Ahhhhh! I Can't Wait!

Guess I know what I'm doing next month!

@nickelodeon please bring rise back.

I know, I know we’re only in July but…

𝑰'𝒎 𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝑹𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝑻𝑴𝑵𝑻 𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑨𝒖𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕!

𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝑨𝒖𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒌? 𝑬𝒂𝒔𝒚. 𝑨𝒖𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝑻𝑴𝑵𝑻 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝑵𝒆𝒕𝒇𝒍𝒊𝒙 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝑹𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒐 𝒂𝒔 𝑰'𝒎 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 @𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒐𝒏 𝑯𝑨𝑽𝑬 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏 3 𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆.

𝑨𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆! 𝑾𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆! 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒘! 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐𝒔! 𝑨𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈!

𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒔𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑹𝒊𝒔𝒆!

Reblog if you didn’t write My Immortal

We’re going to find the author by process of elimination.

Rise April Challenge: Day 9 Style

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Ao3 Link: Here

Casey is very clearly nervous as he follows Leo around the dark shopping mall. Leo feels a good amount of sympathy for the kid, as he did come from an ending world full of danger. The kid defiantly has a strong case of PTSD, so the slidder doesn’t mention the way he’s gripping his chainsaw like a lifeline, or how his head has not stopped swiveling around looking for something coming to attack him.

“Do we really need to do this?” Leo rolled his eyes.

“Dude, you’ve been wearing mine and Donnie’s clothes for months now. You need some of your own.”

“Yeah, but..” Casey’s eyes roamed over the clothing racks and mannequins that Leo would admit did look spooky in the dark shadows cast by their flashlights.  

Leo finally stopped and began to ruffle through some shirts. What would look good on the kid? Black looks good on almost anyone, but he kind of wanted to put him in brighter colors too. Light blues and reds could work if paired with some more grounded colors.

“Anything specific you want kid?” He called out.  

“Um...” The kid's eyes wandered helplessly over the rows of clothes.  

“Guess we'll have to try all of them then.” Leo smirked

-

“Hmm... not bad. Give us a twirl.

“It’s a little tight in the back.”

“All the better to show off what you’ve got to the ladies. Or dudes if they’re your thing.”

“...What am I showing off?”

“Never mind.”  

-

“...”

“What?”

“...”  

“What?!”

“That’s not where your head goes.”

“It’s not my fault this thing has so many holes!”

“It’s also backwards.”

“IT’S CONFUSING!”

-

“Oh yes! You’ll be turning head’s left and right, king!”

“I don’t know what that means but thank you?”

-

“No, absolutely not.”

“But Master Leonardo-”

“I’m not getting you a lime green shirt!”

-

Leo got him the lime green shirt.

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge. And take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge for more submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.

Rise April Challange Day 3: Casey And Casey Jr

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Ao3 Link: here

!TW! Talk of Grief and Loss !TW!

Casey Jones doesn’t remember his mother well. He doesn’t mind too much; he’s lost so many people over his short life. Everyone in the future had, and he's still trying to get used to the idea that isn't normal here. So, he's kind of grateful that he only has vague and blurry memories of her. It means that he doesn’t have much to grieve for.  

He knows that’s shitty to say, but he thinks in his circumstances it’s fair. He’s lost so many people, he’s lost everyone, his whole world. Yeah, it was shitty, coated in blood, grime, and krang flesh. But it was his. He was born into it, it helped make him, and it held everything he had ever loved.  

Master Michelangelo, with his flowing movements and soft sparking magic lifting him high enough to see the world bathed in unworldly light and color that only the two of them could see.  

Commander O’Neil, hugging him with scared arms with a quite “Try to keep up, Jr.” Diving into battle, smiling with bloody teeth as she tore apart burning metal machine.  

The quiet and lonely shrine with a huge, spiked shell that hung on the wall with a pair of cracked purple goggles with red and blue lenses on the table below. Where his family always gathered before a mission, just sitting and holding each other, with hushed ‘I love you’s and ‘be safe’s on their tongues.  

And of course, Master Leonardo. Who had tried so hard to be a father to him, even though he was fighting a war that he knew he was losing, even as he held the lives of everyone on his shoulders. He had tried so hard to be a father that he always said Casey deserved.  

He had lost all of them.  

So... yeah. Casey was grateful that he didn’t have another person to morn.  

But... his mom was here. Alive. And he had to keep himself from panicking because he had time to figure out what to say when you're meeting a version of a mother you had never really known. He thought he had time. He didn’t.

