if he was working on it? He wouldn't have taken his eyes off of it long enough to-" Mikey jumped down and cut you off.

"That doesn't matter now! We have to stop this thing before Donnie finds out!"

"What do you mean 'finds out?' Mikey, what did you do?!" You didn't get an answer as you both jumped in different directions to avoid the blades swinging down at you.

"I'll explain everything later! Just please don't be mad!" Mikey yelled from across a rooftop, jumping to dodge a fire blast.

"It's a little late for that!" You yelled back, ducking a blast from a pepperoni pistol that shot at your head. "Where are the others?"

"Raph and Donnie went out earlier! I don't know where they went!" Mikey attacked at a mechanical arm. "It was just Leo and me at the Lair!"

"Then where's Leo?" You were panting now. Between the yelling and fighting, you were having a hard time catching your breath.

"He's uh... a little tied up at the moment!" Mikey answered with a lower volume this time but you still heard him, and it was only then that you noticed Mikey fighting with only one nunchaku.

"Mikey, I swear, if I live through this you are in so much trouble!" You blocked another knife attack.

A few purple missiles shot past the building you were fighting on top of accompanied by a shout: "Phalange Sandwich!"

"Donnie! Up here!" You shouted down.

"No no no! We're ok! Nothing to see here!" Mikey shouted back.

"Is that, is that my PM9000?" Donnie asked when he jumped up onto the rooftops near you guys. The machine had been knocked through a parking lot and slammed into the mall. "But, how? I mean I know I wasn't finished with the upgrade, and sure I maybe went a little overboard with the modifications-"

"A little?" You shouted back to him as you ran towards the mall. The fight isn't over. Not until you made sure the tech was destroyed or shut down.

"Ok, maybe a little more than I should have but even in the midst of the upgrades it doesn't make sense for it to be going crazy like this!" Donnie, Mikey, and you landed inside of the mall to find a crater in the floor where the Pizza Maker had landed... yet no Pizza Maker in sight.

"Where did it go?" You asked aloud, looking around.

"What does it matter Donnie? You could add every upgrade under the sun and it still couldn't beat me and my pizzas!" Mikey apparently was still heated from earlier that day as he threw a quip at Donnie.

"Oh, I didn't need to add anything to beat you, I just wanted to make sure to not go easy on you. A growing boy needs his life lessons, Michael," Donnie sarcastically quipped back.

"Ugh, can both of you just drop it? We need to find the pizza-" You were interrupted by a red light shining down on all of you. Looking up you all started sweating at the sight of the undamaged Pizza Maker.

"Pizzaaaaa." It glitched out the word in an elongated, chilling robotic voice before lunging down at you three. All of you jumped out of the way, scrambling to defend against the mechanical arms that attacked with blades and flames.

"This way!" You yelled at the two turtles as you ducked and ran towards a store in the mall. The turtles batted away the mechanical arms and ran after you. You jumped and ducked down behind a counter, and the two joined you.

"Oh look Donnie! Another one of your inventions trying to kill us!" Mikey whisper shouted at Donnie.

"I know my engineering better than anyone! There's no way this could have happened!" Donnie retorted before a realization hit him, "Unless you messed with the circuitry! You did, didn't you!"

"You guys, now is not the time!" You hissed at them, watching as the machine scanned the store. It turned and started back towards the doors and you sighed in a relief that proved to only be temporary.

"You have no proof of that! What if I decided that my artistic squills and love was what was missing from your boring pizza maker?" Mikey crossed his arms.

"I knew it!" Donnie shouted as the counter you three were hiding behind exploded. You ran out with the turtles hot on your heels.

"How is it tracking us? It's scanners didn't notice us! Can it hear us?" You yelled back at Donnie.

"Of course! I created it to pick up key words like 'food,' 'pizza,' 'hungry,' and more! Even going as far as to include hearing the sounds of a rumbling tummy!" Donnie explained, still running, yet sounding proud of himself.

"Are you kidding me?" You shouted exasperated.

"See Donnie? This is your fault! If you wouldn't have tried to replace me as the pizza chef of the lair then none if this would have happened!" Mikey shouted.

"My fault? You're the one who messed with the Pizza Maker's circuitry and made him into this killing machine!" Donnie yelled back.

"Are you guys forgetting the part where this thing can hear you?!" You tried to shout over their bantering but a burst of flame hit the ground just behind you. Donnie turned around and blocked a blade with his tech bo before it reached you. You dodged just in time as another blade cut down at you.

Flames burst from one side as two blades cut from the other. The three of you dodged and parried the attacks. You were keeping up, but getting tired fast. These attacks were too quick and relentless! Finally, Mikey wrapped a chain around one of the metal arms and jerked it, pulling the Robot up into the air and throwing it across to crash into a store.

"Split up!" You shouted at the first opportunity. Mikey and Donnie are still too heated over the pizza thing to stop arguing or using the key words that the robot is drawn to. You're no strategist, nor their leader. The best thing to do was to split up and stall until backup arrived.

As you all took off in different directions, a metal arm with a blade on the end slammed down in front of the direction you were running, cutting off your route. You turned and ran the opposite way, being met with a wall of flames. Donnie slid to a stop. His battle shell transformed into jets and he quickly shot from one side of the hall to the other, picking you up in his arms as he zoomed past.

You both crashed and rolled into another shop. You rolled to a stop, but upon glancing back at the hall at the machine getting up, you pushed over Donnie to roll you both a few more times to hide behind yet another counter.

"I can't believe he messed with my tech's circuitry! That means he went into my lab too! Ugh! I thought we all learned from this after the incident with S.h.e.l.l.d.o.n!" You looked down to shush Donnie but blushed at noticing your position atop of him. He apparently hadn't noticed yet.

'Or if he did, then it probably doesn't phase him.' You thought sorely to yourself.

"Donnie, now's not the ti-"

"I knew it couldn't have been my programming! Oh! That's right! It's my programming! Maybe I can still hack his data-frame!" Donnie interrupted you, reaching for the screen on his forearm.

"No!" You slammed down his wrists so he couldn't reach the electronic cuff. The pizza maker entered the store. The last thing you need is a new way to lure it to your hiding place! "Donnie, the only thing you need to do now is be qu-"

"But if Mikey hasn't touched the mother chip processor, then I can still shut it down using my override protocol!" Donnie protested. The Pizza Maker started scanning the store as it grew closer.

"Donnie, it can hear-"

"I mean, that is a big 'if' considering he went as far as to ruin a perfect invention of mine!" Donnie kept going.

"Donnie don't-!"

"All over something as silly as piz-" Donnie didn't get to finish saying the key word.

Your lips were on his. You panicked! You had been holding down his arms to prevent him for reaching for his electronic cuff, and he wasn't listening to your attempts to shush him! You had to cover his mouth and you panicked!

You can't complain really. You've always wanted to do this. To kiss Donatello. Not in this way however, and you had hoped you'd be a couple by the time you'd kiss him at least, but if you're putting away your feelings for him anyway, at least you've gotten this chance.

