#but he's got a lot on his mind

[scoops-aboy86]

In which Eddie panics a bit, Wayne is a voice of reason, and Steve is really going through it but finds some relief in Eddie bringing him lunch.

Part 1, part 1.5, part 2, part 3, part 4 of the love spell no go au

Eddie does not, in fact, see Robin or Steve the next day. He holes up in his room for three days until Wayne drags him out by his ear, sits him down, and pries an explanation out of him because “do you know how many times that Harrington boy has called, knocked, and slid notes under the door trying to track you down? I’m surprised he hasn’t climbed in your damn window by now.”

He breaks and tells Wayne about the love spell and getting to know Steve. He walks his uncle through the entire strangled route of his logic and the thoughts he’s been stuck in his head with ever since the other day. 

And, okay, the whole prom scenario had been a completely theoretical product of his overactive and dramatic imagination, but something like that might have happened. Except if Eddie, instead of fucking up, had somehow cast it really, really strong… 

“That’s why he keeps calling, because of the spell,” Eddie concludes. “It makes sense, doesn’t it?” He desperately wants to hear that no, actually, he’s lost his marbles, no one can brute force a spell into being smart and biding it’s time like that. 

But Wayne sighs, somehow conveying both endless patience and weary amusement, and says, “Eddie, what have I always told you?”

“Uh… never tell anyone that magic is real?”

Wayne snorts. “That, sure, and that magic ain’t ever something outta nothing. Your daddy always thought he could make gold from thin air, never even tried spinning it outta straw, and look where it landed him.” Jail. Eddie winces. “The reason no one bothers with love spells much is they gotta have some potential to grab onto, so they fail more’n you’d think. Spell or not, Ed, there was always something there.”

By the end of the conversation, Wayne has more or less managed to hammer in the idea that maybe all the spell had done was keep them apart until they fit better. Eddie retreats to his room again, this time to brainstorm how to make up for the abrupt three day radio silence. 

Steve has had… a rough few days. If it hadn’t been for Wayne Munson assuring him that no, his nephew hadn’t disappeared like Will Byers or the Holland girl, just “got a bug up his ass about something and is still holed up in his room working on it,” he would have completely spiraled. As it was, he’d had trouble sleeping even before smoking through the last of his stash, on edge all the time, swimming laps at night because that feels better than doing nothing. 

So when he looks up at the jingle of the bell over the door and sees Eddie slink into Family Video, he’s torn between relief and upset. If Eddie is fine, and very obviously not eaten by monsters or kidnapped to an alternate dimension, then where the hell has he been? Why hadn’t he returned any of the messages Steve had left him? Is the return to jock tendencies that off-putting?

His eyes catch on the bag and cardboard carrier Eddie is carrying, laden with three paper cups from the nearest diner. The warm greasy smell hits him, and it’s been a long few days of wanting to stress eat but not letting himself. Steve’s mouth fills with saliva—just because he hasn’t had his lunch break yet.

“Where the hell have you been?” he asks flatly, since there’s no one else in the store right now. 

Eddie ducks his head. “Ye-eah, I deserve that.” He holds up the bag and drinks, tentatively meeting Steve’s gaze from under his bangs. “Brought you a peace offering?”

Steve breaths out sharply and runs a hand through his hair. He’d probably…Yeah, he’d probably been overthinking everything. Wound too tight, like Robin said. Not everything is a sign that the world is ending; Eddie had probably just been busy and knows that Steve is kind of needy, and brought him lunch as an apology. 

God, it smells like his usual order from before Starcourt. And Eddie is here now, perfectly fine except for the shadows under his eyes. What does Eddie have to be so worried about?

Get it together, Harrington. 

“Okay,” Steve says, not bothering to wonder if he can make whatever Eddie’s brought him fit into his diet—cheat days are a thing for a reason, right? “I’ll let Keith know I’m taking my break.”

Tilting his head to one side, Eddie is now close enough to set his offerings on the checkout counter. “No Robin today?”

“I wish. It’s her dad’s birthday, so she got roped into family stuff.”

“Hm.” He flicks at one of the straws poked through the top of the lid. “Looks like I brought one too many milkshakes then. Which is the more egregious sin, letting it go to waste or sharing it with Keith?”

Steve wrinkles his nose. “Second one. I’ll go punch out, meet me around back?”

A few minutes later they’re sitting across from each other at the table behind the little strip mall that houses Family Video and the arcade. It’s technically for anyone who works there, not just the video store, but it’s hot as balls out so there’s no competition for the spot. The first mouthful of milkshake is a welcome explosion of cold and rich chocolatey goodness in Steve’s mouth, and he hums approvingly. Holy shit, he’d forgotten how much he liked ice cream. 