-

Casey Jr sits ramrod straight on his spot on the couch, across from the intimating woman across from him. His mom (mom, mom, MOM!) Stares across from her with sharp eyes and narrowed in what looks like anger, and Casey's mind is very split on this.  

One half of his brain is just screaming that she’s here and alive and real! Not just a story, or a memory that he isn’t totally sure he didn’t just make up. She’s really sitting across from him, and he can see his eyes and hair on her face. And somehow this is the most earth-shattering thing that has happened to him. Or at least the only part of this disaster that he can process.  

The other half of him is trying to decide what should happen now, what he should do or say. He isn’t given the chance to figure out because she speaks first and Casey Jones the Second hears the first words he ever heard his mother say.  

“Do I need to start a collage fund?”  

It’s... it’s absurd, and out of nowhere, and said with such seriousness that it makes Casey break down into laughter that shakes his whole body. He bows over trying to get enough air into his lungs because this is so stupid and chaotic and that probably (is) the best thing you could say in a situation like this. What is his life?  

“No-No!” He says between laughs. “I don’t think-” He breaks into more laughter. “I don’t think I need that.”  

He continues to laugh as she stands, hesitates and then marches to the seat next to him, sits down just as straight as Jr had a moment ago, and stiffly hugs him to her side. He wheezes through his laughter.  

“What-what are you doing?” Casey manages to hiss out.  

“I have been told that mothers are meant to comfort their children when they are crying.”  

Crying? Was he- Oh... yes, he was. At some point his laughs had begun to turn into sobs, and tears had leaked down his face. Everything had just hit him all at once, and he just... couldn’t anymore. He leans down and wipes his nose and eyes, and just breathes.  

“Sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”  

“It’s alright.” Cassandra (Mom? Casey Sr?) responds, still holding his shoulder.  

It takes a miniate before either of them can do anything other than look over each other, looking over every similarity and difference. Then Mom (Cassandra?) meets his eyes and with a stone face asks what Casey thinks she’s been wanting to since she saw him.  

“Can you tell me how I die?” The time traveler looks away.  

“What makes you think you did?” He doesn’t think he can look at her right now.  

“Because I would not be so foolish or weak as to let my son travel through time!” She says it like he just insulted her, and he wants to argue but...  

“Infection.” He answers. “Which is impressive considering that when you were found you had one arm missing and had been impaled at least 5 times. You lasted about a week after that.” It’s easier to say than he likes. There is silence. Then:  

“I am... happy that I did not abandon you.” He turns to his mom, and she doesn’t look at him, staring past him and he makes a realization. That this whole conversation is as hard and awkward for her as it is for him, and he doesn’t know why it took him so long to realize that. Hell, they're almost the same age! He smiles and faces her completely, pulling on the quiet patience of Master Leonardo.

“I know that this is insane, and neither of us had time to really think about it. But if it helps, I don’t think we need to decide what or how we feel right now.” She pulls a face at the talk of “feelings,” but does relax slightly.  

“Very well. Until we become comfortable with the reality of this situation. Would you be amenable to the title of my brother? I... am uncertain of being refired to as a mother.” Brother? That could work. Casey grips Cassandra’s hand.   Yes, it's Cassandra for now. Maybe for forever, but that would be ok too.

“Sounds good.” 

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Please check out @zee-rambles as the one who came up with this challenge. Also take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge​ for more submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.

@nickelodeon

Reblogging so they can see it again

 Guys…I have made an amazing discovery. (Watch with sound on).

Amazing and needs to be seen by others

A Gift for @allosaurids

Summary:

This is inspired by @cupcakeslushie Feral Leo AU.

After Leo comes back from the prison dimension scared and battered, Raph is just trying to survive the night and help Leo come back to them.

Even though he questions if there is any part of Leo left to return to them.

-

The vision in Raph's right eye is fuzzy and out of focus, and his arm on that side is throbbing and twitching uncontrollably. In fact, the whole of his right side feels wrong, alternating between numbness, and feeling like a thousand sharp needles are tearing and shredding at his skin and muscles. 

He needs rest. He knows he needs rest. But he can't, not yet.  

His mind is a field of landmines, and if he thinks too long about what could have happened, what did happen, he's going fall apart, and Raph can't afford that. Not now, when the injuries of the invasion are still raw and bleeding, still all too present. He can't rest yet; he needs to wait for his family and him to begin to heal.  

