#i might break these up later but for now one post is probably easier to deal with? idk i haven't done this before

[cupcakeslushie]

Alrighty, you’ve all been asking for it and here it is. I hope this timeline of what’s basically the first two seasons, makes following the comic easier. Which speaking of—obviously there will be spoilers for the future of the comic, so if you want to continue on reading that with blinders I would just ignore this completely or you could only read up to the prologue end where what’s been released catches up. And obviously the “filler episodes” might not make it into the comic—I’ll probably just get by on those being simple one shots or something, but I wanted to include all my thoughts.

This is really mostly for the ppl who want all that lore now. Or the ones who don’t want to go through a thousand pages of unorganized text posts 😜

Big Freaking Timeline for Empyrean Weeping Separated AU

Pre-Prologue

Many Generations ago…

The Leader of the Foot Clan [name lost to time] made a deal with an oni for power and was sealed inside his own armor. He turned his clan to the ways of murdering innocents and pillaging villages to spread their control. He quickly gained the name the Shredder. Hamato Karai, daughter to the Shredder, created her own clan to fight them. After many years of the two clans warring, Karai was able to banish the oni, killing her father. The power behind the armor was destroyed, leaving it as basically nothing more than ornamentation for each new leader of the Foot to inherit.

Karai sealed the demon in the twilight realm, but was killed by the demon’s final blow.

Many years later….

Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki are born into the still warring clans. Hamato Sho, grandfather to Yoshi, struck down Saki’s parents in revenge for them killing his daughter, Atsuko. He then took their infant son Saki and raised him alongside Yoshi, telling the two they were brothers, hoping that one day this would lead to a path of uniting the two clans.

Yoshi and Saki grew up together, trained in the art of ninjutsu, but Yoshi left to become an actor. Saki found out the truth of his parentage, and he embraced the Foot clan’s bloody path. He swore revenge on Yoshi and the entire Hamato clan.

Yoshi meets Big Mama on the set of Crouching Shrimp Hidden Tiger Prawn and the two date for a few years but break up.

Yoshi ran into his old childhood friend Tang Shen and the two began a romance, got married, and had a baby girl—they named her Karai after Yoshi’s great ancestor.

Big Mama kidnapped Yoshi from his wife and daughter, and kept him trapped in the Battle Nexus as her champion. Saki, not realizing Yoshi was gone, attacked Teng Shen, but found Karai in the fire and took her.

For five years (I know the creators said ten but idk that’s just way too long imo) Yoshi fought in Big Mama’s Nexus, until taken by Draxum.

Yoshi broke out during Draxum’s experiment and grabbed the four turtles he saw. As he’s escaping he dropped the soft-shell, but thanks to the fire and debris, was blocked from doubling back to rescue it, forced to leave it behind.

Draxum was left with a destroyed lab and only two of his five test subjects; Three—the male soft shell turtle, and Five—the female box shell turtle. Five was much too weak to live on her own, so Draxum was forced to keep her in a coma, confined to a healing vat. He worked on rebuilding his destroyed lab, and raised Three with the intention of training him to be a great warrior in the fight to save the yokai. As Three grew, Draxum was already impressed by the intelligence he saw from Three, but was not too pleased with the lack of interest Three showed for combat training. Still Draxum would work with what he had, and if nothing else, having access to Three’s blood meant at least he wasn’t starting from scratch. The boy was smart, and helpful in the lab. For eight years Draxum trained Three and helped nurture his mind. Draxum even found a way to get wider access to Empyrean, and was really able to continue his work, but the effects of working with the Empyrean….

Prologue beginning

Under the Cut

Five years after Splinter saved the turtles he could (Raph:7, Leo:6, Mikey:5). He brings them topside, having no choice but to do a food run with them all—unfortunately the Foot finds them, and Leo and Mikey get captured.

On the way, Leo is able to injure the nin holding him and Mikey enough that he drops Mikey. Leo ordered Mikey to run, while he struggled to keep the Foot Soldier from recapturing him.

Mikey left Leo behind and ran to hide in the alleyway behind Big Mama’s hotel, where he’s later found and taken in by the spider yokai, who finds Michael adorable and interesting enough to hold her attention for now.

Leo is taken before the Shredder, and Saki decides to raise Leo instead of killing him. He trained Leo to be Karai’s(10) bodyguard and demanded Kitsune use her mystic spells to bend Leo’s memories and mind so he became the perfect soldier.

One Year After Separation

Raph(8) meet April(9) and the two became best friends. Splinter begins training them both in ninjutsu so they can protect themselves from any surprise Foot Clan attacks.

Two Years After Separation

Three(8) developed an idea for a drill that Draxum took and employed to begin a secret way of mining empyrean without drawing the attention of the Hidden City Police. As the years passed, his experiments on Three became more and more depraved. The stress and torture caused a lot of strain on Three’s mind.

Three continued his work on Five’s body, convinced he can create something that will allow her to live outside her tank.

Overseas Saki ran the Japanese branch of the Foot, and ordered the destruction of a hidden yokai village. Usagi Miyamoto(9) is taken hostage and begins lessons with Leo(8) and Karai(12).

Four Years Post Separation

Saki returned (with his odd gaggle of child soldiers) to lead the US branch of the Foot Clan.

Five Years Post Separation—(ONE YEAR BEFORE SEASON ONE)

Usagi(14) finally escaped the Foot Clan

Big Mama grew bored of raising Michael(12) and threw him into her Battle Nexus. (First Actual page of the comic)

Big Mama and Draxum cut a secret deal, once he learned she has his Fourth subject. He offered Five to Big Mama as a go-between on the grounds that she will report Four’s status in the Nexus back to Draxum, but in the interim Big Mama may use her however she desires.

Three(13) began making shock collars for Big Mama with the demand that they will never be used on his brother, and that he got to see the weekly footage of Four’s Nexus fights.

Draxum met with the Foot clan and began providing Saki with empyrean in exchange for weapons. He saw Two(13) there, under the Shredder’s command. Draxum brings Three with him from then on, to gauge just how deep Two’s loyalty to the Foot Clan ran.

In that year of dealing with Saki, Three talked excessively to Leo any chance he got in the maybe four or five times they met, but was not provided with much of a response.

Usagi, with nowhere else to go, signed up for a few fights in Big Mama’s Nexus. He meets Mikey. Out of all the jerk contenders, the two actually like each other well enough. They’re as friendly as two people that may someday fight to the death would be.

After frequently running into each other, April(15) and Raph(14) got Casey(15) to give up her role as a Foot recruit and join their side. She gets the idea to become a double agent, and is now always sneaking out to meet them and be, in her own words, “a badass vigilant”.

After a few months fighting in the Nexus Usagi left and spent a few weeks on the streets before sneaking into Run of the Mill Pizza and getting caught by Hueso. The skeleton offered a safe place for Usagi to stay.

One night while patrolling, just the two of them, April(16) and Raph(15) see Mayhem get taken and April chased after just before the portal closed. Raph went to Splinter for help and the two headed off to the Hidden City. Before they can make it to Draxum’s lab, they spot Mikey(13), fighting in the Nexus, on one of the massive view screens.

After recovering April who’s basically saved herself and Mayhem without Draxum being any the wiser. Raph and Splinter brought her back home and then quickly returned to the HC and requested an audience with Big Mama.

Splinter dropped to his knees and begged to make a deal. He would fight Big Mama’s current champion if he could have his son back. Raph cut in that he would be the one to fight, and Big Mama accepted.

Raph fought a host of contenders before Big Mama revealed that he would face off against Mikey, who didn’t seem to recognize his big brother or father. Raph managed to grab Mikey in a bear-hold and got him to listen long enough for Mikey to remember the night they were separated. He and Raph and Splinter cried and hugged and Mikey confronted Big Mama to announce that he would be leaving with his family and that he would not fight for her any more.

Big Mama remained stoic and cold, taking the news rather well, until alone in her office. In a fit of rage she screamed and even threw a few glasses at the wall before she called for Five, who she had named Venus(13).

Big Mama gave Venus the footage for the previous week of Mikey’s fights. Along with the news that it would be the end of her and Three’s deal since Mikey was now gone.

Venus returned to Draxum’s lab and ran immediately into Three(14). Three, upset by the news that he would not be getting the most recent footage Big Mama had, and that their deal was ending, became upset and his yelling drew the attention of Draxum.

Draxum locked him up for a week before he allowed Venus to release her brother. Finally Venus sat Three down and began to tell him that Mikey is now with One and Lou Jitsu.

Quick Cut—Shredder has noticed that Kitsune’s magic on Leo’s(14) mind seems weaker, and demands more exposure to the empyrean. With a demon under his control, and Karai as the perfect successor, the Foot Clan will be unstoppable, and he will finally have the ultimate revenge on Hamato Yoshi.

Mikey returns to the lair with Raph and Splinter where he meets April. He’s shy, but content. Later, when in bed Mikey’s thoughts do wander to worries that his family may one day grow bored of him, just like Big Mama did. Mikey falls into an uneasy sleep.

SEASON ONE

Leo day after day as Second in Command of the Foot Clan finds his mind harder to focus lately. Something about the two turtles he keeps running into on missions plus the odd, manic one that always accompanies Draxum during his deals with Master Shredder. They seem to scratch an itch in Leo’s brain that just won’t go away.

Leo runs into Raph and Mikey and April long enough for them to finally try to talk, but . But Tigerclaw interrupts and takes Leo away when he refuses to fight his brothers.

Later when Leo is kneeling before Saki, Leo finds his Master isn’t pleased that he failed to kill their enemies when he had the perfect opportunity. Saki punishes Leo far more severely than he has in years. Casey, who knows Leo is in danger, fetches Usagi from his job at Run of the Mill, and Mikey meets them in the alley with the idea to go to Big Mama for the fastest route to Saki’s private compound and save Leo just in time.

Leo spends the next few months recovering and reluctantly staying in the lair, smart enough to know that returning to his Master would be a death sentence. Eventually his memories that were tampered with start to slowly return and he feels deeply the need to protect Mikey. Unfortunately his hatred for Splinter doesn’t seem to be dissipating and he spends a lot of time butting heads with Raph. He sees April’s skill and is impressed. He ignores Casey and refuses to see her as anything but a traitor.

Eventually his family grows comfortable enough to let him have more freedom, and Leo begins to join them on patrol.

While out one night, Leo cuts down a whole squad of Foot ninja when Mikey gets badly hurt. Raph is pretty shaken up and Splinter bans Leo from patrolling with the team, until he can learn to use less lethal methods.

One day, Splinter brings Leo into the dojo and shows his son the old shrine that was made for him and Mikey.

Splinter then shows Leo the weapons hung next to the shrine.

(Excerpt from notes app lol)

Splinter looked at the wall as he spoke. “Raphael and Michelangelo have already chosen their own. I always planned to gift these to you boys. Seeing how effortlessly you used to copy me when I practiced myself. I’d be honored for you to carry a piece of the Hamato clan with you.”

Leo mirrored Splinter’s gaze and stared straight ahead, not knowing how to feel about that bit of information. Regardless he found it easy to keep his tone detached.

“Shredder had me master a number of weapons. But I’ve always been best with my katana.”

Splinter chuckles with a fondly, sad smile. “Hm, yes. You were always most eager to swing around anything you could when you boys played. And would pretend to stab Raphael in the gut whenever he offered to play the role of the big scary dragon.”

Stoicism was now perhaps a bit harder. Still Leo would not allow himself to show any weakness over something so trivial as a tale he didn’t even remember.

“It would be foolish to trust your enemy with such a deadly weapon.”

Finally Splinter took his eyes off the wall and faced Leo. The terrapin refused to return the courtesy, but Splinter wasn’t deterred by the cold shoulder.

“You are not an enemy. You are my son.” Leo was slightly shocked at how easily Splinter claimed him. The rat spoke as surely as if he was simply reading facts from one of those dusty old scrolls he had tried to get Leo to read. A (poor) early attempt to reintroduce Leo to the great and honorable Hamato Clan. Perhaps his father had hoped it would be one possible way to cut through all the lies that Saki had spent years filling his son’s head with. Leo had not gotten very far into the literature before tossing it aside in frustration.

The rat continued on, still not once wavering. “The katana has always been a weapon of honor. I trust you to use them well, in the service of protecting this city and your brothers.”

Leo grew pensive—it was like viewing a weapon he’s cast his eyes on a million times in a new light. It had been a few years since Leo had heard something rather similar.

Only one other person in Leo’s entire life had spoken to him of honor in regards to the blade.

The slider tried not to think of the boy he hadn’t even seen in years. Now that he’s not so far under Saki spell, Leo could recognize the lump of coal that sat heavy in his stomach as guilt. Just the small reminder of the rabbit set it immediately ablaze.

Leo’s not sure why only now the idea of honor moved something in him, but since first waking up in the lair, and the months he’s spent with his actual, true family. The slider had found his thoughts more open to wandering and engaging with ideas that he would’ve never entertained while under Master Shredder.

Splinter continued quickly, seeing some kind of headway in the more and more open look that grew on Leo’s face. “These have been in our family for generations. And even though you boys were apart, It seems fate of some kind has paired you to each of these.”

He paused just a moment to chuckle sadly as if a stray thought suddenly occurred, “I do wonder, with you choosing the Katana. That just leaves the Bō. I’m curious how your brother Donatello would have wielded it. A simple weapon but in the right hands it can be most versatile.”

“Donatello?” Leo searched the bits of stray memories that had returned to him these last few months, but in none of them, he recalled seeing a third brother. Splinter’s words had him beyond confused, and a little worried that he had even more lost memories to regain.

Splinter looked embarrassed over the clear confusion his rambling had caused to suddenly shatter the previous air.

“Ah….yes. Forgive me. I did not wish to overwhelm you when you first arrived, but I suppose now you are ready to hear about how you were created. How Draxum—“

“Draxum?!”

Season One Midpoint

Draxum decides to finally hold another meeting with Shredder after a few months. Three now finds out that Two has ran away after failing in a mission. When he returns to his lab, Three activates the tracker he secretly placed on Two and is beyond shocked to see him in the company of One and Four.

Three suffers a serious break when he sees them with April, and thinks he’s been replaced by a human. As the final straw shatters his control, Three attacks them all in an attempt to get answers and find out why they all seemed so happy together while he was left alone. After an intense fight, Raph manages to grab Three and Leo knocks him out, so they can take him back to the lair.

Donnie spends the next few months getting used to living with his family.

Raph and Leo continue to get into frequent arguments. Leo’s anger only seems to be getting worse. Mikey tries to keep the peace and does his best to keep the lair running smoothly. Leo takes his anger out on Mikey and immediately feels bad.

Tide Pod bros themed episode. Leo apologizes to Mikey for yelling at him. They bond while doing something silly.

April and Casey start dating. Hypno and Warren episode (plot tbd but they keep interrupting the girls’ first date)

Donnie starts constructing his lab and finally seems like he’s developing a stronger relationship with Leo. The two come up with the whole ‘twin’ idea and agree to share a birthday.

Mikey and Raph have a fun bonding episode (Maybe either Meat Sweats or Stockboy)

Venus runs into the family while out on a mission for Big Mama. Donnie tries to talk with her but she remains silent and shows no mercy in attacking him. Later Donnie explains who she is to the fam and the brothers promise him they’ll find a way to bring her home.

April, Raph, Donnie run into the Purple Dragons while incognito at a tech store that Donnie really wanted to go to. Donnie is beyond impressed by them, but Raph is wary. April warns the boys the Purple Dragons are trouble. But Donnie doesn’t listen, and fights with April then to spite her, asks to join their group. They let him in after he shows off his tech and eventually Donnie discovers that April was right. She helps Donnie take back his tech that was stolen, but the Dragons get away. Donnie apologizes for the way he’s treated April since joining the family and the two gain a better understanding.

Leo and Raph argue one night and it’s so bad that Leo takes off. While out he gets recaptured by the Foot and Saki holds him for weeks at his secret compound. Leo sees visions of his long dead ancestor Karai who tries to help him through the constant torture, but thanks to Saki merging Kitsune’s magic with the empyrean, Leo’s mind is falling further than ever under the Shredder’s control.

Season One Finale

When the family finds Leo, he is trapped in a new type of mystic armor and doesn’t even seem to recognize them, viciously attacking them. He takes out everyone but Raph, and when he goes after his oldest brother, he almost manages to take him out as well, but Karai comes to Raph in a vision and helps walk Raph through the ancient ritual she created to banish the empyrean from Leo’s mind. Now free the two then take on Shredder, before grabbing their family and retreating. Family also learns about Karai being Splinter’s daughter.

Season Two

Twins’ Birthday episode for season premiere! Home once again, Leo finds he’s much calmer, only growing angry for shorter and less frequent bouts. And now that the family knows what’s causing it, they can work on controlling it. Donatello informs Leo that he and Draxum were the ones responsible for providing the Shredder with the empyrean, but Leo doesn’t care and tells Donnie not to worry about it. They enjoy their first real birthday with the whole family.

Another run in with Venus while Donnie is out with Mikey. This time Donnie tries his best to explain that he never wanted to leave her behind, and wants her to come back to the lair with him. Venus looks unsure, but refuses and retreats. Mikey&Venus twin reveal.

Leo and Raph gain a new understanding and grow closer. They settle into co-leading the team.