His eyes were wide as he stared up at you for a moment of shock. Your eyes were squeezed shut. Your lips were so soft. It felt amazing! Being kissed wasn't at all as bad as he had feared it to be, being the over-thinking science man that he is. In fact, it was euphoric! He felt fireworks in his heart and butterflies dancing in his belly! He closed his eyes.

You stayed lip-locked with Donnie as you cracked open your eyes to look over towards the machine that was finishing its scan of the store and turning to leave. You startled when you felt Donnie's lips move against yours and snapped your eyes, wide with shock, back to his face. He was kissing you back!

You were so confused. Was it possible that he liked you back? You wanted to melt into the feeling of him kissing you back! You wanted to kiss him for real! But now wasn't the time for that. You looked back over to the pizza maker as it finally vanished around the corner.

You pushed off and away from Donnie and sat back in shock once there was a little bit of space between you, but you didn't go far enough to reveal yourself from behind the counter. Donnie raised up on his elbows, his eyes were half lidded and he had a silly half smile splayed across his lips.

"Did you just kiss me?" You asked. You didn't mean for it to sound so accusational. You were still panicked from all that just happened within this past 30 seconds. You tried to calm your beating heart.

"Correction. You kissed me!" Donnie sat up fully now, wearing his usual confident smile now, his eyes still half lidded as he looked at you. His heart beat was finally calming down and the full realization that you both had kissed was putting him on cloud nine

"But you weren't supposed to kiss me back!" You were anxious and in denial of what just happened. None of this made sense, and none of it was supposed to play out this way! Your face was still hot.

Donnie's smile faded. He began to look unsure of himself. "But, I thought that's how kissing worked? You put your lips on mine, and it wasn't in a life saving maneuver such as CPR so I assumed.."

You groaned in embarrassment, your hands coming up to cover your face. "Donnie, think about it! Why would I kiss you?"

At the look of hurt that crossed his face you immediately regretted your word choice. You meant it to mean "why would you kiss him now in not-so-suitable conditions like in the middle of hiding from a foe after shushing him constantly!" Not "why would you kiss him!"

"Oh.. Right. But of course." He stood up. "I'm.. sorry for the awkward assumption." He said 'sorry' and you winced. He rarely says sorry, but here in this context it made your heart break.

"Donnie, that's not what I meant, I swear!" You stood and reached for his arm, desperate to clear up this misunderstanding, but a new explosion went off, this one finally triggering the sprinkler system in the building.

You could see electricity crackling through the mall. You heard a loud "bang" and then cheers from outside. It seems like the others had arrived in time to take out the Robot.

You looked back at Donnie, the sprinklers making it as if you both were now in the rain. You couldn't see his face, but he wasn't standing as straight as usual. He shoulders were shrugged up a bit, and his hand around his tech bo looked tight. There's no way... he's upset? Because you retracted the kiss? Does that mean..?

"Donnie,-"

You didn't get a chance to talk to Donnie before Leo and the others were walking into the destroyed store you two were still in.

"There you guys are! You missed out on Donnie's invention trying to kill us again! Hmm, gee, I wonder who could have seen this coming?" Leo stopped talking when Raph gave him a rough nudge. Raph shrugged his head towards Donnie, and Leo notices Donnie's expression.

"Uh, I mean, Donnie! It's too bad about your awesome invention! Maybe, uh, you should make another one?" Leo tried to perk up the mood.

"Yeah! You still haven't gotten to do your contest remember? We can postpone it until you get the new one up and running! Right Mikey?" Raph turns to Mikey, who is looking really guilty now.

"Well, actually you guys," Mikey starts to confess, "I kinda... cheated. So I think the win should go to Donnie."

"No, don't worry about it." Donnie finally spoke up. He still didn't face anyone. "It's not important anymore."

You made eye contact with everyone as they turned to look at you at his words. You looked to April pleadingly.

"Dee?" April walked up and put her hand on his shoulder and looked at his face.

"I'm uh, going to head back first. My battle shell is water resistant, but, you know, it's uh, best to keep it dry." April had a slight surprise, then looked sad and backed up. Donnie's jets came out of his battle shell and lifted him out of the store through a hole in the roof.

Once he was gone the sprinklers finally shut off. Everyone looked at you. You immediately hugged April, tears in your your eyes.

"Woah, hey! It's ok! Calm down. Just tell us what happened?" April's hands were on your shoulders to pull you away from her enough to look at your face. The remaining brothers gathered around.

"Is he that upset about me messing with his tech? He usually gets angry. I didn't think he'd get... like this." Mikey looked down and his fidgeting hands, feeling guilty. Raph put a hand on his shoulder. The look on his face telling Mikey that it was ok, but he also should properly apologize to Donnie later.

"I think I messed up big" You told April, the tears in your eyes were threatening to fall now.

"It's ok. I'm sure it was a misunderstanding. Now you just have to fix it." April said with a soft tone. She looked at Leo.

"Way ahead of you." Leo put on a rare game face and sliced up a portal. You looked between him and April.

"What if I mess up again? Every time I've assumed one thing today, I've been proven wrong in the worst way." Today had been one bad choice after another for you. The fear of making it any worse was almost paralyzing.

"Then stop assuming and just communicate! Knowing Donnie, he'll want this patched up just as much as you do, m'kay? There's nothing to worry about." Leo smiled and stepped back towards Raph and Mikey.

April smiled at you, "I'm just a call away if you need me! We'll hang back a bit to give you both some space."

You looked around at them and gave a small smile. They were helping you to fix this. You have to take advantage of this opportunity. You took a deep breath and stepped through.

---

Donnie flew to the sewer entrance. He felt so heart broken. He didn't even get a chance to confess, which at this point sounded silly to have put the inevitable off for so long. Heck, even confessing and getting rejected the normal way would have been a lot less painful and humiliating than what just happened.

"Why would I kiss you?" He shrunk in on himself at the echo of your voice in his head. He pressed his hands to the sides of his head with a groan in an attempt to forget about it. He began his dissent into the sewer now, trying to ignore the broken record that played in his head.

Why did you kiss him? He wondered as he reached the bottom of the ladder. He played over the scenario in his head a few times. The realization finally hit him that it was simply to shut him up. Every time you had spoken during the entire fight it was to try to get him and Mikey to stop luring the robot over with the key words he had programmed the robot to pick up, and you had obviously been exhausted by the fight. He had put you in danger repeatedly during the duration of the fight. What a cruel and even more humiliating realization to come to. He slapped his hand over his face, his eyes glued shut. Maybe if he did this long enough, he'd wake up in bed, all of this being nothing more than a bad dream.

Donnie ran his hand down his face and stopped walking when his fingers brushed his lips.

He could still feel the warmth from your own. He felt tears prick the corners of his eyes but squeezed his eyes tightly shut again in an attempt to keep them at bay.

"I really do have a type," he sighed out with a choked chuckle, "cute and... mean."