But Raph has a feeling that they never will be completely fine after this again. Especially Leo, who crouches in the corner of the dark med bay, eyes wide, wild, and unseeing.  

Raph is sitting in the opposite corner, curled inwards in an attempt to appear smaller and less of a threat, and just looks at his brother.  

His brother who spent years in the prison dimension, when for them it had only been minutes. Who has thick, jagged scars across his body that hadn’t been there at the beginning of this nightmare, nails and teeth that are sharp and cracked, and at the center of it all: a huge crack down his shell that none of them can treat because he won't let them close enough to do so.  

The two brothers watch each other in the dim light and take in each other. Leo with a scared and uncertain gaze, that shifts from Raph to the other shadows in the room. While Raph just looks and tries to take in all the changes that Leo has gone through.  

Raph wishes he could have stopped it, that he had taken Leo’s place, that none of this ever happened.  

He wishes he could tell Leo that he’s sorry.  

But he can’t. Not in a way that Leo would be able to understand right now. 

So, Raph does the only thing he could think of to calm down the scared rabid animal that had taken the place of his little brother. He hums. 

It’s a deep, rumbling, purring, hum that doesn’t come from his throat, but from the space between his lungs. He hadn’t done this in years, not since they were all tots, but it had always calmed him and the others down and he was praying it would work here. 

It didn’t seem to be working, Raph wasn’t even sure Leo was hearing it. 

Then, Raph felt a flicker of pain scatter across his arm, and he flinched.  

Dammit, not again!

He groaned and curled inward bracing for what was about to happen. 

The parts of him that had been fused with the kraang flared in agony. Burning sharp pain that made him want to scratch and tear at his skin to get it out. His whole-body shook, his eyes watered, and Raph knew that all he could do was ride it out.  

But, God, he just wanted it to stop.  

The episode went on for what was likely just a few minutes, though it felt longer, wearing down Raph’s already weak mental defenses and allowing the memories of everything that had happened to invade the parts of his mind not already overwhelmed with the pain. Why couldn’t this horrible day just be over already?! 

Raph felt something brush against his left arm.  

The snapper whipped around and pressed himself deeper into the corner to get away from whatever had managed to sneak up on him. But as he did so, whatever had touched him skittered backwards with a hiss.  

Leo hunched inwards on himself staring at Raph with fear and expectance, but Raph froze. For a few seconds neither of them moved, then Leo leaned forward and audibly sniffed the air. After a second, the slider took a step forward and made a soft clicking noise.  

"...Hurt?" Leo managed to rasp; voice uncertain but his face a mix of apathy and fear. Raph managed a small nod, too scared to make any move or noise that could frighten Leo back into the opposite corner. The younger just sniffed the air again and shuffled closer. Without taking his eyes off Raph, Leo reached out with one dirty clawed hand and placed it atop his brother's bandaged wrapped arm.  

It took everything Raph had not to flinch at the contact, as it caused the pain to spike and be brought to the forefront of his mind again. Leo ran his hand over the bandage, squinting down at it with his still cloudy eyes. He took the larger hand into his own and ran his fingertips down it and turned it over.  

He's looking for blood, Raph realized. Checking to see if the bandages needed replacing. Just like he always does when one of us is hurt.  

The thought gives him a terrible hope that maybe a part of Leo survived whatever had happened to him.  

Leo's administrations hurt more than they help, because there are no cuts to bleed, and his bandages are clean. But Raph allows it because it's the closest Leo has been to normal since they got him back, and he's not going to ruin this. He stays still, even when Leo moves his examination from his arm up to his eye, and, upon finding nothing to treat, onto the rest of him. 

When it's over, Raph is still just as hurt and tired as when they started, but Leo looks more present than he has since they got him back. The younger pulls back and faces Raph head-on. His mouth twists like he wants to say something, but he doesn't even try to open his mouth and vocalize it, which is so unlike the Leo that Raph knows.  

That's okay, Raph still has his voice, and he can talk for them both for now.  

"Thanks for the help, Lee," He whispers. Leo squirms under his gaze, then makes us sharp hissing click before turning away.  

Raph briefly panics that he did something wrong before he sees Leo moving towards the medical cot in the center of the room. The older relaxes realizing that Leo is just going back to bed now that he knows everything's all right. Or so he thought. Because Leo is coming back with the pillows and blankets that had covered the bed.  