“How’m I doing on the apology?” Eddie asks, starting to pull foil-wrapped burgers out of the greasy bag. 

“Pretty good, if one of those has cheese or bacon on it.” Steve accepts the one held out for him and unwrapping it to find both, and a second patty. He takes a big bite and hums in satisfaction, chewing for a moment and pleasantly aware that Eddie is watching him. As soon as his mouth is empty enough to speak, he says, “... Alright, you’re forgiven. Just answer your damn phone next time, man, okay? Let me know you’re still alive?”

“Sorry,” Eddie says, looking guilty. “Yeah, sorry, I will.” He nudges a large fries across the table, followed by several packets of ketchup. Eddie hates ketchup on fries, because he’s some sort of heathen, but doesn’t so much as comment when Steve squirts all of the packets down one side of the container for himself. “Didn’t mean to make you worry about me, Stevie, I just… got in my head about something.” 

Steve swallows a mixed bite of fries and burger, christ he’s hungry today. Must be the relief of knowing that Eddie is okay. “Anything I can help with?” he offers, because now that his ruffled feathers are soothed, he doesn’t like how tired his friend looks or the hint of melancholy that had flashed across his face at Steve’s requests. Eddie, who had looked at his bruises from Starcourt and visibly didn’t buy the government-concocted explanation for them but agreed not to ask, and thinks the source of his recent tension is from a few days of trauma rather than going on two years.

But also—Stevie? That’s new. Steve takes another big bite of his burger to hide how much the nickname makes him want to beam, that would be so weird given the current topic of conversation. 

“Nah,” Eddie says. He mimes knocking his fist against one temple, other hand tapping the underneath of the table to make a wooden sound. “Got it worked out now. I’m good.”

“Well, good.” Despite himself, Steve grins around his next bite of burger. He swallows, snags Eddie’s milkshake (strawberry) and then Robin’s (vanilla), following with a sip from his own—a poor man’s Neapolitan. “Want to come over tonight and finish that movie?”

A surprised look crosses Eddie’s face at the offer, followed by something else that Steve can’t read, and then a small grin of his own. “Sure, if you don’t mind starting it over. I’ve kinda forgotten the beginning.”

Which is fine, because Robin had insisted on finishing it (“You know I don’t do well with cliffhangers, Steve. Do you want me to not be able to fall asleep tonight trying to guess what happens next? Do you?”) and Steve isn’t sure he remembers where they paused it last time anyway. He’s pleased as he finishes his burger, licking the grease from his fingers and grabbing a bunch of fries positively dripping with ketchup, hurriedly getting them in his mouth before any can drop on his work clothes. Feels even better when Eddie chuckles and reaches across the table to wipe a smear of the condiment that had dripped down the side of his chin, almost making it to his work vest. The contact is nice, makes his heart beat faster. 

It doesn’t have to mean anything, but he wants it to.

Tag list (comment to be added): @hotluncheddie @8em-em-em8

Part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11

#love spell no go au #wg steddie #scoops words #steve harrington #eddie munson #good uncle wayne #feeder eddie munson #i don't even think he realizes what he's doing he just wants steve to have a nice lunch #the extra milkshake really was a coincidence but of course steve finishes it #and most of eddie's too lbr #goes back to work with a little more pep in his step that has nothing to do with the eating purely to fuel his body he's been doing lately #does he learn anything from this? no he does not #but he's got a lot on his mind

[ruporas]

feast (ID in alt)

#vashwood #vash the stampede #nicholas d wolfwood #trigun #trigun maximum #tw blood #im posting this so late because october escaped me Suddenly.. hello.... #i wanted to make it a photoset with this other vampire vw wip but i don't think i'm finishing it any time soon and the mood of it is #completely different anyway. also i don't think i ever shared anything about my vampire au on here !!! it's all old art by now so im shy lo #but maybe i'll do a photodump of it. long story short vash is a vampire since birth and ww is a human vampire hunter that turns during thei #travels together due to EoM experiments + getting vash to drink from him at some point. #humans turn once they get bitten but bc ww has been experimented on #& got bitten by a bunch of human turned vampires thruout his hunts he thought it wouldn't be a problem for vash to drink from him but alas. #theyre both ok though theyre traveling together definitely not hating themselves for what theyve become and feeling guilty for what theyve #done to each other. theyre completely normal about it. the biting part is really appealing to me in vampire aus so i draw it a lot but #in reality vash only drank from ww once and ww mightve done it twice under the realization he might actually die otherwise #since he wont drink from humans after being turned.... he's combatting the 5 stages of grief at all times #if this is all nonsense im sorry DMGKSDF I'M NOT good at explaining and this au came from nowhere in the depths of my mind its a mess #ruporas art

[dorianpavus]

THE DEAD THREE Baldur's Gate 3, 2023.