Leo, April, and Donnie have a fun episode together. Raph and Casey vigilante B plot. Splinter and Mikey want to watch their shows but the Wi-Fi is not working, with Donnie gone, they accidentally destroy the lair attempting to fix it.

April and Casey try again for a second date that once again keeps getting interrupted by goofy stuff. This time by the boys.

Rat Flu episode

The gang run into a salamander mutant named Mona and have to stop her from stealing a big jewel from a museum. Raph is pretty smitten when she manages to surprise him by taking him down easily and escaping.

Purple Dragons episode (plot tbd) but something akin to the Fourfold Trap from tmnt!2012

Donnie manages to convince the family to try and repeat the very same ritual Raph did on Leo, on Draxum. They reluctantly agree, as long as Donnie goes through it as well. He agrees and they come up with a plan to capture Draxum.

Season Two Midpoint

Venus agrees to join them temporarily, and helps them take down Draxum long enough to get him back to the lair. In the middle of the ritual, Mikey’s mystic powers activate and somehow manage to link Donnie and Draxum’s minds, pulling the boys in and letting them see all the horrible things Three went through. They run into the darker hallucination versions of themselves that Donnie always sees and have to make a run for it when they’re attacked. Then they meet an adorable, little Three who guides them deeper into the mental link where they finally see Draxum, who looks worse for wear and cries upon seeing the small, child version of Three.

The ritual works and Draxum is purged of most of the empyrean, when the boys are pulled out however, they realize it didn’t work on Donnie for some reason. Donnie doesn’t seem bothered and is just excited about what the ritual working on Draxum means, but Draxum is too ashamed to face anyone and makes a run for it while the boys are distracted.

The boys and April have a fun day enjoying the snow, but get into it when they can’t agree on whether Lou Jitsu or Jupiter Jim is better. Raph and Mikey are on team Lou and Leo and April on team JJ, Donnie who can’t decide, keeps switching back and forth.

The gang spends a day in the Hidden City and ends it by attending a show where the lead singer is a shockingly loud, spunky female turtle. The boys are confused to see another mutant turtle, but Donnie promises Draxum only had files on the Five of them, and is convinced she must be a yokai. The band gets attacked by some of Big Mama’s goons and the gang rush in to help. After everything is settled the female turtle introduces herself to the gang as Jennika and vows to repay the boys for saving her.

Karai episode (plot tbd)

Leo, Raph and Splinter all have trouble accepting the new Draxum so Mikey as Dr Feelings has the bright idea to spend a fun day touring New York. April comes up with a scavenger hunt but it quickly goes off the rails thanks to Big Mama (not exactly Battle Nexus: New York, more like a mix between the Hidden City episodes and then the start of the BN:NY ep)

(Now closer to the actual BN:NY ep) The whole family gets taken prisoner by Big Mama, who reveals her grand plan to have Raph and Mikey battle it out to see who will be her new champion. They win by outsmarting her and the last shot is her looking very disheveled and angry. As a last resort she calls a contact from deep in the underbelly of the Hidden City. A man covered with bandages, who looks practically like a corpse, emerges from the shadows and asks how he can help.

Leo asks Usagi to join him on a vision quest and the two leave for Japan via portal, where Usagi knows of a place that is said to provide those worthy with great inner peace. Usagi-centered episode. We get to see his village which Leo and Usagi are shocked to find out has been rebuilt in the years he’s been gone.

Season Two Finale

Donnie’s side effects from the empyrean are growing worse and he begins to research in secret the origins of the mystic substance. In his desperation for answers Donnie ignores an alert for a 317-39.4 that comes up right as he’s made a huge discovery. Not wanting to stop just as he’s found something big Donnie takes off without telling his brothers. His findings bring him to the Crying Titan where he discovers the source of the empyrean, the skeleton, inside. But before he can attempt to investigate further he’s stopped by the appearance of a young boy calling himself Casey Jones Junior, and his hooded companion. The companion warns Donnie that unless he wants to lose an eye, he shouldn’t get any closer to the creature. Donnie is skeptical, but heeds the warning, especially when the boy tells him they’ve come back from the future to help and uses a special code Donnie developed during a late night bout of insomnia driven boredom.

Donnie takes the new strangers back to the lair where Raph and Mikey are both upset over Donnie’s disappearance. Raph says they could’ve used his help fighting Warren Stone and Hypno, who managed to make off with robbing some old artifact. Donnie admits to ignoring that alert in favor of his research and Raph grows even more upset.

The hoodie figure declares to the boy that they’ve arrived too late and the two future strangers tell the family that they’ve come to stop the Kraang and that they need to call Leo back home. They will need everyone if they’re going to stop the end of the world.

MOVIE TIME

Haha jk no major spoilers quite yet.

#rottmnt #separated au #sep!au infodump #rottmnt separated au #rise of the tmnt #rise leo #rise donnie #rise raph #rise mikey #rise april #rise splinter #leonardo hamato #michelangelo hamato #raphael hamato #donatello hamato #april o'neil #Casey jones #karai #shredder #big mama #rise venus #venus de milo

[arandomperson5647]

Encanto info from Jared Bush's Q&As

This is a little place where you can find (hopefully) a lot of info Jared has said in his Q&As. This is if you wanna check smth and don't wanna go on a hunt to confirm it since it's been so long. Idk if I got everything, I highly doubt I did, so if you have a piece of info I don't have and have a link to it, I can edit it on. Ngl I'm also kinda doing this for myself cuz I was curious to know everything he's told us. I'll mostly summarize the answer so it isn't longer than it needs to be, but I'll also copy+paste if I'm too lazy.

The info here kinda varies from interesting, to obvious stuff, to potentially pointless but really any of it can be used to do whatever.

Some of the answers he provided aren't concrete solid ("I think __ would happen", "I always thought ___", etc), so take this all with a grain of salt. I'll try to phrase the uncertain ones differently so you know they're not 100% (probably, possibly, might, etc). If the answer he gives is completely up to interpretation, then I won't include it. Some might be repeated cuz I don't feel like looking back to see if he answered the same question twice.

Just to warn you guys before you click "keep reading", this is a LONG post, so if you don't want it fill up your page, don't click it unless you really wanna read everything.

Antonio's Birthday Q&A #2 (5/21/23)

Canon universe:

Dolores never truly believed Bruno was still around. She heard stuff, but everyone told her he was gone, so she thought she was imagining things. "I knew he never left" was her way of saying "I shouldn't have doubted myself."

Antonio was a shy kid and animals are were easier for him to make friends with.

The potteries in Bruno's room were because it was fairly public for people who want visions, so they're probably a nod to that.

When Pedro went to the attackers when he died, he was planning to reason with them.

Luisa's associated with donkeys because they’re beasts of burden and that’s how everyone treated her.

Mirabel has her embroidery because she loves her family, but potentially also because she subconsciously want to make sure the villagers know despite having no gift she is every bit a Madrigal.

Isabela might potentially secretly like Pepa's chaos.

Julieta's really good at hiding her feelings about the pressure of being the town's healer, but she's also a naturally strong person.

There's a reason why Bruno's single but Jared didn't tell us.

Bruno's favorite food is Ajiaco, but potentially also big butt ants.

Julieta probably noticed Mirabel wasn't in the pic at Antonio's ceremony immediately after it was taken, but Mirabel had already left by then.

For a while, Bruno's limit for future seeing was until the fall of Castia, but now it's limitless.

Alma didn't necessarily approve of Agustín at first because he wasn't overly spectacular or confident.

Mirabel and Camilo got along well when they were young, but after Mirabel's ceremony, Camilo felt more pressure to perform and show off.

Even before his gift, Bruno probably worried and wondered about the future, which is what caused his gift.

The Madrigals mostly assumed Bruno had somehow left the Encanto after his disappearance.

The birth of the miracle happened near the turn of the 20th century, and Antonio's ceremony was 50 years later.

The 5th birthdays for the Madrigals is the big one. The others are "regular".

Camilo often annoys Isabela for fun and also because he's a bit envious of her. They're kinda opposite, perfect vs a clown.

The post-movie relationship between Mirabel and Isabela is probably mischevious.

Bruno probably already was breaking from pressure when Isabela was only in single digits.

Alma was loving to all her grandchildren, but sometimes it felt conditional due to her expectations. She wasn't self-aware enough to realize.

Félix can play the tiple, but not shown in the film.

Agustín and Félix probably wore their respective colors before marrying their respective wives. Their colors are also a nod to regionality.

Alma might've seen cracks before Mirabel saw them at Antonio's ceremony (not at the moment tho), giving her a reason to actually believe Mirabel and pray to Pedro.

Based off the book "Mystery in the Rainforest", Dolores and Mariano are engaged and planning a wedding soon.

There is a school in the Encanto, but since it's closed off and was formed in the beginning of the 20th century, new info would cease.

Pedro might've been the one to know sewing and embroidery. He taught it to Alma, who taught Julieta and Mirabel. She probably taught others but Mirabel did it the most.

Bruno's door might've started glowing again during his vision in Antonio's room because Mirabel is making him feel included in the family (and therefore Casita) again.

The Madrigals do have friends groups, just not shown.

Camilo's gift can be tiring. Like an actor playing their part.

Mirabel probably would've had a negative or even traumatic impact from the fall of Castia, mostly due to a near death experience.

The Madrigals have never tested their gifts beyond the Encanto, so it's still a mystery on what happens.

Antonio probably can talk to animals from different countries, not just Colombia.

Camilo sometimes tries to impress everyone with his gift.

Mirabel's birthday became "stressful" ever since her 5th.

Isabela would probably help Antonio decorate his room with crazy plants.

Behind the scenes:

5/21 is Afro-Colombian Day, which is why that's Antonio's bday.

There used to be a deleted scene of Mirabel getting grounded by Casita.

The Guzmans originally had the same number of family members as the Madrigals, and each member was like a doppelgänger of each gifted Madrigal child, except Mirabel, who was represented in the Guzman family by a goat.

There used to be a scene where Camilo's gift goes haywire at night or smth (can't figure out the full pic for this one).

Writers considered early on that Mirabel would want to leave, but they decided that from a character and cultural perspective, leaving her family would have been the absolute worst thing she could imagine.

It's never been established how long the ceremony doors appear before the ceremony, but 9 months has been considered.

Early versions would show that Alma had strict parents. It may or may not be true now, but it would make sense.

Mirabel used to have a gap in her teeth to show her quirkiness, but was removed because they wanted to show it in other ways.

Encanto Disney+ Hollywood Bowl Q&A (12/28/22)

Cannon universe:

Emotions can sometimes affect Bruno's visions.

Camilo often helped take care of babies even before Antonio's birth. He was just naturally good with them.

The stairs in Bruno's room probably grew as he became more distanced, so they probably lessened when Casita came back.

Luisa's favorite sister is probably Mirabel.

Camilo would probably sometimes be happy that Isabela found her true self, while also a bit jealous. It depends on the moment.

The Madrigals' reaction to someone entering the Encanto would probably be chaotic.

As a way to protect them, Alma was always a little strict on her family.

Julieta and Agustín often worried how Mirabel was doing, especially for Antonio's ceremony.

Alma tried to show she loved Mirabel in her own way after her ceremony and before the movie.

Camilo's experience being the only boy in the house for a while was...interesting. Not the easiest.

Pepa and Dolores' gifts have caused some difficulties between the two.

Especially post-movie, Bruno, Agustín and Félix would be a ridiculous trio.

The candle is now gone, but a new miracle took its place.

Félix and Mirabel have a good relationship, especially post-movie.

Isabela's 5th birthday was the first gift ceremony for the grandchildren.

Bruno was probably superstitious before moving in the walls.

Before the house fell, Alma probably wouldn't like Dolores marrying Mariano. After, she'd accept it.

The other Madrigals might have hidden potential in their gifts, much like Isabela did.

The townspeople mostly either put the Madrigals on a high pedestal or see them as equals.

Isa probably had at least one flower she'd intentionally give Mirabel allergies with.

Bruno was probably a bit popular at one point.

Adopted Madrigal kids that were 6+ would probably still get a gift.

Mirabel's near-sighted.

Camilo's probably gotten in trouble for his disguises at times.

Bruno's mostly a rat guy because he's around them the most.

Pepa has a sweet tooth but doesn't let her self have too much due to her weather.

Isabela can grow trees and crops.

There's no definite reason why Isa was the favorite grandchild, but being the eldest didn't help.

When Alma said "the magic is strong, and so are the drinks", she was really trying to get everyone back to the party.

The gifts can tire out the Madrigals if used a lot, sometimes physical pain can occur.

Alma might have siblings, but it's not confirmed.

Behind the scenes:

There used to be a scene of Mirabel getting grounded. Idk if it's the same scene as the previous one mentioned, but the context of the question might suggest otherwise. ("What would've happened to Mirabel if she was found after the dinner?")

There were versions in the end credits of everyone reuniting with Bruno.

There is potential for a Madrigal with OCD, autism, etc, but not yet confirmed.

Triplet's Birthday Q&A (8/17/23)

Cannon universe:

Bruno and the grandkids now watch telenovelas together.

Julieta's favorite food is probably ajiaco.

Mirabel's first word would potentially be "sita" because she loved Casita but couldn't say the full word.

Dolores' room has a lot of soundproofing.

The reason Mirabel seems to interact with Castia the most out of the Madrigals is because she was mostly an outsider, with only Casita to talk to.

Encanto is a hidden place, so simply finding it is near impossible.

There are respected town elders in Encanto, but Alma is considered the founder.

Pedro said something to Alma before he died, potentially in Spanish, but it's not confirmed what.

In terms of personality, Mirabel is the closest to Pedro.

For adoptive kids, Casita may be able to anticipate the arrival of someone new even before the family is consciously aware of it, giving them a new door.

Bruno's a fan of chocolate.

Mirabel loves every color. She has no known favorite.

Julieta got married first between her and Pepa.

Bruno's rats aren't sentient like humans, so Bruno would have to train them to do whatever.

It's possible another Madrigal felt resentment towards Bruno after he left.

Julieta's gift possibly only works with a combo of cooking and giving, but not confirmed.

Bruno learned how to use his gift through practice and invented customs. It was complicated.

Julieta probably needs to know the person's injury before healing it.

The majority of the Madrigals' dominate hands are right. Julieta and Antonio are left handed. Luisa is ambidextrous. It's unsure, but Mirabel is potentially left handed.

Mirabel's favorite food is arepa con queso.

Antonio's favorite snack is nailed rice.

Agustín and Félix have jobs in the town, but not confirmed what.

In a book, it was mentioned that Bruno was the golden child of the family. He probably fell from that position in his late teens.

Agustín's favorite meal from Julieta is chocolate santafereño.

Gifts can possibly be repeated, but not in the same generation.

The refugees/townspeople had brought everything from home they used to start farming when the Encanto formed.

Isabela and Mariano still have a good relationship after the movie. Neither were too wild about the engagement.

The bedrooms can change if their owner wants them to.

The gift ceremonies will now be different without a candle.

Madrigals still do the traditional quinceañera.

The Encanto doesn't have electricity.

Bruno has left the walls a few times for a break.

Isabela will probably keep switching up her outfit now that she can.

Luisa has always felt protective of Mirabel.

Behind the scenes:

Casita used to have shown that it has only 1 bathroom, which was located in the back right corner under Bruno's tower.

There was a deleted scene where Julieta yelled at Alma in front of the entire town after Mirabel went missing.

Julieta is the one singing w/ Mirabel during the "constellations glow/the seasons change in turn" lyric.

There used to be a version of Bruno using water with his vision.

The line said by Mirabel, "Even in our darkest moments there's light where you least expect it" was cut after Lin Manuel Miranda wrote Dos Oruguitas and the emotional thrust of Mirabel’s words needed to evolve to encompass what she’d just learned.

There was a Waiting on a Miracle reprise that was cut because they felt they didn't need it.

The concept of a new door appearing was considered to start with the doorknob.

No one intervened during Alma and Mirabel's argument because the writers felt that it was Mirabel's moment to shine.

VERY early on, Bruno (then known as Oscar) was Mirabel's estranged cousin.

Indestructibility was a gift they wanted to use. It was actually Pepa's original gift.

Dolores' Birthday Q&A (8/31/22)

Cannon universe:

People in Isabela's position wouldn't really have the chance to have authentic relationships because they're hiding their true self. This could potentially apply to Isa herself.

Before Mirabel's ceremony, her family was excited for her. After, the family’s ability to see Mirabel clearly was too obscured by their unhealthy dynamics but were probably unaware of that until Mirabel brought it to light.

Bruno's oversized clothing was by personal preference, potentially because of his awkward nature.

Before Isabela showed up in Bruno's vision, another person was there, who is possibly a young Alma. While not confirmed, it is implied in Jared's answer.

Félix and Agustín already had gifts, just not in a way that others could see.

Isabela lets herself break the rules, so while not confirmed, it's possible she could recreate mythical plants.

The town probably functions like a combination of where everyone came from.

The triplets used to have little meetings in Bruno's room when they were little.

Behind the scenes:

There used to be a scene where Bruno revealed he had a secret elevator in his room.

Agustín's Birthday Q&A (6/19/22)

Cannon universe:

Part of what fuels the miracle is unconditional love. When Mirabel and Isa showed that during What Else can I Do?, it affected the magic.

Julieta often gives people the food they like rather than something random.