He puts the pillow up against the wall next to Raph, then takes the large sheet and throws it over Raph's head. Leo sits down with the pillow protecting his injured and broken shell and arranges the blanket around his older brother. When he's done, he just curls slightly into his shell and stares out over the dark med bay, searching for a threat that isn’t there. 

The dangerous hope has taken root in Raph's chest, and he prays that Leo is still there.  

For a few minutes they just sit like that. Then Leo struggles out a single word.  

"Real?"  

For a moment Raph's not sure what he's talking about, then he remembers all the horrible things the kraang could make him see when it forced itself into his mind. An overwhelming sense of grief threatens to swallow him whole, and he moves to take Leo's hand in his. To try and convince his younger brother that yes, this is real, and he is safe now. But he stops himself.  

Memories of what it was like being held captive by the kraang, about how they clung to every part of you, and how their touch was unescapable, flashed across his thoughts.  

No, touch wasn't a good idea. But the idea of not being able to cling to some part of Leo was worse. 

So, Raph does the only thing he could think of, he reached up and undid his bandana from his head. He wrapped one of the fraying ends around his own hand and offered the other out to Leo.  

For a moment Leo just stared, eyes flickering between Raph and the red fabric.  

"Take it," Raph offered, and Leo's face filled with the same dangerous hope that had blossomed in Raph's chest. Leo shakily gripped the other end of the bandana, and Raph pulled it taut between them.  

They had done this when they were younger too, mostly when Donnie didn't feel that he could touch anything but still wanted to know his brothers were nearby. It feels wrong using it like this, but it's the only thing that Raph can think of. 

"This is real," Raph promised, tears flowing out of his eyes. "You're safe now." 

Leo’s empty gaze returned to scanning the dark room, but his grip tightened on the bandana, and after quiet moment Leo began to hum in the same way Raph had done earlier. 

Raph closed his eyes, pain still shooting up and down his skin and returned his brother’s attempt to soothe them with his own rumblings. 

They would both be healed soon; they just needed a little time. 

-

Sooooo, I'm kinda sliding in under the buzzer here.

I rewrote this at least five times, and still wasn't satisfied with it. But @allosaurids deserves a gift, so I just had to go with it.

Thank you to @rottmnt-secret-gifting for hosting, and to the receiver of this gift I ask permission to be able to post this on Ao3.

Thank you.

Edwin keeps thinking he's back in Hell, and all Charles can do is be there for him.

Well...

There is one more thing, but Edwin isn't going to like it.

-

Charles would do anything for his best mate. Including, it turns out, selling his soul.

April Rise Challenge 13: Umbrella

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Ao3 link: Here

Leo had been reading one of his comics when Donnie had barged in with a wide look in his eye.

“Woah, Hermano,” Leo said, catching his twin as he almost slipped and fell.  “What's got you in such a rush?”

Donnie's wide eyes turned to the slider, and he bared his teeth in an excited smile.

“Leo, it’s a Rain Day.”

Leo froze, and then his eyes bulged out.

“Really?! You’re sure?”

“Even if it wasn’t for my super advanced and accurate weather predicting system, I can see the storm clouds.” Leo broke into a smile and let go of Donnie so we could hop from foot to foot, whooping loudly.  

Rainy days were not unusual in any sense of the word. But Rain Days were different. They were only held on days when the water came down in sheets and the thunder rolled loud enough to drown out the city traffic. Rain Days only happened when there was a storm, and they were the best brother tradition the four of them had.

“How long do we have?” Leo asked, already looking around for his raincoat.

“About two hours,” Donnie responded. “So, we need to be ready in an hour and a half to get there in time. You-”

“Yeah yeah! I got this!” Leo cut in, scouring under the bed for his umbrella. “Take care of your own stuff, Tello!”

Donnie shrugged and rushed out of the room to get ready on his own. Leo felt giddy as he ran around, for once mad at himself for not keeping his room cleaner.

-

Within the hour, the four turtle brothers were all gathered at start of a long sewer tunnel. They were all dressed in rubber raincoats with either hoods or in mickey's case a rain hat. Raph had a bag under his arm that held towels and snacks, and each of them had a different colored umbrella. Mikey was bouncing on the balls of his feet, gleeful and unable to stand still.

“We all told dad where we’re going, right?” Raph asked glancing around.

“Of course,” Donnie said.