#don't mind me i'm THEORIZING on main #this might be super wildly off base!!! i might have them mixed around!!! #they might associate with/belong to all three!!! #i might laugh at this later BUT. this is my pepe silvia #baldur's gate #bg3edits #gamingedit #baldur's gate 3 #ketheric thorm #enver gortash #orin the red #i know ketheric was a sharran but... HE'S GOT LOTS OF BONES ON HIS ARMOR HEAR ME OUT and he Changed™ #dead three... three main villain... i've connected the dots #bg3 spoilers #my edit #btw this post brought to you by me and lauren gautiersylvain obsessing with each other lol

[thefirstpaleontologist]

Anatomy of Alastors demonic forms

#Alastor #hazbin hotel #we know he got shot in the head by a hunter and that’s how he died #and that that’s prob tied to why he’s a deer demon #and radio dial eyes is obv because of his ties to being a radio host in life and now in death #but do we know anything about the stitches and broken neck #in a lot of scenes we see him twist his neck violently #and in his demons forms it’s always crooked #did his neck get snapped during or after he was shot? #I guarantee you that if we ever get a scene where Alston’s neck is bare it will have a fucked up scar or something #I’ve heard theories that the stitches on his mouth could be tied to his constant smile #either that his smile is such an important feature that it became permanent in death #or that whoever he made a deal with made it so he’s not able to actually talk about it #could be both even because in some scenes there’s only stitches in the corner of his mouth and in the deal scene they’re all the way across #personally the stitches in combo with the deer form and the fact he was killed by a hunter makes my mind go to taxidermy #it kind of looks like he was stuffed and stitched up #I’ve also seen people compare his stiches to those voodoo dolls #but I dont know enough about them to make any kind of comparison

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

date night! Barnaby planned. well. "planned"

#he got too excited and forgot that dates include doing things #he was too caught up in the euphoria of holding howdys hand #an honest mistake 💅 #it turned out well tho in my mind #they had a nice candlelit (microwaved) dinner on the roof #where barnaby performed a stand-up act he wrote just for their date <3 howdy laughed so hard he knocked over their drinks #scribble salad #welcome home #welcome home puppet show #welcome home fanart #howdy pillar #barnaby b beagle #LaughingStock #OKAY SO IN MY MIND BARNABY LIKE. STRAIGHTENED HIS FUR FOR THAT SLEEK N STYLED LOOK #TO CHARM THE BUG YAKNOW #but now. oogh. i kinda like it a lot #the classic barnaby look.... #im torn between the floof and the fluff.... the way i draw him and the way he Should Be... #anyway im in love with 60s/70s fashion #bring it BACK #i wanna wear campy suits and ascots and flared pants #before anyone says 'what stopping you' uhhh The Fact That No One Makes That Shit #agony.

[ascesabo]

sometimes i want to reach through the screen and shake sabo by the shoulders because. god. there's just so much going on with him.

he's first introduced through the veil of luffy's memories- here he's just another feral jungle kid, sticking it out with ace and luffy, the 'nicer' brother in young luffy's eyes. and then boom. you find out he's a runaway noble trying to escape his abusive, neglectful family- and this changes nothing, they still get to become sworn brothers, but just as quickly as this is resolved, his asshole of a dad takes the three of them hostage. and what does sabo do? he gives up the little sliver of freedom he'd fought for, is willing to become miserable and lonely again if it means ace and luffy are spared. and then he comes home to find that in his absence, his parents have already found a replacement! great!

and he doesn't even get to address how fucked up that is, because stelly runs his mouth and now sabo's too busy trying to figure out how to stop his brothers and their home from getting burnt to the ground. he never gets to give them a proper goodbye- he exhausts himself trying to reach them, but he can't because. you know. he's ten. so where does this leave sabo? ten years old, with nowhere to go- he sets out to sea to try and start over, and for the crime of wanting to escape a terrible life, he's punished with an explosion to the face. he loses his memories, his brothers lose him- and so the cycle continues.

then the army saves him, takes him in; he's essentially a child soldier, with how prodigious of a fighter he is from the get-go. but hey, he thinks he's finally found his footing, even if his past's a blur to him- then it all comes flooding back. in the worst way possible. he sees his brother's corpse and he remembers, but it doesn't matter, does it? he's too late, ace is gone, and sabo's lost ten years of a life he could have shared with his brothers. we don't even know how (if, even) he recovers from this- except for a single passing statement from koala, asking him if he's 'had that dream again' because he'd been crying in his sleep. this is never brought up or addressed again. great!plus, we never do find out if getting blown up at the ripe old age of ten could have left any lasting fire-related trauma; and if it does, what does that mean for sabo, who's pretty much made of it, now?