He took a deep breath, forcing his brain to do a mental reboot, closing the many open tabs about you in his brain, and continued to the entrance to the lair. He was sure that the others would already be back by now and wanted to at least appear normal until he can escape to the privacy of his room or lab. However when he walked into the lair he heard silence. Minus the muffled snores coming from Splinter's room.

Donnie sighed, grateful for the chance to slink away and shut himself inside his lab. He didn't feel like socializing. Much less talk about the events from tonight.

He disengaged his battle shell on his wall, put up his tech bo, and grabbed a couple tools to work on literally anything to distract himself. He sat down and rummaged through blue prints on his table. Nothing seemed to peak his interest. Not even the bust of himself.

He remembered that there was a simple yet time consuming experiment that he had been meaning to conduct for a while on some mystic material he bought in the Hidden City! That would be the best thing to use to shut himself away in his lab as it required a controlled chemical environment and could take up to a couple days, so he could have uninterrupted time to himself to process everything. He looked around for his notes and the main pieces for the project.

"Donnie?"

"Oxygen and Magnesium!" Donnie startled and turned around to find you standing in the doorway.

"Sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I thought you could hear me walk in." You rubbed your arm awkwardly. Donnie was a ninja, the fact he was too distracted to notice you approach was probably a bad sign.

"No, I uh, hadn't." He turned back around and tried to keep his posture nonchalant as he continued gathering his notes, but his eyes squeezed shut in embarrassment. "So are the others back yet? Would you give this to Raph for me? I need to start on this experiment now and it's going to take me-"

"Donnie, can we talk?" Your voice sounded soft, almost meek. It cut Donnie off from his rambling excuses. He really didn't feel like talking about this right now. He wanted time to process it. To think out every possible conversational route with you and to pick the safest responses. He wanted to hide his embarrassment from you for just a little longer. He turned to give you another excuse and to dismiss you from his lab, but when he saw your face his resolution crumbled. Like a sandcastle to a wave.

Donnie collapsed into his seat. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry about tonight. I had gotten so frustrated at Mikey that I just kept going on and on and put you in danger, and I really should have stopped when you shushed me the first time. I realize now that it was all my fault."

"Woah, Donnie, nothing's your fault-" You started to cut in.

"No, but it is! The competition, making Mikey mad at me enough to tamper with my tech's circuitry, dragging you into this out of jealousy, putting you into danger, and the.. misunderstanding from you just trying to get me to stop luring the PM9000 with the key words." He looked down when he said the word "misunderstanding" and looked hurt.

"Jealousy?" You asked. You had heard him correctly, but now you were starting to become more sure about how Donnie feels about you. Actually sure. However you were going to take Leo's advice and communicate instead of jumping to assumptions again.

"I, yes," He sighed, embarrassed. "I really didn't mean to put you in an awkward position from you having to do what was necessary to get me to stop jeopardizing the mission and stop talking. I was just.. I don't know.. surprised. Well, surprised isn't the right word. In fact, that's a lie. I don't know, I was making things worse during that fight, and I feel like I'm making things worse now-"

"Donnie if you don't stop talking I'm going to kiss you again." You interrupted him before he started spiraling.

"I mean if I had-" Donnie short-circuited, his head snapping towards you with his face red. "What?"

You had gained a little confidence and were attempting to take advantage of it for as long as it lasted. Or until you both got everything out into the open. "Everything I did today went so wrong. I kept making one bad call after another, assuming that the situation was one way instead of communicating, and ended up hurting you because of my own bias against you."

"Bias? Against me?" Donnie looked hurt, but more-so confused.

"I..." you sighed, face red, and avoided his eyes. "I was trying to get over my feelings for you."

"What? 'Get over?' But- But that implies that you had feelings for me in the first place, that doesn't make sense! Since when? How long?"

"Dee, I've had feelings for you for over a year now." Your face was hot but it was time for this conversation. No matter which way it goes.

"What, but that.." His heart was beating so fast now and he could feel how hot his face was. "Then why did you say that earlier? Why did you ask why you'd ever kiss me?"

"Oh, Donnie, no, I didn't mean it like that! Honestly!" You finally had a chance to clear this up! "I asked that to have you realize that I was just trying to get you to be quiet so the robot wouldn't find us! I'm sorry Donnie, I really could have handled all of that a much better way. I should have! I really didn't mean it like that. I.. kissed you in that moment more from.. panic or impulse. Honestly I think I mostly did it because I just really wanted to." You couldn't meet his eyes admitting this.

"But, your actions contradict your words? You're saying that you're getting over me, but why?" He was confused, and you didn't blame him. You were one big contradiction tonight, acting selfishly then pushing him away and hurting him before he even can react to save yourself from the possibility of getting hurt.

"As for why I've been trying to get over you, I just didn't think you felt the same. You're just always so bold with your advances on your mascot crushes, and since you had never been so bold or forward like that with me, I just assumed.. You know, that you weren't interested." You looked away from him again awkwardly with a shrug. You were only barely sure now that he reciprocates your feelings by how he had been acting tonight, but you couldn't help but to still feel shy and insecure putting your feelings out in the open like this. Especially with everything that you were admitting to.

"Well, yeah. Sure I can be bold about my advances with mascot characters, it's just living out a fantasy! I don't know who's in those costumes, and they don't know me! They reject me and it's just a mutant turtle they're rejecting! But you.. you know me. If you were to reject me- I mean.. I couldn't be that bold or forward with you because you make me feel... I care too much about what you think, and therefore was too scared to find out." Donnie trailed off. "I just kept running from the risk of scaring you away and ruining what I already have with you by confessing my feelings for you." His heart was beating so fast now saying it all out loud. "I wanted to be selfish and.. cowardly."

"So you do have feelings for me?" You asked, hopeful. It was the question you've been dying to hear the answer to for so long.

"I do.. Have feelings for you that is." He clarified.

You both were staring at each other, blushing hard. Shy smiles started to appear on your faces.

"So, am I.. too late?" Donnie asked, uncertain, referring to your mention of trying to get over him.

You smiled, "Well I mean you aren't the only one who's acted selfishly, Dee." You confessed, "Like I said, I honestly could have let go of your hands to cover your mouth earlier."

Donnie raised an eyebrow at your comment, a smile sneaking onto his own face. "That's right. 'Impulse' you had said?"

"I mean, if I'm being honest here, it's not like it was the first time I have ever had an urge to kiss you." You tried to push on with the confidence you were feeling. Everything else was already out in the open, might as well ride the wave!

He was over the moon to hear this. Sure, you haven't answered his question directly yet, but he took this as a green light to test the waters. You had mentioned that you wanted bold and forward, flirty Donnie?

Noted.

"Not the first time, you say? Pray-tell, how often have you thought of kissing me?" He questioned back, causing you to blush. You felt butterflies at the confidence that started to overtake him. Just that was enough to make you feel all shy again? Hoo-boy.

"Hmm, it depends. Are you asking for the number of time from this past year? Or just the amount of times I've thought of kissing you during my futile attempt to get over you?" You questioned back.

He raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "'Futile,' huh?" He quoted back to you. He stood up and crossed his arms. "So you're saying that you've wanted to kiss me? Or rather, would it be more correct to use present tense: you want to kiss me?"