For a long time, Isabela was the favorite grandchild for Alma. Before her ceremony, Mirabel was. After Casita's rebuild, many dynamics changed.

Agustín was born in the Encanto, but his family was from a city, so he was raised with the city-vibe.

Luisa's favorite food is bandeja paisa.

Every gift can be affected by emotions in some way.

Casita probably helped Bruno hide, but not confirmed.

If Mirabel and Bruno decided to leave the Encanto after Casita fell, the entire family would've fallen apart.

The only people in the Encanto were the ones who traveled with Alma. They all got there at the same time, no one got in or out.

Behind the scenes:

There used to be an exit for Bruno's wall room behind the family tree, but it wasn't used.

Antonio's Birthday Q&A (5/21/22)

Cannon universe:

Mirabel's canonically 5'2.

Mirabel has good relationships with Pepa and Félix. Félix loves everyone and likes hanging out with pretty much anybody. Pepa is a good tia, she’s just very emotional, but for most of the movie (and her life before) felt she had to bottle her emotions which only made them worse.

Bruno probably doesn't need the sand for visions, but as time went on he added his own superstitions.

The color of the magic in the end changed. It wasn't the color of the candle anymore, but the colors of Mirabel. What that means? No one knows.

Bruno "felt" his vision cave collapsing and investigated. That's how he knew it was destroyed.

Camilo couldn't really hold a form forever because of how tiring it could be.

Mirabel did have a quinceañera.

Casita has a mind of its own with its own emotions. Sometimes it could play pranks on the Madrigals or be too upset to move anything.

Behind the scenes:

Earlier versions had a negative dynamic between Mirabel and Camilo.

The gifts are based off family archetypes. Antonio is a shy kid but opens up to animals.

Random Q&A (3/19/22)

Cannon universe:

The main reason for Mirabel and Isa's falling out was because they couldn’t see the difficulties the other was experiencing, because they were fixated on their own struggles. They were probably closer when they were younger.

Despite being shy, Antonio does have friends in the town.

Due to the triplets' bday being the same day as Pedro's death, it's a mixed day.

Pepa can try to stop natural disasters, but doesn't usually succeed.

Mirabel would sometimes have sleepovers with her sisters when they were younger. There was a deleted scene showing it.

The pink cloud scene in Surface Pressure represents the stuff Luisa wanted to do without the pressure.

Behind the scenes:

Tbh there wasn't any answers that could qualify as behind the scenes sooo... 🤷

Stuff that didn't come from Q&As but is still good info

Madrigal Birthdays (I'm not doing a link for each, just take my word for it lol):

Félix: November 11 (11/11)

Julieta, Pepa, Bruno: October 17 (10/17)

Agustín: June 19 (6/19)

Isabela: August 7 (8/7)

Dolores: August 31 (8/31)

Luisa: November 14 (11/14)

Camilo: December 28 (12/28)

Mirabel: March 6 (3/6)

Antonio: May 21 (5/21)

Madrigal ages:

Alma: 75

Julieta, Pepa, Bruno: 50

Isabela: 21

Dolores: 21

Luisa: 19

Camilo: 15

Mirabel: 15

Antonio: 5

I don't believe the husbands' ages are confirmed, but Félix is confirmed to be a little older than the triplets, while Agustín is a little younger than the triplets.

Julieta is the oldest of the triplets, Pepa in the middle, and Bruno is the baby.

#ngl im surprised that the first q&a ended up being the shortest #i thought it would've been the other way around #encanto #julieta madrigal #agustin madrigal #agustín madrigal #felix madrigal #félix madrigal #mirabel madrigal #luisa madrigal #isabela madrigal #antonio madrigal #pepa madrigal #alma madrigal #camilo madrigal #dolores madrigal #bruno madrigal #pedro madrigal #la familia madrigal #jared bush

[limetameta]

I don't know why more fic writers don't utilise the Wayne Gardens Halfway House for criminals and then the consequent Wayne Enterprises employment like Bruce Wayne is out here doing his darndest do give the Rogues a safer and easier transition into the real world post Arkham and yet I don't think I've ever come across a Halfway house fic once. (This is me begging for fic recs about this BTW feel free to gimme)

Like this concept is from the btas episode Double Talk where Arnold (Scarface's ventriloquist) is well enough to leave Arkham and he gets to the House, and he has a job in the Wayne Enterprises mail room. It's a very sad episode for other reasons but it's still so touching how much Bruce tried to make this difficult period of house finding and job searching all but done for them already.

So what I'm getting at here is what if more of the Rogues got to this point.

Ideas under the cut

Harley decorating her room however she wants and putting Ivy's plants in there because she doesn't have to worry about if doctors or guards will make a fuss about it. This is her space. She has a job now, too. A paper pushing job, but she's in a programme to get her licence back and everything is looking up for her! Thanks Bruce!

Edward making a dnd campaign group with his fellow Halfway House rogues because Harley commented that once curfew sets in she doesn't know what to do with herself. He shows up at work at Wayne Enterprises on the dot every morning, having set like 7 alarms so he doesn't sleep through because he isn't going to waste his one chance. He's the game developer in their suspiciously newly minted game department.

Plus, he has Temple Fugate to wake him up, who lives right next door and is up before everyone else. Man knows how to bake. He bakes and says that it's a calming activity with a set schedule that if he deviates from it will be catastrophic. Besides, it's nice to have hobbies.

At this point, Jonathan Crane, also in a programme to get his licence back, comments about how he'll probably be back in Arkham sooner than later. Harley laughs. "You can't SERIOUSLY be thinking of applying as a doctor there AGAIN?" And Jonathan, with the biggest shite-eating grin, just says: "Oh who's to say. Maybe just to see the reactions."

Gimme a fic where they break away from the cyclical status quo. Where you can feel the hope . Where they all treat this as seriously as they can because Bruce Wayne truly believes in them. And that's so rare. After everything that's happened.

Pamela who works in a botanical garden funded by Wayne Corp. Mr Fries who is allowed to research with scientists employed by Wayne Enterprises on how to cure his predicament. His wife Nora (Post movie) supporting him every step of the way (maybe she and Grace (Harvey's fiancee) are friends and helping each other as well as the men they love)

Harvey getting the operation finally and having a chance to recuperate. Though him, I think they might pull him quickly out of the Halfway House because he's a high profile man and some might think that being in a Halfway House would be beneath him. Maybe this works for him. He works as a lawyer in Wayne Enterprises and all he can say to Bruce, when he sees him is this: "Thank you for never giving up on me, old friend."

Though Harvey does get hooked on dnd and he does come by to play once a week. Edward is looking forward to a promotion to head of department.

They all know that sooner or later they'll need to leave the Halfway House and find different accommodation but they all tentatively agree that they won't push themselves before being fully, truly ready for it.

Harley points at Edward and tells him: "I'm gonna miss you guys so much! Why don't we all live together or get apartments in the same building like in a sitcom?"

And Jonathan is the only one who says he hates this idea, though it's very half-hearted and they know he isn't fighting the idea of that.

Waylon gets a job as a fisherman. Man is living out those A perfect Storm dreams of his. He gets paid the most from all of the Rogues because he's always been very materialistic and money means very little to Bruce Wayne.

Mary Dahl and Matt Hagen respectively get jobs working in a theatre group in Gotham. It isn't that visited, but they aren't ridiculed for being who they are. Romance because I ship them and I think this makes more sense than Waylon/Mary lmao. They're in counseling anyway so it's not like they can be that toxic to each other.

Speaking of romance~

The only one who's never gotten as far as the Wayne Gardens Halfway House is the Joker. But you see, that man can do whatever he puts his mind to. He's bored so he might as well speed run his way out of Arkham.

And everyone is worried about this. Because if there's one person who can undo all of their careful progress just by being his loathsome clown self, it's the Joker.

But he, just like all of them, winds up his alarm to get to his Wayne Enterprises job. He is nail bitingly saccharine to them. One time, he even washed the dishes that weren't his in the communal kitchen space. Something's off.

Once confronted, the Joker just smiles and says airily: "Oh pish-posh! I'm just in a good mood is all. I can finally see my boyfriend on a regular basis. Mon amour, Mon petit chou-fleur. Mon âme!"

Something is definitely off because Edward says that the Joker got a nicer job than all of them. He works CLOSELY to Bruce Wayne as his assistant. And that doesn't make sense. Why would Bruce Wayne let that happen? Surely he'd want to avoid someone like the Joker.

And it's Jonathan that sighs: "Do you think that his boyfriend IS Bruce Wayne?"

"No??? Why?? God??? God no???"

"Think about it. Bruce Wayne is the 1%, they're all very weird people with kinks that us in the psychology department would relish in untangling. What's some clown fuckery on the side? If anything, that's a lot tamer than what most of his contemporaries are doing behind closed doors."

Immediate horror from everyone. Harley is the first one to shout: "If that good for nothing clown fucks up this good gig we got by breaking Bruce's heart I'm going to kill him!!"

So they confront the Joker by knocking on his room in the middle of the night. And maybe they shouldn't have done that because he's supposed to be out cold, having been prescribed sleeping pills and all that. But they knock again, nonetheless.

They hear a bang. And a crash from the inside. And half of the Rogues just kind of take a step back. Harley and Pamela are the ones who stay closest to the door. Pamela shouts: "Open up, clown!"

Jonathan narrows his eyes as he cranes his way towards the door, trying to make out the sounds on the other end. He coughs to swallow down a laugh: "There's a lot of moaning in there."

"Hey, hey, you're going to get us all in trouble if you've brought folks over! It's past curfew!" Harley yells.

And it's at this moment that the moaning kind of stops. There aren't any crashes. Someone grips the door handle from the inside and turns it open.

The Rogues all take yet another step back, this time all of them.

It's Batman. The portion of his face visible from the cowl is covered in red lipstick. He sighs, and his voice doesn't quite manage to lose that post make out tinge: "Nobody's going to get in trouble. I'll talk to Bruce Wayne and clear anything up. Go ahead and play your dnd. Thank you, goodbye." And just as he closes the door, the Joker erupts in a fit of laughter on the other end.

"I'LL TALK TO BRUCE WAYNE, HE SAYS! HA! OH!! OH, THAT'S SO FUNNY!!"

#btas #batman #batman the animated series #batjokes #the joker #harley quinn #harleen quinzel #edward nygma #jonathan crane #arnold wesker #waylon jones #pamela isley #harvey dent #temple fugate #writing #limeta #mary dahl #matt hagen

[celestialscatterbrain]

hii! i read that 6H and 12H synastry gave mirroring energy and this guy im crushing on has his stellium in my 12H (sun venus mars) and i have mine in his 6H (sun moon mercury) so i wondered how that would play out :)

Hi!!! The 6H is ruled by Virgo and the 12H is ruled by Pisces— these two are sister signs! ☯️

I recently made a post giving some insight on Sun, Venus, and Mars sitting in the 12H of a synastry chart. Hopefully you can find my post helpful!

With your planets sitting in his 6H, I feel like you could help bring structure to his life. You genuinely care about his day and his well-being. With your sun here, I feel like you can illuminate the different areas of his routine/habits that could use improvement. I think this can make you guys really consider “what makes us happy on a day-to-day basis?” Your day can feel happier if it is spent together. It is easier to get things done when you’re together because it becomes more of a fun activity and not just a mind-numbing obligation. I feel like this is a couple who would be obsessed with their shared pet and probably make a social media account for their pet. Moon in the 6H really gives me “acts of service” vibes. You show your love by taking care of them and trying to make their lives feel easier. You get emotional satisfaction from making sure everything is okay. You suddenly start caring about their nutrition and well-being. The moon has a heightened attention to detail when it comes to the house person, and knows exactly how to tailor gifts, dates, activities, and time spent together to the exact vibe they know the house person craves. With the combination you guys have in the 6H, I feel like it is easy for you guys to instantly want to spend as much time together as possible. With mercury in the 6H, I feel like you guys always want to catch each other up to speed on whatever you’ve done that day. You two are probably always texting, especially at work. Maybe you guys really like to talk to one another during your lunch breaks. I feel like the house person respects mercury’s input and opinions. The house person can feel safe running ideas by the mercury person. The 6H person can feel like the planet person has their best interests at heart. You two can relieve individual anxieties and decompress together through conversation. I feel like the mercury person knows exactly what to tell the house person to calm them down or bring them back to earth. I feel like you guys can learn really cool facts together or talk about random observations you’ve made throughout the day. You guys are companions!

This 6H energy paired with the 12H energy, to me, represents a couple that can let loose and enjoy the sublime otherworldly intimacy together, but can get back down to earth and have that same intimacy in a practical sense. You two are less likely to engage in reckless behavior. However, I do think there runs a high risk of codependency. I feel like there are fears around being a “kill-joy” but also not wanting to enable the other one to lose touch with reality. I think can be a lot of love and devotion here if all cards are on the table and deception isn’t part of this connection. :)

I might add more to this later, since im at work right now :(

#astrology #astroblr #astrology observations #relationship astrology #synastry #astrology blog #astro notes #Venus #moon #mars #sun #mercury #6th house #virgo #Pisces #12th house #12th house synastry #6th house synastry #love astrology #witchblr

[redstringraven]

an excruciatingly long ramble about the '03 turtles and the enneagram 🐢❤ pt2

[ intro + disclaimers post ] [ pt 3 - leo ] [ pt 4 - don ] [ pt 5 - mikey ]

raph, 8 with a 7 wing

intro + why raph

welcome to the first of these giant posts. i’m. not kidding, you’re gonna click ‘read more’ and see why this series is titled “an excruciatingly long ramble”. i’ve done my best to section it off so you might have an easier time finding your place again if you need or want to take breaks. there’s no way i’m going to cover everything there is to talk about, so i might write and link ‘addendums’ to these posts later on as i think of things.

since raph is the first one, his might be a bit longer than the other three because there are a few enneagram terms that i’ll define as we go. you can then take those with you to the upcoming three posts. so please bear with me, grab a snack, a drink, some nice background music, and WE RIDE.

• . • . •

i wanted to start this project with raph because i feel like we start the series at his lowest/unhealthiest point.

only four episodes into the show (meet casey jones, s1ep4) we see him lose control of his temper in a serious way: he attacks mikey. throughout the rest of the episode he's forced to ‘face himself’ in casey and start monitoring his anger.

while we see him continue to grapple with his anger throughout the series, this is his worst moment. he has nowhere to go but up. in contrast, we see leo in probably his healthiest state of mind at the beginning of the series only to be at his worst in the first half of season 4. but back to raph; we'll have time for leo later.

as the series continues, we see glimpses of this temper rear its head again, with some examples being at the end of their encounter with karai in city at war (s2ep16) or during his fight with traximus in the battle nexus (s2ep24). in these instances, we get a close-up shot of his eyes narrowing and, with traximus, the area around them darkening. this was something that was specifically focused on during s1ep4 whenever he began to lose control. the loss of control is still THERE, it’s just less frequent now. he’s growing.

i think it’s also important to highlight that mikey ribs on him during the battle nexus (s2ep25) not unlike how he does in s1ep4, too. sure, they might be in an environment that shields them from danger of serious injuries, but i think it says a LOT that mikey’s comfortable provoking raph to the degree he does. raph’s acted on his apology, has done work, and mikey knows this. he's watched him do it. it's time already to be The Worst™ again.

but enough about why i chose raph to go first; let's cover the basics of an 8.

bare basics of the 8

as stated in the introductory post, the enneagram focuses heavily on the why and the motivation behind your behavior.

8s are one of the three assertive types (along with 3s and 7s), and they’re a part of the gut triad (made of 8s, 9s, and 1s). assertives can be described as moving 'against people'. they respond to stress or difficulty by building up, reinforcing, or inflating their ego; they will expand rather than back down or seek protection. assertive types will often have issues processing their feelings.

the gut triad may also be referred to as the ‘doing’ or the ‘instinct’ triad, as they respond instinctively and tend to be honest and direct in their self expression. i’ve also seen it referred to as the ‘anger’ triad since these types tend to have problems with aggression and repression, and they can carry a great deal of rage. types in the gut triad seek autonomy and are concerned with resistance and control of their environment. an 8 externalizes it. a 9 forgets it. and a 1 internalizes it. there’s a lot more information about the triads out there, but this is what we’ll take with us for now.

an 8’s basic fear is that of being harmed or controlled by others, of violation.

their basic desire is to protect themselves and determine their own course in life.

they believe they’ll be okay so long as they are strong and in control of their situation.

childhood take-aways

at an early age, 8s begin to understand that in order to keep their environments, themselves, and the people they care about from being hurt, they have to have willpower, persistence, and endurance. 8s often “grow up too quickly” and focus on survival issues. they’ve picked up that “might makes right”.

we don’t get to see a lot of the boys’ youth, but we’re given an idea in the first episode, things change (s1ep1), of the perspective they were raised under. i’ll be referring back to that throughout this section of each post. master splinter states:

“your path in life will not be an easy one. the outside world will not be a friendly place for you. you four are different in ways the surface dwellers would never understand. to survive, you must master these skills i teach you: the powers of stealth and secrecy. you must become kage, shadow warriors, and you must never be discovered by the outside world.”

8s ask themselves “how can i--and the few people i care about--survive in a cruel, uncaring world?”. it’s possible that this way of thinking was only solidified by movies they saw growing up, or even witnessing what casey was going through during the lesson (s3ep13). if the outside world isn’t friendly to what it considers ‘normal’, then surely it won’t be kind to what’s different.