both of these questions are answered at once- sabo treats the fire as if it's ace. it's ace's legacy he's carrying on, and it's ace he seeks freedom for. he copes by making sure ace lives on in his flames, and how can he ever hate the fire living in him if that fire is all he has left of the brother he never got to see again?

i just have to wonder about him, because he's got so many Issues that just. don't ever get addressed? every time we see him deal with his grief (episode of sabo, his own retelling of events in dressrosa) we never really discover anything about him. i wonder how it felt to finally remember the childhood that eluded him, just to find out he was an unwanted, replacable child. how he feels, living with the knowledge that he could have done something to save ace, that he'd failed to remember the two people he loved the most? i wonder just how terribly that guilt must weigh down on him- because where luffy's already begun to heal, sabo still sees ace in everything he does. his title of flame emperor is a direct callback to ace's final attack in his fight against blackbeard. he talks to his goddamn fire like his brother is still in front of him, which is sweet and heartbreaking and, considering his backlog of unaddressed trauma... incredibly unhealthy. i know these will probably be left unresolved for the sake of moving the story forward- but god, sabo, are you okay?

#one piece #sabo #asl brothers #portgas d ace #revolutionary sabo #i cannot stop thinking about him #his grief is so. silent #blink and you'll miss it #i wonder if he'll ever be able to reconcile the person he is with the person he never got to be #or if he's just. going to brush it off because Everything Is Fine Obviously #i know he's explicitly stated that he won't live in grief because ace wouldn't want him to #but coming to that conclusion when he's probably had no time to heal #just looks a lot like him holding his fraying edges together with duct tape #my poor sabo #my princess .... #anywayyyy this is just me rambling pls dont mind

[keirientez]

Pokemon trainer AU, Reborn is the champion meanwhile Tsuna is his apprentice. Tsuna’s design belongs to my friend @Cloud_Knee (Twt or X)

#katekyo hitman reborn #r27 #sawada tsunayoshi #reborn #my friend and i discussed about which pokemon would be in their team. eevee and umbreon was ther for their similar looks to r27 lol #flygon is a good candidate bc yk. leon. and for tsuna suprisingly we liked the idea of meloetta (bc meloetta has two forms like how tsuna- #-has his normal vibe and his dying will mode) #for reborn we thought of him having a liking for bug types bc of his bug communication skills. like his seasonal bug thing #we also thought of lore for a whole game which was heavily based on pokemon mystery dungeon bc we wanted death (future arc spoilers oof) #but general beginning plot is: tsuna dislikes having pokemon battles so all his pokemons are non-combat #- somehow he meets reborn (? idk maybe bro trips and got silly and he now owes reborn something). and reborn then seeing how close-minded- #tsuna is he decided to accept tsuna as his apprentice so he finally gets it #we discussed about tsuna also seeing reborn often at a lot of places but never got in contact (bc we thought of him living on a mountain idk #like how everyone cant see through reborn’s disguises but he can. so he’ll just see him around (bc reborn is hiding himself from the public) #as a champion. yeah #yeah thats about it i think. ive forgotten most of our ideas dkdgkgfhfhfj maybe another time

[mattodore]

20s vs 30s

#river dipping #matthias evanoff #theodore doe #echthroi #ts4 #ts4 edit #the older they get the more i need to [redacted] them... #matthias is already 26 so. not much changing going on in his face. his hair just starts receding a bit before he gets it under control #but theo’s in his early 20s so his cheeks definitely lose some baby fat in his late 30s #MIND YOU! matthias is really vain. so. he has a skincare routine and he's very serious abt it along w/ regular dermatologist visits #and injections/surgeries probably... so he is someone who will age very gracefully thanks to money lmao... #theo on the other hand is just blessed with beautiful skin <3 well that plus he rlly doesn't emote often... not many lines on his face #until he's in his mid-forties probably. but like fr... theo isn’t someone who puts a lot of work into his appearance like matthias does #and he uses and smokes like. his skin looking so good is just the result of a genetic lottery #i do think he quits both by the time he’s 30 #but while he doesn’t go back to cigarettes… hm. he probably continues to relapse w/ drugs every few years #not with anything hard—he’s off the stuff for good i think past 28-ish #i think when he relapses he’s usually safe with matthias who helps him by focusing on harm reduction so. lighter ones. #…just got a bit emotional thinking about that but anyway #kisses for theo 🫂 #i was going to post this last night before bed but decided that i wanted to actually edit them first so! here take this <3 #i've gotta get ready to go get my novavax shot in a few hours but then i'm going to start editing again #seriously rlly enjoying my editing process rn... like it makes me so happy!! to finally really like the way i edit and how things look #but yeah........................ mattodore are so sexy as they age god. #i gotta redo that old family lineage post i made now that mattodore look different... and i need to redo their parents for sure #…anyway cross your fingers for me 🧎 i’m hoping my side effects aren’t too bad this time around

[puppyeared]

The garment, worn by those in good standing with Hyrule royalty, has been reworked with the latest improvements, such as a new shoulder guard.