“Then let’s go already!” Mikey yelled, breaking into a sprint down the tunnel. The others quickly followed suit, whooping and hollering in excitement and anticipation.

It didn't take them long to reach the end of the tunnel where a large sewer grate was swung partially open. They all slowed as they neared it, allowing their noises to fade away into a heavy almost silence. They listened closely, but despite the heavy gray sky and the smell of electricity in the air, all they could hear was the distant sounds of the city.  

Raph reached out push the gate the rest of the way open stepping in the fresh air, and walking out of the tunnel to be bathed in the bit of sunlight that could peek through the wall of clouds above. The others followed behind, pulling their jackets tighter at the frosty cold.  

The outside of the tunnel was a long concrete canal that was far away from the rest of the city. The brothers walked silently down watching their breath appear in the cold air and float upwards. There was a rumble of thunder, and the boys stopped and waited. Leo felt the first drop of water land on his nose.

“It’s starting.” Leo said, and Mikey squealed in excitement. They all opened their umbrellas and continued walking.

By the time they reached their destination the rain had been consistently falling for a couple of minutes. A strange drum of water meeting plastic meeting each of their ears as the umbrellas prevented them getting wet.

Their destination was a small ladder that went up the side of the canal. Raph had already started climbing it, but Mikey couldn't wait any longer and simply ran up the side. Leo wanted to roll his eyes at his brother's enthusiasm, but he didn't want to be a hypocrite, so simply followed Raph up.  

On the top of the canal there was a singular huge tree, the last of the autumn leaves still clinging to its branches. In front of it was a shallow pit that they had dug when they were younger. It was big enough that Raph could lay down inside of it without having his feet hanging out. The bottom of it was coated with smooth rocks, and it was already filling with a shallow amount of rainwater. Mikey was sitting up in the branches of the tree, his umbrella hanging upside-down by its hook while he smiled down at them. The remaining three brothers sat beneath the tree branches and watched the sky, quietly waiting for the real rain to start. It didn't take long.

The sky opened and dumped the water down, thunder rolled loud enough to drown out the noise of the city, and the wind blew so hard that their umbrellas quickly became useless. Leo threw his up to Mikey who hung it upside down on a different branch than his own, which was already overflowing creating waterfalls down to the ground. The other two umbrellas swiftly followed. They hung like ornaments, catching the rain. It was a good thing that Donnie had reinforced all their umbrellas so they wouldn't break under the weight of the water.  

Once it was done Leo turned to the shallow pit which was filling up quite nicely. He smiled, stood up, walked to the edge, turned around and spread his hands.

“RAIN DAY!” he yelled, and on cue the thunder roared. Leo leaned back, allowed gravity to take hold, and fell shell first to the man-made pond.

The water was shockingly cold, and Leo was going to need a good cup of coffee after this was all done, but it felt heavenly.  

No matter how old they got, or how human they could act, some part of the Hamato brothers would always be turtles. It was a fact that could have been uncomfortable if they had not grown up with it. And on Rain Days four would allow themselves to be weak and indulge in the joy that rain brought to their amphibious minds.

As Leo sat up from the water, he heard his brother's yell and watched as Mikey ran and jumped into the water that came up to the box turtle’s knees.

Mickey wasn't an aquatic species of turtle, but for some reason he still loved Rain Days. Maybe it was simply hanging out with his brothers, or maybe he just enjoyed the rain for a normal reason. It didn't really matter.  

The youngest brother yelped and jumped at the temperature, making Leo laugh. While the other was distracted, the slidder reached over the side of the pit and grabbed a fistful of wet sticky mud. He aimed slowly as Mikey tried to get feeling back in his feet, and just when the orange turtle turned to him, Leo hurled it right into his face. It landed with a wet splat and Leo laughed at the look on his brother's face.

“So... You have chosen war, brother?” Mikey asked, and Leo knows he should be afraid but all he can do is smile and meet the challenge.

“Bring it.”

-

The day is spent with the four of them flinging mud and each other and splashing in the achingly cold water, and by the end of it they're all shivering with slightly blue fingers. And towards the end as the storm dies down, they all lie on their backs with their eyes closed underneath the old tree and feel the droplets fall on their faces until they decide to go home.

When they get back home, covered in mud and soaked to the bone, they'll take a lukewarm bath and sit with a hot drink under their heating lamp slowly bringing feeling back into their limbs. And the week will be filled with them complaining about their runny noses and how cold they all still are. But in the end, they'll be back to that old tree and shallow pit on the next Rain Day.