8s were often independent, adventuresome, and assertive as children. they'd be found running ahead of the pack. they’re the kid who will stand up to the playground bully without flinching. they might have questioned authority, trusting themselves more than most adults, which lead to being punished frequently.

8s often find themselves in the role of the scapegoat, the “black sheep” or problem child. raph even calls attention to this, himself, in his ‘03 profile: referring to himself as “the angry young man” and “the dark one”.

it's brief, but i think we get a glimpse of this in s2ep23 at the start of the battle nexus arc: master splinter starts to express his disappointment in leo for following him to the nexus, but raph steps in immediately to shoulder the blame. he could have stayed quiet but, no. he’s the ‘problem child’ here. he can take the heat.

raph as an 8

now that we've touched on the basics of an 8, as well as a few things they may have picked up early in life, let's take a look at raph and his 8.

8s can sometimes be nicknamed: ‘the challenger’, ‘the leader’, ‘the protector’, ‘the provider’, ‘the entrepreneur’, ‘the maverick’, or ‘the rock’.

i’ll continue to refer to raph by his numerical type because, while the nicknames that grant a surface idea of their behavior, most users of the enneagram prefer to avoid descriptive labels. one 8 might feel being called ‘the provider’ suits them while another 8 might not see themselves in that label at all. nicknames are quick summaries/general ideas, but it’s good practice to use the number type itself.

an ‘average’ 8, in terms of their mental and spiritual health, tends to be a steamroller rather than a diplomat and have a black and white way of thinking: people are good or bad, an opinion is right or wrong, the answer is yes or no, etc. this isn’t to say raph can’t acknowledge nuance (far from it), but rather that 8s believe not having clarity or absolute certainty about your position and viewpoints represents weakness or--worse--cowardice. the rest of us have opinions, the 8 has facts. they don’t have a lot of patience for indecisive people, and they might use aggression to emotionally protect themselves. many exhibit an abundance of common sense.

8s are extraordinarily tough, physically and mentally. they can absorb a great deal of punishment without batting an eye. raph has a tendency to be the one catching blows for his brothers or guarding them during fights. we can refer back to being the 'problem child' as well; he can handle the heat. he’s an anchor who keeps his brothers grounded when worries spike, and he tends to be blunt, to the point, and possibly the most ‘world-wise’ out of the four.

8s want to be loved but often feel rejected or like misfits, which becomes more evident in their “take it or leave it” attitude as they get older. you can accept them as they are, or you can get out. they attempt to protect themselves by rejecting others first, and they might develop a fear of dependency. the “i don’t need you guys” sort of mentality. during tales of leo (s1ep19), raph even says “who needs you?” to leo before he tells his story.

it likely goes without saying that raph, like many 8s, admires strength. since their basic fear revolves so much around maintaining what power and control they have, 8s are the types of people who can walk into a room and immediately know who holds the most ‘power’. they’ll just as likely be deciding whether or not that power is deserved, and if they’ll be with or against it. it probably took raph like, what, five seconds to realize that one big alien was the head honcho in the big house (s2ep3) and he took them out first excuse he got.

raph wants people to challenge him back; an 8 can quickly lose respect for you if you’re unwilling to stand toe-to-toe with them (even if the 8 disagrees with you, they'll respect that you held your ground). they also want the truth. they don’t want you to ‘protect’ them from unpleasant details or facts. if they don't have all the information--no matter how harsh or unpleasant it may be--they can't control the situation or hope to reach their desired outcome.

let’s elaborate a bit on what the hell a ‘wing’ is. the enneagram is depicted as a wheel--kind of like a clock, if that helps you picture it without a visual aid (albeit i’ll link one here; ignore the arrows for now, we'll return to them).

a type’s wing are the two numbers that neighbor it on the wheel. the wings for an 8 are: 7 and 9. when someone says they’re a type “with a wing”, that means that they feel influenced in some way by that neighboring type. since the enneagram looks at ‘why’ and motives, you might find that the wing you lean toward more might fluctuate or change as you grow and experience life.

i'm confident raph is an 8w7, meaning his enneagram type is an 8 but he takes influence from 7. delightful, then, that mikey’s a 7. i think it’s a nice little way to tie them together when it’s time for Shenanigans™.

8s who have 7 wings are sometimes called ‘the independents’. along with being one of the most energetic and sociable types, people of this subtype tend to be risk-takers, adventurous, and combine the 8’s need for intensity with the 7’s love of anticipation. they’re practical, pragmatic, competitive, and not concerned with pleasing others, but also tend to be lead by their feelings, resulting in them being impatient and impulsive. they might be more confrontational and aggressive and are less likely to back down from a fight than an 8w9.

i remember seeing a link to one of those character… personality across all quizzes type of wikis somewhere and if memory serves raph was listed as an 8w9. i can’t help but wonder if that decision was made because it would give him two types on the instinct/gut triad, verses an 8w7 where his core type is on the instinct/gut triad, but his wing is in the thinking/head triad. we’ll discuss that one more when we get to don and mikey. *murmuring from the audience* yes, mikey is on the thinking/head triad. he’s actually fully on it, wing and all. *more murmuring from the audience* i’ll get to it, i’ll get to it.

but, no, 8s with a 9 wing have an almost deceptively laid back quality to them and are much more willing to be open and affectionate around their loved ones. 8w9s are sometimes nicknamed ‘the bear’ for that reason and, while highly protective and aggressive in being so, i don’t really think of raph when i think of that (you can see where labels might cause a problem). 8w9s are more willing to let their walls down in safe spaces; raph appears guarded and careful just about every time we see him no matter whose company he’s in. his walls only come down in periods of high emotion and, even then, he’s either reluctant to let them show or tries to hide them immediately after the moment passes, even getting angry that they managed to surface at all.

the wing isn't the only other type that influences your core number, though. let's talk about the other two.

stress & security numbers

as i said at the beginning of this post, raph’s is likely going to be the longest because i’ll be introducing various enneagram terms as we go along that you can apply to the other posts going forward. bear with me, please, this information is going to help in the last three sections of the post.

i stated that the enneagram can be compared to varying colors, or even a color wheel. There can be an infinite different types of red, but they are all still expressions of the same base hue. maybe an orange-red, a violet-red, a pale pink, the list goes on. likewise, the enneagram types take influence from the other types, even ones that wouldn’t be considered their wings. these would be their ‘stress’ and ‘security’ numbers.

‘stress’ and ‘security’ are meant to refer to the current mental health level of the individual, with security representing--as you might have guessed--the healthiest state of mind you can be in and stress being the unhealthier side of that. when a type is in an unhealthier state of mind, they begin to adopt the negative traits of their stress number. vise versa, when in a healthier and secure state of mind, they begin to adopt the positive traits of their security number. you may have noticed on the wheel i linked earlier all those arrows in the center. those point to a type's stress and security. let’s start with raph’s stress number.

raph’s stress number is 5. this means that in a stressed or unhealthy state of mind and spirit, raph begins to show the negative behaviors associated with 5s.

(i love looking at raph and don from the enneagram perspective because it’s a common misconception that don and raph are polar opposites. i think their link in their stress and security numbers illustrates that they have a lot more in common than seen on the surface. because raph’s stress number being 5 means that don’s security number is 8. but more on that when we get to don).

in times of high-stress or low-spirits, 8s will become solitary. they’ll minimize their own comfort, take poor care of themselves and may succumb to insomnia or unhealthy diets. they might spend more time brooding or strategizing to size up a situation than they might actively engage with it. they can become extremely cynical and contemptuous of the beliefs and values of others, nihilistic, and have little hope of reconnecting with themselves or those around them.

i'll cover this more in don's post but for some examples: don, being a 5, will often withdraw to his lab and overwork himself (we can see examples of this in s2ep13 return to the underground, or continuing to push himself despite being sick during the second half of season 4).

when it comes to raph, we have a few examples of the 5’s negative traits showing through in periods where he would be unhealthy mentally and spiritually:

when he realizes his temper’s getting out of hand, he’ll isolate himself and “get some air” (some examples, s1ep4, s1ep24)

he’s the most reluctant to talk to leo during tales of leo (s1ep19), and after his story he separates from the group to stand by the window (while not fully leaving the room to isolate, it’s the farthest he’s willing to go from leo's side)

he spends most of the city at war arc (s2ep14-16) retreating from the conflict, where leo is actively engaging with it

in same as it never was (s3ep21), raph has isolated himself from leo and mikey. he expresses contempt toward leo’s decision to leave master splinter behind. he’s the one who calls the situation “hopeless”.

an 8’s security number is a 2. when in a healthier state of mind, they take on the positive traits of a 2; they have the ability to see potential in people and want to help those people recognize resources and strengths they didn’t know they had. a key word for a healthy 8 is “empowerment”. they would agree with the phrase “give a person a fish and they eat for a day; teach them to fish and they can feed themselves for life”.

8s allowing their 2s to surface means learning to open their hearts to others, letting their guard down and expressing the tenderness they’ve so carefully hid away. it’s important to understand that this movement is not accomplished by imitating the qualities of a 2. an 8 must have greater contact with their hearts and grow comfortable with their gentler feelings. they need to stop equating vulnerability to weakness.

i think some good samples of raph’s 2 coming to the surface might be found:

the exchange with mikey as they're cornered by mousers; “well, it’s been fun, guys” “even me?” “especially you, mikey” (s1ep3)

helping leo recover in monster hunter (s1ep20) and forging a new set of swords with him

every fucking time he gasses don up, but for a specific example, return to the underground (s2ep13)

everything with mrs. morrison in touch and go (s3ep8)… just all of it. don’t even look at me.

throughout all hallows thieves (s4ep12) he’s cheery and even a little nostalgic toward halloweens past. we get an earnest, unguarded laugh out of him.

healthy, integrating 8s make outstanding leaders; they’re able to communicate their profound respect and admiration of others, and they better recognize boundaries and limits--especially their own.

HEY, LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT LEADER THING. i'm sure some of you locked onto that when i listed 'the leader' in the nicknames section.

raph’s temperament and unwillingness to let his 2 surface often gets in the way of him taking a leadership position. he once expressed a desire to be the ‘top turtle’ but made the decision to follow leo. at the end of his flashback during tales of leo, we see him eagerly asking leo what he did to stop the alligator and enthusiastically following him back out of the tunnel. not a smidge of negative feedback in sight. i believe he recognizes and respects leo’s ability to lead, be it by strategy or morals, more than gives into his desire to lead. remember that as far as the 2003 series is concerned: leo is the UNOFFICIAL 'leader'; this is a role he naturally steps into, not a responsibility that was directly assigned to him (i think raph might even be the only one who refers to him as 'fearless leader' or a 'leader' at all, but i could be wrong). 8s don’t need to BE the person in control, they just don’t want to be controlled. they will follow other leaders who are decisive and have earned their respect. to anyone who wants to point out that leo and raph still argue a lot, don't forget about what i said in regards to holding your ground with 8s. they may not like it in the moment, but your ability to hold your ground will be recognized. leo more than often holds his ground when raph challenges him.

(when raph and leo butt heads it’s not because they’re at odds with each other because raph wants to lead or because leo doesn’t consider raph capable of leading, it’s because they’re both stubborn fucking idiots who’re thoroughly convinced their way is the right way; for raph admitting he’s wrong is a show of weakness and surrendering control which is a fear for 8s and for leo it’s a kick to his pride and ability to be ‘good’ which is a fear for 1s. simplifying it down to a power struggle between them drives me up a wall, iN THIS ESSAY I WILL--).

while a small example, a moment from the first notes from the underground episode (s1ep13) has always stuck with me when it comes to raph’s potential and ability to lead: he’s not only the one to throw the grapple to get them across the bridge, but when they’re dangling from a stalagmite after the bridge collapses, he’s the one who gathers them together to do ‘crack the whip’. leo actually doesn’t have any dialogue in that whole sequence; raph’s the one who takes charge and gets them safely to the other side.

it’s also interesting that in cases where leo’s not present AND raph’s in the company of someone similar in behavior to him, his 2 seems to come out on its own. when running around alone with casey, raph is the one reining him in. similar case with godman falcon in across the universe (s3ep20). you could use tyler in lone raph and cub (s1ep24) as another example, but i’m not fully counting that as tyler is like. ten. and stinky.

cardinal sins - 8 and lust

here's term that, on the surface, might appear a bit self-explanatory, but it tends to be a bit more nuanced than that. at least as far as the enneagram is concerned.

every type on the enneagram comes with its own ‘cardinal sin’; you might recognize seven of them from the traditional deadly sins. a type’s cardinal sin is less of a ‘sin’ and more of an almost addictive, involuntary and repeated behavior that we can only be free of when we learn to recognize and manage it. learning to manage your type’s cardinal sin is one of the purposes of the enneagram as a tool.

an 8's cardinal sin is ‘lust’. don’t mistake this for lust purely in its sexual definition; this is ‘lust’ as in the drive and need for intensity. 8s want to feel solid and alive; interactions must be intense, play must be intense--there’s something of a daredevil in 8s as they're looking to experience what life has to offer at 110%. it’s ironic that giving into lust is the antithesis of the control raph’s 8 demands he maintains; lust after a person or object is to be under its power, the opposite of what an 8 truly wants.

i’m sure at least some of you are wondering about ‘wrath’. something that might be important to keep in mind, here, is that 8s reach for rage in place of other emotions; not only is rage easy to access, it’s also an intense and overwhelming emotion. we'll talk about this more when we get to leo, but his 1 makes him a member of the 'anger' triad as well. where raph takes any emotion he feels intensely and replaces it with anger, leo will often take his anger and replace it with a less harsh explanation. but again, we'll get to that.

something else i think is interesting to consider are the cardinal sins associated with the other types that 8s are connected to. in raph’s case, it would be his wing, 7, with his stress and security numbers 5 and 2. the other cardinal sins in his main circle would be gluttony, greed, and pride respectively. when it comes to raph, 'gluttony' makes more sense in application than a 9's 'sloth', which contributes to why i disagree with him having a 9 wing.

sooooo, now that we’ve gone over a lot of information about 8s in general and some samplings of where i see an 8 in raph, i wanna look at three specific points in the series to just kinda pick up and turn around in my hands like a little puzzle box. i’m sorry, i know this is long just--AUGH. i could sit here and run characters through an enneagram lens all day, i'm the worst.

city at war

for me, city at war is a fantastic example of an 8 and a 1 colliding. this is also an arc i see discussed frequently, and often those talking about it have an easy time seeing the perspective of one brother but not the other. for complete disclosure, i’ve always been in raph’s court with this one; even as a kid i'm pretty sure i agreed with raph that they should stay out of the fight (but i’m also a 9, and we tend to avoid conflict of any kind however we can).

we’ll be talking about raph’s perspective here, obviously, and we’ll return to this arc in leo’s post to discuss it from his perspective. remember that one of the enneagram's uses as a tool is to grow in compassion for others and allow us to understand why they act and react the way they do.

a big thing to keep in mind when looking at this arc from raph's perspective as an 8 is that we need to look at the last time they dealt with the foot specifically. while there are five episodes between shredder’s supposed death in secret origins' ending (s2ep8) and city at war beginning (s2ep14), it’s important to consider the sheer weight of everything that lead up to this point and the amount of time passed as those events transpired. remember that an 8’s basic desire is to protect themselves--and the people they’ve come to care about--as well as determine their own course in life. the foot completely uprooted all of that for raph.

we’ll say the shredder strikes back (s1ep17) is the starting point. the boys may have faced the shredder for the first time in shredder strikes (s1ep10), but i don’t think they fully understood what the FUCK they were doing. because they’re fifteen year old boys. with weapons. they think they’re invincible. they’re very stupid, and it's a miracle master splinter hasn't developed like six ulcers.

shredder strikes back is a brutal wake up call to the fact that… NO, ACTUALLY, y'all are pretty fragile. this was the closest they’d probably come to having a family member taken from them. like, all things considered, leo should be dead. he was only “returned” to them on the brink of death to rub salt in the wound. and with the 8’s ability to sniff out who has the most power in a room, i doubt this detail was lost on raph. his brother is only still alive because shredder allowed it.

enough time passes for leo to recover, and we’re right back in new york using the fact we’re ‘dead’ to our advantage to take down shredder once and for all. the next three episodes all occur in the same night. but we did it! we’ve defeated shredder--we thought we’d gained control--but, just kidding, dad’s gone and disappeared.

our search for master splinter over the next few hours sends us to space. the next five episodes are desperately trying to get back to earth and their father. the turtles are in space for a few weeks, but only a few hours have passed on earth.

all of secret origins happens in the span of another few hours and ends with the shredder dying once and for all. he's totally dead, you guys. for real this time. no way in hell he survived that. ...foreshadowing is a literary device whe--

for us, that’s eighteen episodes (which if you were watching back in 2003 in the way the episodes were released would have not only been about eighteen weeks minimum, but the waiting period between two seasons as well). as viewers, it feels like a lot of time has passed. because it has. for them? that is a LOT of shit--again--over a relatively short period of time.

for an 8, this has been a ton of shaking around their control over their course in life. it’s been a huge threat to both their own security and that of the few people they hold dear. going from having to avoid their home and hiding away in april’s apartment, to almost losing leo, to almost losing splinter, to being blasted across the galaxy, discovering their ties to the shredder… but now. FINALLY. shredder is dead. they’re free! ...they should be free to once again determine their own course.

i can only imagine raph is eager to find some semblance of control and grounding again. the world has proven itself in many ways to be cruel and uncaring, just like he’d learned to believe. his 5 probably has him in a bit of a choke hold. and now, as the foot and the mob and the dragons are in a turf war, for SOME GODDAMN REASON his brother--who he almost lost--wants to get involved. raph, usually the first into the ring of conflict, slams the brakes on. this isn’t our fight, and we can just let them weaken each other and eat themselves alive. we gain safety by not involving ourselves, we have control again. to throw ourselves into that is risking another loss. returning to the cardinal sins, the 5’s greed/need to protect their resources and their energy, could very much be in full swing here.