#I miss my wife tails. I miss her a lot. I’ll be back #I love the champions leathers design but the story behind it is so sweet too like. she wanted to thank him so she went and #got some improvements added to it?? and she wanted to see his face when she surprises him with it hello????? #I think my favourite part is the half chest just for angst. I like imagining she was very particular about the armour placements #and had a chest piece added because yknow. right over the heart might I add #originally I wanted this to be more angsty but halfway through I was like wait this would completely miss the point #in my mind the armor isn’t just ‘I don’t want you to die again’ but also ‘I want to keep you safe as best I can’ #in her diary she was like links armor is wearing down so you know what? I’m gonna add more armor to better protect him!!! #and with her upbringing in mind (and the conversation she had with him about whether he would still choose to be a knight if things were #different) she could have totally asked him to stop doing it altogether. but she made the armor for him instead #sidenote she also got to be a teacher and scholar like she wanted and that is so. dont look at me I’m crying #I don’t know if ANY of this makes sense I’m just rambling. yes I wear the champions leathers every chance I get why do you ask #btw if you squint the leathers chainmail and sweater are taken from the hylian armor chestpiece! slightly modified on the tunic but cool #my art #myart #tears of the kingdom #totk #totk spoilers #totk zelda #totk link #botw spoilers #botw #breath of the wild #loz #loz fanart #comic #tw blood #blood

[sentientcave]

okay so Price/Ghost one shot where Ghost is a tow-truck driver and Price is a cop, and Ghost sees Price parked in a fire lane while he's inside a store buying cigarettes or a coffee and tows his ass, and Price has to walk all the way to the impound lot just steaming mad, where he meets this huge, scarred-up ex-military tow truck driver who isn't the least bit intimidated by him. But Price tries to throw his badge around a little, so Ghost (ornery motherfucker that he is) decides to teach him a lesson personally, and makes it his life's mission to catch Price parked illegally and tow first his squad car, and then later on his personal vehicle. Price tries to catch Ghost doing things he could arrest him for but Simon is the most boring man on the planet, he works, goes home, drinks one beer, sleeps, rinse repeat ad infinitum. So Price arrests Johnny for something bullshit instead (Ghost only has one friend and no family), and Ghost has to go down to the precinct to bail him out. Price starts leaving Gaz in the vehicle to stop Ghost from towing him, but he tows it with Gaz inside as retaliation for the Johnny arrest.

Culminating in them having an altercation when Price finally catches Ghost hooking up his car, and after a few punches are thrown they probably end up on the ground making out sloppy style.

Is this anything? I feel like this is something.

#A bit of a crack fic maybe but tbh I feel like this would be a lot of fun to write so I'm gonna #PricexGhost #I'm in a silly goofy mood today so don't mind me #PricexGhost is a great ship when they've got the whole fight dog/Handler thing going on but I think it has a lot of potential as like #Wile E Coyote vs Roadrunner lmao #Ghost beeping his horn and giving Price a lil wave as he drives off with Price's car

[bulbabutt]

ok i wanna talk about tmnt 2007 and the way i think this is the best version of a leo and raph conflict, and also leo as a character

for context i've been talking about tmnt things kinda chronologically, so i'm gonna mention an unconditional understanding in 03 i bring that up in a previous post about that show and the family dynamics in it here if u want context for what i mean

i think this movie can really be appreciated for the place it has between adaptations, and the way character-wise everyone is more or less the same as they've always been but with a more interpersonal relationship as the focus. the main villain of this movie doesn't really matter, the conflict, the fights, that's not where the strength is (although, it is reflected in the conflict and ill get into that)

so tmnt 07 is one movie that kind of combines the 90s movies, 03, and mirage all in one place, and tonally is is similar to the show that will come after it, 12. if the 90s movies give us conflict between leo and raph, and 03 gives us the unconditional understanding between the two, 07 takes these two aspects and creates a story out of it. (debate in your own mind if this movie is a literal sequel to the 90s ones or not, its not that important)

the set up of this movie is we are in a post killing the shredder world. leo has been told by splinter to go get training elsewhere, there isn't much context for what happened to cause this, but i would bet its a similar cause to 03, where he had ptsd and lashed out at his father to which splinter sends him to his grandfather to get better advice than he thinks he can give him. the difference here is there is no grandfather hes sent to, he's sent on a journey of self discovery around the world to learn about it and himself.