You were now embarrassed. You didn't want to humor his smugness with an answer.

But on second thought, maybe this is an opportunity you can take advantage of to see more of this side of Donnie.

You crossed over to him. "What if I say that is correct? I do want to kiss you?" Bold flirting isn't easy, but you couldn't miss this opportunity.

Donnie's smirk grew, his eyelids lowered as he looked at you approach. He pretended to think, "Hmmm, 'why would I kiss you?'" He smugly echoed your question from earlier that night back to you.

You grabbed his face in your hands, smiling at him, "Shut up, Donnie." You kissed him. Properly this time.

You felt his lips move against your own as his arms wrapped around you to keep you in place. You're not going anywhere this time. You both had apparently been taking turns to be selfish, so now it was his turn.

He leaned his weight against his desk behind him to prop himself up and lean you more into him. He'd never admit it, but his legs felt weak. If he had felt fireworks earlier, now he was feeling the stars. You were like a supernova, so bright and pulling him in. The idea of floating among nebulas paled in comparison of feeling you in his arms. When you moved one arm around his neck, he quickly placed one of his hands atop yours that was still on his face, keeping it there to relish in your touch a little longer.

When you broke apart, you didn't separate too far. He moved your hand to his lips to kiss your fingers, before moving it to his plastron. You could feel how fast his heart was beating. Or was that your own? You pecked his lips again, both of you smiling too much to give a proper kiss again. You leaned your forehead to his and you couldn't help but to giggle.

"Donnie, are you in here? Mikey wanted to- Oh! Oh, sorry guys! Uh, hold on! Let me just-" Raph had walked in and immediately shuffled awkwardly right back out of the room. He loudly cleared his throat before enunciating every word, "Donnie! Knock. Knock! May I come in?"

You and Donnie had already pulled apart when Raph had walked in but you still took a quick second to compose yourselves. Donnie's attempt to act natural was to examine his bust of himself while you pretended to hand him random tools... like a saw...? You were flustered, ok?

Donnie cleared his throat as well before calling back to Raph nonchalantly, "Yes, yes, come in!" Raph stiffly shuffled back into the threshold of the lab. He didn't know if it was appropriate to say anything about the development between you two. Should he congratulate you? Fist bump? Cheer?

No, that can wait until later when you both are ready to tell the family. After Raph tells Leo, Mikey, and April first of course.

"Mikey wanted to talk to you if, uh, you have a second. But no rush! In fact, take your time! I'll just be on my way now that I've relayed the message!" Raph pointed towards the living room as he squeezed back behind the wall as he started sneaking away. "You know, to let Mikey know that you'll come and talk to him!" Raph took off down the hallway.

"Oh no you don't loud mouth! Get back here!" Donnie yelled as he urgently chased after Raph.

You looked at your fingers that Donnie had kissed and moved them to touch your lips, blushing deeply. The sounds of the lair muffled around you as you relived the moment that had just happened between you and Donnie a little longer. You'll need to find more excuses for Donnie to be quiet in the future!

---fin---

*Reference to the 2012 TMNT series. (I like that all of the TMNT series reference each other so I wanted to do that too)

#rottmnt #donatello #rise donnie #donnie x reader #donatello x reader #rottmnt donatello #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt x reader

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y-rhywbeth2 · 10 hours

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Found another 2e book with the morons in it (who have to share an entry)

Not much new, though this caught my eye and I have no idea why this made me laugh:

"The followers of Bhaal in urban areas have almost universally switched to worshiping Cyric, to the extent of adopting the new god's vestments and ceremonies. They refer to the power they venerate as Cyric, or Cyric-Bhaal, to differentiate him from the lesser aspects worshiped by former Banites, whose god was utterly destroyed, and who have erroneously declared Cyric to be their god as well. Relationships between the Bhaal-Cyricists and the factions of the other believers of Cyric are heavily strained and often break into open conflict."

Cyric-Bhaal, the real Cyric who is the new form of Bhaal and not the fake, less impressive Cyric those loser Banites think they're worshipping because their barbarous Bane - who is inferior to our blessed Bhaal - clearly just got totally annihilated like the loser he is.

And then they get into fist fights over it.

"The rural followers of Bhaal [the Deathstalkers] retain their belief in the god, pointing to the fact that they still receive their accustomed magical spells, so someone must be home. The schism between urban and rural Bhaalites continues to grow, with ambushes reported between rival factions."

And then the Brethren of the Keen Strike has declared them heretics, and now the filthy Cyric Converts and the Real Bhaalists™ are murderhoboing each other.

...

"There are those who declare that the three are not dead, but only in exile or in hiding and will return to plague the Realms again."

Realmslore, since forever: "You will never be free of these three and their stupid plans."

#babbling #the idiot three

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fumifooms · 1 year

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The Penny x Atticus agenda was furthered in the post game and I’m so happy. I’m making this rarepair from my own two hands screenshotting every second of interaction and smashing my keyboard if I have to!

Until someone else finds a better name or something, I’ll call this ship SewnEevee shipping! Since Penny clearly has a fondness for eevee and wears that big plush backpack of hers, and one of Atticus’ main interest is sewing and clothes! You could make really cute headcanons with that too, hehe

Now, the whole “my greatest treasure” is a very obvious and intense profession of affection, but that’s with whole team Star, so. Why do I ship these two in particular? Easy, just look at the screenshots! Atticus has this formal and old-fashioned way of speaking and uses titles frequently, but lordship titles? If I’m not mistaken she’s the only person he uses lord and lady with, and it’s not a one time nickname either; he uses it for her thrice (the only times he adresses her while knowing her identity in the whole game) which suggests it is the way he’ll be referring to her from then on. Idk about you but it sounds very flattering and romantic to me, it’s not don or comrade or such else- she’s special in the way he adresses people. It’s not exactly a term for equals like comrade is, nor shows some hierarchy like calling her boss, it’s truly an honorific. And then, the first thing he says to her after discovering her identity is “you’re pretty m’lady”, like, everyone else is like, normal greetings or “wow it’s nice seeing you” (you can see the lines here) but him? He goes the extra mile to say her appearance/presence is pleasing or rejuvenating or whatever. It stood out so much in the moment I immediately started shipping them lol. Also “oh noble and kind big boss” to me sounds like an even larger amount of simping than the others’ way of talking about Cassiopeia too lol. On the other hand, you could say that Penny has an equal amount of affection and care for every team Star member, and that that affection is of the same nature for every one, but!! See the post game interaction there??! Indeed, brethren, thy eyes are not mistaken. She worries for him most!! You could say that’s not necessarily a good thing and you’d be right, but it does mean she has him on the brain and in a way she cares for him most/in a special way compared to the others. But ho, ho-ho oh no that is not all, for!!!!! She calls him handsome too!!!!!! She’s so shocked she jumps back and goes “no, focus!! He might get hurt stop looking at his pretty eyelashes!!”. Mate do you know how often they call characters pretty in Pokemon? Once in a red moon. In this game, it’s Rika, Tulip and then Atticus. Like, wow ok. They be crushing on each other highkey. I’m honestly shook at how high of a level they made it canon. Also! Penny gets three post custscenes with the other team star members, one is with Giacomo and Ortega, one with Mela and Eri, and the other one is with Atticus alone! Team Star has 5 members (Penny excluded) so of course they were going to need to cut it uneven, but still, Atticus is the one given more or less more importance here! Also!!! Atticus is the only one she doesn’t have a nickname for, she calls him by his full name!! Coincidence??! I think not! Omfg guys she breaks her nickname convention for him and he calls her his lady they’re so special to each other…