8s and 1s are, unfortunately for everyone else involved, both types who unrelentingly believe they’re correct in an argument. and to back down from said argument could mean submitting to a part of their basic fear. raph’s 8 recognizes this as a moment for them to regain control of not only their own lives, but also as an opening to just let potential future enemies use up resources and wear each other out. and leo’s 1, as we’ll get to, refuses to listen to this on the base that it wouldn’t be right to sit back while people are getting hurt because of an imbalance ‘they caused’.

karai showing up in new york to take shredder’s place leading the foot (giving them a leader and direction again would be empowering them) was the final straw for raph. because what does he do? he isolates. fuck this shit: i’m out.

cards on the table? i’m not too keen that the narrative made it seem like leo was ‘right’ and raph was ‘wrong’, especially with casey stating that “the way he was raised, you fix your mistakes”… like… killing the shredder was a mistake. idk. clumsy choice of words on casey's part or mishandled writing, i'm not fond of it. and raph saying he was being an idiot at the end… honey, sweetie, darling, gravy, you were not being a full fledged idiot. you were both right and you were both wrong and you were both idiots; the situation is complicated and they can be both at once ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ gray is a value that exists, and you’re both grounded. equality.

anyway. next topic.

darkness within

this will be shorter than the last one because it’s more of a five minute encounter than a span of three episodes with a history, but i think it’s an interesting thing to look at anyway.

i know that from a meta perspective, raph’s nightmare in darkness within (s3ep14) was more a nod to another incarnation, but the fact his fear of becoming anything remotely like the shredder speaks to how self-aware of his anger he might be at this point in the series (note: this is not me saying ch’rell is also an 8; this is a warped fear that came from raph's subconscious, not a direct ‘prediction’ of things to come).

more in-depth views of the enneagram include the levels of development, which is a scale of one to nine how healthy or unhealthy the type is. at their healthiest, 8s can be described as self-surrendering and heroic. self-reliant and strong. self-confident and leading. but at their unhealthiest? 8s can become ruthless and dictatorial. megalomaniacal and terrorizing. sociopathic and destructive. sounds a lot like our favorite chewed up piece of stale cinnamon gum.

raph is aware that his anger--as well as his need to be strong and in control of his situation--could lead him down an even vaguely similar path. we saw glimpses of that, as i said, as early as episode four of the first season. losing grip and control of his temper and attacking mikey. his worst moment. the foot were barely even part of their lives at that point. that happened during what should have been a mundane little training session between brothers, where there was little to no outside influence. while not the shredder exactly, he is aware he has the potential to become something similar if he allows himself to give in to his anger and fears.

the first half of season four and leo’s… gestures vaguely

i think the last thing i want to talk about is the first half of season four and just generally dealing with leo at HIS worst. specifically cousin sid (s4ep1), i, monster (s4ep5), grudge match (s4ep6), samurai tourist (s4ep13), and scion of the shredder (s4ep15).

in cousin sid raph’s reaction to leo’s shift in attitude is, at first, positive. he goes as far as to jokingly state that karai should stab him more often if it means leo’s going to be less hesitant to fight (think his 7 wing was showing itself in that moment tbh; trying to make a joke out of something he shouldn’t have).

by i, monster, i think he’s started to notice that something’s wrong. he holds the others off as he recognizes that leo's fighting something more than just the rat king.

in grudge match, he starts to confront leo on his shift in attitude only to be interrupted by master splinter. by the time we get to samurai tourist, raph’s had it with this 'new leo'. he goes as far as saying leo's "going mental". mikey shuts this down (and boy, we'll get to that), but it's clear that raph's standing with leo has only gotten more and more tense.

i doubt it was intentional, as the writers focused more on leo’s handling of their final confrontation of the shredder, but… with all due respect to master splinter, i don’t agree with him when he later tells leo that his brothers have healed. i don’t think they’re in the unhealthy zone as deep as leo is, but given raph’s more negative and almost accusatory approach to leo’s state, i can’t help but tilt my head and see his 5’s influence beginning to color his perception. he’s having a hard time connecting. digging his heels in, becoming uncompromising. his 2 is hidden away and preventing him from showing vulnerability or gentleness toward leo's state. an 8’s antagonism can lead to self-sabotage when it comes to relationships, and leo’s reacting differently to raph’s attitude or not reacting at all. leo’s sudden change in attitude paired with any healing raph has left to do has likely raised his walls in a place he thought he was safe in. his 8, which is so focused on protecting himself, no longer feels like it has any control over the situation--he doesn’t know how leo’s going to act, how receptive leo will be to his own behavior, or even what to do to get leo “back”. and, obviously, leo’s worsening state is doing nothing to help any of this. raph's falling toward rejecting leo first so leo doesn’t have the chance to reject him. playing into that fear of dependency by continuing to push leo further away from him before leo has the chance to do the damage himself.

we see in scion of the shredder that he hasn’t completely given up; playing into his 7, mikey makes a coo-coo motion at his head in reference to leo and raph promptly smacks him for it. i think this says a few things: that raph took what mikey said in samurai tourist to heart and, because of that, he’s now at least trying to be more nuanced about leo’s state, verses basically having said the same thing mikey just did two episodes back… even if it might be ‘too late’ for that considering leo’s already had his worst moment and gone to japan.

when we roll around to prodigal son (s4ep16), raph’s likely on a big emotional ride over here. some of this i have to point at rushed writing and also the general vibe of early 2000s media, but some of it can also be directed at raph’s 8. we see him very briefly express “””weakness””” when leo assures him that the rest of the family is okay (he braces his hands on his knees), but upon returning to the reservoir station all the walls are right back up and he just walks right past don, who’s relieved to see him, and, boom, he’s right back on the attack--angry that the foot destroyed their home. defenses up. i’m not relieved, i was never worried, i was never scared, i’m just MAD.

conclusion

as mentioned in part 1, the two books i referenced and heavily pulled from in the more enneagram-focused sections of this project (the parts where the enneagram itself is explained rather than how it applies to the turtles) were:

the wisdom of the enneagram by don richard riso & russ hudson

the road back to you by ian morgan cron & suzanne stabile

gonna be real with you, lads, i have no idea how to properly close this out, i just looked at the page number and word count and muttered to myself "jesus christ; girl, shut up".

as i said at the start of this post, if i have anything to add/more observations regarding raph's 8 in the series i'll link them here as addendums.

for now, we're going to stay in the instinct triad and move over to leo. and from leo, we'll go to don because they both have a foot in the feeling/heart triad.

see you in the next one and, if you read all this, here's a platter of warm cookies of your favorite choice. and your favorite drink to wash it down. you're the realest.

#tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt raph #tmnt raphael #tmnt #;hannah's meta #;tmnt #;raphael #;tmnt enneagram #[ MY GOD ] #[ i am so sorry (i'm not) ]

[herofics]

Hii could i get a scenario where the reader is feeling really sad and depressed the guys (Dabi, Bakugo, Shigaraki) trying to comfort her with cuddles and hugs because that's her love language

A/N: I honestly thought I’d already have something like this written that I could just link to you, but I don’t? At least, I’m pretty sure. I didn’t go through all the post titled “fluff” in my masterlist, so there might have been something there, but oh well, I wrote these anyway. I’m not big on physical affection, which is probably also a reason for why I haven’t written stuff for this specifically. Bakugou is also an adult, since I find it easier to write that way. Finally, some content for wattpad too, it’s been pretty dead over there. I didn’t do Shiggy, because I honestly ran out of steam with this and even the stuff I wrote was not particularly good, so I didn’t want to ruin it even more

~Dabi~

He had seen you go through this spiral so many times before. You were rarely able to stop the cycle yourself, so that was left to him. You’d never asked that of him and he knew you wouldn’t, but he did it anyway.

Dabi wasn’t really one to offer conversational help. He could listen to you for hours, sure, but he wouldn’t say much. He knew you sometimes just needed to vent, and you didn’t need or want his advice, so he was fine with just lending an ear, at least to a certain point.

This was one of those times. You were just sitting on the couch next to him, telling him about how you weren’t really feeling like yourself lately. You had been going on about it for a while now, and Dabi found he was getting tired. It wasn’t really because of you, he just hadn’t slept in a while, and he needed a break.

“We can continue this later, but I need to get some shut-eye, so are you comin with me or stayin here by yourself?” Dabi yawned.

“You go, I’m gonna start a movie or something” you muttered.

Dabi ruffled your hair as he walked by, earning a little “hey” as a protest. He smirked to himself as he made his way to the bedroom. He threw off his jacket and let himself fall onto the bed. He didn’t even pull the covers over himself, he just went to sleep.

You were feeling a bit cold on the couch all by yourself, and you just wanted to be held. Being around Dabi made you feel warm, not just physically, but emotionally too. You were well aware his emotional skills were quite lacking, but he was there when you needed him and this was one of those times.

You sneaked into the bedroom, and laid down next to Dabi on the bed. You didn’t want to wake him up, but just being near him helped you feel better.

Dabi stirred as he felt someone lay down on the bed. He didn’t even open his eyes, he just reached for you and pulled you closer to him. He didn’t even need to think about it, his body just acted on its own. He knew he slept better with you there anyway.

You weren’t even really sure if you’d woken him up or if this was just his natural response to you being near him. You let him pull you to him and wrap his arms around your waist. He buried his face into your chest and just held you close.

You couldn’t help but smile a little. He didn’t need to say anything to make you feel loved. His touch told you enough. He made you feel warm, like the feeling of cold you had felt had never even been there in the first place. Dabi could always chase away whatever bad feeling you were having. You didn’t even really know why this man had such an effect on you, all you knew was that you loved him and he loved you. That was all you needed to know.

~Bakugou Katsuki~

Bakugou hadn’t really heard from you in a couple of days, and it had him worried. You had answered a couple of his texts with something short, but otherwise, nothing. He had been stuck at work for the last few days, so he hadn’t been able to come over and check on you. Being a pro-hero was hard work, and it was very important for Bakugou, but so were you. He had tried to call you a couple times, but you never picked up, so he decided to take a day off work and surprise you.

You hadn’t been doing too well. Getting out of bed was hard and you had managed to drag yourself into the shower that morning for the first time in a few days. You were still tired, but you felt a little bit better now that you were clean. You hadn’t gotten any calls from Bakugou since the day before, and somehow that felt like a relief. You hadn’t been able to pick up his calls, it just felt too overwhelming. You’d answered a couple of his texts, but you weren’t really feeling like talking with him. You just hoped your short responses would be enough to keep him from worrying too much. You didn’t want to make him worry, but it was pretty much inevitable.

You were sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of tea and nibbling on a piece of toast, when you heard the front door open behind the corner. Only your parents and Bakugou had a key. You were dreading that your mom or dad had come to check on you, but when Bakugou appeared from behind the corner, you almost sighed in relief.

“What are you doing here?” you asked, taking a sip of your tea.

“What the fuck do you think? I came to check on you, you haven’t answered my calls” Bakugou growled.

“I’m good, I’ve just been busy with remote work, no need to worry” you tried to assure him.

“That’s crap, you don’t work at 9 in the evening. I know you always stop working at 5 in the afternoon at the latest” Bakugou rolled his eyes.

“Well, maybe I’ve been switching up my schedule” you retorted.

“I fuckin doubt that, you’re pretty set in your ways” Bakugou rolled his eyes.

“Okay, you checked on me. You can leave now” you said with an annoyed tone.

You didn’t want to argue with him, but you also weren’t really feeling like dealing with his attitude right now. You knew he was just simply being himself. You knew he didn’t mean to be annoying or to get on your nerves, but right now pretty much everything was getting on your nerves.

Bakugou sighed, he didn’t want to argue with you, or make you upset, which he still had clearly managed to achieve.

“You’re not going to get rid of me that easily” Bakugou said, and sat down on the chair next to you.

He turned the chair so he was facing you and took your hands in his.

“I’m really not in the mood to get into this with you. I just really don’t feel like dealing with anyone right now” you sighed.

“I get it, okay. I also know you well enough to know that when you get pissed so easily, you’re not doing well”

He was right. Normally, you would have much more patience and you wouldn’t snap at him so easily.

“Sometimes I hate that you know me so well” you muttered, feeling like you were going to start crying.

Bakugou stood up and pulled you up with him.

“Get your ass up, to the couch” Bakugou motioned.

Bakugou sat down and pulled you into his lap, wrapping his arms around you.

You didn’t even realize how much you’d missed him. Somehow you always ended up avoiding the people that had always helped you previously, it was a bit funny actually. It was the same cycle every time, you started feeling more depressed, you isolated yourself, and Bakugou ended up pushing his way in. You’d known each other for long enough for him to know the patterns you tended to fall into.

You relaxed against him and just took a few deep breaths. It’s not like this was going to make it all go away, but Bakugou’s presence certainly helped. You felt like you wanted to cry, to just let it all out and wallow in it for just a moment, so maybe it would go away.

“It’s okay babe, I’m here for you”

“I don’t know why I’m like this Kats. Obviously depression is a big part of it, but I don’t know why I constantly keep falling back into it. What’s wrong with me?”

“There’s nothing fuckin wrong with you. Sometimes life just throws more at us than we can handle”

“Yeah, I guess” you sighed. “Can we just stay like this for a while? I don’t really feel like talking about it”

“Sure, anything you want” he said and kissed you on the cheek. “Anything for you”

That’s how you stayed, you in Bakugou’s lap, snuggled to his chest with his arms around you, keeping you safe. 

#mha #my hero academia #mha x reader #dabi #bakugou katsuki #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha x reader #bnha scenarios #mha scenarios #mha fluff #bnha fluff #comfort #bnha fanfiction #mha fanfiction

[jakesduskwood]

take me by the hand

Pairing: Jake x Fem!MC

Genre: Hurt / Comfort, Post-Episode 10

Summary: Following the reveal of The Man Without The Face, MC is a little too worried about Jake. So she does the only reasonable thing she can think of. Heads to Duskwood to find him.

EPISODE-10 SPOILERS AHEAD!

[ A/N: Hello :)

I just started this blog to talk about my love for Jake / post fanfics I might have written after / during my playthrough of Duskwood. So if you would like to talk about the game / Episode 10 / theories / anything at all, feel free to send me a message / ask :)

Anyway, this is a fanfic I wrote Post-Episode 10. ]

I love you.

The realization hit me a little later than it probably should have, but I did. I loved Jake. Perhaps I knew before. No. I definitely knew before. Jake had told me he didn’t trust easily. He hadn’t. Not until me. Even then, it took time to break down his walls. Get him to trust me. Enough to tell me his name. That Hannah and Lilly were his sisters. His whereabouts. That he loved me.

What if that was the last thing we said to each other?

After everything—everything we’d been through, after Richy, after Jake’s promise to meet me in Duskwood when all of this was over—we were so close. So close. We had risked too much for it to end like this. He had protected me too much. And if—if he didn’t make it out of there, I would have nobody to blame but myself. After all, he had gone into the mine in my place. Gone into the mine to find Hannah, but Alan found Hannah and Jake was—No. I couldn’t think like that. It had only been minutes. Minutes since I’d heard Richy tell Jessy he’d been the MWAF. Minutes since Jessy’s cries had died down in my head. Since my own cries had died down.

Richy. Who I’d considered a friend. Who I’d mourned when he died. Who I’d told to go comfort Jessy when she was attacked by the Man Without A Face. Who I’d like I was responsible for. If I had only begged him a little harder not to go into the woods—but no. No. He was the one behind it all. He was the one who had kidnapped Hannah. Who drove Amy to her death. Who lied to the people who trusted him. Who betrayed us. And now—

Suddenly, a message on my phone came through.

CLEO: Richy’s dead.

My heart skipped a beat.

DAN: What?

CLEO: There was a fire. Explosion.

CLEO: Suicide, they think.

I leaned my head back against the wall. Richy was dead. I didn’t know how to feel. I didn’t know if I wanted him to make it. If I thought it’d be easier. He had asked if I believed he was sorry, but my answer remained the same. I didn’t know. I didn’t think I could forgive him either way. But I did care about him. I did consider him a friend.

Jake.

My head snapped up. Jake was in the mine. Well, maybe. He told me he would text me when he made it out. My phone showed he was still offline. No time to panic. He would be nowhere near Richy. But—Jake was the one who told me the mine was in danger of collapsing. And even if he made it out, who was to say he wouldn’t be caught the minute he did? Alan was right. There was no way the FBI were there for Hannah. And they had probably placed men at every exit. He had promised me he wouldn’t be caught, but how sure could he be? How could he possibly know the next move they’d make when he was trapped in a crumbling mine with no phone service. A stray tear slipped down my face. If Jake didn’t make it—I would bring Richy back to kill him myself.

