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#but honestly the *most* important thing to keep in mind is that raphael is a devil
not-poignant · 3 months
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@trachymedusa replied to your post “raphael casually laying out the actual...”:
But Raphael said that he owes Astarion a favor! Surely Astarion can use that as leverage to negotiate better terms for himself somehow. HE USED TO BE A MAGISTRATE
​I think it's a mistake to assume that Astarion is anywhere on the same level as Raphael for negotiation power. One has been alive for thousands of years and lives and breathes contracts, the other was a Magistrate for a proportionately short period of time and then was tortured, brainwashed and a slave for like 200 years.
Astarion can certainly negotiate better terms for himself if he wants, but Raphael will likely only allow him one better term, and there's certain things in the second contract that are completely unavoidable (i.e. Astarion cannot access the sun if he does not perform these things he won't want to do, it's literally part of the Rite).
But it's always important to keep in mind, imho, that this is still very much an experienced torturer with thousands of years of experience with contracts, vs. Astarion, who has more experience being a torture victim, and has more time under his belt as a torture victim. Their power differential is huge, and they'll never be equals, favour or not. It's tempting to think Astarion has significant leverage, but he only has whatever section of rope Raphael allows him for the most part.
The favour will make things more fun though, which is why Raphael offered it lol
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melancholysway · 2 years
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TMNT Imagines: Guide to Being their S/O!
Pretty lengthy, but for each version of the guys I'm giving a guide to being their s/o! if you guys haven't noticed, I'm not the best at writing for Mikey, I literally see him as a younger brother, not someone i would have a romantic interest in if that makes sense.
TMNT 2003
Leonardo
Okay yall
Please give him some time.
He's so hardworking and spiritually driven, that he's always getting caught up working on himself that he may lose track of time
It's not intentional at all, and he doesn't mean it, it's just that he's so determined to be the perfect leader that he has tunnel vision.
When he's not doing this, he's almost always with you, getting in tune with you, understanding your mindset. He's patient.
He's patient with you. If you don't want to tell him something or if something's bothering you in your life, he'll wait until you're ready. He doesn't pry, he knows that some require more patience than others.
meditate with him! He's very spiritual, and it's important that he continuously keeps up with the traditions his father taught him and grew up doing. He would really appreciate that you're participating in something he's passionate about.
Going back to him losing track of time and getting caught up in being perfect, TELL him he needs a break. He may not want to hear that, but you can tell he's in need of one. Try and get him to do something else that's less physically demanding, something to get his mind off of trying to be perfect
Cook for him! Yes, it's a universal rule that Leonardo cannot cook, and it's one less thing he can be great at, so, make something for him! He usually relies on Mikey to cook anyway, so he'd very much appreciate it if you cooked for him!
Be his eyes and ears. I feel as though 2003 Leo would love a s/o who's very in tune with themselves and has an open third eye. You may be able to see the things he misses (this is metaphoric btw) or hear things he may miss- become self-aware, become one with the world and nature, and your aura is something he'll love about you the most.
Raphael
Honestly, don't piss him off. He's already furious about the world around him.
If you're his s/o, you obviously haven't pissed him off, so, good job! You've also gotten close enough to where you cause him to actually have romantic feelings. Woohoo!
So, you wanna date 2003 Raph?
First off, don't mess with his family. Treat all his brothers with respect as they do you. Joke with them, spend time with them, and genuinely provide a great friendship for them. Raphael would not date anyone who he thought would hurt the family dynamic.
Do not be the mediator nor the instigator between him and Leo. it's simply sibling rivalry, and if it does get to a point where they physically fight, leave them. It may sound bad, but it's better for them to let it out than hold it all in just for it to blow out of proportion. Most of the time, they just have the steam to let out on each other.
Let Raphael know everything. Everything means the people in your life. He wants to know which guys are strictly friends, which ones you're hanging with, etc. He gets slightly insecure at the idea of you hanging out with other regular guys like yourself, but as long as you assure him that he's yours, he'll be fine.
Have him be your savior. It's not a burden to him at all, he WANTS to be your one and only protector! if you're walking alone and sense someone following you, call Raph. He'll be there in a heartbeat.
Be the one to bring him back to reality. He may let his anger get the best of him (this is very rare- like I've said before he's usually laid back, but he has his moments.) Calm him down, tell him to just yell it out and speak to you to better get his anger out instead of taking it out on innocent inanimate objects. He'll find he goes to you more when upset or mad about something, not the dojo (although this will take time.)
Be patient with Raph, he's new to this boyfriend thing, so let him know when you don't like something that he does, do NOT let it bottle up or keep your mouth shut, he WILL notice!
Donatello
Alright 2003 Donnie lovers!
Just to say, unless you really really, REALLY do something that would fuck up Donnie's head (ie; cheating) he will not yell at you. He's a pacifist. He doesn't yell, he doesn't scream. He won't lay a finger on you. NOT saying that the other turtles would, they absolutely wouldn't do that. But Donnie, it's impossible for him to.
It's not in his nature to be mean or violent. He's not like that. He will treat you like the god/goddess you are as long as you let him.
Dating Donnie is honestly fairly easy and can be very rewarding for both of you. He's smart, he can help you with just about anything. As long as you give him the time of day, he will.
He honestly thought he would never experience a romantic relationship, so he often wonders if it's actually happening.
Yes, Donnie, it is.
He also will seek advice or for your thoughts on something he's doing- if he knows you'll tell him something in his best interest, he'll always come running to you for some wise words.
He usually becomes obsessed over inventions or projects until they're finished, so, like Leo, he gets tunnel vision. Try and get him to take breaks, don't completely forget to check up on him, please do! If you're his s/o, he'd really love it if you gave your opinion on things he's making. Raph is usually the first to compliment his inventions, so try and beat Raph to the metaphorical punch!
Dating 2003 Donatello is summed up in one word known for pacifism: peaceful.
Michaelangelo
Mikey with an equally as chaotic s/o will equal absolute mayhem.
When you start dating 2003 Mikey, he'll persuade you to get in on some pranks around the lair. Do participate, especially if it's Raph. He's always smacking Mikey anyway LMAO so it's understandable why you'd prank him too.
When he wins the Battle Nexus Champion, he won't shutup about it. Not that you mind it at all, but listen to him bask in his awesomeness! His brothers are tired of hearing about how much better he is than them because he's the B.N champion, anyway.
He's decent at making dinner food but really good at making breakfast food. Come down and cook with him, show him some things he may not know yet, or different ways to cook food. Get him on the poached egg wave instead of scrambled. It'll piss Raph off, but hey, a poached egg is hard as fuck to make for some. Mikey would love it if you show him some new techniques to enhance the enjoyment of his hobbies!
TMNT 2007
Leonardo
Okay, if you're dating Leo before going to Central America, he will be absolutely torn before he leaves. He isn't sure if he should suggest a break while he's gone so you won't be hung up waiting for him, so he'll be struggling with this internally.
But, please tell him that you'll wait for him. If he suggests a break for your benefit, shoot it down instantly. 2007 Leonardo will always put your feelings before his own, but please let him know that his feelings matter just as much as yours. He doesn't have to be selfless in your relationship 24/7. He's not leading anything or carrying a burden, he's just dating you.
I'm torn between whether or not Leo would ever be upset at you, he has a lot of patience. You'd probably have to be ignoring him or bottling up your feelings for him to be upset. Always be direct with him and say what's on your mind. Because he will definitely tell you.
"Now, you and me both know I'm not a mind reader, love."
Don't make Leo's life more stressful than it already is. He's constantly fighting for his and his family's safety, all while carrying the weight of being the leader on his shoulders. Just, be there for him. Be his therapist in a way, hear him out, and listen to the trials and tribulations of being the leader in blue. He'll love you way more if you do this.
Raphael
This Raph is actually the most laid-back, he will literally stay in his own lane.
But, when you pique his interest, he will try everything he can to make you happy once you get into a relationship.
He tries, he really, really, tries. He knows he can't take you anywhere fancy, so he has alternatives. Hope you don't mind a bike ride! He'll do that often. Or, he'll (beg) I mean...ask Donnie for the shellraiser so you guys can take a fun road trip.
He's also VERY overprotective in this version, if you start dating him while he's the Nightwatcher, expect him to always check up on you while he's on patrol alone.
He appreciates little things about you- so, refrain from trying to impress him. You dating him is impressive enough. If you have a job, he would love to hear about it, he likes the fact that you have something going for yourself.
He definitely loves a confident s/o, but if you're slightly insecure or still finding your self-confidence like Donnie, Raph will be there to remind you every time that everything about you is amazing.
When you're dating him during that whole Winter's era and Leonardo getting taken, he'll need you. Please, take him in with open arms. He'll probably break down in front of you, so please, do not think of him as weak, he'll never open up to you again if you think this. Let him know that you'll be there to listen.
"You're not weak at all, everyone has emotions. Thank you for trusting me enough to see you like this. I don't think of you any less."
He'll appreciate that.
P.S- I actually have a fanfic devoted to 2007!Raph, if you're interested, it's called Serendipity! I'd appreciate it if you would check it out.
Donatello
Okay, guys!
This Donnie is definitely the more chill ones- I swear!
So, if you’re dating Donnie during Leo’s absence, please check up on him. He’s taken the unofficial leader role while he’s gone, trying to keep his other two brothers in line as much as he can.
If you’re with him after the whole Winter’s thing, still check up on him! He’s not doing that terrible I.T job anymore, but still, he’d love it if you came in unannounced like you used to when he did have the job.
2007 Donnie will be in absolute love with you- that being said, do not shy away from showing him love! Shower him in kisses, hugs, anything! It’s a constant reminder that you’re actually his. That after all this crazy shit that went down, he has someone to look forward to seeing and holding.
He’s not as obsessed as he used to be with making inventions- he’s actually getting better at managing his diet and has even a little experience making food! So, he has more time to spare, and a lot of the times he’ll spend it with you.
He loves to read! I think you should buy him a few new books he’s been talking about wanting to read but being unable to find them online.
If he comes over to your place (which is very often) he may suggest a documentary about a serial killer or the life cycle of mammals. It honestly depends, but he has a wide spread interest in a number of things, so you’ll never be stuck with something. He especially likes analyzing interrogations with those channels on YouTube, so be ready to hear about it!
Donnie is very lovable, he’s also pretty easy to talk to. He understands that some people can’t comprehend what he says at times based on his vocabulary, (he doesn’t dumb it down for you per se) but he explains things more in depth so you don’t not understand what he’s saying.
2007 Donnie is truly someone you can spend all your free time with and never be bored!
Michaelangelo
Being a kid's party host is not the best thing in the world- and Mikey knows this firsthand. If he's dating you, patch him up after getting beat up by little kids! It's better than getting scolded by Donnie. Plus, Mikey thinks you're much more gentle than he is.
He's older in this installment, so he isn't as hyper. He still has energy, but not as high as the other versions of him. He'd much rather have a s/o that he can lay back and watch TV with.
I have a headcanon that 2007!Mikey has a spending problem, so expect him to spend his job money on you at times. He'll buy you cute things, once he gets your shirt size and pant size it's over.
I also think Mikey would love a girly girl and tomboy mix, he'll love that you can switch up your clothes and energy so easily!
He's very loving, so reciprocate that back. He would enjoy it if he could use your lap as a pillow so he could get ample rest.
TMNT 2012
Leonardo
2012 Leo might be my fave- he’s the cutest bro fr
That being said, please treat 2012 Leo with the upmost respect in the relationship. 2012 Leo would most likely date someone that has similar views and admirations as him. This comes into the relationship as well, he knows the power of holding a grudge and how it can truly break someone.
So, if you guys ever do get in a disagreement or argue, he’ll always make sure it ends with both of you coming to terms with each other. He always makes it to where you won’t go to sleep knowing the argument didnt end well. No matter what, Leo is always making sure you and him are good. Whatever issues you may have or things you want to discuss, let him know instantly. Point out something he may do that you don’t enjoy or like- do not hold a grudge against him. He will never do the same to you.
It takes him awhile to trust because of Karai- she truly put up a front in the beginning- so please always tell him the truth- it would hurt him if he found out what you may have said was a lie.
Cuddle with him- he wants something to hold. Sit on his lap while he’s watching Space Heroes, have him teach you how to use a weapon, anything that involves touching you or being near you, he’s down.
This Leo also really likes traditional Japanese meals- knowing he can’t cook, get him something that’s impossible to fucking break bro
A rice cooker!
Since lots of Japanese meals have white rice, get him that! I know FOR SURE Leo sucks at making rice if the man can’t toast some bread. Show him how to use it, you literally press one button, and it has a timer based on the weight of the rice you place in it. It’s really, REALLY hard to fuck up, so it’s a great fit for him! He would love it if you got him something that at the very least makes him think he’s cooking.
Raphael
2012 Raph has shown time and time again that he's the caring type. It's actually canon that he has ADHD, so good on the writers for shedding light on what ADHD can look like!
He's very unpredictable and emotionally erratic. That being said, he may not be the same person when you talk to him the next day. As in, his emotions change, all the time. They may even change about you, because, he's unsure if it's real or not.
Let him know always that you're his, in fact, all versions of Raphael need this constant reassurance.
Once Spike became Slash and part of the Mighty Mutanimals, he doesn't have anyone to confide in. Part of the reason he confided in Spike was that he would always listen, and wouldn't talk back.
So, be his Spike.
Let him talk your ear off on whatever he's feeling, whether it be about his brothers or you.
Yes, even you.
If something's really bothering him, do not let it escalate to an argument. Rather, let Raph get everything he has to say out in one big rant, and then you proceed. Vice versa as well, Raph respects your opinion because you respect his.
"Your feelings matter to me, Raph- I love you because you're vulnerable in front of me."
He'll love that. That you recognize his vulnerability and his absence of toxic masculinity beliefs that most men harbor.
Be kind to Chompy Picasso. Don't be a dick. Pet him, feed him while Raph's on patrol, and babysit him! He'd love that you watch over the things he really cares about.
When you both are dating, let him teach you a thing or two. He'd especially love it if you were able to learn how to use his sai.
He's sarcastic, DO NOT take anything he says to heart. He's a jokester, seriously. He has the best one-liners for any situation fr fr
A lot of the time, he uses his sarcasm or one-liners to lighten up a situation!
Donatello
2012 Donnie is super sensitive. He's kind-hearted. So, once he (finally) gets over April, he'll (finally) see your feelings for him.
When you do both start dating, he's torn on whether you'll ditch him for another guy. He was so invested in April, that he's scared to actually love someone.
So please, kiss him whenever he thinks this. You can tell on his face when he thinks like this. Donatello wears his heart on his sleeve, people can tell when he truly cares for them and loves them.
It's not hard to read Donnie.
Unlike with April, he isn't some nervous shy schoolgirl, it may be because he's 100% sure you like him because you're dating, but he isn't chasing you like a cat to a mouse. He's got you. You're his.
Donnie doesn't expect compliments, but he'll always try and compliment you. He starts off oddly because he isn't sure what to compliment you about without sounding weird.
"I...I really like the way your smile...accentuates your facial features."
It may sound stupid on his end, but it comes from a good place!
"Wow...thank you, Donnie! That's so sweet of you to say!"
Respond like this; like I said, Donnie is sensitive! If he genuinely means something, take it in! He's trying, and that's what matters. He's already out of his comfort zone by straight up telling you what he likes about you.
Compliment him! Out of the blue, when he least expects it. If he's just working on the shell raiser and he's covered in oil, take this opportunity.
"You know what I love about you? Your work ethic, combined with your good looks, and you're perfect, Don."
He'll be over the moon, guaranteed. He'll stumble over his words after this trying to come up with the words "thank you," it'll be comical to watch!
Michaelangelo
2012 Mikey is very sweet- he wants to be loved.
He's used to people not liking him based on his appearance, so when he finds out you like him and you eventually start dating, he's honestly shocked.
He confides in Raph a lot of the time about you.
"What should I get Y/n dude?!?! I need help!!"
You'll be closest to Raphael if you're dating Mikey, he wants to make sure you're taking care of his little brother, and he even helps you how to handle the orange-clad jokester.
Raph may bonk Mikey on the head every time he opens his mouth, but he truly cares about him yall.
His love other than you is Ice Cream Kitty- always be nice to Ice Cream Kitty. Like Raph, Mikey really loves animals. Don't be a dick to Ice Cream Kitty.
Spending time with IC Kitty will cause Mikey to love you even more, as you're showing him that you're taking part in one of his interests and caring for his little kitty!
BAYVERSE TMNT
Leonardo
He's undeniably all for you. Like Raph, he is all about you!
That being said, please appreciate all of what Leonardo has to offer. He doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve like 2012 Donnie, but he lets you know how much he cares for you.
He's very family-oriented, so he would really enjoy all the time you spent in the lair with him and his family. Of course, he likes time alone with you, but to see you interact positively with his family- it's everything to him.
All Leos stop at nothing to become perfect- he's constantly trying to be Mr. Perfect. He may beat himself down over little things, but please, always let him know early on in the relationship that it's okay to be imperfect.
"Ah...I forgot that you're allergic...I'm sorry, Y/n."
"Leo, it's okay! I love that you tried, really; we can't remember everything."
Watch how you talk to him and your mannerisms. Leonardo deals with Raphael on a day-to-day basis- he can read body language like a pro. He can sense when your tone is off from its normal state, and he will ask you about it. Don't beat around the bush, always tell him what's on your mind- unlike other versions of Leo, Bayverse Leo may pry a little or ask you about it head-on.
He's also very cautious, so, he may be uneasy about doing impulsive things together. He likes to plan stuff out, so, do the planning for him sometimes! Plan a date in your apartment, have dinner on the rooftop, and watch a shitty rom-com that both of you would fall asleep cuddling each other to!
Raphael
Bayverse Raph is one big teddy bear, we all know this! But, he's afraid.
He's afraid of being alone. As much as he may take time to himself, train by himself, knit by himself, the thought of not having anybody worries him.
When the chance to be human arises, he takes it. He lies to April and Casey to get the ooze because, he wants to be seen in public with you. That's the main reason why. He wants everyone to know he's yours and you're his.
When you find out about his attempt to be human after all of this, please reassure him.
"I'm with you for you, Red. Mutant and all. Now come here,"
He's constantly wondering if he's good enough for you. Would you get bored? He needs to be reassured often. Don't take it as he doesn't trust you, it's just that, he's a mutant.
Be interested in one of his hobbies! If you find yourself in a Michaels or other crafting store, get a starter knitting kit for yourself as well as some other balls of yarn for Raph, he'd love you for that.
He appears tough around you, but you can read him. He would probably date someone who can tell when he's not doing well on the inside.