I just think they’d be good for each other, and cute together! Atticus obviously thinks highly of her and I can’t see why they wouldn’t get along swimmingly well when hanging out, especially if they share an interest like say plushies (and Penny could pirate animes for him for free and they could watch them together <3 because!! It’s mentioned that Penny likes binging them and Atticus is obvi into it, Naruto stan lol). They’re both introverted and are somewhat quiet, esp for Penny she’d enjoy his gentle and composed countenance more than the rowdier characters (which is canon esp if you look at the time they spent in Area Zero), and man. He’s so honest and direct and I think that she’d appreciate that a lot, seeming pretty blunt and no-nonsense herself. Also, he’s very capable of and confident about standing for himself and his friends, so I think once she realizes that more it’d ease her anxiety a bit. Atticus is just so gentlemanly and it’s highkey charming and idk she’s already a bit 😳 about him it wouldn’t take her much to full on pine imo. I wanna finish by saying: Some would call her judgy and mean for being worried for him bc he has an unconventional demeanor (and appearance) but I wanna reiterate that this is out of care and trauma from having been bullied herself: it’s being realistic, and she’s otherwise never shown any reluctance or dislike of his interests in the least so, there ain’t an argument to make here imo. Plus it literally got addressed and she set out to better herself on it, so.

#pokemon #team star #atticus #penny #pokemon sv #pokemon scarvi #pokemon scarlet #sewneeveeshipping #penny x atticus #atticus x penny #atticus pokemon #penny pokemon #rarepair #let the pokemon sv rarepair suffering begin #spoilers #pokemon spoilers

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batboyblog · 6 months

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Hi I am Jordanian and wanted to say thanks for sharing news of backlash the Jewish community has faced for the actions of Israeli government/IDF. It is not fair that you guys are getting that punishment especially when it was never a Muslim vs Jew issue, rather a conflict of supremacy and control and money. I don’t know if you support the Palestinian cause but I will try to support my Jewish brethren when they are in need. TY

First I'd like to say, antisemitism existed long before Israel.

The events of October the 7th has gotten me thinking about the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, if you're not Jewish it's likely you've never heard of it. Pogrom is a Russian word, for mob violence against Jews, they did it so much in Russia they needed to come up with a special word for it, before the Nazis, Russians were the nightmare of the Jews, and those 19th century Jews could not have imagined worse was waiting for them from the West. Any ways today Kishinev is called Chișinău, its the capital of the tiny country of Moldova, but in 1903 it was the edge of the Russian Empire. Starting on Easter Sunday and lasting for 3 days while Russian police and soldiers looked on mobs hunted the local Jews like animals, beat and killed any man they found, raped as many women as they could.

I've been thinking about Kishinev, because it represents a break, you want to know when Zionism got really serious? it was with the blood in the streets of Kishinev, the idea that life in Russia was no longer viable for the Jews that lived there and they had to leave and go any where, its also the point American Jewry really got organized.

I'm also reminded of the Farhud, in Iraq in 1941, before Israel about 1/3rd of the population of Baghdad was Jewish. In June 1941 a violent riot against the Jews broke out. We'll never know how many people died, maybe more than a 1,000. The violence was unspeakable, and like Kishinev for the Jews of the Middle East it was the break point, they could no long safely live in the countries they had lived in for over 2,000 years.

any ways, my point is I think antisemitism is maybe the world's oldest hate and people are using Israel as an excuse to unleash it, they've used other excuses in the past, may use other excuses in the future.

I would agree it's not a Muslim Vs Jewish thing, much of the violence and threats are happening in non-Muslim countries and coming from non-Muslims indeed atheists. Hate of the Jews is not religious (well sometimes it is, I got called a Christ Killer just yesterday) but an ethnic hate.

"a conflict of supremacy and control and money" ah yes, Jews, Money etc I don't think I need to explain this to most people. Just leave it to say your "support" is kind if misguided, if you believe any group of Jews are money grubbing trying to control the world or have ever said the phrase "Jewish supremacy" well all thats pretty antisemitic

As for the Palestinians, I wish them what I've always wished them, good health, for the Palestinians of Israel I want greater integration and their fair share of the resources of their country, for the Palestinians of Gaza I want them free of a terrorist organization that robs them, beats them, suppresses them, and for the West Bank and Gaza a state of their very own.

#Jewish #judaism #am yisrael chai #antisemitism

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klanceri · 15 days

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Apricot wings

Back when I was still figuring myself out, I felt pressured to find something. I felt as if I needed to figure it out so suddenly. I felt weird, and uncomfortable. And although I felt close to my skunk and weasel brethren, they didn’t not feel right to me. I couldn’t understand them, and my body couldn’t connect. But my body always felt connected to the supernatural. The skinwalker parts of me would creep out, warming my skin and deforming my mind, allowing me to feel me.

And when I thought I was fictokin, it felt true. I could feel like my characters. But at the same time, it wasn’t anything I was. My body didn’t feel okay. I felt like my characters, I felt like fictional characters, but my body felt otherworldly and old, like time itself. My body felt enclosed with my clothing, my shoulders aching from nothing as if being squeezed tighter just by a loose shirt. I feel wings and loose eyes, but I didn’t feel like any of my characters. I said I was, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like it or like saying it was a fictokin shift. Not at all.

I feel like a god. An angel, trapped inside of how a human should be by restrictive chains, bounded down to earth. And although I’m stuck in such a body, sometimes I feel like a male angel curling into a ball, hoping to fly again some day. As if a soul was stuck in this mushy body and wants to break free. Tear the flesh that I am stuck in, spread my tail and apricot wings, fly up to the highest heavens to stare down at all humans.

Though I’m not human-feeling, I’ve always been interested in human behavior. I want to know how they interact. I don’t get their feelings, I want to learn from them to appear human. I want to fly down to a forest, climb upon trees and dart around, laughing and cheering as my wings smack against the gentle leaves. But I fear if I do, my non-human body will be hunted down and torn apart for research. So I’ll stick up here, sitting on roofs and clouds with my apricot wings curled beside me.

Written by me

#fictokin #angelkin #godkin #angelic #alterhuman #therian #otherkin #therianthropy #nonhuman #this is how i feel #by the way #fallen angelkin #divinekin #wingkin #actually angelic #skinwalker #angel wings

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donniesexceptionalmind · 1 year

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I have APPEARED! BEHOLD my absolute dashing magnificence, ahem..!