the thing about leo as a character, and this goes for all leos, he's has a very black and white way of thinking. leo thinks he's been sent away because he's failing his family, that he's not a good enough leader. so he stays away for longer because he doesn't feel good enough. he finds a place where he can help and he does that. leo always needs a bad guy to fight, or else he's fighting his own demons. so he stays there for a long time. finding a place he can help quietly, never letting anyone see him, and becoming a legend to the locals because no one knows what's really going down.

april manages to track him down and tell him about whats going on with his brothers, how they're holding up without him and without being a team, and i think thats a good reminder for him that they miss him. he doesn't tell april but he finds a way home only after hearing about this. when he arrives and speaks to splinter, he says "i was so caught up in my own world i forgot about everyone else, i'm sorry i failed" he still doesn't feel like he's done anything of worth.

i'm gonna jump in here and say, you know how we all love rise raph? cuz hes the big brother and some traits that come from that are like being overprotective and taking on everyone else's problems and trying to handle emotions alone? well that's a trait thats usually leo's. but the difference with leo is sometimes that concept doesn't make you as likeable. sometimes it means you come off like a nagging mother hen who thinks they know best but in an arrogant way. sometimes it makes you mirror being a parent when no one asked you to be. leo's less of a passionate character than raph, hes more analytical and full of himself. he takes splinters lessons more seriously, and hes always trying to do whats best for everyone so they don't have to worry. this is something evident with 03 and 12, but its so specifically noticeable here because these traits make up the main conflict. i just want to bring that up so we start seeing leo as no different than some of our other favourite iterations.

splinter responds to his apology by saying "you owe me no apology, but perhaps you should talk to raphael, your absence has been particularly difficult for him, though he'll never admit it" but when leo greets him raph is brushing him off.

on raph's end, this is him being angry that leo left, and angry that hes back and everyone wants to pretend that he wasn't gone at all. as if the time he was gone didn't happen. hes lashing out because he too cant handle talking about these emotions. and hes lashing out by becoming a vigilante in his own right.

i see a lot of people misunderstand what raph is doing here, that "this is what the turtles always do" or "this is the same as what leo was doing how could he be mad" when that is not true. that's what casey does. its true that both leo and raph have been fighting bad guys on their own (as a way of dealing with their issues) but raphael has made himself a costume to disguise himself which means hes prepared to be seen. hes riding a motorcycle around, which is loud. this isn't stealthy, this is aggressive. his vigilante name is in the news. the turtles are ninjas, they silently help where they can and fade into the night and, very specifically, they work as a team. these turtles live in a dangerous world, what if something happened to him while no one else was around? they would never know because he never told anyone.

so raph is lashing out, and leo doesn't have a good way of dealing with it. he tries to slide back into being leader, doing what splinter says but he forgets how his brothers are, and with raph egging them on they get into fights they shouldn't. which leo specifically gets in trouble for, as the oldest brother, and as their leader. leo tries to be this better leader hes supposed to have learned to be, but it doesn't work and raph ends up back out there in his vigilante get up. leo tracks down said vigilante, and in his peak "leo knows best" moment, lectures him, not knowing its his brother. there's a scuffle, and the mask comes off. let me point out that casey knew this vigilante was raph but his own brother didn't, because leo has been gone that long.

so lets get into what this fight is really about. on the surface, its "wow you've been going out at night alone putting yourself in dangerous situations with no backup" and "so what you're just mad that i can do it without you" which leo would be right about. and this is the analytical leo, he really thinks that's all that's going on here. what hes missing is that raphael has missed him as a brother, and hes hurt that leonardo left and just came back no big deal. that he wants everything to be normal. raphael is always a character with big emotions and the only outlet he knows to express them is violence.

leo, who as we've established, went away to learn to be better for his family is angry that raph doesn't see that. he's mad raph doesn't appreciate the effort he went to, and he thinks he's just angry because he's not in charge. each brother sees the other as being arrogant.

this leads them to the big fight. no one can disagree that this is the best part of the movie (seriously watch the movie for this scene if you haven't seen it before) , but the real best part of it is that raphael wins. raph proves hes just as capable of a fighter as his brother, if not more-so. he uses those sais as they're supposed to be used, catching leo's swords and in a fit of rage he fucking breaks them, leaving leo defenceless and completely vulnerable to attack. you'd think he'd be smug that leo lost but he pauses, going through a lot of emotions in a moment, questioning what he's doing, why hes doing it. and leo finally looks his brother in the eye and sees raph going through something he didn't before, realizing raph hasn't been angry that he's back, but that he's angry that he ever left. they don't have a conversation, because raph cant handle all these emotions and he runs away, crying as he does. leo just watches him, taking it all in and realizing the error of his ways.