Let him know that he doesn't have to be tough in front of you 24/7, and that it's okay to show you how he truly feels.
He becomes soft when it comes to physical touch- it's his love language. He'll kiss you on your head or forehead, ruffle your hair, anything. He also really loves your hands, so more often than not he'll want to hold it.
You better let that man hold your fuckin hand or else-
sorry! anyway, dating bayverse Raph is enticing! Expect handmade gifts and lots of touching. He also gives the best hugs!
Donatello
Okay, this Donnie is seriously nerdy!
Less sensitive than 2012 Donnie, but still pretty techy and has a wide vocabulary.
He would love a s/o who is cool, calm, and collected. This Donnie isn't as chaotic as his counterparts, but he may have his moments while working in his lab.
He barely gets sleep. That being said, please try and get this turtle to bed. Try and bribe him, he honestly can't say no to you once you both start dating.
"Don, if you drop that invention you've been working on for the past 24 hours, I'll give you the best cuddles and massage known to man."
He's torn between the two choices, but he ultimately picks you! He cannot say no with the aching of his muscles bothering him. He would also love to have you in his arms!
This being said, he loves you being around! He might not say much all the time, since he talks way less than the other incarnations of him, but he enjoys your company, really. Just sitting there with him and watching him work, he loves it.
Going back to his nerdiness, don't be shy and send him things that might pique his interest. He loves that you know just exactly what he likes, any new podcasts about the latest scientific theories or conspiracy theories! Let him have it all! He'll get that notification from you and immediately change his music to the podcast or video while he works.
"Love, thank you so much. I'd love it if you came over and listened to it with me, *eyebrows eyebrows*"
He also texts like this LMAO
But yes, dating Bayverse Donnie is very calm- he's laid-back like 2007 Raph, but has his panicking moments like on patrol or a mission.
If you also wear glasses, he'll be so happy. He's dating someone who has the same issue he has, this lack of eyesight.
"Hey, four-eyes,"
"Says you, lovey!"
It's cute. You guys poke small fun at each other, with irony looming over each minor joke. It'll either end up in a playfight or a laughing fit between the two of you.
Michaelangelo
Aight yall- this Mikey is an attention whore, he wants all of your attention! Give it to him! It could be little things, he may find a funny meme or something on his shell-cell, or he wants to show you a new move on his board. Either way, give him your undivided attention.
it's obvious that Mikey is hurt by how humans view him and his brothers, so when you present to him that you view him in a romantic way and you both start dating, he's happy.
Happy because someone in this world likes him for who he is, he doesn't need no purple ooze to turn him human. Genuine people exist, and you're dating him to remind him about this constantly.
He tries to find what your sense of humor is and will adapt his jokes so they suit your taste. It's a weird headcanon I have LMAO but Mikey definitely has set jokes based on someone's sense of humor, especially his s/o's!
RISE!TMNT
Leonardo
This Leo would rather sit and lounge with you than anything else. Honestly, just having you in his presence is enough for him. He actually...is pretty lazy!
Counteracting his Bayverse persona, this Rise!Leo is spontaneous as fuck. So, it really depends on the day for him whether he's thinking about spending the day doing nothing & being lazy with you or doing everything he could possibly think of with you.
He's usually upbeat and would like it if you matched his energy. He knows- some days are bad days, so he'll try his best and lift your spirits.
He's also...pretty competitive? Doesn't care who you is, he's beating you in whatever game ya'll are playing. You're no longer his s/o, you're his opponent. Don't play Uno with him.
Play leisure games, like mancala or go-fish together, he's less competitive in these since the stakes are way lower. Will bet on the cuddle position you guys do over a game
"If I win, I get to be the little spoon this time,"
He's also confident- so, he doesn't really think about you leaving him for someone else. He thinks it would be your loss if you ever did.
Really, REALLY enjoys making out with you. He'd pretty much clear a slot in his day just to have a makeout session. That being said, he's a jokester, so expect some jokes during the session.
"Oh, my goodness, how lovely your lips feel on mine,"
Will joke as his lips are on yours, doesn't even let up for air or to speak, just speaks in your lips.
Kiss him on the cheek sometimes, will you? It gets him all giddy!
Raphael
Raphael is sweet as pie- don't do anything to hurt him.
He's not one to hurt your feelings, so don't hurt his!
He's also very, very massive! That being said, he really would enjoy giving you a piggyback ride every now and again.
Because he's so big, he's very gentle with you, he thinks one of these days he's gonna hurt you, so he'll need some reassurance.
"I trust you enough that you know your strength, Big Red."
He comes to like nicknames as well. He'll probably call you "Cutie Pie" almost always!
Surprise him with something he can take care of. It's obvious Raph is an animal lover, get him something he can care for! Like a gerbil or hamster, they'll easily fall in love with him, too.
Raph is big on affection, he'll dedicate time just for loving you. He's a great lover, he makes sure you're straight always and you're both on the right page. He never will raise his voice at you, like 2003 Donnie, it's just not in his nature to yell at his s/o. That being said, do the same, and do not yell at him. It'll hurt him more than it hurts you.
Donatello
Rise!Donnie is...interesting. He doesn't really enjoy physical touch. So, limit the hugs. He's also known not to cry, either.
Dating him might seem difficult, but once you get used to his chaotic ass, it's simple.
Unless he initiates a physical touch first, try and limit that. He constantly has to be doing something, as he's restless. So, if you try and hold his hand, interlock your fingers with his and swing your arm back and forth, so he's not so constrained. It'll be moving, and that's what he likes.
Speaking of his likes!
He enjoys lyrics, a lot.
So, if you tell him something, like a special day or occasion, he'll remember it in song.
" ♪The day of your birth is the absolutely positively day of the fourth~♪"
or, something like this, if he's taking you home but you think he'll forget the directions. He'll sing the song.
 " ♪Take 5th street then up 10 blocks, down the ave and pass the cops♪"
Yeah, like that.
If he does kiss you, (unless he's really into it at the moment) it's always a quick kiss. He's getting used to showing his love with physical touches since it's something he's not really into. But, seeing how much you appreciate him and his little quirks like that, he's willing to try.
Rely on Donnie! Yes, it may go terribly wrong, but who cares! If you need something fixed, call him! It may come out the complete opposite way you expected it to, but it allows him to do something for you that you'll appreciate. He wants you to see his efforts! He's trying, seriously.
Also, praise him! It's not a kink or anything, but Donnie really loves being praised for something. It may be an ego thing, but he would especially love it if his s/o praised him!
"You made that? You're so smart, Donnie!"
He'll love to hear that from you.
Michaelangelo
Okay, with this Mikey, it's always something!
He's very playful, so be ready to playfight, always! He'll try and John Cena you or something. He enjoys all kinds of hobbies, so he would love that you join him in the fun.
He's very intuitive, and he's all about being vulnerable with each other. He lays his heart out, and is an open book emotionally. He doesn''t leave things left unsaid, he WILL say what has to be said.
If you're more to harboring emotions and not showing them, he'll encourage you to tell him how you're feeling. He'll want to be the one you go to when you want to talk.
He wants you to be the best you can be! So, he's encouraging. He doesn't want you to give up, at all.
He wants you to be the best version of yourself with him, as his s/o, you shouldn't hold back.
Masterlist
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banes-favourite · 4 months
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I would love more thoughts on Gortash having gender identity issues if you have them 👀
Gimme a deep dive 5 page essay /j
anon i am kissing u on the lips passionately for this ask btw 🙏
(tw for sexu@l and minor abuse)
ok so i think gortash is cis male and he didn't really question his identity as a kid, unless he was assigned like female roles in the games he played with other kids cause they thought he was a bit weird. he didn't mind them, mostly cause he had his own mommy issues and it was oddly healing to play as a mother figure (fic recommendation that gave me this idea in the first place).
in the house of hope, he was looked down upon in many ways, being called names was one of them. obviously there were the typical insults and "boy" in a derogatory way but i think since the whole point of being jailed was to be beaten down into an empty slate for Raphael to use and manipulate, it was also important to strip him of his identity as a whole. Nubaldin was probably great at that, providing equal amounts of both physical and emotional abuse, so i imagine there were points were he was punished for using his own name/pronouns. like, being asked what he is, enver giving a derogatory answer hoping it's the right one and nubaldin punching him anyway because "I used 'he' instead of 'it' for your pathetic ass, you should have corrected me"
once he hit the prepubescent age, they probably started having fun with calling him a girl (coupled with the sexu@l abuse he probably experienced), literally gaslighting him saying he was always a girl, he had no name, are you really that stupid? etc etc. obviously this confused him as it's difficult to keep a straight idea of your self-identity when you're concussed every other day. one minute he was less than dirt, the next he was a rat, then an idiot girl who can't even remember her own name, to the point he was so worn down he just accepted whatever they threw at him. If Raphael wanted him to be a boy, so be it, if he wanted a man, so be it, if he wanted a girl, so be fucking it.
he probably struggled a Lot with puberty too,, it came late to him, malnourished as he was, so the fact that he didn't even have body hair despite his body growing aided the gender misidentity. i think he'd often stare at the mirror, at his body and face, try to understand who he was behind the scars, losing control of himself and his mind. he didn't see himself as human, he was just a thing that was sold and then used and reshaped in whoever's hands he ended up like clay. he'd often ask Hope about it, try to understand how he was viewed by someone who wasn't malicious, and she'd answer as honestly and hopefully as she could but let's be honest, her riddles and tangents most likely just confused him further.
not to mention his twisted attractions?? like through all that, he had to somehow figure out what he was attracted to?? i think a healthy mix of sexu@l trauma and stockholm syndrome ended up contributing to his toxic view on relationships and sex as a whole. there's a reason Durge was the only one he was able to form a genuine relationship with.
anyway, all of it definitely ties in with his name change, too. not only did he struggle with rejoining society after HoH, he had to figure out himself all over again. i think he created the persona of a young, powerful and ambitious man named Enver Gortash and leaned into it so much it simply consumed him. he literally gaslit himself into curing his gender questioning like the girlboss he is.
also if you call him by she/her pronouns he'd most likely answer out of pure instinct
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juukeboxx · 1 year
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TMNT Pokemon AU - pt.1
Hello everyone!
So I'm a huge Pokemon fan, I've spent a lot of time playing the games and watching the shows. It's become one of my favorite franchises ever. And I had the amazing idea to combine two things that I love: Pokemon and TMNT. This is just a fun idea that I've had in my head for a while now and I wanted to share it. Keep in mind that this is for no particular version of the turtles.
Enjoy!
Word count: 1,146
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So to start this off, this is specifically looking at each turtle and the type they would specialize them if they were a gym leader. Other characters will come later.
The number of pokemon a gym leader has on their team depends on when the player faces them. So for example, the first gym leader will only have a maximum of two pokemon while the seventh gym leader would have a maximum of four. However, I'm going to give them a full team of 6 pokemon of the same type excluding mythicals, Ultra Beasts and legendary pokemon.
Each gym leader as one ace that they put into battle when they only have one pokemon left. I'll elaborate on why I think they would choose that specific pokemon as their ace.
First off...
Leonardo
Leo is unwavering and not the most flexible individual (let's be real, he's pretty stubborn). He is strong, focused and will do anything to protect his family. This is why I think he would be a steel type specialist.
Steel types have a few weaknesses: Ground, fire, and fighting. But many of the secondary typings that some steel types have turns super effective damage into not very effective damage. Many of the other typings can't do much damage to steel types as well.
Some notable steel types include: Lucario, Bisharp, and Dialga.
Here is what I think Leo's team would look like:
Lucario (fighting/steel)
Aegislash (steel/ghost)
Mawile (steel/fairy)
Corviknight (flying/steel)
Excadrill (ground/steel)
Kingambit (dark/steel) - Ace
I chose Kingambit as Leo's ace, first and foremost, because of the aesthetic. It also helps that Kingambit's shiny is blue. But I also chose Kingambit as his ace because of it's Pokedex entry in Pokemon Scarlet. It says, "Only a Bisharp that stands above all others in its vast army can evolve into Kingambit." To me this just really screamed Leo, because as we all know, he was the one chosen out of the four brothers to become the leader. Kingambit's Pokemon Violet pokedex entry states that it isn't good at stratgizing and will use it's brute strength to keep pushing which is something that Leo has done on multiple occasions.
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Next we have...
Raphael
Now with Raph I didn't want to automatically resort to saying that he specializes in fire types. As we all know his hot temper is one of his most defining character traits. This may seem out of left field, but I think Raph would make a really good ground type specialist. Ground types, like steel types, are tanky and can hit hard (kinda like Raph).
Another reason I didn't go with fire types is although they have access to pretty powerful moves, they 're a lot more frail than ground types are. They lack that natural bulk.
It's important to note that ground types have an advantage against steel types and can hit them for supereffetive damage. I like to think that this could be representative of how Raph is always questioning Leo's authority and his decisions as leader.
Some notable ground types include: Geodude, Quagsire, Groudon
Here is what I think Raph's team would look like:
Torterra (grass/ground)
Krookodile (ground/dark)
Camerupt (fire/ground)
Mudsdale (ground)
Gliscor (ground/flying)
Garchomp (dragon/ground) - Ace
If you've played Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum or it's remakes you know that Garchomp is an absolute powerhouse. It's honestly one of the most well-rounded Pokemon out there. Garchomp is big, intimidating, and hits like a truck. You definitely don't want to get on the bad side of Raph or Garchomp, because if you do, it's over.
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Thirdly there's...
Donatello
Like Raph, I was in a bit of a pickle when I was thinking about what type I think Donnie would specialize in. Obviously psychic types are a no-brainer because he is the smartest of all his brothers. But then I realized that Donnie is known for tinkering and inventing all sorts of things. So I finally came to the conclusion that Donnie would specialize in electric types.
Electric types only have one weakness in ground types, and can hot water and flying types for super effective damage. Electric types can be tricky to deal with because some will have an ability like Static that can cause paralysis, or have access to moves like Thunderwave that also inflict paralysis. They can be super annoying if used strategically.
Some noteable electric types include: Pikachu, Rotom, Zapdos
Here is what I think Donnie's team would look like:
Heliolisk (electric/normal)
Magnezone (electric/steel)
Rotom wash form (electric/water)
Luxray (electric)
Jolteon (electric)
Dracozolt (electric/dragon) - Ace
It was really tricky for me to figure out what Donnie's ace would be. Looking through the electric types I looked at any of them that had a design based around some aspect of science (Like how Magnezone looks like a UFO, but is also based around magnets and magnetism). I decided to go with Dracozolt, which is one of the two electric type fossil Pokemon introduced in generation 8. I think that if he were placed in the Pokemon universe Donnie would absolutely be fascinated with the fossil Pokemon and the science of the world as a whole.
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Last but not least we have...
Michelangelo
Mikey was actually the easiest for me to figure out. Considering the fact that he's claimed to be the best at combat (not to mention he was the Battle Nexus champion in the 2003 series, and Rise!Mikey's insane strength which was enough to throw a building), it makes the most sense that Mikey is a fighting type specialist.
Fighting types are able to hit a lot of powerful types like steel and dark for supereffective damage. However, ghost types are completely immune and types like psychic, flying, and fairy are able to hit fighting types hard.
Some noteable fighting types include: Primeape, Machamp, Zamazenta
Here is what I think Mikey's team would look like:
Hitmontop (fighting)
Pawmot (electric/fighting)
Scrafty (dark/fighting)
Grapploct (fighting)
Gallade (psychic/fighting)
Quaquaval (water/fighting) - Ace
First off, I chose Quaquaval as Mikey's ace because it is (as far as my knowledge goes) based on Brazilian samba dancers like you woul dsee in a Carnival parade. Mikey has a lot of energy and I feel like dancing is just one of those activities he just likes to do. It was a little hard to choose a fighting type that really fit Mikey's vibe, and I landed on Quaquaval because it incorporates dancing into it's fighting style and Mikey is seen to sometimes have a unique fighting style himself (2012!Mikey for example).
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Thank you for reading to the end. This AU is just a fun idea that I want to develop more, so I'll be posting things every now and then. You'll be able to find everything related to this under the pokemon au tag on this blog.
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wynnecluster · 11 months
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Been having some thoughts, after seeing some people being really reductive about stuff, so... Guess it's time to ramble on for a while and hope a point emerges!
I don't know if people are still talking about this much, but there was a lot of chatter last month about romance in Sonic stuff (the comics especially) and it's been on my mind since in various ways. As someone who has read easily over 90% of all Sonic comics officially published in English, as well as a lot of other comics besides, I naturally have a few opinions!
First off, I should address *why* people keep bringing up the existence of Romance in Sonic the Hedgehog. For those outside looking in it's probably pretty baffling. Romance was a pretty common subject in certain parts of Sonic media for a long while, the Archie-published Sonic comics in particular portrayed a number of different romantic relationships between various important characters.
But nowadays romance is almost nowhere to be seen in Sonic! It's been stated by various people that Sega basically isn't interested in featuring romance stories in Sonic. Naturally people have a lot of opinions about this, and since we're on the internet those opinions are often loudly shouted at people with differing opinions. Joy.
But that's basically it: Romance was a big thing years back, and now that romance has been pushed out of the spotlight there are both people glad it's gone and those who wish it would return... I wanna talk about the former in particular, so let's talk about stuff the "anti-romance" crowd says.
One infuriating thing is them being glad no "drama" will happen without romance, generally as a dig to the older comics and romance stories in general. This is, in actuality, a completely laughable notion when you break it down.
The "drama" they're referencing is, of course, interpersonal drama. Famously only experienced by squabbling couples /deep sarcasm.
Interpersonal drama appears in all sorts of stories, but especially in character-driven stories like Sonic. When your story is all about characters with big personalities it's a very natural thing to make those personalities clash. Just look at Leonardo and Raphael in almost any version of TMNT: A bunch of their interactions with each other fall under this umbrella.
But already I hear a whiny voice on the wind: "it's not the saaaaaaaame"
Yes it is, though! These kinds of people like to make believe that adding in a bit of kissing or cuddling magically makes a story filled with "drama" but it just isn't true. Whether it's relationship troubles, squabbling brothers, or just friends arguing it's all "drama" and (importantly) it can always be done badly or done well!
Honestly some of the most annoyingly-written "drama" I've seen has been stuff like Batman arguing with Jason Todd. I rarely find that romantic relationships ever actually lead to annoying writing.
Another generally annoying sentiment is them basically saying that "Sonic is an Action series" as if that means either A. It has to be ALL ACTION ALL THE TIME with no breaks or B. It can NEVER touch another genre.
For A, obviously breaks need to happen! Of course I'm not gonna act like romance is the only way you can have those breaks, but romance is absolutely a valid way to handle the downtime in-between action scenes.