It's me, Donatello & I'm here to bless thy feed with the ignorance and stupidity my three dearest brothers share with me every day.

So, feel free to snoop around, stay, laugh at or with me, ask stuff - just DON'T MESS UP MY LAB, m'kay?

Why should I suffer alone when I can share my pain with you?

(　＾▽＾) °evil laughter °

I will ✨bless✨ you with:

My wonderful infodumps about space, astronomy, autism, technolgy, quantum physics, occasionally Zelda & random topics I get interested in (#donatello infodumps)

The chaotic life that I live with my three brethrens

✨My unique vibes✨

My 'creator' tags:

#turtle net / #donnies exceptional mind / #donnie speaks & #donnie answers / #donatello infodumps / donnies special interests

🎶 Listen to my current stim songs here: 🎶

My family's blogs:

Leon: @neonleonsmessymindpalace

Mikey: @angelo-the-doctor-of-feelings

Raph: @raph-a-roni

April: @turtle-sister-april

People who are considered 'friends':

Dragons: @dragonsmindramblings

Xino: @spaceacexino

Vee: @veeswims

Casey: @future-boy-casey

Curio(s) Anon: @curious-anon-yippee

Emerson: @emerson-the-psycho

Yuichi Usagi: @yuichiiusagii

❗️Important note:❗️

Hate in any form will not be tolerated, as well as NSFW, other nasty stuff & Tcest.

There will be no NSFW.

Bother me & break these rules & you will get blocked.

This is a safe space for the people who need it.

// (If you have to reach out to me personally, please go to my main blog @the-starry-cove-of-an !) //

The current Turtle Net lore:

The Oopsie Arc:

A mysterious artifact Vee obtained that causes a lot of trouble...

Part 1 - The Strange Artifact

Part 2 - Chaos Rising focused on Donnie, Mikey & Vee

Part 2 - The Saving? ft. Yuichi Usagi focused on Leo, Raph & Yuichi

Part 3 - Road to Saving ft. April

Part 4 - Breaking Point focused on Donnie, Mikey, Raph & Xino

Part 4 - Ashes That Remain focused on Yuichi, April & Leo

Part 5 - Road To Truth

Part 6 - Truth & Amends

Part 7 - You Cannot Run

Part 8 - Pain Of The Past

Part 9 - Shattered heavily focused on Vee & Dragons

Part 10 - Partly Free focused on Mikey, Apri & Vee

Part 11 - Sweet Rescue focused on Vee & Donnie

Part 12 - The Beginning

Part 13 - Sweet Plans

Part 13.2 & 13.3 - Intermezzo

Part 13.4 & 13.4

Part 13 - Insomnia Buddies Unleashed ft. Emerson & Leon

Origin of ×the being× : The Tale of the Star

Standalone Episodes:

Spelling Errors

The Taste of Uranium & Karma

Useless Fighting

Feelings

Disaster Twins Vol. XXX

Collection of my infodumps:

My black hole infodumps

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officialyourdailyinspiration · 7 months

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The Lamb Breaks the Seals

The first rider: conquest

1 Then I watched while the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice of thunder, “Come out!”

2 I looked, and before my eyes was a white horse. Its rider carried a bow, and he was given a crown. He rode out conquering and bent on conquest.

The second rider: War

3 Then, when the Lamb broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature, cry, “Come out!”

4 And another horse came forth, red in colour. Its rider was given power to deprive the earth of peace, so that men should kill each other. A huge sword was put into his hand.

The third rider: Famine

5a When the Lamb broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come out!”

5b-6 I looked again and there before my eyes was a black horse. Its rider had a pair of scales in his hand, and I heard a voice which seemed to come from the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a shilling, and three quarts of barley for a shilling—but no tampering with the oil or the wine!”

The fourth rider: Death

7 Then, when he broke the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature cry, “Come out!”

8 Again I looked, and there appeared a horse sickly green in colour. The name of its rider was death, and the grave followed close behind him. A quarter of the earth was put into their power, to kill with the sword, by famine, by violence, and through the wild beasts of the earth.

The cry of the martyrs in Heaven

9-10 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I could see, beneath the altar, the souls of those who had been killed for the sake of the Word of God and because of the faithfulness of their witness. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to be patient a little longer, until the number of their fellow-servants and of their brethren, who were to die as they had died, should be complete.

The wrath of God

12-17 Then I watched while he broke the sixth seal. There was a tremendous earthquake, the sun turned dark like coarse black cloth, and the full moon was red as blood. The stars of the sky fell upon the earth, just as a fig-tree sheds unripe figs when shaken in a gale. The sky vanished as though it were a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was jolted out of its place. Then the kings of the earth, and the great men, the captains, the wealthy, the powerful, and every man, whether slave or free, hid themselves in caves and among mountain rocks. They called out to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand against it?” — Revelation 6 | J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS) The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Cross References: Genesis 3:8; Genesis 4:10; Exodus 29:12; Deuteronomy 4:10; Deuteronomy 32:43; 1 Samuel 6:20; Psalm 2:12; Psalm 76:7; Proverbs 5:5; Isaiah 2:10; Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 54:10; Jeremiah 4:24; Jeremiah 14:12; Ezekiel 4:16; Hosea 10:8; Joel 2:31; Nahum 3:12; Zechariah 1:8; Zechariah 6:2-3; Zechariah 6:6; Matthew 10:34; Matthew 24:7; Matthew 27:66; Luke 15:22; John 1:29; Acts 20:24; Revelation 4:6,7 and 8

#the white horse #war #famine #terror #cry of the martyrs #Revelation 6 #Book of Revelation #PHILLIPS #J.B. Phillips New Testament Bible #New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips

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evolutionsvoid · 10 months

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Imagine you are a bird, fluttering through the forest. Zipping through the air with your usual grace, navigating the twisting branches and shrouds of leaves. Finding your way around these woods is a breeze for you, but your sense of direction isn't the thing bothering you right now. It is a rumbling stomach, whining for food. Though your elegant wings give you mastery of the sky, it also burns through your fuel incredibly fast. You need to eat, but what is there to satisfy your appetite? Foraging on the ground is a risky situation, there are many agile and hungry predators down below. Instead, your eyes look to the branches, hoping to spot something tasty. Up there it will be much harder for fang and claw to reach you, especially on the thinner tree limbs. And then you see it! There! Like a lighthouse on a foggy night it cuts through forest's shadow! Fruit, vibrant and succulent! This tree is rife with it, more than enough to fill your belly! You find a free branch to perch upon, right next to a ripe looking meal.