hearing leo scream turns raph around, but he's too late to help him, and this is where raph regrets his own actions because right then, leo is also proven right in his argument. because he gets kidnapped. if leo hadn't chased raph down, there is a very good chance that would have been raph being kidnapped. with no backup, with no one knowing what happened to him. that's why its important that the turtles are a team.

raph goes home full of guilt, and there's a good moment of showing how he cannot open up emotionally here, because he grunts, punches the wall, knocks over some weights and forces splinter to ask him what happened, because that's how raphael is. he laments to his father that he finally understands why leo is the better son, proving that to raph none of this was about their team, but about their family. conflating the two ideas in his head. splinter gives him a talk that mirrors what he said to leo when he returned earlier in the movie, encouraging him that he is a good son and brother. this shows that these brothers have very similar insecurities about their value to their family.

the rest of the movie plays out as you expect, they go save leo, they stop the bad guy, they reconcile and behave as the team they're supposed to be. but i just want to point out that the villains plot is mirrored in leo and raph's conflict. the 'villain' here is a brother who has been cursed to be immortal without his own siblings. for 3000 years he lived to regret his actions and decided to undo his curse, but he used the cursed stone versions of his siblings to do so. no communication, just thinking he knew better (which maybe he did) and lying about it. that caused them to lie to him right back, and try to overthrow him and destroy the world. this is just one family whose inner turmoil could have destroyed the world. you might say, oh that's not a very interesting turtles villain, but its not supposed to be. its not the focus.

this movie is all about the complicated relationship between a family, and i see so many people talk about it by trying to ask who's right and who's wrong. that's not how it works. life is more complicated than that, people are more complicated than that. its boring to look at this movie and just say "leo is wrong and raph is right" because that's not even how the characters see it. this movie is about leo and raph being mirrors of each other in their arrogance, in their insecurities, and in their stubborn pig-headed refusal to let the other know how they feel. splinter says as much at the start of the movie. this whole movie shows that without each other, they need to be fighting something so they don't get swept up by their own emotions, which they are both bad at processing. they are SUCH brothers. they are so similar emotionally, yet they have such a hard time understanding each other.

personally 07 leo is my favourite leo for his complexity, his flaws his strength, his growth. its sad we never got those sequel movies to get into the other brothers heads as much as we got into leo and raphs heads.

also nolan north and james arnold taylor gave the best vocal performances in this movie and they deserve all the credit for it.

#tmnt #tmnt 2007 #tmnt 07 #teenage mutant ninja turtles #07 leo #i will defend 07 leo to death does no one understand his autistic swag like i do #all leos are like this he just got to shine cuz the movie was ABOUT his and raphs issues #this has been in the drafts for a while and in the mind a LOT longer than that #sorry its long idek if thats all i have to say about him but CLEARLY its long enough #thoughts

[payasita]

Day 4: Envy

#cotl #cult of the lamb #doodles #dont yell at me thats my art tag #hi i took some liberties with sham bc. spidr #spiders are dope #anyway hi im posting ten minutes before midnight #yes this is exactly how i used to submit my school assignments #i think a lot about. right before Everything Got Fucked Up. the Knowledge Envy #'in my imprudence i loved him and for it i lost my mind and he lost his freedom' #cotl more like heartbreaking family estrangement simulator <3

[kopponss]

buncha misc doodles

#going to vomit abt the first img first #scars scarheart (peanut butter previously) and siblings with jellie #he has similar tabby markings to her ehe #they're kittypets but scar left for the clans #fire and princess type beat #he enjoys causing (and inadvertently getting into) trouble too much hence the scars #grians sunchirp and enjoys collecting feathers and decorating himself with it #while escaping from a dog he accidentally brought it to a wandering scar and man got attacked #grian brought scar back to camp out of guilt which is how he was introduced to the clans #since scar gets into a lot of scuffles (although pretty wounded) he put up a bit of a fight #he's a decent fighter for someone without training and all his scars impressed the clan enough to take him in #grian offered to be his mentor/supervisor and begrudgingly dedicated himself to making scar welcome/adjusted and formed a close bond from i #they were just silly cat designs but my mind went crazay #grian #grian fanart #goodtimeswithscar #goodtimewithscar fanart #smallishbeans #smallishbeans fanart #kopparts

[lizardthelizard]

Thinking about nano!Rimmer again, and, like...

Do you think that Lister ever causally mentioned something to Rimmer when they were in the cell together -just a small 'hey. remember when..?', something along those lines- and that question was followed by an indignant 'what the hell are you talking about?' from Rimmer, before both of them awkwardly simultaneously come to the realisation that Lister was referencing something wholly specific to holo!Rimmer?