That could be a whole point on its own but let's do B now! Limiting yourself to genre definitions is not a good idea in writing imo. And in point of fact, the modern Sonic comics don't limit themselves in this way. If a story calls for dabbling into the spaces of horror or mystery the creators on the comic have shown a full willingness to do so, and that's a good thing!
Genres, in my opinion, should be treated as fluid and a writer should feel free to pull on any genre conventions if it suits the story they're telling.
Gosh. I've been rambling for a WHILE.
And I honestly don't know if my rambling has ended up with a salient point at all, but I think I'll end it here. I just get really frustrated when I see the kinds of bland anti-romance rhetoric that inspired me to write all this.
At the end of the day it's all basically just misogynistic nonsense since romance is thought of as "girly" and anything "girly" gets treated like a problem. And look, you don't have to like romance AND you are not misogynistic if you dislike romance! It's all just your choice!
But I do ask you to consider your words when you talk about it and whether your attitudes are being influenced by misogynistic cultural ideas.
Have a good lunch.
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mercymaker · 7 months
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4, 17, 21, & 39 for maleane !
BG3 Act 1 asks
4. Do you remember in which order you recruited your companions? Which companion introduction would have felt the most familiar / like home to your Tav / Character?
I think it was Shadowheart, Astarion, Gale, Lae'zel, Wyll, and then Karlach. Though I did restart my playthrough some 18 hours in, so I might be mixing things up, but I believe this was the order!
And, honestly, this is making me crack my head very hard because I don't think any of them feel particularly familiar to Maleane. Maybe Astarion and Karlach in a sense that she'd been attacked on the road before and had a knife at her throat (Astarion), and living in the woods, you're most likely to run into someone on the run, just like Karlach was.
17. What does your Character think of Withers?
Mal is very much intrigued by Withers but she doesn't really trust anyone, so she's keeping an eye on him. But to her at least, he gives off a very non-threatening aura and he's proven himself useful on more than one occasion, so he can stick around in her camp (for now)!
21. What are your Character's thoughts on the strange artifact that was in Shadowheart's possession? Did it jump to your pack because you changed her out of your party?
All Mal understands is that it's a powerful artifact and has protected them multiple times, so she's definitely on board with keeping it a secret. It's also partly why Maleane initially got close to Shadowheart, to try and understand what it is and why it was so important to the outsiders. Feelings came later. It did become Mal's possession for a bit because I was switching around the party for non-gameplay related reasons.
39. What does your Character think of Raphael?
Immediate red flags. If there's something her mother taught her is to not be stupid enough to play around with a devil. And that's coming from someone who saw every single outsider as a potential threat.
While Mal is incredibly cautious around Raphael, she's also trying to sort of play both sides. In case he could be useful. But that is definitely definitely more in the "if we run out of other options" scenario in her mind.
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liopleurodean · 1 year
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The Road So Far: Season 6
Holy smokes. What a ride.
If you're new, this is my recap/reflection on season 6 of Supernatural. You can find all of my previous commentary under the "ashla chick flick moments" tag (or block it, if you so wish. I don't mind.)
Well. Where do I even start? The beginning, I guess.
Dean got out. That's... so monumental. Obviously, it didn't last, but I truly believe that if the Winchesters were less famous then he could have made it. I understand why people don't like Lisa, but I can still see them being good together, and I think that he really did love her, and he absolutely loved Ben like his own. Speaking of Ben, the kid's acting was... not great, but it's a child actor, so I'll give it a pass. As it is, I'm a firm believer that Ben is Dean's son, biological or not.
I guess we have to talk about Sam, huh? Man, there were so many times when I wanted to just. Slap him. Or punch him in the face with a brick. Either would work. Even when he got his soul back, he got right back into his pushy self. I get that he wanted to "atone," but he really just did not get it.
Speaking of slapping people, Cas. Oh my stars, this angel is so stupid. Like, yeah, the boys could've been more appreciative for what he did for them, but could really not see when he went too far? 6x20 The Man Who Would Be King almost made me feel bad for him, but he wouldn't back down even when it was clear that something was wrong.
This has been really depressing, so let's get into the fun stuff! Holy cow, this season had so many bangers. Count 'em up: 6x02 Two And A Half Men, 6x05 Live Free Or Twi-Hard, 6x09 Clap Your Hands If You Believe, 6x15 The French Mistake, 6x17 My Heart Will Go On, 6x18 Frontierland, and 6x21 Let It Bleed all make my list. My favorite is probably gonna be Frontierland, which is honestly one of the lesser episodes on this list, but I have reasons: 1) the Good Omens parallel was absolutely hilarious even if it was unintentional, and b) I've always thought that Samuel Colt was cool since way back in season 2. This only made him more awesome. And anyway, watching Dean in the Wild West was hilarious, if a little embarrassing. Sorry dude, but you should've known Hollywood would make things look weird.
One thing that I will say about this season is that it's all over the place. I think, after wrapping up the story all nice with a bow in season 5, they didn't really know what to do, so they just kind of improvised. It was a risky gamble, but it paid off with one or more of the fandom's favorite episodes, and one of the most memorable characters. There were multiple story arcs moving at once (Eve, Soulless!Sam, Ben and Lisa, Cas vs. Raphael) and all of them managed to fit seamlessly together. Despite all of the development that had to fit in a regularly sized season, I didn't really feel like it was rushed, especially not compared to the end of season 5. They managed to blend everything together while still keeping it manageable to understand.
Mostly, I just felt bad for Dean. In the span of weeks, he lost his semi-girlfriend, his son, and his best friend, while still juggling the emotions from his brother's close calls as well as everything else going on. Obviously, he's not the only one struggling (Bobby Singer deserves a vacation) but man, Dean needs a hug and a nap, and then another hug when he wakes up.
Baby. My beloved. The most important object in the universe. Not a prop, but one of (if not the) greatest characters on the show.
I'm so sorry. Baby deserved better. I mean first of all, you're telling me Dean just left her to sit in a garage for a year while he messed around in a station wagon? Who are you and what have you done with Dean Winchester.
And then the Mustang. That made me sick. I couldn't even look at it, it was just horrifying. And then Balthazar played it off like it didn't matter!!! That's the most important object in the universe jerk!!! Pay her some respect!!!
And she got wrecked at the end! That car has been through so much, and she does not need to be crashed into every position possible. She deserves better. Every time something bad happens to that car I die a little inside.
Well, enough about Baby (there will never be enough about Baby). The next season is supposedly about Leviathans, which could get very interesting. I could be wrong, but I also think maybe we meet Charlie next season? Well anyway, this one is usually considered as sort of the "forgotten season" (like Adam), so we'll see how it goes. I'll get started within the next couple of days. Carry on!
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astaroth1357 · 3 years
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Demigod MC Series: Hestia
This is another eternally virgin goddess, so we're doing another pseudo-demigod by adoption (like we did with Athena).
Demigod MC: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus, Demeter, Athena, Hades Pt. 2, Poseidon, Ares, Hestia
Hestia is the goddess of the Hearth, Home, Architecture, Domesticity, Family, and the State. She's high up there (firstborn of Rhea and Cronus), but several factors have led to her falling into the background when compared to the other (flashier) Olympians. She swore to never marry, rejecting proposals from both Poseidon and Apollo, and is something of an antithesis to Aphrodite.
Lucifer
Honestly? He thought they were exactly what they were after. A weak human with no experience in the magical world what-so-ever.
Well… He was half-right.
On the surface, this is a pretty weak human. They don't have super flashy powers or a divine birth from the gods… but they do have a very protective adoptive mother.
The brothers had just settled in for their first dinner with the new human when the goddess herself strolled into their dining room, asked who was in charge, then dragged Lucifer away by the ear!
She's not even his mother, yet he felt the intense urge to apologize and put himself in his own room… Oh, the humiliation… at least she did the same to Diavolo…
The Prince was only able to calm her down by promising absolutely NO harm would come to her child… on their heads...
By the time the goddess finally let him go, Lucifer was about ready to shackle the MC to his wrist so nothing could touch them but he settled on keeping them with him like an assistant of sorts. They were in charge of helping him with the paperwork so he could keep an eye on them. 
What he didn’t expect was for them to be so… good at it? They could keep his offices clean, they managed his daily schedule, fixed up the House, and still have time to bring him tea and sweets every night!
They could even reign in his brothers somehow… They weren't strong or intimidating, but one or two mildly unhappy words out of them and everybody would be on their best behavior.
Was everyone positive they're only human...?
As much as he hated to admit, he may have a slight deep case of falling for the housekeeper… He would make a move, but well…
He has Beel to contend with first.
Mammon
Okay so, watching Lucifer get dragged out by the ear just like Raphael used to do to him was hilarious!!! The whole room got a good laugh! 🤣
Until Hestia glared at them and suddenly they all felt like they'd disappointed someone important….
And all that fuss over some dumb human??
So what if they made amazing food?
So what if they could clean the entire mansion in a day?
So what if they were the walking equivalent to a warm cup of cocoa on a winter's day??
So what if they were just the kindest, sweetest thing in this godforsaken hellscape and he would throw himself in front of a bus to keep them safe-
-Wait, when did that happen?!?
Seriously, Mammon's attachment to the MC came out of NOWHERE to him. One day, he was threatening to eat their soul and the next he's freaking out when they stub their toe!
He swears they have to have some kind of magic about them! A charm, or a spell, or… their lovable smile and warm, loving hugs...! 😊
Damnit!! They're too cute!! He needs them to go away but also never leave, thanks. 😒
In all seriousness, though their kind nature puts Mammon's tsundere self at a bit of a disadvantage, his protective instincts shoot through the roof whenever they're involved.
Naturally, that means his day is spent running them away from hungry lesser demons or shielding them from Beel and Lucifer's tug-of-war matches… He's a busy guy these days. 😖
Leviathan 
They're so… so… MOE!!!
That was his immediate thought when Mammon brought them home. He was expecting a defenseless human, but not one that could have stepped out of one of his slice-of-life manga!
To be honest, his instant thought was try and find a place to sit them on his shelves with the rest of the adorable characters he loves… 😅
And that was before they even opened their mouth! Five words into their introduction and he was ready to get their face on a t-shirt!!
Honestly, combine their natural cuteness with their household skills and they made for perfect waifu/husbando material… 
Not helped by the fact they found one of his maid/butler outfits while doing the laundry one day. Not only did they ask if they could wear it, they actually non-ironically liked it and started wearing it around the House!!
Oh he got cornered by Beel, Lucifer, and Mammon separately that day because they thought he was using them for fetish fuel… But it was their idea, he swears!!
I mean… He didn't discourage them or anything either but still…
If Beel hadn't claimed them on Day One, Levi might have eventually thrown his hat in the ring too... Oh well… he can pine from a distance… What else is new? 😔
Satan
He has a video of Hestia dragging Lucifer out of the dining room on his phone and it's one of his most treasured possessions now. 😌
He is perhaps the only person in the House who was not at all impressed with their little human.
So they could cook? So could he. So they can clean? That's not impressive. They could manage a household? Big deal, he's more or less been in charge of the same thing for centuries!
As far as he saw it, there was nothing the MC could do that he couldn't do as proficiently or even better. There was nothing remarkable about this human at all!
… except for one thing.
That maid/butler outfit of Levi's? The one they like to wear around?
It has cat accessories…
Either they don't notice or they don't mind it but they essentially walk around the House cleaning things with little kitty ears attached to their head and a bell on their collar…
Dammit… Why did Levi even buy that?!?
Satan ended up getting in trouble for enchanting their outfit to give them REAL ears and a tail "accidentally..." Lucifer strung him up by his toes, Beel gave him a black-eye, and Mammon still calls him a "perverted cat freak" but it was worth it, he says, worth it!!
Asmodeus 
Oh Beel…
Asmo saw Beel's feelings for the MC coming from a mile away. He didn't even need to confirm it with a sniff check, he had them scented by the end of their first night!
Lucifer, on the other hand, now that was a surprise... 😏
Ask him a century ago if Lucifer would ever consider a human lover, godly mother or no, and he'd have laughed! Yet here he is, giving gifts and sneaking whiffs of their adorable new housemate!
Of course, that's causing some commotion because they're pitted against each other, but Asmo finds it kind of cute honestly. 
Beel and Lucifer aren't fighting, not for real. The whole house knows Lucifer would win in a real brawl, but neither of them actually want to hurt the other… They're far too close for that.
So Beel tosses Lucifer around with kid gloves and Lucifer holds back considerably against Beel. It's pretty much just two brothers who love each other squabbling over the same toy… 🤭
Honestly, Lucifer might have bowed out by now and just let Beel have them but now his pride's on the line… thus an endless tussle between family and the sweet MC is in the middle, clueless to it all!
Tragic, is it not? But it certainly makes things more entertaining around here! (Good thing too since Beel beat him to the punch… If it's a fight against those two, he'll have to keep any of his own affairs with the MC under the radar... 😏)
Beelzebub 
He has claimed this one. Full stop.
For a bit of perspective: when Barbatos needs cooking tips, he calls Hestia. Hestia, the Divine Master of All Things Cooking. Hestia, the goddess who raised this MC… 
Needless to say if they have any magic at all, it's in the kitchen.
If food is the way to Beel's heart, this MC has claimed his heart, soul, and probably all of his vital organs. Their food is astounding!! Always perfect every time and so good it brings him to tears!
It started the night of that first dinner, prepared by MC. He was too busy scarfing down the table to even notice a goddess showed up and then he proposed to the MC with their own pig roast by meal's end!
They said no to marriage, but an instant pact agreement suited him just fine.
Beel didn't waste a single moment before he started treating them like a potential mate, territorial aggression and all, but there was a bit of a catch… He kept the MC totally oblivious to it.
Surprisingly, Beel's can turn the "They're MINE" part of his brain on and off pretty well. He's nothing but sweet and cuddly to the MC when they're around and even with his brothers!... as long as they don't try anything.
The moment he caught whiff that Lucifer might be pursuing them too, it was on. Suddenly the two brothers who almost never fight were in competition against each other! But of course, both have an unspoken rule to never do so in front of MC.
And now poor MC believes it's common for demons to "play wrestle" like puppies and hugs are traditionally supposed to be so hard they could snap spines… 
And it doesn’t look like they'll be backing down any time soon… Oh dear...
Belphegor 
You know what? For once, everything goes exactly to plan for Belphie!
No really, this MC has no hidden powers, no magic horses, not even Demon Nip. They are a helpless, trusting little human who just wants to help their big teddy bear get his twin back!
So, you know how it goes. The charm, the lies, the treachery and all of that. He even gets to kill them!! Oh, happy days!! 😁
Come to think of it, they did smell an awful lot like Beel… But who cares, as long as Lucifer suffers right?? And this whole "living together in harmony" crap fails, right?!
Wrong. 
Beel went ballistic. Lucifer did too, but Beel was what really hurt…
Belphie can safely say that in all of his life, Beel has never physically attacked him. Not once, or at least, not with intent to kill… 
But when the sixthborn's fist went crashing through the wall right by his ear that day, he knew his brother's first instinct was to aim for his head… and his second was to miss, as he still loved him, but only by just a little.
What the hell did he just do??
Thank their father for Barbatos and all the funky time stuff he can do because bringing the MC "back" snapped his angry brothers right out of it. 
Things should have been smoothed over at that point but as everyone was finally settling down for tea, Hestia made another appearance in the House… this time carrying a butcher's knife!
Time fix or no, Diavolo had promised her no harm would come to MC and at least one continuity of them DIED… so punishment was now on Lucifer and the Demon Prince himself!
Belphie, in a rare case of guilt and an expression of brotherly love, offered to take their place since it WAS kind of all his fault. His gesture softened the Goddess of Family juuust enough to lighten his sentence from execution to hard labor.
And thus, the MC had their own housekeeping assistant for a whole year, complete with bitter reluctance and a matching maid outfit! Cat-theme and all!!
He's sending nightmares to anybody who laughs… guaranteed. 😒
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shanastoryteller · 3 years
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Questions about outlines: How detailed are they? Are they the same level of detail or do they vary? How do you make your outlines? Chronologically scene by scene? Or do you come up with the scenes that call you and then come up with smaller filler scenes to fill in the gaps? Do you have outlines for each chapter? Or just for the larger general plot points? Do you try to complete the outlying before starting the fic? Or do you add to the outline as you go? Sorry if this is to many at once
lmao okay i got several asks about outlines but i’m just going to answer this one because it’s ~comprehensive~
every writing teacher i’ve ever had has hated my outlines. my friends find them incomprehensible.
if people are going to look at my answers as ways to do their own outlines, i have to say: that’s probably not a good idea
i don’t write outlines a majority of the time
i don’t write outlines to plan a story i’ve already decided to write
i write outlines primarily as a way to exorcise story ideas that i want to write but don’t want to actually commit to writing (answer prompts are another way i do this lol)
now, some things do get outlines as a way to plan and organize. survival is a talent has an outline because it’s 400k and spans six years. child king had an outline. needy’s body had an outline. 
b u t
i’m currently writing rotten work without an outline
lynchpin didn’t have an outline
hope is the thing with feathers didn’t have an outline
never grow a wishbone only had an outline for the first couple of chapters 
an invincible summer didn’t get an outline until like. chapter 4 of 6. 
i just. uh. think about what i want to happen and then hope i remember to write it down. even when i do an outline, i’ll deviate from it wildly, and not update it to reflect that, because i know what i’m doing (ha!)
so! with that in mind, let’s go! 
How detailed are they? Are they the same level of detail or do they vary?
they vary! but honestly - not very. sometimes i’ll write out a paragraph or bits of dialogue that are important to me, but most of the time it’s just broad strokes of what i want to happen, or a mechanism of how something complicated happens. like i have several paragraphs in my siat outline dealing with necromancy books, but like. two sentences on how they actually occur in the story because that’s just something i’m trusting myself to figure out when i sit down to write it.  
 How do you make your outlines? Chronologically scene by scene? Or do you come up with the scenes that call you and then come up with smaller filler scenes to fill in the gaps? 