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge and look at @rise-april-art-challenge for more submissions by other fans.

(Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this, I had a lot of schoolwork that needed to be done. I will be working on catching up with this.)

Rise April Art Challange 5: Bottle

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Ao3 Link: Here

!TW!  Autistic Overload, Small spaces and mention of drowning !TW!

(Not super proud of this one but whatever.)

Donnie's body is burning.  

He paces across his room on a familiar path, one he knows well. Shifting his speed from a hobble to a sprint at random intervals. His hands routinely rase to try and shake themselves out but they fall back down before they can do anything. He can feel his neurons sparking and buzzing like a live wire across his whole body, lighting up his muscles and bones. Everything inside of him is lost in the need to move, make, act, run, think, jump, swing, build, analyze, DO! And he would gladly do as it asks, but he's so tired.  

He feels like he's going to keel over at any moment. He can't keep his hands steady; his sight keeps going in and out of focus and he can barely keep a line of thought going. He's not going to be able to do anything like this. But the rest of him doesn't care, it needs. Needs to stretch, create, learn, know, strike- STOP! The two forces feel like they're tearing him up apart at the seams, each thread snaping and sending hot shivers up and down his body, and he has no hope of keeping up with it. Donnie is burning with black, lifeless energy, and he feels like he is just going to disintegrate into ash.  

Donnie stops mid sprint, the wall of his room inches away from his nose. He stops himself from turning around and beginning the next round of his pacing. He just needs to slow down. Just for a minute. Just one minute of nothing, so his body can rest. Then he can do... whatever he wants to do. But he needs a moment of nothing.

Donnie sits down with his back to the wall and closes his eyes.  

He can do this; he can do this.  

His hands twitch, wanting to hold and move something. He bounces his leg instead.

He cand do this, he can do this.

Don starts pulling up memories and old thoughts, distracting his mind with the bouncing of his leg.  

He can do this, he can.

He shuffles through his mind until he comes to a picture of a green glass bottle.

He can do this.

The soft-shell isn't sure where the bottle is from. Maybe it's from a long-forgotten memory, or an old dream, or maybe just from his imagination. Regardless, he laches on to it and pulls it to the forefront of his focus, pushing all his desire for action onto it and narrowing his endless burning into a single point on the non-existent glass.  

He can do this.

Donnie tries to calculate how tall the bottle is, how wide, how thick the glass is, and how much water it could hold. He moves on to what exact color the glass is. (Bottle green of course.) How it would feel in his hand, (smooth and solid.) What sound it would make if he were to tap it. (A ding if he tapped while he was holding it, a clang if he dropped it.) What would his room look like if he were to look at it through the thick tinted glass. (The colors would be so muted by the dark green, the perspective so warped by the curve of the bottle.)

(He sees himself inside the bottle, sitting and bouncing his leg up and down so fast it's just a blur.) (He reaches up and slides his hand across the 'cold' surface. The low temperature shocked his hand out of its trembling.)

The burning is slowing, ever so slightly.

(The thrumming of the air-conditioner in his room is muffled by the glass. The sound of Donnie's breath echoes back at him from all angles.)

The feeling is still too loud, too big, too fast, too much, too much.  

He just needs it to be softer, a little farther away, just less.

(He feels the cold trickle of water running down the sides of the bottle and towards the bottom. It grounds him and soothes his acing body. It runs over his shoulder and begins to fill the space around him. A pool soon forms around him, calming and swirling, it dulls the burn to a slight sting wherever it touches. He leans his head back, to let the water run over his forehead and down. The water soon rises until it's just a few inches above his head. He sits on the floor of the bottle, surrounded by cold and still calm. The burn in his veins tries to fight the feeling. Tries to urge him to move, to reject the feeling of rest and do something. Donnie doesn't listen. The feeling is already dying, pushed back by soothing cold. He feels the water flow inside of him, spreading its restful numbness and quite peace into the very core of himself. He allows it, he lets himself farther down into the bottle and just rests. He blows out a few bubbles and watches them float to the top.)

(Donnie let's himself become lost in the nothingness of the water. Donnie let's consume him, just for right now. Donnie lets himself drown.)

Don gets up after a few minutes and falls into bed to sleep. In the morning the need to do it is back, but it is no longer eating him alive. It doesn't burn.

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Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge. Also take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge for more submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.