Do you think that they just sit there in silence for a beat as Lister starts thinking about holo!Rimmer and about Ace and about whether or not he'll ever cross paths with him again or not? About whether or not holo!Rimmer is even 'alive' still or whether he's already passed the mantle onto the next Ace Rimmer?

Do you think that nano!Rimmer feels this loneliness all of a sudden? This inadequacy, this feeling of coming second to himself? Do you think that a part of him almost feels jealous in the exact same way that holo!Rimmer did when he saw how well Ace and Lister were getting on?

#red dwarf #arnold rimmer #I know that...like....we ALL prefer holo!Rimmer to nano!Rimmer because of COURSE #but idk nano!Rimmer has been on my mind lately #he brings a different type of angst to the table you know? #and it's so bittersweet!! because on the one hand you've got him feeling separate from the group #(because they know him better than he knows them) #but on the other hand? BECAUSE they're still treating him like holo!Rimmer in a lot of ways and BECAUSE they're welcoming him into the grou #he suddenly ends up being more loved than he ever has been in his life #sorry started writing this at 2am last night so blame that for any incoherence

[34saveme34]

perfect together

#smg4 #smg34 #hi guys😲🤚 #hey look that's the outfit I've been meaning to give 4 #I said fuck it he's just getting it #may my silly lil guy just get mauled by the bootleg plush #...... okay that's not what actually happened- but I don't really care anymore. I have so much on the mind n I already wanted to just #draw 4 in this and post him like this #the cute outfit was stronger than me #but yeah my #lil guy is safe they'r ehaving coffee at 3's cuz their energy got drained to shits n they need to get that shit back #weak ass mfer uses one ability and immedaitely runs out !!! #and the big ass plush would've been caught by these 2 together #because 3's slay would've been too much to handle for it #but I just. didn't quite have the passion for this like I do for a lot of other things that I want to do

[cherry-bomb1985]

I feel like The Father and Hell both understand and experience love in all the worst ways.

The Father sought to create a life form that would follow and love him unconditionally. It wasn't enough that he had a great cosmic kingdom of angels who are unquestioningly loyal, no, he needed something that knew suffering and mortality and the threat of oblivion, and would still find love at the end; love for him above all else. But after numerous implied failures at that, in his desperation, he instead created the threat of eternal damnation to force them to love him in order avert that fate. Lucifer's words must have been like a splash of cold water, but by the time he realized sheer magnitude of suffering he had unintentionally set into motion, it was too late. He could not destroy Hell; he could not stop the cycle of violence.

That guilt drove him to seek a death that, from the looks of it, eluded him in spite of the hollowness consuming him. And now he is... somewhere, helpless to stop his experiments from consuming one another and themselves in a glorious show of blood and violence.

And then there's Hell itself, who seems to recognize love as an act of violence and cruelty. It is something that derives joy only from the suffering of other living creatures. God gave it so many toys to hurt and break and reform, and Mankind gave it new ones. Why would it understand love as anything but? It gave Minos a facsimile of the son he is most ashamed of, and delighted when he cast it, once more, into a labyrinth. Gabriel flattened all the souls within it's confines beneath his heel and gave those that did bend false hopes.

Now there's V1, tearing its way through the remaining layers and creating a spectacle of violence like nothing Hell has ever witnessed before. How could it not love them all for all the entertainment they've provided?

But deep within its recesses, hidden away from the eyes of Heaven, there was a Gutterman. A machine built for war, who eventually came to love that which it gave it life at the cost of their own. Enough to give the human welded within their coffin the mercy that both Heaven and Hell had denied them; enough to write a single love letter to them, even knowing that it would never be read by its intended recipient.

So, as things turn out, you /can/ teach a machine to love. And they will understand and experience it more sincerely than God or Hell ever could.

#ULTRAKILL #ULTRAKILL spoilers #Mind you this is all just speculation #We still don't know if Hell is aware that the machines will inevitably try to consume it too once the souls and demons run dry #and if it is then whether or not it has a plan to stop that from happening or if it actually /wants/ to be destroyed #or perhaps--like Father like creation--it simply thinks it /cannot/ be destroyed #and we certainly still don't know where God fucked off to after his suicide attempt or why #If he left to seek the end of his days elsewhere #Or--as the first testament might imply--if he's got a new angle #Sorry 7-S got my brain buzzing and there's not a whole lot of game left to get the answers to those particular questions #If they are intended to be answered at all or simply left unknown by the blank slate boomer shooter protagonist #through which we all experience this wild ride #Anyways not a lot of this fandom talks about the Testaments effectively being God's vent posts #and I find both amusement and mild horror at their very existence