I try to put them chronologically, although sometimes that’s a little hard (in siat i have several scenes that i know will happen, i just don’t know when). that is something i will go back and edit on my outlines, is if i’ve changed the order the something happens i’ll go back and copy and paste until my outlines is in the right order. but only if the outlines is something i’m actually using to write and the story is longer than a couple of chapters. 
because my outlines are so very not detailed, i just write down what it is that i want to write, like the reason i’m going to write this or want to write this, and figure out the rest later. i’ll fill it in later - or i won’t! because most of the time i don’t use my outline to actually write the story, and i use it more as an idea list, so if i don’t know what happens between scenes or i find it boring i just won’t write it down
like, for example, here is my “outline” for won’t even plant a garden in it’s entirety 
weep as a woman
“you weep as a woman weeps.” “and how is that?” “as if the future rests on your hips, and you must walk it forward.”
crowley and eve were friends. cain killed abel with the flaming sword, and crowley begged them to say it was with a rock instead
crowley was raphael the painter and fucked michelangelo
crowley was there the night yeshua was born, was friends with mary, helped raise yeshua?
ghosts
crowley and anathema and joan of arc
i ended up dropping most of this and crowley ended up sleeping with both eve and yeshua as the major plot points. i don’t explain stuff, really. i know what i mean so i just don’t bother to get very detailed most of the time. 
Do you have outlines for each chapter? Or just for the larger general plot points?
siat i divide up by year, and i think i did it by chapter for the last two chapters of build your wings on the way down, but otherwise it’s just one long list. i do my chapters based on words counts rather than content, so outlining by chapter doesn’t really make sense for me (siat is always around 15k a chapter, and everything else  i do these days thats multi chapter is around 8k because that’s the best, but ngawb was 5k a chapter and i think for child king it was around 11k a chapter)
Do you try to complete the outlying before starting the fic? Or do you add to the outline as you go?
I’m constantly adding as a i go! my outlines are never really “complete” they’re just abandoned. i write down what i think will help me and tend to ignore the rest. sometimes i just. talking to myself in my outlines when i’m trying to think something through. 
my outline for child king is under the cut because that’s one that’s a good mix of stuff i kept and stuff i threw out. DON’T JUDGE ME!! bad ideas don’t get written because they’re bad!! it’s part of the ~process~ 
child king
Summary: “A child king is still a king,” Deaton says softly. “A child king is still a child,” he snaps, but he knows this is an argument he’s already lost.  – Stiles is a born alpha, and after the Hale fire, things get real complicated, real fast.
Stiles’s mom is the last remaining human from a pack that was destroyed by hunters. John is the one that helps her after, so he knows everything. When they move to beacon hills she doesn’t feel the need to say anything to the hale pack, because as far as they’re concerned she’s just a human, and she doesn’t want to get involved in pack business. But then stiles is born with red eyes. The doctor is quiet and scared john and Claudia freak out, but it’s because he’s a werewolf, which is a relief to parents because they thought something was wrong with their kid. Maybe they don’t know he’s an alpha, only that he’s a wolf? Or they know and they keep it a secret on purpose
Claudia is the one to approach mrs. Hale. She tells her that her son is a born werewolf, but that she’s not interested in joining their pack. Her husband is a new deputy and they just bought a house but they’ll move if they have to. “he’ll need a pack one day. It’s safer,” she says. “if he wants to join you one day, I won’t stop him. But that’s not a choice I’m willing to make for him.” Mrs hale agrees that they can say separate as in exchange for the sheriff smoothing over some ruffled feathers no and again. They agree. Claudia to sheriff “we’re going to have to move one day. Our son is an alpha, and he’ll need to make his own pack.”
Stiles is seven the first time he snarls at his mom, eyes flashing red, and she freezes. She’s got the pack instinct, it doesn’t matter that hes her kid, hes still her alpha, so its hella awkward. John can see how this will quickly spiral out of control if they can discipline their own kid. But stiles is the one to back down first, apologizing and doing as he’s told. There are careful power structures here, and this is the beginning of differentiating between stiles the human and stiles the wolf.
When his mom gets sick, stiles offers to turn her. Hale offers to turn her. She refused for Reasons that I have to figure out. Maybe the politics of it? Wanting to protect stiles and not wanting to become part of the hale pack
The fire happens. John ships stiles the hell out of dodge, because there are hunters about. He snoops around enough to figure out it was kate argent, but theres not really anything he can do about it
Scott knows about everything, and tries to tell his mom in a really akward way that they should trust stiles if they’re ever in danger, but she just laughs it off. Except when someone breaks in and threatens her with a gun, and she manages to make a phone call, it’s not 911, not john, but stiles, and she doesn’t even know why, regrets it as soon as it happens. But then stiles shows up and breaks both of the guys, eyes glowing red, and then calls his dad and scott to take care of it, because they’re humans, so they get human punishments. Melissa is told everything.
Scott has a bad asthma attack and, and Melissa asks about the bite. Scott is itching for it. He wants it so badly. Stiles has already promised to turn them when they turn 18, and Melissa knows that. She asks if theres a reason to wait, and the answer is nah, not really. So he gets the bite. Stiles being like uh psa punishments cant include scott staying away
After hale fire and stiles gets back, he’s shocked that hey just left, and that they left peter behind. He starts visiting peter several times a week. He tells his dad that they should pay for his medical care. They have a fuckton of money because his mom inherited all the pack wealth, and john doesn’t touch it because that’s stiles’s money, that��s werewolf money. But this is a werewolf thing, so he agrees. “his pack left him dad.”
Stiles bites Erica when they’re 14. Some point in middle school stiles wises up to the Isaac thing and tells his dad he needs to arrest his dad, or stiles is going to kill him, and he’s not even a little bit joking. Stiles hears Isaac crying while going by the house? In johns squad car. Makes them pull over, then bursts into the house. John goes with it because his son’s eyes are red.
Some point after the hales leave, things start trying to move into hale territory. Some wolves? Stiles smells them, and ends up at 10 years old telling them to fuck off. This how scott finds out? He’s with scott and his dad. Deaton is facing off against something? Panics when stiles intervenes, but stiles goes wolfy and red eyes and is like. This is mine now fuck off. Looks at the hale house, and finally says, we have to take care of this. We have to. But they don’t own the house or the land or any of it. They do … something
Stiles ends up having to deal with a lot of crap real young
Stiles has scott and Isaac when peter wakes up. Stiles is there, and peter isn’t crazy because he wasn’t abandoned to die alone. Stiles says he can stay, or he can go, not trying to pressure anything. Peter chooses to become part of stiles’s pack, because his family is either dead or abandoned him. Peter ends up moving in with them as he finishes healing and to get used to being in a pack and with stiles. It’s very strange for john, but it’s a werewolf thing and he’s trying to be supportive. After a couple months, stiles tells his dad that having peter is a relief, that there’s finally someone who knows things, someone older who can support him as a werewolf. Peter acts as his second, and he finally has some degree of authority that age has lost him. Stiles has peter take care of the hale house. Peter and stiles have the conversation, where peter is like the hale land is your land now. You’re the alpha of beacon hills. He does what stiles directs him to.
Isaac is living with scott under stiles’s direction ish. But lots of Melissa. Isaac like I don’t wantto be afraid anymore, I don’t want to hurt anymore, and stiles is like. Okay. We’ll fix this. But he doesn’t bite Isaac until he goes to a shitton of therapy and has mostly sorted himself out. For isaac’s fifteenth birthday, he bites him.
Erica is spur of the moment, it’s something that all instinct and very little thought. OR they’re dating and it happesn? Erica’s parents suck. Stiles doesn’t want the balancing act of being boyfriend and alpha.
Jackson is so fucking desperate to belong to something. He nags and nags and nags and finally stiles bites him at least half to shut him up.
“dad can I talk to you about something weird and uncomfortable and a little creepy” talks about crush on Lydia, and how he’s not sure if its because he has a crush on her or if it’s bc he thinks she’ll be good for the pack. Lydia joins before Jackson, and she’s the one that pushes stiles into it. Lydia and stiles are not dating, but she’s clearly high in the hiarchey.
Boyd? Just like. Shows up. Idk.
So by the time laura and derek show up, stiles’s pack is: john, Melissa, peter, Lydia, Jackson, danny, Isaac, boyd, Erica, deaton (who’s acting as emissary but is training danny). Maybe bring in some later characters, like malia and kira and cora. Ooooh maybe the twins show up before they became alphas, still run aways and looking for something else? Stiles takes them on. Stiles finds malia early on after the fire
Peter is willing to forgive derek but he has a lot of shit with laura. Stiles agrees to let laura and derek stay and not be part of his pack, although laura insists she doesn’t need his permission. She snaps at peter to come home with them, and he looks at her like she’s insane. He says there’s no hale pack, and if there was, he’s not interested. He’s a stillinkski wolf now. Cora too maybe? Double blow. Peter owns the hale land, and he makes it clear the day stiles turns 18 he’ll be signing it over to him. Stiles is known by the surrounding packs.
Stiles has to somehow defend the surrounding area, has to make it clear he’s his and that he’s not willing to give it up. It’s valuable land. People are going to come looking for it once people figure out it’s abandoned. When deaton finds out stiles is an alpha, he goes around as an emissary to the surrounding packs. Saying that its under stiles now. He’s known to them so it goes mostly uncontested. This is when he and the sheriff have the child king conversation.
Stiles tries really, really hard to be a good alpha. That means controlling the territory, and working with other packs when members go rouge or something goes wrong. He’s thirteen the first time he goes to lend a hand in a fight, and it’s young, it’s too young, but he’s an alpha. He has to do this, to maintain the peace. And the thing is – stiles is good at this, good at not pushing, at not using his status as a crutch or an excuse, instead as a tool.
Maybe this is why no one cares for laura’s excuses. As much as laura wasn’t ready to take on the responsibility, she was an adult, if only barely. Stiles is a literal child, and in her absence shouldered it all. So even if she does technically have a claim, none of them are willing to honor it. “if you kill alpha stiles, you won’t have allies, you’ll have enemies.”
Allison and argents. Stiles brings his pack to kill kate. Gives peter the chance to do it himself, and is so very proud when he says no. but instead of letting her go free, stiles crushes her throat. “revenge would have been trapping you all in here and setting the whole thing on fire. Justice would have been making you watch as she burned alive. This was mercy, and don’t you forget it.” Scott is hella in love with Allison, but he knows this comes first. Her mom is full of hatred, but stiles more than makes it clear that he has no problem with killing her too.
Stiles sees derek soon after. They’ve already gone back and forth a lot. But he and laura weren’t there. Stiles tells him what he did. They have a ~moment~
Derek wants so very much to join stiles’s pack, but he doesn’t want to lose laura.
Something finally convinces laura to take the plunge and the stillinksi pack is one happy family
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Text
Boundaries
Request: Hi!! I was wondering if i could get some headcanons for the boys with a s/o who like,,, is trying to stay no contact with an abusive/toxic parent,,, and thinking about going back to them? Just generally doubting whatever they went through/that they have a right to feel the way they do? Ive been struggling a lot and rly need some comfort :( but if its not something you’re comfy with or anything, thats cool too!!!
[A/N: To the person who requested this... I love you! You're doing great, and I hope you know that you are Loved. It's incredible that you were able to cut them out of your life: that takes a lot of courage and strength! I've been dealing with something similar on my end, so I certainly know how you feel. Much love, anon. You don't need them: don't let them drag you back in. You’re perfect without them: there’s no need to feel guilty over what THEY did. Muah!] 
Pairing: Raphael/Reader (Established), Leonardo/Reader (Established), Donatello/Reader (Established), Michelangelo/Reader (Established) (ALL SEPARATE - NONPOLY) 
Content Warnings: Mentions of abusive parents, although nothing is graphically described. Comfort headcanons, for the most part.
Word Count: 1546
Raphael
He notices that you aren’t feeling well super quickly. He’s a great listener, and he’ll let you vent for as long as you need; however, he’s not going to let you overthink the situation too much. If you’re really genuinely doubting how abusive they were to begin with, he’ll probably cut you off in the kindest way possible. It’s good to talk about your feelings, but you can’t let yourself drown in them, you know? 
You did so, so good setting your boundaries last time! And he’s really proud of you for that. But unfortunately, toxic people will always try and weasel their way back in. You have to stay strong. He’ll be there for you every step of the way, too. They hurt you deeply, and you don’t need to apologize for their actions.
If they’re starting to harass you, he’ll offer to respond in your place if you don’t feel like you’re able to at the moment. There’s no shame in blocking their number or email, either. 
He’ll offer to take you out somewhere to get your mind off of the situation for a little while. When he’s feeling stressed he likes to work out, but that might not be for everyone. But if you wanna kick the shit out of a punching bag… I’m just saying, it’s very stress relieving. He’s also down to get some pizza too. Anything to take your mind off of it! 
Oxymoronic. If you had to describe how you feel right now, inside your body, that would be the perfect word to describe the sensation. You feel weightless, almost outside of your body; yet, that sinking pit in your stomach tethers you to the earth. You feel like you’re going to vomit, replaying the words from your parent’s most recent voicemail in your head. It’s been… a while, hasn’t it? You glance nervously as your phone, checking the time before switching it on. You stare at your lock screen for a moment, trying to find the courage to unlock it, before setting it down with a gentle thud against the hardwood table. You don’t know what to do anymore. 
“Hey,” Raph whispers. You jump, startled by the sudden noise before forcing a smile. 
“Are you okay?” he asks. You nod. 
“Are you sure? It looks like something’s really bothering you.” 
“Yeah,” you mutter, “I’m okay. Just life, you know?” 
“Yeah, I get that,” he sits down next to you slowly, smiling gently, “But life is hard sometimes. Do you wanna talk about it?” 
You smile gently, if not a little sadly, and shake your head a little. He always knows what to say. “Well, it’s just…” you pause, “I don’t know. It’s my parents again. They’re trying to get back in contact with me again, and I just… it’s hard. Like, what if they changed, you know? I thought I set my boundary really well, so if they’re trying to talk to me, it kind of makes me think that they changed. Or maybe I overreacted, or-”
“Honey, I love you, but I’m gonna have to stop you right there,” he interjects, “You were super clear that you didn’t want contact anymore the first time, so the fact that they’re still trying to weasel their way back in? It shows that they haven’t changed… at all. They’re abusive now, and they were back then too. If they weren’t, you wouldn’t have cut them off in the first place, right?” 
You hum and lean into his side. He pulls you towards him gently, cocooning you in his strong arms. You close your eyes and sigh. “Yeah,” you whisper, “that makes sense. I just… I don’t know why they keep doing this, I hate it. I don’t wanna have to deal with this anymore. It’s like every few months they pull this. I don’t know why they just can’t let go.” You wrap your arms as far as you can around his middle, leaning into his embrace as deeply as you can. 
“I know, hun. But you know what?” 
“Hm?”
“The fact that you don’t understand why they do what they do… it just shows that you’ll never be like them. You’re strong, you’re sweet, and you’re kind. You don’t want to hurt others, and you’ll go to any lengths to help people,” He runs his hand along your back soothingly before trailing up your arm and squeezing it gently,  “I wish that they weren’t doing this to you, because you deserve so, so much better than that. But I love you, okay? You’re gonna get through this.” 
Leonardo 
He’s super observant, and he picks up on your distress quickly. He’s a good listener, and he’ll let you talk for as long as you need. He’s more of the ‘get it all’ out type when it comes to venting. He’ll hold you close and let you cry, if that’s what you need. 
Setting boundaries is hard, and he’s really happy that you managed to cut them off in the first place! Assessing your own needs and coming to terms with the abuse that they put you through is really important, and he’s really impressed that you were able to do that. But people never talk about what comes after: keeping those people out of your life. If you’re ever doubting your decision, he’ll be right by your side to back you up. Toxic people will try their best to manipulate you, and he’s not gonna stand by idly and let them guilt you into a relationship with them. They’re the only ones who can control their actions. You have a right to feel the way you do! 
He’ll offer to respond to them via email or phone call, if you feel like you need to respond to them. He’ll also offer to beta read your emails if you need to restate your boundaries to them. Sometimes just reading them outloud helps you feel a little bit better, a little bit more secure in your choice. 
He definitely ups the self-care and fun outings in your daily life. Dealing with abusive parents is so stressful, and honestly? The LEAST you could do for yourself is kick back with some ice cream. 
Donatello 
He notices that you’re a little off, but he can’t quite figure out why. Headache? Didn’t sleep well? He’s the most likely to wait for you to bring it up. He’ll ask if you’re feeling okay, but for the most part, the ball is in your court. If your distress persists for more than a day or two, though, he’s not above cornering you and asking what’s up. 
He’s really ticked that they’re trying to get back into your life after you clearly cut them out. Like, seriously? You were so clear about it the first time, and this just goes to show that they haven’t changed at all. You’re in the right here: They don’t deserve you. He’ll 100% back you up regarding your experiences, and he’s not gonna let you feel guilty over what THEY put you through. He’s a great person to vent to, honestly. All feelings of doubt, that maybe things weren’t as bad as you thought, practically disappear when you talk to him. He’s so supportive of you and your recovery. 
Look it might not be the smartest choice, but if you wanna let him email them or something, he totally will. You think he’d make some incredible, eloquent, heartfelt speech that tricks them out of ever trying to talk to you again but… he doesn’t do that. He’s not above snapping at them. But he just loves you a lot, and he really fucking hates all of the shit that your parent put you through. You’re such a good person, and you’ve done such an incredible job recovering! He just wants you to be happy. 
It’s self care time. He takes more time out of the day to do little things for you. He knows that this isn’t an issue that can be solved in a day, so he just wants to do all that he can to make every day a little more bearable. If he can get you to smile, he’s succeeded. 
Michelangelo 
He’s observant, although not as much as Leo. Luckily, he’s not above just straight-up asking what’s bothering you. Communication is key, after all. He’s an awesome listener, and he’ll throw in his own comments here and there. Like yeah, no, babe they were really shitty to you, you totally have the right to feel the way that you do! 
He’s really proud of you for setting your boundaries the first time! Cutting toxic people out of your life is really, really difficult. But unfortunately, manipulators will always try and come back into your life. That’s what they do, and it hurts so much, but that’s just… what they do. You don’t have to take that laying down though! Every time they try and push you to let them back in… you have to push them away twice as hard. Like, you’re so strong! And you deserve the absolute best things that this world has to offer. 
Probably the only one who won’t offer to write to them for you. This is something that you have to do yourself, if you really want to be content with the situation. Although if they start harassing you, he’ll 100% call them/answer the phone to tell them to stop fucking calling. 
Ever try making Uum Ali? He hasn’t! Let’s try it! He’s gonna go all out with fun activities and sweet self care ideas. Anything to see that smile again.
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aliaslua · 3 years
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Heya! I got an ask for you if it's okay! Do you have any headcanons on how the guys would act around their crush? Have a nice day ^^
huh... I sure do my dude! Actually I would say that like 30% of my brain stock is TMNT HC so here is just some of it so you can have a taste. Sorry it took SO FRICKING long for me to answer I was depressed having a bad month.
TMNT Headcanons
How would they act around their crush?