Your fault, my head screamed.

I love you.

I love you, too.

“Come on, Jake.” I whispered harshly. “Don’t do this to me.”

Jake is offline.

Shit.

Maybe it had only been a few minutes, but it felt like hours. Felt like he should have been out of that mine already. Felt like he should have been texting me to reassure me he was fine. That he’d made it out. That they hadn’t caught him and that we would see each other soon.

I needed to see him.

I needed him to take me into his arms and reassure me the way I had wanted him to since we had first started this thing. Sure, at first, he was a little suspicious. Maybe suspicious wasn’t the right word to use. Just…cautious. Like he didn’t trust people. But I had broken down his walls. Gotten to know him. Gotten to fall in love with him. I didn’t care that I didn’t know what he looked like or that I’d never heard his voice or that he was wanted by the government. I’d fallen in love with him—with who he was.

And he loved me back.

Well. Apparently, Jake didn’t know one thing about me. It would only take a few hours for me to get to Duskwood. I’d looked it up on my maps at the start of all of this—before Jake had begged me not to go. He would probably be mad at me. It didn’t matter. His life was in danger. That was something worth breaking a promise for. Besides, if I got to see him—I would take his anger and frustration with a smile. Kiss it off of his face.

I took a deep breath and texted the group back.

ME: They haven’t found anybody else, have they?

LILLY: No, [MC].

I didn’t know whether to be relieved or cry.

Well.

Forgive me, Jake.

But I’m going to Duskwood a bit early.

———————————————————————

The road to the Grimrock Waterfall was crawling with numbers of police. The aftermath was still fresh. I assumed Hannah was long gone, probably settled into the hospital with her friends by her side. I’d visit her eventually. Maybe I’d figure out how I knew her. If I even did. Perhaps she had sent the wrong number. Maybe Richy had set us up. Maybe I would just have to live with the not knowing.

It didn’t matter, anyway.

Hannah was safe. Richy was dead. If I repeated it enough times in my head, maybe I could make it sound true. Make the nightmare we’ve been living in go away. Maybe I wouldn’t have to look over my shoulder every five seconds, wondering if someone was watching me. If I would be the next victim. Maybe we would be free to live now.

I could have been in there. In the mine. Blindly feeling my way around. Maybe I would have met Richy at the waterfall. And then…would he have killed me? Maybe I would’ve seen his face and he would’ve taken me hostage too. Drugged me and put me on a never-ending video loop to play for Jake and the others.

A figure caught my eye by one of the trees. My breath hitched for a split second until I realized it wasn’t who I thought it was. But it was somebody. I made my way over, stuffing my hands in the pockets of my sweater. For late-May, it was surprisingly cool outside.

“Thought you’d be at the hospital.”

The figure turned. Wheels squeaked underneath him. “Too many people right now. Figured that I would…” He motioned down at the wheelchair. “This was as far as I could go. Think they would kill me for tryin’ to go further anyway. What are you doing here?”

I shook my head. “Don’t know yet.”

“I don’t know if I believe it.” Dan shook his head. “Richy. Didn’t think he could hurt anyone. To know that…and I was the one who—”

“You can’t think like that.” I responded. “Dan, he would’ve hurt somebody. You were just doing what you thought was best. Nobody can blame you for that. Besides, he had plenty of time to get help before he died. He did this to himself.”

He hummed. “Maybe.”

“How’s Jessy?”

“Went to the hospital with the others. She wanted to be alone, but I don’t think anyone was ready to let her. They were close, you know. Always felt like I had to compete with him for her. I think she would have picked him in the end.”

“She cares about you, Dan.” I promised. Then, after a minute: “And Hannah?”

“Thomas said she’s as okay as she can be. Think she’s more in shock than injured. To be held by someone you trusted, someone you considered a friend, that’s rough. It’ll take time. I think she’s also dealing with the fact that everyone knows about Jennifer now.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I reminded him. “It doesn’t make what Richy did right.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “You think he’s still here?”

“I don’t know where he is,” I answered. “He said he would let me know when he was out. It says he’s been offline for hours but…I don’t know.”

“You plan on staying here?”

I shrugged. “Probably, at least for the night. Guess we’ll see where it gets us. Don’t think I could sleep much either way. I still feel like I’m being watched. Like Michael’s going to turn up at any moment and say it was all a joke. That it was him.”

“I think that would be too easy.”

I smiled weakly. “Probably.” My smile faded. “Dan? I’m sorry, about—”

“I shouldn’t have asked.” He waved a hand. “I know I’m not the first person to. I knew you were involved with Hackerman. Just hoped you weren’t. But it makes sense. The truth is, I don’t have a reason to dislike him. Just think you could do better than a life like that.”

“I have my demons too, Dan.” I told him. “Besides—I think I would go anywhere in the world if it was with him. We can still have that movie night, though.”

He grinned. “I look forward to it.”

“I don’t know why I came,” I crossed my arms over my chest and rubbed them, suddenly feeling like an idiot. “He’s not coming out here, no matter what. There’s cops everywhere. I just thought he would text me and I could find him or—sounds like one of those stupid romcom movies now that I think about it.”

“Maybe stupid romcoms are your thing.”

“No, they’re not.” I laughed.

“Maybe they are,” He said again. “Don’t you wonder something?”

“You’re going to have to be more specific.”

He looked up at me. “That guy over there’s been glaring at us for ten minutes.”

My heart skipped a beat. My head snapped up to where Dan’s head was tilted toward the edge of the woods. There was a figure, hidden just enough that you wouldn’t be able to see them without actually looking for them. Their dark attire blended into the trees. Their face was tilted down and hidden beneath their black hood. Still, I could tell that Dan was right. Their posture was rigid and stiff. Turned toward us like they were unhappy. At first, I thought it was Michael, maybe coming to laugh and tell us that it was him all along, that he had framed and killed Richy and that he was coming to kill me next.

But then my phone buzzed.

Jake is online.

No. No way. All of the emotion I felt inside of me came bursting out at once. Tears poured down my face no matter how furiously I wiped at them. Jake was alive. He was alive. And Hannah was safe. And Richy was dead. Richy was the MWAF. Michael wasn’t coming back from the dead to tell us it was him. And I hadn’t cried about that yet. No. I had. I had cried while I was on the call with Richy. Watching him bleed out from a gunshot wound. I’d cried as I watched Jessy come to terms with the realization. I’d cried when I realized I didn’t know if Jake was okay or captured or if he was dead and I would never see him again. I cried during all of it.

But not like this. I hadn’t felt my limbs shake with each gasping breath as I realized that my final words to Richy had been nothing but resentment. As I realized just how serious the situation was and that never seeing Jake again was an actual possibility. And yet—here he was. And that made me sob harder. The guy who loved me was standing there, and all I could think to do was cry and shake because drawing attention to him would cause them to find him and I could not handle that when I just got him back.

“Please do not pass out on me.” Dan warned. “It’ll be really hard to catch you.”

Somehow, that made me feel worse. I sniffled and wiped at my eyes, feeling incredibly weak and stupid for someone who just realized the guy she’d drove two hours to see was actually alive and not dead. My phone buzzed in my hand.

JAKE: I told you I would contact you when I got out.

JAKE: Please do not cry.

I snorted slightly. Yet—it gave me more comfort than anything had in a long time. To know that we did it. That we found the culprit. Sure, it was someone we trusted, and sure, we lost someone we considered a friend tonight, but it was over.

JAKE: Come here.

I looked down at my phone and then back at the hooded figure. I didn’t want to risk it, but when I saw him take a step toward me, I gave in and hurried toward him without even a quick goodbye to Dan. It was okay. He’d understand. I plowed into the figure at full force, nearly knocking him off of his feet and burying my face in his neck.

He was the perfect height. The kind where my head fit perfectly against him, where I could hear his pounding heart against my own, feel his face buried in my hair. I probably looked a mess but I didn’t care. I tightened my grip around him, burying my tears in his hoodie and soaking it with my face.

“Jake—”

“It’s okay,” he whispered back.

Oh. His voice was soothing. The kind you could fall asleep to. The kind you knew you were safe around. He kissed the top of my head and I melted. I remembered when I watched Richy die, the first time. I told Jake I wished he could take me in his arms. Much like he’d done now that Richy was actually gone.

I pulled back to look at him, reaching up to cup my hands around his cheeks. He moved his head to look at me and I got a glimpse of him for the first time. And—hell—he was handsome. I knew he would be but seeing it for myself was a whole different experience. The moon reflected off of his face and lit up his eyes, the soft reflection in them that gave me butterflies like I was back in school again. He gave me a soft smile.

“Hi,” He whispered.

I smiled. “You kept your promise.”

“I told you I would.”

I tightened myself around him again. Like, maybe, now that he was here, all my worries could go away. It didn’t work. Still, it was a nice thought.

“Did you read the group messages?”

He shook his head. “Haven’t had the time.”

“Richy’s dead.”

His hands around me stilled. “Oh. [MC], I am so sorry.”

“Jake, we were wrong.” The words felt weird on my tongue. “Michael wasn’t the MWAF. It was Richy. He—he kidnapped Hannah.”

“What?”

I shook my head. “I don’t feel as relieved as I should.”

He pressed another kiss to the top of my head. “I’m here now.”

“Will you tell me again?” I begged.

“Tell you what?”

I pulled back to whack him lightly across the chest. “You know what,” I told him softly. “I have to hear you say it.”

“I love you.” He tilted my chin up so he could press our lips together. It was short and sweet and made me crave more. There would be time for that later. “I would do anything for you.”

“Yeah, we have to talk about that.” I warned him. “We’re going to have to compromise. I cannot have you risking your life for me whenever you feel like it.” He laughed softly.

“We’ll talk about it.” He hummed. “So, you still want a life with me?”

I smiled. “Jake?”

“Hm.”

“I love you, too.”

#duskwood #duskwood everbyte #duskwood game #everbyte studios #duskwood jake #jake x mc #duskwood fanfiction #jake duskwood #mc duskwood #duskwood jake x mc #duskwood mc

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

Create/Bind your own book

I decided to post this on my arthurian blog as I want to bind an actual book of arthurian texts (from Mary Jones´ translations), but this can be done with anything! My first attempt was actually AO3 fanfics, and my second one was an empty drawing notebook with watercolor pages.

This is the 101 How to bind your own book, extra easy version.

What you will need:

Glue for paper (like vynil glue) + a brush to spread the glue

Paper / printer book in booklet form

cardboard (I use amazon boxes I cut down)

a ruler

pencil

a printer

paper creaser / bone folder (not necessary, you can use a ruler too)

thread (waxed thread is probably the best one, but any thread that is hard to break would work)

scissors

awl (or anything that can make holes in paper)

needles (with a big hole, curved needle would be the best one)

a material to use as a cover. I use cotton fabric so I can add some embroidery to it

gauze if you have it, but not necessary

some weights and plastic sheets (I use other books as weight, and plastic wrap = this is just to not end up with glue everywhere)

What is the process (quick overlook of what you should do and in what order):

1) Print your book in booklet format, or prepare your pages (if you are making an empty notebook) (needed for this: printer, microsoft word or a pdf program, paper creaser)

2) Add holes to all your pages (needed for this: ruler, pencil, awl)

3) Sew the pages together and glue the book together (needed for this: needle, thread, scissors, brush, glue, plastic and the weights, gauze if you want)

4) Prepar the cover (needed for this: ruler, scissors, glue, fabric, pencil, weights, plastic)

5) add the book of the cover (needed for this: glue, plastic, scissors, plastic, weights)

the end!

Now let´s start:

1) PRINT THE BOOK + FOLD

If you are making an empty notebook, simply find a paper you like (ex. for watercolor I bought A4 300gr paper) and then bend each single page in half. To bend in half you can use a ruler to check where the half is, or simply fold the paper in half by aligning the borders. You can use the creaser to make a nice fold, here is how to use it (video).

If you want to print a book, you will have to print in booklet format. The easiest way to do that is using word and organizing your document before printing. This is the easiest way to do it (how to link). Remember to add page numbers to your document, it makes it so much easier to check that everything is being printed correctly.

Ideally, you want to organize your book in booklets of 8 pages, but it will also depend on how big your paper is. If you are printing pictures you might use very thick paper (so that the color cannot be seen on the other side). For a fanfic/text, I use 160 gsm paper.

What is a booklet? (link)

Once you have printed each booklet you will have to fold it. Pages in your booklet will go inside one another, so you will fold the first page, which will have page 1 and the last page of your booklet, and so on.

You can use the creaser to make a nice fold, here is how to use it (video).

The booklet will be sewed later in the middle.

Your book will be made of small booklets, all put together.

2) ADD HOLES

The location of the holes depend on the type of binding you want to do, so you might want to check point 3 before adding the holes! Still, the best way to add holes is a pointy metal rode/a hole puncher. The holes need to be small (big enough for a needle), and the best way is to put some foam under the opened booklets so that you don't scratch the table.

You will add holes to all booklets! Like this video shows.

3) SEWING

To sew the book together there are different type of sewing tecniques, I will bring examples of the one I use, as I found it to be the easiest. Also, you can use any needle and any resistant thread, but I prefer to use waxed thread (for bookbinding) and a curved needle. You can find the waxed thread and big curved needle in any bookbinding kit!

this shows the passages till this point plus sewing, it has no words, while this video instead describes and show the type of sewing that I also do.

4) GLUE

Press your book! Leave something heavy on it before the glue!

Any paper glue works great! You can use glue on the spine of the now sewed book (all your booklets put together) to reinforce it. You can also use some gauze (like medical gauze) to reinforce the spine, like this:

5) COVER

Now you will need to create a cover (if you want)! The easiest way is carboard and book cloth (here some examples on how to create book cloth, one here and one here).

Making the cover has always been the tricky part for me, so the best thing I can do is recommending this great video!

#book binding #how to book bind #arthurian feelings #books #tutorial #sort of

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments - episodes 12-14 author notes

Hi hello and welcome to yet another ramble about Fragments C: I’m doing these regularly because there’s so much I wanna say about my idiots, and I like looking back and appreciating the work I’ve done.

You can find similar breakdown posts on older episodes in my pinned!

I haven’t commented on any of the ShB episodes yet, so here we go. Chapter 2 is estimated to last for over a year real-time, it correlates to the msq events up to Amity. The name honestly I’m not too proud of, I didn’t wanna spend too much brain juice on it :’> But the cover.....

Obligatory ShB spoiler warning!

- Investigating each other. They’ve become completely new people since ARR.

- Despite what he thinks of himself, our lord and savior Crystal Exarch has the ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ grandeur ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆.

- Vivi’s self-image is similar, he doesn’t see himself as anything grand no it’s not a height joke but Exarch rapidly grows in his eyes as he learns about him.

- He sports an outfit I once doodled and found cute, I’m just being cheeky about his newfound obsession.

- He also appears fragile to Exarch, who’s literally seen a world where he died being this young. Exarch wants to protect him, to say the least.

- Vivi’s perceived helplessness and lack of agency in ShB, although it’s nothing he hasn’t already been through in his other WoL misadventures.

- The Light, of course the wicked white surrounding them.

Episode 12 I’m proud of writing-wise, but not art-wise. Turns out the Ocular is a bigger bitch to draw/paint than I’d anticipated, and, although I’ve mostly figured it out by now (having just released episode 16 for patrons), the colors and light in the episode 12 will forever stick out like a sore thumb to me, probably until I find the time to redraw it. Same goes for the Scions, learning to draw a whole bunch of new characters over a week (roughly, an episode takes 7~14 days to complete), well, I should’ve taken a bigger break and practiced some more.

I’d even apply the ugly word “crunch” to this episode. But ah, the best page wasn’t crunched, hell started breaking loose a bit later. Yeah I don’t work in order, usually I do the most important frames first.

A bit of a sidetrack: even though I sometimes find myself wanting for more time between episodes, I don’t think I can afford making the releases even more sparse, current 2-week cycle ensures that this story WILL reach its finale in some distant 2028 if not later, I’m not kidding, it might take even longer and I’ve only been working on the script for a year. The broad strokes are complete, but I indulge in adding more sweet nonsense here and there. Or sometimes a raw af dialogue pops up in my head and MUST be included in some chapter. In other words, help, this behemoth keeps growing.

Personally I’m loyal to my fandoms, and not in a rush to finish the comic, but my mmo experience bangs on that nothing lasts forever: I don’t know where the xiv community would be in 5+ years from now, and I need A LOT of people supporting me, allowing me to work on this full time. So I’d rather keep a steady pace while it’s still possible.

As I get more xp in painting backgrounds and learn all the ShB character designs, it should become easier for me. Currently I’m fumbling through a new field, so please bear with me :’D

Back to the main topic: I came up with and scrapped at least 2 ideas of the transition between ARR and ShB, the timeskip was always planned, but Vivi needed some more introduction still. Current iteration of Exarch “interviewing” the Scions seems the most fun and creative to me.

Also, tea parties with Urianger and Feo Ul :> They’re his only two friends in my hc, Urianger he purposely revealed himself to, and Feo Ul, merely being a soul in a sparkly shell, can see Exarch’s soul as well, hoods are useless. All while they’re somewhat reliable, truly the paragon of pixies who wouldn’t randomly spill his secrets (probably).