As you hop closer to inspect your meal, the branch bounces and sways. You do not fear it breaking, at least not with your light body. It is better that this branch be precarious, as it means larger hunters cannot approach. A quick look over shows the coast is clear, and your lunch is ready to be served. But as you are about to plunge your beak into the bright colored flesh, the branch shifts bizarrely. Before you can react, something lunges at you and fangs cut through feather and flesh. In an instant, you are crushed and swallowed. "How can this be?" you ask, except wait no you don't you're dead. Okay, before bird you dies you ask yourself "how can this be? I checked my entire surroundings for sign of a possible threat and detected not a thing!" Well to that I say, hold on, I don't think birds talk like that. Yes, I know birds can't talk, I mean if you translated them into our kind of talking, they probably wouldn't sound like that. Bird you would probably be like "SQUAWK! IMPOSSIBLE! SQUAWK!" Ah no, it wouldn't talk like a person and bird at the same time, that is just silly. Now bird you might be thinking- oh forget it! A bird landed on a branch to eat fruit and got eaten instead! You ask what could do that, and I say let me tell you right now!

So one would think that the thing that ate the bird crept up on it while it was investigating its meal, but in truth, it was there the entire time! Bird you, I mean, the bird we followed didn't realize it was already on the branch when it landed! Our subject for this entry is a crafty one, as it uses camouflage to hunt. But if you think the bird would have been safe if it perched on any other branch, you would be wrong! The creature is already there, waiting for its chance to strike! But how? Is it that fast, able to zip from limb to limb in order to pick off prey? Or is the whole tree infested with these nasty predators? Well, no, there is no group of hunters haunting this tree. It is, in fact, one single creature, but one with many arms! Or I guess you could say "heads," since our mystery predator is a kind of hydra!

Due to it being a member of the hydra family, some folk call it a "Wood Hydra" or a "Branching Hydra," but I tend to stick to the name the locals of the region give it: Ladon. It has the usual anatomy found in hydras, with the many beaked tentacles mimicking serpentine heads while the true one lies at the center of it all. It has clawed fins and a long mantle that has stretched into a slithering tail. What sets it apart from its brethren is its gnarled look, where its body and tendrils are covered in twisted, knotted growths. Add in a brown coloration, and you could mistake it for an old twisted tree if you squinted real hard. As the other names suggest, this comparison is intentional! Ladons are ambush hunters, as was shown with the whole bird thing I tried to do. While some other hydras may hide themselves in shadow or burrows, the ladon chooses to hunt in plain sight! What it does is find a tree that shows promise, one that would attract a variety of prey. While each ladon's preferences may vary, the typical choice is a fruiting tree, be it actual fruit or mast. Such a food source ensures that someone is bound to show up, lured by this tempting bait. With its tree selected, the ladon will coil its long thin body around the trunk, aligning itself just right so that it flows with the natural shape of the tree. Next, its beaked tentacles will snake out and entwine themselves around branches with fruit on them. These tendrils target the most bountiful limbs, and are sure to wrap themselves tight so that they practically melt into the bark. Once settled in, the ladon will change it colors and skin texture to better match the tree it is camping out on. When this is done and all has grown still, the hydra practically vanishes before your eyes! I swear I could watch one set itself up on a tree and still have a hard time picking it out when the disguise is fully deployed! It is incredible at how they blend in so well! But it makes sense, because this is how they get food! When a critter lands on the branch or climbs up for some fruit, the tendrils go on high alert. They are incredibly sensitive to movement, not just from the prey but from the branch they are coiled on as well! The ladon uses the bouncing of the branch to pinpoint where its prey is, and also how to move its tentacle so that its presence isn't detected. Thinner branches should have a lot of bend and give to them, but ones supported by a tentacle will be much hardier than usual, which could tip the victim off that something is wrong. However, the ladon masks this by having the tendril follow the natural movements of the branch, letting itself droop or flex with the weight of the new arrival. It is waiting for its prey to get caught up in its meal, and then it strikes. The beaked tips of these tentacles lash out with blinding speed, spearing prey on its claws and then crushing them with a powerful grip. It targets smaller prey like birds, squirrels and monkeys, any critter that would be found clambering about the branches. Since prey is not all that big or strong, the swift "bite" of the tentacle and strong grip is enough to dispatch them. Once this is done, the prey is "swallowed," sent down the hollow core of the tendril where muscle contractions and internal suckers slowly move it down to the true mouth. This method of eating means it doesn't need to uncoil from the tree to feed, which also means it doesn't have to blow its cover every time it snags food. It will simply sit there for weeks on end, eating anything that comes to its precious tree. Old tales claim that a ladon will latch onto a tree and never let go, remaining with it until one of them dies. Some even say death isn't enough to part it from its hunting spot, as they swear its locked muscles will keep the corpse clamped onto the trunk until decay or outside intervention finally pries them off!

While their method of hunting is certainly ingenious, it does cause some obvious problems when it comes to dealing with locals. It turns out, many other species like fruit trees, species that are way bigger then a little songbird and more armed too. Folks who go out to gather fruits and nuts in the woods may be in for a shock when the tree they decide to pick from fights back. When it feels threatened, it will use its tentacles to snap at foes, biting at them like a hidden viper. The gnarled protrusions can even harden too, making their limbs spiky and painful if they whack you with one. With this, ladons are often seen as minor threats or pests, with people quick to scare them off or dispatch them if they latch onto a popular tree. However, some folk actually like this behavior! I have heard that certain orchards actually keep ladons around, because they help eat other pests that may gobble up their precious crop! And when it comes time for picking, these creatures actually let the owners collect their fruit unharmed, as they have developed a kind of agreement. The orchard owner will let them have their tree and eat all the birds and squirrels they want, even throwing some extra morsels their way from time to time. In return, the ladon doesn't perceive the farmer as a threat, and thus lets them work on the tree without attack. Don't think, however, that that means any person can just pick from this orchard for free, as the hydra is only accustomed to the usual orchard workers. Any intruders will be met with biting tentacles, and that is just the way the farmer likes it! Extra security for their crop! It is pretty clever, though I feel it can be a bit mean. Yes, you don't want people picking your orchard clean, but couldn't you spare a few apples for a hungry soul? That might just be the dryad in me talking, but I feel such trees provide enough that this bounty can be shared! But then again orchards are usually businesses, and I recall businesses aren't exactly the sharing type... Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian ------------------------------------------------------------

“Ladon”

Oh hey hydra! Would you look at that?

#ladon #hydra #monster #creature #cephalopod #octopus #squid #art #drawing

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nalyra-dreaming · 5 months

Text

In vague relation to the Blood Communion quote I shared the other day which also referred to slaves - Anne definitely was never errr... shy - here are some thoughts after reading

The Black Vampyre

First off - thanks to the nonny who shared this with me! :) It was a hugely interesting read, and it will definitely stay in my mind.

A few words to the short story itself.

I have read the version by Gothic World Literature Editions. The notes, and additional texts differ somewhat from the PDF version I shared in the other post, so whoever wishes to read up on it might want to read both. This post contains quotes and photos from both.

The story itself is short, and supposedly written in two afternoons. Its language is powerful, but also confusing and the text seems very much one of its time, even though it also breaks with various preconceptions. There's so many references that I was very glad to have an edition with the necessary explanations.