Michelangelo
There’s a common hc around the fandom that says that Mikey would be the most smooth around ladies, which I think is true to an extent. I think he would be flirty and playful when they first met, but soon as he realizes he actually maybe it’s absolutely into them, then he will become a ball of nerves;
Michelangelo is super self conscious of his appearance but is a helpless romantic at heart, so if he really falls in love one day, you can expect a lot of angst;
Despite that since now their crush live in his head 24/7 rent free, he will shower them with small gift and acts of service: since you would never fall in love with a monster like him, at least he will dedicate his life to make your life easier;
And I mean it: I’m saying learning favorite dishes, walking them home, bringing small flower/sweets, etc...; 
Will draw endless portraits of his crush and never show it to them;
No matter how hard he tries, he CAN NOT STOP STARING so if his crush it’s a bit shy you can expect a lot of blushing (from both parts);
Fantasizes daily with a world where he can spend all his free time next to them and has made up too many scenarios where he confesses his love and they live happily ever after;
Donatello
Donnie is not romantic AT ALL. He doesn’t consider a life next to someone special because in his head, that is a lost cause. So you can imagine how hard his heart started beating when he realizes that after meeting his crush, a romantic relationship may be not only a possibility but also something he... desires.
But don’t get me wrong: this is going to take a while. He will rationalize every sign and overthink every possibility before accepting that he likes someone;
That’s why when he eventually does accept it, he takes the first step pretty quickly, so don’t underestimate his nerdiness, we will confess his interest and present all the benefits of dating a mutant-turtle-man that in fact saved the city more than once and has the key to the city like it’s a collage lecture; 
Yes it’s a weird confession what do you want me to say; 
Whatever the crush response is, they will forever be his muse, his biggest inspiration and devotion. He will never step any boundaries and will be really chill about it if his crush ask for some time to think about things. Don’t worry, he is collapsing inside. 
Raphael
A fan favorite and the one that was a lot of popular HC that I agree with. Yes Raphael is absolutely soft inside and nothing can change my mind about it, but also I think he is the one that will try to push his crush away. Never in a rude or violent way, but I see this man falling in love, realizing he will never be good enough for this s/o and just deciding to keep a cold distance, hoping this would solve his problems. 
It does not solve anything and now his crush thinks he hates them, well good job, Raph!;
Does everything to keep his crush safe, but does it discreetely so they won’t know. Will eventually show small acts of affection while caring them if they’re hurt, being overly protective and careful and that it’s super confusing for everyone; 
It doesn't last long, he can’t live with the fact that his coldness may hurt his own special person, so he has a meltdown one day and confesses without realizing yes my favorite type of confession ;
Flees the lair in disbelieve leaving his crush behind, not even a word after that;
Comes back after a day or two, walks straight to his crush and kisses them passionately ...  I mean he has nothing to lose at this point;
Leonardo
Leo will realize his crush pretty early on and I honestly think he would be the only one of the four to actually court someone; he wants to be and acts like a gentleman so you can expect an immaculate dedication to guarantee his crush comfort;
His appearance doesn’t really affects him, but mostly because he doesn’t care for looks in others and he knows that he is a worthy man inside, so he just concludes that if he can show his crush that, he will be successful in his love quest; 
But of course, because he does not take passion and commitment lightly, he will evaluate everything about his crush before trying anything: are they captivating? Empathetic? They have a good relationship with his brothers (the most important)?Could he see himself next to them for life? Well if the answer to everything is yes, then it's decided.
So he’ll do everything he would like to receive in a lover: he will be present, be gentle, be careful, be loving, he won’t judge any of his crush’s dreams, habits or wishes. I am telling you this man is a prince;
It will work flawlessly;
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remmushound · 3 years
Text
“Class is in session!” Young April O’Neil tapped her ruler against the whiteboard.
The minute April had learned that not one of the brothers, not even Donatello, knew how to write in cursive, she had jumped on the opportunity to teach them. Even if she was physically the same age as Raphael (ten at the time), mentally she scored higher than all but Donatello, but then again nobody could score higher than Donatello. Yet here she was, in the teachers spot with Donatello as her student.
“This is lame.” Leonardo groaned, propping his feet up on his desk and leaning so far back in his chair that it almost toppled over.
“No talking in class!” April warned.
“Why?” Leonardo smirked.
“Because I said so.”
Leonardo was silent a moment, but the minute April turned around to write on the whiteboard, his voice started up again.
“What if I have a question?”
“Then you raise your hand.” April answered promptly. Her marker touched the board, then Leonardo spoke again.
“What if I break my arm?”
“Then use your other arm.”
“What if I break both?”
“Oh I’m gonna break them if you don’t stop talking.”
“Understood.” This time, Leonardo really stopped talking.
April cleared her throat. “First off: The cursive alphabet!” She wrote both big and small letters on the board for each letter, “Same as the normal alphabet, but fancy~”
“What the heck happened with G?” Mikey gawked.
“We don’t talk about G.” April said, “Leo are you paying attention?”
“Yaaaawn!” Leonardo gagged.
April huffed and clutched her ruler almost hard enough to break it.
“Um…” Donnie’s eyes were even more squinted than usual and he raised a hand.
“Yes Donnie?”
“Can you write it bigger?”
April frowned. “Raph, how’s it for you?”
Raphael was at the desk next to Donatello and sat up proudly at being addressed. “I can see it just fine, Apes!”
“Me too!” Mikey piped.
“Yaaaaawn.” Leo sighed.
Donatello looked around at his brothers with a frown as he shrunk slightly into his shell to hide his embarrassment.
“That’s okay Don.” April said with a smile, “I can make it a little bit bigger for you.” She did just that, “How’s that?”
Don gave a shy smile. “Better…”
April didn't quite believe him, but didn't want to bring it up. “Hey Mike, do you mind switching seats with Donnie?”
“Nope!”
Mikey took a place in the back row beside Raph while Don took a closer place beside the indifferent Leo.
~~~
“Names!”
April scribbled each turtle's name in their signifying color and pointed to them. “Honestly, this is the most important cursive you’ll ever earn. So you can sign your name and stuff— and no Leo I’m not excluding you from learning it just because you’re tiny mutant turtles living in the sewer!” She tapped the board, “Copy this down on your papers as many times as you can!”
There was the unanimous sounds of chairs adjusting and pens clicking and touching to the paper— three of them. April smiled as she looked out over the ‘students’ but frowned once more when she got to Donnie. The year-younger turtle was squinting at the board and near tears trying to make it out. He made an attempt to copy something down a few times, only to scribble it out seconds later. Then, finally, he got up and walked over to the board instead.
“Uh… can I…?” His nose was practically pressed to the board so he could make out his name, supporting his paper against the wall to scribble a quick draft before returning to his desk and copying the rest of his attempts off of the first attempt.
~~~
When she announced for them to turn their papers in, Mikey was of course the first one in line, bouncing excitedly as he shoved his way to the front and held out his paper to April. April smiled and accepted it, yet Mikey lingered awaiting praise.
His work was surprisingly neat for someone so hyperactive, though big and riddled with far more loops than necessary. Legible, but far from perfection. She smiled down at Mikey and gave the tiny box turtle a pat on the head.
“Great work Mike! Try writing a little smaller next time so you can fit more on the paper!” She drew a smiley face on Mikey’s paper.
Mikey gave an excited squeal and snatched the paper, hugging it tightly to his plastron and churring softly before running off. Then came Raphael. His writing was also big and bold like Michelangelo’s, but without the foundation of neatness that the youngest brother held.
“Good job, Raph! Same thing as Mikey, try to write a liiiiittle smaller. I know it might be difficult since the paper’s tiny compared to you, but you’re doing great!” She gave Raphael a flaming smiley face, and Raphael was content.
Donatello was nervous— nothing unusual. He held his paper out to April and almost winced as if expecting rebuke. April let her eyes linger on the anxious softshell a moment before going down to his paper. His cursive was just as illegible as his print always was— the shape was there and she could see some familiarities in the loops to indicate where each letter was supposed to be, but the letters blended together even more than typical for cursive.
Still, she smiled at Donnie all the same. “See? You did great, Don! I knew you would.” She gave a purple smiley, but frowned as the ink dripped and made it look like the smiley was crying.
Donnie accepted the paper without talking and sulked off. Leonardo was last in line, unusual for someone always so eager to please, with a smug smile as he held out his paper to April.
“I know, I know Keep your praise to yourself. I didn't wanna do it but I pushed through it and mine is no doubt the best. That’s why I saved it for last.”
April narrowed her eyes and saw straight through Leo’s charade of confidence. The writing was big, though not quite as big as Raphael’s or Michelangelo’s. It was clear he had finished his work fast, the paper filled and whatever space left filled with tiny scribbles. At first she smiled when saw how neat the handwork was, a welcome improvement to the flipped letters that usually riddled his print writing, but then when she looked closer at the letters themselves, she noticed something else. Though the letters weren’t flipped, they were distorted— not the kind of distortion that a lazy hand would result in, but each letter was blurred together, some of them with multiple loops where there was only one or none when there was meant to be one. April looked up at Leonardo who concerned eyes, though his look of confidence never faltered.
“Uh. Good work Leo.” She said vaguely, giving him a smiley like she had to everyone else.
~~~~
“Are you sure about this…?” Donnie asked nervously.
“Trust me!” April beamed, taping the handles of the glasses to Donnie’s face
Donnie, eyes still closed, still tried to turn to face April’s voice. “Whenever Leo says that it usually ends up failing. Painfully.”
“Well I’m not Leo, so stop moving!” She snapped Donnie’s head back forward so she could finish her work. Once she was sure that they were on securely, she backed away and grinned. “Okay! Open your eyes!”
Donnie opened his eyes. His first reaction was to squint like he always did, but when his eyes were met with detail denied all his life, they shot wide and starstruck. His mouth dropped open, he sucked in a breath, and backed up against a wall as the world spun in its new light.
“Wha…”
April beamed and gave an excited bounce, clapping her hands together. Her face looked unusually empty without her glasses, but she didn't care. She could always get new ones, but Donnie…
“Whoa…” Donnie’s dichromatic eyes flicked to everything in the room in quick succession.
“Donnie are you okay?” Mikey rocked on his toes with his arms folded behind his shell.
“I… everything’s just… it’s like seeing life in HD!” Once the shock left, a smile spread across his face and he couldn’t stop it from claiming his usually shy or disinterested features.
“Woah! I wanna see life in HD!”
Mikey jumped up and snatched the glasses from off of Donnie’s face, shoving them on his own. His eyes and nose immediately scrunched up as he looked through the lenses.
“Ehh… this doesn’t look like HD…”
April laughed and leaned down to boop Mikey’s nose while he blinked away the irritation of the focused lenses. “That’s because your eyes already work, Mikey.”
“Raph’s turn!” Raph stole the glasses from Mikey’s nose, laughing as he put them on his own face. His reaction was similar to Mikey. “Ehhh…. Not for Raph.”
“What about you Leo?” Mikey asked, appealing to the older brother, “Don’t you wanna try them on?”
“What, and look like a four-eyed nerd? No thank you.” Leo scoffed, crossing his arms stubbornly.
“Excuse me?!” April put her hand on her hip and dared Leonardo to repeat himself.
“Ah—“ Leo’s realization seemed to knock him off his confidence, “Not you April—you make them look cool—“
“Just shut up and wear these.”
April shoved the glasses onto Leonardo’s face, and the slider was immediately blinded by how… not blind he was. He let his mouth hang open a moment and sucked in a gasp, looking around with the much the same awe as Donatello had, before shaking his head and taking the glasses off of his face.
“See? Told ya! I don’t need em!”
Despite his words, there was a longing hurt in his eyes as he returned the glasses to Donatello and silently reserved himself so his twin could enjoy the full experience of being able to see a whole new world.
@brightlotusmoon
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kumeko · 3 years
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Title: Garreg Mach Yearbook Chronicles
A/N: For the @garregmachzine I got to write four different snippets. It was a fun challenge trying to cram everything into a drabble.
Featuring: Leonie's troubles with Seteth and Flayn, Hilda charming Ferdinand to escape battle, Annette dealing with a club composed of Linhardt and Marianne, and Claude dodging Hubert's censor.
Fishing Tournament
Sitting on the banks of the pond, Leonie watched as her bobber dipped in and out of the water, floating idly along an invisible current. With any luck, she’d catch a fish soon. A big one, hopefully. Usually by now she’d have caught at least one or two, but then usually she was also alone while she fished. Leonie cast an eye around her, biting her cheek at the sight of her fellow classmates. Despite how early in the morning it was, it felt like half the monastery was sitting along the pond, trying their best to catch a fish.
Then again, it wasn’t everyday that Seteth held a fishing contest. After all that’d happened in the past few months, she couldn’t deny that they needed a break like this and it seemed that everyone else agreed. Byleth sat at the docks, quietly fishing. Next to her, Sylvain lost his balance and flailed as he struggled to keep out of the water. In the distance, she spotted Caspar and Raphael comparing their catches.
“I see you are also entering the fishing contest,” a slightly musical voice asked from behind her. Startled from her thoughts, Leonie looked up in time to catch Flayn as she sat down next to her. Like, right next to her. Smiling softly, Flayn clasped her hands together as she stared at Leonie’s rod. “Did you catch anything?”
“N-not yet.” Leonie shook her head, feeling a little awkward at the proximity. Maybe if she shifted the other way—
“That is a pity.” Seteth slowly sat down on her other side, a fishing rod in hand. He cast his line, his eyes on her the entire time. “It will not be much of a contest if there are no entries.”
Leonie resisted the urge to get up and run. What was it with these siblings, pinning her in like this? She felt sandwiched, with no way to escape. “I’m sure someone will manage to catch a good fish or two. Give me an hour, and I’m sure I can wrangle up a few myself.”
“Oh, that’s great.” Flayn clapped her hands. “However, that leaves a different problem. We’ll have all these fishes, and no one to cook them.”
Leonie swallowed. This was starting to sound familiar. “There are plenty of cooks—”
“Leonie has excellent skills,” Seteth suggested, as though he’d just thought of it. “Maybe she could?”
“Really?” Flayn lit up, before flashing her an innocent smile. “Leonie, would you mind?”
She should have just listened to her instincts and run.
-x-
Crest Studies
When Annette joined the academy, she had never seen herself leading a club, or leading anything for that matter. Sure, she would join one or two, but leadership was for the elites, for Dimitri’s and Sylvain’s of the world. Well, maybe not Sylvain exactly, but there were plenty other nobles who could fit the bill. Ferdinand. Lorenz. Hubert.
Yet it was her, not them, standing in front of the Blue Lions classroom, looking at her Crest Studies clubmates. To be perfectly honest, when the other options were the lazy Lindhardt and the shy Marianne, if Annette didn’t take the lead, nothing would get done. Even now, Lindhardt was dozing on his desk while Marianne fidgeted nervously.
Annette bit her cheek. She should have joined the gardening club. Clearing her throat, she announced, “For today’s activity, we’re going to the market.”
“W-what?” Marianne’s eyes grew wide. Sometimes, it looked like she didn’t know why she was in the club. “The market?”
“Why?” Lazily, Lindhardt lifted his head and gave her a baleful glare. “That’s a waste of effort.”
From the teacher’s desk, Professor Hanneman gave her thumbs up. At least someone liked her proposition. Annette quickly refuted, “It’s not.”
“We study crests,” Lindhardt replied languidly. “It’s a waste.”
Something about him always riled her up. She could feel her hackles rising. Stalking toward him, she rested her hands on her hip and bit out. “It’s not. We need to know what people think of crests.”
“Annette’s right.” Hanneman nodded sagely, intervening before an argument started. “It’s important to consider different perspectives when studying a topic.”
“But talking to people…” Marianne gnawed on her lip. “I’m not sure—”
“It’ll be fine.” Annette clasped Marianne’s hands, squeezing them tight. “Besides, we’re going to interview later, so this is good practice.”
Hesitantly, Marianne nodded. “I-I suppose that’s true.”
“Can’t we just interview now and get it over with?” Linhardt interjected, yawning.
Annette pulled Marianne up to her feet. “We’re going to the market,” she stated firmly, refusing to broker any more arguments. “If you want to decide what we’re doing, then you be the club president.”
It was an ultimatum he’d never take, and they both knew it. With a sigh, he got up. “Fine, I suppose there’s some merit to it.”
“Good.” Annette grinned as she gently tugged Marianne toward the door. Finally, she could tell Mercedes that they’d done something other than sit in a classroom. Finally, just like all the other clubs, she was going to go out with her clubmates and do something fun.
Perhaps there was some merit to being club president, after all.
-x-
Battle of the Eagle and Lion
I’d say it is an honour to write about the Battle of the Eagle and the Lion, but that was before so many of my drafts got mysteriously burned or destroyed because if I happen to make any unflattering comments about Edelgard, I have to start over. Though I would argue they aren’t disparaging, but who am I to argue with her guard dog, Hubert?
So what can I say about the Battle? Well, I guess the obvious—all three of our houses showed what they did best: Edelgard with her strategies, Dimitri with his training, and me with my ‘schemes’. I call them strategies, others call them traps, to-may-to, to-mah-to. Honestly, I didn’t do anything sinister this time around. If a lot of students just happened to get a case of mild food poisoning, well, things happen. Raphael got it too and you don’t hear me complaining about sabotage.
Let’s see, something flattering—ah, I know! It’s actually quite impressive how much Edelgard was able to move despite her illness. Honestly, if someone had poisoned, they’d better know to up the dosage next time. Despite her thinning ranks, she managed to set up her classmates quite skillfully, and Hubert somehow managed to do a lot of damage despite looking like he needed to find the closest toilet.
Of course, Dimitri powered his way through the food poisoning. I think he’s got the strength of a dozen soldiers, or boars as Felix likes to put it. Felix also managed to move, but I think that was purely out of spite. It’s amazing what a motivation spite is. Then again, I think Hubert would know all about that, wouldn’t he?
My house, of course, were the cleverest of the bunch, carefully goading out our enemies and defeating them one by one. Despite losing our strongest member, we rallied around each other and fought back. It was a close fight by all reckoning. And honestly if Edelgard lost (notice I said if, Hubert!), it wouldn’t be all that shameful, considering the handicaps she had.
Now, you might be wondering who actually won? Why it’s (scorched words) of course! Was there ever any doubt?
-x-
Mission Battles
Out of all the school activities she was forced to do, Hilda disliked the missions and mock battles the most. With the others, she could get away with appealing her classmates into helping her, whether it was Marianne in the library or Raphael with the stables or some other poor, hapless soul who crossed her path. As long as it was done, no one was the wiser.