Vivi’s a mirror. Every single one of us is, to some degree. We react and adapt to the way the others treat us, and so does Vivi. Unintentionally, of course. It’s a natural “passive trait”. All the Scions except Urianger (for the same reason he managed to trick the pixies, he’s just a special smartass) see their reflections in Vivi, direct or warped.

Y’shtola is basically this:

Can’t promise equal amounts of screentime for all the Scions, but the twins and Thancred are the closest to Vivi, you’ll definitely see more of them.

He’s 26 now, which is still rather young by the elezen standards, and he’s way too tired (tm) probably like most WoLs at this point in time.

Maybe not of life itself, but he’s definitely sick of the Source and all its inhabitants. For all he cares, this place can go to hells.

His state just so happens to be perfect for the isekai love story that awaits him. How did he get there? I know, you’ll have to stick around until I deem it appropriate to drop some flashback episodes. I’m leery of loredumping too early on: firstly, you current readers will get more invested over time, therefore have more fun learning about him at a later point; secondly, I’m personally not a fan of tragic backstories right in yo face, before the main story gets a chance to breathe. And, mind you, Vivi’s past isn’t even THAT tragic, just, well.. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes \o/

In this episode I wanted to show his practical approach to things. He may possess an Echo, Blessing, soul stone and whatnot else, but gotta stick a good ol’ dagger in a boot just in case. He’s a doubter, just a tiny bit paranoid.

Also he has The Chair (tm) where he dumps clothes on. His room in the Rising Stones looks vague for now because we indeed don’t return there for years in real time, I don’t need to spend my energy on designing this room in detail just yet.

Most items don’t hold any special meaning, he simply prepares for a journey into the unknown. Well, there’s the journal he dumps his cringy thoughts in, and doodles sometimes. The trinket he holds here is a Princess Ai easter egg:

I talked about Vivi’s character influences and inspirations here if you haven’t seen yet C:

Exarch’s glorious meltdown does a good job averting eyes from Feo Ul being right there in the beginning of the episode 14, but yeah they’re present not for no reason :>

Mentally he’s still in the msq cutscene.

Gotta mention that there’s no amnesia, insanity, or other sad brain fuckery ever in this comic. Vivi’s head’s made of dense and sturdy stuff x’D

Just a meme I made because I had to :>

There isn’t much Deep Meaning in this episode, the visuals speak for themselves, and I’m DAMN PROUD of them.

We don’t see Exarch in this moment ingame, so I took my creative liberty to illustrate the range of emotions he goes through in like 5 minutes before finally rushing out to meet his hero in person, forgetting that he can teleport at will (yet another hc of mine) anywhere in the Tower’s vicinity, and doing so on foot.

That’s it for now, thank you for reading this and enjoying Fragments C:

#ffxiv #shb spoilers #ffxiv: fragments #fragment ii: new world old friend #fragments talk #*wheezes* that's a lotta tags #vivien rell #crystal exarch #g'raha tia #wol x g'raha tia #wolgraha #own: next lvl

[ozimaniac]

[Genyatta Villager & Monk AU] 🐉🌕

(This post turned into a fanfic halfway through, so be prepared.)

Genji is a simple villager and Zen is a monk. They are both human in this AU.

Some monks in Thailand and other Asian countries collect food offerings from locals by walking around their villages together. Later on, they all share the food.

So what if Zen was one of those monks and he would frequently interact with Genji, while he was collecting alms. They usually didn't have much time to talk during these visits, but they would still leave a lasting impression on each other. Their short chats were pleasant.

Slowly Genji would develop a crush on Zen and try to cook really yummy stuff for him!! (Maybe bake him sweet goods. It would be easier to distinguish later on, since similar food is often thrown together.) And every time he would return, Genji would ask him if he liked his previous meal. Zen would compliment his cooking skills and be impressed by his generosity. (Obviously Genji had no ulterior motives *cough cough*.. just a really generous guy!) Of course Zen would thank him every time. Genji loved to see his happy expression.

Not all of his attempts at cooking & baking were successful though. In his constant attempt to impress the monk, he would try out new recipes. It came as no surprise that he almost managed to set the kitchen on fire multiple times. His brother Hanzo was not happy about the smell of burned sugar in the house, so he would question Genji's newfound obsession with cooking. Of course Genji wouldn't disclose why exactly he was doing this. Hanzo managed to connect the dots eventually though.

When Genji's attempts at cooking failed, he would feel pretty bad about it. Zen would not see him during these days, which also left him a little sad. Hanzo would come up to him and give him a small offering and tell him that Genji was busy on that day. (In reality, he was just sulking in his room.)

After some days had passed, Genji still didn't show up to greet Zen. At this point Hanzo was tired of making up excuses for his brother and confronted him, as he knocked on his door. He didn't open..

"You're staying in again? Aren't you going to give an offering today? You know it's rude."

"..I don't have anything to give."

"Then just make something. Even if it's just rice."

"That's not good enough."

Hanzo was sighing under his breath.

"They're just monks, you know. None of them expect a five star meal!"

"..."

"Also.. someone is asking to see you. And I'm tired of lying about your.. circumstance."

"..."

The silent treatment he got from his brother was agitating. Be damned if you try to help, be damned if you don't.

Before Hanzo decided to either break the door down or leave, Genji had come up to open it. Hanzo could clearly see that he had been crying. His anger faded quickly.

"How is he..?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Genji looked down. Hanzo sighed once more.

"He seems sad about your absence."

"R-really?" Genji's eyes widened.

"Yes. So how about you stop sulking and actually go out to see him."

"..Aren't they gone by now?"

"Of course they're gone, they're busy people." Hanzo took a determined breath. "That's why you should go over to the monastery for a visit."

This suggestion took Genji by surprise.

"Visit? I'm not sure-"

Hanzo interrupted him quickly, as he was getting frustrated with his brother's antics.

"Just go! They will probably be done with their meal, by the time you get there. Who knows, maybe they'll even invite you to eat with them." He continued.

"Although they might have to shave your head first." He added threateningly.

"..Wait, is that actually required?" Genji asked with a worry in his tone.

Hanzo did not answer that question, instead he grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him out of the room. As soon as Genji was pushed outside, the door behind him slammed shut. Before Genji could protest, he was interrupted once again.

"Have fun, I suppose." Steps slowly disappeared behind the door.

For a few seconds, Genji stood outside his house, dumbfounded. The sun was shining on his back. It was warm. He heard some critters in the bush. The air was fresh. He could feel the anxiety leave his body. He turned to look at the road ahead and made his way up the overgrown walkway. Hopefully his tears would dry until he got there. (Otherwise he would have to blame his ‘allergies’)

He would eventually reach the monastery, but he felt a bit lost. He took a deep breath and approached some monks at the front gate. Genji asked for a visit and mentioned Zenyatta's name. The monks welcomed him with open arms, although he had to wait outside the monastery halls. He took a seat on a small wooden bench and looked at the well-maintained garden. There was a big, old tree right behind him, and he was able to lean on it.

The two monks he had met outside, assured him they would tell Zenyatta about his arrival. As he waited, he was worried that they had forgotten about him. But sometimes you just had to be patient.

Eventually the same two monks stepped outside, together with another familiar face. Genji could feel his heart rate quickening, at the sight of the monk. He looked really pretty, as the light hit him past the shade of the trees. (That's what Genji thought at least, and if someone would disagree.. they probably had bad taste!)

As soon as Zenyatta had spotted those dark eyes, which were already looking back at him, he couldn't help but smile. Genji smiled back and waved at him. The monk was clearly excited to see him, as he quickly made his way over. The other two monks had turned back, to enter the monastery once again. Genji focused his attention on the man before him. Zenyatta broke the silence first.

"Oh Genji! you came to visit? How unexpected, but a pleasant surprise indeed!" He said lightheartedly.

Genji chuckled nervously. "I did.. I wanted to see you."

Zenyatta looked at him with a friendly light in his eyes. Then he sat down next to him.

"How thoughtful of you. I'm glad to see you as well. I missed tasting your food. Hanzo told me you were busy."

Genji couldn't lie to Zenyatta. At least not entirely.

"Actually.. I didn't feel so well these past days."

The monk turned his head and gave him a worried look.

"Oh no, were you sick?"

Genji thought about what he should say. But he couldn't think properly right now. Considering that his brain was pretty fried from his own thoughts and today's interactions.. he settled on the truth.

"No. I just felt bad. I couldn't bring myself to see you, because.. I just failed to make any offerings! I tried d-different recipes, I bought fresh ingredients from the m-market and it ended up tasting horrible a-and I had to throw them out and then I almost burned the kitchen down!"

Genji came to a halt and breathed heavily. He felt like he had confessed to some horrible crime. (Oversharing wasn't a sin, but he would probably feel embarrassed about it as soon as he got back home.)

Zenyatta was taken aback, while he was trying to process the new information.

"Genji.. that's.." The monk tried to find his words.

"That's what you were worried about?"

"I know, it's stupid."

Zenyatta assured him that it wasn't. "No, it's not. Sometimes we all overthink simple things. Even if you have nothing to give, you can always come see me." The monk's words were kind as always.

Genji gave him a sad smile. Zenyatta gently put a hand on his shoulder.

"We are always grateful about anything that is given to us. Even if you just cooked a pot of plain, white rice."

"..Hanzo said the same thing."

Zenyatta chuckled. "Did he?"

Genji became flustered thinking about his own irrational behavior.

"Maybe you should listen to him sometimes." The monk suggested.

Genji let out a big sigh and leaned back on the tree behind him. He looked up the trunk and into the foliage.

"I can be a bit stubborn."

Zenyatta shifted his weight. He leaned his own shoulder on Genji's.

There it was again. That quickening heartbeat. Genji tried desperately to be normal about this, as his eyes widened at the contact. Zenyatta slid his arm around Genji's. He could definitely feel his cheeks reddening. He feared that if he made eye contact his brain would short-circuit.

"Did you really set your kitchen on fire?"

"N-no! Almost. I almost did. There is a difference."

Zenyatta chuckled once again. The sound was ringing in Genji's ear.

"Alright, but please be careful next time."

Genji closed his eyes. The sun was relentlessly trying to blind him, if Zenyatta's smile wasn't already doing the same. But he felt alright. Maybe even happy, if he could put his pride aside.

He listened to Zenyatta's voice, telling him about this and that. He should visit more often, he thought to himself. But for now, he was simply enjoying the moment.

#genyatta #zenyatta tekhartha #genji shimada #zenyatta #genji #overwatch #text #prompts #writing #ow #human au #fanfic #i accidentally wrote half of a fanfic lmao #(I almost set my own kitchen on fire recently so..) #(unfortunately there was no romance involved in mine) #(aughheh)

[actualbird]

is the mattress on the floor so bad tho 😭😭 i grew up just having it on the floor. still do because i move around a lot and have fallen off the bed so often i would probably break my neck and die if the mattress was higher than like a foot (....lukes previous bed was kind of cute tho maybe i just have bad taste 😔)

irt luke and mc's bed on the floor in their anniv 3 home

anon im so sorry in advanced because the response im about to type is probably way too much infodumping than you were expecting but, just to preface all of this, nah having a mattress on the floor Is Not Necessarily Bad and especially in cases like urs where falling off is a risk, having it on the floor is a great workaround!!!

that being said.........There Are Some Cons To Having a Mattress On The Floor :(

note that i said "mattress" specifically because thats honestly where the problem comes in, because there are many other different types of sleeping materials that can (and should!) be put on the floor for a floor sleeping arrangement, but mattresses Specifically (and uhh just to be clear, definition of mattress for this post is a bed/bed portion created with Fabric and filled with some kind of firm material as the guts) but like NOT TO SAY THAT IT'S THE WORST THING EVER LIKE full disclosure a good 65% of why i rag on luke having a palette bedframe (and later on just having it on the FLOOR) is cuz sometimes it just heals my heart to make fun of my fave. it's like how i'll always slander his blocky xmas partyland event sweater even if at this point he's definitely worn Worse Sweaters (like his mr butterfly kisses cards sweater....what WAS that) but making fun of the blocky xmas partyland sweater is just so much fun now that i cant let go of it

but in addition to "making fun of my baby beloved loserboy luke pearce is fun", i also have a One Subjective Reason for being averse to beds on the floor + Two Objective Reasons + just to round it out, a bunch of Good Ways To Have A Floor Sleeping Arrangement

Subjective Reason On Why Luke Floor Bed Irks Me: doesnt maximize storage space

so this is subjective, it's wholly just something i think personally. but man not having a bedframe is nerfing one's self at a whole bunch of storage space!!!

in small spaces especially!! in smaller living spaces, maximizing space Vertically (shelves, bunk beds, raised types of structures, loft designs, etc) is a much more efficient way to go about making more space into Usable Space. and luke's original home, the third floor above his antique shop, is pretty cramped. the kitchen is right next to his bed and hes got a bunch of objects just strewn around on the floor and god god i wanna clean his room so bad because LUKE. WE CAN FIX THIS. THINGS DONT HAVE TO BE ON THE FLOOR AS A POTENTIAL TRIPPING HAZARD, BUT IF THE REASON THEYRE THERE IS CUZ OF A LACK OF STORAGE SPACE IVE GOT A SURPRISE FOR U........BEDFRAME! which leads to space Under the bed to use for storage or whatnot

Objective Reasons On Why Luke Floor Bed Irks Me:

can leave u more susceptible to dust (bcuz ur closer to the floor, where dust gets) and thus activate allergies. this can be avoided by regular cleaning of course but just be careful cuz yknow when u sweep the floor around bed, clean the bed right after too cuz who knows how much dust or whatnot had gotten stirred up and landed on the bed. n

i live in the philippines and the weather is often very humid and wet here and if where you are is also very humid then BEWARE BEWARE BED ON FLOOR MIGHT GET MOLD. mattresses are big chunks of usually absorbent material and if it's on the floor it is Not getting as ventilated as a bed on a bedframe (since air can pass under and around it easier) and if ur not checking ur mattress regularly, funky stuff can grow compleyely unbeknownst to u.

But There Are Obviously Good And Great Floor Sleeping Arrangements

im no bed expert or whatever but based on my general knowledge and experience, what makes Mattresses not suited for the floor is the fact that theyre Chunks, and Chunks tend to absorb things around it and keep it inside to create all sorts of problems and evils. to battle that, Chunks generally should be elevated via bedframe just so they have more surface area to breathe instead of absorb.

so Chunks dont do great directly on the floor. but yknow what does? MATS!!!!! FLAT PLANES!!!!! examples!! banig (philippines), tatami (japan), and probably MANY MORE BUT THESE R THE ONLY TWO I CAN REMEMBER AT 5AM WHEN IM WRITING THIS RESPONSE

these r not Chunks these are Planes and also by virtue of being made from Dried Materials (palm leaves, rice straw, etc) and also built for asian climates (tend to be humid and wet for significant portions of time) theyre less likely to absorb and create problems. obviously theres still Upkeep and Cleaning involved but in general, yknow, still better

tldr: modern mattresses are not engineered for a bunch of the problems that the floor can pose. Mats Were Made For The FLoor so theyre Built To Withstand General Floor Problems. of course, every person will have different sleeping needs and sleeping problems to solve, so there is No Single Correct Way To Be Doing This, it depends on u and ur lifestyle and sleep-style. but also i just want luke to maximize his living space. let me in there i gotta clean his room plEASE PLEASE

again, im sorry for this response. u unknowingly activated a portion of my brain that has too much passionate knowledge on the mundane

#but yeah luke and mc shld be fine with their floor bed provided stellis' weather doesnt give em problems but god what IS stellis' weather- #and thats a whole other ask response entirely and i think i shld stop and have a coffee first #asks #anon

[fakeosirian]

post-school school/career headcanons (non-exhaustive, will make a part two eventually), for your consideration:

nina goes to undergrad for literature with a concentration in creative writing. hasn't picked a medium yet, and regardless it's not like making it in screenwriting is that much easier than traditional publishing, so she writes by night and is an office temp by day (she is aware of the irony of being the "permanent new girl" as a job description. it was funny the first time someone pointed it out. the first time.)

fabian gets a bachelor's in history and immediately goes to grad school for...library/information science. he has to spend a good bit explaining to people that yes, that's a real major, and no, "the books don't start reacting with each other -- a science is a system of ideas, not just when something blows up." he works as a TA and is torn between if he wants to stay in academia or find more "practical" work (this is where i mention this is background work for a story where he goes back to the school to teach <3)

amber might go to a post-secondary fashion school, but even if she does, she's absolutely going for the connections and dropping out the second she gets an industry job, most likely in nyc (which considering how well off she is...probably didn't take long). idk she's thriving (though if she's surrounded by work/kind of by herself socially i could see her getting to a breaking point and claiming she needs roommates to afford rent (lie) just so she can have people around lol)

patricia actually DOES become a guidance counselor. LOL. i can't resist this one -- more specifically, i could see her going to a liberal arts undergrad without a direction in mind but knowing she "needs to figure one out," taking a couple psychology classes, realizing She Cares, declaring a major in psych, and after discounting the clinical track (too close to med school) and the research track (too creepy), she ends up working on an MA in social work

alfie seems like a guy who would have his fingers in like 5 different pies at all times -- depending on who he's talking to/if he feels he needs to impress them, he says one of the following: "business partner" (jerome's business -- more on that later -- alfie's more of an ideas/production guy than a """business guy""" but you don't need to know that if he's telling you this), freelance film crew (prop master/art department), Professional Artist (has a studio where he makes the stuff he uses for his various pursuits), comic author (i feel like he has a weird janky webcomic he makes for himself. i can't explain it. he has a couple thousand readers), etc. he's always picking up a new thing and finding a way to use it until he gets bored and does something else. he just tells his dad "jerome and i are making A Profit" to keep him off his back

speaking of jerome: i've always been fond of the idea that he and his dad go into business together at some point, so it'd be some sort of thing they could do together that alfie's artistic skills would be of use for. despite the fact that jerome very much would like to bend some rules here and there, his dad is not keen on the idea of going back to prison so unfortunately, no white collar crimes for him. (for now.) they're doing well all things considered, but jerome refuses to get a job to fund the business ("what's the point in doing all this if i'm going to let someone else be my boss anyway"), so he's definitely having to find creative ways to squeeze more money out of the business to, y'know. Survive

i'm not 100% settled on this joy idea but communications/PR? definitely gets her start somewhere more corporate, but i could see her getting creeped out by stuff she'd have to spin/help cover for, so she switches to nonprofit (which is also depressing, arguably moreso sometimes, but it's a bit easier to stomach). isn't directly involved in jerome's business, but she does "consult" (not without something in return. preferably, y'know. Money. but sometimes she starts a casual conversation without realizing she should have written up a contract first, and that's the only way that jerome will actually pay you)

#house of anubis #hoa #hoa headcanons #will add mara mick eddie kt willow later i have ideas but theyre not fully formed and this needs to get OUT of my drafts

[fluffykitteninabox]

watching Doctor Who for the first time (starting with the 9th doctor)

I'm only doing this because I've developed an unhealthy obsession with David Tennant since watching Good Omens, and I have a need to watch everything he's ever appeared in, and I know he's the 10th and 14th doctor so therefore I must watch 15 seasons of a show I otherwise wouldn't have cared about just to see him for 3 of them and a few specials!