⚠️The short story might be triggering for some - it opens with a slave owner trying to kill a slave - the lone survivor of a slave ship - and failing to do so. It is, as short as it is, graphic and gory, and I personally did not see the comedy in it. The story deals with the plight of slaves, too, set against the backdrop of Haiti at the time of uprising - "the Haitian Revolution, the hemisphere’s first successful colonial revolution against slavery".

My edition opens with this quote:

"Our bodies shall burst from their fetters, glorious as a curculio from its shell;—our minds shall soar like the car of the æronaut, when its ligaments are cut; in a word, O my brethren, we shall be free!—Our fetters discandied, and our chains dissolved, we shall stand liberated,—redeemed,— emancipated,—and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION!!!"

As I said - powerful.

This is part of the Prince's speech to his fellow vampyres and freed slaves. The story itself deals with revenge, and how it is exacted, and it likens the plight of the vampires to that of the slaves. A plight which is stopped by soldiers, the ruling institution.

There is also betrayal, and a vampire child, and a flight to Europe.

There are various references to the capitalist grip (as noted here in the introduction):

Now, I am no literary major. I majored in Computer Science, (and often go at things highly logical^^) and so I would invite those of you interested in the actual breakdown to read the PDF and/or book and the contained references and explanations, as mentioned.

However, as this was put to me in relation to Anne‘s works… let me dip into that aspect of it all - or, better, the aspects of this story within Anne‘s work - and the show, since reading it… did bring up some weird recognition, and parallels, imho.

These could be circumstantial! Likely are.

Or maybe Anne (and/or the writers) read the story at some point and it lingered… because, as said, I found it quite powerful in language. We'll probably never know.

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Now, @lynnenne put it very well on the other post when she recalled Rolin saying that it would be hard to write a sympathetic slave owner.

And there is nothing sympathetic about Mr. Personne. Perceiving the lone survivor of a sunken slave ship he deems him non-work-worthy, and so decides to kill him on the spot. When drowning him fails, he tries to burn the boy, and gets burned instead, and the (vampire) boy goes and supposedly takes his baby.

The boy later returns as a "Prince", to marry the widow of the slave owner, having with him a mortal boy he has given education. There is evidence within the text that he spell-binds her a bit, in fact the powers seem somewhat familiar (already).

(from the "Themes" part of the book)

The Prince turns her, on a graveyard, making her drink blood from her later child's dead (and recently buried) body. And making her resurrected dead husbands (three in total) fight each other. He then leaves her and the resurrected first husband, the slave owner (who is also turned), with the boy - who turns out to be the baby she thought dead, and who is now called Zembo. He tells them he forgives Mr. Personne and to sail to Europe.

On their way to the ship they encounter a vampire ball - with the vampires and armed (freed) slaves present. They observe, and, other than the slaves, the vampires are eventually slain by soldiers - Zembo, raised by the Prince, has betrayed him.

The three remaining vampires - the wife, the slave owner and their child - manage to procure a cure and turn back into mortals. However she is pregnant, and gives birth to a "mulatto" vampire child, which then passes on some traits down the generations to the narrator of the story.

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There's several aspects of this which seem... familiar, as mentioned.

We have a "prince", taking a child, and returning a child. Fathering a vampire child. The Prince is likened to Helen of Troy and Medusa (the Medusa ring in the later books springs to mind, and we all know Lestat's title then). And of course: Viktor.

The Prince raises a child and is betrayed by that child - and killed at a ball. Claudia comes to mind, of course.

The "wife" tries to flee to Europe with said child. (Note: I don't necessarily buy into the Louis is the wife labeling, since I believe that both Lestat and Louis fluctuate in their gender roles, but to call the parallel / echo here...) In the books Louis is a slave owner.

There is a mixed race marriage, and a mixed race child, making a very interesting commentary for the time, in contrast to the historical social concerns.

The show gives us Dubai as a backdrop for the modern setting, which is most assuredly no coincidence.

Dubai, with laws that forbid Louis' very state of being, totally apart from his vampiric status. Dubai, built on oil and slave labor, a capitalist playground, so very fitting for the vampires to reside there.

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The Black Vampyre is a remarkable story, but it... I'm not sure how to put it. I find the punishment of the other husbands and then forgiving Mr. Personne (the one who did try to kill the Prince), and the later baptizing of the child - and as the text noted as a "reward" for the betrayal of the Prince - do not sit all that well with me.

Maybe that is due to our time and day. And of course the fact that this story was written anonymously within the literary high class circles of New York puts it into its own context.

There seems to be no good reason to kill the vampyres... apart from their supernatural status, and their challenge of the status quo.

The PDF text explains this better than I could:

"The pleasurable play with life, death, and the living dead encourages readers to see financial crimes among white people as forms of vampirism, while cautiously side-stepping the most obvious form of financial and life-predation present in the story: the enslavement of Africans. In this, the story turns to superstition not necessarily to dupe its readers, but rather to redirect their attention toward some crimes and away from others."

Look at my right hand, not at my left. (That is something the characters in Anne's book as well as the show do a lot, too.)

There is a poem which was published with the second edition of the story, and in this several professions, and actions are likened to that of being a vampyre, too. And there is a "Moral" chapter preceding it, which lays the meaning all out, at least in the author's opinion.

Again, it is a remarkable book/story. Its relations to The Vampyre by Lord Byron, and therefore the relations to Frankenstein and other works from that group are hugely interesting, as is the criticism inhabiting the text.

"In the process, The Black Vampyre drafts obeah into the “MORAL” that appears at the story’s end: that the true vampires are the shysters, the leeches, and the myriad other grifters who profit from other’s hard work and responsible behavior."

I'll close with another snippet from the PDF, which is a review of the time, making a rather... interesting comment:

[...] the absurdity of supposing that any sane woman could fall desperately in love with the character of a Vampyre.[..]

...yeah, how on Earth could a sane woman fall for a charming, rich, beautiful immortal... Couldn't be me^^.

Maybe that was the comedic part I missed^^.

Sources:

Original ask

The PDF of The Black Vampyre

A Blood Communion quote dealing with slaves and their... possibly later role for the vampires that Anne put into the last book.

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In regards to the last link: Anne Rice was never shy with words or themes, Louis' backstory was adapted for the show, granted, but the themes permeate the Chronicles, and some characters have rather difficult backstories - Armand's "rent boy" reaction comes to mind, everyone who knows his backstory knows why. But also the show's change to him will need to come into play within it - there have been discussions about this already, and though there is no way to tell yet how it will be addressed - and if it might in turn change other things or which things - I doubt it will be ignored.

It will be hugely interesting to see how the show tackles all this, because it is beyond doubt one of the most difficult aspects of the Chronicles.

I for one am very glad that they changed that part of Louis' story (and his race) - because of course this change now carries repercussions for the rest of the show, as it should.

And the change to Armand will bring its own repercussions, and I'm aaaalllllll for the show to deal with it.

So thank you to whoever put me to The Black Vampyre. It was, and is hugely interesting.

#the black vampyre #the vampire chronicles #anne rice #iwtv #amc iwtv #louis de pointe du lac #armand #tw racism #tw slavery #book quotes #quotes #long post

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