On the battlefield, she wasn’t quite as lucky. No one could protect her the entire time and her charms were entirely wasted on the enemy. It wasn’t like they’d stop fighting her just because she asked.
Or maybe, if she—no, no, it was best to banish that thought. Hilda gripped her axe as she studied the battlefield before her. Just ahead of her was a bandit and unfortunately, there was no ally in sight to protect her. She was going to have to cut this one down herself. “I don’t suppose you’d back down?”
The bandit roared in response, charging at her.
“Step back!” Ferdinand quickly dashed ahead of her, his sword gleaming in the sunlight as he slashed down on her foe. With two quick strikes, the bandit was down and her rescuer looked at her triumphantly over his shoulder. “You okay?”
“Yes! Thanks so much!” Hilda clasped one of his hands and gave him a soft smile. She stood corrected—she could absolutely charm her way through a battle, as long as it was one of those rare cross-house battles.
“No problem.” Ferdinand smiled brightly, before looking over his shoulder at Edelgard. “As you can see, I have struck down another enemy. That brings my count to higher than yours, does it not?”
“We’re in the middle of battle, Ferdinand,” Edelgard warned, axe clenched tightly in her hands. “We’re not competing.”
“Considering how one-sided it is, I could hardly call it a competition.” Ferdinand sniped, trying to pick a fight as usual.
Judging by Edelgard’s weary expression, his taunts still didn’t work. Determining that Hilda was safe enough, Ferdinand once more returned to Edelgard’s side, no doubt challenging her once again. It was impressive how he didn’t give up. A little sad, but impressive.
If he wasn’t going to give up, neither would she. There was bound to be another sucke—noble man willing to lay his life for a damsel in dress. Catching sight of a flash of red, Hilda smiled. “Oh, Sylvain!” she called out, batting her eyes.
Perhaps she could charm her way out of fighting too.
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baepop · 3 years
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PRIVATE // 12
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You crash Jennie’s wedding rehearsal.
Word Count: 6k
Pairing: Jungkook x You x Jennie
Genre: Angst
Tag List: kooshousemaid (send me a message if you want to be added)
A/N: Sorry this update took so long! I already have the rest of the story outlined so the next part should be out soon. Please pray for me as I write part 13’s smut. It is inciting an unprecedented level of gay panic
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
At first, you were in disbelief, asking them to go over it again and hoping it made more sense the second time around. Yoongi sighed and put his fork down, explaining the plan again but this time using his hands to make the explanation more visual for you. You fought the urge to roll your eyes.
The four of you were at Jisoo’s apartment helping yourselves to a lavish assortment of breakfast dishes she had no hand in making. Her apartment was grand, like Jennie’s, but decorated much differently. Jisoo’s place had a more clinical feel to it, an environment so sterile that an unfortunate doctor might not hesitate to do surgery in. It had made you uncomfortable the second you stepped in.
You pushed your food around your plate, taking a moment to process everything. When you had woken up this morning, your only thoughts were of Jungkook and how warm the bed was, finally being able to relax and feel as if everything might be okay after all. A few hours later and your hard work was all undone. You were thinking about Jennie again, or rather stressing over her again.
Her wedding was in less than 2 weeks. You’d all have to leave as soon as possible in hopes of getting some alone time to be able to talk and say everything that needed to be said, that’s even if she was willing to listen. Memories from the day she left echoed in your mind, her determination to break up with you protesting your aspirations. She was gone because she wanted to be. You wouldn’t be going there to rescue her, you’d be going there to mess with her plans. Was it possible to change her mind and make her want to come back after all this time?
During these past few months you’d already thought of everything you ever wanted to say to her, everything you should’ve said even before the day she left. You were hesitant about being on board with the plan, but you had to admit that you two needed a proper ending, if you two were truly going to move on with your lives. You didn’t want to spend the rest of your life wondering what if. You owed it to everyone to go to Korea and lay everything out on the table before burying your romance with Jennie for good.
You sighed, finally looking up from your plate. “Okay. Fine…when do we leave?” You looked at everyone around the table. Jungkook placed his hand on your thigh and gave it a squeeze to show he was there for you, knowing this wouldn’t be easy at all. He’d had a front row seat to the aftermath of your breakup with Jennie, so he of all people knew what going to Korea could entail.
“In a few days. I managed to work it out with my coach and Raphael, so we only have a short amount of time to pull this off.”
Your hand paused as you were about to spoon some oatmeal into your mouth, “Since when do you talk to Raphael?”
“Since I stopped by the shop one day to see if you were at work. We got to talking. He loves me.” Jungkook beams you his famous crooked smile and you couldn’t help but smile in return but not without rolling your eyes. The image of grumpy old Raphael smitten by Jeon Jungkook was a funny mental image. But you couldn’t imagine people not taking an instant liking to Jungkook, he had a special way of quickly becoming one’s favorite person. Well, except for Jennie of course. She was always the exception.
The rest of the meal was spent hammering out the details of your trip. You’d be staying at Yoongi’s parents’ house with Jungkook, and you’d be crashing the wedding rehearsals in hopes of getting a moment alone with the bride-to-be.
You weren’t exactly sure what the plan was after you saw her. You knew your friends couldn’t help you there, so you were nervous about facing her alone after all this time. With the distance she had put in between you two, not just physically but also emotionally, was there even anything left to say that would make a difference?
You supposed the most important part of the trip was to get closure for you both, to not leave anything left unsaid so that she knew she had a choice apart from walking down the aisle. You silently worked hard to extinguish any flame of hope inside of you that suggested she might come back home with you.
You stared at your engagement ring that was catching the light in the room and reflecting it dazzlingly so, turning it around and around on your finger as you thought about your own impending wedding.
If Jungkook hadn’t proposed, would Jennie still be here? Or would she have left eventually? Her words rang clear as a bell in your head: I can’t stay here and play girlfriend forever.
You sighed as you looked up from your hand just in time to catch Jisoo’s fleeting gaze. She had been staring at your engagement ring before you caught her. Instead of saying whatever was clearly on her mind, she turned away and decided to take her plate to the kitchen. You quirked your brow, finding it odd of her not to have anything to say for once, so you took this opportunity to follow her under the pretense of washing your own plate while Jungkook and Yoongi were busy talking.
Her back was turned to you in front of the running faucet. You joined her by the counter, making it obvious that you wanted to talk.
Clearing your throat, “I know Jungkook told you about our engagement. He tells you everything. Honestly, I was prepared to bring pepper spray to work afterward in case you showed up there again.” You didn’t expect her to laugh at your joke, a scoff maybe, but total silence was eerie coming from her. “Did you…tell his parents?”
She shook her head, taking your plate out of your hands and running it under the water. Your eyebrows shot up. Briefly, an image of Jungkook lecturing Jisoo about not being problematic ran through your mind. That seemed too good to be true, however. Something was wrong.
“What, that’s it? No snarky remark? No speech about us making a mistake? The last time we spoke you were trying to convince me to leave him and now we’re engaged, figured you’d want to stab me with your heel first chance you get.” When she didn’t respond, you shut off the faucet so she couldn’t pretend to ignore you anymore.
The slight girl sighed and finally turned towards you. “Fine. You want to talk? Let’s talk. Of course I think you’re making a huge mistake. Anyone who would tell you this is at all normal would be flat out lying. But I don’t know why you need me to tell this to you because you know it’s true already. You both do. I’m only playing along with this ‘happily engaged’ charade because Jungkook is going to need someone there for him once this all blows up in his face. But who will be there for you?”
You stared at Jisoo long after she stopped talking, even as she dried her hands and walked back into the dining room. You were already conditioned to not harp on whatever hurtful things she had to say about you and your relationship with Jungkook, but one thing you noticed that she never did was lie. She may be overly opinionated, but never intentionally deceitful that you knew of. So when she went out of her way to keep quiet about your engagement, a small seed of suspicion grew inside you. You had a feeling something was up, and after listening to what Jisoo had to say, it only made your fears grow. You both do.
Had Jungkook confided in her that he was having cold feet?
You scoffed and leaned back into the counter, looking down at your knees as you tried to think back to any moment where Jungkook might’ve seemed off. If you were being truthful with yourself, you weren’t sure you could be the best judge of that seeing as how you were only just now starting to be present again and not wasting your days away in bed.
You gnawed on your bottom lip trying not to get worried over nothing. This was Jisoo, after all. Anytime you and Jungkook were on bad terms, most of the time it was because of her. She was always in the way, stirring up drama. Maybe it was time for you to stop giving it the time of day. You looked at the back of Jungkook’s head, wondering if his feelings for you had changed at all once summer ended.
The next few days were a blur as you all prepared for your trip oversees. You turned your apartment upside-down trying to find your passport, and when you finally did, you were so glad it was still current.
You hadn’t left the country before, so you had no idea what to pack and what to leave behind. When Jungkook peaked at your luggage the night before leaving he couldn’t help but chuckle, seeing you pack 8 different pairs of pajamas and only one pair of jeans. When he asked you where your outlet converter was you almost threw yourself onto the bed and had a meltdown, only making the boy laugh harder.
And now that the day of your fight had finally arrived, you were nervous the instant you had gotten into your seat. This was all suddenly becoming much more real to you. You were several steps closer to seeing Jennie again, and the mere thought of meeting again had your heart racing and palms sweating. You were definitely on edge to say the least, which is why you really couldn’t entertain Jungkook’s jokes as the flight prepared to take off. You suspected he might’ve been trying to lighten the mood, seeing as how you were gripping the arm rests for dear life, but you couldn’t focus on him, not when you were on a flying death trap hurling you all 7,000 miles away from home and toward the woman that broke your heart.
After a short while, you felt the plane stop shaking. Everyone let out a collective breath before hushed conversations sprouted across the compact area. You felt Jungkook’s thumb rub circles into the back of your hand which also helped to soothe your nerves. You looked over at him and smiled. His eyes were large and curious, probably realizing he’d never seen you this nervous before.
“Sorry,” You smiled at him sheepishly, “I’ve never flown before so…” Jungkook’s eyes widened with realization.
“Aw don’t worry. If we die, at least we’ll have died together.” You quirked your brow at him in a way that said not helping. He smirked and leaned his head back against his seat, his curly hair falling along his forehead and his earing swaying back and forth. His eyes became half lidded as they drank in the features of your face for the millionth time. When he spoke, it was just soft enough for you to hear and no one else. “You know what neither of us have yet to do then?”
“Die in a plane crash?” You remarked dryly which made the boy’s smile turn crooked.
“Other than that.”
You hummed in thought, already having an inkling as to wear this conversation was going with the way Jungkook was watching your lips instead of your eyes. You leaned your head back against the seat and waited for him to tell you what he was thinking.
“You see, there’s this club. A very exclusive club.” Jungkook pretended to look around to make sure no one was listening in on this top-secret conversation which made you giggle uncontrollably. He was so good at making you forget where you were.
“Ah, I see. And uh, how did you hear about this exclusive club if it’s such a secret?” You challenged him, though your eyes were alight with humor.
“Well, I have connections. The point is,” He leaned in and wiggled his eyebrows, “I think you and I should join this club.” You rolled your eyes and shoved him a bit, unable to bite back your giggle at his theatrics. He smiled and tugged on one of your loose curls, letting it spring back to your face playfully.
“You wouldn’t be referring to,” You looked over your shoulder quickly before turning back to the boy whose eyes were now crescent moons with how wide his smile had become, “the mile high club??”
Jungkook shushed you dramatically. “So, you’ve heard of it?”
“I’m very well connected too you know.”
Jungkook hummed, most of the humor leaving his features, “I could think of a way for us to connect right now.”
“Jungkook!” You slapped a hand against his chest and laughed. God he was so cute even when he was being a pervert. You loved him so much.
Jungkook caught your hand on his chest with his and laced his fingers through yours, playing around with it as you contemplated what he was asking of you. You thought about how to go about it. It was already nightfall, so most people would be asleep in under an hour. You could tip toe into the bathroom at the end of the aisle and have him meet you in there. It looked like a tiny space, but you could make it work. Heaven only knows you’ve fucked Jungkook in worse places.
You bit your lip at the idea, your eyes raking over his body. It’d been a long while since you two had made love. He had probably been trying to be sensitive and give you the time you needed to grieve your relationship with Jennie, which you greatly appreciated, especially since it seemed he was dying to fuck you with the way his eyes were already undressing you. The fact that his jeans were already straining with your playful banter was proof of your theory.
Maybe it was time to show him how much you missed him and were craving his touch, but something gnawed at the back of your mind, clawing its way to the forefront of your thoughts until it had you hesitating to get up from your seat. Jungkook noticed your change in mood and a quirked a brow at you. After thinking for a moment, you slipped your hand out of his grasp and placed your palms on your lap, playing with your fingers nervously.
“Jungkook…did you…tell Jisoo you were having second thoughts about us?” With your eyes still trained down at your lap, you waited to hear his response, and when he stayed quiet, the feeling of dread inside you finished prying its way out and filled your entire body with a weight almost too much to bear. You looked over at Jungkook who had turned his head toward the ceiling and away from you. His expression was unreadable, so you waited for him to either blow up or fess up. After a moment, he sighed, turning to look at you with worried eyes as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“What exactly did she say to you?”
“I knew it.” You crossed your arms and shook your head, turning away from him in disbelief.
He sucked his teeth and ran a hand through his locks in exasperation. “Why do you always do this!? Why do you let her get inside your head and cause problems between us?”
Your eyebrows knitted as your head snapped in his direction. “This isn’t about her!”
“Then what is this about?”
“This is about me and you! About you feeling the need to confide in her that you have doubts without even talking to me!”
“How could I talk to you?! You wouldn’t talk to anyone for months!” Jungkook sat back in his chair, pure frustration painted on his angelic features.
“That’s no excuse for me to have to hear about that from your cousin!”
Jungkook groaned, shutting his eyes for a moment. Your conversation had gotten louder, already attracting the attention of people surrounding you.
“I was scared, okay?? You were so depressed, and I had no idea what to do! I couldn’t help thinking that this wasn’t how it was supposed to be right after I proposed…” Jungkook softened his tone when he turned back to you. “But, I mean, things are better now, or at least they’re getting there. Can we please not fight??”
Jungkook tried taking hold of your hand again but you jerked away from his touch. “I told you marriage is a huge commitment that you couldn’t possibly be serious about, but I believed you when you said you knew that. And now at the first sign of trouble, you run to tell someone who hates me that you’re regretting this whole thing!?”
“I never said—” You get up hastily before Jungkook could finish his sentence. The boy threw his head back onto the seat and groaned with his eyes crinkled shut as you made your way down the aisle toward Yoongi. Your best friend had gotten a seat just a few rows behind yours and when he saw you standing next to him he ripped his headphones out of his ears, noticing the upset look on your face.
“Can we switch seats? Please?” Your voice broke when you begged him to get up. Although he wondered what the hell could’ve transpired in the first hour of this long flight back home, he knew better than to stay and ask questions.
Yoongi nodded and gathered his things, getting up so you can sit next to a man who was already lightly snoring. He shuffled up the aisle, throwing a worried glance at you over his shoulder before he found your empty seat next to Jungkook.
You prayed for sleep to find you quickly so you wouldn’t have to wallow in self-pity the entire flight. Luckily you managed to sleep until the flight attendant nudged your shoulder hours later to tell you you’d be landing soon. You were groggy for the rest of your trip which comprised of a bus and then a taxi until the three of you finally got to Yoongi’s parents’ home. Jisoo had ridden first class and secured her own way home, much to your relief. You were too tired to argue.
Yoongi’s house was homey. It was late when you all arrived, so his family wasn’t up to greet you all. Yoongi set up a cot next to his bed in his room for you and Jungkook to sleep on, and as soon as he left you two alone to go shower, you felt a cloud of unease settle over you and Jungkook. Neither wanted to speak, so you settled on unpacking silently and claiming your respective sides of the bed. You instantly regretted sleeping through the entire flight because now you were wide awake and there were still many hours of sundown left.
So as soon as Yoongi came back into the room, toweling his wet hair as his flip flops slapped against the hardwood floor, you got up quickly and rushed into the shower in the hopes that everyone would be asleep by the time you got out so you wouldn’t have to deal with the awkward silence for much longer. Luckily that’s exactly what happened, but it wasn’t much of a relief as you laid there for hours in the crushing silence. You hadn’t felt so alone in such a long time. Even when Jennie had deserted you, at least Jungkook had been there the whole time. Now you were on bad terms with them both, in a foreign country preparing to lay your heart on your sleeve in just a few hours.
The next day, as the afternoon sun hung at the center of the sky, you all climbed into a car and drove to Jennie’s wedding venue. The trip was long since she was having the wedding in the countryside, far from Seoul’s cityscape. The farther you all drove out, the more you began to see large expanses of uninterrupted land with the greenest grass you’d seen in forever.
You tried to remain calm and not think too much about what you’d say to Jennie when you finally saw her, hoping the perfect words would come to you when you needed them most.
As soon as the car turned down a dirt path after what felt like hours, you were able to spot a large chateau surrounded by all kinds of shrubbery that could only be seen otherwise in a Disney film. The view was magnificent, and you instantly knew it was up to Jennie’s standards. You smiled, picturing her bossing around the staff inside. And no sooner than you’d had that thought you were proven right. The second you all stepped onto the grounds, it was as if you were totally unseen with the way everyone bustled around you all trying to get everything done before the big day.
You all split up as soon as you realized just how massive the venue was, in hopes of finding Jennie quickly. The only person who had been invited was Yoongi, after all, so your mere presence would cause a scene, especially after the way you crashed the proposal dinner.
You took your time walking towards the back of the establishment, appreciating the way the sun shone on the endless fields of flowers and vegetation splayed as far as the eye could see. A few people in uniforms hauled different pieces of expensive furniture past you, and you suspected that if you followed wherever they were coming from, you’d likely find a petite brunette dishing out orders.
As you turned the corner to the back area where the reception would undoubtedly take place, your breath hitched in your throat. You laid your eyes on the most elegantly decorated field you’d ever seen. Jennie’s favorite flowers adorned every inch of the garden surrounding the venue, even invading the inside of the open atrium facing the garden. You smiled to yourself, remembering how she once gushed over Hyacinths because they were not only beautiful but also represented her birth month. Lucky for her, they made the perfect wedding bouquet flowers at well. You walked up to a table and picked a single flower from the arrangement, rolling it around in between your fingers then tucking it into your curly hair.
You turned on your heel and headed into the large open floor plan where the ceremony might take place. Several more people shuffled past you looking too busy to point you in the direction of the bride-to-be, but once they cleared your field of view, that was no longer necessary. Your eyes instantly landed on the girl who was standing at the end of the aisle speaking to a guy holding a clipboard.