I'm starting with the 9th because it seems like an easier starting point for a new fan from what I've read online

yes I've done research for this!

Plus the 9th doctor only got one season so it's close enough to the 10th that I don't mind watching it.

I am a completionist though so I will probably end up going back and watching the available episodes from before the revival if I like the series enough

so here's my thoughts

episode 1:

I hope we never see moving mannequins again because that shit creeps me out

honestly Rose, same. I too would have chosen the life of adventure and time travelling to infinite universes. Though I do think it felt kinda rushed to have her refuse and then immediately agree after she was told about the time travel part. Would be a cool opening if she refused on the first episode and then she spent the next one thinking about it and then changed her mind by the end. Or if we want to stick to the self contained structure show a bit more about her not liking her ordinary boring life so that it feels like a great offer when the doctor asks her to join him. I mean it does still feel like a great offer after she saved him and saying all that stuff about how she doesn't have anything to lose and gymnastics and all that. It's the back and forth that ruins it a bit honestly. Just have her say yes the first time.

I didn't know the tardis was an acronym! That's kinda cool

so is Rose never going to see her mom or her boyfriend again?

episode 2:

Alright I take it back she has doubts in episode 2 so that's good

that was a hell of an episode I don't know how to phrase it I think it changed my brain chemistry

I might be having an existential crisis?

respect to the tree lady I don't remember her name sorry

ironic how all these aliens exhibited more humanity than the supposed "last human"

kinda sad for the poor plumber that probably died too, we focused a lot on the rich guests but the workers on the ship deserved better

one thing I appreciate is that Rose chose to see the future. my personal choice would have been past but I think her choosing future is really in character for her (I say as if I've known her my whole life when I've only watched 2 episodes)

didn't expect to unlock the doctor's back story so early on. I'm guessing there's more later but for now that's already more than I thought I'd get

um yeah I was going to watch like the whole season in one or two sittings but like... I feel like my brain needs a break after episode two lol

well I was planning this post to have all my thoughts for season 1 but tumblr decided to go ahead and post my unfinished draft AGAIN even though I specifically clicked the SAVE button but anyway

guess I'll have to edit this or reblog as I go

whatever

fuck you tumblr

#krista's doctor who marathon #doctor who #9th doctor

[404fearnotfound]

Talking about 2Ds eyes

I’ve seen a lot of people with different theories on why 2Ds eyes change from black to white in different phases and stuff and there was one that really stuck out to me, so I’m gonna add my two cents. I wanna preface this by saying while it makes somewhat sense that 2D could be possessed, I dislike that that theory and I’ll elaborate later on why.

Gonna split this into sections as well so it’s easier to read, it’ll probably end up rantish anyways.

TW: Mentions of abuse, addiction, eye injury and most cannon typical Gorillaz stuff

(This is not a 2Doc post, I heavily dislike that ship and none of my Gorillaz posts will be about shipping)

Why are 2Ds eyes black anyways?

If you are into the Gorillaz lore at all you’ll probably know the backstory to this. 2Ds black eyes are from 8-ball fractures (also known as a level 4 hyphema), which can be caused by a number of things but most namely blunt force trauma to your eye or head. Before the band was officially formed, Murdoc planned to rob an instrument store by driving through the window, stealing as many keyboards as he could and driving away. In the process of driving through the window he hit 2D, fracturing his first eye and sending him into a catatonic state. His punishment was many community service hours and to take care of 2D, which he abused by “bullying him within an inch of his catatonic life”. While trying to impress some ladies he did donuts in a lot, and while going 90 2D flew out of the window and hit his other eye on the curb, fracturing it too. Somehow this also caused him to come out of his catatonic state, and when he stood up Murdoc knew he had to be the frontman, a tall, black eyed, blue haired man. He also gave 2D (formerly Stuart pot) the name 2D for the two dents in his head.

Now we’re getting to the theories part. I’ve done some looking into hyphemas myself since I didn’t want to take all my sources from YouTube comments and tumblr posts. Most times hyphemas clear up in a week or so, around 5 to 6 days or so. Theoretically speaking 2Ds eyes should have gone back to normal relatively quickly, but we see his eyes stay consistently black for all of phase 1 and phase 2. This could easily be explained by cartoon and storytelling logic, that they just have conveniently stayed black for the sake of the character. (Cartoon logic will probably be my biggest downfall in this argument anyways, since I’m gonna use it to explain one or two things I don’t have solid proof for.) I’ll come back to this later however.

Murdoc most likely consistantly hit 2D to keep up the appearance.

We all know Murdoc is a piece of shit! We’ve seen/heard Murdoc hit 2D multiple times before (MTV cribs, iTunes interview, dressing room, etc), so I don’t think it’s out of the question at all. I’ve seen a few people say that hyphemas can come back easily if your hit in the head (once you’ve already have one), and while that might be true I haven’t been able to find anything on it (please send me a source if anyone has one). Due to this I’m gonna come from a slightly different approach. Hyphemas are commonly caused by sports, whether it be being hit in the eye region with a ball (or a fist) or falling hard on your face. Interestingly people can also be more prone to hyphemas if they are taking any medication or drug that acts as a blood thinner. Hyphemas can also be caused by taking blood thinners. It’s also known that through at least phase 1 and 2, 2D is addicted to painkillers (which do have blood thinning properties most of the time). Putting all these pieces together 2Ds consistent 8-ball fractures could be caused by a combination of abuse and addiction.

Phase 3

Phase 3 is the first time we see some artwork of 2D with white eyes, though his eyes are mainly black.

Quick break for 2Ds plastic beach lore, feel free to skip if you know plastic beach lore.

Plastic Beach is a big lump of plastic and garbage that formed an island in the ocean at Point Nemo (the farthest point from any landmass). Upon finding it Murdoc spray painted it pink and put the Gorillaz hq there after Kong studios was destroyed. He needed his singer though, and through collaborating with the boogieman, gassed 2D and sent him in a suitcase to plastic beach. He was kept in a room under the island, guarded by a whale (one of his biggest fears) and basically forced to sing and compose for the album. During this time he was also made to go cold turkey from his painkiller addiction.

Okay cool that’s covered. Moving on.

Phase 3 literally kills me and I’ve been spinning it around in my brain for like a week now, it’s horribly sad if your a 2D fan.. which also backs up my theories here so I’m just a mess atm. It would make some sense for 2Ds eyes to be white occasionally in phase 3, as he was locked in a room and left alone for a good bit. At other times though he was definitely still being abused. (See the iTunes interveiw). His eyes are also black during the dressing room video, when they were on tour and Murdoc needed to need up the “image” of the band and 2D.

There’s not much to talk about with phase 4, so it’s time to move onto what everyone’s been waiting forrrrrrrrrrr

Phase 5- namely the humility video !

Fucking love the humility video omfg. It’s such a banger song and 2D skating around and being happy gives me so much joy.

Murdoc is in jail and we get to celebrate!!! Wahoo! 2D is clean, and gets a break from Murdoc and here is when we get to consistently see his design with white eyes. I’ve seen a lot of theories that he was possessed (ie Russell being possessed and having white eyes), but considering his entire eye was black (which is not how hyphemas work, they only effect the iris) it would make sense his normal eye color is his entire eye. (I’ve also heard that Hewit hates drawing eyes so like slight cartoon logic here). I also think 2D being possessed would have come out of nowhere, it seems odd that the tripe would be repeated when that’s already Russels thing. His eyes are also white consistently through phase 6 and 7, and I don’t think he would be possessed for that long.

I’ve also seen that 2D can change his eye color when he feels strong emotions, and I’d take that over the possession one. It makes sense from an emotion side, but I think it also erases the bit of his hyphemas and the original cause of his black eyes. (Just wanted to cover this).

In the humility video he’s happy and he’s skating around having a great time, he’s skating well so it’s implied his vision is better (as hyphemas can cause impaired vision) and that his eyes are healed. At the end he’s tripped by Russel, falls on his face multiple times and when he stands up his eyes blink back to black. Boom. Mic drop. (/j)

Once Murdoc gets back from jail and such it seems he had a bit of a change of heart, you can see from how he interacts with the group and he also has some other goals (cough phase 7 cults). We see the dynamic change a bit between the two of them (exclusion being the Aries incident) especially in the lost chord where 2D saved Murdoc.

I could go more into phase 5 and even phase 6, but that might be another post.

I think this theory adds more to the lore and stays more consistent than the possession theory- especially with 2Ds 8-ball fractures being slightly more realistic. I think it also fits a bit more with Murdocs character. The only plot hole here and in general would be 2D should theoretically be blind by now but cartoon logic 🤷. It’s a sad theory but it fits with what we know is cannon regardless, and some of the best stories are even a bit sad.

If you took the time to read this, thanks, really! I’d love to hear other theories if people have them, maybe I’ll come around to the possession theory eventually. Sorry if this was kinda rantish or doesn’t full make sense as well, I wrote this on a road trip. Byeeee!!

#Gorillaz #2d gorillaz #murdoc gorillaz #murdoc niccals #stuart pot #tw abuse mention #tw abuse #tw swearing #tw eye injury #tw addiction #tw injury #Stu pot #Gorillaz theory #Theory #analysis #gorillaz analysis #Sorry mutuals if you read this and have no idea what’s going on

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

Hi! I, evidently like so many others, absolutely loved THD!! I am spinning it in my hands, bouncing it up and down, examining the fractals it throws off when held to light... it's just SO GOOD! I wandered over here when you posted the final chapter, read your plan of attack post for the series and am now stuck on this somehow being the first fandom fic you've written?? If you're happy to answer, I would love to know what it is about TL and Jamie Tartt specifically that inspired you to jump from original work (which I will definitely be checking out later!! Your prose demands no less!!) and into fan fiction, any why this particular AU gripped you to the point of delivering 80k words of brilliance? Thank you for the story and (hopefully) thank you in advance for the response!

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! My venture into fanfic is the result of a confluence of a few different factors. I finally got around to watching TL maybe a month before season 3 aired, having already osmosed some of the major plot points from Tumblr at large — most notably the Wembley scene, which was the main reason I decided to watch it and probably gave Jamie an edge going in. The show falls into the sweet spot between "bad but I had a good time" and "this is a beautiful work of art" that made me want to dig my fingers in and pick it apart: it has defined themes and character arcs and is overall well-crafted, but also has a number of flaws and bits that didn't quite work, particularly when it comes resolution of Jamie's arc with his dad — which annoyed me so much that it's the origin of this sideblog.

Jamie falls into the category of like. characters alchemically created for me to like them. As in, the first time I heard a description of the show, they got to Jamie and I was like "if I ever watch this, he's going to be my favourite." And I was right! I have a real soft spot for what I lovingly refer to as "narrative problem children": if there's one member of the main group who causes problems for everyone else and is an asshole that no one likes, they're probably my special little guy (think season 1 Izzy Hands, Catra from She-Ra, Thomas Barrow from Downton Abbey who was the only reason I watched that show), which of course means I want to put them through the emotional blender. Bonus points if they're either very talented/good at whatever they do (especially if it comes from hard work rather than natural affinity), a schemer (I love me a schemer), have a tragic backstory, and/or have autism vibes.

My reasons for getting into fanfic are maybe surprisingly pragmatic: I'd finished part 1 of my original fic series and wanted to write something else before I started editing so I wouldn't be thinking about that universe and would be able to judge the world-building more accurately. I'd also spent enough time in my academic life defending my ideas and having my writing critiqued that I stopped being as nervous about having an audience and became curious about how people would respond to my fiction writing, which I figured would be a lot easier to find out with fanfic. (Was it also a bit of a guerrilla marketing campaign for my original fic? Maybe a little).

As for this AU in particular, I was really interested in how the relationship that we see between Georgie and Jamie in 3x11 fits in with everything we'd previously learned (or could deduce) about his past, as well as how Jamie might respond to being made vulnerable the way he is in 2x08 at the height of his prick era. I fully did not intend for it to be 80k (it was supposed to be a one-shot) but the story kept expanding and sometime around chapter 3 or 4, it got upgraded from "quick break from the original fic" to "long-term project."

#fic: the hedgehog's dilemma #series: symbiosis #asks #kvetch oc

[ao3commentoftheday]

Someone asked: What do you wish more people knew before submitting a report?

The form does not import any information about the work or user being reported. If all you tell us is "not a fic" then that's all we see. Please give us more info, like who posted it and what did they post – not just what they didn't post.

You can report comments directly. A lot of people don't realize this and they just report the work, which can mean we have to do a bit of digging if the work has lots of comments. (If there's hundreds of comments, we'll probably just ask you to reply with a link to the comment instead of trying to search for it ourselves.) You can report a comment by clicking the "Thread" button on the comment. Then you can copy the URL, or just click on the "Policy Questions & Abuse Reports" form – the comment link will be filled in for you. If you're reporting multiple comments by the same user, you can add more comment links in the body of the report.

Someone else asked: Can you give us a few pointers on how to make good tickets with information that can help you? What info are you looking for/what would make your work faster/easier etc etc?

When a ticket is generated from a report, all that shows up is whatever it is you inputted. The form asks for the following:

your name (or your username if you're logged in)

your email (so we can reply to you)

the language. This can either be the language of your report (if you don't speak English) or the language of what it is you're reporting.

the URL of the work or comment you're reporting (please check that you're reporting the right page!)

the subject of the report. It's usually best if you use something like Non-fanwork or "roleplaying ad", Copyright Infringement or "too many song lyrics", "missing Major Character Death warning", etc. Something vague like "spam" isn't helpful since it could mean just about anything – a non-fanwork, a spambot comment, a ko-fi link.

a description of what you're reporting. Please give us specific information about the work like who posted it, what about it is against TOS, what chapter we need to look at, etc. Include any extra links here too.

Before I joined PAC, I thought the form also imported information about the work or user being reported, but it doesn't. So it's helpful if you include in the description as much of the following as you know:

Who is breaking the TOS? This is usually a username, unless the work is anonymous or orphaned. In which case, tell us that.

Do they have other works or comments we need to know about? You can add those other links in the description field. It's best if you only make one report per violating user so that all the information about them is in the same place. If you reported one work and only later saw their other works had the same problem, include all the info from your first report in the second one.

Are there any other people we need to know about? For example, in copyright infringement or plagiarism cases, we also need to know whose work is being copied.

What part of the TOS is being broken and how is it being broken? You don't have to cite the TOS, that's our job. Instead just describe the problem. To continue with the copyright infringement/plagiarism examples, this might be a sentence like "This work by [username] has a lot of dialogue copied from [show] episode 23, link to transcript here: [link]".

Where is the TOS violation happening? For example, it's helpful if we're told "the character dies in chapter 17 and it starts at 'there was a cliff'" for a "Major Character Death" report.

That way we don't have to try to figure out what you mean. Sometimes we can't figure that out from your report and so we have to respond requesting more information. You don't need to include an essay but giving specific details makes handling any case more straightforward.

— guest mod tealight

The form is now closed. I'm just working through submissions.

Disclaimer: I am speaking for myself and not behalf of AO3 or PAC. While I can answer general questions, I cannot tell you if a specific work or user is breaking the rules. If you want to file a report or otherwise need an official PAC response, you can find PAC's contact form by clicking on the "Policy Questions & Abuse Reports" link on any AO3 page.

#pac takeover #ask a pac volunteer #guest mod tealight #being pac