Her hair was cut into a short blunt bob that hovered at the middle of her neck, and she was dressed impeccably in a tweed Chanel two piece. Your lips parted as you took a moment to drink her in. She seemed entirely different than the Jennie you had shared an apartment with not long ago, a duplicate vision of her mother before you, yet as you stared on you were sure she was the same woman you loved.
You stopped walking, stopped breathing, only able to stare. Your mind went blank of all the things you wanted to say. You’d have been content to stand there and watch her carry on with her tasks all day if it weren’t for the large flower arrangement crashing into your side. One of the staff members bumped into you while carrying a large vase that blocked their vision, sending you both along with the Hyacinths tumbling onto the marvel flooring. You squeezed your eyes shut and rotated your shoulder to make sure you weren’t hurt too badly then accepted the hand that was extended to you from the very apologetic staff member. Suddenly it dawned on you that the vase hitting the floor made a loud crash, so your head snapped in the direction of Jennie and surely enough, your eyes met for the first time in months.
You stood up as the staff member scrambled to gather the flowers from the floor and hurry off into the garden. Your mouth gaped and your fingers twitched at your sides. You weren’t sure whether to wave or yell a greeting, your heart beat steadily rising in your chest.
Jennie’s stare was cold and vacant, piercing through you as if you were a ghost. It seemed as though your spectacle was a nuisance seeing as how she couldn’t be bothered with any distractions. She turned away all too soon to finish briefing the man who had also been staring, though her eyes lingered on you for a beat longer.
Your scalp prickled and your breath accelerated, feeling more disconnected to her than ever before. Was this all you’d get? You didn’t want to squander the opportunity to talk to her again, but as soon as you took a step in her direction she walked out of the atrium through a set of double doors, her heels clicking against the marble and echoing through the large empty space.
Once the doors swung closed behind her, it felt as if the wind had been knocked out of you. She saw you came and didn’t care enough to greet you. Things were really over between you two. I shouldn’t have come.
You turned on your heel to sprint out of the grand space, wanting to be anywhere but there.
Yoongi whistled throughout the corridors, stopping to look at obscure paintings on the walls every once in a while, before continuing on his search for Jennie. His stomach rumbled fiercely as he checked what felt to be an endless number of hallways before deciding to take a break and get some food. There had to be something to eat around here somewhere.
The boy stepped into the atrium and let out a long whistle as he took in the grand pillars and gold objects that adorned the hall. His eyes were drawn to the double doors, wondering if that might be where the kitchen was, so he set off to help himself to some food to reward his efforts thus far.
But as soon as he let himself into what was, in fact, the kitchen, he stopped in his tracks, immediately recognizing Jennie sitting by the heuer d’ouvres with her cheeks crammed full. Yoongi failed to hold back his smirk at the sight of her stuffing her face, but he would most definitely hold back his comment about her looking like a chipmunk. He wasn’t in the mood to die on an empty stomach, so he took a seat next to the girl and began helping himself.
Jennie swallowed what was already in her mouth then proceeded to smack Yoongi’s hand away from the food.
“Ouch! What was that for??”
“These are for the guests!”
“Well I’m invited aren’t I?” Jennie pursed her lips as he reached for another, groaning as her face fell into her hands.
“I take it you’re the reason she’s here?” She spoke into her hands so her words sounded muffled, but luckily Yoongi was fluent in Jennie.
“You didn’t speak to her?”
Jennie groaned again and placed her elbows on the table, her balled up fists bunching up her cheeks. “No, we didn’t speak. I have nothing to say to her.”
“Jennie don’t be like that. She came all this way, just hear her out.” Yoongi spoke softly as he eyed Jennie carefully.
The girl sat up straighter and crossed her legs, suddenly remembering who and where she was. “I’m not being any type of way. If she has something to say to me then she’ll say it. But I hope you two didn’t show up here expecting anything of me. I’ve moved on and so should she.” Determined to prove her point, she continued speaking and ignored Yoongi’s doubtful stare, “How’s Jungkook doing, anyway? He must be so happy I’m gone.” Jennie snorted towards the end of her sentence, but it ended in a squeak as Jungkook himself piped up from behind her.
“I’m not, actually.” The boy had walked in through the double doors and paused as he saw Yoongi and Jennie hovering over a large plate of appetizers. “I know, hard to believe.” Jungkook approached her side of the table warily as the girl’s eyebrows shot up at the sight of him.
“I see the whole posse decided to take a field trip.” Jennie spoke in a bored tone but refused to make eye contact with Jungkook.
“Jennie, I know you’ve always hated me, but please don’t hate y/n. Please, just find her and talk to her. She hasn’t been the same since you left. I… we need you,” After a second, Jungkook ran his fingers through his hair in defeat, “I need you. Please.”
Jennie turned towards Jungkook, speechless that he would ever be so vulnerable around her let alone beg her for anything. She grew curious about what might’ve happened between you and Jungkook after she left, not having the slightest clue but figuring it couldn’t have been good. She looked in between Jungkook and Yoongi, taking a moment to let herself feel what she was truly feeling deep inside.
The truth was that when she saw you splayed across the marble flooring not long ago, her heart soared. She had refused to take her eyes off of you, wondering if the stress of planning a wedding was making her hallucinate. But when your eyes met, a spasm of fear shot through her. She had finally come back home and began getting her shit together to be the woman her family needed her to be, and the confusion your presence was causing her was too much to deal with in the moment. Never in a million years would she have thought to see you on this day, or ever again for that matter. She had convinced herself you were back in the states enjoying your engagement to fuck boy and living your happily ever after, so she had catapulted herself into her old life, determined to find her happily ever after too, even if it was a lackluster version compared to the one she had envisioned with you.
Your presence in this fragile world she had built in her glass house posed a threat, hell just seeing you for a few seconds had already caused her to bolt into the kitchen to stuff her face. She couldn’t allow herself to falter and feel the emotions she had buried down deep months ago. It was hard enough leaving you the day Jungkook had proposed to you and she wasn’t sure she could survive something like that once more.
Still, to hear Jungkook plead with her this way, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t moved. She so badly wanted to believe that after all this time she was strong enough to face you and hear what you had to say.
Jennie bit her lip and looked down at her knotted fingers. Eventually she sighed and nodded, getting up from the stool and smoothing her skirt before hesitantly exiting back through the double doors.
You were hunched over in between a couple of bushes with your head in between your knees taking deep breaths.
Breath in 4 seconds, hold it for 7 seconds, exhale for 8.
You did this for a while, feeling yourself begin to calm down. The image of Jennie staring through you played over and over again in your mind involuntarily.
Breath in 4 seconds, hold it for—
You gasped lightly as a couple of crooked slender fingers tapped you on the shoulder.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you…” The tall gentleman took in your ragged appearance and thought twice about his greeting. “Are.. you okay?”
You squinted, the sun beaming fiercely behind him as you tried to figure out who he could be. “Yeah, I’m fine…sorry have we met before? You look strangely familiar.”
“I don’t believe we have.” The man smiled kindly and offered you his hand which you gladly took, pulling yourself up with it and brushing off any grass that might be sticking to your ass. “Kim Seokjin, and you are?”
You shook his hand as he greeted you, your eyes still squinting as the memory of meeting him before crept closer into your consciousness. He was much taller than you and extremely handsome. You smiled back shyly, sliding your hand out of his grasp when you realized you were still shaking it. He chuckled, deciding you were slightly quirky.
“Leaving, actually.”
“It’s nice to meet you leaving actually.”
You groaned and scrunched your nose. “Dad jokes? Seriously?” The man chuckled some more, not seeming to feel any bit of shame in his wholesome humor. “If you’re the groom, Jennie must hate you already.”
The man laughed heartily. “You’d be surprised actually, I have a way of winning people over.” He flashed you his million-dollar smile and you believed him at once.
“Well, you have your work cut out for you my friend.” You clapped a hand onto his shoulder while making eye contact to convey the gravity of your words.
He nodded appreciatively before replying, “What gave it away?”
“Excuse me?”
“How’d you know I was the groom?”
“You’re handsome as hell and your watch looks like it costs more than my entire wardrobe.” You deadpanned at him as if these things were common sense.
Seokjin smiled widely. He’d feel bashful if he wasn’t so used to people saying that to him all the time. “I take it she has a type?”
You thought for a brief second, but ultimately knew that was untrue given she was into you of all people. “Mm, not really. But her mother does.”
“Speak of the devil…” Seokjin mumbled as his eyes shifted past you.
You turned around to see what he was suddenly staring at, just in time to see Jennie’s mother walking towards you both. She was smiling brightly at her daughter’s fiancé, a smile that quickly faded once her eyes landed on you.
“Mrs. Kim, it’s been a while!” You blurted out your greeting, not knowing what else to do. Even after all this time she still made you nervous as all hell.
The older woman sneered at you. “Not long enough apparently.” She turned away from you to address the beau as if you were no longer there, “Jin, come join us at the front, the sculptures just arrived!”
Seokjin smiled at you politely and bowed before walking away arm in arm with Jennie’s mother. You stared after them for a moment, squinting your eyes again as you observed the back of his head. Guy at the farmer’s market!...No, that’s not it either. You kicked at a few pebbles under your feet before trudging back towards the atrium in deep thought.
You considered leaving and making it seem as though you were truly just an apparition, but the sight of someone coming into your peripheral interrupted the thought. Your head snapped in their direction and you instantly stopped in your tracks.
“Jennie…”
The girl regarded you warily from beside a pillar, offering you a tentative smile as she approached you slowly. Your mouth became dry and your hands grew clammy the closer she got, so you wiped them off on your clothes continuously. You were grateful when she finally spoke.
“Come on, I want to show you something.”
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heyheydidjaknow · 3 years
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I finished it, finally! Yee fucking haw! It’s not perfect, but I’m not feeling terrible about it, and the next one is going to be fun. Unless something happens, the next chapter should come up on Sunday as planned. Knowing me, it won’t, but I wanna hope. As always, the table of contents and the previous chapter is at the bottom, and a full list of the shit I’ve published is at the bottom of the table of contents. I’ll do a proper proofread tomorrow. Right now, Grammarly and Kami are carrying the team, so if there’s a mistake, take it up with them.
Chapter 14
“I trust you won’t be creepy.”
“I’m thankful.” Yoshi runs his thumb along the rim of his cup slowly. “You have little faith in me, as I understand it.”
You try not to be disrespectful. “Well, things in your life could’ve gone better, right?”
He seems to consider this for a moment. “I suppose so.” He takes a slow drink. “Mistakes from my youth have led to many hardships. Still, though the road has been a long and strenuous one, I would not want to change my past.”
Your untouched drink is cradled in your hands. “You don’t regret anything?”
“It is a foolish and maddening thing, longing for a life unobtainable to you.” He closes his eyes, your own scanning the walls for the photograph you know is in some nook or cranny. “Besides, if things hadn’t happened the way they did, I wouldn’t have my sons.”
You can understand, intellectually, he does not mean to be—and likely is not— as arrogant as you perceive him. Still, something about the way he sits, the way he speaks, even how he looks at you now makes you feel painfully inferior, as if you reacting the way you are makes you somehow beneath him in more than a literal sense.
You decide against arguing the point, eyes flickering from the shrine back to the man in front of you. “I guess that’s true.” You know you are not going to drink any of what he has offered until you have to. “And you’ve always thought like that?”
He nods. “It was what I was taught.”
Nodding, you look back down at your cup, a deafening stillness settling between you two. ‘He convinces me to come here,’ you grumble silently, ‘and all I get for it is a lecture and an awkward silence.’ You look back up at him, setting the clay vessel on the ground and pulling your knees to your chest. ‘I could be doing something else, like fixing my shirt or something.’
“Speaking of them,” he continues, “Donatello tells me you have been experiencing night terrors.”
‘Snitch. Did he tell me he told him?’ “You don’t?”
His eyebrows rise. “Sorry?”
“We have the same trauma,” you explain simply. “Both our families died in fires we caused. Think that counts.”
He does not even flinch. “I’ve never thought of it that way.” He smiles softly. You want to punch him in the face. “I suppose so, yes.”
“You seem pretty calm about it.”
He chuckles at your expression. “I’ve had fifteen years to come to terms with my loss,” he takes another drink. “And,” he jokes, “I was often simply too exhausted to have nightmares back when the wound was fresh; caring for four young boys is tiring, you understand.”
“Right.” You crisscross your legs in front of you. “Yeah, the makes sense.”
“Having said that,” he continues, voice lowering, “I can’t imagine going through what I did at your age.” He sighs. “If something like that happened to one of my boys at this age, I can’t honestly say how they would cope.”
‘Poorly. I’d guess they’d cope poorly.’
“I understand that you and I have differences in ideals and morals.”
“You could say that.” Your mouth stretches into a wry smile. “I honestly only started hangin’ with and helpin’ y’all as a way to make up for my manslaughter. With this exception, I live by the adage, ‘Not my circus, not my monkeys.’”
“As I said,” he covers his mouth to hide his amusement, “we differ in that respect. I take it that’s why, when Donatello explained the situation—” you break eye contact—“he was unable to explain in any sort of detail what they were about.”
“Not his circus not his monkeys. ‘Sides,” you shrug, “he was already being really caring and understanding, and I was already sobbing my eyes out, which I’m sure he already told you, so.”
You stare down at your tea. “Are you going to elaborate?”
“Not if I don’t have to, no.” Your face heats up.
“Do you want my help?”
‘I hate this,’ you squirm. “Honestly, I wouldn’t be here if Donnie hadn’t asked me to.”
“For someone who believes in leaving people to their own devices,” he notes, “you seem to value the requests of my son a great deal.”
Your knees are back up to your chest. “He’s important to me. He’s been there for me. It’s the least I can do.”
He takes a beat to gather his thoughts. You brace yourself for a lecture.
“You care for him, then.”
You nod once, treading carefully.
“Romantically?”
You still do not look at him directly, staring instead at the gorgeous screen door. “I dunno.” Your fingernails scratch at the surface. “I’m not exactly in my right mind, you understand.”
“I can’t say I do.” A pause as he takes another drink. “Then again, I’ve only felt for one woman all my life.”
“Look at that,” you try to joke. “Another difference between us.”
“Do you mind letting me in, then?”
“A little,” you admit, “but I will since there isn’t really a point to being here if I don’t.”
“That’s the spirit.” You can hear his smile.
You set the cup down again, glancing up at him before fiddling with the laces on your shoe. “People under stress and without anywhere else to turn tend to latch onto the first people they relate to,” you explain, practicing your knot tying with fumbling fingers; there is no harm in practicing your dexterity. “He was the first guy I met after I died, got kidnapped, and almost got killed by a giant vine creature. I like him,” you clarify quickly, “I really do, but it’s hardly fair to pursue that sort of relationship, especially considering everything going on with the Kraang and Shredder.” Your eyes go out of focus. “We get along great,” you mumble. “He’s sweet, kind, generous, and empathetic. He deserves to make sense of his feeling properly without me muddying things up with my possibly trauma-induced attachment.”
“So,” he clarifies, “it is not that you aren’t in love with him, but, instead, you’re worried for his sake?”
Your face goes scarlet as you choke on your saliva. “T-that’s a bit—uh—extreme, isn’t it?” You rub the back of your burning neck. “I’m not even sixteen, Yoshi. You don’t understand love properly at sixteen!”
“I fell for my wife at thirteen,” he smiles. “It’s certainly not impossible.”
“That’s—look,” you protest, “that is entirely besides the point. The point,” you state, “is that is completely irresponsible for me to pursue a relationship with your son. Frankly, I’m surprised you don’t agree.”
“He cares for you. You know that. Who am I to decide who he does and does not pursue, especially when that person makes him happy?” He reaches for a worn kettle sitting between you two on a table, pouring its contents back into his teacup—you remember Leo telling you that it is technically called a yunomi. “I find love typically does no harm so long as it does not consume you. Moderation is key.”
You look up at him. “So, you don’t have any reservations about it?”
He takes another drink. “I wouldn’t say that. He is my son, after all. In truth,” he admits, “I was more concerned that my sons would never experience what I did than anything. Given the circumstances of our existence, I’m sure you can understand my wish to give them a relatively normal, happy life.”
You sigh. “I guess, yeah.” You adjust your blanket again. ‘Seems counterintuitive, teaching them the art of murder, but I guess that’s his normal.’ “That’s just a generally good parenting thing though, right? I’d hope you’d want that even if you weren’t a giant rat and they weren’t anthropomorphic turtles.”  
A parent. He is talking to you like one might speak to their kid.
“I suppose so,” he nods. “It’s been difficult, but we’ve certainly come a long way over the years.”
The screeching of tires pierces the still air, the chattering of his four sons bouncing off the concrete walls.
You strain to hear what they are saying. “I never noticed that there was an echo in here. It’s less noticeable than in the tunnel.”
“That’s by design,” he explains. “I’ve made something of an effort to dampen it.”
“Oh, that’s cool.” You set the yunomi on the table. You sigh, holding your breath and downing your now gross, cool tea in three quick gulps. “I hate to cut this short,” you lie, wiping your mouth with your sleeve and tottering to your feet, “but I’ve gotta check to make sure everything went smoothly on their mission and adjust my timetable accordingly.”
He nods, deciding not to point your tell out. “I won’t keep you, then. Would you like to borrow my cane?”
This is not the first time he has offered. You, of course, refuse.
“Oh well. I thought I’d offer.” He sets his cup down, staying seated. “It has been pleasant talking with you, Y/N.”
“Likewise, Mr. Hamato.” You nod once in acknowledgment, hopping over to the door and slipping out into the hallway.
Your stomach churns at the stench coming from the lab—you can smell the gasoline. You lean against the wall, making a pointed effort not to eavesdrop and rapping your knuckles against the door. Their voices immediately lower to hisses and someone drags the door open.
“Hey,” Mikey beams. “We were just talking about you. Need somethin’?”
“Just is an over-exaggeration.” There is a considerable amount of protest as Donnie pulls him away from the door with an uncomfortable edge to his voice. “P-please, come in.”
A beaten DIY van sits pathetically on the subway track, looking not dissimilar to a burnt, crushed soda can from where you stand. The once hot pink graffiti has most certainly seen better days, and you squirm at the thought of the sound it must have made if you understand the situation properly. Raphael, who you glance at out of the corner of your eye, looks similarly beat up. Of course, you are not going to say anything because you value your life.
You whistle, smiling incredulously. “So,” you try not to laugh, “I take it you took on the cucaracha.”
“Made it my bitch is what I did,” boasts Raphael. “Shot it with a laser.”
“Cool, cool.” You chuckle at his excitement. “You take care of the egg?”
Is there a better sight than watching the light in someone’s soul die? You would hesitantly say no. “The what?”
“Right outside the building,” you elaborate. “On the side of the road. Looks like a horrifying imitation of an orbee?’
He takes a slow, deep breath, holds it, exhales. “I’ll be right back,” he says calmly, and sprints out of the lair.
Michelangelo laughs. “Were you being serious or are you messing with him?”
“Serious.” You readjust the blanket, trying to subtly figure out how to breathe without being assaulted by the mechanical smell. “I won’t joke about that sort of thing. It’s cruel.”
He hesitates. “… speaking of, are you alright? I didn’t get to ask before.”
The other two are quietly watching the interaction with an odd amount of intensity.
You shrug. “I guess. Probably.”
“Alright,” he nods. “Just lemme know if you need to talk, alright? Donnie’s no—ow!”
“Don’t talk bad about people in front of them,” Leonardo criticizes. “It’s rude.”
“You called him special, like, four hours ago!”
“The word of the day is hypocrisy.” Donatello puts his hand down.
“Hypocrisy’s right” You rub Mikey’s shell reassuringly. “To be fair, though, Leo could honestly probably just dodge it anyway.”
He leans into it. “I guess,” he grumbles, shooting a look at Donatello. “Favoritism.”
“It’s strategic favoritism,” the tallest brother corrects. “It’s to encourage parti pris.”
“Cronyism,” you tease, grinning. “You mean cronyism.”
“Hey, I’m plenty qualified!”.  
You stifle a giggle as his face reddens, looking back over at the battered vehicle, raising an eyebrow.
“That was a team effort.”
“Yeah, okay, Hamato.” You blow a strand out of your face. “How long do you think it’ll take to fix?”
“Half a week? Maybe a bit less.” He looks back at it ruefully. “The spy roach completely jacked it.”
“Clearly.” You remove your hand, Mikey seemingly thoroughly comforted. “Then mind if I borrow a needle and thread so I can fix my jacket? I have school tomorrow.”
“Do you have the dexterity for that?” Leo crosses his arms across his chest absentmindedly.
“If I can hold a pencil,” you reason, “I can do basic stitching. ‘Sides, it’s only gotta hold until I get home.”
“I didn’t know you sewed.”
“I don’t. That’s why I’m asking now.”
Donatello pipes up again. “I really don’t mind—”
“Dude,” you reason, “you have to fix a whole ass van. I’ll manage.”
He pulls his phone from his pocket. “It’s a quarter to twelve. You won’t finish before midnight.”
“Then sucks to be me.” You shrug. “I’ll fix it here and walk home.”
He looks at you with a surprising amount of incredulousness. “It’s New York City.”
“You go out at night all the time,” you protest.
“I can carry you—”
Immediate panic. “Nah, I’m good!” You try to sound confident. “I walk home all the time, remember?”
“Not at midnight.”
“What’s a couple hours difference?” You would rather get attacked or kidnapped than fly over buildings again.
“A hundred-twenty minutes,” he states. “You know that crime is statistically more likely to happen at night, right?”
“That tracks. What’s different?”
“Violent crime peaks at midnight.”
Mikey butts in. “Why can’t she just go in the blanket? It covers enough.”
Donatello rolls his eyes. “Mikey,” he sighs, “she’s a teenage girl walking around with her torso covered by a single conspicuous quilt. Let’s use our heads here.”
It takes him a minute. “So you’re worried about her getting, like, attacked?”
“… were you paying attention to any of the conversation? Or the lesson we just learned?”
“Dude,” he protests, “when do I ever?”
“What, you mean the one where y’all learned to face your fears or the one where talking about people in front of them is rude?”
The bitter edge to your words is not lost on him. “Look,” he reasons with you, “I-I’m not saying you’re incapable of taking care of yourself—”
“You are, but that’s not the point.”
“Shut up, Mikey.” You are surprised he did not punch him, though, admittedly, you can hardly argue the point. “What I mean is that if you put yourself in harm’s way, you’re going to get hurt.” He nods at Leo. “He’s a really experienced fighter and even he gets overwhelmed if he goes out of his way to do something reckless and dangerous like Karai.” He spits out her name like it is poisonous.
“Since when have you had a thing against Karai?”
The eldest brother sighs. “I’m never living that down, am I?”
“Unimportant, and nope. Point is,” he continues, fingers twitching at his sides, “it doesn’t make sense to tempt fate.”
You open your mouth to argue. You close it again. He has an extremely valid point all things considered, especially considering everything that has been happening, and although you are completely certain about your stance on him carrying you home, you would be lying if you said the idea of stumbling home without your walker or shirt sounds very appealing.
“Then what exactly are you suggesting?”
He looks off. “I’m suggesting she stays the night, Leo.”
Mikey blinks. “What, in your room or on the couch?”
“It would be up to her.”
That works for you. “Your home. You pick. Where do you keep your sewing supplies?” You slip out of the circle the four of you have formed.
“On top of the bookshelf,” he points. “Behind the cardboard box.”
You nod, hopping over.
Mikey offers his two cents. “It makes more sense for you two to share a room. It’s kinda cold in the front room, and you guys’ll probably end up going to bed at around the same time anyways. She also has your blanket.”
You stand on your toes, fingertips brushing against a plastic container.
“That’s a fair point.” You catch it before it cracks open on the ground. “Training starts pretty early, so she should have time to grab her things before school.”
“See? Foolproof plan.”
“Would Master Splinter approve?”
“Leo,” you call over your shoulder, “he’s slept over at my house twice already. I really doubt he cares.”
“But we don’t know.”
“Then you can go ask him.” You turn around. “Where’s the jacket?”
“In the cardboard box.” Donnie starts towards the train wreck on the tracks.
You pull it down, taking your shirt and jacket and sitting down, crossing your bad leg under the one you can use, despite the nausea. ‘Exposure therapy.’ “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
You feel a tap on your shoulder. You glance up at Mikey, who crouches down next to you as Leo waves to his brothers and leaves. “You need anything?”
He shakes his head. “Just wanted to hang out with you is all,” he shrugs. “You didn’t go after Donnie.”
“I didn’t,” you nod in agreement.
“Why?”
“Because car.” You unlatch the box, carefully digging around inside for some pins. “That, and the smell is bad enough from over here.”
He crosses his legs in front of him. “That’s fair.” He taps his foot absentmindedly. “You think he knows?”
“I thought I made it pretty damn clear,” you shrug, “but it’s Donnie, so I wouldn’t bet on it.”
He grins at that. “Then do you wanna hang out while you work on that out front? He isn’t exactly talkative when he gets in the zone.”
You shake your head. “If I do, I won’t get much done,” you admit. You unwind a long portion of the thread, snapping it apart. “Besides, the only way to get over a fear is to face it head-on.”
“Alright.” He hops to his feet. “Thought I’d ask. Have fun.”
”Bet,” you mumble through a bit tongue, shaky fingers making threading the needle almost impossible. “You too.”
“See ya.” He waves, running out of the lab.
You let out a breath, picking a piece of loose wire off of a table and creating a poor imitation of a threader. While you genuinely enjoy talking with Michelangelo, you have some things to think over.
Clumsy fingers start on a running stitch. If your timetable still holds true—which, surprisingly enough, it has thus far—the episode after next’s plot will take place in about three weeks. Your cast is coming off in two. You do not know where and when The Kraang are coming through their portal, or if there is any way for you guys to know, but seeing as you are skipping the episode where the turtles get stuck in a labyrinth under the assumption that, without Baxter being bullied by the Shredder and his goons, he has no reason to construct it, you would tentatively estimate the next episode will happen in about a week. You are still fairly sure that Stockman will not get involved with the Shredder without his input until Oroku finally opens his eyes to the dangers and powers of the Kraang, which should happen around the same time as the next episode.
Your eyes glaze over as you get into the groove of it. ‘The next episode is also when the guys get on Karai’s shit list because they betray her, and, if that happens, the episode where the Shredder starts getting involved with the Kraang and comes to appreciate their resources." You prick your finger. ‘It wouldn’t be long after that before Saki gets the idea to create a mutant army, and with Baxter already somewhat on the villainous map, our best chance to make sure he doesn’t end up under his employment is to…’
You wipe the sticky liquid on your jeans, careful of the bandages on your back. ‘It’s not a guarantee that he even knows Baxter exists.’ Your eyebrows furrow in concentration as you try to keep the stitches separated at equal distances. ‘Hell, it’s not a guarantee he’s even alive. Still, it’s better to air on the side of caution and not think about how you’ll have to do it until the time comes.’
You let out a soft sigh. “I’ll buy a gun, when that happens,” you murmur to yourself. “Just want more time where bodily harm is all I have to deal with is all.”
 --
 You slide your poorly stitched jacket over your shoulders under the blanket, pulling your sleeves into place and zipping it up. After folding the blanket up and draping it over your arm, you pull yourself to your feet, hopping over to Donatello and his death trap as he sat down, looking over his work. “How’re the repairs comin’?”
The two of you have not spoken for the three hours it took you to repair the jacket, and significantly more progress has been made on his end than yours. At the very least, the generally rectangular frame was pounded back into submission.
He looks over at you, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand and stifling a yawn. “Fine,” he sighs, looking back at the hulking mass of metal as you lower yourself down next to him. “It won’t blow up or anything if it’s driven, but it still needs another day’s worth of work to get it back to where it was before.” You nod along as he goes into more intimate detail, not understanding half of it, but happy to just listen to him talk resentfully about the whole process that you can tell he genuinely does not mind.
“Sounds like a time.” You rest your head on your good knee. “And you’re not gonna fix the graffiti?”
“It rubs off,” he shrugs. “Besides, it’s not exactly important to the design.”
Your head bends in a subtle nod, cheek numb from the pressure of your knee. “Are you going to sleep today?”
He shrugs. “Maybe? It wouldn’t be a bad idea.” His legs are almost crisscrossed in front of him, and he leans his weight back on his skinny, muscular arms. “I honestly don’t want to leave it alone, though. It would be weird to just leave it unfinished.
“Hardly, but alright.” You sit up for a moment, handing him back his quilt. “Thanks for giving me something to cover myself up with, and for not ditching me on a roof, and patching me up, and—I owe you, is what I’m getting at.”
He smiles tiredly. “Don’t worry about it, really,” he reassures you, his face flushing and muscles relaxing slightly. “You’ve made it up plenty.”
“I disagree. I’ve never saved your life.” You trace the fading lines on your cast his brother had left.
“I don’t think a ton of people would literally kill someone for me and my family,” he argues. “That’s pretty awesome, right?”
‘Not sure how I feel about framing murder as a positive thing.’ You do not say anything, looking back at his work.
He sighs. “You should go to bed,” he advises practically. “It’s getting late.”
“Never stopped you.” You straighten your legs. “I’ll go if you come with.”
“Tempting,” he teases with a sudden burst of confidence, hoping to his feet and outstretching his arm to help you up, “but what’s in it for me?”
Your face lights up as your face goes red at his borderline roguishness, taking his arm pulling yourself up. “For as much shit as you’re going to get for it,” you promise, pecking where his nose would be with an almost kittenish smile, “I’ll get up extra early, make everyone breakfast, and go topside for coffee.”
His face almost turns the shade of a human blush, forwardness gone in an instant. “C-can’t,” he stutters, clearly flustered. “When I was eleven, I got addicted to it and I’m not allowed to have any anymore.”
“Relatable,” you giggle. You blow the hair out of your face, comfortable as he helps you walk towards the door, the air between you two charged with electricity. “Is that for all caffeine or just coffee?”
He opens it for the two of you, ever the gentleman with the quilt over his shoulder. “Tea’s fine. Don’t bring tea down, though,” he quickly clarifies. “Leo’ll have a very inconspicuous fit.”
You blink curiously, looking up at him as he pulls you along. “Why?”
“It’s the one food thing he’s particular about,” he shrugs, not bothering to hide his gooey smile as you use his upper arm for support. “Couldn’t tell you why.”
“Are you particular about any foodstuff?”
“Not really?” He helps you up a few steps. “I’m not Mikey, but I don’t think I’m that picky about that sort of thing.”
“That’s fair.”
You do not let go of his arm to use the wall. You do not even think to if Donnie is reading your body language correctly. His smile widens as he opens the door for you.
You give a nod as thanks, lowering down onto the foot of his relatively narrow bed. “Alright,” you clap your hands together quietly as he sits next to you. “How do you wanna do this?”
You are sitting on his bed, willing, with no pretense other than sleeping getter. He is currently on cloud nine.
You look back at the frame. ”Too narrow for us to lay side by side,” you note. “You sleep on your front, meaning you will likely take up most of the room." You look between him and the bed, trying to imagine a position that would work. “You could lay on top of me, I guess, but then your legs would hang off the end.”
“I can sleep on my side,” he offers hurriedly. “If that makes things easier, I mean.”
“You sure?” Your fingers fumble with your shoelaces.
He nods eagerly. “S-so long as you still don’t mind being close to me, I mean. The bed’s still kinda narrow.”
You roll your eyes, smiling. “We’ve slept together before,” you reason. “If you wanted to pull anything, you would’ve the other two times.”
He glances off, face still red. “Y-yeah,” he rubs the back of his neck bashfully. “That makes sense.”
You gesture to the bed. “Then,” you nod once, “so long as you’re comfortable, you lay down. I’ll work from there.”
He tentatively lays himself down, facing the wall, tensing ever so slightly as you lay behind him, legs curling up under his thighs.
You lay your arm under your head as a pillow, the other pulling the blanket over the two of you. “This work,” you whisper, closing your eyes.
“Mhm,” he hums, covering his face with his hands. “We closed the door, right?”
You look back over. “Yup.”
“Locked it?”
“Seems so.”
He relaxes a bit. “Alright,” he nods, quietly reveling in the way your fingers, again, traced the indentations in his shell like the first night.
‘When I wake up tomorrow,’ he realizes, ‘she’ll be right there. Right behind me, in my bed. By choice.’ He smiles behind his fingers. ‘When we get older, maybe we could have our own place. Or our own room, more accurately, where she just lives with us. Imagine her moving in. If—no, when,’ he corrects himself, ‘we defeat The Shredder, if I ever get the nerve, I’ll ask her.’ He reaches his leg back, entangling it with yours carefully. ‘Would we have to get married first? No, you move in before you get married, right? I should’ve paid more attention during those movie marathons.’ He closes his eyes as you drift off, focusing on this train of thought. ‘How long do you need to be in a relationship before you get married? How would we get married, even? Legally, that would be impossible, right? I can’t go to a courthouse. And if we had a child—practically speaking, of course—would they live with us or go to a public school? We could give them a good education, I’m sure, but—’
You shift in your sleep, absently laying your arm over his side and pulling him closer.
He exhales, allowing himself to relax back into you. ‘Not tonight.’ He rests his hand on top of yours. ‘It’s too late, too soon.’ His thumb runs along the back of your hand, letting himself drift off in your arms.
‘It’ll be okay. We’ll last long enough to take it slow.’
Table of Contents
Chapter 13
Chapter 15
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serious question! how good (or bad) do you think magnus and rapha are with computers and such? imho magnus is very bad but he has magic to cover that and thus has less need for fancy tech; im a bit more conflicted abt rapha bc on one hand i laugh at the idea of old grandpa attitude and not knowing shit, but he does seem like he'd be curious abt shit advancing and changing so he'd try to keep at least a bit aware? thoughts?
ok so i have pretty much the exact opposite opinion. i think magnus can do alright - he's no expert on technology, mind you, but magnus strikes me as the kind of guy who would like to keep up with mundane technology. he's also an inventor, and he's endlessly curious about what these funky lil mundanes are putting together now, especially because they don't have magic so their options are so limited, and yet! they have means of doing almost everything magical ppl do, except for teleporting
plus we've seen him use some of the tech at the institute, and he does seem to know how to navigate that stuff alright. he seemed to be proficient enough with it. and i figure there are lots of warlocks and other ppl who are mixing up technology with magic and making amazing things, which again, i think magnus would be interested in - so yeah, he might not use it as much on his day to day life, but he knows how to use some of the stuff that they use, particularly new and practical things. plus, once you've lived long enough, you've learnt how important it is to keep up with the change of times; his life is a lot easier when he keeps up with the new technology that is being made, and just generally what is going on with culture and whatnot. i also think it helps him a bit with his immortality blues, feeling like he has connections to the world and belongs in it instead of being lost to its workings, you know?
raphael, on the other hand? he's a silent generationer. he's the generation of your grandpa or greatgrandpa depending on how old you are. do you know anyone from that generation who knows how to use a phone? why the hell would raphael be different? because he's a vampire? please
i mean honestly one of the reasons i think he's absolute shit crap with technology is because he wouldn't have had the time. while most modern technology was being invented, he was battling addiction, fighting a war against a genocidal maniac, and trying to deal with camille and his clan. when would he get an iphone? he doesn't need one anyway, he can use magic. or a good old real phone with the little disks that he can twirl or whatever
also, the fact that camille lays the whole old-timey aesthetic in the stupid clan so damn thick doesn't help. i'll be surprised if they even have that kind of phone tbh, although to be fair their lightning system was pretty sick. i know that once raphael becomes clan leader things change a little (read: i decided that it is so because he wants to make the clan a family so he makes the dumort look less like a supervillain's lair and more like a home) but still, he doesn't get phones
plus it's a generational thing imo. like i said, magnus is old enough to know by now that it's easier for him to keep up with the times, but raphael is still not old enough to have gotten this memo and he still kinda believes that this is his era and his generation, which i think is why so many ppl his age are reluctant to learn new technology. like they don't really want to feel like their time is gone, ya feel? also it is challenging as a whole because their generation in particular went from times where new technological inventions were far and in between to a time when there is something completely new being released every five seconds, so that must be hard. but the point is, raphael is at a phase of his immortal life where he doesn't see the need to learn that stuff and might even lowkey refuse to out of spite (because rapha strikes me as a total grandpa tbh, which, i mean - he is. "damn kids and their phones, every time i think i got the hang of it they hit me with some new stuff, and why does that stuff break so much anyway?" simon, patting him on the back: you'll get used to it)
(sidenote: please imagine raphael as the candy crush grandma. you're welcome)
(raphael getting into a skype call and filming his forehead in that funny little position old guys use....... bye)
and then he expects magnus to get it but magnus is like "it's actually quite simple, my boy, you just need to get used to it. now what you need to understand is the nature of the software..." and raphael is horrified because it never occurred to him that magnus is one of Them, but of course he is because when raphael lived with him he was up with their times' technology. shit
and in short yeah that is my take. and over time rapha gets over it and learns the value of keeping up with technology but he is very reluctant and salty about it for a few years/decades
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